Some Things and Some Stuff

After ripping my last contact lens in Pittsburgh, I pulled out my phone to call my eye doctor and order a new box. I scrolled down to "D" for "Dr. Geri Bauer" (first name necessary because I used to see a Dr. Bauers when I lived with my parents...7 years ago. Okay, no longer necessary). 

"How many doctors is it appropriate for a 29-year-old woman to have in her phone?" I asked Tom (shout out). 

"If you have any more than 6, there's something wrong," he said.

I have 8. And a physical therapist. There's something wrong. And it's eating up too much of my time. 

I tutored right after work today and then rushed to my appointment with my rheumatologist. I waited for so long I had to cancel my next appointment, which was with my physical therapist. The bottom line: All of these mediocre health "issues" are taking up way too much of my time. 

The rheumatologist stands by his initial diagnosis of fibromyalgia, which I had hoped was maybe a bit premature. I definitely have hip bursitis, which is the only thing that's currently bothering me. Bursitis, he says, is actually common in people with fibro. So, according to him, the pain in my hip is a symptom, not the actual issue.

Since my stomach is still reeling from my weekend and my late-night hankerings, I'm not only going to try to stick to a vegan diet, but I am going to be mindful of eating foods that also aid in anti-inflammation (is that the correct terminology?):

Minus the meat, dairy, and unlimited cooked Asian mushrooms

Going to the doctor today also meant an encounter with the dreaded scale, something I've avoided since around the Super Bowl. I asked the nurse if I could not look at the scale. I didn't. However, as she was putting information into the computer, she mentioned that I weighed less than I did at my last visit...I knew that, but I also know that I weigh more than I did at the peak of my weight loss...which was still shy of my ultimate goal. 

When she left the room, I quickly snuck on the scale before the doctor arrived. Okay, it's not so bad. I'm up 5 lbs, but that also means I'm still down 5 lbs. Some pants are too tight, but none are so tight that they actually feel shorter. My gut may feel bloated, but it's not as roll-y as it was before. There is still hope.

The new bottom line: I need to get back on the horse. That means: the weekends are my time for recreation, but that doesn't mean I can go crazy with food. I'm officially back on the vegan horse, which seems like an oxymoron (speaking of which, just found a leak of Schoolboy Q's new album...can't wait to see him in 2 weeks).  

Okay, that was slightly irrelevant. Time to get back on track in more ways than one:

MONDAY = GYM AND COUNTING CALORIES. This week doesn't count because Monday was a holiday. 

Not much interesting food news to post (other than I've been stuffing my face in bed late at night), but I did try to recreate my Pittsburgh golden oat smoothie yesterday. 

I made this with one banana, a cup (I think? It was too early for memories) of oats, a cup of almond milk, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. And ice. No perfume, although it's in the photo. The result: Too watery. Needs less milk and more banana. Do over!

I also managed to stay vegan at Surf Taco yesterday. 

Costa Rican burrito bowl, no cheese, add guac

I was also excited to come home to a case of Brad's Raw Crunchy Kale from Laura!!! (I think I ate 3 already).

Nom nom nom...my bestie is the best

I got back in the kitchen today, too, because I was inspired by some Simple Veganista recipes. 

For dinner today, I made roasted cauliflower and chickpeas with mustard dressing. 

This was very easy and much more tasty than I expected - I mixed a head of cauliflower (cut into florets) and a can of rinsed and drained garbanzo beans with 2 tablespoons of EVOO and some salt and roasted it at 400 degrees for 45 minutes (stirring every 15). I kept checking the recipe to see what I forgot. No seasonings?! Surely you must be mistaken, Simple Veganista!

Meanwhile, I prepared two very uninvolved things: a cup of quinoa on the stove and mustard dressing. The dressing calls for a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a tablespoon of whole grain mustard, and of course I chose today to bring my Dijon mustard to work and leave it there (it's always something - but better mustard than my wallet). I used 2 tablespoons of whole grain Dijon mustard (mind-blowing, right? Thanks, Trader Joe), 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, and a tablespoon of EVOO. I mixed this dressing with the beans and cauli when they were done roasting and had cooled for a few minutes. Oh, I also chopped up very little parsley and mixed that in, too. Whenever I go to chop parsley, I'm like "Why the F did I buy this?! I hate this!" ...but it was pretty unnoticeable in this mustardy goodness (I could eat mustard with a spoon).

I don't have nutrition facts yet, but this is supposed to make 2 servings with some leftover quinoa (yeah, serve this on top of the quinoa, BTW). This was a great portion size, absolutely delicious, and sometimes sinus-clearing (and almost a parallel sentence). I give it an A.

I also finally made rustic apple and pear crisp. 

This was also really easy: wash, core, and dice 3 apples and 3 pears. If you're like me, laugh at yourself and how inept you are at coring and dicing things.

Mix with 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, a tablespoon of cornstarch, a tablespoon of sugar, and a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon (crap, I used a heaping tablespoon). This goes into a 9 x 9 baking pan...or, if you're like me, an 8 x 8 baking pan and also a loaf pan.

Then mix together 1 3/4 cup oats, a cup of chopped walnuts (crap, I bought a half cup...improvised with another half-ish cup of sliced almonds), 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, a teaspoon of vanilla extract (imitation for me), and some salt. This goes on top of the apple-pear mixture, but it didn't seem to make enough for me. The recipe calls for an optional 1/4 cup of almond meal and it probably needs it.

This bakes at 350 for 35-40 minutes. I went with 35 since the oven was still cooling down from 400 degrees.

No nutrition facts here, either, but this serves 6. I mean...one. Because I'm about to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

A Rave and a Review

It's about to get TMI with 3 additional letters. I am PMSing and that means I want to eat everything and I don't care how many calories I consume today. My boss brought a box of Munchkins into the office today and it was on - I needed a donut.

The day started off well with a smoothie + a cup of blueberries for breakfast. My new supply of garcinia cambogia came in the mail, and this kind also has coffee bean extract in it. Oh yeah, of course I drank coffee, too.

I forgot my salad dressing AGAIN so I ate the other half of my satay noodles for lunch along with the snack I packed - guacamole hummus and some baby carrots. So few calories for so much deliciousness! 

Well, by 1:00, I was hungry again (remember how my lunch is at 10:27 AM?!). I had made a delicious chickpea salad last night and I brought in a small container of it...and housed that as a snack on hall duty. The need for donuts persisted.

Forty minutes later, it was my prep time. I tried to hold myself over with 3 water crackers, but those are not very donuty. The closest thing to donuts in the office, besides the actual donuts, was the caramel popcorn. Although I now know that the caramel was made with butter, I also knew that the popcorn would be a better bet than a munchkin. I had to remind myself that I said I wasn't going to be "that strict" about my veganness anymore. 

I had to tutor 2 students after school and I had a plan for my way home: we'll get to that in a second. First, the chickpea salad (this is the rave)...

Not this kind of rave

How to Make TO-DIE-FOR Curried Chickpea Salad (adapted from The Simple Veganista)

Mix together the following:

• 2 cans of rinsed and drained chickpeas
• 3 peeled and diced carrots (1 cup)
• 5 sliced green onions (1 cup)
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup reduced sugar Craisins
• 1/2 cup raw cashew pieces

In a separate bowl, mix together these ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup tahini (thin with water until it reaches desired consistency)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Then, mix it all together. I swirled a little bit of agave on top to pick up the sweetness of the dried fruits and mixed it together even more. Mash it up a bit with a potato masher. Then, eat it plain or make an awesome sandwich on a multigrain sandwich thin with arugula and tomato like so:

...freakin HEAVEN.

And what's even better? Let's talk about my pit stop.

I always describe where I live as boring, but convenient. I am close to several major highways and it's easy to get pretty much anywhere I need to go. But there is really nothing to do in the immediate area.

However, we have a pretty cute little Main St. Again, there's not much on it, but there is a bar specializing in craft beer and...a vegan bakery (there is also a vegan restaurant somewhere in town now, so apparently my boring slice of suburbia is pretty vegan-friendly). 

And this is not just any vegan bakery. Papa Ganache won Food Network's Cupcake Wars (to be honest, I've never seen the show and the whole cupcake/cake pop trend irks me a little), which is kind of a big deal. I'd been wanting to try the place for a while and I was also curious how they manage to stay in business in such a tucked away little corner of nowhere.

First of all, when I arrived, the parking lot was packed. I'm pretty sure I parked illegally in a bank of icesnow. 

I didn't take a picture of the front because I felt like a creep

The inside was pretty busy too, with a guest presumably planning a party and some people playing Connect Four at one of the tables along the wall. The walls were decorated with adorable muffin tins and other baking accoutrements. I was psyched to see that they also offer vegan food: stromboli, pizza, chili, macaroni and cheese, and soups. I was not psyched to see that they didn't have any donuts. :( I've actually been obsessed with vegan donuts for some time now...one of our students works at the amazing food truck, The Cinnamon Snail, and she would frequently bring us tons (possibly literally) of leftover pastries. 

Anyway, do you know what they did have a ton of? Cupcakes. I figured that was a good place to start. I had already perused their menu online, and the list of available treats scrawled on a chalkboard display was daunting. Sometimes I didn't know what was what. There was a line behind me, so I didn't want to linger. I decided on a caramel chocolate pretzel, because how can you go wrong with that? And then I spotted them: SEVEN-LAYER COOKIES. I am obsessed with seven-layer cookies and I had even been craving my Nana's light and airy almond cookies out of the blue today. 

"Are those rainbow - or seven-layer - cookies?!" I cried.

"Yes, but they're $2 each," answered the bakery employee, as if that was going to stop me from getting one (it did stop me from getting more than one, and that's probably a good thing). The mac and cheese's price of $8.50 did deter me from a purchase today, but this weekend might be a good time to dive in.

My cupcake and cookie came to $5.89, and I left a $1 tip because I knew I'd be back. Now the important question was, could I make it home without opening the box and stuffing my face?

I guess today's willpower is a little bit stronger than I thought. I downed my dinner of a chickpea salad sandwich in record time and went for the seven-layer cookie first. 

HOLY SHIT. Yes, I am using an actual curse word on my so-far pretty-clean blog. I ate this too quickly to take a close-up photo - and I really tried to savor it and eat it in five or six little bites. This tasted better than any seven-layer cookie I've ever had - and admittedly, my ex's Italian grandmother made some pretty good ones. This one was more moist (I hate that word) that a non-vegan cookie and it had just the right amounts of almond and chocolate. They could charge $4 and I'd still go back and get another one. I wish they made these, like, brownie sized. Amazing. 

Then it was time for the cupcake. I think I've had a similar kind from Confections of a Rock Star, but it wasn't vegan (although they do have vegan options). This one was good: the cake wasn't super dense like vegan cakes can be and the pretzels were nice and fresh (I feel like it's easy for them to get stale-ish when they're sitting on top of a cupcake).

My only complaint is that this cupcake was a bit shallow and piled high with frosting.

Cupcake under my nails like a slob

There was a filling in the middle and it was good, but I'm not sure if it was caramel. Overall, this was enjoyable, but I'd be happy to try something else next time (maybe even a non-cupcake baked good). I wish they made seven-layer cupcakes...OMG I can't get over these.

It's also really cool that Papa Ganache is owned by an LCSW who runs the Papa Ganache Project, an interactive and educational bakery program for at-risk kids. I am thrilled to have this business in my community and I know that I will be back soon...like, possibly tomorrow. 

Why I Do What I Do

This is going to sound totally counterintuitive, but when I was still hungry after dinner today, I spent 45 minutes in the kitchen prepping future meals/snacks and I'm no longer hungry. I think it's pretty clear that much of my eating - particularly my nighttime snacking - has been a result of boredom. 

I still have quite a few calories in my allowance today, but I accidentally broke vegan today...by unintentionally eating half of my angora sweater (the other half ended up in my left eye). I know, I know, what kind of a vegan wears angora? 

My reasons for starting a vegan diet are self-centered and have nothing to do with my thoughts about animals (sorry if that makes me sound like an ass, but it's true). The way I felt after a night of bingeing on dairy and some meat reinforced my rationale. 

I am, by nature, a whiner and a complainer - at least I worry that's how I come off to others; I prefer to think of myself more as an observant person with an endearing penchant for kvetching. 

I also suffer from bitchy resting face. For those of you who are not familiar with the condition, here is an informational video:

Since I stopped eating animal products, I must say that my attitude has improved greatly and I often find myself with a smile on my face for no good reason (although does one need a "good" reason to smile?). Like I mentioned before, I rarely get road rage anymore - in general, my moods feel a lot more stable and a lot more positive. People have even told me that it seems like I'm in better spirits. Why would I want to give this up?

More importantly, my anxiety level has been almost nonexistent. I've suffered from anxiety and panic attacks since childhood and maybe it's coincidental and/or maybe it's all in my head, but I haven't felt my typical nerves for most of 2014 (besides my MRI and the morning after drowning myself in buffalo chicken dip). I'd always known that changing some of my lifestyle habits would make me feel better, but I was never willing to try. Now that I know that simply altering what I eat can make a world of difference in my moods, I wish I had done it years ago. 

Any weight loss that comes with this diet is an added bonus. I'll take a loss of mood swings any day. 

P.S. Tonight's dinner - a chik'n patty with guacamole hummus and fresh salsa on a multigrain sandwich thin = divine. People have also asked me how I deal with my cravings, but this is what I crave now (well, I also craved a baked potato today).

The Aftermath

Felt kind of similar

Okay, you know what, I've been skirting around the issue, so let's just discuss it: The Super Bowl. 

Steve's coworker had a party and said he could bring whomever. I figured I would try to stick to "safe" foods but I'd be open to...sampling. I bought tortilla chips and Trader Joe's guacamole hummus to contribute and of course, picked up a GH for myself. I knew I shouldn't eat too much before the party, so I had a GH/sun dried tomato sandwich before I left my place.

Heaven. For realz.

I decided to wear Giants gear for the party since the Super Bowl was being played in "our house." I was feeling pretty good because I bought this t-shirt in August and I never really felt comfortable in it this entire football season - it's an XS, and I typically wear a S anyway. Luckily, the Giants played so poorly that I rarely even bothered to sport my collection of too-tight fan apparel. But now my muffin top and love handles have almost completely disappeared.

Ignore my messy room

Well, then I went to Steve's and before we even left for the party, I had downed a beer, a cookie, and half of a peanut butter and jelly pancake. En route, I declared, "If there are no wings at this party, I am going home. I will legit call a cab and go home." Eat all of the things?

After visiting the keg and swearing that we would never tell anyone we drank light beer (sorry, Steve and Briele), we headed inside to worship at the altar that is the Super Bowl Buffet. I loaded up my plate for Round 1, feeling a little uneasy.

What you see here is (clockwise): guacamole hummus, blue cheese? (Ranch?), a buffalo wing, Tostitos scoops, broccoli, buffalo chicken dip, Ritz crackers, a small sampling of chicken Murphy that was mostly potatoes. The verdict: Keep the buffalo chicken dip coming. The buffalo wing itself was as disappointing as my DiGiorno pizza slice: just anti-climactic and not worth it. 

As the night wore on and the game became a blow-out, the commercials a sentimental snoozefest, and the halftime show the biggest bore since watching figure skating on mute while waiting for my MRI, I continued to make trips to the buffet table and the cooler (we found the good beer!).  Eventually, I told myself, "Just go HAM. Who says you have to stick to chicken only? There are Italian subs here! Italian subs!" 

I helped myself to a small piece of Italian sub. It was: disappointing, anti-climactic, not worth it.

I continued to gorge. There was an ice luge. There were cookies.

"Let's leave by the end of the third quarter" turned into "let's eat more" and a discussion about why the day after the Super Bowl should be a holiday instead of Black Friday or President's Day (or, at the very least, can we somehow combine the Super Bowl with one of those things?). Well, because the day after the Super Bowl is not a holiday, we figured we needed to eat even more to ensure that we felt functional for work the next day (i.e. not hungover - not that we drank that much, but who needs an excuse to pig out even more?). 

This necessitated a trip to Wawa and for me, a binge on all of the foods I could have during my 24-hour "pass" period: an apple fritter, Doritos (both Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese) and, obviously, macaroni and cheese (sometimes scooped up and eaten on Doritos). 

I woke up at 5:45 AM with a clear head, a text that I had a snow day, and a terrible feeling in my gut. I couldn't wait to get home and whip up a smoothie. I had a ton of fun during the Super Bore, but the meat and dairy didn't really contribute to that. Now I know that I just don't need them - hell, I don't even really want them!

Day Twenty-Four...Bring on More!

This post should be short and sweet, as nothing particularly interesting happened today except I'm either getting that stomach bug or the prednisone is giving me bubble guts. I'm exhausted so as soon as I finish getting my stuff together for tomorrow, I'm going to bed (tomorrow is Taco Night, so I have a lot to get together).

For breakfast I had my Rawjuvenate smoothie, this time with 3/4 cup frozen blueberries, 3/4 cup sliced strawberries, a teaspoon each of vanilla and almond extract, and the usual other stuff. I actually bought K cups yesterday and made a Kona coffee but then I didn't drink most of it. 

For a snack I had a 100-calorie pack of almonds. The 100-calorie packs are for people who are too lazy to portion servings out themselves. Therefore, you pay twice the price for extra packaging/for someone else to portion for you. Yes, I am that lazy person.

For lunch I had leftover vegetable stir fry. I think/hope it was the last container because I'm tired of it. I still have all of that confetti couscous salad to throw out (ugh and some kind of chicken dish I literally made before Christmas. I want to just throw away my whole fridge and start over).

For dinner, I had a vegan burger, which I was dreaming about all day. I made it almost exactly the same way as yesterday, except this time I seasoned it with cumin and used Smart Balance cooking spray instead of EVOO. Sure saved me a lot of calories. 

Sorry for such a ho-hum post today. This is just becoming second nature, so it's no longer interesting. I'm sure I'll eat about 2,000 things tomorrow so that should be a longer post. :)

Totals	1,082	166	29	49	2,710	36
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	118	-16	11	11	-410	9
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Oh, and one of these days when it's above 15 degrees, I'll make it back to the gym.

Days Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three

Guys, I'm in love. We'll get to that later. First, let me recap my hellish Sunday.

Sunday was one of those days where I just couldn't eat. THANKS BEERFEST! (On the plus side, this means I lost any of the beer/illicit andouille sausage weight that I gained on Saturday). 

I ended up driving home around 4 AM because I knew it was going to be a rough morning and I wanted to spend that rough morning in my own bed. I steamed myself in a hot shower for 2 hours (I'm not even kidding. Drinking can after can of ice cold seltzer in a scalding shower really helps). Around 7:00, I decided to heat up a slice of Tofutti pizza for breakfast. I was not patient enough to cook it in the toaster oven for 20 minutes as per the instructions, so I microwaved it and ate it all soggy and weird-like. 

Throughout the day, I drank at least 9 waters (including seltzer) and noshed on some Wheat Thins in bed during my Daria marathon (I mostly kept watching the same episode over and over because I kept falling asleep).

I woke up around 9:00 PM and took all of my supplements, then heated up a cup of TJ's low sodium vegetable broth with 1/2 cup of whole wheat couscous in it. I sprinkled some garlic on top, but it was still pretty bland. But that's exactly what I needed. I am leaning very heavily toward total teetotalism because even though I skipped my dose of Cymbalta on Saturday, beer is still not jiving with me. 

Then My Fitness Pal gave me this warning:

Totals	470	83	16	11	808	17
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	730	67	24	49	1,492	28
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Don't encourage me to go into starvation mode, My Fitness Pal. That weight is basically my goal! Now that I'm toying with the idea of going to the Dominican Republic with Stacey for Easter, I really need to get more vigilant. But I still have 11 weeks to go :)

Now for today!

I had several doctor's appointments, including one with an orthopedist that I had to wait weeks for, so I took off work. I only had time for coffee + almond milk for breakfast before I left. Oh, I did slather my lips with this, too:

Don't look at my gross nails; I just peeled off my gel manicure

Yes, I'm the vegan in the angora sweater with the bacon lip balm.

The appointment took forever. Diagnosis: Hip bursitis (which I could have predicted in November when the pain started) and radiculopathy, which is going to require an MRI and I am terrified. I have to say, I was very impressed with the doctor and the other staff members, though. If anyone needs an ortho in the Central Jersey/Jersey Shore area, hit me up! He and his technician were wonderful. I did have to remove my daith piercing for MORE x-rays and I have yet to get it back in my ear. First world problems grumble grumble grumble. I also turned down a cortisone shot in my hip since I also had to go get 5 shots at the allergist. That was enough.

After the allergist, I barely had time to eat, but I headed to Starbucks. Guess what? Starbucks does not offer any truly vegan products! I got a grande iced coffee with soy milk (since it was a balmy 45 degrees outside) and a Hearty Veggie & Brown Rice salad bowl, which contains honey in its lemon tahini dressing. Oh well. I'm not going to get all bent out of shape about honey. I can't believe I eat this stuff with kale and beets in it. 

Oh wait, I just realized why I had no time to really eat - I wasted a very long time at Target. I had just been thinking about how much happier and cheerful I've been since I went vegan. Typically, I'm the kind of person to scream, kick, and throw things when I'm by myself and pissed off (particularly if I'm driving). However, now that I'm not pumped full of gross meat hormones, I've been very calm. Nevertheless, when I came out of Target and saw that someone had slammed her shopping cart into the side of my (pretty new) car rather than walking three feet to the cart return on the other side of my car, you can bet that I let some F-bombs fly in the parking lot.

Now on to the most amazing meal of today: Dinner. I had been dying to make these vegan burgers for ages and now I just want to live on them. No, I want to live in them. I used a recipe from Vegetarian Times to make 4 burgers. 

Look at the pretty layers!

Into the Ninja went 1/2 cup of cannellini beans, 1/2 cup of black beans, 1 1/2 cups of shredded carrots, a cup of coarsely chopped onion, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, 3 chopped cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of chili powder, salt, and pepper. I pulsed the mixture until everything was mixed together but not pureed. I checked to see if it was ready to be molded into patties, but the mixture didn't seem quite sticky enough, so I added some of the liquid from the beans (make sure you reserve this liquid when you drain your beans). 

All mixed up

I let this sit (and set) in the fridge for about 30 minutes and then I formed the mixture into 4 1" patties. I preheated a skillet with a tablespoon of EVOO and then heat the patty for 3 minutes on one side, 3 minutes on the other side, 2 minutes on the first side again, and 2 more minutes on the other side - 5 minutes total per side, if you're worse at math than I am.

I put this on top of a slice of Tofutti American cheese on a TJ's multigrain sandwich thin. It got nice and melty. On the other side of the bun, I put a thick tomato slice, some pickle slices, and a healthy portion of Dijon mustard. I put both sides together and holy (non) cow, I went to heaven. 

The patty getting all oily and steamy

Garnishing this heavenly burger

Meet the new love of my life

Today's totals:

Totals	993	117	46	28	2,473	21
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	207	33	-6	32	-173	24
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Did I mention that I've lost 8 lbs already? (probably). Today when I was getting dressed, I actually looked at myself in the mirror and said out loud, "I love my body." It looks like I can take my fat jeans back to the store since I never even wore them!

Anyway, I've fallen off the smoothie game for the past 3 days, but I've continued with (and upped) the supplements. Time to go wash the Ninja so I can have a smoothie breakfast tomorrow!