Hello from Malaysia

Hi all

I'm Linda, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I'm a newbie vegetarian, just started early this week.

I have always loved vegetables all my life so I thought of going vegetarian once and for all. It's hard here though to find those iceberg or romaine lettuce for my salad, because I have to go out to the big supermarket to get it. Here at the grocery shops near my house, they only sell the 'typical' vegetables used in Malaysian dishes, like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale and I'm just too lazy to cook those veggie, so when I go out to town once a week, I normally buy big amount of fruits and vegetables for my salad, but it's kinda hard to keep them fresh for the next 5-6 days.

Anyway, I'm trying hard not to slip up, and so far I've been loving the salads and fruits.

I'd also like to lose some weight. 2 years ago, I was physically active, I walked 5km a day on the treadmill, 6 times a week. At that same time, I was on a diet I created for myself - vegetable and beer diet..! In the morning I drank 2 cans of beer for breakfast, lunch time I went to the gym and then had 2 cans. After my workout, I went to the office cafeteria to buy some vegetable dish for my dinner (which I would heat up or even alter by adding more veggie or spices later on). The beer made me feel 'full' so I didn't get hungry often. It went on for 6 months and I lost weight, gradually and steadily.

However, when I met my partner, I became lazy. I stopped exercising, we both loved to eat so we went to all kinds of restaurants and now, I hate what I see in the mirror.

I wanna start my 5km-daily walk again, and now that I'm a vegetarian, I hope I could shed those unwanted pounds.

Another reason why I became vegetarian is, lately, I've grown to love cows, especially the black and white spots ones (Friesian cows?). I have them as wallpapers on my PC, themes on my mobile phones, as stuffed toys on my bed, and as magnets on my magnetic board. I think cows are beautiful and gentle creatures. Well maybe I should just say that I love animals . I currently own 2 iguanas (who are full vegan of course), so now when I go to the shop nearby my house to buy their favourite food (mustard leaves), I buy double the portion than what I used to buy so that I could take some and cook for myself.

I also own a couple of African Fat-tailed geckos, a couple of Leopard Geckos, an Australian Bearded Dragon, and a male Ball Python. Unfortunately, they're non-vegetarians (except the two iguanas).

I'm glad to be here with the other vegetarians/vegans because I'm living in a meat-eating family and society, so I'm looking forward to having a great circle of friends for advice and support.

Cheers,

Linda

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia