Chapter By Chapman

Being vegan is very easy, but at times it can become challenging. When I think of veganism, I would only think of it as a diet, but the official definition of veganism is: "a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose." Controversially, I believe that your diet is the easiest aspect of veganism. The biggest challenge is all the other sides to being a vegan, things you might not even realise are things. Different vegans have different opinions of how many aspects of your life veganism should affect, some believing it should only go as far as your diet, while others weave it through everything they do. From my point of view, as a 20 year old vegan living in England, I thought I’d share the hidden aspects of veganism I've had to contend with and how it affects my daily life as a vegan. How vegan am I? If I don't abide by every single ...

For the first 18 years of my life, I was a normal girl, eating what I thought was a normal diet. I had always had an interest in cooking but only as a meat and dairy eater; I only knew how to cook beef bolognese, tuna pasta bake and cheesy pasta. It was only when I moved out to go to University and was cooking for myself that I began to pay attention to the foods I was eating and became more aware of how I was fuelling my body. It all started when I was scrolling through social media on my phone one day and happened to watch a video about the dairy industry and the production of dairy milk. I’d had a vegan friend through my teenage years and knew that I liked soy milk from drinking it with her so began to buy that instead of dairy milk. It’s such an easy swap and it mimics dairy milk in nearly every way, other than it curdling in boiling water to make milky coffee. So I simply began to drink black coffee or ask for Soy milk when I bought a coffee from a coffee shop. (Now I hav...

Goodbye 2017! I spent my last night of the year with my best friends playing a board game before heading to a pub, and drinking in the New Year. So naturally, I have begun the year feeling a little more fragile than usual. But once my hangover subsided, it was time to turn my focus onto the year ahead of me. Now, call me clich é, c all me an unconscious follower of social concepts, call me whatever you like, but it's tradition in Western culture to set Resolutions when the New Year hits. I believe there's no time like the presence so I've actually spent the majority of December working my way through these already, making little changes. After all, there's no point putting too much pressure on yourself on the 1st and two weeks into January you've fallen off the bandwagon back into your Christmas food coma! I believe resolutions are different to goals. Your goals are long term achievements and your resolutions should be small, but mighty changes you can apply ...

In the words of John Lennon, "So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun." Thinking back over the last 12 months, I can safely say 2017 wasn't the best year of my life. Understatement of the year right there. But rather than dismissing it as complete disaster and starting again, I have collected my favourite memories and achievements of 2017 so I have something positive to look back on in the future. My 2017 in a nutshell - what I'm proud of, what I'm happy I got involved in and who I spent it with. Becoming a Vegan After 2 years of vegetarianism, I took the final step to Veganism in January this year. I did hover somewhere between veggie and vegan for the first few months of the year but when my sister moved back home, she was the final push I needed to commit to the plant-based life and I haven't looked back or regretted my decision at all. My Sister Moving Back Home My sister moved out to University...

Dear Santa, I sorry it's late notice but I've finally written my Christmas list! You see it's a lot trickier now I'm supposed to be a proper adult and now that I've grown out of the fighting my brother over the Argos catalogue stage, scribbling down thousands of the product numbers for your elves as reference. So if, by some miracle I make it onto the nice list this year, here are some ideas: - A career Everything takes time. And it seems like this is the thing that will take the longest. - Financial Independence Not very likely until I sort my career out, to be honest. (And even then, as an actress, probably still not very likely...) - Self-respect Lost mine ages ago so if found, please return it. - A pet rabbit My bunny, Cloud, passed over the rainbow bridge in January and I miss having a fluffy hopping poop machine in my life, but apparently I'm definitely not allowed a new pet bunny until I move out of my parent's house. - A new car ...

Leading on from my previous blog post ( https://chapterbychapman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changing.html ) where I talked about how small changes in your life equate to big changes here is a collection of a few things that I have realised have made me really feel like I have my life on track. Whether I do or not, that’s a different story. But these habits make me feel like I’m looking after myself, learning new things every day and that I’m bettering myself. Your daily healthy habits may look similar to mine, or they could be the complete opposite. But even if you don’t practise them every day ensure that you allow yourself practise self-love, mindfulness and gratitude as often as you can. Only then will you notice an increase in your self-confidence and be able to align the other aspects of your life with what you want as you will be happier and more content with yourself. Do what you believe you would do if you were the best, most together version of yours...

I bought a gorgeous diary from Kikki K three weeks ago and each weekly page has a motivational quote at the bottom.  I am a sucker for cringey quotes so it’s just another element of the diary that I love. Last week’s quote really stood out to me. It was by Jim Rohn, an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker: “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” This really made me reflect on what I’ve changed over the past months because I have been actively focusing on changing bits of my life that were no longer making me happy and I feel like a different person. For those of you who don’t know, I have been taking what I was calling a ‘gap year’ this last year. But before you think I'm going to start bragging about waterfalls and sky dives, it wasn’t anything like the rich kids of Instagram who travel the world… Not even close. I gained a place on the reserve list at a drama school in December, so I felt like my year out got off to a great ...