One More Review

I had the best dinner tonight. As I went shopping on Friday, I'm trying out all of my new goodies (instead of eating yet another can of beans) and found the best meat replacement I've ever tasted (and as a former vegetarian, I've tasted a lot). These yummy "chicken" wings are made by Health is Wealth and are totally vegan. Mircea tasted one and he said "you checked the box-these aren't meat?" The only poor review we got was from Yukon, who I think was turned off by the "buffalo" part. He put it in his mouth and spit it out-literally spit, so I think my goal of turning him into vegan (yeah right) isn't likely to happen. I'll give him credit-he's doing his part to reduce waste by pottying outside and by using feline pine litter if he has to go inside.

Day 6: Food Reviews

I have had some interesting food in my mouth the past few days. The following are the reviews:

• R.W. Knudsen Simply Nutritious Mega Green juice: This 100% juice mixture of all kinds of goodies was pretty delicious. It has a lot of fruits and veggies in it and no added sugar, so it was pretty darned delicious.
• Light Life Smart Bacon: This is a meat free bacon subtitute. It isn't all that smart. Or tasty. The more of it I ate the more I enjoyed it. It was nice and salty tasting, but I could also tell that it wasn't any form of meat whatsoever. It tasted very "grainy". I actually would recommend it if a vegetarian or vegan really wants to have that smoky bacon flavor. But if you're doing it just to cut out fat and calories in your bacon-eat the damn bacon!
• Frey Vineyards Menocino Sauvignon Blanc organic wine: Oh, it's medicino. This wine doesn't contain any sulfites (those nasty inorganic preservatives that make the wine taste good). It's disgusting. DISGUSTING. It sort of tasted like olives...and nasty. I had two sips and thought I would die. Mircea had a sip and I thought he was going to spit it out (and he has Romanian tastebuds). GRRRRR-OSSS. So despite the fact that the Skinny Bitches suggest that one doesn't drink any alcohol other than wine that is sans sulfites they can shove it! That was gross. Part of me is like "well, I should just give up all alcohol b/c it isn't healthy" but the I also wonder if following a strict diet like this really does make life suck a little.
• Sushi: I made it myself with brown rice and I avoided eating the fish, though I wanted it so badly. I made mine with brown rice, a little bit of tofu, avacado, and a heck of a lot of wasabi (to make the tofu taste like something.) They were pretty tasty, though the salmon looked unbelievable. I figured eating it the first weekend wasn't following the rules very well.

It been almost a week and I think I know how this might end. I'm totally willing to give up the dairy. Gone, gone, gone! I will eat my sushi with brown rice, but I'll eat it with fish. I don't think I'll eat a lot of meat either...if any. It's weird. I love this, but I don't love eating all the fake products. The taste of meat is good.

Day 5: Grocery Trip

I had a very eventful trip to the new Giant in Lusby. I'd been there with Mircea before, but I wasn't looking at it from the vegan perspective. Let me tell you this-they know how to cater to the vegan. There is an entire organic aisle and there is a whole freezer section of mostly vegan items. Woo-wee!!! Life is good!

At bowling last night I was a little nervous about eating. But I brought a banana and a Larabar and felt great. My team got beer and I didn't even miss it-I had a big bottle of water. Bowled one of my better games too-I credit vegan eating!!!

Too Funny

Day Four: Life Rocks!

I’m sure that everyone is sick of my daily blog entry, but I need to keep a record for myself. I’ve found out the following things in the last 4 days.

• I am guilt free eating. Do you know how awesome that is? Nothing that I’ve been eating is bad for me, so I don’t have those guilty feelings after eating a meal or enjoying a snack
• I feel skinny. I’m not skinny (unless we’re talking in the rhino family) but I feel amazing. I don’t feel that bloated feeling. Yeah, I am jiggling, but I know that I’m not adding to that jiggle anymore and it feels amazing
• I am nervous about this weekend. I will be at Mircea’s house, but I’m going to bring plenty of rations and plenty of willpower. I’m making sushi this weekend too and I’m going to attempt to use tofu instead of fish…I just really don’t want to eat the fish. I told myself I could, but now I want to show some real willpower. Only thing with that is that I can’t give that up forever so I may be setting myself up for failure if I try to keep it up too long.
• I’m going to experiment with some veggies on the grill. That thrills the heck out of me.
  If anyone has problems “going #2” this is a great diet to follow. Let’s just say what goes in comes right out. How liberating!!!
  
• I really thought that I would hate this. I love it. LOOOOOOOVE it!

For dinner last night I made a "catch-all". I made tofu, black beans, black olives and brown rice and mixed it all together with some garlic and chipotle powder. It was spicy and wonderful!!

Day Three Baby!!!

Yesterday was pretty good and today isn’t too shabby either. I find that I am FAMISHED when I get off of work but a little bit of Veggie Booty is making life a little easier there. Here’s the thing with “the booty”. Technically it’s not vegan b/c it is manufactured in a facility that has dairy in it’s other products (pirate booty) I decided that since finding vegan items is nearly impossible, that I’d be willing to take the change that I’d come in contact with a grain of dairy on my “booty”. I think I just like saying booty.

Also, it is very hard to find things made of whole wheat. Every box in the store touts that is whole wheat and whole grain, but if it says “whole wheat flour” it isn’t. Well isn’t that special? I can’t find a damn thing anywhere other than the Good Earth store because everything is made of the stupid flour. Thanks a lot wheat.

My lunch today is a little lacking b/c I slept late this morning. The only items in my lunch sack are a grapefruit, a banana, some baby carrots, and a can of pineapple. I had some cookies for breakfast (I know, bad) but they tasted so good with my tea that I wanted them. They followed all my rules, no sugar, no processed b.s., and the like, but they were made with whole wheat flour. Well excuse me, it was worth it.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. I’m going to make some yummy grilled veggies and I am also going to make sushi. Having said that, I’ve agreed to make Mircea sushi, but I am starting to think that I will try to jam some tofu or something into my rolls (with my brown rice) and keep this vegan thing going. I know I’ll have sushi in San Diego, but I am actually enjoying following this and although I gave myself a free pass on sushi, I’d like to try to maybe forgo the raw fish this weekend. We’ll see. You can guarantee that you’ll get a full report, whether you want it or not.

Day One: Evening Day Two: Morning

I finally got some food other than the can of beans I had for lunch. I went to the Good Earth store in Leonardtown and although their prices were a little high, they had a great selection. The sales staff was very helpful with all the questions that I had and I came home with a nice full bag of food. The best find there was a Larabar. I got the Banana Cookie flavor and holy crap, this is the best food I’ve ever tasted. (Note: this may be skewed as the only other things I had eaten that day were unsweetened hot tea and a can of beans) I also picked up other treats and some more fruits and veggies so I should be set for the week.

It’s easy to find vegetarian food. All those Boca, Gardenburgers, and Amy’s fare are all vegetarian-not vegan. So I came home with some Chipotle Tofurkey dogs, which I can only assume are going to taste disgusting. I’m already noticing a change in my taste buds because I’m not eating the fake sugar (or real sugar for that matter.) My tea tasted sweeter today, my cantaloupe was sublime. If Day Two is this much better than Day One, then I’m really looking forward to the rest of this time.

Oh, another recommendation. Yogi Tea. It is awesome. The Sweeet Thai Delight is caffeine free and needs no sugar to make it taste like Heaven.

Day One: Halfway Point

It’s midday on Day One of Thirty. The day began with a cup of disgusting, unsweetened tea. I’ve had other tea with no sweetener, but this variety was gross. But I drank it. I need the water and I also need to build up the tolerance to disgusting food, because I have a month of nothing but. Actually, breakfast was lovely. I had half a cantaloupe (not the recalled kind) with my nast-tea and it was so sweet and delicious. Lunch was interesting. I hadn’t had time to shop for a lot of good vegan lunch staples, so I brought a can of kidney beans that I’d seasoned with some chipotle pepper. It was surprisingly good, and I was thinking that I could make some changes and turn a can of beans into a gourmet meal with little work. The celery sticks are gross. I like celery, but I think I only like the inside, tender parts. The outside stalks taste almost as good as that tea. I also have a banana for my late afternoon snack, and tonight after work I’m going to the Good Earth store in Leonardtown to pick up some overpriced organic and vegan items. The Food Lion near my house also has a decent selection and I’ll pick up some other stuff there. I bought a juicer this weekend and I’m going to attempt to make some veggie juice with the parts of the celery I didn’t eat (I’m sure that won’t be terrible!) I’ve also decided that with all of this fruit rind and pit waste; I’ll finally start the compost pile I’ve been talking about doing. I really need compost for my garden, so maybe this will eliminate two problems. Maybe.

A nice side effect from all this natural food is the fact that I’m losing water weight at lightening speeds. I have already tinkled 11 times this morning and we’re at the midpoint. It’s going to be a busy day!