Year 2024 was something. I went from meat-eater to vegan in 12 months and I am pretty proud of that. Work almost was too much for me, needed to stop and reconsider everything. All and all, my life is good, but I need to take better care of myself going forward.
Theme for 2024: Food
My main theme was “food”. At the end of 2023 my doctor suggested I start medication for lowering my cholesterol. I don’t mind medication, it is the only thing that keeps my arthritis manageable, but I thought I should try fixing my diet first. I was not making very good choices, neither in terms of culinary nor in terms of my health. My diet was not taking into account welfare of the animals or the planet. I was in for a big change.
Plan 🌱
I came up with the following principles for my food:
- Treat food like French people do. Food needs to always taste good, never compromise on that. I should never put something in my mouth that I don’t like
- Never compromise on health. Food must be healthy to eat
- Food needs to be good for the planet and good for animals. No compromises there either.
My idea was that I would go “mmm… bacon” to 100% vegan in two years, first building up the routines I need to be vegan all the time everywhere. I was more relaxed on the healthy principle in the start, but has been more and more successful in making healthy choices as well
Execution
First few months I concentrated on eating out and making sure I choose well. It worked better than I planned and I moved on to phase two: home choices, and when that worked out well chose to go full vegan already in May. Happy to say change was mostly complete in May…
Exceptions and Failures
I seem to eat by accident eat something non-vegan every few weeks. The only major problem arose when travelling in France and England. At the end of my trip I remember thinking in one pizzeria “well, at least pineapple counts as vegetable”. But after the trip I went back to my routines fairly easily and only exception after that was Christmas when I enjoyed my dad’s smoked salmon. Many times!
I still cook chicken and even meat for my kids occasionally and I don’t lose my sleep over random days I can’t make a good choice for some reason. Pareto principle applies: it is better to make good choices most of the time than to try to stick to rules that are impossible to follow.
Hobbies 🎹
I finally started playing piano after all these years just talking about it! I will never be great but I will be better and have fun. I also borrowed a guitar and slowly getting into practice playing that as well
My gym routine has been good all year, though my summer break was longer than planned to tennisleg I suffered from in August.