Only touched the surface

I want to quickly tell you of an interesting moment I experienced earlier today. I was in a room that had reddish coloured curtains that were drawn shut, allowing the sunlight to shine through, tinting the colour of the room. As I sat in the room I saw some obvious blue veins on my leg which I’d never noticed before, I then shifted my focus and noticed that bright blue veins were showing up all over my body due to the light. Although I’d always known that there were veins all over my body it was the strangest thing actually seeing them, I felt rather like a picture out of my high school biology textbook.

It got me thinking, in a slightly more metaphorical sense, how many other aspects to myself I haven’t yet seen. I wondered how much there really is to me just under the surface that hasn’t yet been able to come to light, but would given a change of circumstance. These veins keep me alive, they never stop working and I’m covered in them, they’re a truly fundamental part of who I am yet I'd never given them a second thought before. It all sounds very silly, but for me it was fairly symbolic and I learnt a lesson; there are so many aspects to ourselves which we haven’t yet discovered or even acknowledged to be there, both physically and I suppose too within our personality. They showed me that there are endless bounds of self-discovery that I have to do and really I’ve only just touched the surface on getting to know who I am.

love, bean xx

Vegan fry-up? Yes please.

If I were to combine the words 'fry-up' and 'healthy' you'd probably think I was mad, but bear with me two minutes and I can open your eyes to this wonderful concept which is in fact a reality...


At the beginning of my vegan conversion a big question for me about alternatives was the classic 'fry-up'. For as long as I can remember my Sunday's have consisted of wearing pyjamas all day and eating the traditional English brunch; sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, mushrooms... Never did I expect to find a scrumptious, healthy and vegan alternative. And what was most surprising for me was how simple the formula is. So please read carefully as I'm about to give you the key to eternal happiness, well as close as you can get through the means of brunch.


* Linda McCartney veggie sausages (the red onion ones are particularly nice although they do contain egg whites sadly)
* Baked Beans (my mum sometimes makes them herself- they redefine perfection!)
* Scrambled tofu (there are no words.. I just can't... it's just so good...)
* Vegan mayonnaise (if you are an addict like me, no meal is complete without mayo)
* Toast (pretty self explanatory.)
* Tomatoes (I hate raw tomatoes, however when cooked well they are an absolute dream)
* Potatoes (my surname is Irish therefore I feel an obligation to eat potatoes at every opportunity)


I hasten to add that I am not a cook, I have zero skills in the culinary department and even I'm capable of making most of this meal (it's a pretty perfect hangover cure too!). You may be wondering whether I'm the most appropriate person to listen to when it comes to food but I make up for my lack of cooking skills in enthusiasm for eating. I am a huge fan of all things edible, and it just so happens that my Mum is a sublime cook. So she makes it and I eat it; it's an ideal arrangement.


Back to the point; find below a couple of pictures as an example of some of the components to the meal. It isn't the entire meal as I was in a rush but they show the integral foundations to the meal. If you think it all sounds fairly ordinary and bland just try it, I'm not sure what it is but the combination of all the foods is always absolutely divine. I'm pretty confident that you'll never look back to the greasy and health-problem provoking meat version, I certainly haven't.

love, bean xx

Are we really the intelligent ones?

When I look around nowadays, irrelevant of where I may be, I see people who are trying to give themselves a purpose. When young we are taught it's a vital thing to do, from being a toddler we're asked ‘what do you want to do when you're older?'. I walked around a city this afternoon for 3 hours just observing; mobiles, suits, rushing around, everything and everyone looked so serious. But if everything were to be stripped back, hypothetically you weren't able to recall anything prior to this moment, what would you be left with? Primarily you are simply left with your body anything else like the makeup, clothes, relationships and jobs are just what you've decided to add to your life. These other additional factors we can survive without, but what about an integral organ such as your lungs? You can survive without your career but lungs are a vital part to your survival. Yet people smoke in hope of maintaining and balancing their stress levels to excel in their career. Effectively, people are willing to literally die for their jobs. Of course, this is only one scenario I could go on forever listing the different harmful things that people do to their bodies in order to keep these impermeable parts of their lives thriving. Fascinating; this is human behaviour.

Our one true responsibility I believe in life is to look after our bodies simply in order to keep on living, I wonder how many people out there sacrifice things to do this job justice? It’s probably a good thing that our heart doesn’t rely on us to consciously keep the blood pumping around our body. Evidence from observing other human decisions would suggest that we’d probably all be dead in days due to our bizarre priority lists. Soon to be mothers tend to be very cautious to not smoke or drink and to take in extra nutrients all in order to care for their growing foetus. Then the baby is born and everything normally goes back to how it was before for the new mother. And as we grow up and have to look after ourselves this care for our ever-growing bodies gets thrown out the window too.

If you were in a house on fire your instinct would probably be to run as far away as fast as possible from the life threatening circumstance. It’s our animal instinct. Actions such as smoking is actively and consciously walking into that burning building. It’s slower but it will inevitably harm your body and ultimately it’s a death sentence. I often think animals are the more intelligent creatures because they listen to their bodies, they're happy to feel what they’re feeling and they do things in their best interest to thrive and stay alive. Animals only eat the food that they were designed to eat. Although humans can digest meat if you look at our teeth, as an example, they aren’t similar to those of a true carnivore, they are blunt and good for nibbling on foods such as vegetables. We can survive on a 100% plant based diet but we cannot survive on a diet composed purely of just meat. Interesting… I hope that you aren’t one of these people I have spoken about in this post, I hope you're somebody who takes care to nourish your body everyday and respect it for all that it does for you.

love, bean xx

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