Off the Wagon

Yesterday was a really emotional day for me, for a lot of reasons that I refuse to get in to in a public forum. The end result was that I ended up binging that evening on popcorn shrimp and parmesan & garlic chips. I felt physically terrible afterwards, and it only made me more emotional. I've been exploring myself a lot lately, discovering what it really means to love yourself, and I know that I shouldn't have allowed that to happen. Food is a means I've used to punish and reward myself in turn for years and years, and it's time to be done with that now. A good friend said to me last night "Tomorrow's a fresh start. Things always seem brighter in the light of day." and she's exactly right. Food is intended to nourish our bodies. It's okay if you enjoy it, but nourishment should be the key. I don't feel nourished when I'm eating animals or animal products, and it's time to stop punishing my body when my heart or mind get a little down.

Still, I know it was ONE night of a setback, and I debated not even blogging about it. However, I feel that it's important for anyone following my journey to know that screw ups happen, but I have every intention of rebounding back with pride!

One Month and One Week

...and a day. But who's counting? However, this blog entry will be brief because while I did very well this week...there were about five days where I didn't eat anything due to illness. So how much credit do I really deserve? Next to none. So, more later. I am currently enjoying a veggie burger with corn salsa and avocados and a soy chai at one of my favorite coffee shops. Ciao.

The Great Cheese Cutback Comes to an End...

No, I am not giving up on my veganism. I am, however, moving from The Great Cheese Cutback to the Great Dairy Cutback. Those of you who have been following know that I'm already doing this a bit, of my own accord, before even in this stage. Now comes the time for strictness, and I will not eat more than one bit of dairy a day, regardless of form. In this stage I am still not being extremely picky about how bread/restaurant food, etc. is prepared but I am becoming more aware of it.

The past month has been really eye-opening to me. I have seen the potential to be cost-effective and vegan, and I have learned a lot about myself and my own capabilities. The great cheese cutback reinforced what I always knew about myself-that anytime I say 'I could never do it,' I am wrong. Additionally, I've learned a lot about food and my body; how it works, how it should work, what exactly a 'superfood' is, and why I should make the move towards them comprising the bulk of my diet. I've always been self-aware, almost to the point of being self-centered. The connection between my mind and my body now feels completely different, and even better. It's like I don't need to constantly be aware of myself, I just am by default. I can have a craving, and know what I should eat instead if that food isn't good for me or available. I know if I've been cramped up too long and need to exercise, I know if I've not had enough water even before the thirst kicks in. The list goes on and on, and I am as surprised as anybody else at how much better I feel. I haven't reached my weight loss goals, and I haven't officially dropped a size, but I know I will. And even if I don't...the way I feel right now makes it all worth it.

I almost can not wait to go 100% vegan, but I know that to commit to it, to do it for the rest of my life, I need to take these baby steps.

As for soda, I don't even miss it anymore. Staying healthily hydrated has given me more energy than the caffeine buzz and sugar high from soda ever did. I have only been tempted a couple of times, and even then, when I thought about it actually giving in I found myself turning my nose up a little and changing my mind. I love how I feel right now, and I know it can only get better.

Thanks for bearing with me this far.

Peace, passion, and love.

Miss Adventurous

I love trying new things. By and large, I am an adventurous person in my life, and this certainly bleeds into my eating habits. I love trying new food, and I love cooking new food. I'm a passable cook, many of my dishes would even fall under the category of delicious and gourmet vegan fare. As with anything in life though, there are always mistakes to be made. I thought it might be an amusing venture into something a little different to share some food mishaps that haven fallen upon, and at my own hand.

• The oatmeal smoothie disaster of last night. Also known as the smoothie that inspired this blog. I've always enjoyed smoothies with wheat germ and the like, and I have my magic bullet and some frozen berries at home but no wheat germ, and not even any of 'the like.' I decide instant oatmeal is a reasonable facsimilie. I have since decided that it is not. It tasted like drinking really watery, cold oatmeal...but less appealing than what you are imagining.
• Using miso paste AND soy sauce to season my veggies. So. Much. Flavor. Too. Much.
• Who knew you could burn soup? Yes, yes you can. Just leave your hearty, bean based soup boiling while you take a shower. Yup.
• Then there's my ongoing battle with rice. How much is too much rice? How much is too much water? Why doesn't the flavor stick? Why isn't the rice soft? Is it possible that the rice is too soft? Oh crap, why is it black on the bottom? WHY WON'T SOMEONE JUST TAKE PITY AND BUY ME A FREAKIN' RICE COOKER?!
• My personal favorite, however, comes long before my vegan trials and errors. I call it the great brownie distaster of '07. My roommate, his then-stepsister and then-stepbrother and I decided we were going to make brownies, and no one else was home except for his brother who was a sleep. Somehow the lot of geniuses decided to put the mix on a pizza pan that was slotted on the bottom. The brownie mix of course melted and dripped all over the heating element on the bottom which caught fire. We turned the heat down, put the brownie mix in a proper receptacle, let the fire die down. We put the brownie mix back in and turned the heating element up, not realizing we never cleaned it off. Sure enough it started blazing again almost right away. No one panicked, but...no one really helped either. I took pictures. Someone was laughing, my roommate was looking for different food because clearly these brownies were a lost cause. Eventually his brother heard the commotion, wandered in, and jumped to action locating the fire extinguisher and saving us all from far worse trouble in record time. A few seconds later we realized that in saving us, my roommates brother had also doused the brownies in fire extinguisher smoke.

I would love to hear other people's cooking misadventures! Until next time, peace, passion, and love.

Home Made Salad Dressing!

My friend Jodie made this for me last night to go with some greens and sunflower seeds, and I thought it was so good and ingenuisly simple that I made myself a spinach salad tonight just to make the dressing! Most of my recipes leave a lot of leeway for your own taste, and that is intentional. So tweak, and enjoy, or enjoy as is.

::One Part Vinegar (I like balsamic, but pick your favorite)
::Two parts olive oil.
::Sea salt to taste
::Ground Peppercorn to taste
::Garlic, Chives, and Ginger to taste
::Squeeze some lemon and lime juice in there, enough to taste.

Whisk it all together with a fork and drizzle over your favorite salad, or use it to dip veggies in. Enjoy!

Peace and love.

I Completely Forgot to Do My Three Week Review!

Whoops, sorry loyal readers. You know, all seven of you. Yesterday was Wednesday which means two significant things in my life: A week anniversary of stage 1 of my attempted veganism, and dollar drinks at my favorite gay bars. The latter is not very important to this blog.

Week three arrived with no sentimentality, no struggle, not much of anything. Which probably means I'm making progress in adapting this as a lifestyle change.

So the big questions, I'm sure, are answered below. Please contact me if there are additional things you want answered on the weekly reviews, or even in seperate blog posts.

What, in my opinion, am I doing right?
This week, I started introducing a lot of raw food to my diet and am pretty pumped about it. It's not a very original thought, but I always feel so clean and pure afterwards. There have been more than a couple of meals where my meal was a carefully thought out plate of well-balanced fruits, nuts, and veggies and I walked away fully satisfied each time.

Additionally, I started depending a lot less on juices and liquid and my water intake went through the roof. I have no intention of cutting coffee, juice, non-dairy 'milk', or social drinking out of my diet any time soon, but I do think moderation is really important. I only drank alcohol once this week (last night, to be exact), and woke up this morning exhausted but not completely dehydrated with a headache, and I am 100% sure it's because I'm drinking so much water. I have decided to more or less cut milk out now. Mostly because I discovered rice milk, which is lower in fat than a lot of the other substitutes and not very expensive at Trader Joe's. Again, I'm not being very judicious with other people's cooking, reading ingredients, asking how things are prepared at restaurants, etc. and won't be until the final stage, which I expect will take place over the spring. I am being extremely judicious when I make and prepare food myself, and no dairy, eggs, and certainly no meat products are being used.

I also cut way down on meat substitutes this week. Most of them are a lot healthier than the meat variety, but it's still a lot of overprocessing that I'd just rather not take in unless it was unavoidable. Again, I probably will never cut them out completely, but they need to go from being staples of my diet to occasional treats. This week, I think I obtained this and just need to keep it uo.

I cut way back on cheese this week! Again, there was one notable run to that Tex-Mex place we all know and love, and I ordered a sandwich with it on it. That was all!

I've also gotten primo compliments on how I look like I've lost weight, even if I'm not sure I have.

What's not going well?
Actually, the only thing I can think is that next week should mark the end of the Great Cheese Cutback, and I'm honestly not sure I'm ready to move on to no cheese ever. I'm contemplating cutting back to once a week, add a stage. Otherwise I think I'm doing alright. I had a PCOS freak out that ended in having a torte, but that was really about the only large amount of refined sugar that I took in. Cut way back on alcohol, caffeine, processed food, etc. So I think it's just nervousness about the next stage. We'll see how I feel in a week.

Can a Veggie Dish Alone Be Filling?

Yes. It may take a little bit of work though. I am not a big fan of baking or frying (although for the sake of this blog I may, at some point do these things to post recipes for everyone else). I satuee everything. It's easy and quick, with the same amount of prep and clean-up. Often I do satuee up just some vegetables. Today for lunch, for example, I sautueed some spinach leaves, a bunch of snap peas, an orange pepper I chopped up, about half of an onion, a clove's worth of minced garlic (about two tablespoons) and three button mushrooms. I garnished it with some tomato slices on the side. I am currently full and content as I type to you.

The first thing you can do is double the portion size of some of the vegetables. Most are low in fat or fat free, low in calories, and high in nutrients and fiber. So stuff that skillet full! I'd watch some of the sweeter ones because even too much natural sugar isn't the best idea, and I eat a lot of fruit so I do need to watch. The second thing to do is season them. Choose your seasonings carefully of course, too much sodium will bloat you and isn't great for your heart. However, some sodium is perfectly acceptable. Seasonings trigger your taste buds into thinking you're eating more than you are and they fill you up quicker as a result. I used ginger, garlic, and oregano. I added it at different times in the sauteeing process to give the tastes layers. Third, if you are sauteeing, and not just boiling your veggies, you are probably doing so in a healthy but hearty oil. If you aren't, then you should be. I have always been partial to flaxseed oil, today I used extra virgin olive oil. Healthy oil helps you absorb nutrients better, brings out the flavor of the seasonings, adds a dash of flavor on it's own, and makes everything stick together as one dish. If you still think that your meal is not as filling as it should be, then try adding miso paste to your dish. It adds a soy-sauce like taste to your dish but is lower in sodium. Miso paste also adds nutrients and amino acids to your dish. I highly recommend it to almost anything, but not everyone likes the taste so use sparingly if you aren't sure.

Hope this helps!

Peace and love.