with all my love from europe

hello lovely people out there!

sorry for being very absent from the blogging world but time seems to be running when you are in europe or maybe it’s just the fact that i am enjoying myself more than ever.

my flight to Munich was great, no delays, good entertainment on board and a nice young lady next to me to chat with. what more could you ask for. still i was so excited to meet my mum at our apartment for sadly only 48 hours until she had to go back again to Singapore. my mum flew to germany a week ahead of me because she wanted to visit some of ‘her best friends’ alone. haha mum’s need their time out too i guess.

my beautiful mum

since it was a sunday and all shops are closed on a sunday me and my mum decided to go and visit the Nymphenburger Schloss aka castle of Nymphenburg. It was gorgeous

crystal clear skies united with the cold snow

a little closer now

inside the park, look at all the snow!!

of course i was so happy to finally be in the snow that i couldn’t help myself and play around in it for a while

thumps up for the snow

yaaayyy

on the food note my friends, i really thought that i knew how good oatmeal is. Oh boy was i wrong. Warm oatmeal in the cold winter is about a million times better than oatmeal in hot and humid  Singapore. Amen to that

oatmeal topped with german coconut granola

and what would a stay in Munich be without eating a Brezel?? Katharina, i am sure you know what i mean by that. That would be like going to the beach without a bikini. so of course i enjoyed a real yummy organic german Brezel

did i mention that this gets even better with avocado on it?

sadly though my stay was interrupted by some unpleasant surprises from my airline Lufthansa. In the week that i came to Germany Lufthansa decided to start a four day strike!!!! yes and that meant that my flight to Geneva was cancelled. So here i was sitting in Munich with a plane ticket to get me no where. Thank god for trains i thought. Well that was before i found out that my train trip to Geneva would take me 8 and a half hours!!!! yeah so that’s how i spend the whole day of yesterday. travelling on a train across germany and switzerland. But i really liked it. I loved looking out the windows and looking at the wonderful countryside of these beautiful countries.

still i was happy to arrive in Geneva at 8.20 pm after so many hours. But the reward was to be with my brother and for that i’d travel half of my life to see him

candlelight dinners

l'affair du wine

it's good to just be

alright my loves, my first day in Geneva was started but it’s raining and cold outside so i decided to stay in for a while and sip on some tea before exploring the city a little.

Now i will see what all you wonderful people have been up to.

bisous pour toutes!

and so it goes!!

the day has arrived! today my journey to germany and switzerland begins! i am so thrilled to be getting on that plane in a few hours and landing myself in the cold winters of europe.

i am looking forward to a wonderful time spend with friends, my brother and celebrating my 22nd birthday over there in the next 3 1/2 weeks! i hope you all enjoy following me over there. of course i have my canon rebel right by my side to keep all the wonderful moments in pictures for myself!

please excuse my commenting for the next few hours or days until i can get some internet again. i think i will be able to access the internet from my apartment in Munich. *fingers crossed*!

have a wonderful end to the week you wonderful people!

au revoir mes amies!

let’s chew on this

food should taste good. we all have our own little perception of what tastes good, what doesn’t and what type of style of eating we chose to follow. be it a vegetarian, low-carb, low-fat, vegan, junk food diet, i think the possibilities are endless. or maybe we don’t even follow any trends with what we eat and just follow our intuition what seems appetizing at that particular moment when hunger strikes.

at least i know low-carb diet ain’t for moi

yet i seem to find many alarming sources in the internet where people decide to go vegan and end up nutrient and protein deprived since they are not fully aware of how to go about a vegan diet. the same follows with following a low-fat diet. it’s not all about eating food fats, you have to eat fats, it’s about eating the right ones and limiting the amount of the so called ‘bad’ fats. even though there is no such thing as bad fats. all foods are healthy in moderation. even your pork cutlet is healthy once in a while.

sometimes i forget that the human body is not a toy that you can just play around with and put inside whatever you choose just because that food might looks good to you. our body has strict requirements for certain nutrients, fats, protein and yes calories. feeding the body is not as easy as pie. it’s actually a process that involves planning and sometimes medical and diet help from professionals.

as many of you know i have a lot of stomach issue with my inflamed bowels. therefore i find that a 90%  vegan gluten-free diet is what suit my needs the most. i have trouble digesting most meats. the same goes for dairy and as far as gluten goes i have become intolerant to gluten which explained to me why my symptoms got worse when i started eating more plain low fiber foods like white bread. my doctor was 100% that my stomach issues were all linked to my fiber diet. it was only when i asked him to test me for a gluten intolerance that he agreed to do so and boy i wish i had a photo of the look on his face.

what am trying to say with this post? find the diet that works for you! but don’t always rely on your own knowledge to fiz your diet for you. i am very new to veganism and therefore feel it is necessary to get help from a dietician with my food choice to help in my diet and what my digestive system appreciates. it can be dangerous to self-diagnose yourself and stick to a diet that will only end up making you even sicker and unhealthy.

to find this path that seems to lead me out of constant stomach problems has been a long one but i seem closer to the goal than i have ever been of having a normal digestive system again. my brother sometimes jokes i should be the next ‘house’ maybe!?! haha

i am glad i found the path that i am on now and can begin to see food as an element that heals me and not as something that just cause me discomfort, pain and trouble. i know how hard it can be to battle with an Eating Disorder like anorexia and how hard it can be to accept to regain weight  to a healthy weight. but if at the same time everything that you eat feels like glass in your bowels than the fun in eating and recovery quickly slides down a slippery slope. and here is one thing i am so proud of myself for. even though i went through a colonoscopy, many many testings, endless days of misery, pain, cramps, bloating and many tears flowing down my cheeks i never lost even a single pound all this time!

there always is a light at the end of the tunnel. i know i am not 100% healed yet and me and my digestive tract will have a rocky relationship all life long but at least i know how to deal with it and what can help me and what doesn’t.

gosh it feels good to let this all out!