I’m happier because I know no animals need to die for my survival

Lija is from Germany. She shares vegetarian and vegan recipes on her personal blog VeggieLia. Meatless Movement recently had the opportunity to chat with her.

Tell us more about yourself, please

I never really liked to eat meat
Lija – veggieLia

Hi, I’m Lija and I live in Germany, near Munich.

I work as financial analyst and the things I’m passionate about outside of work are hiking, yoga, cooking, traveling, reading and spending time with my family and friends.

I never really liked to eat meat, it was more like a habit. I started my vegetarian journey back in Mai 2017. Originally, I was only meant to be completing a month of vegetarian eating just to find out how difficult it would be not to eat meat or fish anymore.

During this time I’ve learned a lot about other people habits and it turned out that a lot of the “carnivore” people are just “meateater” because they don’t know what to eat else.

Veganism is about so much more
Lija – veggieLia

A lot of them think, if you are vegetarian or vegan you just eat salad, fruits and vegetables.
But vegetarians or vegans eat burgers, lasagna, sushi, pasta, pizza, cakes, pancakes, barbecues, sandwiches, tacos, any food, but made with plant-based ingredients instead of meat or dairy-based ingredients.

No diet is healthy, it really depends on what you eat. Most people think that a meat-based diet is healthy and balanced because the majority of people eat this way. A balanced vegetarian or vegan diet can provide many health benefits. If you combine and alternate, you’ll get all the nutrients you need.

A balanced diet for vegetarians and vegans

E.g. choose pumpkin or sunflower seeds, cashew, tofu or lentils to get the protein. You can get the iron from pumpkin seeds, sesame, flaxseeds, oats or pistachio.

Did you know that fish cannot produce omega-3 by itself, but obtain them from algae?
You can get omega 3 from flaxseed (oil) or sunflower seeds, almonds, algae or walnut.

Eat nuts, tofu, grains, vegetables, fruits, pulses, seeds and herbs, it will keep you healthy.

As time went on I realised this was a permanent lifestyle change for me. I learned a lot of food, the production and the ingredients.

Healthy eating as a vegetarian

It’s worth it. I feel healthier and I have more energy
Lija – veggieLia

You will face “problems” at the beginning, questions like “How can my body get the several vitamins and minerals without eating meat or fish?” will come up. Or things like, my family says it couldn’t be healthy. I often heard people saying “I feel bad about eating meat, but where do I get my protein from” or “vegan or vegetarian food doesn’t taste good”. “I don’t know anybody who eats vegan or vegetarian food” “I work out I wont have enough energy.”

All this questions and uncertainty I also had to deal with. But it’s worth it. I feel healthier and I have more energy. I’m happier because I know no animals need to die for my survival. Food should be made without harm to the environment or animal well being. Yet veganism is about so much more. Our meat consumption is one of the biggest causes of ever growing CO2 emissions and climate change.

Animals are fed antibiotics and penicillin. Animals can’t even go outside. They must grow as quickly as possible. They become stressed.

To start you can buy a few good vegan cookbooks, there are a lot of recipes on Instagram. Cooking is fun and tasty and cheaper. Allow yourself to be surprised, there are a lot of new ingredients and flavors. Approach the topic slowly, don’t put yourself under pressure to make everything perfect. In the beginning, leave out the meat and see how you get along. Then you can gradually eliminate more and more animal foods and replace them with plant-based foods. Your body needs time to adjust.

Actually nowadays it is so easy to go vegetarian or vegan. My goal is to go vegan, I’m not there yet, but I’m working on that. I try to eat vegan food as often as possible.
There are so many places, where you can eat vegan/vegetarian food. It doesn’t have to be a vegan or vegetarian restaurant.

Just show people how delicious vegan/vegetarian food is
Lija – veggieLia

Actually I don’t tell people to eat vegan or vegetarian food. My trick is to invite them to my place and to serve vegan/vegetarian food.

I realized my friends are amazed by vegan and vegetarian food. My mom started to cook vegetarian food too. Just show people how delicious vegan/vegetarian food is, so they can’t live without it anymore.

I would like to recommend my Instagram account. (lija_ga). There are a lot of recipes which are simple, healthy and it don’t take a lot of time to prepare it.