2017 was a hell of a year. I got robbed and nearly died in a car accident. I lived in a hostel for almost half a year (which I also really don’t recommend). But I also made my first steps to make ForeverSunday my livelihood (still working on it ;) and I moved to Portugal. Step by step I’m creating the life that I want. The life 3 years ago I would never even have imagined that I wanted! My dreams keep evolving as I go along and that’s great. Keeps it interesting…

So it’s the 1st of January, again. I don’t have any ‘new’ resolutions but there are a couple of things I started in 2017 that I definitely want to continue, and up my game with.

Going vegan

I took my first steps eating vegan or rather eating plant based whole foods. Eating whole foods means that I’ll mostly go to the local market to get fresh produce. This automatically means I eat seasonally which is also healthier and cheaper.

Going completely vegan is not that easy (for me) but I am happy with 90% of the time eating vegan. For me that means that I’ll have the occasional cheese on toast but when I can choose, I’ll have avo on toast any day :)

I also don’t buy any dairy products in the supermarket anymore myself but when I eat out or when with friends I am a little bit less strict.  I started making my own almond milk (which is ridiculously simple and inexpensive). In 2018 I want to start experimenting with making my own plant based cheese.

I take it one day at a time and that works for me. It definitely feels better like this so over time it becomes less and less of an effort. If you are considering going vegan in the new year here is a great article by Nutriciously to get you started!

Reducing waste

The other thing I want to do is to keep reducing the amount of waste I produce. I have seen beautiful beaches totally spoilt by plastic. Hiking in the middle of the Himalaya I found water bottles and plastic wrappers tossed away. There are already tiny plastic particles in our tap water and food that can’t be filtered out. This will for sure impact our health in the not too far future!

How often do you go to the store and get a plastic bag to fill with tomatoes? It’s so easy right, you don’t even think about it when you do it. Then what happens with the bag?

I choose to be part of the solution. I want to be more mindful about the impact that I have. This is what works for me so far:

• I aim to prepare most of my food myself and avoid food wrapped in plastic (which sort of comes with eating vegan anyway)
• I rarely buy new clothes anymore. If I need anything in terms of clothing I go to the second hand shop (oh the thrill of the finding a treasure!) or just use what I have (since I had quite the shopping habit in my ‘previous’ life I still have a lot of clothes that are perfectly fine to wear). The only new clothes I might buy are yoga pants which I need for my job and are hard to find second hand. And those will be organic cotton or bamboo.

Here is an inspirational post by Trash is for tossers if you are also thinking about reducing waste.

Resolutions

The funny thing is: I never set out to be a vegan, but here I am on my way. I never set out to be zero waste, but I am making an effort in that direction. It gets easier and easier as I go and that is the biggest motivation in itself. Since this has been such a gradual process it’s really become a mind switch over time. That’s not to say you can’t have that mind switch all of a sudden (like you can have after watching ‘What the health’ or ‘Cowspiracy’ ;-), but this is what works for me. And my resolution is definitely to keep going!

What are your new year’s resolutions?