On a happy note ...

I forgot to weigh in yesterday.  Most likely because I really didn't want to know how much damage I did over the weekend.  Today, however, I pulled myself together and braved the scale. Surprisingly, I did lose 2.2 lbs from last week which is definitely not what I have had expected.

I am now down a whooping 20 lbs!  

I am ecstatic!   It's a motivator I desperately needed to continue.

My First Vegan Victim

Sad truth is, I don't have a big enough pot to cook double portions. I have managed in the past but only because I usually forgot one or the other ingredient.

This time, however, I did not. It was simply too much for that poor old spoon to take and it snapped:

It was too tough to stuff all that spinach in that too small pot.

R.I.P. dear wooden spoon, gift of my mother-in-law :(

Healthy Habits come with a price!

Nuts in my teeth and blueberry's blue spot on my lips. Yay for living healthy - hehe


I am back on track! It's been a tough week(s) and my healthy habits just went down the drain last week, so I am now trying to recover before it is too late.

Back to basics. Better planned meals and snacks and NO MORE chocolate soy milk (see one of my previous posts). Unfortunately, the soy milk became addictive and had to go. I'll be OK without it but was not much in control while I had it at home.

Another big mistake was to bake vegan cupcakes. Very yummy! Amazing texture: moist and fluffy! It was just like a gateway drug back. I am or was a recovering chocoholic/sweetaholic (or whatever else you want to name it) and cannot be trusted with sweets around me.

Now I need to get my sweet cravings back under control and not fall off the wagon again.

Whoops ...

I somewhat completed six weeks of healthy vegan but than went off the wagon during my brother's visit. It wasn't completely healthy and definitely not vegan anymore *sigh*

My brother left this morning and I will get back on track again, hopefully without any major set backs. Exercise during that time went out the door as well as our work-out room was being used as a guest room. We did do lots of walking, including a day at the Universal Studios, which was rather exhausting.

I can definitely tell a difference after eating dairy and added oils for a few days.

Tomorrow will be a new 21 days "kick-start" ...

Almost 15 lbs down :)

Weight loss is going great and so rewarding! It sure makes up for the long hours of planing and cooking. This week will be a busy one as I have nearly depleted my pre-cooked meals and haven't had time to prepare any this weekend since we had visitors at the house. I survived cakes and cookies and Outback Steakhouse which isn't necessarily a 1st choice for Vegans. The waitress was really helpful and I enjoyed the side salad and the side of veggies.

Where did my cooking motivation go?

It is gone! Nowhere to be found! I have planned to make some nice lunch dish since Sunday but cannot get myself to prepare it at night. I cooked a vegetarian dish for my husband, followed by a vegan dish for myself on Wednesday night but that was all the cooking I did the entire week.

I've been living of leftovers and frozen dishes. Don't get me wrong, they are all healthy and delicious but I should probably have a little more variety of dishes throughout the week instead of eating the Asparagus/Pea Risotto for lunch and dinner two days in a row!

Cooking is still, after nearly four weeks, the most difficult change to adjust to. Hopefully that too, will soon become habit!

Chocolate Soy Milk = Heaven

I bought some chocolate soy milk to make smoothie with cherries, bananas and the chocolate soy milk. It turned out OK but I found the banana taste a little overbearing.

The soy milk sat forgotten in the fridge as I mostly try to avoid soy. Also, the only milk replacement I ever tried, almond milk, wasn't all that good either. This morning, when I prepared my lunch, I came across the "milk" again and decided to try a half cup full. It was YUMMY!

Since I haven't had any sweets or chocolate in over 4 weeks, I felt I was in heaven. Now I need to only contain myself and not drink too much of it but a small cup before I go on the treadmill may be a good way to keep my energy level up and an even better excuse to indulge in chocolate.

Completed the 3-week Vegan Kickstart - Yay!

Those three weeks went by fast. Good news, I lost 10 lbs in 4 weeks and I am feeling good.

It has definitely not been as hard as I have originally anticipated. I have made some great dishes, discovered new spices and haven't felt this well fed in ages.

I've "signed" myself up for another 3 weeks as I think breaking this healthy eating lifestyle change into smaller segments makes it easier to tackle.

My newest discovery is self made Hummus! I've always been intrigued by Hummus but I've only eaten it a few time where I really liked it. Most times it tasted too strong. I've followed a curry hummus recipe from my vegan cookbook and it tastes absolutely divine. I made hummus sandwiches with sprouts and tomato slices for lunch and it tastes great.

I've also finally broke down and looked for vegan bread and found some delicious whole grain bread that didn't contain any milk or eggs or oil for that matter. A perfect fit for me. I kept snacking on it Saturday evening and I realized how much I had missed bread.

I am very hopeful that the next three weeks will go well, too, and that I'll lose some more weight in the process.

I can't decide if it is getting easier or harder ...

I am now 2 1/2 weeks into my healthy vegan diet. Eating overall is going great and I still love the food but for the most part I am at work and that makes it easier. At home, I do struggle with not eating, snacking, drinking wine etc. Seeing the leftover cookies from my daughter gets me closer and closer to caving in.

And I did a little. Cave in, that is. I've had one of her cookies. They are small and not really unhealthy but still, I caved.
I also had a vegetarian appetizer at a work function that included some blue cheese. It was very good and I don't regret it and it is only a 4 times a year event. I did leave off the cheese on the salad I ordered but I did have some of the dressing that contained oil.

I want to stick to my vegan diet but I try not to beat myself up over little things like that. I strongly believe that I will be able to continue with it for another 3 weeks or at least I am setting it as my goal.

One thing I have come to realize is that I need to add some other food such as snacks or sandwiches for lunch. I am currently eating "dinners" for lunch and dinner and I think I would like a little more variety. It would also be nice if I could find a yummy sandwich that my husband would like as well.

Almost through the 2nd week

Today is already Day 13. Overall I am starting to get into the groove of cooking and eating healthy. Planning ahead is the most difficult but I am getting a better handle on it as well.

I am also starting to venture away from the cook book a little and implement some of my previous recipes at times. Leaving out oil of sauteing onions in vegetable stock instead of oil has been no issue taste wise at all. My first oil-free salad dressing has been a huge success. I substituted vegetable stock for oil in there as well and it tasted very good.

The part that makes my new life style a little difficult is that I am ending up to have to bring in food at company functions and sticking out like a sore thumb with my plastic containers of food while everyone else is digging in at the buffet. It doesn't bother me much except for the fact that I have to explain it to everyone why I am doing it. People seem to assume that eating salad is a good alternative to BBQ food. I rather bring in an entire dish and enjoy that and feel great afterwards.

One Week Report

OK, it's a little bit more than a week but since I haven't posted about that yet, I figure I better do it now :)

Today is Day 9.

Everything is still going well. I finally cooked some food that I am not very fond of. It turns out that I don't like sweet potatoes when they are cooked within a dish. Also there were several odd spices that I added to the "curry" (did not contain curry by the way!). Oh well, I'll be eating it without enjoying it then :( After all that work I put into it, I am not going to throw it away. I've got one more serving left and then I will eat my Lentil Ragout which is as yummy as ever.

Today was my weight in day. I managed to drop 1.6 lbs and though I was a little disappointed - had hoped for at least 2 lbs - I still think it is a great result and definitely the healthy way to go.

Getting Anxious But Feeling Good

Today is Day 6 and I am starting to get anxious to see if my healthy eating habits have had any effect on my weight. I won't find out until Monday but I am still very, very curious.

So far I've been lucky that the food has been delicious. My new favorite is the vegetable paella that turned out extremely well and was good for six servings that allowed me to freeze a few portions for next week.

This weekend I am going to make a recipe that I haven't made in ages. It is a vegetarian lentil ragout and I'll only have to omit the canola oil for vegetable broth to sauté the onions in.

That should also make at least four portions of which I can freeze a few.

I have managed to exercise every morning of this week and have found it easier to walk faster and longer.

Healthy Eating Takes Time!

Half Way Through The First Week

Today is Day 4 of my tentative goal of 21 days. The book suggested to give this new vegan diet a three week test run before making any decisions, so that is what I am working on. Hopefully, I will feel better and drop some pounds when the three weeks are up, so I can continue.

The cooking is the toughest part as it takes up a lot of time. That of course is part of the reason that ended up eating rather poorly to begin with. Last night I meant to quickly prepare lunch for Thursday and Friday. That, however, turned into a long and painful project. There were so many different ingredients that needed to be chopped and ground, all which took a very long time that I would have rather spent with my little girl. The final result was very tasty but making dinners from scratch is very time consuming.

Yesterday morning I felt somewhat lightheaded and got worried that the diet was to blame. Now I am thinking that it may have from exercising on an empty stomach, since I don't eat breakfast until I get to work. I ate an apple after my 2.9 mile walk and it tied me over.

Tonight I will be having the last bit of my "smelly food" which means that I'll have to cook some more tonight for the next few days. I am really hoping that the other recipes that I bought ingredients for are easier to make.

There's got to be a more efficient way of cooking!

Healthy Food = Smelly Food

After "stinking" up the house last night with my delicious dinner, my husband is still rather annoyed by the fact that the smell made him sick; so I am not sure how I will ever cook this dish again. I brought the left-overs to work, so he won't have to deal with the stench tonight.

Lunch was good tasting as well, but the onion aftertaste may not be kind to everyone entering my office.

Day 2 is still going strong (and smelly)

It has been almost one year ...

For nearly one year now, I have been following a so called lacto/ovo vegetarian diet. Giving up the meat has been rather easy and I wonder now why I haven't been able to do that much earlier, since I felt for a while rather like a hypocrite by eating meat.

We have come to the decision of no longer consuming animals independently. I am partly (or mostly) crediting Seashepherd and Captain Paul Watson and his wonderful crew for our final turn-around.

I have been fond of whales ever since I can remember and was very much interested in protecting them as a teenager. I cannot remember exactly what lead me to believe that whaling was done and over with or if I just simply grew up to worry about other things in my life. After all, leaving my home country and moving to the United States, working full time and going to school was time-consuming but I feel very guilty now that I had pushed the fact that there were still killings going on to the back of my mind. Of course, I wasn't aware what huge production the so called "Research" from the Japanese whalers included. There is a factory ship, several harpoon ships, a spotter ship and a refuel vessel.

After a Seashepherd ship was rammed and sunk by one of the Japanese harpoon ships, we heard about it on the news and found out what was going on in the Southern Arctic Ocean.

After purchasing seasons one and two of whale wars, we were enticed and after much research both of us came independently to the conclusion that we no longer wanted to eat animals. After my Sunday grocery shopping trip, my husband told me that he didn't think he could eat meat again to which I responded "good, because I didn't by any; I got some tofu instead."

My vegetarian diet went well but not really healthy. Cutting out meat didn't bother me but most of my dishes were heavy on dairy.

I am now at a point - finally - that I cannot watch myself get bigger and bigger due to an unhealthy life style including candy and snacking through out the day.

When I came across the book "the get healthy, go vegan cookbook" on one of my amazon.com suggestion lists, I was hooked. I ordered it, read as much as I had time to and planned the day I was going to make the change. At first I thought it wouldn't be too hard to do but once I realized that it would affect my entire day staring with the creamer in my coffee in the morning that I so cherish, our weekly family outing at Moe's to the cheese pizza on Friday evenings.

Today is DAY 1!
My first day going completely vegan. It went well but I didn't eat enough since I was missing some key ingredients for my lunch; instead I ate two apples throughout the afternoon.

Dinner tasted great! I made Italian Fulilli with sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts

I'll have three more dinners/lunches, so that will be nice as I have only limited time during the work nights.

Yay for vegan! Yay for healty eating! Yay for me sticking with it (hopefully!)!