“Personalities among us” is the latest kARTu project that you will be seeing through the upcoming months for a whole year. We’ll be sharing short, friendly, intellectual conversations with the strong, inspiring personalities that surround each and every of us every day. Each month we will meet people from very different backgrounds to talk about their lifestyle, career, piece of mind, interests and style choices. By developing this project we aim to reveal these very special, but close to us people through the perspective that they don’t really see themsleves through. Every one of us is a unique everyday hero – rushing, pursuing, creating. We just need to stop for a moment and notice how special we actually are.
Nowadays we are way more interested in eating healthy than our parents or grandparents were. We carefully choose all the products, read the labels, evaluate amount of sugar and nutritional value. Taking care of our healthy diet became… trendy! And it’s only for the good. When it seemed that there were plenty of blogs about healthy cooking in Lithuania and it would be hard to jump into this train and become popular, long time interest in healthy nutrition having Ieva Greiciunaite created her Instagram page that she named “Nestoras Maistas”. She wrote her story and suggested the very first recipe – healthier version of chocolate cookies. And who doesn’t like chocolate cookies? Then followed stews, salads, pancakes and amount of fans – growing and growing. Ieva started this blog for her own enjoyment and didn’t have big expectations for it to grow that much, but “Nestoras Maistas” already has more than twenty two thousand followers on Instagram, just freshly launched Youtube channel and successful collaborations with few different brands, but only with those that Ieva can honestly recommend herself. That seems like a main reason why “Nestoras Maistas” became so popular. It’s simple, honest and feels familiar to our own lives.
Ieva, tell us more about your everyday work.
I’m not sure how should I describe myself. People call me a “blogger” but I don’t really like that. Otherwise – yes, probably I express my opinion and maybe influence someone. Me myself I just think I write about something that is important to me, about what I am interested in. I also study English Philology at Vilnius University so it’s one of my daily occupations too.
What was the very start of your blog?
My interest in food began growing about few years ago. I think it happened when I moved out of my parents house and had to start cooking myself. It has never occurred to me to cook unhealthy so I started looking for healthier alternatives and so few years later I had quite a lot of information about it collected. I was very interested in reading about it so I thought, maybe that’s the area I should discover myself at. I remember having a month long holiday at the university and I didn’t have much to do during that time so I read about food and cooked a lot. Then I had this thought, maybe I should realise my ideas and share the information I gained with others.
Your morning starts from…? What motivates you to get out of bed every morning?
First of all – water with lemon, also recently I try not to touch my phone at least for an hour after waking up. I am always motivated to get up in the morning, life interests me, maybe some specific things motivate me exceptionaly one or other day.
Favorite free time activity?
Everything is very related, food, sport, creative work, cooking. I am writing about healthy lifestyle so myself I also like to ride my bicycle a lot, walk at least 15 kilometres a day. And in my case cooking and creating something is one and the same thing because I create in the kitchen. So you could say my work is my free time too.
What helps you to run way from everyday routine?
My life doesn’t really have a routine. If it appears, I travel to Klaipeda for a few days or arrange a short getaway to another country – I like these kind of trips.
During your everyday rituals, what handbag/backpack is your most trusted companion? Maybe you change them a lot?
I have three handbags that are my favorite. One of them is a fabric bag for walks. There is one bigger backpack for those times when I need to bring a laptop with me or I carry things to a hike. And also a belly bag that doesn’t really fit much. I’m not a maniac of bags that has countless of them at home. I buy bags for comfort, not for the image.
Detail from your look that you don’t leave home without?
Maybe that would be my steps counting watch.
Would you name a woman who is your source of inspiration, your ideal?
I definitely do not have a woman who would be my ideal. However, Ela Woodward who blogs about cooking healthy inspires me, her kitchen discoveries do sometimes reflect in my own recipes. Maybe she will be my main aspiration in the future, because she’s written a book, has her own coffee shop.
How do you make sure that you’re on the right path in life?
I listen to my inner voice.
Do you face womanly competition in your field of interest?
Don’t feel it in what I do, but when I just started writing I expected it to be a big competition and that nobody really supports each othet here or maybe even wants to do harm. But it’s the other way round – this community really surprised and welcomed me well.
If you could invite anyone, who would you invite to have dinner together?
Anthony Bourdain. I wasn’t so interested in him before and it’s such a pity I only discovered him after his death. I started watching his shows and it inspired me to maybe do something similar in Lithuania one day.
Follow Ieva’s blog on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nestorasmaistas/ and watch her videos on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt8obqiGEus
Pictures by Ieva Rudzionyte
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