Step Away From the Cake

Today was the first day of my vegan journey. The past week or so I've been practicing by eating vegan breakfast and lunch but then eating a regular dinner. Well, that ended today. This afternoon I went to Whole Foods and stocked up on things like couscous, dry lentils, quinoa, spices, things like that. For breakfast I had oatmeal with peanut butter. Then for lunch we had hummus on pita rounds with tons of veggies. I had an apple with peanut butter for a snack and then made something that looked like the above. It had sweet potatoes, tons of spices, red lentils, garbanzo beans, black beans, onions, garlic and ginger. I did have to cheat a little bit because I forgot to get vegetable broth so I had to use the chicken that we had. Small detail. It was really good. Even Hubby liked it. So Day 1 was a total success. One thing I don't understand though. I know that some vegans are fat and I'm not sure how that is possible. I ate 1/2 a bowl of that stew with 1/2 an avocado and...

This morning was weigh-in, and like a true weight loss crazy, I always weigh in after I've gone to the bathroom and before I put anything in my mouth. Insane I know, but what can I say. For the 3rd week in a row I saw the same number, 193.6. Which I was kind of okay with until I thought about it. I'm feeling thinner. My clothes are fitting a whole lot better. I'm wearing things I haven't worn in a while because I didn't like the way they fit. So what's up. Then I realized it was time for the monthly measurements. Whip out the %fat thingee and the tape measure and off I went. Here's what I found: Fat %: -1% Bicep: -1" Chest: -1" Waist: -2.5" Hips: -.75" Thigh: +.5" I have lost almost 5" all over my body and 1% of my body fat. Wow!!! How awesome is that???? And my thigh grew by 1/2" but I can tell by looking it is not from fat. So what is going on is that I am losing fat but gaining some muscle and th...

(this logo was found on a site that has recipes for weed brownies - I'm not that kind of vegan) I go completely animal-less today and I'm very excited. I've been doing breakfast and lunch vegan since the beginning of the week and it's truly amazing how good I feel. What really brought it home was yesterday. It was the last day of summer school so we had a little party and the kids naturally brought junk food. Well, I decided to partake since I knew today I was starting my vegan adventure. Wow!! Did I feel like crap. I ate 1/2 a lemon filled donut, 2 small brownie bites (not weed), 2 snack size bag of chips, some fried rice and a meat heavy omelet. I ate all of this between 9-11 am. and by 1:30 I was crashing big time. I could hardly keep my eyes open waiting for the bus. I had zero energy to peddle myself home and after being home about 30 minutes, I passed out on the couch for about 2 hours. Yikes!! That has to be the most glaring example of how this stuff effe...

I am serious about doing this. On Friday, I am going Vegan!!! I'm excited. I've decided to give it a try for the month of July and see how it goes. I ordered the above food processor and it will be here tomorrow. I have a bunch of recipes ready. On Friday I'll do a little shopping and on Saturday I will hit the open market and Whole Foods. I have been eating vegan for breakfast and lunch and eating meat at dinner. I was in Whole Foods yesterday for a field trip and was really looking around at things. They have oil free dressings. They have vegan everything. It will not be that hard to go vegan, it might be a little pricey at first, but that will work itself out - it always does. So the plans and preparations continue.....

I am teaching a health class this summer and I found that I'm really enjoying it, but that's not why I'm writing. The other day we started watching Forks over Knives. I had heard about this moving a while back and it looked interesting and fit right in with the topic of health. So we started watching it. Unfortunately we ran out of time and then moved on to other things and never finished it. Tomorrow we are going to Whole Foods for a tour and they are associated with one of the docs in the film. I decided it would be a good idea to watch the rest of it today. So we did. And I just have to say wow!!! I believe that things and people come into your lives at certain times for certain reasons. I've watched food documentaries before but they never affected me the way this one did today. It really struck a cord in me. In the film, the doctors espouse a plant-based diet. I have toyed around the edges of a plant based diet but I've never committed to it fully. I have g...

This was me yesterday. In the morning I went to the gym and did Zumba and Bodypump and they were awesome. I worked my butt off and felt great when I was done. I also pushed the weights a little and really worked my muscles. After I came home, Hubby came home and made these monster burgers that I have been dying for lately. We each ate a 1/2 lb hamburger with all the trimmings. After that meal and the gloomy, overcast weather, I was a bum the rest of the day. I lazed around, did a little of this, a little of that, and generally took it easy. It was awesome. Today though, I want to get some things done. I have laundry to do and cleaning and organizing and I think that's what I will work on today. I'm not going to work out because I can feel my muscles and I want to rest them a bit. Tomorrow though is running - no excuses. Oh yeah, I also need to go to the store so I have food for lunch so there is no excuses. Busy, busy, busy....