Been a while

Yes, I know it's been a few days. Sorry for the delay. But I'm having some issues......I'm not really losing any weight! That was the point of this diet. I have a feeling I might know what it is. When I ate meat, I felt a heavy full that lasted a while. When I eat wholesome foods, I get a different full feeling that is not as heavy, so I'm eating more in order to feel that heavy full. My brain and stomach have not adjusted. Also, I have a lot of that yucky food stuck in my body from my past and I just have to do a cleanse. In the past 3 weeks, I feel more energy and I feel light. Not as heavy as before. But I weigh the same. When I go to my internal doctor's visit on Friday, that will be something I'll have to talk to her about.

Weight: 178
Breakfast: Blueberry/Strawberry Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftover Vegan Shepherd's Pie in a Flour Tortilla
Snack: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds & Hemp Seeds, and Kiwi
Dinner: Homemade Veggie Burgers with Guacamole, Veganaise on Sprouted Wheat Bun. Organic Garlic & Onion Fries with Flyin' Ryan's BBQ Sauce and Salad with Balsamic Dressing. (This dinner was a Sunday night Splurge!)
Desert: 2 Small Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies with Hempmilk

Until next time........

Day 17

Wow, how did it get to be 17 full days?? I'm over halfway there and still going strong. Yes, I do sometimes miss meat and dairy, but I know that this is supposed to be a challenge I need to do. Since the weather has been so nice this week, Lorelai and I have gone on a bike ride every day. It's been so nice to get good exercise and enjoy the sun. That kinda helps me feel better. Then today, I started working the soil for my spring/summer garden. There are 2 patches of dirt in my back yard and one is set aside for Fall/Winter Veggies and the other for Spring/Summer. The patches are not huge, but big enough to do 5 different kinds of veggies. The spring/summer side is in bad shape. I bought a bag of soil with worm castings in it. The worm castings work as a natural fertilizer. We already have a few worms in the dirt, but this adds more yummyness to the dirt. I should be ready to plant the seeds in 2 weeks. I like to start with seeds and see my work unfold instead of heading to the store and buying one partially grown. It kinda takes the fun out of it for me. But I do buy already started plants every now and then. I'm still debating what I want to grow this year. My tomatoes did really well last year, so I might do 2 different kinds, and maybe some strawberries. There is a Seed Bank in Petaluma that will be a field trip for Lorelai and I in a few weeks. I've heard it's amazing!

I am also reading a book called, The Face on Your Plate, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. This book is about a guy who was raised Vegetarian/Vegan/Macrobiotic his whole life and is now questioning the whole idea. He did a lot of research on everything from agriculture to animals. There is an excerpt I HAVE to share with you. I don't want to sound preachy, but it is about Veganism, so I feel it must be shared.
"Going Vegan saves on average 2,000 animals over a person's lifetime. This is hardly trivial. By the time a dozen or so friends are influenced by your change, you are saving a large number of lives..........Eating meat is like driving a huge SUV. A vegetarian diet is like driving a mid-sized car or a reasonable sedan; and eating a Vegan diet (no dairy, no eggs) is like riding a bicycle or walking. If we want to fight the warming trend (global warming), we need to walk away from SUVs and an SUV-style diet."
Funny, I drive an SUV, and am Vegan. I must equal myself out!

Thanks for listening. And thanks for supporting me! Have a wonderful night!

Chooseveg.com

I just found this awesome website called "chooseveg.com" It is a website completely devoted to vegetarians & vegans with not only yummy recipes, but tips and information. I love it! I have to share this bit of info I found on their website, just to put things into perspective.....

"Becoming vegetarian is one of the most important and effective actions you can take to ease the strain on our Earth’s limited resources, protect the planet from pollution, prevent global warming, and save countless species from extinction.

According to Dr. David Brubaker, PhD, at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future, “The way that we breed animals for food is a threat to the planet. It pollutes our environment while consuming huge amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs. The results are disastrous.”

As the Sierra Club put it in their 2002 report on animal factories, “environmental violations by the meat industry add up to a rap sheet longer than War and Peace.""

Pretty crazy! This is all I have to share today, I'm off to enjoy the beautiful winter weather and take Lorelai on a bike ride to Whole Foods to get my ingredients for these new recipes.

Until Next time......

Simple Food

My main goal for this month is going Vegan, but also, to find out that wholesome foods are really good. By partaking in this adventure, I am finding recipes I would have never thought to find had I never done this. It's amazing! Tonight, I had Vegan Spinach Ravioli with Sweet Potato Sauce and a salad. Simple, easy, and tasty! Not what I had expected. My body is really changing and I am feeling like I have more energy. And I'm only down to 1 cup of coffee a day.

I know a lot of you would have a hard time doing this. And some of you could never imagine a day without dairy or meat. But I ask of you to just do one day a week of Vegan and see what happens. Before this, Ryan and I did one dinner Vegetarian and one dinner of Vegan every week to save on meat. But it was also fun and we felt good. If you do this, please let me know what you thought, or if you need any ideas. I've got plenty now.

Weight: 178lbs
Breakfast: Apple/Cinnamon Oatmeal
Snack: Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Sandos
Lunch: Veggie Burger with Avocado & Vegannaise, Kiwi & Sweet Potato Chips
Dinner: Vegan Ravioli with Sweet Potato Sauce and salad with Apples & Balsamic Dressing
No Dessert on Weekdays!

Until Next Time.......

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Ryan, Lorelai and I headed up north to Cloverdale for the Citrus Fair. Vegan food at a Fair?? I found a noodle booth that had stir-fry noodles with veggies in it. For fair food, it wasn't too bad. I did stay away from the deep fried Zucchini! But I'm sure with noodles & veggies, it still wasn't that good for me! For dinner, I pumped myself full of Organic Swiss Chard (minus with snails! - you know it's organic when you find snails!), yellow curry and sauteed Tempeh over Pad Thai Noodles. And I splurged on dessert (because it's Valentine's Day) and had homemade Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie. Yum!

So I know I missed yesterday because it was such an intensely busy day! But Ryan and I went on our date night and we ended up going to a Thai Restaurant in Sonoma. Thai is very Vegan because they normally cook with Coconut Milk and use a lot of veggies and spices. I had Spring Rolls with veggies and Yellow Curry with Carrots, Onions, Potatoes & Tofu over Brown Rice. I left very full and very happy! We had a great date!

I am really starting to miss meat! I wanted to cave in today at the fair, but I held strong! This is taking all my willpower, but I'm feeling good right now and want to continue. I have a doctor's appt Friday Feb 26th to check all my levels. Of course that was the closest they could get, but I'll get my body checked at the end and see how well my body is holding up. Should be interesting to compare my blood levels from 2 years ago when I had Lorelai to now.

I'm wiped and really wanted to update you all. I'm going to go spend time with my wonderful, adorable husband! Good night to all!

Losing Weight

So in the first week, I lost 2 pounds. This week, I have lost nothing! For a couple of days, I started filling up on junk food (still Vegan) and pasta. This was not a wise choice. Also, I'm a dessert-aholic! I love my dessert at night. This is not good when losing weight. So I'm taking another pact for the month. Dessert only on the weekends! I'm never going to lose this weight by eating unhealthy every night! Now I'll have to see if this works.

I'm in the middle of watching a movie, but thought I had to share that. We are watching Michael Jackson's last movie, This Is It. Not bad. He was an interesting character.

Weight: 178lbs
Breakfast: Blueberry, Strawberry Oatmeal
Snack: Peanut Butter in a Graham Cracker and my GreenFood Powder with Pomegranate Juice
Lunch: Leftover Vegan Enchiladas with Avocado
Snack: Cashews with Dried Cranberries and a Soy Decaf Mocha
Dinner: Vegan Potato Soup with Quinoa Salad (Onions, Quinoa, Mint, Cucumber and Lemon/Olive Oil Dressing) over Butter Lettuce

Until Next Time.........

Being Kind to My Body

So I'm learning the hard way that as I'm transforming my diet, I cannot slip! The last couple of days, I have had a little bit more sugary things than I should have and less greens than normal. At the Farmer's Market in San Rafael, I started to feel light-headed and almost passed out. And at lunch with Ryan and Lorelai, I got a cramp in my chest. Both are not a good sign. So this afternoon, I had a smoothie with GreenFood Powder and for dinner I had Kale & Bean Soup with Chickpea Flatbread. I found out today that Chickpeas have the most protein and Iron in them and can help with Anemia. I don't think I am full-blown anemic, but my body might be telling me that I'm getting close. So I'll be making sure to eat a lot more greens and fruit and I plan on making an appt with my doc for next week and getting A LOT of blood work! I really need to watch my levels so that my body doesn't freak out too much to the point where I injure myself. If I had passed out at the Farmer's Market today with Lorelai climbing in the car, that would have been ugly! Not something I want to deal with. So I'm watching things a little more closely from now on.

Other than this, nothing very exciting to report. I'm staying Vegan for the full 28 days, no matter what I encounter! I'm doing too good to break apart now!