Cook With Music

As many of you know I'm a new Vegan, its been about 3+ months now, and I'm loving it.
I still consider myself a "n00b" and I learn something new with every gathering I have with fellow vegans. Going into this experience I knew that I was going to learn to cook. Something I had not done well in the past, I must admit, the first few attempts were definitely a learning experience for me. But now I have a favorite dish which I make, its a cooked Kale with a Peanut Butter sauce that I make. The PB Sauce is a recipe similar to a Sudanese dish my mother used to me when I were lived back in Sudan, it gets better every time.

Not everyone has that "spark" to cook, some flat out don't enjoy it. I cooked out of necessity when I needed, either I cooked a can of whatever, or I would be hungry that evening. So when I spoke with fellow Vegans before I joined the Vegan Living Program, "cooking" was pretty much "Step 2", after deciding to be a vegan.

For a while, that alone kind of scared me of making the switch. I couldn't cook rice in a rice cooker, and that actually happened. So in my mind, if I had to cook for my self, then being a vegan is basically culinary suicide for me. Needless to say, I was not a fan of "cooking", it just wasn't a talent I possessed. But I had to find a way to make it enjoyable, and I don't care who you are, "music" can make any task enjoyable.

Now, one of the main ingredient of any complicated dish I make, is a killer playlist. I have little speaker in the kitchen, so all I do is plug them into my phone, choose an album, an artist, a playlist, or put the whole damn thing on shuffle, and hit play.
I would recommend choosing a particular album you like, or create a playlist of tunes you really enjoy.
This helps in two ways in my opinion:
1- Time will seems to slip by as you are cutting up your vegetables, or boiling your water. A little hip shaking can go a long way :)

2- Since you are listening to music you enjoy, your brain will associate that joy with your activity. There fore positively enforcing "happy" with "cooking", voila.

I am no scientist, but I have done this myself, I now look forward to choosing an album and making my dishes, it really works.

Try it out some time, the worst thats going to happen is that you will have a good time making your dinner :)
I'll blog you later.


Much Love
Mosno Al-Moseeki
www.mosno.net | The mosBLOG | Insta/Tweet: @mosno_music

Vegan + Boot Camp = Raw Strength

Mosno here,
 Yesterday I experienced my 1st day of Boot Camp, exercise Boot Camp that is, courtesy of The Boot Camp Girl Stephanie Dignan :), who ALSO happens to be a fellow Vegan.

It was quite an experience, and I loved it.
The community of people there are very kind and supportive of each other. They were giving me tips, and hints to help me through out the work out. You are never competing with others, you are only competing with YOUR self, to get better, and stronger. 

I've lost a lot of weight since being Vegan, and that has allowed me to have MORE energy, which makes sense. Since the food that I'm eating is healthy, and doesn't contain chemicals and animal products, my body is able to process it faster, and with less energy, which then leaves you with all the energy you get from the food it just processed, hence the extra energy.

One cool think I enjoyed about my 1st day at Boot Camp, is that we exercised OUTSIDE! You read you read that right. The weather was nice, so we as a team decided to take advantage of this and do the workout out side. I got to run my 1st mile, EVER. it took me about 13+ minutes. It was tough, because I'm not a runner, but I'm determined shave that number down, and Boot Camp will help.

Stephanie actually sat down with me and we spoke about what it is that I am looking to accomplish, that way she can help me cater to those needs. Another cool thing about this Boot Camp, is that they have these workouts at different locations, and with different instructors..this means you can go to any of them (or all of them) 7 days a week, and with each instructor you will get a different work out. So no boring routine, which is brilliant. :)

I wanted to thank the Vegan Living Program, for bringing Stephani to talk to us, and I wanted to thank Stephani for the raffle which I WON for a free 2 week boot camp with The Boot Camp Girl. You can actually win a FREE MONTH, so visit their site www.TheBootCampGirl.com and enter to win

I'm a little sore, but I will be going to a 6am workout TOMORROW, after I rock out a gig TONIGHT.
Is it crazy, maybe, but I won't get MY results drinking soda and watching TV.
Lets DO this! :D

More posts at my Vegan Musez Blog
Much Love
Mosno :)

New Vegan Checking In and Going Strong!

What an incredible journey! What set out to be 6-weeks has absolutely changed my life and the lives of those around me. For three of my six weeks, my daughter, her fiancee and the kids ALL became vegan! Although I'd exposed them to some of the information that I've learned along the way - they found compassion and sympathy for the animals they could relate to and removed pigs, cows and chickens from their diets for what they say is forever, still no dairy BUT have opted to eat fish. I picked my battle and decided more livestock free from slaughter is better than nothing, I'll keep trying.

My friends and family all respect my lifestyle, they've stopped questioning me and now just call me "The Vegan!"

What I find most bizarre is how my cravings have changed, hangovers used to require some greasy dead fried animal (not that I'm hungover often - Wink! Wink! ) but now, I crave strawberries and bananas and boom headache gone!

Speaking of headaches, I've suffered from migraines all of my adult life, doctors have associated it with my menstrual cycle and told me for years it was hormonal and I basically had to deal with 4 days of brain squeezing pain EVERY month, I haven't had a migraine since my diet changed, I'm thinking dairy played a role. WOW!

I woke this morning at 3AM and wanted a baked potato (really baked and not microwaved, thanks to Brenda, I haven't used a microwave, since she told us about the health issues associated with those machines!) and I wanted a LOADED one, sooooo black beans, corn, rice, broccoli, Earth Balance Vegan Butter, sea salt and black pepper and YUM!

New Vegan Checking in and going strong!