'PICKY EATER' Goes VEGAN For a WEEK! *LIFE-CHANGING* | A Week of REALISTIC & SATIATING Vegan Meals!

Baby it ain't just you ooh oh oh I feel it too ooh oh oh I know these feelings are new baby even though I'm playing it cool here's the truth that I feel how you do and I love you too Stay tuned till the end because I will be interviewing model and lifestyle blogger Evelina about her experiences with veganism and what it's like to be one!

Coming into this vegan challenge, I was pretty excited. I think it's gonna be easy for the most part, especially since I'm not really a huge meat lover in the first place. I mean, the only meat I actually like is chicken, but everything else like steak, pork, sausages, ribs, and beef are really not my cup of tea. Dairy products, on the other hand, like cheese and yogurt, and my favorite protein bars, Built Bars, are things I'm really going to miss. But other than that, I'm still so looking forward to converting to veganism for a whole week and can't wait to let you guys know how I feel about this lifestyle and if I ever want to stick to it for the rest of my life. So let's go! Get started. That's so good. Vegan week is going great so far. Keep in mind, I'm not a professional nor super educated on veganism by all means, and I don't want this video to be filled with misinformation. I'm just really interested to see how this week is going to go and if living without consuming dairy, chicken, and other animal byproducts is actually doable for me and my body. Why do people even go vegan? For the longest time, I thought it was just such a restrictive lifestyle. There's so many foods you can't eat, you're always on the lookout for vegan-approved products, and the searching takes up so much time. Why not just eat everything with balance? But I've got it all wrong. A plant-based diet isn't as restrictive as it may seem. It's not just eating fruits and vegetables. There's so many delicious recipes and opportunities. Veganism opens a whole new world of beautiful food, food that can give you as much energy and as much variety. I learned that there's more behind going vegan other than losing weight or becoming healthier. Going vegan doesn't only benefit your body, but it benefits the world around you, and that's what's so wonderful about it. A common myth when it comes to going vegan is it's a lot harder to meet your protein intake with only plant-based foods. We all know that chicken and eggs have lots of protein, so automatically I thought finding alternatives would be so difficult. But I was again mistaken because there are surprisingly an abundant amount of plant-based foods with an exceptional amount of protein, which aren't only easy to add as part of your everyday meal, but it makes me feel so much more clean knowing that I'm putting in something that wasn't harmed in the making. Surprisingly, I've been eating a lot of protein, if not more this week than I ever have any other weeks. Chickpeas, avocados, hemp seeds, chia seeds, nuts, peanut butter, beans, rice, bread, quinoa— all these have protein, some more, some less. But if combining all these together, you could get a very high protein meal. So luckily I didn't have to worry about protein at all, and it was just really great to know that I've been meeting my protein goal every single day.

Try myself inside.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you would know I took a week and a few days off of doing follow-along workouts. The only exercises I did was walking and a bit of running. Now, this was because I injured my right wrist. I have a feeling it started hurting because I was constantly putting a lot of pressure onto it with my push-ups, handstands, and just using heavy weights. And also on top of that, clicking my computer mouse endlessly whilst editing my videos. So it definitely needed a rest. I literally couldn't bend or move it for a whole week. So I just couldn't work out. And honestly, it was much more needed for me both mentally and physically, and I'm so glad I took this 2-week rest.

But all you wanna do is to get out.

I bought tofu for the first time just for this vegan challenge, and I was so excited to try it out. Surprisingly, it didn't taste like anything, and I realized that it's best to add some sort of sauce or spice just so it doesn't taste bland. Definitely next time I'll add barbecue sauce for sure. Nonetheless, tofu is a really great protein source that filled me up like crazy.

You, so maybe I can—

instead, for today's breakfast, I decided to give baked oats another chance. I've made this trendy breakfast in the past already, but for some reason I can't seem to fall in love with it. But oh my gosh, you guys, this recipe right here changed my whole opinion, and I now understand the hype. So I made this enormous batch of brownie batter baked oats. I found the recipe on YouTube, and I'll actually leave the PDF of it in the description below. I kid you not, it tasted exactly like you'd expect a brownie and oatmeal together. So phenomenal. And if you're low on time in the morning, you can meal prep this breakfast and it'll last you the whole week like it did for me. This is the best baked oatmeal I've ever tried. Even though I can't have any Built Bars, safes, thank goodness I can have True Bars, which are my second favorite protein bars ever. It's editing time. So I basically spent the whole day editing this video. I complain and procrastinate when it comes to editing so much. It's just such a tedious job, but it's definitely worth it at the end. When I was younger, I had B12 deficiency, and due to this, I was always very weak and tired. I also remember I would randomly black out for a few seconds and forget what I was doing or where I was going. Now, this mostly came from my disordered eating. I was restricting a lot of food groups and specifically a lot of animal foods, which all have B12 in them. This affected my health, and as I mentioned, I was very fatigued, didn't do well in school, and clearly my body was missing a lot of nutrients. I also recently learned that B12 deficiency is actually common among vegans. In fact, studies show that 92% of vegans or those who followed a strict vegetarian diet had B12 deficiency at some point. I don't know how accurate this information is, but by the looks of it, it could be to some extent to an extent a little more challenging to get B12 into your system as a vegan. However, through doing some research and asking some people, there are a lot of plant-based sources with B12 like nutritional yeast, plant milk, algae, seaweed, and mushrooms. Vegans also take B12 supplements. For today's breakfast, I had overnight oats for the first time in a while. I was gonna eat it in a mason jar, but clearly it would be a little hard, so I transferred it into a coconut bowl and it's some fresh strawberries, frozen mango and banana slices, and it was super delicious. Baby, you know how to reach me cuz I ain't going nowhere. Today I didn't feel like making lunch, so I had lots of snacks instead. And the first snack I had was some granola cereal with almond milk, a classic. And then I went to do my workout. Because my wrist is slowly healing, I decided to do 3 days of working out this week rather than none, just to slowly get back into it. And out of the 3 days I worked out, I found that I had a lot of energy. A big stereotype I feel we have in society is all vegans are super skinny, they're not strong, don't have lots of muscle, and just like so many other stereotypes, it's just simply not true. There's so many elite athletes and bodybuilders that are vegan. It's not at all necessary to consume animal products to be some kind of pro athlete. Plant-based foods can and will fuel your body just as much as any other foods. This week has definitely opened me up to a lot of new recipes that I haven't tried before. After my workout, I made some vegan chocolate chip muffins At first I was thinking of making banana bread, but I haven't had muffins in a while, and I also don't trust myself with a loaf of banana bread. I can no joke eat the whole loaf in one sitting, so I feel like with muffins it'll be easier to control my portion size, especially since I can also freeze them for later. Okay, so I ended up having more than 2 muffins like always, and also my mom made some vegan strawberry ice cream using coconut milk, so I had to try it out and it was pretty good. Can't compare it to dairy ice cream, however, just because there's less sugar in this one, but it was still super delicious. And then for dinner, I helped my mom prepare salad. We always, always have salad for dinner. It's basically a staple in our house. My fave salad combo at the moment is with spinach, lettuce leaves, cucumbers, tomatoes, and the secret ingredient: avocado. It makes the salad so creamy and flavorful, and it's a great alternative to sauce. With the salad, I had cauliflower rice, this falafel, which is a Middle Eastern fried dough which we bought from Costco, by the way, and zucchini. And then for my evening snack, I had not one but two protein bars. This is what happens when I don't have lunch. I just start craving lots of food in the evening and can easily eat so much without noticing. So never skip lunch, you guys. Always try your best to have balanced meals throughout the day. Sunday's breakfast was a green smoothie bowl. I added a banana, frozen mango, and lots of spinach. I've also seen this new trend where you pour chocolate over the smoothie and it freezes, creating this satisfying texture. So I tried it out, but instead of using chocolate, I made my own spread using cocoa powder and almond milk, and it took longer to freeze, but it still turned out really cool.

You feel the same. Do you feel the same?

And for today's lunch, I made an nourish bowl with zucchini, mushrooms, black beans, and chickpeas. I added some green and purple leaves as well and then just mashed up half of an avocado— half of an avocado— of an avocado. That is a tongue twister. Creating the sauce which complemented this green nourish bowl really well.

2, 3.

Then for a quick snack, I munched on an apple, and I was so excited for dinner because I made cauliflower barbecue wings. When I tell you this recipe blew my mind, I really mean it. If you are craving chicken wings but want a healthier option, then this recipe is just something you actually need to try. Only 50 calories apiece, I'm pretty sure. These tasted so similar to chicken wings, I was completely shocked. Recipe will be in the description, just like every other recipe I tried. So so be sure to check it out. These cauliflower wings are impeccable. They're so good, remind me of chicken wings for sure. Hey guys, so right now I'm currently working on my video, just editing, and right now I'm doing the voice recording portion of the video, and I actually just got a new mic right here. However, dairy products like cheese and yogurt and my favorite protein bars like Built Bars are things I'm really going to miss. I'm so looking forward to— I'm so looking forward to converting into veganism. So let us get started. Throughout this vegan challenge, I noticed both positives and negatives. Let's start with the positives because there are definitely a ton more. Number 1, I felt a lot more healthier. I mean, I was eating a lot of vegetables. Now usually on a daily basis, I would always try to get a lot of vegetables into my day, but what's so different about this week was I would replace my meat with more vegetables. I haven't had smoothies in so long. So I was just getting 5 times more vegetables than ever. Before, so it was nice. And then number 2, I felt less bloated at the end of the day. And then I also got to try out a lot of new creative recipes. For example, the barbecue cauliflower chicken wings were on another level insane. Vegan or not, you guys have to try out that recipe. I'm literally craving them right now while talking. And then some negatives are some days I didn't have as much energy and I felt tired despite eating a lot of food. It wasn't every single day, so That's, that's good. Other than that, I would say this has probably one of my favorite What I Eat in Weeks. As I predicted, it was filled with a lot of colorful foods. This week flew by like crazy, and I'm sure I'm gonna be doing another vegan What I Eat in a Week in the future. Definitely really fun, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Hi everyone, welcome to the interview portion of this vegan challenge. Today I have with me Evelina. She's a vegan, and I'll be asking her a few questions about what it's like to be one why she started, and just her views and opinions on the topic. So Evelina, if you'd like to introduce yourself, how old are you, where are you from, and what do you do here on social media?

Hey, my name is Evelina, I'm 16, and I'm from Latvia. You should Google that place. But I am— I have an Instagram account and I share healthy lifestyle, vegan recipes, workouts, and other fun stuff.

Oh, that's so cool! So I'm gonna leave her, uh, social medias in the description below if you guys want to check them out. I'm sure you guys are really going to enjoy her content. So I'm really excited for this little mini interview. Let's just jump into the questions. So the first question I have is, how old were you when you decided to go vegan, and what were the reasons behind your decision?

So basically, I went vegetarian before I went vegan. I've been vegetarian for 3 years, vegan for 2 years. And, and also at that time, I thought, why people are even vegan? Cows produce dairy and it's normal and everything like that, but then I realized what actually happens behind the scenes and how horrible everything and how horrible people are treating animals. And documentaries like Domino's, that documentary, I was crying the whole time. And yeah, basically that's my little story.

Okay, so next question is, um, is there anyone else in your family who's also vegan? And if not, do your parents approve of you being vegan?

Unfortunately, nobody is vegan. That kind gets sometimes lonely, and it's been a long time, so my parents are okay. One of my grandmothers, oh, we don't talk about her. She is rude to me because of videos, and she doesn't even understand anything about it. She thinks that I will not change anything, but I have saved a lot of animal lives.

And then, did you find it hard transitioning into a plant-based diet?

For me personally, no, because actually when I transformed to veganism, I realized that I had lactose allergy because my skin was always itching and I have these small pimples and things like that. And then I realized, oh, I'm actually allergic. So that was another plus that I'm no longer scratching everywhere. Okay, so it wasn't hard at all because I know my reason. You have to know your why, and then everything is so easy. Some people obviously have some sort of cravings, but 2021, you have all the substitutes. You have vegan cheeses, everything.

Okay, is it expensive to be vegan?

Personally, for me, no. If you know how to budget and if you know where and how to buy stuff, then no. Because obviously, if you will buy all these vegan meats, vegan cheeses vegan everything, those, yeah, they are expensive. If you, and obviously if you go out, and obviously not in COVID, but if you go out, that's probably really expensive. But I buy a lot of stuff in farmers markets, like it is like 4 times cheaper.

Yeah.

So are you only vegan in terms of food, or do you also stay away from non-vegan products and clothes like made from animals, like leather?

For me, yes. Yeah, so basically I don't like, I use I don't use anything that's like not cruelty-free, is tested on animals. Yeah, so I'm staying away from everything that's not vegan.

Would you say people are still vegan if they only eat vegan foods but still use non-vegan products, or do you think you have to be classified as like official vegan if you do both?

It's about like commitment. It's about trying your best every single day, and I think you're still vegan. You're still doing good animals, you're still doing good for the planet.

Last question, that was so quick, oh my gosh, okay, so what does a usual day of eating look like for you? A little what I eat in a day.

So lately obsessed with pancakes, protein pancakes every morning, oh my gosh, could eat pancakes the whole day long. Then I have a snack that's usually like a bread with tomato and something on it like hummus, some sort of vegan spread. Then for lunch I usually have some some sort of protein source like lentils, peas, beans, then salad, typical salad, not like typical salad with some sort of yummy vegan sauce, vegan cheese, and sautéed veggies and some sort of grain like a regular like rice, whatever, something that I have in home. And then for my snack, I have whole long snacking hour from 4 because I love snacking. I have some sort of fruits, I love bananas, Pears, nuts, some sort of my homemade vegan, I don't know, banana bread. Recipe is on my page. Some sort of like baked goods. And for my dinner, I lately have been having toast or bread with something on it and then protein source like tofu, beans, and beets or peppers. Yes.

Thank you so much, Evelina, for being in this video, for doing this interview with me. I had so much fun learning more about you and your vegan lifestyle. Thank you so much!

You're just like magic. I'm just trying to figure out what— I'm just trying to figure out what— I'm just trying to figure out what— I'm just trying to figure out what— I'm just trying to figure out what happened.