The Surefire Way to Fail

As always, when you’re trying to do something new, you will almost always figure out the ways NOT to do it before you find what is successful. Taking a look at famous people of our times, many of them failed even up to hundreds of times before becoming as successful as they are. So you can be sure that I’ve now figured out a failing method on my journey to veganism.

Yesterday, I wrote a post about making my mind up 100%. That was true. But what I didn’t know was that some of the fruit I had planned on eating had gone bad. So it came to the point I ate that pizza well before 4.

The surefire way to fail on the vegan road is to run out of fruit. If it’s not there, you can’t eat it. And if you can’t eat it when you’re hungry, you’re going to reach for things you probably shouldn’t.

Lesson learned: plan the fruit you are going to eat and make sure to have it on hand!

The Comfort of a Gray, Rainy Day

Yesterday morning, I jumped in my car like usual. I drove to the end of the driveway like usual, and turned down our street like usual. But something was slightly unusual about today, and that was the atmosphere around me.

I normally have the radio tuned into our local Christian station, but my husband had taken my car to the gym the night before without me. So instead, I turned on the ignition to the beginning of the song, “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa. I normally don’t like his music, but with the impact this song had, especially at the end of the latest Fast and Furious. I really, really like this song. Mix that song, with gray skies, and light rain. Perfection. A certain mood attained. Just right for this moment.

When I was younger, my mother always drove when she was upset. In fact, we probably spent more time on the road than we ever did at home. Whether it was driving at the end of the school week to visit my grandparents, and then waiting until the morning of school to get up extra early and drive back in time to meet our bus, we were always on the road. It was a way of life.

My favourite was always being in the passenger seat while my mother was driving, when the skies were dark and there was a light rain with the radio on. To me, that speaks comfort. To me, that speaks perfection. To me, that speaks home. I may be a case of a kid who never really knew what home was. I may be a case of a person who has a distorted way of looking at things. But as an adult, I feel that in my confusion and unstable life, I have found the very things that can be stable, that can be comforting, no matter what season of life one may be in.

So call me crazy, or whatever you please. But I have security in the fact I have experienced so much in life. I’ve been through troubling places, I’ve lived and experienced so many different cultures and schools. I have been dragged through the fire multiple times, and yet I can tell you exactly how not to fall apart when others may possibly see no way out.

I’m not a person who has despised my childhood, but rather a person who is thankful for learning what is most important to survive whatever may come in an adult life. You can plan your life, you can plan your job, your spouse, your schooling, etc… But plans rarely work out the way they are supposed to. The one thing you can prepare is your reactions, your attitude, and your stability. If you have that, with God by your side, it won’t matter whether money is an obstacle or struggle. Because you’ve already learned how to deal with change before.

It pays to be happy with the little things in life, because it’s the little things that will keep you going. So learn now what makes you happy, learn now how to react to change. Find comfort in the things that are stable to you, even if it’s driving in a car on a gray, rainy day.

Vegan on a Trip

Hello everyone, I’m back! Unfortunately I’m back with a bit of a head cold, but regardless, I’m back!

So as I wrote before I left, I would give you a quick summary of what it was like for food on this trip. As I said, everything was vegetarian to begin with, so meat would never be an issue. But vegetarians also consume dairy and often eggs. So this is what I encountered:

For many of the meals, there were vegan options. At times, they would make salads or pasta salads both with dairy and some specifically set out as vegan. Most of the time this was ok, except a few times when the vegan options tasted horrible. I guess there must be an art to figuring out vegan alternatives.

Many of the meals, such as breakfast, would be items such as pancakes, french toast, or egg breakfast sandwiches. However, they did offer oatmeal and cereal options with soy milk. So if you picked what you ate carefully, the weekend probably could have been done vegan. That would sometimes mean eating a lot of vegetables (especially on the macaroni and cheese night), but if you could stomach large amounts of simple things, you could do it.

Now, many of you know that I try to eat raw until four, particularly with lots of fruit. I believe this could have been made possible IF I had made arrangements ahead of time. However, without contacting the head cook and giving them a specific shopping list for me, it was impossible. I think we had fresh fruit two or three times out of the 10 meals we had. So that was a bummer.

I also packed a few vegan snacks, just incase. I took some fruit and nut bars, trail mix, chocolate almond milk, some seaweed, some kale chips, and some vegan jerky to try. So I didn’t go hungry, that’s for sure.

So I guess my biggest lesson is to plan ahead. If I do this trip again in the future, I will try to contact the head cook and ask for the large fruit breakfast. I think if the chef is assured that she doesn’t have to cut it up or do any extra work for it, I can’t see it being a problem. The vegan snacks were an awesome idea to bring, just to ensure that you have some of your own vegan foods, just incase.

Day 1 in Review

Hello everyone!

As promised, I will tell you what my days are like, and what I may struggle with.

I have gotten quite a few ideas from different vegans, however, today I decided to go with Freelee’s sample meal plan in a way that I could do it.

For breakfast, I’m having pulpy orange juice. That way I’m still getting in some of the fibre, and filling up on some yummy oranges. She suggests drinking 2L just for breakfast! I would have loved this as a kid, and still enjoy it today! I don’t think this is something I will do everyday, simply because I know it is important to get the full fibre in of a full fruit, but every once in awhile, it’s a nice, healthy “treat”!

For supplements with my breakfast (I’ll quit taking them as soon as I run out though…), I’m taking 2 probiotics (to make sure my digestion doesn’t do anything funny on the switch in diet), biotin (for hair and nail growth), and vitamin D (it just snowed again today!). I am planning on taking vitamin D still on days that I don’t get outside in the sun much, and also planning on taking B12 which apparently is difficult to get enough of on many different diets, not just vegan. Aside from those two, I will not continue the others once I am done with them, unless I need to. I also took two green chews (using to help me adjust until I’m eating a sufficient amount of greens each day), and some multivitamins (which I will also stop taking once they are done).

For a snack, I again took Freelee’s suggestion and drank some more pulpy orange juice. Like I said, it’s amazing! But I don’t think I would do this more than once or twice a week. It’s good to get a variety of fruits and veggies in too!

In total, I drank approximately 2.63L of pulpy orange juice. I did not even feel hungry at lunch! I’m in love.

Now, I was little worried that because I was drinking so much orange juice, and no water, that my urine would show up as dehydrated (darker yellow). After all, as a kid, you grow up thinking this is the case, usually because it’s not pure orange juice you were drinking. But nope! It was really clear. I was very hydrated! That’s the power of real things (no additives).

I got really busy at work (teaching, of course), and did not get a chance to eat anything else throughout the afternoon. I thought I had a deadline for certain files to be in my students’ records. Although I was done getting them to do their part, I wanted to grade them quickly before I sent them to their files. So I was grading like a mad-woman! When I was done with one stack, and about to tackle the next (after school), I took the one stack to our special needs coordinator. She was so excited I was done with them and was the first one. I looked at her and asked her why I was the first one when the deadline was tomorrow. She then proceeded to tell me the deadline was a week from tomorrow. I had the date completely wrong! Ugh… Oh well, I’d rather have things done earlier than later. I didn’t mark the second stack though. I went home.

I was so hungry when I came home, and so excited at the same time. I had just subscribed to a service called The Organic Box. They deliver fresh, organic produce to you once a week. You’re able to customize that you want, and it’s just amazing. So I got my first box today, and was so excited as I brought it in the house and was taking everything out. In fact, it inspired my supper.

For supper, I had a big salad with 50/50 mixed greens from Organic Girl, berries from my Organic Box (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), rainbow carrots from my Organic Box, field cucumber from my Organic Box, some sunflower seeds and soya nuts that I had, and topped with a mixture I made of avocado, salsa, lemon and a touch of vegan cream cheese. Oh it was so delicious and fresh tasting. Absolutely loved it!

Unplanned, but when we got to the gym, they have a Booster Juice and my husband wanted one of their smoothies. They have these vegetarian wraps that are super tasty, so I got one of those. I’m not sure this was vegan… That was my mistake. I will have to check another time.

My workout went well. I did a 10 minute warm-up on the treadmill, did some push-ups, some kettebell and 10-lb plate squats (hold the plate straight out in front of you), planks, foam rolling, shoulder rolls, standing alternating toe touches, my chiropractor exercises, and a 20 minute brisk walk on the treadmill.

Usually when I do cardio, I take it as my chance to read. I’ve conquered quite a few books this way because I have so much going on the rest of the time. Right now, I’m reading a book called “Skinny B***h”. I don’t swear, ever, so I will not type it out, sorry. But it is a super good book so far (minus some swearing/harsh language), but the information is awesome. The two ladies that wrote it are actually vegan and they explain why they’ve made this choice and why people should make that choice throughout the first chapters of the book. Love it.

After we came home, I took some mini, organic sweet potatoes that I had and cooked them up. One had gone mouldy in the bag, but didn’t seem to effect the others. I was so deceived. I cooked up about four of them, took them out of the peel and mashed them together, had a couple good bites, then took a bite that was potently terrible. In fact I had to spit it back out, clean my mouth out, gargle and the works. Oh that was so terrible. I didn’t go on eating anything more last night. That had ruined my appetite.

Following this, I went to bed.

My New Experiment: Fruit

I think it’s time for a little background:

I grew up a hunter’s daughter. My father grew up a lumberjack’s son. He learned quickly in life that there was not a ton of money, and so my grandmother grew a vegetable garden, and whatever my grandfather was able to hunt was the meat they served (rabbits, deer, moose, partridge, etc…).

Thus, I grew up a heavy meat eater. In fact, stews or beans with biscuits, and the typical “meat and potatoes” were quite frequently a supper meal. Of course with the younger generations and slightly more money, pizzas and junk foods made their way in the diet as well. But it would not be uncommon for me as a child to sit down and eat a pound of bacon myself. That’s just the way it was.

I remember when I met my first vegetarians. They were like celebrities to me because the only people I ever knew of that would even think of not eating meat were celebrities. Nobody in the “real world” would ever think to live without eating meat. It must surely be a way to die!

However, seeing these people live, and healthily, gave me a spark that continued to grow. One morning, in my teenage years, I simply woke up, and told my mother never to make meat for me again.

Did I exactly know what I was getting into? Absolutely not. In fact, eating some vegetarian junk food without learning the proper way to eat healthily vegetarian landed me with intensive stomach pains and a visit to the hospital where the doctor informed me of some key staples I should be eating to be healthy. Oops. Learned that lesson the hard way.

And so it began. A somewhat healthier 10-11 years of being a vegetarian. Cold turkey. No going back.

It wasn’t until I met my husband, and found out he had grown up vegetarian that I went back to eating meat. Sounds weird, I know. But he met my family at my university graduation weekend, and my stepfather is notoriously known for his bbqing skills. My brother convinced him to try a “real” burger, and he was hooked. Of course, eventually it got to me, and I began eating meat again.

Of course, since I had been studying the Bible more and learning about healthier ways of eating, I still did not eat pork or animals considered “unclean”. I stuck with the basics of chicken, turkey, beef, and some fish. I am an Atlantic girl, and fish (specifically Atlantic Salmon) has always been a favourite.

Now recently, I’ve been reading and studying more into health. I’ve been looking at vegan diets, raw vegan diets, the details of what is going on with the meat that is served to us these days, the packaging, the handling, the processing, all of these things that are completely vital for us to know truly what we are putting in our bodies. And I’ve come to a conclusion: I need to get rid of the meat and animal products.

I could go on forever and ever about the toxins, poisons, and everything that is being put into animal products. I could tell you all about the fact that the majority of the meat we buy in stores has already gone bad and we don’t even know it. I could go on and on about how safety inspections are unrealistic, and how really, at the end of it all, we can only do the best we can with what we’re given. A hot topic, especially for someone who works out is of course how you get in enough protein.

But I’ve decided, the only true way to convince people is not a lecture, but to simply be a living example. And that is what I’m going to do.

Now, my husband is not quite on board with me on this, and I have promised to never ask him to change. If my life leads a perfect example, I figure that should be proof in and of itself. But little by little, he seems to be a little more supportive, though maintaining zero interest in it for himself, which is totally fine.

My plan is to still workout, to still continue researching how to eat properly, and to still continue on with everything else the same, except for how I eat. One difference. I’m getting the junk out of my system!

If you’re interested in this topic and wanting to know more yourself, the following are some of the links that I refer to frequently:

1. http://thebananagirl.com (she has other links from this site as well)

2. http://veganbodybuilding.com (some athletes even provide examples of their daily meals in their profiles)

3. http://www.thefrankmedrano.com (a man who chose to become vegan)

There are many more, but those are just a few to get started. I will keep you posted on how this goes!

#onajourneybacktoEden

Passion Planner

Hello,

It was a little bit ago that someone had shown me this kickstarter for a passion planner. I love the idea of scheduling and planning, so I took a deeper look at it.

This planner is supposed to be the planner of all planners. Not only can you schedule every day (by the 1/2 hour), but it also is designed to help you reach goals in life. Awesome!

So I told my mom it would be a good idea for Christmas, as well as a few other options so I wouldn’t know what exactly she was getting me. When Christmas came, I got my gifts, opened them, and thought that was it. I did not get the passion planner which was ok.

A couple months later, my mom mentions my planner is coming soon. Woah. I didn’t even know she had ordered it! I guess they were very much on backorder and so it had been my gift all along.

I didn’t use much of it the first week, but since this week is Spring Break, I am using it and being amazed. I plan out my day the night before, and I have been accomplishing so much! I would say that on the first two week days of my break, my house is half cleaned, Spring sorting 1/4 done (we have way too much stuff) and I don’t seem to be forgetting anything, I’m in love. ❤

Have you heard of the passion planner? Do you own one? I’d love to hear what it is doing to help you!

Celebration of Learning

I’m not sure how many other schools do this, but every year, our school hosts what we call a Celebration of Learning. It is essentially student-led conferences, but rather than staying in a stationary place, the students have stations with either activities, projects or discussion places set up in order to demonstrate to their parents or families what they have been learning.

The tables I included in my room this year were:
Table 1 – Welcome Table – Take the piece of paper that has the activities and tables outlined as you travel around the room.
Table 2 – French – Play a memory match game using the cards which contain the French and English days of the week.
Table 3 – L.A. – Show your parents the textbook “Volcano” and describe what you have learned about Mount St. Helens. Then look at the Slideshow to show your picture with your volcano project.
Table 4 – Art – Show your parents your Huichol Yarn Painting and describe the method you are using to complete it.
Table 5 – Math – Get your bag of Skittles from the teacher and complete the written ratios.
Table 6 – Science – Using the materials provided, demonstrate the experiment we performed in class to prove that air takes up space (big, clear tub filled with water, clear glass, blank paper).
Table 7 – Spelling – Give your parents a spelling test using any lesson we have studied.
Table 8 – Social Studies – Share your plan with your family to help a problem in your community.
Table 9 – Bible – Using the Bibles provided, share one thing you have learned since studying Revelation.

This night does take a large amount of time to plan and set up, but the effects of it are awesome. There is little for the teacher to do, other than the set up and preparations. Instead, you get to sit back, make sure everything is running smoothly, and watch how the students interact with their own parents. You get to see parents smiling and laughing with their children. It’s really amazing to watch the relationships that get strengthened in a night like this.

I also like it because it causes busy parents to set extra time aside to sit and be interested in what their children are doing. I think the extra time alone, with the spotlight being on them in their classroom makes the night that much more special.

I’m curious to hear if your school does anything like this. Leave a comment below! I’m always up for new ideas!

Week 13 Day 2: Extended

So today was the day of the official meeting. I didn’t feel like getting up and coming to work, but of course it’s what I need to do.

The meeting went better than I thought, but at the same time, I was told they’ll let me know the chosen consequences later. So I’m still not 100% settled that I’ll agree with what is decided, but I guess that’s part of the reason there are groups to talk about things, debate them, and decide together.

After the meeting, my husband and I decided that I should stay at school to get some grading done. It is my goal to have all grading done before Christmas break, and I got a ton of it done tonight!

My husband has cut my carbs severely, raised my fats slightly, and really raised my proteins. I’m back to counting macros! So I was very hungry as I didn’t find out about my plan until after already being at work. We decided we would go to Monglie Grill where I was able to create a stirfry with lots of protein (chicken, turkey and salmon) with veggies and avoided the main part of the carbs. Was it that good? No. I don’t enjoy eating things this way. My husband does. But I needed to have lots of protein, and I was simply unprepared today.

With the minimal amounts of food that still hit my system, I felt incredibly drowsy on the way home. In fact, I could barely keep my eyes open. We also had to stop and get groceries, and by the time that was done, my husband suggested a nap and I jumped on it. Unfortunately, our nap turned into a very long nap, and I ended up sleeping the night away.

Week 8 Day 4

I woke up in such discomfort this morning, I actually considered calling in sick. But I sucked it up and went. Only when I got to work did I realize I forgot my bottle of painkillers at home. Ugh! Thankfully, there is a teacher’s reserve bottle in our medicinal/First Aid area at work.

I’ve been avoiding taking my tray off. My teeth hurt enough already with it on. And when I had talked to a previous student about how much it hurt (he has them too), he said the worst is when you take it off because it releases all the pressure. Then when you put it back on, the pressure goes back, and it’s all that extra movement that hurts the worst.

My plan for the day was to drink what I could. There was no way I was chewing anything. Soup was my best friend, but unfortunately even this had to be cool because Invisalign cannot handle hot things.

At lunch time, I did it. I took the tray off, went into the Staff washroom, and brushed my teeth. If only I could describe to you the pain. He was right. I honestly wondered how I was going to survive the rest of the day. But thankfully, I only talked when necessary and my kids treated me alright today. So somehow, I survived.

My meeting was very mini after school today, thankfully. I just wanted to go home and take a nap. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel hungry. But I guess the pain probably took that out of me.

I went to the gym tonight to catch up on yesterday’s workout. I honestly felt horrible, but did get an iced coffee to help. It was another three circuit workout focussing on shoulders, triceps and abs. I also finished up with HIIT cardio. But I discovered that when your teeth hurt, cardio makes them pulse. I know people keep telling me the pain will go eventually, and I’m trying to be as patient as possible. I will say that the desire to take it off has been a little less today, but it’s still driving me insane! Sleep cannot come soon enough!

Week 6 Day 5

As per usual, today was not my worship day but simply an appreciation day which is always nice. As far as Spirit Week goes, each classroom was allowed to choose their own theme for the last day. So my students submitted their choices, I narrowed down a list of five, and they were allowed to vote (an enhancement of our social studies unit learning about democracy and voting by secret ballot). Overall, my students chose Twin Day which is where you and someone else dress the same. We had a lot of fun with this day. I partnered up with one of my students and we decided to dress in blue shirts and black pants. Nothing difficult, but easy and fun!

I was also approached for something I was hoping to avoid this year: Being the female sponsor for the Flag Football Tournament this weekend. I asked to be the last female teacher/staff to be approached, and wouldn’t you know, I had to go. The kids were excited because we had a lot of fun last year, but I also knew my husband was already complaining about all of the meetings and time my job is taking and this would be a complete weekend without seeing him. So I made an agreement. Because I was still getting my meals made for me, I would need access to at least a fridge and microwave. And they met my accommodations. And so I would go.

After school, I had two meetings scheduled for this day (not a good way to say good-bye to my husband…). A couple of my colleagues and I are working on starting up a tutoring group in our school. This of course meant a lot of looking at policies that other schools formed, and creating a set of forms and policies of our own. Throughout this meeting, that started late and went twice as long as it was supposed to, we finally had a plan with some final revisions to complete. But of course, this meant our next meeting started later too.

Our second meeting was a Core Group meeting where we meet and talk about issues that need to be talked about within our group and our plans for during the year. Our group is the downstairs group, the middle core, grades 5-8. And so these conversations took a very long time, and needless to say, I came home to a very unhappy husband.

We did make it to the gym, and I completed 3 circuits of focus on chest and triceps followed by 12 minutes of HIIT. It was a later night than I expected because I also tried to spend a bit of time with my husband before I left. But he still had to work the next morning and I had a ton of things I wanted to get done before I left. So to bed we went.