30 Day Review

I did not start this blog on the first day of my vegetarian diet. I started this a few weeks later when I had the time and a little experience in what to eat instead of meat. I officially began my vegetarian diet on October 16th so this means I made it through my goal of 30 days that I planned to stick to. Now it is time to review how my world, body and viewpoints have changed.

In the past month I have not seen any weight loss but I have never really had a problem with my weight so I wasn't expecting much of a change. I have lost inches and toned up but I have also been actively exercising. I have had less problems with fatigue but am finding my endurance while excercising has gone down temporarily and now going up again.

I am happy to say that I feel lighter. I am not bloated or uncomfortable now after my meals even when my stomach is full. I really enjoy this feeling. Truthfully, I feel younger and more able to just "get up and go" when I need to.

I have been keeping track of my calories. Before this month, my average intake was about 1500-2000 calories a day. Now, my caloric intake has been between 500 and never any more than 1300. Still, I have maintained the appropriate nutrients for my body such as protein and vitamins. I see no reason to eat meat for nutritional value as it really has none.

I am very proud of the choices I make with all foods now. A vegetarian diet can contain fried foods, processed sugars, white flours and so forth but as I have become more conscientious and aware of what I am putting in my body, I have been more aware and concerned about the quality of foods I eat as well. I choose whole wheat breads, no fried foods and make an effort to not include meals with processed sugars. My outlook on food has taken on a life of its own, beyond not just eating meat. Previously, I didn’t think twice about running to McDonalds or Sonic and grabbing a burger, fries, sodas and a side of mozzarella sticks or something. Now I feel the need to know where my food is coming from, how it is made and how it can help or hurt my body as well as hurt the ecological world.

I have not changed my children's diets. I allow them to eat the same foods as before. I cook the same foods that they enjoy. Still, I have a large variety of fruits and vegetables in my house now and they are interested. For their afterschool snacks, they used to come home and beg for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies or chips. Now they beg for cucumber slices, kale chips, green apples or berries. Dinner time, they ask for salads along with their meals and eat more of that than the main course. My 3 year old son is a horrible eater and enjoys mainly french fries, oatmeal and scrambled eggs. I am so proud to see him be willing to try new things and enjoy them. He now likes nuts and hummus even! Also, my husband has gained a few pounds since we have been married (11 years this past September) and my food choices have been giving him an added incentive to find new and nutritious foods to eat. He is on the road a lot and so finding healthy foods on the go has been a challenge but I am proud to see the choices he is making.

The new foods I have been discovering have been the biggest thrill to me. I get so excited when I can buy and make something I have never had before. This past month, I have tried fennel, kale, forelle pears, leeks, dandelion leaves, Greek yogurt, quinoa and I have fallen head over heels for Tofurky Italian Sausage. It is so exciting to find new recipes and try new combinations of foods that make such new and unique flavors. I have always hated cooking because it is too tedious to spend hours preparing meals that are quickly consumed and forgotten as if there is nothing to show for all the hard work. Now, I have been spending most of my time in the kitchen inventing different combinations of new and exciting tastes and textures.

I have done a lot of research into animal welfare and what they go through and have done to them while being bred to be consumed and I am disgusted. Now I look at chicken meat in the supermarket and want to cry or throw up. It is not even how they are treated but the hormones and chemicals that they are injected with. I am terrified to put those things on my body now!

I am very surprised that this change has not been difficult. I was afraid that my stomach would constantly be rumbling and that I wouldn't have any choices. I live in a very meat-dominated area. We are right along the Gulf of Mexico so fresh fish is a staple. We are in the South, in an area that glorifies football and tailgating. Also, we are in the same city as 2 air force bases and so there are many carnivorous "manly men" everywhere and so must supermarkets and the like tailor to this type of clientele. Thankfully Publix has been a beacon of light with some incredible, unique vegetarian products.

Currently, I am studying business in college with no clue as to what field I would see myself in one day after graduation. Last semester did a project in LEED design (Green construction) and now that I am being more aware of the environmental world around me with this experiment of mine, I have started contemplating going into a "green" field of study. It is a fast growing career field today and it does interest me. I still have a long way to go before graduation but it is comforting to have an idea of where I can see myself in the future.

I currently have no desire to go back to eating meat. I do enjoy how I feel and have no guilt as to what is going into my body. I do miss my dolmades from my favorite restaurant (beef and rice wrapped in grape leaves). I have always loved boneless chicken wings with buffalo sauce dunked in blue cheese dressing and I will be mourning the loss of that too. However, I feel losing just 2 things from my diet also equates to adding countless new and exciting healthy choices. I have no regrets.

Next step, veganism for a month? Possibly. Not yet. I am happy with who I am, what is in my body and how I view the world. Thank you very much for coming to my blog and joining me on this journey. I will be continuing it to showcase what I am learning so feel free to stop by anytime.

Have a wonderful and healthy day.

 

New type of pears. Cute but too squishy

 

I put the leftover quinoa in a pita with leeks, spinach, celery and tomatos with some lemon juice. Was good but was missing something... haven't figured out what yet....

 

In the South, we eat a lot of collard greens but I only knew how how cook them with ham and grease. I attempted to make them with sunflower seeds instead and it was GROSS! Later, I found a recipe to make them with garlic and onion and they were the best greens I have ever had in my life! I will be making this again ASAP!

 

 

Progress

I know, I know. I have been slacking on posting updates but honestly, I haven't been eating anything that I haven't already posted.

For instance, my breakfasts and snacks have become Greek yogurt with cut up strawberries or cranberries and sunflower seeds. Lunches are usually a salad of whatever I have in the fridge and dinner has been either another salad, stir-fry or I made stuffed chili peppers again last night. The stuffed peppers didn't turn out too well because I used a crumbing cheese that didn't melt and the whole thing was a weird mess. I ate it anyway.

Kale Chips

Random Salad

Yummy vinager I found to use as my salad dressing

My bedtime snack

Stuffed peppers. Next time I will use mozzerella

I think it is time to mention how I am feeling physically about my new diet changes as it is an important part of this experiment. One thing that I have noticed is that I have to eat breakfast every day. I used to be able to just have coffee and be fine but now I need something on my stomach. This has been the hardest challenge because I LOVE omelets but decided to cut out eggs. I have also noticed that I feel lighter. I don't have the bloated, nasty feeling after my meals that would weigh me down. This has been the best effect so far! However, speaking about being weighed down, I am a little upset that I haven’t seen a change in the number on the scale. I have been exercising regularly and eating this amazing vegetarian diet but the scale isn't moving. I suppose that can be attributed to age. I am now 30 and it isn't as easy as it was when I was a kid to lose weight.

I am running out of ideas of new things to make for myself. I suppose I could spend more time researching new recipes but I don't always have the time to spare. I still haven't made the drive to the next city over to see the Fresh Market.

I am absolutely THRILLED to see my kids making better food choices. My daughter always could survive on fruits and salads and I love seeing the excitement in her eyes when she finds fresh strawberries or bananas to snack on. My 5 year old son is a relatively good eater and enjoys a salad but also loves nasty processed foods. He has been asking me to buy him more kale (to make kale chips), bananas, yogurts and berries. The best results have been my 3 year old son who eats nothing but waffles, sugary oatmeal, french fries and the occasional chicken nugget. I have learned that he likes pumpkin, bananas and hummus! WIN!

I have been morning the loss of my favorite food. My best friend and I are regulars at a local Greek restaurant that makes the most AMAZING dolmades (rice and beef seasoned and wrapped in grape leaves that they serve with this amazing sauce drizzled on top). I haven't had them in a long time and debating if I want to go get some on the first chance after my month long experiment. I was hoping to continue on being a vegetarian after the 30 days has passed but I had only promised myself to stick with it for a month. I suppose I will just have to wait and see how I feel when my month is over.

Well, thank you all for stopping by. I appreciate all my readers. Thank you and have a wonderful day!

Lazy Cooking

It's been a long day. My kids had an early release from school and had to take my son to the doctor because of an ear infection, I went grocery shopping and helped sit with my grand-mother-in-law who is elderly and can't leave her bed so she needs family to stay with her at all times. I still kept up with the vegetarian diet.

I mentioned how I had an egg wrap for breakfast. I am leaning towards cutting out eggs from my diet. It does hurt my conscience but they are yummy. I have need to find an equally yummy and easy breakfast if I am going to cut out my favorite breakfast.

It's a good thing I had a breakfast today. I usually don't have the time. I ended up missing lunch as I was dealing with getting to the doctor and so forth.

By the time I got home, it was 6:30pm and I was shaking. I made my family rice and chicken that they said was bland since I didn't taste-test it. I guess I need to find new ways to cook tasty foods for them if I wont be testing it as I cook. I made myself kale chips (kale coated in oil and seasoned with dill and garlic salt then baked) and a salad. I was too worn out to try and think of anything more elaborate. My salad turned out great, consisting of mainly parsley, spinach, tomato and red onion with lemon juice as the dressing.

 

For dessert, I had found this great vegan brownie in a mug recipe on Pinterest that literally takes 15 minutes to make. So good and worth it!

While getting my son's prescription at Publix, I wandered around to see what new and exciting foods  could find. They have such a fun variety of their Greenwise products! I settled for organic green beans and leeks. Can you believe I have never eaten leeks? I'll be looking up recipes tonight for tomorrow to experiment with my new food.

For now I am off to research. Thanks for stopping by! Good night world <3

Stressful but Yummy

What a stressful day. Let's just say that I am typing this while drinking a glass of wine. Between having all kids home from school and babysitting a friend's 4 year old,  am ready to tear my hair out. The kids all seemed to spend every waking moment fighting with eachother. Then, I was caught having to take care of my sister-in-law as she has many health problems that culminated in vomit all over my floor.

So anyway,  still did pretty good for myself when it came to my meals. No breakfast again today, only coffee (lots of coffee). For lunch I made cheese quesadillas with homemade salsa verde. Small flour tortillas with white crumbling queso heated and folded together in a pan (no oil) and dipped in the best salsa in the WORLD!

For dinner I gave my fennel/radish salad from last night another try. I threw it in a hot pan with a little olive oil, salt and a small dash of balsamic vinager. It worked! I ate that sucka up! I also reheated the leftover potato soup from last night. Having it sit and settle for a day made it even tastier.

Time for a snack. I cut whole wheat tortillas into triangles, dipped them in a mixture of oil, fajita seasoning and tomatos that I pureed and baked them into chips. Ate them up with roasted pepper salsa! I needed to add more salt to the chips and I burned my last batch into tiny triangles of char but other then that, my snack was a success! I am so full!

I also talked with a friend of mine who is vegan and she gave me some great links for recipies and information to check out. I am off to do that now and giddy with excitement. Here are the links she told me I should see: Vegetarian Times, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, Chocolate Covered Katie,  21-Day Vegan Kickstart and Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death (Thanks Rhonda! <3 )

That's it for tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

Fennel Fiasco

Today was very adventurous if I say so myself. I had my usual coffee for breakfast as my eyes just don't open until I have finished a pot of my favorite Gevalia Mocha coffee with Irish Cream creamer (yum!). I am the master of breakfast making but I don't make it for myself very often. I will say, the best breakfast in the world is my egg white omelet with spinach, jalapenos, cheese (usually anything white) and fresh homemade green salsa. I am salivating just thinking about it!

So anyways, on to lunch. I decided to throw whatever I had in my fridge into a salad. Vegetarianism for beginners is salad. Easy enough. I used kale, fresh spinach, parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers and red onions with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a dash of salt and pepper. VERY YUMMY! (I had never even heard of kale before this experiment of mine but I’m loving it). My salad was surprisingly filling! I had an apple I was planning to eat as my dessert but I didn't have any room for it all afternoon. This was a pleasant surprise.

By dinner time, my husband was home and asking what these weird foods were that I had in the house. When I first told him my plans to be a vegetarian for a month, his reaction was "Well, just as long as I can still eat my chicken and whatever else". No biggie. We have always had very opposite tastes and I have had to cook different meals for each of us since we were first married. I like very intense flavors. I like the spicy, the sweet, the sour and he likes the savory soul food. He could live off fish, chicken and peanut butter when I could eat anything if it had salsa on it.

So back to dinner. That afternoon I bought radishes and fennel. I have never had fennel in my life and I had no idea what to do with it. I have downloaded an app for my tablet called "Healthy Meals" and looked up fennel recipes. It seemed like you can put fennel in anything but I hit the jackpot when found a simple salad of just radishes, fennel, lemon juice and salt and pepper. I had all the ingredients so I gave it a try. The fennel smelled amazingly fresh and I was looking forward to trying this. Boy was I was disappointed with the taste. I had no idea that fennel tastes like black licorice. BLEH! Seriously, just like black licorice and I H-A-T-E black licorice. Oh well. Live and learn. I will be looking up more recipes for fennel as I still have a bulb left. Maybe if I find a decent way to cook it, then the flavor won’t be so strong.

For dinner I also made my husband some lemon chicken with herbs. I don't mind making him meals with meat in it. Eating meat or not eating it is a personal choice.

I made a potato soup for myself. I had a mix already that was pretty simple made by Cugino's. I have had their french onion soup before which is pretty great so I thought this was a safe bet. I added some radishes, kale, green onion (only had a little left so I threw it in there) and red onion. By then, the soup was tasty but boring so I added salt, pepper and a little chili powder. YUM! My only downfall was I needed to cut the kale up smaller as it was a pain to chew it. The radishes were a perfect addition.

So, all together, I had potato soup and the fennel salad for myself. My 7 year old daughter wolfed down 2 bowls of the soup. My husband ate half of his chicken and a bowl of soup. My 3 year old son ate 3 bites of the chicken, licked the soup and said it was good but he didn't want it (pickiest eater in the world). My 5 year old slept through it all as he is sick with a cough and ear ache.

Day 2 of vegetarianism is going good. My tummy is happy and full. I feel great and am so excited about what I can come up with next!

And so we begin

Greetings friends.

My name is Julia. I am a wife and stay-at-home mom while I am attending college at nights. I am the typical mom. I cart my three kids around to their play dates, gymnastics and so forth. I live for them and try to squeeze in a little bit of me time when I can. Of course, my "me time” is usually taken up by studying for the next exam or endless homework.

I am 30 years old. I eat like the average American (although, for the record, I am Canadian but I am an American resident as I married an American). I like fast food as I am always on the run. I try to eat right and instill good habits in my children but let's face it, a hamburger is so much cheaper than a salad when eating on the go.... and a lot easier to eat while racing all over town.

I tell myself and my husband that I want to eat healthier and get in shape. I was a gym bunny before and after my first 2 children but by the third, the membership fees were too much and I didn't have the time. Now I have a sexy muffin top and wider hips and a saggy butt. My husband still says I am attractive but I just don’t feel right. I don't have the energy to keep up with my life and find myself sitting my youngest in front of the TV while his siblings are at school so I can catch a quick nap. Something needs to change.

I figured that nothing would truly get me to eat better unless I make a plan. I needed a set goal to achieve and a method to measure my progress. I have seen so many articles and pictures of what is done to the animals that are bred just to be fattened and killed in such inhumane ways and it makes me sick. I decided that enough was enough and I didn’t want to support this disgusting business of killing animals and along the way, I could find better health. In comes my idea of being a 30 day vegetarian!

I plan to only last 30 days and if I can keep it up after that then all the better. For now, I am still eating eggs and cheese with the hopes to find ways to cut that out next but I need baby steps.

So welcome to my journey and I hope we all enjoy the ride and maybe even learn something new.

Peace out !