Go vegan!

After being a vegetarian for two years I realised that I consume way too much dairy products than I should. You know, oatmeal with milk, yogurt as a snack, pizza with cheese, and enormous amounts of cottage cheese. And despite the fact that I've always known that eggs and diary industry is even more cruel than meat industry I couldn't imagine my life without milk. It was okey for me to give up dairy and eggs for a week, but whole life? Yes, I wanted to be a vegan but in the future, very distant future. But visiting Warsaw a week ago, where I was trying new food in vegan restaurants, made me realise that eating plant based diet is not only good for the planet, animals, but also for me. I felt better, no stomach pains, no tiredness. And what's the most important, this diet is delicious. If you don't believe me check out few vegan restaurants in Warsaw. So on my way back home I decided. I will never contribute to animal cruelty, environment polution and my own health devastation. I just simply gave up dairy and eggs. And you know what? I do not miss it at all. Even my beloved cottage cheese and cheesecake. Tofu cheesecake is even more yummy. If some of you think that being vegetarian or vegan is stupid, unnatural or it's not worth to give up cheese, because what will you put on your pizza, watch some letures on youtube. Being vegan is just ligical. Cow milk is for cows and eggs are meant to be a new life. So I don't think being vegan is weird or extreme, it's more normal than "traditional diet". Eating meat, dairy and eggs is just a tradition. Unhealthy, violent and unnecessary tradition. And no, there's no protein, vitamins or minerals deficiency. As long as you make healthy choices, vegan diet is good, but the same thing goes for meat eaters. Belive me, vegans can eat junk food either. Also for me, consuming meat, dairy and eggs is just a habit that we were taught and people are too lazy to gave it up. They don't want to see the cruelty behind it, they don't want to feel responsible for it and very ofter they are not even aware of how meat, dairy or eggs indutries really look like. Anyway, if you want to change something in your life, go vegan. Some people may say it's boring or that we eat only lettuce. Wrong again. There are so many plants and herbs you can use which makes vegan diet very creative and for sure not tasteless. So I encourge you to try it, you will be surprised how good it is. Especially vegan mayonnaise (yes, there is vegan mayonnaise). Here are few photos of food in "Vege miasto", one of my favourite vegan restaurants in Warsaw.

                               

Fresh salad with vinaigrette, veggies with dill sauce, tofu and peas "meatballs", millet (or rice on the other plate).

                      

Rice with some seeds, fresh salat with vinaigrette, baked eggplant with tomatoes, olives, chives and vegan cheese (which was marvelous!), tofu with sauce.

                              

And these are my favourite desserts! The first one is something like a vegan banoffee pie with ice cream (i think it was mango and banana flavour), and the second one is a raw mango pie with coffee ice cream. I can say that I have never eaten better cakes and ice cream than these!

To sum up: go vegan ;)

Reflections on language.

I've always known that the language I use is very simple and poor. But don't deceive ourselves, most of us have poor vocabulary. Lately, I realised that I can't express myself like I want to, no matter if I speak polish or english. The only adjectives I use are fun, nice, awesome and cool. And where did other adjectives go? Delightful, magnificent, stunning, amusing, prodigious? Of course I know them, I know their meaning, but why they all disappear when I speak? Naturally, it's much easier using them while writing because you have some time to think, to choose the most appropriate word. It's sad and horrifying that the language becomes more and more blank and simplified. Simlpe vocabulary is useful in some situations but we should make our best to keep it rich, because it expresses our feeling, opinions and so on. Are sadness and happiness the only things we feel? What about dispiritedness, exhilaration or disillusionment? The richness of the language gives us a chance to emphasize and clarify our thoughts and feelings. And there is a question: what to do about it? First of all, beat laziness. Then, become more conscious and attentive of what you say. And obviously, read more. But not some trivial glossy magazines, grab something more ambitious. There are libraries and bookshops full of books, the Internet and magazines filled with wise articles. Not only is it immense and excellent source of new vocabulary but also a source of the new knowledge, Go and find something that you're interested in and just read, whether it's in your native or foregin language.

About my love for... oatmeal!

Yes, oatmeal. The simplest, healthiest, tastiest, cheapest and the most undervalued meal ever. I love it also because I can put into it literally anything I want. Starting with fruits and nuts and ending with beets and eggs. So if you hate eating oats, have terrible memories related to oatmeal or just find it's boring I will try to convince you to eat it once again. Maybe you'll fell in love with it!

   Firstly, it's nutritious. Oats are the perfect source of fiber and valuable fatty acids. They are also a wealth of vitamins and minerals like vitamin B6 or B1 and iron or magnesium. Moreover they contain proteins which makes you feel full for a long time, can help you lose weight and build muscles. It is obvious that if oats have a lot of nutrients they nourish your body very well. So if you're struggling with damaged hair or nails or have problems with skin there is one marvelous treatment. Oatmeal. It's also perfect medicine for many diseases. Did I mention about its positive impact on our brain? Oats will help you with studying and memorising things.

   Secondly, you can be very creative while cooking oatmeal! Every morning I wake up with a new idea for oatmeal (or different kinds of cereal). My oatmeal must be big, warm and packed with many stuffs. I always cook it with milk (almond, rice, soy or cow milk), banana, nuts, dark chocolate, seeds, spices and other fruits. You can embellish oatmeal in your own way to make it delicious and filling. Consistency it the next thing to choose. Extremely thick, creamy or runny. You can also eat oatmeal for lunch, dinner... the truth is that you can eat it anytime, anywhere and with anything you want. And keep in mind that a huge dose of this meal will give you energy and makes your mornings more positive.

  The next advantage of porridge is that it's very easy and fast to do. You don't have to spend ages in the kitchen to prepare it. Ten minutes is enough to make your bowl full of oats. Oatmeal is also very portable because it can be eaten cold as well as warm. So if you're in the rush just grab a lunch box and pour your homemade oatmeal into it. Don't forget to sprinkle some fruits or nuts on top!

So now I'd like to show you my recipe for oatmeal (every person is a different porridge :D).

Ingredients for basic plain porridge:
5 tablespoon of oats (you can use any type you want)
1 tablespoon of bran (of your choice)
1 teaspoon of flax-seeds (I add it because I prefer when it's thick)
cup of milk (my favourite is almond milk but you can even use water)

To  make it more delicious I like to add:
1 banana cut into pieces
piece of dark chocolate
a lot of cinnamon
handful of goji berries
handful of cashews on top
few dried figs or any other fruits on top

Pour milk into a pot and put it on the stove. When it boils pour oats and mix a little bit. Let it boils for few minutes and then add what you want (in my recipe I would add banana, goji berries and cinnamon.). I like to put the chocolate to the bottom of the bowl and pour hot oatmeal on it to melt it. Boil the porridge for the next 2-3 minutes and  turn off the gas. You can leave it for a couple of minutes to make it thicker or eat it like this. Of ourse throw some extra things on top. Enjoy!

Remember every person has their own way to cook and eat oatmeal. Go to the kitchen and find yours!

                       

                       

                       

                             
                                      These are my ideas of decorating oatmeal ;)

Christmas spirit?

For me, christmas could be all year around. I can't never get enough of christmas lights, songs, presents, movies and of course food. Despite the fact that I'm an atheist I love Christmas! I love this commercial confusion around the holidays (which obviously is sometimes very shoddy and overdone), this family atmosphere, even if we fight half of the holidays, and that I just let go of all negative emotions. But this year I can't feel the christmas atmosphere like I felt it few years ago. To my mind, it is because I'm getting older and I see everything in a different way than when I was a kid, Fortunately, I have some proven ways to feel more festive. Here's my top 5 tips to feel christmas atmosphere in the air even if there's no snow outside! (Probably all these tips are on the Internet :D)

1. Bake gingerbreads! Lovely smell of cinnamon, sweet frosting, the heat radiating from the oven and cookie cutters in the shape of christmas trees. "Last Christmas" in the background and slow sips of hot chocolate. There's nothing that feels more cosy than baking gingerbreads, especially with your friends or family. In general, I love helping my mom in the kitchen while she's cooking christmas meals.

2. Watch christmas movies. Personally, I recommend "Holidays". If I had to choose the best movie I would definitely choose this one. But there's many more films I like, for example "A Christmas Carol", "The Polar Express" and of course "Home Alone". It's a great opportunity to make a movie marathon!

3. Sincere wishes. Yesterday I was on the last yoga class before Christmas and afterwards we had a christmas meeting. A lot of cakes, cookies (of course delicious ones), tea, coffee and the festive atmosphere. I could never forget it. First time in my life I felt so moved because all those honest, beautiful wishes. Not only is it a wonderful feeling when people are so kind to you but also when you see them smile because of your wishes,

4. Smell! Maybe I'm weird but I love to smell things, especially food. When I walk around the kitchen I always smell anything my mom is cooking, when I cook I do the same. And there's few christmas scents that remind me previous holidays and childhood. Today in the morning I was helping my mom to bake a cheesecake and before that she had started to prepare poppy-seed cake. The smell of poppy seed makes me feel the christmas spirit, just like the smell of dumplings with mushrooms and cabbage or croquettes.

5. Presents. Stop thinking about the gifts you'll get and start to enjoy giving them to your loved ones! Surprise them, make something special, not necessary expensive but something to show your love. We often forget how important it is to tell people we love them, we take it for granted but Christmas is the time when we have a great opportunity to let them see what we feel. How many times this year you told your family you love them?

So these are my top 5 things to feel the christmas spirit. I have one more tip for you: let go. Stop thinking and worrying about everything for these few days, slow down and enjoy holidays. Let go all your worries, forgive yourself all mistakes and eat a cake ;) I'll write more about letting before New Year's Eve, Now, turn off your computer and go help your mom in the kitchen. Merry Christmas! ;)
(Sorry, I just like making lists of things, like "5 things..." or "7 ways to..." :D)

           

5 things yoga has taught me.

I haven't been here for a while (okey, I know, I completely forgot about this blog) but I was writing new post for the past few weeks. I just couldn't finish it so now I'm writing another one. Because, why not? So the topic of my scribble, as you can see in the title is: 5 things yoga has taught me. Of course yoga has taught and is still teaching me many more things but at this point of my yoga journey I want to present you 5 the most significant.

Let me start with my short yoga story. I'm doing yoga 2 times a week (sometimes I practice at yoga studio, sometimes at home and in the end it turns out that I do asanas everyday ;) for over a year. It's not a long period of time but with regular practice I'm getting better and better. Remember: practice makes perfect. 

1. It has taught me to be more patient. Yeah, patience is something I've always had problem with. All my life I wanted everything at once, without waiting or doing anything, the only thing I was interested in was result. One fail was enough for me to stop what I was doing. Now I'm aware that to see results I have to come to this and be determined to finish what I started. Twelve months ago I couldn't even reach the floor with my fingers and straight legs and now I can lay my head on knees.

2. I'm looking in a different way at my body and my workout routine. Before I started doing yoga I had worked out a lot because I wanted to make my body fit and I hadn't felt comfortable with it. Now I work out to have strenght and power, because it makes me happy and I simply love it (especially yoga). And I realised that perfect body just doesn't exist. Everybody is different so we shouldn't try to look like somebody else. I work out because I love my body not because I hate it, it's one of the biggest progress for me. 

3. It has taught me how to breathe. Yes, something as simple as breathing is usually underestimate. I was simply forgetting to breathe, maybe not literally but more figuratively. Yoga taught me how to breathe properly. When I'm stressed, nervous, furious, cheerless or in any other mood I just breathe, it brings back balance and peace to my mind. And believe me or not, breathing in some kind of situations is difficult.

4. Listening to my body (and mind). To its desires or needs. If I feel like reading a book I just leave everything and start to read. If I want to drink some red wine, I will because my body wants this. And also if my mind need to rest i'll let it not to think for a while. Be kind to yourself, you deserve it.

5. Falls and mistakes are okay. When something seems impossible don't give up on this because you can fail. If you do, you'll try again. And again, and again until you achieve your goal. I believe that mistakes are needed because we learn from them. Failures too because they give us priceless lessons we never learn from other people. So keep trying and gain knowledge and skills from your own experiences.

So these are my five most important lessons that yoga has taught me. Summarizing, I've learnt how to live a happy life.

          
                                              Tara Stiles and Laura Sykora

Warsaw. Part 1.

It's been a long time since I've been here but I have so much to tell you! Maybe I'll start with a festival I took part in June with my mom, it was sort of earlier birthday present. So, it's called Orange Warsaw Festival on which everyone can find something for themselves. Rock, pop, hiphop, techno, indie, almost everything. I was there mainly because of bands like: The Kooks, Florence and the Machine or Kings of Leon but not only. Concerts took place in Warsaw an the National Stadium and it lasted 3 days, 3 amazing days of music, food, ears and legs sorness, tiredness and happiness. Unfortunately the concert of band I was waiting for very badly The Pretty Reckless was canceled because of wind which destroyed the second stage near by the Stadium. Of course I could complain on organisation and many other things (for example concerts of my fav bands in the same time or tea for 6 zlote - it's very expensive in Poland ) but let's focus on good sides. Seeing so many artists in these days was very exciting, if you haven't been on any festival yet, you should be buying tickets now on one you would like to go to! Besides the brilliant concerts I spend nice time in Warsaw and fell in love with this city. While coming back to my town I  had something like depression that I have to go back to school and reality. I realise that Warsaw is nothing compared to Paris, London and other big cities. But for me, girl from town where I feel like there's no civilisation It was a great experience. I still have no idea how it is to live there everyday but I hope I'll find out when I finished school. Beautiful, old buildings, some new skyscrapers, shopping centres, many vegan and vegetarian restaurants, bubble tea (which I'm in love with <3) and little cafes with delicious coffee and apple pie. This place with vibrant nightlife captivated me. And I've got battle in my mind between big cities like this and small countrysides. Where the hell I want to live? But nevermind. I've made many videos but only 3 of them are in the Internet, I was too lazy to upload more but I'm going to do this in the near future. Anyway,you can watch for example Kings of Leon on my YT chanel. So, I wrote I fell in love with Warsaw and that's why I came back there in August! My friends and I decided to go there for 3 days but I tell you more next time. 

                                           The National Stadium before concert.


                                                               The Kooks.

Be yourself.

I've found a lot of words: pretend, pretense, acting, imitate. Today I would want to write about being someone that we're really not. Yesterday I was on my friend's 18 birthday. She organized a party in a club. Okay, you may think that's cool, we are teenagers so we like parting and getting drunk. WAIT. I HATE IT. Is it weird, stupid, anti-social? I was thinking about it for a very long time and guess what's my opinion about it. I don't care. I don't care if it's weird, anti-social or stupid, I just don't like it. We all know that everybody is different. What you think, do, like, don't like makes you who you are. I prefer  meeting in a cafe with couple of friends and drink coffee not alcohol while a lot of my friends are getting drunk in a club. So what? Am I supposed to be fake, pretend that I like it and fool myself and everyone else around me? No, of course not. And the point is, your mates should understand and respect your decisions, no matter what. Unfortunately it's not always like that. 

And it's not right to pretend in any different ways too. It's not only about parties, it's about everything in your life. I hate doing something against me because it doesn't make me happy. We shouldn't change ourselves  just because we need to fit in, adapt to the environment. People should accept who we are. If you like having a picnic in the rain with youre imagine friends, do it. Be sure that you're doing what you love and it brings happiness to you, don't look at others. Stop being fake, pretend someone that you're not just for show. It's okay to be different. Even if there's only one little thing that makes you unique or everyone thinks it's weird don't change it. People should stop trying to impress others and worry about someone else's opinion.

           

              

I have a song of the day for you : Don't forget whoy you are ! And I have an info! I'm going to create the second blog where I'm going to write the same posts but in polish, it might be a little bit different because it's easier for me to write in my language. Also I wanted to tell you that I don't need a lot of views or something. This blog recently became a diary to me. I had a lot of notebooks, diaries or other stuff like that but I've never written there much. Now I see that it really helps me and I'm enjoying it.

I'm sorry for all mistakes I'm doing in each post ! ;)