October 2015 – Living off Leesh

College Eating

Published on October 31, 2015May 27, 2018 by AliciaLeave a comment

The Freshmen 15. A phrase many people don’t believe to be true until they come home for winter break and see the pounds rise on the scale. Fortunately for me, i have lost weight since coming to school. It’s definitely not easy eating healthy (vegan and gluten free especially) yet somehow I’ve been able to do it.

At my school, or on the meal plan I have anyway, we are given about $20 to spend during the weekdays and about $14 during the weekends. We don’t really have a major cafeteria on campus, there is one but a lot of people spend their money at the many restaurants and the markets that we have on campus. We have many restaurants on campus but I try and only go to Chipotle, Oggi’s (pizza place with gluten free crust and vegan cheese), and the market. The markets have tons of food from sushi, a shake place, rice, fruit, vegetables, granola bars, and many other things that i eat. I also go to Trader Joe’s biweekly with my roommate for bread, peanut butter, bananas, apples, and other vegan- gluten-free needs.

Eating healthy in college is definitely not as hard as people make it out to be. As long as you don’t stay out all night drinking and then making 3am taco runs, you should be good. Personally I believe becoming a vegan in college is easier than not in college because your options are limited yet at those places you can always get a salad or something with no cheese. My roommate, some friends, and I also get sushi on occasions which is definitely a nice change from the regular diet of rice, soup, and pineapple. But, I suppose if I can eat healthy in college and lose 10 pounds, then anyone can. You just have to be committed to eating healthy and not eating a bunch of garbage throughout the day.

So many of my friends keep saying that eating healthy in college is impossible and how they ate panda express 3 times in one day, and then I tell them what I eat and they say it’s still impossible to eat healthy. I’m doing it so it can’t be possible. But they all can go ahead and eat panda express 3 times a day and gain 15 or more pounds while Im over here eating my rice and pineapple and getting happy that I need a smaller belt.

Talk to you all soon

Alicia

Why I’m Going Vegan

Published on October 30, 2015May 27, 2018 by AliciaLeave a comment

A goal of mine is to have a career or at least have a hobby of something involving animals. I’ve always loved animals my home growing up was a basically a wildlife rehab center. There have been squirrels (which led to fleas), fish, turtles, hamsters, hermit crabs, my dog, stray dogs, birds, birds from outside, and so many more. I would never eat these animals. So, why is acceptable for me to eat a pig or a chicken or horse hooves? These animals are all precious to our Earth so why am I allowed to pick and choose what animals I eat and what animals I don’t. In all honesty, I can’t. Which is why I’m trying to become a vegan. I’m already lactose intolerant so that part isn’t that hard. And the idea that eggs are chicken periods is reason enough to never look at eggs the same way again. Thanks roommate for turning me, but it is for the best.

Now, as I begin to transition my life to veganism, I need to prepare myself for all of the criticism I will be getting from my friends and family. After I admitted that I was lactose intolerant and become gluten-free, I got and still get a lot of criticism. My uncle told me “you’re just being another California pussy” and my mom had never been too on board with my dietary decisions. For 4 weeks my freshman year I had to be a vegetarian and then my friend and I tried becoming vegans for a week and she gave me crap for it for about a month leading up to it and every day while I was doing the vegan/vegetarianism.

But, I have decided that it is my life, it is my decision. So, I just need to tell people that. I’m making this decision for not only the health of the animals’ health, but mine as well. All I know is that vegan food is better than processed fast food. Not only better for you, but better tasting. So, I’m very excited for this next step in my life and I can’t wait to see how different I look and feel in 6 months and just for the rest of my life.

I have so many more ideas for posts so hopefully I can keep them coming

Talk to you all soon

Alicia

What’s crackalackin?

Published on October 30, 2015May 27, 2018 by AliciaLeave a comment

I apologize for my horrible blog post title, but it grabbed your attention, didn’t it? maybe it was to see if I am as lame as my title and perhaps you’re correct. Well, I suppose the thing to do in all blogs when beginning is to say who I am, what I’m going to talk about, basically the answer to the “how are you?” question that no one wants to hear but always asks anyway.

For starters, my name is Alicia and I am 18 years old. Currently I reside in San Diego, California, however I was born and raised in a little suburb about 10 minutes away from the City of Chicago. I chose to come to San Diego for college and it has been probably the greatest idea of my life. Ever since I had hypothesized about attending a university in California, many people have questioned why. Why would I go to a school over 2000 miles from home and can only see family 3-4 times per year. In complete honesty I felt as though I had to get away; from the toxic people around me, from my parents, and just to start fresh in a new city that I can call mine and no one else’s. Some people are content with living in the same city for their whole lives, and raising a family in their childhood homes and never seeing the world but I’m not. I yearn for the day when I can travel the world and see all the continents and be a tourist and just live life in the moment. And I presume that since college is expensive no matter where you go, I figured I’d start my touring in college, in San Diego.Once I complete undergrad, I hope to go to grad school on the East Coast to further my knowledge of the US.

But enough about my need for travel, I guess I’ll talk about other aspects of my life. I’m a double major in Spanish and ______________. I’m still deciding between business, biology, journalism, and chemical engineering. I also have a minor in Interdisciplinary Studies which I am getting since I am in the Honors College at my school. Some possible career choices that I have are: editor of a magazine, engineer (my aunt and uncle work for Intel so they said they can get me a job), wildlife rehabilitation center worker/ owner, or maybe some random thing may occur where I decide that 8 years of babysitting haven’t exposed me to enough runny noses and crying children and I may decide that I want to teach English to children in Spain.

I am starting this blog because I have decided that I want to change myself. And I feel that the best way to do that id to have a support group of people who will listen and comment about challenges they have faced as well and to give constructive criticism and support along the way. By the title of this blog, you can see that I am a buddhist and a vegan. Well, an aspiring buddhist and vegan. I eat no dairy or gluten at the present moment, however after my roommate made me watch this video, I have decided to change my ways. After seeing what happens to these animals, I realized that I cannot eat them anymore. I also have always wanted to become a buddhist. I don’t believe in God, but I want to believe in myself, which is basically what buddhism is. So, that’s me. I hope to post at least two times a week, but being in college and all, I have zero motivation and zero time, so we’ll see how it goes.

Talk to you all soon

Alicia