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Our Vision
What Is Fishy Vegetarian?
Fishy Vegetarian is a pescetarian wellness blog. If we’re being honest, you won’t find the sexiest food photos (we try) here and we don’t use the fanciest ingredients.
Hey, we’re not claiming to be super fancy food bloggers!
We’re all about getting our hands dirty in the kitchen – with simple foods that are easy and quick to prepare and do your body a whole ‘lotta good. Most of our recipes are plant-based with a fish and seafood twist.
We believe that being healthy doesn’t mean limiting yourself.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of going on a “diet” when you want to lose weight, gain muscle, etc.
But for us, being pescetarian is more about embracing a healthy lifestyle…and you’ll see us talk about this a lot on our site and within our community of Fishy Vegetarians.
We’re not perfect in the way we eat and even though gluten, sugar, and dairy are not part of our daily diet… we have been known to sneak in a chocolate bar or donut… (though we definitely pay for it the following days!).
Before we move on, go ahead and find yourself a comfy seat, pour yourself a lil somethin’ somethin’ (totally up to you), and allow us to talk about ourselves in a non-spammy kinda way.
We’re L.J and Tamryn, and we’re ready to be your pescetarian sole mates…
Sorry we couldn’t resist a good fish pun!
We’re the co-founders, bloggers, and primary humans eating the food you see on Fishy Vegetarian – our sweet little spot on the world wide web where anyone with the desire to be healthy can come and learn more about how we do it living the pescetarian lifestyle.
How exactly did we get started?
We purchased the domain “fishyvegetarian.com” on December 3, 2014.
You see, during the past few years before that moment, as most 20 somethings do, we ate what we wanted not caring what we were doing to our bodies.
But, it was convenient eating the way we were eating, so we never made a change and just kept making excuses.
Back then we were running out the door with 5 minutes to spare before we had to go to work.
So, getting fast food at lunchtime became our norm.
And it didn’t help having our pick of fast food places all within a 10 minute walk of our apartment to grab dinners.
It wasn’t until Tamryn began her studies to become a holistic nutritionist that we started to realize what damage we were doing, and that’s when our journey started.
In a move that now we look back on as totally rash, we decided:
- no meat
- no dairy
- no air
We were cutting it ALL out.
We were the cliche “humans turned into bunnies eating just leaves, carrot sticks, and rice crackers” people.
Okay, maybe not THAT drastic, but we basically decided to go vegan for some time.
Yepp, that didn’t last long…
So most of 2014 was spent back and forth between different diets.
One thing we both agreed on was that since being off meat, we felt GREAT so we decided we’d cut it out completely.
We both still loved eating fish and seafood and since neither had the effect red meat had on us (bloating, heaviness, etc), we knew we wanted to keep it in our diet.
So we were now…vegetarians that eat fish?
A Google hop-skip-and jump later, we found out those types of people actually exist and there’s a name for them – pescetarians!
We wanted to immediately know everything about the pescatarian diet, but there wasn’t much to find.
A few small pescetarian food blogs here and there, but nothing with any resources for new pescetarians.
So, we thought to ourselves, why don’t we create a community online where people just like us can come get the answers we went looking for?
That’s when Fishy Vegetarian was born.
Who are YOU?
We both went to the same elementary school in Cape Town, South Africa, but wouldn’t meet up again until many moons later in Canada.
It’s quite the story, maybe we’ll tell it someday.
Tamryns love for nutrition began when she worked in her mother’s diet clinic, while LJs love for cooking grew over many loud family gatherings – filled with food of course.
To help you get to know us a little bit better, we found a “Get To Know Us” tag set of questions online…
First up, Tamryn:
Tamryn is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and the smart one behind all the nutrition posts you see on Fishy Vegetarian. She’s a bit (okay, a LOT) of a bookworm, loves music, is an avid Yogi and recommends trying Yoga with Adrienne for beginners 🙂
1. Are you named after anyone? No, but my name was originally supposed to be Jade which is how I got it as a second name!
2. When was the last time you cried? This morning during an emotional meditation and yoga sequence lol
3. Do you have kids? No but I plan on having at least 4 one day 🙂
4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? Probably not! Two indecisive Libras…
5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yes, this meme summarizes a few situations I’ve gotten myself into…
6. Will you ever bungee-jump? No, not very likely!
7. What’s your favorite cereal? I love a bowl of oatmeal in the morning topped with banana, flax, coconut shreds, and chocolate chips (dark) 🙂
8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? I first notice peoples eyes… they do tell a lot about a person
9. What is your eye colour? Sometimes blue, sometimes grey, sometimes blue-green… it depends on my mood lol
10. Scary movie or happy endings? Both!
11. Favorite smells? I like smoky, woody, musky scents, although a weird smell I like is the smell of gas from the gas station! I can’t be the only one…
12. Summer or winter? Definitely Summer, but I do love the cozy feeling of snow falling outside.
13. Computer or television? Television
14. What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home? I’m in Canada right now and home is South Africa which is pretty far!
15. Do you have any special talents? I love to sing… although I’m very shy about it and not many people have heard 😛
16. Where were you born? I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa
17. What are your hobbies? I enjoy reading, yoga, meditation, listening to music, going to the movies, being outside, baking!
18. Do you have any pets? Sadly no, but I grew up with pets. Closest to my heart was my little chihuahua mix, Snoopy.
19. Favorite movie? Ah I can’t think of any now! I’ll come back to this question…
20. Last 3 played songs on your playlist? Low (Jon Bellion) , Cool girl (Tove Lo), Sorry (Beyonce)
21. Do you have any siblings? Yes I have a younger brother, Calvin.
My brother, Calvin, and I.
22. Something you want to do that you’ve never done? I’d like to go on a spiritual retreat someday soon.
23. What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to make a difference and add value to peoples lives… I’m not yet sure how. Possibly a business or product I create that makes an impact, or through charity work.
24. Favorite food? Easy! Pizza!
Next up, L.J.:
L.J. has been glued to her computer since high school when she used to create custom MySpace themes, so naturally, she takes care of the techie parts of this website. She is always up for an adventure and these days she flexes her creative muscles by helping passionate entrepreneurs and businesses get the most out of their online presence through digital marketing.
1. Are you named after anyone? My parents mentioned they made my name up themselves so technically I’m version 1.0
2. When was the last time you cried? I don’t cry that often, except in secret when watching emotional dramas…
3. Do you have kids? No, not yet. But I DO have the cutest little nephew, Rowan!
4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? Some days yes, most days no.
5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yeah quite a bit
6. Will you ever bungee-jump? I’d love to, although last time I did something kinda similar (zip-lining) I found out I’m scared of heights?! My baby sister can tell you that story.
7. What’s your favorite cereal? Anything chocolaty, but my breakfast go-to is Bulletproof coffee 😉
8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Probably their teeth.
9. What is your eye colour? Brown
10. Scary movie or happy endings? Happy
11. Favorite smells? I LOVE the smell of real Christmas trees, also pineapple, jasmine and anything earthy.
12. Summer or winter? Winter for sure because it’s when my birthday and Christmas fall! Also I’m a sucker for the snow.
13. Computer or television? Computer, no question.
14. What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home? South Africa is home so furthest I’ve been (and am) is Canada
15. Do you have any special talents? I can juggle!
16. Where were you born? Cape Town, South Africa
17. What are your hobbies? Building things, writing songs, short stories and poems, physical sports like kick boxing and rugby, cooking – being busy with my hands in general
18. Do you have any pets? No 🙁
19. Favorite movie? I have too many!! Off the top of my head, Just Friends, Home Alone, Singing In The Rain, The Truman Show, It’s A Wonderful Life
20. Last 3 songs played on your playlist? Dying to Know (Tegan & Sara), Finish Line/Drown (Chance The Rapper), Perfect Illusion (Lady Gaga)
21. Do you have any siblings? Two younger sisters, Chloe and Callyn.
Chloe, Callyn, and I.
22. Something you want to do that you’ve never done? Learn to play the saxophone and drums, become fluent in French
23. What do you want to be when you grow up? I once heard someone say a better question we should be asked when we’re little is “who do you want to be?”
24. Favorite food? I love a good poutine or curry.
Where are we today and what’s next?
We’ve officially been 100% pescetarian since December 26, 2014, and since then we’ve learned a lot… a lot more than we initially anticipated we’d need to know!
These days we are fortunate and grateful to both work from home so making better food choices has become much easier, but we run this community knowing that most people are pressed for time when thinking about making food. That is why the meals we make are easy, quick, and can always be prepared ahead of time. In fact, we meal prep the majority of our meals which frees up a ton of time.
Our ultimate goal with Fishy Vegetarian is to make a difference. To some, our lifestyle isn’t perfect, but you will never please everyone. We’re not creating this community to please anyone, we’re in it to contribute value to those who have an interest in going meat-free and doing it by embracing the pescetarian lifestyle.
We’re excited you’re joining us on our journey and would love to welcome you into our community.
PS. stop by on Facebook!
or, join our free Facebook community for pescatarians like you!
Join The Convo!