BlueRose

Had mango in my curry last night

YAYAYAY! Welcome aboard

Today's log so far: I did Total Body in the Ten Minute Trainer this morning, complete with the warm up and cool down. Awesome. Food so far: Breakfast: 1 scoop chocolate Vega Whole Meal Optimizer, 1/2 scoop raw cacao, 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 cup mint chocolate soy milk, 1 small banana. Snack: kale, strawberry, and apple salad with lite balsamic vinaigrette Lunch: baby spinach, kale, diced cucumbers, oil free roasted red pepper hummus, sunflower seeds, roasted salted pepita seeds, and Annie Organics Goddess dressing. Snack: 1/2 grapefruit Dinner: Chipotle lime Gardein tenders with grilled veggies on toasted Ezekiel bread with guac

Yayayay! That's me, I got the email! Thank you so much.

Wish I had gotten this sooner! In the future, a nice list: 1) Fire & Ice, improv grill--they have a vegetarian grill, ask for your food to be put on it. 2) Trident Bookstore -- I seem to recall them having vegan options 3) Shinto Sushi -- their miso soup isn't veg, but they have veg futomaki and many other excellent vegan sushi beyond the drab "cucumber and avo roll". 4) Flashers -- get their Harrington salad without the feta. Also depends on where in the Back Bay. You're so close to Chinatown it's insane, and that means MY THAI which is a totally vegan Asian place

Muscle and Fitness Hers did a poll, happy to say, reporting that 15% of their readers were vegetarian and 10% were vegan--that's 25% in total!! They're pretty friendly towards vegan diets and include recipes for us every now and again. Makes me happy.

I workout at night, no choice given my schedule. At least it's the time when I have the most energy! So no workout yet for today. Food day so far: Breakfast: 1 scoop chocolate Vega Whole Meal Optimizer, 1 small banana, 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 scoop of raw cacao. Snack: an orange Lunch: the leaning tower of spring mix with herbs, kale, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, roasted salted pepita seeds, 1/2 avocado, oil free hummus, diced cucumbers, and Annie Organic's Goddess dressing. Snack: 1/2 grapefruit, 1 tangerine, 2 mini chocolate chip cookie dough Larabars (Larabars, you are a simple tasty. how do I quit you) Dinner: 2 steamed veggie dumplings, and mango black pepper Thai curry over steamed rice noodles with a glass of lemonade. I got home from dinner with a friend of mine, personal drama ensued, and I was exhausted and annoyed so I ate two small chocolate chip cookies, went to bed and resolved to workout the next morning...which I did.

Welcome from West "Mehfid" MA!

Missed welcoming a neighbor, how did I do that?? I hail from West "Mehfihd"

YAYAYAY!

^5

My mom made me a cross between an eggplant parm and a veggie casserole, I supplied the Daiya cheese. She finally learned how to cook vegetables from Rachel Ray. Seasonings! The right amount of oil! And so incredibly tasty! I'm so proud of her. *sniff* (she's Irish. PAAAAIINFULLY Irish)

Also, some food porn to illustrate my lunches do exist: http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/yy74/TeaAddictedGeek/382627_10150425761189613_668154612_8393814_274430923_n.jpg

Exactimo. I truly believe it's due to the higher and better nutritional content. Try sprouting lentils and mung beans. They taste starchy and filling when sprouted, yet still have a ton of protein. They go great in mixed salads. Also, I've sprouted lentils and then made lentil burgers out of them, frying them only lightly. Same with falafel: sprout the garbanzos, then fry on very low heat. It makes the recipe more raw. I admit, I LOVE veggie burgers. I think Gardein's is my fav. <3 They're just so satisfying. I have some lentils AND mung beans. How do you find them sprouted? And oh, falafel. <3 Speaking of kale--and collards--a lot of people don't like the tough, stringy stems. So, I cut the stems out and save them. Then, I dice them and saute them in some oil, yellow onion, garlic, hot pepper flakes, and a lot of salt. It makes a great, spicy sandwich layer on those lentil burgers or some slices of avocado. Great, now I'm getting hungry. Baby Herc So am I.

I hear ya. Reprogramming ourselves is the true full-time job of most adults. At least the ones smart enough to look the status quo square in the face and realize there's something better out there. Good for you! I have a real simple solution: just incorporate more raw vegan foods into your days whenever you feel like cutting. You'll still eat piles and piles of nutritious, delicious goodies, feel full, and have lots of energy. You'll just have a lot more fiber and a lot fewer calories. Easy-peasy. And eat some peasies. Baby Herc That's actually what I'm trying to do! I can't help but notice how much better I feel when I eat more raw food and less processed stuff. I love me Gardein tenders, but I can't constantly eat them, lol. I think I just need to bring in more food, lots and lots of healthy food. My best score is this huuuuuuge bag of kale leaves. Mmm kale.

Yesterday's workout was Upper X and Ab/Core X. Today was Interval X. Sunday was Kenpo Cardio X. Wheeeee.

Sounds like fun

I started out health too--lots of food intolerances--but the more research I did, the more the pressing issue became animal rights and welfare. The abuses in the food industry make me sick and I have no desire to support them. Is it good for the environment too? Sure! I honestly don't see ANY downsides to being vegan and I find more and more reasons to be vegan all the time.

I grew up with a mom who despite her nutrition degree really, really is bad on nutrition. And what it means to diet. I grew up with the notion that dieting means you are hungry. If you want to lose weight, you MUST go hungry. If you eat and are satisfied, you will maintain, and if you eat to the point of being full, you will gain. This was part of my food education growing up, and between that and a slew of other bad programming I'm discovering more and more of I've been making an effort to relearn quite a bit. It was only in recent years that I realized you could actually lose weight without constantly being hungry, mostly due to the idea of increased metabolism due to consistently working out and doing more than cardio and yoga. Not that I hadn't before; I lost the 100 lbs over a decade ago because I worked out, but it was mostly cardio. Really crazy cardio. This was before I went vegan, however, and part of the prob was that my metabolism got so skyhigh I got away with eating a LOT of bad foods. This is part of why some of the weight crept on very slowly after; I went inactive and it became harder and harder to stay fit because I plain and simple didn't know how to eat. Even now as a vegan for nearly six years I am STILL relearning how to eat and what my body prefers, and it's been a serious struggle. So to make a long story short, my question to people is this: is it indeed possible to be on an effective weight loss program without being hungry and if so, what is the best way to go about it? I'm doing crazy programs like P90X/P90X+ with some TurboFire thrown in and trying to judge when I've eaten too much versus not enough is a headache. How do you do it?? I'm not looking to lose much more than 5-10 pounds and the rest is all carving out muscle definition. My abs and calves so far have been the easiest, glutes and upper arms the hardest. Anyhow, thanks for listening to my semi-rant.

I'm getting certified with ACT, and yep they're NCCA accredited. I plan to be mostly self-employed so gyms won't matter.

Never used them but it's only pretty recently that I've been able to do toe pushups. I may eventually have to spring for them.

I have some seriously amazing looking ones on my upper arms back from my 100 lb weight loss more than a decade ago. While working out has made them less noticible they look like I was a fire victim. They're THAT bad, beyond stretch marks into actual scarring. I sincerely wish I had known as much back then about working out as I do now. I relied mainly on cardio and paid the price. :-/

+10000000000000

Echoed. I love avocados, coconut oil, nuts and nut butters. One of my fav smoothies is 1 scoop chcoolate Vega whole meal optimizer, 3/4 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup chocolate coconut milk, and 1 TB melted coconut oil.

I am perpetually cold. This was the case when I was 100 lbs heavier, this is the case now. :-/ Working out helps a bit and winter is literally bad for my health.