Day 24 - 4/24/11
I hope everyone had a Happy Easter celebrating Jesus conquering the grave!
Being that I love pancakes [oh I've missed them so] and eating brunch on Easter, I made these Vegan Pancakes today. One of the comments on the website suggested using chocolate soy milk instead of regular. I prefer almond milk, so I bought Silk's Dark Chocolate Almond Milk and added that to the batter in place of the regular soy milk. WOW! They were a little bit gritty because I used whole wheat flour, but that doesn't bother me at all. The chocolate was not at all overbearing, it added just a nice touch to the overall flavor. Honestly, I did not miss the eggs in these things for one second! I made these for two of my non-vegan friends both really enjoyed them.
I took my chances later today at that sandwich place I had a bad experience at on Day 8. Today's tasty sandwich made up for the previous debacle, that's for sure. They did in fact have the grilled veggies this time, and I added pickles, lettuce, green pepper, banana peppers and italian dressing. This made for a very fine, very satisfying sandwich. They turned Day 8's wrong into Day 24's right!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Happy day!
Day 22 - 4/22/11
Vegetable Lo Mein + Teavana Chai Tea = Vegan Successes of the day!
Although it has nothing to do with being a vegan, I'm grateful for the people God has placed in my life. And the fact that He sent His son to die for ME and YOU. That's God's success for eternity :]
Vegetable Lo Mein + Teavana Chai Tea = Vegan Successes of the day!
Although it has nothing to do with being a vegan, I'm grateful for the people God has placed in my life. And the fact that He sent His son to die for ME and YOU. That's God's success for eternity :]
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
I'm so Powerful
Day 19 - 4/19/11
It has been 11 days since my last entry, and that's because there has not been much to report. Things have been going the same as they were 11 days ago. I'm eating the same, feeling the same and pooping the same, woot! I've gotten in the groove of being a vegan and its working for me. I'm still desiring more variety though, but I'll get there.
There is one thing I noticed this weekend. My mom made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies which are my FAVORITE thing in the world. But, I couldn't eat them because they were made with eggs and butter. I noticed that due to this new label "vegan", my willpower has greatly increased. In the past whenever I would limit sweets in my diet, I would make excuses, telling myself that I could nibble on a little cookie or something because I ate a lot of vegetables. But because I'm a vegan, I had no option of nibbling on those cookies, no matter how tasty I knew they were. Its like my own personal wall to put up so I can't make rationalizations and convince myself to eat something. I do, however, need to learn to apply this willpower to oreos. They're just so dang good and so dang vegan.
It has been 11 days since my last entry, and that's because there has not been much to report. Things have been going the same as they were 11 days ago. I'm eating the same, feeling the same and pooping the same, woot! I've gotten in the groove of being a vegan and its working for me. I'm still desiring more variety though, but I'll get there.
There is one thing I noticed this weekend. My mom made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies which are my FAVORITE thing in the world. But, I couldn't eat them because they were made with eggs and butter. I noticed that due to this new label "vegan", my willpower has greatly increased. In the past whenever I would limit sweets in my diet, I would make excuses, telling myself that I could nibble on a little cookie or something because I ate a lot of vegetables. But because I'm a vegan, I had no option of nibbling on those cookies, no matter how tasty I knew they were. Its like my own personal wall to put up so I can't make rationalizations and convince myself to eat something. I do, however, need to learn to apply this willpower to oreos. They're just so dang good and so dang vegan.
Friday, April 8, 2011
It's not always happy being a vegan
Day 8 - 4/8/11
I'm in this "super frustrated with veganism" mood right now. Like whoa. Allow me to share my experience with you:
My roommate and I went to a place on campus called The Connection to get salads. Unfortunately we were unaware that the salad part closed 15 minutes before we got there. We walked over to Subway only to find it was closed too. Really, close at 8pm on a Friday? So we went back to The Connection and found out we could still get sandwiches. After having a conversation with a guy that worked at the sandwich place, he told me I could have a grilled veggie and hummus sandwich on the wheat bread, perfect! So I ordered the sandwich at the kiosk and waited about 10 minutes for it. Another guy brought me my sandwich and said, "Oh, by the way we ran out of grilled veggies, so I loaded you up with lettuce and tomato." I looked at him completely dumfounded and said, "So there's lettuce, tomato and hummus on this sandwich?" "Yeah." OOOOOOOKAY - wow. I went to pay for my sandwich and the girl asked me if I was able to find something vegan and I explained to her what happened and she kindly didn't charge me for my sandwich. I was grateful for that. I got a pickle with it so I cut it up and opened my sandwich to add some pickle and what did I find? Southwest sauce, which is a mayonnaise; I was officially irate. I took the sandwich back up to him and politely informed him that there was southwest sauce on it when I was certain I asked for mustard. His reply? "The ticket said southwest sauce." So I firmly said, "I can't have dairy, so I wouldn't have ordered it. I asked for mustard." I think he was irritated too, so that room was one big ball of tension. After about 30 minutes of going back and forth and trying to get something to eat, I finally sat down with a wheat sub roll lightly schmeared with hummus, one tomato and about a 1/2 handful of shredded lettuce. Loaded me up, huh?
I am completely dissatisfied and frustrated. I ate hummus twice today and as much as I love it, I need MORE. More variety. I'm just really getting perturbed by this whole thing and need to figure some things out, make my diet more diverse. But all I want to do right now is SCREAM. On the upside, my mom sent me a package of vegan peanut butter cups; I might eat them all tonight.
I'm in this "super frustrated with veganism" mood right now. Like whoa. Allow me to share my experience with you:
My roommate and I went to a place on campus called The Connection to get salads. Unfortunately we were unaware that the salad part closed 15 minutes before we got there. We walked over to Subway only to find it was closed too. Really, close at 8pm on a Friday? So we went back to The Connection and found out we could still get sandwiches. After having a conversation with a guy that worked at the sandwich place, he told me I could have a grilled veggie and hummus sandwich on the wheat bread, perfect! So I ordered the sandwich at the kiosk and waited about 10 minutes for it. Another guy brought me my sandwich and said, "Oh, by the way we ran out of grilled veggies, so I loaded you up with lettuce and tomato." I looked at him completely dumfounded and said, "So there's lettuce, tomato and hummus on this sandwich?" "Yeah." OOOOOOOKAY - wow. I went to pay for my sandwich and the girl asked me if I was able to find something vegan and I explained to her what happened and she kindly didn't charge me for my sandwich. I was grateful for that. I got a pickle with it so I cut it up and opened my sandwich to add some pickle and what did I find? Southwest sauce, which is a mayonnaise; I was officially irate. I took the sandwich back up to him and politely informed him that there was southwest sauce on it when I was certain I asked for mustard. His reply? "The ticket said southwest sauce." So I firmly said, "I can't have dairy, so I wouldn't have ordered it. I asked for mustard." I think he was irritated too, so that room was one big ball of tension. After about 30 minutes of going back and forth and trying to get something to eat, I finally sat down with a wheat sub roll lightly schmeared with hummus, one tomato and about a 1/2 handful of shredded lettuce. Loaded me up, huh?
I am completely dissatisfied and frustrated. I ate hummus twice today and as much as I love it, I need MORE. More variety. I'm just really getting perturbed by this whole thing and need to figure some things out, make my diet more diverse. But all I want to do right now is SCREAM. On the upside, my mom sent me a package of vegan peanut butter cups; I might eat them all tonight.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Vegan Update
Day 6 - 4/6/11
Thus far, my energy has been very high. Even though I'm tired, because let's face it - I'm a college student, I haven't been yawning and wishing to be in bed the whole day. This is an amazing feeling I thought I would never have, and I hope it continues. I feel like I accomplish a lot more and I don't enjoy sitting down for long periods of time anymore. Times are a changing people!
As far as food goes, things have been going great. I went on a big vegan shopping trip with my vegan-mentor Jenna and now have a lot of options of things to eat. But, you know those days though, that no matter how much food you have, none of it sounds good? Well that was today. Usually when that happens, I'll pop by jimmy john's or get a $5 pizza. What was I supposed to eat at jimmy john's, a lettuce wrap with sprouts and cucumbers in it? And don't even get my started about the pizza issue! Sheesh. Needless to say, it was a rough evening navigating this problem. I talked to Jenna to get some better ideas of things to eat. As much as I love, I mean LOVE hummus, I can't eat it two times a day for the rest of my life; I need variety. So - I need to get more creative. Unfortunately the duration of my time in college will probably be spent eating the same things everyday, but I think I can handle that because it's not much longer.....we'll see.
Anyways, I'm still very pleased with this journey, I just need to equip myself better to deal with these problems. I also need to get over my chocolate addiction, it's not healthy to eat 3 oreos everyday....sometimes more. :]
Thus far, my energy has been very high. Even though I'm tired, because let's face it - I'm a college student, I haven't been yawning and wishing to be in bed the whole day. This is an amazing feeling I thought I would never have, and I hope it continues. I feel like I accomplish a lot more and I don't enjoy sitting down for long periods of time anymore. Times are a changing people!
As far as food goes, things have been going great. I went on a big vegan shopping trip with my vegan-mentor Jenna and now have a lot of options of things to eat. But, you know those days though, that no matter how much food you have, none of it sounds good? Well that was today. Usually when that happens, I'll pop by jimmy john's or get a $5 pizza. What was I supposed to eat at jimmy john's, a lettuce wrap with sprouts and cucumbers in it? And don't even get my started about the pizza issue! Sheesh. Needless to say, it was a rough evening navigating this problem. I talked to Jenna to get some better ideas of things to eat. As much as I love, I mean LOVE hummus, I can't eat it two times a day for the rest of my life; I need variety. So - I need to get more creative. Unfortunately the duration of my time in college will probably be spent eating the same things everyday, but I think I can handle that because it's not much longer.....we'll see.
Anyways, I'm still very pleased with this journey, I just need to equip myself better to deal with these problems. I also need to get over my chocolate addiction, it's not healthy to eat 3 oreos everyday....sometimes more. :]
Sunday, April 3, 2011
The Brown Stuff
Day 3 - 4/3/11
My poop has been normal looking! And coming out regularly!! I love this!!!
My poop has been normal looking! And coming out regularly!! I love this!!!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
That Girl
Day 2 - 4/2/11
I don't plan on posting everyday, but I want to talk about the big things. There are two important things that happened today. First of all, I got to call myself a vegan for the first time in public. I was actually quite excited about it! I even turned to one of my friends and did a little "eeeeee!". It was really embarrassing to have to be "that girl" that has to ask about ingredients in EVERYTHING, but it's the nature of this process. As a result of my battery of questions, I got to call myself a vegan and it made it all better; I enjoyed that.
Secondly, I noticed something very interesting as I was running around downtown grand rapids. It was 7pm and I was not nearly wishing I was in my bed as I usually am at this time of day. This is a big deal, ya'll! I was literally running around the streets of grand rapids. Later in the evening I was in a large, open field dancing beneath the stars. I NEVER have energy at nighttime to do these things, yet today I did. I truly believe that even though its been only 48 hours, the lack of dairy and meat intake in those 48 hours has made a difference in my energy level. That made me proud to be giving my body what it needs. Here's to another successful day!
I don't plan on posting everyday, but I want to talk about the big things. There are two important things that happened today. First of all, I got to call myself a vegan for the first time in public. I was actually quite excited about it! I even turned to one of my friends and did a little "eeeeee!". It was really embarrassing to have to be "that girl" that has to ask about ingredients in EVERYTHING, but it's the nature of this process. As a result of my battery of questions, I got to call myself a vegan and it made it all better; I enjoyed that.
Secondly, I noticed something very interesting as I was running around downtown grand rapids. It was 7pm and I was not nearly wishing I was in my bed as I usually am at this time of day. This is a big deal, ya'll! I was literally running around the streets of grand rapids. Later in the evening I was in a large, open field dancing beneath the stars. I NEVER have energy at nighttime to do these things, yet today I did. I truly believe that even though its been only 48 hours, the lack of dairy and meat intake in those 48 hours has made a difference in my energy level. That made me proud to be giving my body what it needs. Here's to another successful day!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Caught in a dairy hangover
About 10 days ago I finally made the decision - I'm going vegan! The reality of it did not hit me until today approached so quickly.
April 1, 2011 - Day 1 as a vegan!
So I gorged myself on hungry howie's pizza and DQ last night, in preparation for this commitment of mine. That was a TERRIBLE idea, although it reminded me of why it is I'm doing this. I pooped so much after that and battled stomach pains all night and through today. I've pooped a lot today. It tastes so good, but dairy is NOT my friend. So today I woke up and really, it was not unlike any other day for me. I have not used regular milk since, well, probably 5 years ago or more. I have been using either soy or currently, almond milk. Tastes much better anyway. So I had Kashi cereal with almond milk, snacked on almonds, red pepper dipped in hummus, a PB&J and dinner brought a homemade stir fry! Broccoli, red pepper [I ate a whole red pepper in half a day!], bamboo shoots and lots of spices over brown rice! Gosh I love stir fry. So this day did not bring about any challenges in having to turn something down. My roommate and I will be watching a movie later but I have some oreos to snack on because, get this, oreos are vegan! Thanks Jenna for that tip :]
I'm not going to sit here and say that I feel so amazing from being a vegan because, well, 1) its been 21 hours and 2) I'm still feeling the effects of last night. It's like a dairy hangover. BUT, I am optimistic. Especially because of what I'm feeling from last night, I know that eventually my overall feeling can only be better. I'm excited to see where this healthier eating [minus the oreos] will take me. I feel like my journey to a natural life is continuing to expand and change, these are changes I welcome and enjoy.
If you have any vegan recipes, hints or thoughts, please share!
If all you have are negative comments, please do NOT share.
Thanks for joining me on my journey. What does yours look like?
April 1, 2011 - Day 1 as a vegan!
So I gorged myself on hungry howie's pizza and DQ last night, in preparation for this commitment of mine. That was a TERRIBLE idea, although it reminded me of why it is I'm doing this. I pooped so much after that and battled stomach pains all night and through today. I've pooped a lot today. It tastes so good, but dairy is NOT my friend. So today I woke up and really, it was not unlike any other day for me. I have not used regular milk since, well, probably 5 years ago or more. I have been using either soy or currently, almond milk. Tastes much better anyway. So I had Kashi cereal with almond milk, snacked on almonds, red pepper dipped in hummus, a PB&J and dinner brought a homemade stir fry! Broccoli, red pepper [I ate a whole red pepper in half a day!], bamboo shoots and lots of spices over brown rice! Gosh I love stir fry. So this day did not bring about any challenges in having to turn something down. My roommate and I will be watching a movie later but I have some oreos to snack on because, get this, oreos are vegan! Thanks Jenna for that tip :]
I'm not going to sit here and say that I feel so amazing from being a vegan because, well, 1) its been 21 hours and 2) I'm still feeling the effects of last night. It's like a dairy hangover. BUT, I am optimistic. Especially because of what I'm feeling from last night, I know that eventually my overall feeling can only be better. I'm excited to see where this healthier eating [minus the oreos] will take me. I feel like my journey to a natural life is continuing to expand and change, these are changes I welcome and enjoy.
If you have any vegan recipes, hints or thoughts, please share!
If all you have are negative comments, please do NOT share.
Thanks for joining me on my journey. What does yours look like?
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