« February 2007 | Main | April 2007 »
March 29, 2007
Day 38
Hello, and welcome to another installment of VJ's euphoria. This is VJ, your host for today's segment.
It's sunny out, and suddenly everyone in Portland has spring fever. Including me. Moon, june, spoon.
I'm also so frigging excited about having my blood work done next week. I can't wait to see the results! Can't wait!
This morning, I went to see my pharmaceutical nurse. This is what my life has come to, having someone who looks into all the possible and potential side effects of all the crap I'm taking. I told her all about this detox, how good I'm feeling, how much weight I've lost, how many inches from my waist gone, how many pant sizes dropped, and two prescriptions down, hopefully soon to be followed by more.
She started off by saying that a vegan lifestyle was extreme. I didn't react, I didn't go there. By the end of our half-hour, she had jotted down a few of the books I had read, and said she thought I'd be able to get off the majority of meds, it was just a matter of time. Yes!
I've been reading The China Study (Startling implications for diet, weight loss and long-term health / by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II) for about the last week. I love it. I mean, I really love it. It's well-written, it's well-researched, and it clearly articulates the results of a plant based diet on western disease: in many cases, it totally reverses it.
As I think about next week, and the weekend of eating I was going to allow myself, I'm not sure what to do. Part of me desperately wants to see people and eat with them, and part of me wants to eat steakfrites with bearnaise sauce, and part of me doesn't want to dampen the hard work I've done by having a no-holds-barred weekend of animal based fat & protein, even if I'm going back to being virtuous on Monday.
Unfortunately, reading the food group stuff just excerbates this: there's a taco crawl that's happening next Monday. I asked them to postpone til the following weekend, which didn't happen, and on one hand that's fine. But on the other hand, I desperately want to go, want to see these folks. Similarly, there's going to be a dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, which will be mutating soon... which happens tomorrow night.
Eating out and socializing is so wrapped up together. And while I do have friends who would go with me to places where I could eat something vegan, I just want to be one of the gang. Part of me has felt that the food group is my gang, and perhaps it still will be. But will it really be if I'm eating primarily vegan?
I feel so intensely lonely in some ways, because I haven't seen my best friend in 5 weeks, and really, I've just seen my partner and my neighbors. I'm hungry for social interaction. Now that I've stopped looking for love in my meals, I need to figure out how to take care of myself socially.
March 28, 2007
day 37
It's another good day. Right now it's sunny outside, which is just so lovely.
This morning, I gave in to the couch and overslept, so I was in a big panic getting ready to work. I ate my salad, check. Showered, check. Made a smoothie.
In the last couple days, I've really been experimenting with the smoothie. Yesterday, I made one with spinach, broccoli slaw, lemon, pomegranate juice and strawberries -- nice and not too sweet. Today's was broccoli slaw, lime, pomegranate juice and strawberries. It was thick and really tasty.
So I finally propel myself out the door. Put the smoothie in my bicycle cupholder, put my purse in the pannier, hitch up my skirt and hit the road. Everything was great until I got down by the river, crossing the light rail tracks.
As I'm crossing the tracks, everything slowed down. In slow motion, I saw the plastic cup that held the smoothie rise in the air, and then somersault, throwing all the contents onto my front wheel. Mmmm, smoothieeee!
I was in such a good mood that I couldn't even be upset. I know I should have a lid on it, I know the cupholder is just not reliable, I knew these things going in. So once I got in the park, I stopped and filled the cup with water, and rinsed off the bike. My evening will be spent getting all those little strawberry and flax seeds off of the bike.
There have been other changes, other than weight loss and an extreme change in the way I eat. I notice that my skin is changing color! I was really pale, like grey-blue pale, but now my face looks almost rosey. I notice that I don't seem to be bruising as easily as I did; I used to bruise if you'd look at me. I haven't gotten a bruise in weeks.
My face continues to change. Definition is coming out: cheekbones, temples, and suddenly, my chin is no longer part of a larger double chin. Not that the double chin is gone, it's not, but the chin is a free standing entity.
No one at work has said anything, but I'm not terribly surprised about that. I see it, that's plenty.
I can't wait to see how my blood work has improved!!
March 27, 2007
Day 36
I am feeling energetic, light and springy today. For one thing, I beat the seductive but awful couch, which beckons me to lay down on it. I didn't do it, so I wasn't later than I wanted to be to work. Go me.
I'm down 30 pounds now. That's not where I want to be, but still, I feel great, and I haven't gone hungry. Today, I'm wearing some pants that I haven't worn since August 2005. That feels great.
I've been not as careful as I probably should be with salt, sugar and oil: I've been eating soup out for the last week. Yesterday, I got some, and was really disgusted by how oily it was. That took care of that. So this week, I'm going to dot my i's and cross my t's, and just eat home food.
We made a couple recipes over the weekend that were excellent. I'm actually finding some things I like!
I have one week left on the detox, before the bloodwork is done. My goal is get some exercise every day until the bloodwork day, to perhaps drive all the numbers down a little further.
March 19, 2007
Day 28
I think I've turned the corner!
This morning, I walked to work in the mist. It was lovely, and it made me ask myself why I don't do this every day. Probably the fact that it takes 50 minutes. But the walk was energizing, and I felt light like a feather.
I'm having a skinny day today. My facial structure continues to reveal itself: now I can see the indention at my temples, in addition to cheekbones, and my jowls becoming distinctly unjowl-like.
I brought a can of soup but then I decided to go down to the No Fish, Go Fish stand and get some of theirs. Good idea. They had two vegan soups today: a split-pea with roasted cumin that was incredible, and Mexican bean, which was in itself pretty damn good. Then I stopped at the scary salad bar place and picked up some salad, doused it in some balsalmic vinegar, and headed back to the office.
I started to eat my lunch, and my gosh, I enjoyed it. It was so good. Even the salad, which didn't really have enough balsalmic, but it all tasted so good. It didn't feel like this obligation to feed myself: it was a joyful break in my day. Whoa!
I made an Indian-spiced lentil soup (from Vegan Planet) on Saturday that also bowled me away—it was not the lentil soup I've been dreaming about but it was really good, and the two of us knocked it out by Sunday evening.
March 16, 2007
day 25
Yo, hello!
It's me, the one who's momentarily obsessed with veganism. I'm down another 5 lbs. I'm very happy about this, I feel great, and I want to make some permanent changes in my life.
I still think longingly about meat and cheese and eggs. Even as I have decided that I am not going to be buying grocery store eggs ever again, because even the "humane" poultry farms treat their hens badly. For whatever reason, I consciously know this -- and yet I look forward to fried chicken at the end of the six weeks (which will be April 3. I go to the doc for the bloodwork on April 4. Today is day 25.
Anyways, I want to say that I'm happy with the way that I'm eating but by and large, I'm just eating. Salads grow in okayness, and sometimes even goodness. I still haven't found a soup that makes me go yum. But thank the gods for smoothies. Now those are good, and I don't just mean vegan-can't-eat-nothing good.
But still. A new Japanese noodle shop (hmmm. That suggests that there are other Japanese noodle shops, which would in fact be incorrect) just opened and the menu looks great. They even offer a handful of vegetarian and vegan options. My food group is frothing about it. Hell, I'm frothing about it. But I can't go [until April 5, when I will be there with bells on].
So I've been looking for moral support on giving up meat and dairy. Like, some sort of magic wand. I read the Pleasure Trap in the space of two days. It wasn't a lot of help. So now I'm reading Neal Barnard's Breaking the Food Seduction and hoping the good (vegan) doc will have some tips for the likes of me other than "if you eat healthy for awhile, suddenly meat and dairy won't taste good". I mean, that is a nice thought, isn't it?
Exercise wise, I'm hanging in there. I got some bicycling in yesterday, and some walking yesterday and today. I can tell I'm getting close to the right amount of exercise because I'm sleeping really good.
March 12, 2007
day 21
I just got back from 40 minutes of weightlifting at the gym. Now I'm all flushed and sweaty and my hair is all verklempt, but I feel a bit better at least.
For the last couple of weeks, my sweetie has been really pretty sick with a flu bug. He's finally getting better—finally!—and it appears I've caught, albeit, a very mild version.
Still, it's enough to wind me after climbing a flight of stairs, so aerobic exercise is not an option.
It felt very good to lift today. I really got this feeling, and have had this feeling lately, that I'm reshaping my body. It's pretty damn exciting.
No real news on the ETL front. It's day 21 of VeganDetox2007, and I'm still doing it. I made pinto beans from scratch the other day, La Malinchista’s Frijoles de la Olla, and they really were luscious. Well, are, as I'm still eating them. Though I really want to salt them. I'm holding back.
I did weigh myself at the gym, and... well, the scale hasn't budged. I've lost 21 pounds, but it appears I've stalled. I blame the outrageously luscious grits I made last week—just grits and water and a pinch of salt, but, well, something happened.
I'm starting to get myself excited about PFit this year. Yes, I'm going back. Yes, I'm quite possibly insane. But I'm really looking forward to training this year. Maybe I just needed the past year and a half off? I don't know, but I know I'm much more excited about it than I have been in a while.
March 6, 2007
No wonder the cashier was peeved with me...
I just looked at my receipt from the grocery, and I figured that I bought 30 pounds of fruit! 30 pounds!!
Less interestingly, I bought less than 4 lbs of veggies. I'm supposed to be eating 2 pounds a day!
Becky, I'm going to try pinto beans in the crockpot tomorrow. I don't know why I find cooking beans so intimidating, but I do.
Tonight, I actually got dinner together, and lunch for tomorrow. And I've had some sit-around time, and I rode my bike today. All good.
Oh, and the trip to Houston is postponed. That's good, really, but I am a little bummed about not getting a smidge of texmex next week. I really need to make borracho beans -- I wonder if I can veganize them?
day 15
I hate that this has turned into an ETL blog, but there you go. That's what I'm obsessed with.
So I just weighed myself for the first time since about 5 days before I started ETL, and I'm down 21 pounds. I'm no longer in the 250-300 range. This thrills me, but part of me is really in disbelief. Yes, clothes are a lot looser, but I haven't seen any difference in the mirror. Perhaps, when you're as big as I am, it's just not that noticeable.
I still need to work out the food thing. I'm not doing enough prep to have things ready when they need to be, like soup and a salad for work, like everything together for dinner.
I got home last night and just wanted to sit a bit, and I finally started making dinner around 7. Given that we go to bed around 9, that's way too late. Last night, I thought it would be a good time to stop with the prilosec all together, but I ended up with heartburn and today I feel just sorta crappy. I just hope it's post-heartburn crappy and not, I'm getting the flu crappy.
March 5, 2007
day 14
No real news to tell.
It's finally sunny and so lovely to be outside. I'll be riding the bicycle home tonight and I can't wait.
The biggest fun I had this weekend was going grocery shopping and entirely filling two handbaskets full of fruit and veggies. The cashier was amazed (and not really amused) to see that I had 40 pieces of fruit. But hey, I need fruit. She also didn't know what escarole was. Admittedly, either did I before I walked into the store.
All this healthy living costs an arm and a leg. I'm blown away... but I am hoping it is still cheaper than our eating out all-meals-all-the-time regimen.
Oh, and for those of you concerned with the sodium in canned beans (well, I gotta share), most conventional grocery brands have about 480mg per serving. This is for S&W Black Beans—S&W is a regional brand of DelMonte. Their 50% less sodium versions have 240mg per serving. Now, if you look at health food store favorite, Westbrae Natural, their serving of beans has 140mg—and is really tasty. Eden Organic Foods is another health food store brand, and they offer no-salt-added beans (15mg!).
I'm going to actually make beans from scratch one of these days. And I'm excited about the idea of it!
March 2, 2007
day 11
I'm wearing a pair of jeans that are two sizes smaller than usual today to work.
I see this as a very good sign.
March 1, 2007
day 10
It actually was dry, though grey, overcast and pretty damn cold, this morning, so I rode the bike. It was beautiful. A lovely, pokey ride.
And even though I was consciously going slow, the ride seemed to fly. It's like time collapses. It was sweet.
And, I actually had a bicyclist say good morning to me as he passed me.
The ETL Experience continues. I think I'm following the rules, and then I realize, oh, I'm not. Like the other day, I realized that I had bought a pile of vegan packaged food that all had added salt, and added salt is a no-no. I went through my collection of cans of beans and tomatoes, and I didn't have a single one with no salt added. Some of my soups had as much sodium in one serving as I'm supposed to eat in one day. Yikes.
So that inspired the trip to Whole Paycheck the other day, which, truth be told, was pretty disappointing. They have a couple of types of beans no-salt from their house brand, and one type of tomatoes (imported, natch).
Then last night, I cooked my dinner which I thought was going to be excellent: (salt-free) tomatoes, tofu, and (50% low-sodium) white northern beans with a little basil and red pepper flakes. Oh, I couldn't wait to eat it. And then I sat down with a bowl of it, and ugh. I ate it, because I'm trying not to be such a primadonna about these things. It's just food, vj, don't have a fit.
One of the things that I used to love when I was single was noodles with plain tomatoes, straight out of the can. But I realize now that they may well have had salt & sugar added. Oh well.
I start to freak out about this stuff, and then I think, it's not that big of a deal. I'll get there when I get there. The whole idea of making this huge abrupt change is crazy... really, you need to transition into these things if you want people to stick around. At least, people like me. I've had an entire lifetime eating salt and sugar and while the crash course idea is great, I just don't know how practical it is.
I want to make changes that are going to improve my health longterm. And I am already seeing positive changes. I've already halved my heartburn meds. I feel great.
All of this will be tested week after next in Houston. I'm planning to load up on fruit, and try to eat a couple pieces for or before each meal. In the past, Houston has been a tex-mex binge, and I will go off plan — but I'm trying not to have it be a train wreck.
Anyone have suggestions for healthy food/salad bars in Houston?
