Hi everyone! My name is Ana, I am 25 and I am a Vietnamese Australian currently living in New Zealand (just to confuse you a little bit). I recreate my favourite dishes into vegan options and post it on my instagram account @the.tinykitchen as a hobby, I am finishing my Bachelor of Science majoring in Psychology and Psychophysiology and I help out at my partner's parent's cafe the rest of the time. This is me now but only a year ago I was a completely different person.
I was a typical Melburnian girl a year ago. I worked 40-50 hours a week as a Travel agent in an office that stressed me out daily. On my time off I would drink excessively and party until the early hours of the morning. I would look after a hangover for the next day or two and then the cycle repeated again. I wasn't completely unhealthy; I did eat a lot of vegies, a lot of raw vegan breakfasts but I also ate heaps of meat, cheese, and dairy. I exercised regularly with boxing and high intensity training at the gym and saw some results but was too stubborn to change my diet even though I knew it was a big influence on my body. I was unhappy back then without even knowing it.
I always had my foot in the door when it came to living a more conscious and healthy lifestyle. I went to yoga classes, I went to Phuket to do a raw vegan fitness detox, I tried to incorporate more health foods into my diet, but it was always just testing the waters and was never a full blown commitment. I knew what was good for me, I just didn't do it and I think most people would be able to agree with me on this. Although I felt great during the time, I had no one there to make me feel accountable for my actions. When you only rely on yourself it is easy to drift and stray as much as I would love to think I was in complete control of myself. I wanted to be a better version of myself, but the people around me were happy to stay the same and that was where things were wrong.
"Surround yourself with people that reflect who you want to be and how you want to feel, energies are contagious"
And then I met Cody. An English boy from New Zealand who was working in Melbourne at the time. You don't realise how important it is to surround yourself with people who want the same things as you until you find one. I had someone who had the same values and life goals as me, saw the greatness in me, knew my potential and encouraged me to grow and to be open and with this major life changes came into place. Things I have always had on my to do list for years started getting ticked off really quickly. I quit my job that made me so unhappy, we went to Bali, we moved overseas to New Zealand (I know it's not far but it's still International haha) and I went back to finish my uni degree that I ditched. I stopped binge drinking and spending my nights at clubs. I went back to yoga and found a whole new level of inner peace through meditation. My biggest change though is something we both did together and it was becoming vegan.
Cody was Vegetarian when I met him and when I asked him why he said "If I can't justify killing the animal myself to eat it, then I shouldn't be eating it". That made sense to me and although I didn't turn Vegetarian straight away, I ate Vegetarian whenever I was with him. Of course we completely clicked and after spending almost every day with him and with him eventually moving into mine I became Vegetarian. The most important thing for me was making sure I did it on my own terms, not because he wanted me to. I know it can sound as though this wasn't the case but trust me it was. I realised in my own time that I didn't want to eat meat anymore and the only issue I really had with it (because I'm a typical Melburnian foodie) was how was I going to eat my favourite foods?
It is important to know that I live in a tiny town here in New Zealand where there isn't a lot of restaurants in general let alone heaps of vegan options like Melbourne. My mum is an amazing cook so I never tried to make anything too complicated in the kitchen because I knew she could whip it up in 2 seconds when it took me an hour. She always told me that one day I'll be curious and will want to learn but I never believed her. She also said one day I would like eating vegetables but I didn't believe her with that either. Listen to your mother people! She's not here with me in New Zealand so surprise surprise I had to turn to my tiny kitchen.
This is where the magic started to happen. Instead of being sad about all the things I couldn't eat anymore I took it as a challenge. Recreate everything you love to eat and make it just as tasty or even better! I had big shoes to fill but I was determined to make it happen. And guess what? Turns out I somehow passively inherited my mum's cooking genes! A whole new world opened up for me when it came to food and I loved it! My biggest realisation was that we crave the flavours related to meals that had meat but we didn't actually crave the meat itself. My cooking excelled quickly and I have reached a point where even my mum asks me for recipes and carnivore chefs say "WTF no way that's vegan?". Vegan foods can often be bland and boring but mine was packed full of flavour. Cody noticed this and encouraged me to share it on Instagram and although it scared me I took a leap of faith and did it.
Boy am I glad I listened to him! There are so many amazing content creators on instagram and I am constantly learning, motivated, inspired and creating because of it. I went from failing a basic stir fry to making my own homemade rainbow sushi, mayonnaise and cheeses. I have met amazing like minded people through this platform, have learnt so much more about what dairy and meat does to your body and even got gifted a pot and a huge supply of pasta from San Remo! The more I created, the easier it was for me to make Vegetarian food tasty so I went for the next big challenge: tasty Vegan food. Could I do it? I sure can! This made it so much easier for Cody and I to take the leap and completely cut out animal products.
Am I glad I did it? Of course! I naturally lost weight, my skin is clearer, my eyes are whiter, I have more energy and I am just plain happy and healthy as hell. Everyone that knew me back then can see and feel how much of a change I have gone through because the energy literally oozes out of me. And to think that this is only the beginning!
Here's to another year of growth, conscious awakening and happiness! If you have made it this far thank you for reading!
xx
Ana