Still alive!

Hey everyone– I thought I’d get a quick post in to assure you I’m still alive… barely! We’re in Week Six of school (out of 10 weeks) and, as this is my last quarter of graduate school, EVERYTHING is ramping up, and I am, as usual, overwhelmed!

So I thought I’d catch you up on a couple of cool things that happened over the break… 1) I finished the VegNews challenge! Some highlights of that were incorporating more broccoli into my diet (yum!) and finally learning how to use cabbage… which I didn’t learn very well, haha. So far I have put red cabbage into my ‘green drank’ (thus turning it into purple drank, which is not to be confused with the illegal substance! as well as using it in stir frys.

Surprisingly, cabbage lasts a really long time in the fridge… I didn’t even wrap it up in anything special, but so far it’s lasted for a week. I hope this is normal?

2) I found my favorite go-to meal when I’m in a crazy hurry/have a long day ahead of me… the night before, I’ll stir fry broccoli and cabbage (and maybe spinach and asparagus), make some couscous, and heat up either Gardein ‘meat’ or Boca ‘chicken’ pieces (for protein)… throw that in a tupperware and get a move on! It’s especially good for Wednesdays (like today!) when I’m busy rushing from work to class!

Yum!

Yes, I know this has some processed food in it and might not be nutritionally complete, but damn if it doesn’t fill me up for a solid 4-5 hours… which is exactly how long I need it too!

3) Blake and I also celebrated our second anniversary (Feb. 2!) Woohoo!

2nd anniversary celebration at our favorite place

No, our favorite place isn’t the hotel… haha. Our favorite place is Gallo Blanco, a restaurant inside the hotel. Delish!

Blake surprised me with a trip to the Glendale Chocolate Festival while I was in Phoenix visiting him… oh boy did we gorge on chocolate!! He’s the best, because he knows I DIE for chocolate! I’m definitely a sweet tooth type of person This is how we celebrated Valentine’s Day, since we won’t be together on the actual day (boo long distance!)

4) I’m sorta transitioning back to being vegetarian vs. vegan. Blake did not help my willpower when he made one of my favorite things… bean and cheese burrito!

So delicious but full of cheese!

I think after my VegNews challenge, I will go back to being vegetarian mostly, and vegan when I cook for myself. As much as I enjoyed the challenge, I’m just not ready to 100% commit to being vegan all the time. That’s something I’ll have to ease my and Blake’s relationship into…

5) Finally… I got to see and play with my favorite little monkey while I was back in Phoenix… Maddy!

Trying to hit the camera phone

She looks possessed in this photo… I have a couple better ones of her, but since she is a possessed kitty, I thought I’d share this one with you all. As usual, while I was back in AZ, I took more photos of our kitties than I did of either Blake or me… haha, I’m an animal lover for sure!

So there you have it! I’m still alive, although unfortunately I won’t be updating daily as I did in January. February is going to be very busy… I’m not saying that to get pity, just to give you a heads up.

I promise when I am done with grad school, you will see many exciting new posts! Or stressed posts, depending on whether or not I find a job… ay Dios mio!

Day 20: Get schooled!

Can you believe it’s day 20 already of my challenge?? You probably can, but I can’t! It seems like this has gone on… forever! Being vegan is a lot harder than I imagined. Well, actually it’s not really hard when I’m at home cooking for myself, but when I’m being lazy/poor/rushed, I definitely fall into the vegetarian trap. Example? The other day I was at Safeway with my roommate (we were there for staples like milk, orange juice, ice cream (for her) (it’s a staple)) and I saw Safeway’s ‘Bella Minestrone’ soup… o.m.g. my favorite soup in the whole world!

Seriously, I would marry this soup

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I grabbed it and, without checking the ingredients, threw it into my cart. “Are you sure that’s vegan?” asked my roommate (she didn’t say it to be helpful… she likes to point out how hard grocery shopping is with me) “Of course it is!” I said, “It’s vegetarian!” Knowing that vegetarian and vegan aren’t the same thing, I checked… and lo and behold, ingredient 12 or 15 was ‘cheese.’

W.T.F. Why is there cheese in my minestrone?? Is there always cheese in minestrone?? How did no one ever tell me this before? I was crushed… but I bought it and went home and ate it with toast and (Earth Balance) butter.

I know, I know, I know… minestrone soup is probably the easiest soup in the world to make if you have any random veggies and some vegetable stock. I mean, come on. It’s just veggies and soup. And maybe some tomato sauce, I don’t know. But I bought it. (Let’s leave out the fact that I spent $4 on a soup that I’ll get 2, maybe 3 servings out of).

And that’s, my friends, what brings us to day 20 of the VegNews challenge: Get schooled. As VegNews describes it:

Want to know all the ins and outs of eating for health? Consider getting a certificate in plant-based nutrition, designed by co-author of The China Study, T. Colin Campbell, PhD. It’s available as an online program from Cornell University.

You can actually ‘attend’ and enroll here. From the description of the course:

The first course in the series, Nutrition Fundamentals, identifies the true causes of degenerative disease – poor dietary practices – and offers scientifically based solutions to reduce disease risk. The second course, Diseases of Affluence, presents solutions to the crisis facing America’s health care system and a dietary solution for your own optimal health. The final course, Principles in Practice, demonstrates practical applications of plant-based nutrition in a variety of contexts illustrating the powerful effects of a whole food, plant-based diet on our society and the positive impact its acceptance could have on our future.

I think the part that I would be most interested in is Principles in Practice because I’m definitely a visual/hands on learner, and I think seeing concrete examples and applications of plant-based nutrition would be really helpful. Maybe if I were better schooled, I wouldn’t jumping on dairy train out of desperation… I’m still bitter about that minestrone!

Seeing as I’m already in school, and very close to being 100% stressed, I’ll skip the class for now, but I definitely think it’s nifty and, eventually, worth pursuing!

Questions for you all: What do you think about pursuing a plant-based nutrition course? Have you ever taken nutrition courses, and what has been the value of them to you? Also: did you minestrone has cheese in it?! Say WHAT?!

Day 19: Think Positive & product review

Hey everyone! Sorry to be MIA for a day or two… I’ve been sucked into some projects for school (I’m taking 2 really cool classes this quarter: Project Management and Professional Communications) and, while they’re a lot of work, they’re really fun, interesting, and practical for my future jobs. I’m learning so much already, and it’s only week 4! We’re on the quarters system, so only 6 more weeks of school left… then I’ll be finished with graduate school! Yes, I know, that’s blowing my mind too. However, I’ve had so much to do that I haven’t really been able to think about it much, which is good!

Anyway, on to Day 19 of the VegNews challenge: Think Positive. I find this challenge to actually be challenging for once… even though I’m a pretty optimistic person…

Leaving my family to go back to school in Denver

Smiling and laughing even though at that point I was leaving to go back to school after winter break (and, mind you, a terribly awkward photo because when I have to get on a plane, I always freak out and inevitably I always forget something I desperately need – like the phone charger!), but I haven’t been very optimistic lately.

I think one of the reasons for this setback has to do with the product review I have for today: Cherrybrook Kitchen. Here’s the back story: My roommate and I have been (good-naturedly) teasing our friend for not having any survival/adult skills, like cooking. To prove us wrong, he invited us and some friends over to his house for dinner. We accepted, of course, and volunteered to bring the dessert. I thought of making a chocolate cake, because apparently a friend has a great recipe, but timing didn’t work out and she wasn’t able to send me her recipe.

However, while I was trolling Whole Foods for vegan yummys, I stumbled across Cherrybrook!

Dairy free! Vegan!

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And right next to, vanilla dairy-free, egg-free frosting. I couldn’t have been more excited! I went home and proceeded to make the cake exactly according to the directions: cake mix, vegetable oil, and water. Easy-peasy, right? So far so good! I didn’t have a cake pan, so I put it in a loaf pan, and when it came out and cooled, I put it on a cutting board because the cake was so long.

It sorted broke in transit...

The cake had a weird indent in the middle of it, but my roommate and I tried a piece and it wasn’t too bad.

Then came the frosting… oh, the horror. It was super crunchy, so I had to stir it vigorously for a couple minutes, but even after stirring it still looked atrocious.

No dirty minds, please! Or, if you weren’t thinking like that, sorry for bringing any bad images to your mind. My roommate and I haven’t quite matured when it comes to inappropriate jokes

Anyway, we persevered because we thought, hey, how bad could this vegan cake be? We diligently put the broken part of the cake back and covered the whole thing in frosting. In our optimism, we even lightly dusted the top of the cake with cocoa powder.

Final product...

So how did it taste? It. Was. Atrocious. That’s all I can say about it. I tried, and my roommate tried, to be fair. We really, really did. We said to one another, “this might be delicious maybe if it had more vanilla” and “what in the world is missing from this cake?” It was TASTE. The whole thing tasted like cardboard. I wanted to die.

So we ended up going to Safeway at the last minute and bought a Tres Leches cake. And yes, I know leche means milk. This cake was not vegan. But, by the end of the night, I ate a piece because you know why? I was starving and my friend’s empanadas were terrible. Apparently the meat empanadas he made were good (according to my roommate) but he definitely burnt the heck out of my vegetarian ones and they were also cardboard.

Friday was a hard night, my friends. I came home and consoled myself with Silk vanilla soy yogurt and berries for “dessert”… and a glass of red wine. It was just one of those nights.

By the way! I’m instituting a new rating system! Instead of stars, I’m giving food/products/restaurants I review carrots. So what does Cherrybrook Kitchen get? One carrot!

Cherrybrook Kitchen's Choc. Cake and Frosting gets 1 carrot/5 carrots!

Apparently, I’m not the only one who didn’t dig this cake: check it. (And this reviewer looks professional so I take comfort in the fact that it’s not my horrid baking skills!)

Typically I’m a good baker so I’m taking VegNews’ suggestion to stay positive. I will bake again!

Day 18: Go Organic

Today’s VegNews ‘31 Changes in 31 Days‘ centers on eating organic. VegNews cites women who have been exposed to pesticides while pregnant deliver children with low IQ scores, but I think that’s only one small reason to eat organic. Considering I don’t plan on getting pregnant any time soon, that really wouldn’t convince me to eat organic… however, PBS has a great article about why to go organic, and they note that “certain types of organic produce can reduce the amount of toxins you consume on a daily basis by as much as 80 percent.” 80%?! Say what?!

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However, as you’ve probably noticed by now, organic produce can be a lot more expensive than conventionally grown produce. And while you can say that your health should override your budget, when you’re a poor student like me, if it comes between putting gas in your car or paying for your medication/contacts or buying organic, you know you’re going with the gas/meds/contacts.

Lucky for us, the Environmental Working Group has put together two lists for us: the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. You may have heard of the Dirty Dozen… the fruits and vegetables on the Dirty Dozen list are produce that, when conventionally grown, test positive for as many as 67 different types of chemicals. Ick! This is produce that you should definitely buy organic, unless you like eating chemicals. I mean, I play fast and loose with my health sometimes (sometimes I wear my contacts for a week longer than I should!), but my food? Something I eat on a daily basis? That’s just crazy talk!

Here’s the full Dirty Dozen from the EWG:

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Imported Nectarines
7. Imported grapes
8. Sweet bell peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Domestic blueberries
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/collard greens

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On the other hand, the Clean 15 (posted below) are produce that, when tested, had little to no trace of pesticides and are safe to eat in conventional form. Aka… this is produce that you can buy on the cheap without shortening your life span!

1. Onions
2. Sweet corn
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet peas
7. Mangoes
8. Eggplant
9. Domestic cantaloupe
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet potatoes
14. Grapefruit
15. Mushrooms

What makes the Dirty Dozen different from the Clean 15? Well, according to the article on PBS, produce like pineapples or avocado typically have an “outer layer of defense”- a shell, or some type of outer layer. Produce like berries or peaches are porous and basically soak up whatever chemical is added to them.

Whatever type of produce you buy, the EWG (and PBS!) recommend you wash your produce no matter what. There will always be some residue of something, so to be safe, wash your produce well!

Questions for you all: Had you heard of the Dirty Dozen or Clean 15 before? Do you buy organic produce regularly, or do you typically buy whatever is cheap/convenient? Do you think your habits will change (or did change, if you knew about it before) now that you know it is safer to buy some produce organic vs. conventional?

Coming up: I did some awesome cooking yesterday, and when I say awesome, I mean atrocious. I can’t wait to do food reviews for you in the next post!

Days 16 & 17: Think about the future & Turn off the TV!

Hey, great news! VegNews has decided to publish its totally awesome ’31 Changes in 31 Days’ challenge, which you can check out here! If you’re interested in where I am, or interested in trying out the challenge for yourself, you should check it out! It’s really great and, so far, surprisingly easy! Hey, I’ve even gotten addicted to broccoli, so it’s been good for that too

You're looking mighty yummy, Mr. Broccoli...

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To recap, here is the beginning of the challenge for me. I’m about half way through and, yes, I’ve made some mistakes. I know I’m going to end up making more this weekend, mostly due to hanging out with friends (a friend is cooking dinner for us and I’m bringing a vegan chocolate cake… as much as he understands veganism, I highly doubt he’ll check every ingredient, but I’m okay with that!)

I haven’t exactly followed every single VegNews recommendation every day but I’ve definitely made an effort. Most importantly, I’ve been sticking with boot camp like a champ (hey, that rhymes) -  I just finished my second week of boot camp today! Plus I’ve discovered some new stuff (yum!) and I’ve realized how it can sometimes be a pain in the butt to be vegan. Going out with friends has definitely been the hardest thing so far! Surprisingly, making my own food hasn’t been as much of a pain as I thought, but going out and being unable to order things because they have dairy in them sometimes sucks A lot of places don’t make accommodations!

Anyway, I’m glad I’ve made it this far, and I haven’t made up my mind yet as to whether or not I’ll carry on being “strictly” (80/20 sense of the word) vegan. I still have another 2 weeks(ish) to decide, so we’ll see!

On to yesterday and today’s challenges: Think about the future (AKA kids!) and turn off the TV. I haven’t done a whole lot of research (yet!) into raising kids vegan, but VegNews has some cool links to veg- and kid-friendly organizations, plus a tidbit on how eating a lot of veggies can help help reduce a woman’s risk of delivering a pre-term baby.

My future shopping cart... with or without the kiddo!

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Finally, by my favorite blog vegansaurus, the cutest series you will find anywhere on the web: Happy Veggie Kids! All these kids are either vegan or vegetarian and they are PRECIOUS! Seriously, check this out if you still need your daily dose of cute!

As for turning off the TV… considering I was super busy all day, I haven’t been home to be enticed by the TV. When I had a spare moment to myself (and was munching on dinner), I did turn on the TV to watch the South Carolina Republican debates, but then I got nauseous (and interrupted by my talkative roommate), so I gave up on that.

Tonight I’m just going to chill and read. I really did a lot today (my next post will be about that!) and I was up at 5:45 this morning for boot camp so… early bedtime for me!

Question for you all: Have you ever considered raising your (potential or already existing) kid/s vegetarian or vegan? Is that something you would let them “choose” when they grow up, or raise them that way now? How does your partner/spouse/significant other feel about raising a potential/real life kid vegetarian/vegan?

Days 14 & 15: Eat plants & be scared!

Yesterday and today’s challenge from VegNews‘ ‘31 Changes in 31 Days‘ focus on health: Eat plants (Day 14) and get scared (Day 15.) Strangely enough, I didn’t have a salad yesterday, although I ate the heck out of some steamed edamame… yum!

Yesterday was a super busy day for me – I skipped the gym (that was a much needed rest day!), had a meeting with my student group at an “Asian fusion” restaurant, then had a group meeting and finally class. In between, I was slammed with the homework I didn’t do over the weekend (oh, the perils of having a social life!) but I’m sure you’ll be happy to know I did not break any of my “rules” (basically, don’t eat anything not vegan). Yesterday I also I didn’t eat a ton of plants, which was unfortunate… :-/ It was just a “eat quick meals” day – oatmeal for breakfast (with blueberries!), a rice bowl w/ grilled tofu and steamed broccoli for lunch, and a peanut butter and banana sandwich for dinner. Yeah.. it was one of those days!

Today was equally busy (homework, lunch date with a friend, class, more homework), but I kinda-sorta enjoyed some greens!

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Mad Greens, that is! Apparently, Mad Greens is only here in Colorado, which is unfortunate, but it’s pretty much just like the “Choice Greens” shops we have in Arizona. So good! I got the Mediterranean salad, which is a pasta salad, vs. a traditional salad, plus a side of tomato soup. I checked to make sure the tomato soup was vegan (it was more like minestrone, without the pasta) BUT I forgot to check to see if my salad dressing was vegan… it wasn’t I only noticed after the lady had put the dressing on… fail! Raspberry vinaigrette, how dare you do me like that!

However, the lunch date with my friend was amazing, and we got caught up on each other’s lives. Sometimes you just need to take that break, get out of the house (or work) and catch up with a friend. I really felt great

Oh, speaking of not feeling great… it took all of my willpower (and all of bf Blake’s text-motivation) to get me out of bed and to boot camp this morning. You see, Tuesday is when we run the STAIRS.

I'm going to have nightmares about these stairs, for real

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These stairs look a lot nicer than the stairs we run… we run the hockey arena stairs which, to my calculation, are something like 14 flights of 20-25 stairs per flight… and that might be conservative. I stop counting/black out around flight #10… haha, I don’t really black out, but sometimes I want to!

Today I was proud of myself though… I did all the flights except one (last week, I skipped 5 flights) and I only went over my time by 2 seconds. Huge improvement!

After the stairs, we completed the following exercises:

• Sway push ups (3 sets of 12)
• Reverse lunge flies with light weights (I used 4 lbs.) (3 sets of 16)
• V-up curls (3 sets of 15)
• Bent over row with tricep kickbacks (3 sets of 15) (I used 7.5 lb weights)
• Hinge with lateral raises (3 sets of 12)
• Plant tap outs (2 sets of 20)
• Back extension twists (3 sets of 18)
• Bicycle crunches (3 sets of one minute each)… 3 min. of bicycle crunches… ow!!

Although I hate the stairs, I felt super pumped afterwards, so (although I’m loathe to admit it), I’m glad I went!

All right, so today is Get Scared, and I feel as if I haven’t scared you enough. However, this is a long post and I have to get back to homework, so here’s a recap from VegNews:

• If trends in the US continue, “half the population will be obese by 2030, which could result in an additional 8.5 million cases of diabetes” (I blame you, Paula Deen) and “7.3 million cases of heart disease and stroke, and 669,000 cases of cancer.” VegNews then tells you to imagine the ones you love, stricken with these diseases. Get scared!

And here’s an excellent recap by the Vegan Consultant, who shares videos from world renowned doctors and leaders on the health benefits of a vegan diet.

I promise a more in depth look at the health benefits of a vegan diet (because I do enjoy scaring you all very much), but I really must finish this paper, so I leave you with my favorite comic by Vegansaurus!

Day 13: Be persistent & Black Bean Brownies

After yesterday’s day of mistakes, I’m definitely ready for today’s VegNews challenge: Be persistent. I woke up this morning really not wanting to go to the gym (it’s Sunday after all! Can’t I get a break?!) But then I heard my roommate get up and I remembered what I had ate the day before, so I got my butt up and out of there.

Like VegNews notes in the challenge, balancing “work, family” and they say “activism” but I’ll say “school/social life” is a big challenge. It’s especially difficult when you’re trying to weigh having a good time out with your friends vs. your diet, and it’s difficult when you have to choose between the gym or getting in some extra homework time. There have definitely been days when I just want to throw in the towel and eat something unhealthy, or not get up and go to the gym, but then I always regret it the next day. I either feel gross (from drinking too much or eating too heavy/greasy food) or I just feel lethargic (from not exercising). That’s not to say I won’t “make mistakes” or prioritize friends/school over gym time, but it’s a balance. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s not. Knock on wood, this month has been good to me so far!

As usual, I didn’t regret going to the gym. I warmed up by running on the stairs (6 times, 3 flights each,  12 steps per flight… took me about 10 minutes… it hurt!!) and riding the bike (15 minutes). I then did a leg workout that consisted of:

• 2 sets of 10 leg curls (50 lbs.)
• 3 sets of lunges (body-weight)
• 5 sets of squats
• 3 sets of 50 lbs each on the adductor and abductor machines (vag machines)
• crunches (side planks, planks, regular crunches)
• And a butt workout, of which I’ll share later…

I feel like I did more, but that’s all I remember right now so.. there you go!

Today we’re celebrating our friends’ birthdays that we missed (they are December babies, and we weren’t in town for their birthdays), and I decided to make Black Bean Brownies from Happy Herbivore…

Scene of the crime!

I liked the fact that I could throw all the ingredients into the blender. That was awesome! However… I think I used the wrong type of oats. It called for instant oats, and I used regular oats… :-/

Minus the oats, I have to say the black bean brownies did not come out the way I expected them to. I had heard that black bean brownies can be really good, but these are just weird…

As you can see, I took a chunk out to test them before presenting them to my friends… I’m still going to give them to my friends, because oh well, but I don’t think I’d make this recipe again ever. It’s too sweet, has a weird consistency (not cake-like, probably because there’s no flour in this), and just… not what I expected.

I guess I’m still looking for the perfect (vegan) brownie recipe then!

Okay, off to get ready for our fiesta – then I have work!

Question for you all: Have you ever made vegan black bean brownies? What recipe did you use, and how did they turn out?

Day 12: Make a mistake

VegNews’ Day 12: Make a mistake might just be my favorite ‘challenge’ ever… or at least, so far! I’m so glad ‘making a mistake’ day fell on Saturday, because although I didn’t make a huge mistake (like eat meat, which I wouldn’t do anyway), I definitely pigged out today…

But first, I went to the gym! Yay! I did:

• Stair running for 10-12 minutes (I took a TON of breaks– this Tuesday’s stair running for boot camp is scaring me!)
• Arms workout:
• Chest press with dumbbells (3 sets, 12 reps w/ 8 lb. weights)
• “Tree hug” w/ 8 lb. weights (3 sets, 12 reps)
• Push ups (2 sets of 10)
• Tripcep kick backs (3 sets of 12)
• Bicep curls with 10 lb. weights (3 sets of 12)
• Side bends (2 sets of 12 with 15 lb. weights)
• Back extensions (1 set of 15)

Yup, my roommate and I got up at 7:15 so we could work out for an hour, because today we had plans! First, we saw the movie Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with our friends:

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I would have taken a picture of all of us, but we were running late. Barely got into the movie theater before the movie started! The best part of this theater is that your ticket (only $9!!!) gets you unlimited free soda and popcorn. Mistake #1! I only had one bowl of popcorn and one soda, but it had been a looooong time since I last had soda… pretty sure I have a sugar rush headache now!

After that, we went to a sports bar because my roommate is a huge 49ers fan, plus the Broncos play today, so today is a big deal football day for everyone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay because I have work in 45 minutes… Oh well!

At lunch today, I was surprisingly able to find something vegan… hummus pita wrap with lettuce, tomato, and onions. Yum! I also had a side of tater tots… mistake number 2 but they were so worth it! Reminded me of the school cafeteria… haha yummm!

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Dinner today will be something really light– either yogurt and fruit, or a salad. I feel greasy!

I’ve got to dash off for work now, but I’ll probably post something exciting later. Happy Saturday!

Question for you all: Are you watching the play off games today? Who are you rooting for?

Day 11: Detox

So today’s Day 11 challenge from VegNews‘ magazine is Detox. Basically, I think VegNews is stalking me now, because I woke up this morning with an insane craving for coffee. A grande Starbucks soy mocha to be exact!

Um, yes please!

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Yet of course, today’s Detox recommendation is that I “remove toxic ingredients from my diet,” such as caffeine Why would you do this to me, VegNews?! It also recommended that I cut out wheat or corn, but let’s be honest… you all know me by now. There’s no way I’m cutting out wheat from my diet!

So you’d be proud of me… instead of getting coffee, I made myself a Celestial Seasonings antioxidant tea… and had 2 Newman’s Own original cookies which, by the way, are vegan. Aww yeah!

Yes, that’s right… I finally caved and bought cookies. I was dying for some legit “bad” desserts, and cookies were calling my name. I mean, really, how could you say no to this?

You can't say no. Admit it...

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However, I did read an awesome article from Losing Together (a great blog you should definitely check out if you have time!) that talks about the dangers of too much caffeine consumption, which I found relevant. It also made me want to look a little into the dangers of caffeine, and why too much can actually hurt you. I was curious, you see, because while in college, I had a serious short-term addiction to energy drinks. Rock Stars, in particular. I drank one EVERY DAY, if not two a day! Okay, so maybe it’s not as terrible as drinking, say, 5 a day, but still. It was pretty bad… and I didn’t like the way I felt afterwards, but I did like energy it gave me for studying. It was definitely a hard habit to break!

Now I’m no where near being a coffee addict, but I like my coffee just as much as any regular person. However, to remind myself not to fall into the over-caffeinated bandwagon, here are some reasons you (and I!) should beware of too much caffeine:

• Heavy caffeine use can lead to insomnia, irritability, and muscle tremors (source)
• Drinking more than 4 cups of coffee may increase the risk of heart problems (source)
• Caffeine compounds dehydration (source)

If you drink all of us at once, we might try to kill you!

Overwhelming, what I found in my research is that moderate caffeine intake is not going to kill you. Moderate caffeine intake ranges, but it’s around 2-3 cups of coffee, or 4 cups of tea.

On a different track, I am so sore from yesterday’s boot camp! I could barely put on shoes because my abs hurt so bad, and I can hardly bend down to plug in my computer in the wall because my legs are so sore! I wish I had read this article on preventing muscle soreness earlier… note to self: You must actually GO to the yoga classes you put in your calendar! :-/ It goes without saying that I did not go to the gym today…

However, I was busy completing something exciting: I finished my portfolio for my Master’s degree!!! I just got the news today that I defend it late February. AHHHH!! Once I defend it (and pass), I am officially DONE with school! A Master’s degree will be in my hot little hands in just a couple months… I can’t wait!

Okay, so wrap this up, here were my meals for the day (oh so boring!)

Breakfast: Rice bits w/ blueberries and soy milk

Lunch: Half a mock tuna sandwich and salad (spinach, lettuce, onions, tomatoes)

Dinner: Rest of the couscous, green pepper broccoli mixture, Gardein chicken “fingers” (yum! I love Gardein!)

Snacks: Beer (not really a snack but oh well.. went out for happy hour tonight with friends!), small bowl of cereal w/ strawberries for dessert. I am obsessed with this cereal for some reason!

Still going vegan strong! Woo!

Questions for you all: Have you ever gotten hooked on caffeine (energy drinks, coffee… tea?!)? What is your caffeine ‘vice’ (chocolate, coffee, etc.)?

Day 10: Reach Out & a food product review!

Day 10 of VegNews‘ ‘31 Changes in 31 Days‘ is Reach Out. VegNews describes today’s goal as “not exclusively” talking to other vegans, but “start finding common ground with others in the food-justice movement.” When I first read this, I thought it was about talking to others about why I’m vegan and the benefits of going vegan, but apparently it’s about “food justice.”

I can’t say I’ve really talked to anyone this month about food justice, per se. I have talked to people about why being vegan, or at the very least vegetarian, is important to me, and why it is important to the environment and animals. However, most of the people who know me already know I was a vegetarian, and they’ve already asked me why so… it’s not exactly something I can bring up without making them want to run away because they’ve heard it all before.

So for today, let’s just say I’ll keep trying to work on that one!

However, I do have a fun “food review” for you to enjoy! Remember how yesterday I said I was going to eat my couscous with some mock meat stuff? Well, I thought what I had was Gardein, but it ended up being Vegetarian Plus. To be exact, it was Vegetarian Plus’ Vegan Black Pepper Steaks.

(source)

Looks delicious, right? Well… not so fast. To be honest, I heated them up in the microwave, which is never the best way to eat something. Maybe if I had heated it up in a pan, they would have been better. But yeah, microwave. And since I had to puncture the bag, they ended up leaking everywhere once they defrosted (clearly, should have set them on a plate).

Once mixed with my couscous, they weren’t that bad, but they also weren’t that great. They were sweet, which I found weird. Yet spicy (just a little bit). So… it was a weird flavor combination in my mouth. I was not a fan of them being sweet, as they didn’t mix well with my couscous.

Also, there was a TON of liquid in the bag. I get that they’re supposed to be coated in sauce, but wow! Way too much sauce, in my opinion. It was drowning my couscous!

So, I’m going to finish them up (only had half the bag) for dinner tonight, probably along with a salad or maybe some more couscous (but separate!) Maybe that will improve my view of them, but as for now it’s not that high.

I would have to give the vegan black pepper steaks from Vegetarian Plus a 2/5… they weren’t awful (1), but I wouldn’t buy them again (3 and up).

More coming later about the boot camp class I had today, plus I’ll be tracking what I eat today… I promise it will be somewhat exciting!