Day Seventeen: Snow Day Cravings

I am certainly not done eating for the day, but I'm going to post anyway. I will also probably go over my calorie limit since I have a snow day tomorrow and it took me 3 hours to make the 16-mile commute home. The roads were treacherous and terrifying and I need to stress eat and stress drink wine. I don't have anything good to drink, so I probably won't have much, anyway. It's basically just an emergency stash and I think this counts as an emergency. On the other hand, maybe I'll save the wine for tomorrow, when I'll need motivation to dig out my car (thanks again to my awesome co-worker, Andrew, for lending me a shovel! If I had to go buy one on my way home, I never would have made it!). We already have over 6 inches of snow on the ground and we are supposed to get 6 more overnight. Then it's going to get up to a whopping 15 degrees tomorrow. Yes, I'm really going to want to go outside.

For some reason, I couldn't get my act together this morning and I forgot breakfast. I did have - you guessed it - my standard coffee with almond milk.

For lunch, I packed last night's Israeli couscous, seared cauliflower, and a side of white bean hummus with a serving of Wheat Thins (16 crackers - I ended up snacking on this hummus and cracker combo last night, too). Although I picked all of the red peppers out of the couscous, I still could not stomach the cinnamon and vinegar combo. The pearl couscous seemed to get chewier overnight. To be blunt, this recipe sucks. Do not make it. I ate about a quarter of the serving of couscous, if I'm being generous (it was probably more like a tenth) and half of the cauliflower (it still tastes weirdly fishy to me). I did kill all of the white bean hummus and crackers. I really cannot rave enough about that hummus. 

When I got home about 6 hours after lunch, I was obviously still hungry. I had been craving Chinese food on my way home - egg drop soup and noodles and dumplings. Snow days just make me crave junk and comfort foods (grilled cheese and tomato soup!!!). When I went shopping over the weekend, I decided to give Dr. McDougall another try, even though I did not like the vegan tortilla soup I had earlier. This time I bought vegan pad thai noodles, and the preparation was basically the same - add the seasoning packet, fill with water to fill line, microwave for 2 minutes, cover and let sit for 4. When that was all done, I spritzed a little lime juice on top and then crushed 10 peanuts in a plastic bag with a rolling pin and sprinkled the peanut crumbs on top. In retrospect, I should have added green onion but hollllleeeeeeee shhhhhhh this was good. The portion was on the smaller size, but it tasted like legit pad thai - and no sneaky eggs this time! I'm now a full-fledged fan of Dr. McDougall. I'm debating buying his stuff by the case from his website.

After this second late lunch, I decided it was time to veg out and read in bed for a bit. At 6:00, I got up to make my smoothie. This one was no bueno.

This is the height of luxury!

Dinner: Strawberry Kale Green Smoothie

I prepared this smoothie according to the directions, with 3 tablespoons of vegan protein powder, 1 tablespoon of organic super greens, a cup of almond milk (I use original unsweetened), and 3/4 cup of ice. I didn't want to use up any more bananas, so I added a cup of kale (from the freezer) and a cup of sliced strawberries. 

Side note: The green sludge from yesterday's smoothie did not wash off the inside of the Ninja lid in the dishwasher, which completely grossed me out.

Additional side note: This came out an even darker, slimy green mud color. 

Oh, also, this was pretty gross. It definitely missed the sweetness of the banana and the vanilla. It actually tasted a bit sour, which the strawberries may have added to (they were not completely ripe yet). It's also chalky. It took me about a half hour to get through it (this seemed to make around a pint), but I got used to it as I went on. 

Without going into too much detail about my bowels, let's just say that this smoothie did what it was supposed to do and it did it rather quickly.

I followed up with the aloe, probiotic, fiber, and my multivitamin. I've noticed that I've been feeling colder since I started my vegan diet, but I am taking 100% daily value of iron every day. This could be my Raynaud's, but it's not just my fingers, toes, and nose that feel cold (although those are the worst). I thought about doing an hour of yoga (my Roku has a fitness channel with streaming exercises) but since I can't log it into Gympact and I'm so cold and achy, I think I'll settle for a long, hot shower. At least I've resisted wine so far.

Post-Shower Snack: Vegan Oatmeal Cookie and Vegan Hot Cocoa

Remember how I said I loooooove junk/comfort food when the weather is crappy? Well, hallelujah, I have found the remedy! (I'm just hoping my craving for grilled cheese and tomato soup subsides tomorrow; otherwise, I'm walking to Quick Check for bread and soup and slicing up that almond cheese, casein and all). 

I've been mulling over this recipe for a while and I decided that today was the day:

I followed the recipe to a T, except my bananas were not that ripe and therefore a little more difficult to mash. I used Shoprite organic unsweetened applesauce and mashed some more.

I then added the rest of the ingredients:

...and used a teaspoon and my hand to form 16 irregular cookies (my specialty shape) on two cookie sheets sprayed with Smart Balance cooking spray.

Then I baked them on 350 for 20 minutes. The smell was heavenly. However, I remember the same enchanting aroma when I baked oatmeal banana bites on Day One and those came out dry...so I was worried. 

While those baked, I prepared the hot chocolate: 2 tablespoons of unsweetened baking cocoa, 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a cup of almond milk (I ended up adding more because it looked like the powder would never dissolve). I put this in the microwave for a minute and when I took it out, it was almost cakey on top - but once I stirred it, everything mixed together nicely. I put it in for another 30 seconds and sprinkled some nutmeg on top.

The final result:

Holy Bejesus. The cookie is awesome and a mere 76 calories if you make 16 irregular shapes, too. The hot cocoa is rich and spicy and not sickeningly sweet. That's 158 calories and 25 grams of sugar - a little high. Still, at 234 calories total, this is a decent snack that satisfies my cravings - better than the apple I ate in my marathon commute home. 

I can do a little better, but I can confidently say that I'm done for the day. 

Totals	1,140	192	26	46	1,882	65
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	60	-42	14	14	418	-20
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Definitely went overboard in carbs and sugar, but it's a snow day! And I don't even want any wine. You know why? I have been so. much. less. stressed. since I stopped eating animal products. Even though (many) parts of my drive home were scary and aggravating, my heart wasn't racing or in my throat and I wasn't screaming obscenities like I typically do if I'm stuck in 45 minutes of summer Shore traffic...or doing a routine drive down any of Monmouth County's super-annoying highways. 

This feels good.

Bonus: Look at this treasure trove of vegan slow cooker recipes I found! 

Day Sixteen: Back on the Wagon!

Although I probably won't get any work done, I plan on using my day off for more than just binge watching the last season of Gossip Girl on Netflix. And rather than spend an hour writing one post before bed, I'm going to start now and update throughout the day. 

Even though I have off, my body still woke me up in time for work. I finally fell back to sleep and woke up around 8. After bumming around for a while, I made my way to Stop & Shop to get groceries for the week. Then I headed to the gym for a half hour on the elliptical. My neck and shoulder pain has been bad so I figured I would go easy on myself. 

Then I got started and this song came on:

How encouraging of you, Ice Cube! It was easier than I thought. I don't think I looked at the timer until I was 13 minutes in. The arm motions actually helped ease my shoulder pain. I didn't feel winded or anything. As I neared the 30 minute mark, I decided to up my time to an hour. Forty minutes in, this song came on:

Nothing motivates me more than this song. It makes me feel like Mystikal is chasing me and yelling in my ear. I was still feeling good. At 57:00, this song came on:

Another huge motivator for me! And perfect timing - I ended my workout going even faster. And finally, my cool down consisted of this gem from Zumba class:

About 18 months ago, I used to go to the gym and do an hour on the elliptical 7 days a week. I'm not back to my old speed, but I was pretty close. After my workout, I felt better - and more pain-free - than I had in a long time.

I felt like doing a victory lap around the gym

Looking a mess but feeling fabulous

At this point, I had had more than 2 bottles of water, but no food. Yesterday I committed to starting my detox today, so I decided to whip up a green smoothie. I'm not sure what this is going to do to my stomach yet, so I figured for today, the earlier I tried it, the better. 

Brunch: Green Smoothie

I realize that it's not Sunday. I'm not sure what else to call it when a day's first meal happens around 1:00. I was intimidated to begin this whole process, but I had to start sometime.

I am using the Raw Green Organic's 2 Week Detox system. It's vegan, caffeine-free, soy-free, and gluten-free (wait, we have issues with soy now?). The smoothie recipe I used consisted of 3 tablespoons of vegan protein powder, 1 tablespoon of organic super greens powder, and then from my own kitchen: 1 banana (I added this, totally randomly, to hopefully cover up the stank taste that I assumed would go along with the stank smell of these powders), 1 cup of almond milk, 1/4 teaspoon of (imitation) vanilla extract (since I realized the recipe that comes with the system advises using vanilla-flavored almond/soy/rice milk), and 3/4 cup ice. 

Ignore the trash in the corner

The initial sound of ice crushing in my Ninja damn near gave me a heart attack, but everything blended together quickly. As I began to pour the green sludge into a pint glass and saw that it was amounting to just over a pint (I guess because of the banana), my heart sank a little. I poured the excess into a small juice glass and started there.

...it wasn't as bad as I expected! 

It took me a while to drink these down because it wasn't fantastic...I really don't know how to describe it. Then I took the recommended supplements that came with the system - 1 capsule of super aloe ("a natural laxative and stool softener"), 1 capsule of vegan probiotic (which led me to question my regular probiotic, but it's safe), and 1 capsule of super fiber (another natural laxative). All of the above worry me. I took note of the time - 1:27 - expecting the smoothie and supplements to work something like this: 

Shortly thereafter, my eyelids started getting heavy. I got into bed around 2:00 for a lovely 2-hour nap. It's currently 5:08 and my insides are still intact.

Snack: I don't want to get started on dinner just yet, and I know I have a lot of calories to intake today. I went for my leftover artichoke heart and tomato salad.

Dinner: Israeli Couscous with Peas, Carrots, and Red Wine Vinegar and Seared Cauliflower with Garlic and Tamari

Oh, what a disappointment this is. Also, the nutrition facts on the Kickstart website are way off - 168 calories when this is really 347 - but luckily I could really eat in excess today.

I started by boiling 1 1/4 cups of vegetable broth and then adding a cup of Bob's Red Mill whole wheat pearl couscous. I removed that from the heat and stirred it every now and then. It never really fully absorbed. I have never used whole wheat Israeli couscous before so maybe it just needed more time.

I mixed this together with 1/4 cup of peas, 1/2 cup shredded carrots, a diced stalk of celery, 1/2 red bell pepper - diced, 1/8 red onion - diced, 1/4 cup of shredded red cabbage, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. This makes 2 servings.

The cauliflower recipe called for a head of cauliflower, cut into florets, but I already had a bag of frozen, steam-in-bag cauliflower florets. I steamed them in the microwave and then sauteed them on medium for a few minutes. I added 2 tablespoons of tamari and cooked that for about 2 minutes, and then added 3 minced cloves of garlic and cooked it for about 3 more.

The verdict:

At first I was like, yesssssss this is so much food! I started with the cauliflower - I love cauliflower - and it was okay, but something about it tasted a little fishy to me. Maybe I'm used to using soy sauce on sushi so I just made the association.

Now the couscous, to put it plainly, sucked. I don't know why I continue to buy/use red pepper because I really don't like it. The cinnamon was totally out of place and the red wine vinegar was overpowering. 

I could only eat half of this. I have another serving for lunch tomorrow and I'm already dreading it. 

These are today's totals, although I may end up eating something else since I barely ate today and can't stomach my dinner.

Totals	654	100	13	34	1,685	19
Your Daily Goal	1,701	213	57	85	2,300	64
Remaining	1,047	113	44	51	615	45
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

My Fitness Pal is telling me that if every day was like today, I'd be 4 lbs away from my goal in 5 weeks. Every day is not going to be like today, but did I mention that I'm officially 5 lbs. down and only 15 days in to this diet? 

I'll leave you with this:

Days Ten and Eleven: Breaking Vegan

January 15:

Well, I knew I wouldn't get the chance to post yesterday and today is going to be a bit of a challenge...however, I just downloaded the Blogger app for my phone so hopefully this helps me write even though I can't seem to find the time to sit down and do it! I'm also having trouble taking photos of my food (helloooooo, first world problems!) because I bought the Beyonce album on iTunes and it's taking up way too much space in my phone (even bigger first world problems). Okay, enough complaining. Here's how I racked up my stats yesterday (because apparently eating healthy is a sport. And "racked up my stats" is an actual saying):

Totals 1,343 206 17 31 972 53 Your Daily Goal 1,249 156 42 62 2,300 47 Remaining -94 -50 25 31 1,328 -6 Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar

...not bad for a day that I knew would be a challenge. 

Breakfast: This is getting repetitive, but I had more Cinnamon Toast Crunch and more coffee and more almond milk. You know, the standard.

Lunch: I sliced up a few grape tomatoes and mixed them in with my couscous confetti salad, warmed it up in the microwave for a bit, and put it on top of a cup of arugula. I added some balsamic vinegar on top. It's pretty amazing what arugula can do for a meal. Well, not that amazing. All it really does it add to the volume of food you're eating. I guess it's amazing that it doesn't manage to add anything else. 

Snack:White Bean Hummus with Zucchini Strips and Carrot Sticks

I cannot rave enough about this white bean hummus recipe. I am not a fan of zucchini, but I'm trying to use up all of my produce and avoid throwing things away. The hummus makes it bearable. Okay, to be honest, I've realized that raw zucchini pretty much tastes like nothing. But back to the white bean hummus...

Into the Ninja goes: a can of white cannellini beans (drained of their canned bean sludge), a tablespoon of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of tahini, a gigantic clove of garlic, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and some salt. This did not need any water to thin it out, and I forgot that the recipe called for thyme and basil. In all honesty, it's perfect as it is. The recipe makes 6 servings at 105 calories a pop. 

Dinner: My reunion with Pita Grill

As I've said before, I used to be obsessed with PG's chicken rice bowls. That combination of feta cheese, chicken, light creamy balsamic dressing, and golden raisins...to die for.

Well, obviously I had to nix the chicken and cheese.

I decided to go for a quinoa salad, which was suspiciously cheap, and when it arrived (within 5 minutes!), the portion size made it understandable (to be fair, it was probably a bigger portion than anything I've been feeding myself). I also ordered "a falafel" (emphasis on the "a") after I made sure it wasn't "fried in an animal or anything." Update: Since PG does not publish nutrition facts, I had to improvise and individually enter the ingredients of the quinoa salad into My Fitness Pal. I also had to guess the amount of each ingredient. However, the next day, I discovered the exact same salad at Whole Foods (is this why my food was ready so quickly, PG?) and it had much less fat and calories than what I input into my food diary.

Additional Snacks: Since Siobhan and I were up north to see Neutral Milk Hotel in concert, and since we both love craft beer, well...despite our diets, it was hard to resist a cold one (or two). We walked down the street from Pita Grill and went to a bar in Hoboken for a Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Ale. For such a delicious, magical beer, it didn't do too much damage. We then remembered that Barcade, arguably one of the best bars in Jersey City, had Carton on tap. How could we say no? According to Twitter, the line to get into the concert was ridiculously long, so we hit up Barcade before the show. Unfortunately, the Carton on tap was Carton of Milk, a milk stout (neither of us are fans). But it's Carton! We ordered anyway. Now, when you try to enter "Carton of Milk" in My Fitness Pal, what do you think comes up? I had to put it in as a Guinness. Oh, and we resisted drinking at the concert. Score!

Exercise (or lack thereof): By the time we made it to the venue, parking was scarce (well, it'a always scarce, to be honest). We had to park in a pretty unsavory part of town and hoof it. And when we hoofed it back after the show, we pretty much ran to the car because we thought there was a good chance we might get stabbed. I mean, in all, we probably traveled on foot 0.6 of a mile. When the car was in sight, I exclaimed with delight, "we probably worked off half of a beer with that trip!" Correction: It was 49 calories. FORTY-NINE! I hate science.

January 16: The Day I Fell off the Wagon...Hard

For a while now, Wednesday has traditionally been "taco night" with my friends Steve, Eric, and Briele. We haven't had a taco night since before Christmas, and we were due. This was a stupid idea. Look what I did:

Totals	2,221	259	97	53	3,754	37
Your Daily Goal	1,224	153	41	61	2,300	46
Remaining	-997	-106	-56	8	-1,454	9
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 24 extra calories from exercise today

YEAH, I ate 1,000 more calories than I should have. And I had the balls to add in 24 calories of exercise from stretching at physical therapy. I am kicking my fat self right now. Here's how I slowly fell into the abyss of food...

Breakfast: I went for an oatmeal banana bite (those things I made like a year ago) and, lo and behold, one was covered in mold. Those went in the trash and I settled for my standard Cinnamon Toast Crunch fix.

Lunch: Amy's Vegan Enchiladas

I knew I would get home late on Tuesday night and I wouldn't have time to prepare anything for lunch, so I bought one of these frozen entrees at Target. I was a little put off because the tiny container apparently held two servings of enchiladas, but they were still decent, calorie-wise. And very, very good. A nice prelude to taco night, of course.

Snacks: I forgot to bring snacks to work (what am I, four?) but luckily, I always have some hoard stashed somewhere (what am I, a hamster?). Therefore, I enjoyed my leftover carrot sticks and about five measly strawberries.

Dinner: Do we really have to talk about this?

Taco Night is traditionally a night of being a dead-beat fat kid who eats enough to feed a family of four. Before I embarked on my journey South of the Border (Ocean County), I stopped by Whole Foods to stock up on some overpriced fake meat and dairy. I purchased some sort of Mexican-style "meatless crumbles," cheddar Almond cheese, Amy's vegan-and-gluten-free macaroni and cheese, a can of organic refried pinto beans, and an oatmeal cup for about $21. ¡Ándele!

My taco night duty usually consists of making guacamole. My guac is pretty good; I'm not gonna lie. However, the avocadoes Steve purchased were not yet ripe, so we had an interesting time attempting to ripen them in the microwave and failing. We ended up throwing the ingredients (avocadoes so unripe Briele cut through the pit, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and garlic) into a Vitamix and eating an unripe, chunky guac. Hey, bad guac is better than no guac, and it wasn't that bad. So I had about a pound of that with tortilla chips while I waited for the main course.



We heat up the beans on the stove and the shells in the oven while my soy crumbles warmed up next to the ground turkey (not in the same pan!!!). I grated my brick of almond cheese and then discovered...wait for it...IT'S NOT VEGAN. The almond cheese is made with casein, which is a milk protein. At half the fat and calories of regular cheese, I said ¡Qué pena! and resumed my grating.

I was too hungry to worry about presentation

When everything was ready, this is how I vegan taco-ed: almond cheese in the shell, then soy crumbles, then beans, then guac. Let me tell you, these were so good that I ate three. On a normal taco night, I usually only indulge in two turkey tacos. The soy crumbles were actually really, really tasty but occasionally, the texture would skeeve me out. Next time we taco (and it's going to have to be far away because I just can't eat like this anymore) I'm going to avoid the fake meat and just eat beans and guac. Or maybe I'll be back to turkey by then.

By the way, now that I am looking at a picture of this taco a day later, it looks gross.



The snacks that come with taco night: ...are not snacks (they are meals). I mean, while cooking, you have to imbibe on a beverage. I like to think that as a female of a miniscule amount of Italian descent, I am supposed to spend time drinking in the kitchen. It's my cultural birthright and I will lay claim to it. Therefore, the first snack of the night was a bottle of Pacifico, which is really not that terrible calorie-wise, either.

Yo bebo cerveza

After eating three tacos full of spicy, delicious goodness, what do I want? CHOCOLATE. In reality, I've been wanting chocolate for a while. Chocolate is another inalieable right for females. Luckily, our friend AJ had brought over some delicious specialty chocolate around Christmas. One of the bars was 72% dark chocolate and did not list anything anti-vegan in the ingredients. It only said "may contain milk." That was a chance I was willing to take. Did I mention that this was a chili cinnamon and cocoa bean chocolate bar? It was salty and sweet and pretty much the best thing I've ever eaten. So naturally, I ate half of the bar. It was one of those "OMG, get this away from me!" while a piece of chocolate is in my mouth and other one is on its way kind of moments. So yeah, that was smart. But remember, I'm a female and I can use PMS as an excuse for anything, whether it's true or not.

At that point, it was like, #YOLO, if "YOLO" stood for "you're only lard? okay." After all of that chocolate, what was I going to do? Eat (legit vegan daiya) cheese, of course. I think that's my God-given right as an American. Isn't "thou shalt eat cheese" in the Bill of Rights or something? 'MERICA. My Amy's vegan mac and cheese went into the microwave faster than I could mourn my typical Stouffer's. And let me tell you, it. was. miraculous. The noodles are made out of rice, so they get a bit gluey, but this was really fantastic and for 520 calories, it should be.

After all of this, I fell asleep on the couch and woke up hating myself. ¿Cómo se dice there goes all that hard work en español?

Up Next: Starvation!