Soooo, I’m back! Maybe you’ve noticed, maybe not. I haven’t posted a weekly diary the past two weeks. I’ve been on a holiday to Tenerife. You can read about me flying and my feeling about that in this blogpost. I’m back in The Netherlands now! Ready for what’s this week brings me! Here’s weekly diary #65.
Thursday
Today I wore a partly new and partly thrifted outfit. The pants and shoes were secondhand. The shoes I bought at UnitedWardrobe and the pants was a hand me down from a friend. But it is the sweater I want to talk about today, because I bought it years ago. I had bought it at ONLY. I did not pick it in the first place, but because I bought two other pieces I got a sweater for free. Now, that is insane. It is insane, now that I know what these clothes do to our environment and to the people making them. People starve for fast fashion. I took this sweater back then, because well, it was free. And that is so insane! Just because something is free, does not mean I should want it. I don’t buy anything from ONLY in the first place anymore, but now that I have the sweater I’m trying to make it last. These things remind me of all the mental progress I’ve made. I think so differently now, and I love myself even more for it. Yay for second hand and fair fashion! At night I had an order for Loose again, a big one!
Friday
Since I’d been on a holiday I had not seen my boyfriend for a while, so we decided to do something fun together today. We went to Nijmegen! First, we had lunch there, and I had a delicious vegan sandwich. The cutlery came with a napkin, and I left all of it untouched. I always try this, so they use it again for someone else, since I don’t use it. I’ve trying to make the habit also that when food does come with a napkin and I do use the cutlery but don’t use the napkin, I’ll take it home. I know they don’t use it again in that situation so it’s better if I take it home and use it there. We also went shopping, and I bought some things! Whenever I buy more than one thing in a day now, I almost feel like a shopaholic haha! All the things I bought were secondhand (so no new resources were used) and I love strolling around in thrift shops. It was a very good day, and the things I bought I will share in another blogpost, because I love them so much! To make the day even better, we had a sushi dinner at Ginza. At Ginza they have a ton of vegan options so I really enjoy it there.
Saturday
My boyfriend went back home and I went to the market. There is one organic stand which I always go to, if I get some money from my parents to do groceries. I forgot to take photos (stupid), but I’ll share what I bought. A broccoli and some mushrooms, both in my own bags of course. Not that much, because I don’t cook myself every day. I also needed some black beans (because they are so jummy!) and organic canned tomatoes. I use canned tomatoes for dishes a lot, as a base. Even though it came in a can and so it is plasticfree, I feel like I could make this myself too. I will look into that soon enough. I think I’ll just need a blender and puree some tomatoes. The black beans also came in a can, but I haven’t found a package free alternative for those just yet. At night, I made a dish from the ingredients. Rice with tomato sauce, black beans, mushrooms and broccoli. Cooking vegan is so easy.
Sunday
I woke up quite early, so I decided to walk our dog. It’s really refreshing, getting out for a walk on a cold Sunday morning. Since I was already walking, I decided to take out a bag too and pick up the trash I came along. At the end, I had a small bag full of trash, that’s a win! Out of the environment, into the recycling bin. And because I woke up early, I decided to make myself a special breakfast, pancakes! I don’t have a standard recipe for pancakes just yet, but this one is a really good one! I found it on the internet, but it not entirely plastic free yet, because I can’t find baking powder without plastic yet. If you know where I can find it, let me know! The pancakes were soooo good! I ate a lot, so at the end of the day when it was time for dinner I had only ate the pancakes haha, now that’s a good breakfast! I did some volunteering (I guess I can call it that) as a referee. It was hard this time, because some people can’t keep their shit together on the sideline. Parents, coaches whatever. I really hate that. Let the kids play and just encourage them, don’t take it out on the referee or kids if something goes wrong. Afterwards I reflected at home and I almost wanted to quit. But that would be stupid to the kids (which in my opinion were quite rude to me too, but anyway), and so I won’t. It’s a learning process still for me, and that’s okay. At night, I had another order for Loose! The energy it gives me to bring those deliveries is priceless!
Monday
Going to the gym was quite hard today. Sometimes I feel like I should not go when I don’t want to. But then again, the feeling it gives me afterwards is so good. So, I always go and it always makes me feel good. I just don’t overdo it, if I can’t make it or something like that, I don’t go and I’m fine too. Today I did some chores and they took me long hahah, I cleaned my room and the shower. I took out a lot of clothes again. They were sitting in my room, waiting to go. I had already decided they should go, I just hadn’t made the effort to actually bring them to the recycling bin. In the picture below you can see the different piles I make. One pile was of clothes that were broken, one pile was a pile the second hand store I usually go to would not take and I pile of clothes which I know the second hand store won’t take either (underwear, swimming clothes, sports clothes etc.). At the bottom left is the broken, right is the stuff the secondhand store did not take and the two piles on the top is the stuff I know the store won’t take. It will all go into the recycling bin, where they will sort it for another store (maybe they will take it, I know they are less critical), or it’ll be recycled into new things, like isolating material in houses. I also had an appointment at the Blood Bank, to donate some plasm. But, I was rejected because I had been on a holiday to Tenerife. That was quite a bummer really, I wanted to do some good for someone else today.
Tuesday
After I did some things of my to-do list (which is now quite empty haha) I decided to give myself a well-deserved time at the library to read some magazines. I love reading magazines about health, nutrition, happiness, relaxing and a lot more. I really enjoy reading there, with no time limit. Just going there with no stuff with me and seeing what time I’ll go home. Once I got home I decided to watch a documentary which I wanted to see. What a good relaxing day!
Wednesday
I really like sharing my breakfast on Instagram, I do it a lot. I want to show, yes, that vegan breakfast is delicious and that you can vary a lot. But also, I want to show that your breakfast should be a party. And I think eating should be a party. I really want to emphasize more that eating should not be about restrictions or anything, it is about fun. I want to throw the scale out of our house too, but it’s not mine unfortunately haha. Body image and all that, I want to address it more. I’ve seen so much negative things about it lately. People hating their bodies, being focused on the scale and eating on a diet. No. I am done with it and I want to tackle it too. A new mindset was created today hahaha, a new focus added to my social media too.
Yours sincerely,
Romee