August 7, 2015

Morning walk - 45 min.  It was about 80 degrees and feels hot, humid, and sticky outside.  Ick.  I am now listening to a book called The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer, which suggests that short intervals or bursts of speed can be very beneficial so I jogged 3 times during my walk.  I can jog past 2 or 3 houses.  That is rather pitiful.  I think I need a sports bra. 

Coffee - 1/2 cup with Vanilla Almond Milk and vanilla stevia

Breakfast - I made stir fry veggies cooked in broth, rather than oil, even though I thought it would not taste as good.  It was actually ok.
I used some veggies from my garden - onion, okra, chard, cherry tomatoes and some from the store - mushrooms, fresh garlic, fresh ginger and eggplant.  I seasoned it with turmeric, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper.

I went to the store and bought a sports bra and some capri length sweat pant like pants for  yoga. 

Lunch - big salad w/ greens, berries and sunflower seeds, leftover quinoa/butternut squash and fried rice/veggies - mostly the squash and veggies

Snack two fully loaded breakfast bars - about the size and shape of cookies - made with beans, but ok - from the batch I made last night - I like them, my husband just says they are edible, and the kids won't eat them, - green tea, water

Dinner - tried some more fake vegan foods.  Had 2 Gardein Crispy Tenders - they were ok.  My daughter would not try it.  My son said it was disturbing but he ate it.  We also split a little Gardein Beefless slider - again, daughter would not try it, but son liked it.  I tried it and did not like it.  The dog liked it.  I also had a Lightlife Smart Dog with a little bit of Daiya cheddar like cheeze on a half of a Rudy's Organic Spelt tortilla.  The Smart Dog blistered in the microwave and tasted odd as did the cheeze.  The tortilla was ok.  Along with that I had some steamed broccoli (leftover, but good) and some black eyed peas and purple hull peas from my garden cooked with millet and a little frozen peas and carrots with it (cooked in the crockpot  sort of following a recipe from a vegan slow cooker cookbook).  That was also ok.
However - I am not satisfied.  Something is missing.  I am now drinking a glass of wine, but that is not what is missing.
Went for a 10 minute evening walk.  It is 95 degrees outside.  Way too hot.

August 6, 2015

Morning walk - 35 min.
1/2 cup coffee w/ vanilla almond milk creamer and vanilla stevia
Breakfast - chia/oatmeal pudding - 1/2 cup - made w/ steel cut oats, chia and almond milk and vanilla - the recipe called for rolled oats, which I do not like as oatmeal - it is ok in cookies (what isn't?), so I had to cook it this morning and it was much tastier than I thought it would be.  I did not bring enough though and I was hungry later.  I have leftover and will have more tomorrow.
Snack - a banana, green tea, water

Lunch -ate rather late because I went to the store after work - salad w/ berries on it, walnut oil and balsamic vinegar dressing, leftover fried rice and veggies and quinoa and butternut squash, some organic corn chips, water

Dinner - not much - not very hungry due to late lunch.  Glass of wine, 2 fully loaded breakfast bars made from recipe in My New Roots cookbook - I changed a few things, but it is like cookies/granola bars made from oats, a can of white beans, some organic brown rice crisp cereal, applesauce, chia and some dried fruit, seeds, nuts and spices and maple syrup.  They are not very sweet, but they are pretty good.  I also cut up some crystallized ginger into tiny pieces and put some of that in - next time I will put in more.  Dr. Fuhrman says to eat 1/2 to 1 cup of beans daily, but if you are not used to eating beans to work up to it slowly.  I had 2 cookies out of 16 and the recipe had one can of beans which is about1 1/4 cups of beans.  So, I had however much beans that would be if you can do the math to figure it out. I got .078 if I did it right and I have no idea if that is right and I have no idea how to convert that into a portion of one cup.

My family had a roasted chicken from the grocery store, bread from the store, broccoli and mac-n-cheese.  So SAD.  I could not look at the chicken.  Not because I felt sorry for the chicken or anything, but because I really wanted to eat it.  #notveryveganyetbuttrying

August 5, 2015

Morning walk - 45 minutes
1/2 cup of coffee with Almond milk creamer and vanilla stevia
Breakfast - none
Snack in car on the way home from work - banana
Lunch - Salad and leftover quinoa, butternut squash, corn casserole

I went to my first yoga class today.  It was a beginner class.  It is a kinder, gentler, quieter way of torturing your body.
Dinner - salad and Trader Joes Japanese style fried rice w/ added frozen veggies.
Evening walk - 25 min.

August 4, 2015

Morning walk - 6:30 am - 45 minutes
1/2 cup of coffee with vanilla almond creamer - it tastes better than the coconut milk creamer - does not have that fake icky taste to it.

Breakfast - a scrambled egg - from the farmer's market so hopefully the chickens were treated better than the factory ones and we had eggs that needed to be eaten, two pieces of Rudy's Organic Spelt bread - toasted - one spread w/ avocado and the other with Earth's Best margarine, some strawberries and a piece of banana and water

Gardening -my wonderful son helped me or I would not have gotten the amount done that we did.  I worked for about an hour and by the time we finished, it was 85 degrees and I was dripping sweat all over.  Pulled out a giant cherry tomato plant and took the tomatoes large enough to ripen off it, pulled out a giant basil plant and a smaller one and pulled off the leaves that looked good enough to keep, dug up the dirt in the older raised bed where I had pulled the tomato plant out and put in 3 bags of veggie garden soil and a bag of cow manure and mixed it and spread it around.  Got too hot to do any more today.  Now it is almost ready to plant my fall crops in.

Lunch - salad from Whole Foods - had a piece of crispy fried tofu - really was good, and a little cottage cheese in it - not vegan, but good.  Bought more vegan foods with in-store coupons. Ate the rest of the Biena all natural chickpea snacks.

Dinner - white wine, a yummy casserole of butternut squash, quinoa, onion, almonds, and corn seasoned with cinnamon and cumin seeds, some strawberries and mango and a some Almond Dream Bites for dessert - they are chocolate covered vanilla ice cream like bite sized frozen things that are vegan and yummy.

August 3, 2013

Morning walk - 35 minutes.
Coffee with fake coconut milk creamer in it.  Don't like the fake stuff.

Breakfast - 100 calorie Oroweat sandwich thin with Earth Balance margerine on it.  It is supposed to taste like butter.  I can't taste it at all.

Snack - raw almonds - many books say to eat nuts raw because they are more nutritious.  Other books say to soak nuts first, then dry or dehydrate them I guess and a book I was reading recently said that nuts should be roasted or cooked because we can't digest nuts raw.  So, which is correct?  Raw, soaked or roasted?  So many opinions!  Also had an apple and a few grapes.

Later snack - in van on way home from work - carrot sticks, more grapes.

Lunch - salad - greens, homemade pickles, blackberries, avocado, toasted walnuts, chia seeds, cherry tomatoes, walnut oil and vinegars (red wine, balsamic and apple cider), water, and a ginger candy (15 calories)

For dinner, we tried some more vegan food products - Daiya Cheeze Lover's Pizza and Bocca Chik'n Veggie Nuggets.  I also made a healthier gluten free pepperoni pizza for the kids with uncured pepperoni on it by Smart Flour foods.  And, I made a stir fry with fresh veggies - mushrooms, garlic, onion, ginger, squash, tomatoes and greens and some baked sweet potatoes. 
Both kids thought the Chik'n nuggets were gross.  I ate one and a half nuggets but they were not really good so I gave the dog part of a nugget.  The dog liked it.  My husband also liked the Chik'n nuggets.  He said they were not wonderful, but were ok.  My son and daughter both liked the pepperoni pizza even though it was gluten free, the pepperoni was uncured and it claimed to contain ancient grains.  I did not try that one.  My son, husband and I thought the Daiya Cheeze pizza was ok.  My son and I liked the flavor of the tomato sauce a lot.  My daughter thought it was awful and went on a rant and rampage yelling about how I need to feed her real actual food and not this awful stuff that is not food.  The kids would not eat the veggie stir fry but my husband and I did and we liked it.
We also had mango and watermelon.

August 2, 2015

45 min walk this morning.
1/2 cup coffee with So Delicious Vanilla coconut creamer
They listened - it says that on the new carton, and took out the carrageenan (a known carcinogen) and some other cancer causing chemical.
I still had to add my vanilla stevia and it is not as creamy as half and half and it tastes strange.

Breakfast - sandwich - one slice of Rudy's Organic Spelt bread with a little soy free Follow Your Heart Veganaise, and a slice of Daia Cheddar Style Slices melted on it.

It melts and stretches.  I guess the flavor is ok, but the texture is - eww - it has this sticky, oily feel and 45 minutes later after having drunk water and brushed my teeth, I think I still have that oily feel in the back of my throat.  It kind of sticks to the inside of your mouth like peanut butter does, but it stays there.  Blah.

Lunch - following the guidelines in a vegan book - salad and a small amount of snack chickpea things and pea shaped chip things.  Not very satisfying or good at all.  (The salad was good, not the snacky things,)

Snack - an apple and a bit more of the chickpea and pea shaped things.

Dinner - really late because I worked late and had to go to the grocery store afterwards so by the time I got home I was starving.  Not a good thing to do.  Leftover rice and veggies, water, wine, cheese, sunflower seeds, homemade pickles, tortilla chips, a few crackers, a vegan mini coconut ice cream sandwich, one square of dark chocolate.

August 1, 2015

Morning walk - 45 minutes
Coffee w/ milk and vanilla stevia
Breakfast - rice with veggies and an egg, water

Lunch - none - on Saturdays I work 10-2 with no break and no time for lunch.  I brought some fruit and carrots for snacks on my drive home, but I forgot and left them there.  They will still be there Monday.

Snack - I am trying vegan foods now -

So, these Organic Peas Please chip things - taste salty and a bit like stale oil to me.  My son says they taste like stale popcorn and would be better if spicy.  My husband did not think they were salty.
I had a small amount.

These Chickpea snacks - are ok - some of the crunchy bits are a bit too hard, and they are salty.  I had a little bit of this.
I also had a ginger candy and water.

Dinner - leftover rice and veggies from breakfast - (brown rice, some veggies from garden, some from store), baked sweet potato, asparagus, 1/2 cob of corn, strawberries, watermelon