Day 1 - Missing the Weekend Already

Wow, one day in and I already feel like I'm starving!  I did have a really fat weekend though. Which consisted of this giant calzone from Three Wise Men Brewing Company while visiting a friend in Indy. 

This was seriously like a large pizza folded in half.

Dessert was another calorie bomb when we stopped at Parcha Sweets and I had a Blueberry Streusel cupcake and a Cuatro Leches dessert.  I love Tres Leches cake, so I was excited to try this.  It was soooo good!

OK, so that is a far cry from my meals on Monday. I had some papaya and Greek yogurt for breakfast.

We got a fresh papaya when we stopped at Whole Foods over the weekend. These things look um...less than appetizing...on the inside.  

I was supposed to be limiting processed foods...but that's not like an OFFICIAL rule...so I had this vegetable lasagna for lunch. 

I

I generally take a multi-vitamin along with a flaxseed oil supplement during lunch.

I know that I regularly take less than recommended - I usually just pop a pill or two - but I stopped to read the serving size to take the actual recommended amount. 2 flaxseed oil supplements...which isn't so bad, but SIX of these little guys. That's a lot to swallow!  Ugh, I might need to explore other brands when it's time to buy new vitamins - but it is so hard to find these supplements without gelatin!

Dinner consisted of way too many vegetables for my liking - potatoes, peppers, and green beans - and could have used a splash more flavor.

I had just enough calories for half a serving of homemade vegan strawberry shortcake.

Healthy Rules

I considered doing a cleanse, such as this Whole Living Action Plan that I read about in a magazine, but I decided to just build my own Get Healthy plan. This way I can customize it to my own needs (plus, I am worried I will feel like I'm STARVING if I do a cleanse. I think I might try it some other time though...).   

So, here are my rules for the Three Week Get Healthy Challenge! 

1. My daily calorie intake will average 1,200 calories. I consulted a few different websites, including this Healthy Weight Forum to get an idea of the number of calories I should consume. I decided I would set a goal of losing 3 lbs in 3 weeks, so this came out to just over 1,200 calories a day. 

2. I will eat 2 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables per day.

3. I will participate in 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week, including muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days per week. 

4. I will allow for 1-2 splurge meals each week. That will be a maximum of six cheat meals over a three-week period (although I'm hoping to get by with less!).

5. I will keep an exercise and food log regularly.

Those are the general rules. I am also going to try to avoid processed foods as much as possible.

Happy Healthy Days

Last week, while paying careful attention to a Service Center Costing webinar, I started jotting down some of my thoughts about what being healthy means to me. From those basic thoughts, I wanted to seek some additional guidance to make sure I was making the right healthy decisions. I think that everyone has their own specific idea of what 'being healthy' means and not everyone would agree with my decisions, but that's okay! Here's how I'm going to try to be healthier.

I'm not sure how well you can make out my hand-written list, but I'll discuss the relevant points below.

The CDC says that I should eat about 2 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables every day.  I'm probably lucky if I get one serving of each on a normal day. 

Exercise-related guidance was a little more confusing. The CDC offers several different options for getting the right amount of physical activity. I decided to keep it simple with their first suggestion for important health benefits, which indicates that adults need at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups.  This is in line with what I usually do. I generally work out for a half-hour in the morning before work, and it's usually a mix of cardio and strength training.  

So, where do cookies and french fries fit in to this plan? I know foods such as these regularly factor into my weekends...I find that I can do okay eating fairly healthy during the week, but Friday often kicks off a weekend of poor eating. So, forget about a cheat day, we're talking like 2.5 'cheat' days every week on a normal basis for me.  A cheat meal seems to be more of an accepted practice, maybe allowing for one or two splurges in a given week. 

I've read some conflicting things about whether vitamins and supplements are necessary or if they can be more harmful than good for you.  Given that I'm a vegetarian, I think I'm going to continue to take them to make sure I'm not missing out on any essential nutrients. 

As for some of my other notes, processed food, stress, and alcohol are all obviously bad, so I will try to avoid those as much as possible. 

Done Being Vegan - Just in Time for Thanksgiving!

I survived!  Alright, I guess it was never a question of survival, just will. 

As far as the results, I calculated that I consumed 30,000+ calories over 3 weeks. That averages out to 1,468 per day.  I tracked my incremental and cumulative weight change, and I lost 2.6 pounds or 1.99% of my beginning weight. Which is still kind of within tolerance for me since I tend to fluctuate within a range of 2-3 pounds. So...no significant weight change. 

I definitely spent more than I would normally expect to spend on groceries in a month. I spent about $450 in that three week period for vegan food, although to be fair some of that did include dairy products...which kind of broke one of the original rules in that I said I would not purchase any animal products…but I had dinner and dessert to get prepared for tonight, so it was kind of necessary. I still consider the experience a success. :-) 

The only dietary exception I made was for a handful of Advil and one Excedrin.  I’m willing to concede that there may have been some obscure ingredient overlooked, but I very diligently checked ingredients as much as possible. 



Last homemade vegan meal: Seitan and
mashed potatos and gravy.



At the end of three weeks, I was able to answer some questions that I’d vaguely wondered about in the past. Could I be vegan? WOULD I be vegan? I could, yes. It wasn’t the most awful thing ever. But I would likely never choose to be vegan. It can be tough, and I missed being able to go out to eat!



Homemade candy.



Just in time - someone left a tray of homemade candy on the reception desk at work, and I helped myself to a handful for a snack later. And of course Thanksgiving is just a few days away - I have no desire for turkey, but I've got to admit,  the day would be incomplete without macaroni and cheese....and pumpkin pie with whipped cream....and - you get the picture. :)

Till next time! I'm open to suggestions for my next three week challenge. ;-)

Vegetarians Rock! ;-)

If I’ve learned one thing over the past three weeks it’s that I will likely never, ever be vegan.  At the end of the day, I think that is mostly because of CHEESE. I’ve tried several different varieties of vegan cheese, and they’ve ranged from okay-ish to bleh.

I love being a vegetarian. I’ve been doing it for 16 years, so I would hope so! I feel better about myself knowing I conscientiously choose what I’m ingesting. No animal has to die for me to eat. I don’t think it’s a diet for everybody, but it works for me.  But I do get complacent in my vegetarianism, and I don’t always seek out all of the information.  Like the fact that cheese isn’t always vegetarian, which makes me really, really sad. Cheese is made by coagulating milk by adding rennet. The traditional source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves. Parmesan cheese is apparently always non-vegetarian, because regulations for its production state that it must include the following ingredients: cow’s milk, salt, and calf rennet.  (http://www.vegsoc.org/page.aspx?pid=495)

At the end of the day, you do the best you can. My diet isn’t perfect, but I’ve gotten more familiar with which ingredients I need to watch out for. Trying out veganism definitely helped strengthen that resolve to be more aware of this.

In general, my modus operandi is if it seems reasonable that something doesn’t contain meat or meat by-products, I will eat it. Quiznos’ Broccoli Cheese Soup was one of my favorite soups, but most soups are made with chicken, beef, or fish stock. To be fair to myself, I knew I needed to find additional information. The employees said it was vegetarian when I asked, but they don’t always have the complete picture.  I looked into it myself to be sure, and it looks like I don’t have to give up Quizno’s if I have a broccoli cheese soup craving!

McDonald’s fries, on the other hand, are a different story. McDonald’s was sued in 2001 after telling customers that its fries were vegetarian. However, the “natural flavor” in their fries contained beef extract.  They settled for $10 million and changed their recipe. However, the company has stated in recent years, “With regard to our French fries, any customer in the U.S. who contacts McDonald's USA to ask if they contain beef flavoring is told "yes." For flavor enhancement, in the U.S., McDonald's French fry suppliers use a very small amount of beef flavor as a natural flavoring during the pan-frying process at the potato processing plant.” So, alas, McDonald’s fries are STILL not vegetarian. (http://animalrights.about.com/b/2011/10/26/mcdonalds-french-fries-still-not-vegetarian.htm).

Non-Vegans Suck! Haha, J/K

Today there was a large tray practically OVERFLOWING with cookies in the kitchen at work. Chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, all free for the taking. I ignored them and stuck my vegan English muffin in the toaster oven to heat up for breakfast. Just the other day someone left a box of delicious-looking HUGE blueberry muffins on that same counter, with a note saying ‘Help Yourself!’.  I’m sure my co-workers aren’t deliberately doing this to torment me, but do you have any idea how tempting that is?! I know that stuff is all bad for me though, so that points to probably the top benefit of being vegan: there’s just limited options to dig into giant trays of cookies and miscellaneous other junk food. 

Non-Vegan Muffins :(

The vegan desserts made at home this week have turned out really yummy though. Delicious Pumpkin Muffins and Chocolate Rum Pudding Cake – both very moist and flavorful. 

We have a birthday lunch for work tomorrow at Nine Irish Brothers, which is a really good restaurant in town. I shot them a quick email to see what their vegan options were, specifically asking if their Veggie Sandwich would be vegan if I omitted the feta cheese.  Their response was “The veggie sandwich without cheese would be vegan, unless you count the eggs used to make the bread.” OK, now I know that a vegan diet isn’t common knowledge to EVERYONE, but surely a restaurant should be accustomed to ingredient inquiries and be able to have a more informative response than THAT. I’m left to interpret that there is nothing else on their menu that is vegan except for sandwich fixings.   

On the bright side, only three full days left to go! I’m having my cousin over for dinner Monday, my first full day of being non-vegan again, so I need to plan an extra cheesy menu! 



One Week to Go!

Thanksgiving is next week, and I only have one week left of trying out veganism. I am excited to think that in a week, I’ll be digging into some extra cheesy food stuffs! J 

Being vegan, I didn’t think I’d really go out to eat much – and I didn’t at all the first week. However, the second week, I went out to eat not once, but twice! J

Last Thursday, I went to a local restaurant called Thai Essence. I had Fried Tofu for an appetizer and Pra Ram with tofu for my entrée. The appetizer was a bit bland, but it came with a flavorful sauce that made up for it.  I didn’t like the Pra Ram at first, but it grew on me more as I ate more of it.  I had Fresh Mango Mousse for dessert, and this was amazingly tasty and completely non-dairy. I also had a single glass of red wine, and I spent a lot of time scouring the Internet to find more information about the Angeline Pinot Noir, but I couldn’t find anything to confirm if it was vegan.  Red wines seem more likely to be vegan than white, so hopefully, luck was on my side.  ;-)  (Restaurant reviewed here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/thai-essence-west-lafayette#hrid:f8CeXYVKULQf9CABZ4GQyQ.)

 This weekend, I got a head start on Christmas shopping. I was hoping to start the morning off with a soy, no-whip Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks…then learned that their syrups contain dairy. So, another cup of coffee with soy creamer for the road it was. I stopped at the Body Shop at the Fashion Mall in Indianapolis first, then decided to drive another hour and half out to Bloomington to go to a fantastic-sounding mostly vegan restaurant called The Owlery.  Everything on their menu is VEGAN with optional dairy alternatives.

Poutine

I was most excited to try their Poutine. If you haven’t heard of it, Poutine is a popular Quebec (French-Canadian) dish made of French fries layered with gravy and fresh cheese curds. The version at The Owlery used vegan mozzarella cheese instead of cheese curds, and it was pretty darn good! 



Chicken Strips



I also had Chicken Strips, which were hand-breaded and deep-fried tofu, with a side of vegan Ranch dressing. 



Philly Cheesesteak



The main entrée was a Philly Cheesesteak, seasoned, homemade seitan on a toasted sub roll, topped with sautéed onions and green peppers and vegan cheddar cheese. Everything was super yummy, and I’m glad I made the trip out there – even though it did amount to about 6 hours of driving in one day.  (Restaurant reviewed here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-owlery-restaurant-bloomington#hrid:P9bBjPVFVb6N8Q7aCu4Rcw.)

  

Almond Milk Yogurt



Then it was back to Indy to spend some more time shopping, ending the shopping excursion with a final stock-up trip to Whole Foods. We grabbed some Tofu Egg-less Salad for the road as several hours had passed since lunch time. I tried Almond Milk Yogurt for breakfast today – interesting texture, but a bit too watery. Always nice to try new things though.