Summer Days of Fruitrition Day 1/7 – Healing Journey Day 60

Journal:
I was actually a little excited about today. I absolutely loved my last PD session, and instead of going on my own, I got to be with colleagues for this one. That made it that much better!

The first thing I did was made some breakfast. Since I ate my Day 1 breakfast yesterday, I swapped it for that one banana and spinach smoothie that I did not finish during the Rawsome Healthy guide. So, I used the snack of today and the smoothie together to make a huge breakfast. Because I didn’t blend it the proper way (spinach and water first before adding in the bananas and strawberries), it came out looking like a Christmas smoothie. It was actually quite pretty!

That smoothie definitely filled me up this morning (I had a mug and a half as shown above PLUS my large smoothie cup that I took with me).

Now, I swapped Monday’s lunch with Tuesday’s lunch as it would have been much harder for me to prepare mangoes at a workshop than it would have been to eat figs. I also could not find ripe figs anywhere, so I brought a lot of water to go with dried figs. I did quickly find out that dried figs were not my favourite, though I did manage to eat 12 of them. However, I was still hungry. I didn’t expect to find anything more than a raw veggie tray for me to eat from in the hallway where they served lunch. However, they surprised me by having rice paper rolls! I know the rice paper wasn’t raw, but they were completely vegan and and because rice paper is so thin, it was so minimal compared to the heavily-breaded sandwiches they had for everyone else. I was so delighted! Veganism is making its way in the world! I loaded up!

When I got home, I did something bad and started “snacking.” I have been IN LOVE with arugula, but was eating it on toast, only making one at a time until before I knew it, I had eaten 3. Seriously, food addiction is no joke. I’m figuring out the power it holds even though I may have thought I was invincible. I share these things with you to be honest about the demise there is with food and how the unhealthy things are the things that grab us. So having bread in the house is a bad idea. If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t eat it.

I finally got around to making my supper which was a soup made from mangoes, tomatoes, and celery. It was ok, though my mangoes are not as ripe as they should have been. I paid almost $2 a mango (not in season) and though they looked decent, they were not truly ripe. I have them sitting in front of a heater to try and help them ripen, but it’s not working a miracle. Either way, the soup was ok but I could not finish it. I ate about half and packaged the rest for tomorrow.

I went to bed stuffed and I could tell right away that was the wrong thing to do. Whenever I go to bed stuffed, I wake up the next morning with an uncomfortable stomach. But, I completed my first day, and that was a success. I just ended up adding “extra” which needs to be whittled out.

I did not go to the gym, but I did 5 ab exercises at home that was also helping to strengthen my lower abs which feed into my hip flexor issue. It did get sore after awhile, but I think it was good. Here goes the start of rehabilitating that “kicking” pain.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tired. Can’t sit for forever without moving.
-Ate A LOT today.
-Hair is not feeling great. Too much cooked food and junk is showing in my hair.
-Feeling bloated after eating everything today.
-Acne still bad.

Weight at the end of the day = 169 lbs (up 0.3 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 2869 (84% carbs, 9% fat, 7% protein… good macros!)

National Sandwich Day – Healing Journey Day 55

Journal:
Today is National Sandwich Day and I had planned this day to be a sandwich day to see how my body would react to introducing bread. I woke up still not feeling 100% and needing to run to the washroom again. However,it was my hope that the bread would also help with this issue while I was at work. It would either be a success, or a completely bad judgment call. Only time would tell.

Early in the morning, I showered, got ready, and left early. I went and got gas so I wouldn’t have to do it in the evening, and then I hit Subway for their BOGO deal. I got two simple veggie subs on Italian bread (the only vegan bread). For sauces I got mustard and sweet onion sauce. And as for veggies? I got all the fresh veggies with the exception of jalapeño peppers as I didn’t need to put my body through that today.

What was my instant reaction after eating one for breakfast? Blah… not energizing, not “fulfilling”, just blah… I really was hoping this wouldn’t spell doom for the rest of the day.

By snack time, I was hungry again. So I pulled out the other sub and ate half. At lunch, I finished the sub. It amazed me how “empty” my stomach could feel while also feeling so not great. The caloric density of bread is not making up for the normal volume of fruit and veggies I normally eat. I also began to notice how dehydrated my body was beginning to feel.

When the afternoon hit, I was hungry again. I didn’t have any more “sandwiches” with me, but I did have a packet of savoury oatmeal, so I quickly whipped that up and ate it. I actually had never had savoury oatmeal before. Growing up, my favourite oatmeal included lots of brown sugar and dates. I always found that the dates tasted exactly like candy when cooked in oatmeal, so the thought of a savoury oatmeal did not really entice me. However, trying this Masala-flavoured oatmeal allowed me to quickly fall in love; it was so good!

Now, by the end of the afternoon, my stomach was in an all-right outcry. It already had not been feeling good throughout the day, but I knew it was not good. I had not been successful in my plan of trying to use bread to stop the bathroom issues and that did not work at all. In fact, I think the bread made it worse and my stomach more painful. So this plan was as good as failed.

After work, I drove to a place called Press’d to get another BOGO deal for sandwich day. I ordered two sandwiches called the Beatnik. The original recipe includes ranch dressing and swiss cheese, so I just took those off the sandwich and replaced them with avocado. I then brought them home and put my own sauces on them that I had in the fridge. It was much easier to control what they were putting on my sandwiches this way.

By the time I had eaten both sandwiches, I felt like I was so over-salted in my body, so dehydrated, stomach cramping badly, and just tired and terrible. Oh man… this sandwich day has been awful. I honestly am looking forward to going back to eating raw tomorrow. My body is so unhappy. I’m actually beginning to wonder if I’m truly digesting the food properly or not. I didn’t even go to the gym again tonight because I’m still scared of being away from the bathroom for too long. I want my health back!

Review of Symptoms:
-Stomach is bloated.
-Acne is terrible.
-Tired.
-I can feel the excess salt in my system.
-Still running to the washroom throughout the day.
-Not digesting food properly.
-Craving raw food and water.
-Pulled a groin-area muscle while playing soccer on the frosted grass with students today. Ugh…

Weight at the end of the day = 168.6 lbs (up 3 days from yesterday thanks to bread… ugh…)

Total Calories = 2691 (75% carbs, 12% fat, 13% protein)

Focus Change: From Weight to Health

I’ve almost been vegan for a year. Can you believe it? Time has gone by so quickly, and I don’t regret a second of it! So I thought I’d fill you in on my progress, and something that switched mentally along the way.

When I first went vegan, in the end of June/beginning of July 2015, I went through a week of major withdrawal; not from animal products, but from cheese! My husband ate nachos almost daily, and the smell of melted cheese would be ever so tempting. So how did I combat it? By having a piece of fruit in my hand and shoving it in my mouth… lol. You do what you have to do.

From there, it got easier. However, since I was so excited about this vegan world, I started looking for everything vegan in the grocery stores. I subscribed to a local Organic Box delivery which was the greatest thing because then I was able to select organic produce to be delivered weekly so that I always had fruit and veggies available. But as the fall came, things changed.

In the colder weather, I wanted cooked foods all the time. No problem, really. You can easily be a cooked food vegan. But, with a few complications in starting up my next school year, I started grabbing denser calorie, fast food. This meant hitting much too much of the shelves and freezers in the grocery stores. Not only was I excited that so many things were vegan, but I was able to try so many vegan products. Let’s just say, I was not paying attention to the macronutrient breakdown in any of them. My diet was very high in fat.

Now, I was already mentally transitioning from a person who had heavily counted calories, starved myself to lose weight, and pretty much obsessed with being thin to someone who was just concerned about being healthier for myself and doing what I felt God was calling me to do. That didn’t make it any easier when I found my weight still climbing. I was eating all that I cared for, reaching a state of being full but not being stuffed. I felt pretty well, but I knew the weight gain was not what I wanted. However, I continued on because it was easy to do.

Christmas came, and I was so excited to travel to the states to try some new vegan restaurants. They were AMAZING. But it hit me when my mother-in-law had to ask my husband if she should even bother asking me if I wanted to sort through some clothes of hers before she donated them. That told me right away everyone noticed my weight gain. I started to feel pretty bad.

The following two months presented me with some of the greatest stress I have had in quite awhile. My husband left for school in the states, I moved our entire apartment myself, making appointments to sell items along the way. As soon as things were finally moved, I had to prepare report cards. As soon as that was over, I had to prepare for parent-teacher interviews. Needless to say, I got really sick after that. I literally did not have a single break, and as happy as I was to be leaving our old place, I hit the point of nostalgia as it was emptied and I was doing it alone. Emotional ups and downs, zero rest, and not eating was a recipe for disaster, and a time to hit my highest weight. I knew things had to change.

I was not giving up veganism, that was not an issue. Veganism had made me feel better about pretty much everything. In fact, when I was not reminded about my weight gain, I actually felt amazing. But I knew I could do better.

With my husband in school, and I taking on all of our bills, the money was cinched tight. I had/have a very small budget which meant all those vegan junk foods were few and far between. I actually had to start cooking again! And you know what? I felt even better than before. I found out that my greatest eating pattern is eating raw throughout the day (mostly fruit) and eating a cooked meal in the evening. The cooked meal ranges from pasta to potatoes to veggies and vegan proteins, to vegan sushi, to cream of wheat, to sandwiches. They are not complicated at all, and are whole-food based. I feel vibrant and amazing and have even found a 6-day pattern of attending the gym again. And that’s when it happened: I started caring less about my weight gain.

I knew I was bigger than I wanted to be, but I chose to trust the system. People have been through this before; I’m not the only one. God’s original diet for us was the fruits of the earth, and I was closer than ever to following that diet. I began to pray for God to not only bless my food before I ate it, but to bless my efforts in trying to eat the way He designed for us, and for my results to show to others that this is His design as well. I began to pray before workouts for the same thing. And then I continued to eat when I was hungry and stop when I was full, except this time, it was whole plant foods from home.

You know what? In less than two months, I am down 14 pounds from my heaviest. Did I cut calories at all? No. In fact, I have been logging my food everyday just to see how much I’m eating. Some days, I’m not very hungry and I only eat around 1500 calories. I don’t like to go lower than this, so that does involve an some extra food I probably wouldn’t have otherwise eaten. Some days, I’m super hungry and can eat over 3000 calories. I’m not starving my body anymore. I’m giving it the healthy nutrition it needs, and it’s working.

I’ve always worked out which you’ll see if you have followed this blog for quite awhile, so that has not changed. I’m currently doing 3 full-body circuits a week with 3 cardio sessions between and 1 rest day. I’m getting stronger, and my endurance is better. I absolutely love it.

So I’m continuing on my vegan journey, in love with it greatly. My father has started his own fitness journey and to my surprise, displayed a picture of a blender with raw vegan protein powder. He’s been making banana/protein smoothies. It’s a huge step! My mother has been trying to cut down on the animal consumption within the house, and a coworker of mine has just begun her own vegan journey as well. More and more I’m realizing that people are waking up to the reality of how great a vegan diet is, for health reasons, beliefs, ethical and environmental reasons. It is truly the greatest. And though weight loss is awesome, it beats nothing to knowing your body is healthy and going to last you a little longer. When you eat healthy, the body releases the fat that is not good. It’s a slow process, and already within the two months, I’ve had over a week of being stalled on the exact same weight. But I continued nonetheless, and it paid off with a lower weight break in the end. So take courage. If I can do this, you can too. Start researching and be awakened to the world of truth that is out there. It’s truly amazing how deceiving the world is. Get to the nitty gritty and find out for yourself; the only regret you’ll have is that you didn’t do it sooner.

Organic vs. Non-Organic

Take a good look at those cucumbers. Do you see a difference?

I wish my camera was a little better. If it was, you would see that the top one is smoother and much more dull than the bottom one. The bottom one has many more ridges and is less “perfect”. Can you guess which one is the organic one?

If you guessed the bottom one, you are correct.

I love cucumbers. More specifically, I love cucumber sandwiches (it’s my thing lately). Of course my motto is to always buy organic when you can, but at $5 per cucumber, it becomes very expensive.

The top cucumber came in a bunch of 3 that I got at Costco. Normally, their produce is pretty good. However, I do wish they would bring in more organic items. Regardless, I figured this pack of 3 English cucumbers would hold me over until my next organic order. Let’s just say, I have 2 1/2 of those cucumbers still in my fridge weeks later.

Why you may ask? Because they are way too wrong.

Wrong in the sense that the texture is different. Wrong in the sense that the flavour is off. Wrong in the sense that I can tell this is nowhere near a good, organic cucumber.

It makes you wonder… if there is this much difference in an organic and a non-organic cucumber, then what is really going on with our food?

I may dive into this issue a little later, but I can tell you friends, it’s not good. Scientists need to stop playing with our food and we need to buy as much organic as possible.

From now on, the only cucumbers I will be consuming are the expensive, but much healthier and natural option in the bottom of that picture.

Cruelty-Free Sandwiches! Yum!

As a kid, I LOVED sandwiches. All the time, anywhere. Picnic foods were my favourite. I don’t know what started it, but it was a love that grew quick.

As a vegan, I don’t indulge in bread too often. I try to eat more whole foods and less processed foods. However, I broke that today.

I did a quick grocery shop with my husband this morning, and I picked up a loaf of Silver Hills bread, some Vegenaise, Symphony lettuce (check it out, so pretty and good!), as well as a few other things. I came home, said goodbye to my husband as he had to head to work, and then got out my knives and my toaster. A sandwich was made!

Yes, that was the finished product. Two slices of toasted Silver Hills bread – The Big 16, with one organic, sliced up tomato, roughly 10 small leaves of Symphony-packed lettuce, and Vegenaise, included in the picture for you to see. Not one animal was harmed in the making of this sandwich! How cool is that? And the taste? Delicious! Yum! In fact, I ended up making another sandwich with a different head of the Symphony-packed lettuce and cucumber instead of tomato. Drool…

For those that are wondering, Silver Hills is a bread company that works out of British Columbia. Their breads contain no dairy or eggs, and have excellent ingredients, primarily being made from sprouted grains. Check them out here: Silver Hills.

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 5

Another morning where I got to wake up on my own. No alarm clocks needed. Too bad this wasn’t every day!

The first thing I did when I woke up was drank a bottle of water. I know for an absolute fact, I did not get even half as much water in as I should have yesterday. So without a thought, I chugged a bottle back.

For breakfast, I ate four mini red bananas. If you haven’t had red bananas before, you should try them! They have a hint of raspberry and are super yummy. However, be careful. They take FOREVER to ripen, but when they do, they ripen really quickly. I had a bunch of 8, and 4 are ready. The others are still very hard.

After breakfast, we got ready to go to the gym… except we didn’t go to the gym. We went to the mall instead.

On the way to the mall, we stopped at Tim Horton’s for my husband. I was so proud of myself! I did not indulge in a single doughnut or a single drink! I was so hungry (4 mini bananas were definitely not enough). I waited until we got to the mall and then bought those Korean potatoes I’ve been eyeing for a long time. They were so good – well worth the wait!

We shopping for 4 1/2 hours! But we managed to get him everything he needed which was good. At least for his first day of his new job. We’ll have to shop more tomorrow.

After coming home, I was so tired from shopping. I ended up taking a nap while my husband went to the gym without me. Then, when I woke up, I started my phone calls. Not including my husband’s mother and grandmother, I also had 4 of my own to call (mom, stepmom, two grandmothers). I’m not much of a phone person, so it’s unusual for me to call that much but it was good to talk to everyone.

While I was on the phone, I ate a big salad made from 50/50 Organic Mix, organic blueberries, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, soya nuts, organic cucumber, and my usual dressing made from avocados, a spoon of vegan cream cheese, and salsa. Yum! Yum! Yum!

We went and got groceries at 9:30 p.m.! We never go that late, but even after my husband came back from the gym, he had to call his mother and grandmother for Mother’s Day. So it took quite awhile.

While we were shopping, my husband found these organic jalapeño corn chips that he ate while we were shopping (don’t worry, we paid for it still). I tried one and they were absolutely delicious.

After we got home, right before I went to bed, I took two pieces of Silver Hills Squirrely bread, and put a little peanut butter and a little peach jam made with stevia. Takes me back to the pb&j sandwiches as a kid. Yum!