Day Fifteen: F This

This is how I feel right now:

This is what I've consumed so far. I can't guarantee that I won't drink another beer.

Totals	1,618	199	18	26	1,454	27
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	-418	-49	22	34	846	18
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

My dad's whole (NJ) side of the family came over to my parents' house for pasta dinner tonight. My Nana has been staying up here since Thanksgiving and she is going back home next weekend, so I wanted to see her before she left. We also did a little celebration for my brother's 25th birthday, which is at the end of the month.

I knew that we were having pasta, so I avoided eating before I went over there. The Cymbalta I was prescribed leaves me so thirsty, I probably had 6 waters before I got here, but I was starving. 

When I arrived, my mom informed me that there was cheese out in the other room. I guess I was already in a mood when I woke up, so I basically yelled, "I'm not eating cheese!" Then there was some brief back and forth about my current dietary habits, until I finally made it clear that I am doing this for my health: I feel a lot better and I've already lost almost 4 lbs (I'm back down to my pre-taco night weight). She was satisfied with that.

I had some giardinara, a few crackers, and some black olives to hold me over until dinner (it was about 3:00 when we started our snacking). Then I realized something horrible: my mom bought craft beer for the occasion. Brooklyn Lager (does that count?) and two kinds of Southern Tier. My parents are faithful Coors Light drinkers when it comes to beer, with the exception of Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale in the colder months. Of course I had to try a Phin & Matt's APA. 162 calories. Not too bad.

The first course was Caesar salad. I made sure not to get any croutons and I didn't add anchovies (obvi) or cheese. I used a light balsamic vinaigrette. And I grabbed a piece of Italian bread because it's not everyday I get goods from Italian People's Bakery. At this point, my brother observes, "How do you know that bread doesn't have milk or eggs in it?" Why did I assume that bread was safe? UGH. Whatever. 

I had plans tonight and at this point, it was clear that I was getting stood up. It's amazing that I didn't swallow four meatballs whole. I don't think I can convey how amazing my mom's family's recipe for meatballs is. I have some friends who have been lucky enough to try them, and they seriously don't stop moaning while they eat. I'm really trying to avoid making this sound sexual, and I think I'm failing. I'll put it plainly: I've never had a meatball that can hold a candle to my mom's. They could be classified as Schedule 1 drugs.

The main course was rigatoni with my mom's equally fabulous sauce. Here's the rub: After cooking her meatballs and several other kinds of meat, like sausage, short ribs, pork, and sometimes rabbit, my mom puts the meat in the sauce while it cooks. When I was home on Friday, every inch of counter space was covered in thawing meat. When I asked if she could so kindly make a small pot of sauce without meat, she said no. Did I mention I come from a very stubborn family? I debated showing up with a jar of Francsco Rinaldi, but I didn't want to get hit with a wooden spoon. We've never had store-bought sauce in my house.

I had a generous serving of rigatoni - probably more than I logged in - and sucked it up and had the sauce (my mom takes all of the meat out and puts it in separate serving dishes, but I know that that doesn't make it vegan-friendly). I was even disciplined enough to shove aside the tiny pieces of magical meatballs I found in my sauce. I did have another piece of Italian bread because I was like "f everything" at this point. I also had a Southern Tier 2X IPA, which is a lovely 246 calories. 

No photo could do this justice

I did resist birthday cake and apple pie. I had a black coffee, which I forgot to log in, but that's negligible. 

I am going to go sulk with my Sam Adams Winter Lager and try to resist having another. I do have three things left to say, though: 

1) Overall, the support I've received has been overwhelmingly awesome and encouraging. Thank you guys!!!

2) Because I feel that I slipped a few times over the course of a few days, I am extending my 21-day pledge to 24 days. Instead of ending on January 25 (which is going to be a very challenging day, since I'm heading to Asbury Park Beerfest), I will end on January 28.

3) I am enjoying this mixtape way more than I expected to:

4) I made sure to take home 5 meatballs to put in my freezer for whenever I decide to stop being vegan. :)

5) Two week juice cleanse starts tomorrow!

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!

The First Weekend: Days Seven and Eight

Well, it's Sunday night and I'm reflecting on my first vegan weekend. Yesterday was my "cheat" day, which basically means nothing, except I can drink. I resolved to only drink once a week for January, but that's already going to be shot next week, since I have a concert on Tuesday and two events over the weekend. 

Anyway, here's how yesterday panned out:

Totals	1,558	177	10	28	805	35
Your Daily Goal	1,503	188	50	75	2,300	56
Remaining	-55	11	40	47	1,495	21
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

I'm pretty sure I missed something and really consumed more calories, but whatever. 

I had to drop off my cable boxes and equipment at the cable store, since I cut the cord about two weeks ago. The gym chain that I go to has a location next door, so I decided to try it out. I wasn't a fan, but I stuck it out. I also had to pick up groceries for the week, and luckily, there is also a grocery store in the shopping center. It was also possibly the worst grocery store I've been to in a long time. 

At this point, I had had about six cups of water, but I was starving. I had a little leftover green glamour smoothie, so I threw it in the Ninja with some additional kale, banana, blueberries, and strawberries. To be honest, I don't remember if I put in more almond milk or not. 

Why aren't you beer?

But look how pretty all of the colors are

Now I'm just getting artsy

So, yeah, breakfast was a green glamour smoothie. 

For lunch, I had the last leftover curried tomato lentil soup and a TJ's Middle Eastern flatbread spread with homemade hummus, basil leaves (which I think should be tossed because they were pretty pungent), pea shoots, sun dried tomatoes, and black pepper. 

Since I was running all of these errands, my day started pretty late, so I didn't have lunch until 3. I had plans to go to the bar at 6, so I wasn't yet hungry by the time I left. Oops. Therefore, dinner was beer.

Dinner
Dogfish Head - Raison D'etre, 12 oz.	220	18	0	0	0	0
Six Point Beer - Sweet Action, 16 oz	235	17	0	1	0	0
Weyerbacher - Verboten (Belgian Pale Ale), 12 oz.	180	0	0	0	0	0
Ithaca Beer Company - Flower Power Ipa, 16 oz	225	0	0	0	0	0
	860	35	0	1	0	0

Like I said, I think I forgot one. This led me to the following conclusions:

A) MyFitnessPal is awesome for having craft beers in its database

B) I clearly got fat because I love craft beer

C) I wish I still liked/could drink light beer

Today, I felt so ill from having beer for dinner that I basically couldn't eat or move for a long time. I guess if you're going to overindulge one day, it's good to be physically unable to eat the next, right? (insert eye roll here)

I think it's safe to say I'm done eating for the day, so here are my totals: 

Totals	555	111	6	16	977	42
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	645	39	34	44	1,323	3
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Breakfast was a nap and some Advil. Oh wait, I also had a Sunkist strawberry fruit bar.

Lunch was a cup of Dr. McDougall's Vegan Tortilla Soup

See, this is the bad thing about a vegan diet. When you're hungover, you can't just run to the McDonald's drive thru or get Chinese delivered. Greasy junk food is pretty much out of the question. When you're straddling that line between nauseous and hungry, but you're pretty sure you need food in your stomach now, there aren't many instant options (OMG, I am just now realizing that I have Amy's vegan enchiladas in my freezer, which would have been epic). I grabbed this soup because it was the quickest thing I had on hand. It basically works like a ramen Cup o' Noodles: Take out the flavor packet, add water, microwave...

I don't think I would buy this again, though. Even though lime is one of the last ingredients listed, it was pretty overpowering. I also didn't take a picture of the soup itself, but it looked a little barfy, which was not what I needed at the time. 

Snack: Nap #2

Dinner: Couscous Confetti Salad (with imitation garlic naan)

This was right up my alley because I actually cook stuff like this all the time. I absolutely love Pita Grill, which, if you're not familiar with it, is a chain in the New York City area. Although I'm lucky to reunite with PG this upcoming Tuesday, I don't get it very often, so I starting making my own version of their rice bowls years ago. And since I'm not very good at cooking rice, I usually make mine with couscous. 

To make four servings, I made 3/4 cup of TJ's whole couscous. While that was going on the stovetop, I mixed together 2 chopped green onions; half of a red bell pepper, diced; 1/2 cup of shredded carrots (grated? julienned? whatever comes in the bag. I'm too lazy to get up and look); a cup of shredded red cabbage; 1/4 cup diced fresh parsley (I'd omit this next time. I'm so over parsley); and 1/4 cup of golden raisins. Once the couscous was done, I mixed it in.

In a small bowl, I whisked together a little over a tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar, 1/2 tablespoon olive oil (oh, how I missed you, EVOO!!!), 1/2 teaspoon curry powder, and some salt. Then I dumped this on top of the couscous salad and stirred it all together.

My TJ's flatbreads are past their prime, so I decided to use one up and make fake garlic naan. I gave one flatbread a spritz of Smart Balance cooking spray, doused it with a healthy sprinkling of garlic powder, and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. It was no garlic naan, but it was definitely healthier. 

I just killed off the rest of the green glamour smoothie that was leftover in my Ninja (I need to make hummus!). After a day in the refrigerator, it was more like pudding, but it was still good.

Well, that was my weekend. I still have some things to do before bed, especially if I'm going to make it to work tomorrow (my neck pain is so bad today I'm basically immobile. But that's another story). The moral of the story is that beer is not meant to be dinner, and hangovers are not healthy dieting strategies. But MyFitnessPal is not very encouraging when it says things like:

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 117.6 lbs in 5 weeks 

If every day were like today, I'd be a very unhealthy person. 

Oh, and here are some bonus links:

21 Meals with Tons of Protein and No Meat (not all are vegan, though)

Steve-o's Vegan Kickstart page (I had no idea he was vegan!)