I am based in Singapore and I am a lover of fruits and vegetables. I create my own recipes, take my own pictures and cover the topic about mental health; in which the journey I took to recover from my eating disorder. I primarily focus on creating vegan recipes that promote wholefoods. My photography style incorporates the usage of colors to make it captivating and to also highlight the nutritional value of the products that I showcased.
A little fact about me is that I am the only vegan in my family and the ironic thing is that my dad used to be a chef and a butcher who is able to whip out amazing and salivating dishes. I often get asked how I can resist good food that aren't vegan and if I crave for meat again. To answer that, I believe that every dish can be veganized and it is all about getting the right flavors and textures to transform a particular dish.
This is a platform for me to share my passion and creativity. Through this, I do hope that my experience with my mental and physical health will be able to inspire and help others to live more consciously for not only themselves but also for the animals and our world.
I developed my passion for health and wellness after being diagnosed with an eating disorder. At age 13, I developed Anorexia Nervosa which pretty much took over my whole life and diminished my health. I was insulted for being fat and for the way I look. I started eating less and skipping meals just to lose weight. On top of skipping meals and eating a minimal portion of food, I was doing a lot of HIIT workout and cardio everyday. As much as I hated it, I still did it anyway because I thought that was the only way to lose weight and to be accepted by people.
I always felt tired and weak but I continued because results were showing. People started noticing I was losing weight and started praising me but little do they know what I had to do to achieve such result. I never miss a workout no matter how busy or tired I am, even if I have to go workout at 1am in the morning.
I was being praised for all the wrong reasons. Being praised for my unhealthy relationship with my body, food and exercise. I was so malnourished, I fainted after I took a blood test. My body was ready to give up, at a heartbeat that was less than 20 per minute. I was in the ICU for 2 days and spent almost a month in the hospital. I am thankful that I am given a second chance to be alive.
I was still struggling with my eating disorder even before I went vegan. I restricted the amount of food I can partake daily and it has caused me to change the way I lived my life. Knowing that I could not go on living this way, I had to make a change. I started searching for new diets, in which I later stumbled across on a plant-based diet on YouTube and it taught me that eating voluptuously does not mean I will have to gain weight. As this piqued my interest, I began to research more about this plant-based diet. I gradually started to eliminate associating myself with animal products and assimilated more plant-based products in my meals.
Through this minimalistic change, I noticed my health was improving significantly and felt more energized as compared to before. For the first time in a long while, I actually felt freedom when eating, instead of fear. Besides that, I experienced a strong connection towards food and cooking. It made me realized, what I couldn't see before that food has the ability to heal and nourish me.
Initially, my whole motive of becoming vegan was to lose weight and overcome my fear of food. However, through my researches on plant-based diet and watching several documentaries about veganism, it allowed me to have a deeper understanding and knowledge about the main purpose of going vegan. It encouraged me to live a conscious and compassionate life for not only myself, but also to all animals.
Veganism is more than just a diet; it is a lifestyle. A choice to do good and live in the most compassionate way possible. This brings about my sole purpose which is to spread love and compassion through delicious makeshift recipes and also become a testimonial to anyone who is currently battling eating disorder or mental health issues.
