And so it ends

The Monday morning after my pizza experiment, my pants were quite loose. This might be because I typically wear pants twice before washing them and they were already stretched out from a previous wear. I would have rather attributed it to my pizza consumption. I was sure that I had stumbled upon the latest weight loss craze: The Pizza Diet. Here's the deal: You eat half of a pizza a day, and you're so thirsty, you drink so much water that you really fill up and don't need anything else. 

Pizza is comprised of several food groups: grain, dairy, vegetable (load that baby up!). For protein, I guess you could add some lean meats or, if you keep vegetarian/vegan (I'm happy to say I've at least been keeping vegetarian pretty strictly as of late), I figured there must be some way to bake a crust out of garbanzo bean flour. 

Well, now it's Wednesday and one Taco Night later, I'm feeling fat again. 

And here's the kicker...I bought myself a very important 30th birthday gift today - a round trip ticket to LAX (the only thing that would make it better would be if it was a one-way ticket) for the first week in July. Siobhan is going out for a wedding the 4th of July, and Briele and I are both obsessed with the left coast, so we've been talking about this for a while and saw a great deal today and just had to do it. 

I don't feel like posting a picture of my California-themed living room, but I think this probably shows even more commitment: 

I once considered a "manifest destiny" tattoo until I thought about how the idea of manifest destiny was linked to Native American extermination. Good thing I sat on that one. I've wanted to move west ever since I first visited California in April 2012. This will be my fifth time back since then. I'd still like to move there, but I actively applied for jobs for a while and got discouraged. If I had the time, I would resume my search. Briele went to college there and misses it, too. 

This is all important because if I am going to be in SoCal in July, I clearly need to get back on the wagon. It's obvious that my metabolism has greatly slowed down since I'm damn near 30. It seemed pretty easy to lose that 10 lbs, but it came back on even more easily. It's gotta go again...I hereby vow that, starting Monday (this is what I always say, but not always on the Internet, and we know that everything on the Internet is official and true), I am committing to a 100% vegan diet, 1200 calories per day (let's be realistic; I'll allow myself two cheat days), and I must go to the gym 5 days a week (I think I told Briele 7 but again, let's be realistic. I already known I'm working a 13 hour day on Tuesday with no break and the gym ain't happening then). 

Let me reiterate: 

• 100% vegan through the end of June (with a pass for March 29, April 4-5, April 12-13, April 19-20, Memorial Day Weekend, and June 14-15 only) (see how fickle I am?! I already have lots of plans that may include cheese)
• 1200 calories per day with 2 cheat days per week
• Work out for at least 30 minutes at least 5 days per week (note how I conveniently left out the word "gym")

Now it's time to finish this bottle of wine and say goodbye to these garlic knots.