Vegan Update #2 (What I'm Eating this Week)

Ever since I moved out of my mom and dad's house, I have had problems with grocery shopping. I never really make a good list beforehand, so I'm stuck buying what I think that I will eat over the course of the week, and I end up with a ton of extra food that I don't eat! Well, no more. I made a meal plan for this week that is all vegan ( I did consult Gary, considering that I am forcing him to eat vegan for dinner all week unless he plans on cooking something extra), and here is what I have for the next seven days!

Day 1:
Cauliflower Fettuccine Alfredo

This one looks pretty easy, and if you want to make it yourself, here is the link: http://lesliedurso.com/2013/06/cauliflower-fettuccine-alfredo/

Day 2:
Mushroom Burgers and Baked Vegan Zucchini Fries

I plan on making the burgers without a recipe, since the idea of cooking a giant mushroom for use as a burger patty seems pretty self-explanatory. But, I have a recipe for the zucchini fries, they look amazing! Gary is super excited to try them, as am I.
Here is the recipe: http://lawsonwellness.com/2013/05/13/baked-vegan-zucchini-fries/

Day 3:
Spicy Vegan Mac and Cheese

I have seen a lot of posts about vegans missing mac and cheese, and I have to say, it is totally true. If there is one thing that I miss the most about how I used to eat, it is the cheese! Especially mac and cheese. And Gary eats it in front of me all the time, and I cry a little inside. Hopefully the one that I plan on cooking this week will be a fair substitute: http://thesimpleveganista.blogspot.com/2013/10/easy-spicy-mac-n-cheese-nut-free-soy.html

Day 4:
Raw Tortilla Soup

I was looking for an easy soup, (because I think that this much cooking over the course of a week might kill me) and I found this one! The best part about it is that it is all raw, one of those recipes that goes with a "plant-based" diet. Now, being vegan and being plant-based can be a little bit different, and if you want to learn more about it, I would suggest watching Forks Over Knives on Netflix. Anyways, I am hoping that this one is pretty good, even though I don't really like celery and it is included in the recipe!
http://www.rawfullytempting.com/2011/10/raw-tortilla-soup-sans-tortillas.html

Day 5:
Vegan Lasagna

This is the one that I am the most excited for! I had some vegetarian lasagna at my sorority's Founder's Day celebration this year, and it was amazing. This version is vegan, and it seems to be pretty quick and easy, too!
http://busyblondes.blogspot.com/2013/07/tubby-tuesday-quick-and-easy-vegan.html

Day 6:
Sandwiches and Zucchini Chips

In my last post, I mentioned a sandwich that I often make for lunch, and I plan on making one for dinner since they are so incredibly easy (and good!). I told Gary that he is on his own for the sandwich that night, I have some peanut buttter and jelly that he can use if he gets desperate! But, I also plan on making some zucchini chips (not the same as the zucchini fries that I want to make on Day 2) as a side dish. My sister made some at my mom's house last week and they didn't turn out so good, but I have high hopes for this recipe: http://mywholefoodlife.com/2014/02/24/zucchini-chips/

Day 7:
Veggie Stir Fry

This is basically my go-to meal for the nights that I am feeling lazy. This week, I plan on using all of the leftover veggies that I didn't get to use the rest of the week for my stir fry. That way, I don't end up wasting food like I usually do! If I can figure out how to make some yummy homemade hummus, my life will be complete.

Because store bought hummus is expensive, and Gary has this habit of leaving only a tiny bit in the bottom of the container for me. See my face? Not happy. I could make my own, it would be much cheaper and I would be a happy camper again :)

I started a grocery list, and luckily the recipes all have some of the same spices to use in them, so I don't have to buy a crazy number of spices this week. The grocery shopping is always the hardest, especially because I have a limited budget and healthy food is way more expensive. It doesn't help that I prefer to buy organic, which is even more expensive. I'm hoping to utilize the new farmer's market that just opened up this week for my shopping, so I probably won't even be able to shop until they are open again on Saturday. But it'll be worth it, because I am dying to check out the new vegan restaurant that they opened! I've never been to one before.

Hopefully, I'll remember to take pictures of all of my meals this week and keep you all updated on them! I'll try them out to see if they are worth all of the planning and effort to make. I'll let you know about the new vegan restaurant, too!

I promise I'll have posts on things other than being vegan soon :)

Until next time,

Hayley

The Never-Ending Cycle of Dieting

I feel horrible about being so crappy about posting so far this summer. I get into that summer routine, you know? I'll get home from work, then Gary and I will eat dinner and sit down to watch something, then it is basically time for bed again. But, coming up in the next few weeks, I will have a lot more to post about! I've got many exciting things happening in the near future, so I'll be posting quite a bit.

But, until then, I wanted to post about something that really gets me excited. Food.

Now, I know that everyone is pretty passionate about food. It's our driving force, the thing that keeps humanity going. Without it, we would die. I've had an ongoing battle with food for the better part of my life. I had grown up in the generation where my parents would constantly tell me that I needed to finish what was on my plate. "There are starving children in Africa!" they would say. So, I always finished what was in front of me. As I got older, I continued to eat everything in front of me. I don't think that I ever really learned what "full" meant; I would just eat until the food was gone. I started to mirror my parents, always going up for seconds even though I was already full. No one stopped me. If I liked a food, I ate it until I was hapy, not full. By the time I was in fifth grade, I was getting a bit of a pudgy tummy. That was the first time that I ever got called "fat" by one of my classmates.

This is me before my low carb diet began...

When I reached the end of my ninth grade year, I decided that I was done being chubby. I went on my first diet, inspired by my Papa. He was diabetic, so he was on a low carb diet, and he had already lost some weight eating this way. I went low carb, and lost 30 pounds in only a few months. I would eat a plate of microwavable bacon for breakfast every morning, two hot dogs with no buns, dipped in mustard, for lunch, and the inside of a sandwich for dinner. Everyone told me that I looked great. I loved getting to eat all of that junk and still lose weight, but I knew that something had to give eventually. I was on the fast track to a heart attack at the rate that I was going, and I felt so disgusting all the time. Plus, it got harder and harder to stick to a diet where I couldn't really eat anything. I eventually stopped losing weight, then I started to cheat and eat bread and the other carbs that my body was constantly craving. After two years of my low carb diet, I decided to call it quits.

And this is Megan and me right after I lost the 30 pounds by going low carb.

After that, I bounced all around. I tried low calorie, low fat, weight watchers, and even a few of those really strict diet plans where they tell you exactly what you need to eat and when to eat it. I always felt deprived of something. I wanted to eat healthy, but it was just too hard to define what "healthy eating" really was. I didn't lose weight just from eating healthy. All that I wanted was to lose weight, to wear a bikini. Eventually, I realized that just healthy eating wasn't going to do that for me.

After years of struggling with food, I feel like I have finally reached a point where I'm content. About three months ago, I went vegan. Now, going vegan wasn't something that I had ever even considered before. I thought vegans were crazy. There was no way that I could go without milk! I love milk. Plus, eggs are in everything. It just seemed like an impossibility. Netflix was actually the tipping point for me. I got in this kick where I started watching documentaries on there like crazy, and I think that as of right now, I've watched just about every single one relating to food that they have to offer. They changed my mind, and for both health and political reasons, I went vegan.

One of my regular vegan meals: a sandwich with spinach, cauliflower, avocado, and veganaise!

Being vegan is actually really easy. I cook at home a lot, and I make some sort of veggie stir fry for most dinners. If I'm feeling like putting in a little more effort, I will even look up a new vegan recipe to try. I finally feel like I am at a point where I feel healthier.

I started dieting because people called me fat. I've been on a string of diets for about six years now, and it is still hard. It is hard to see women in the media, knowing that I don't look like them and I probably never will. It is hard when I see macaroni and cheese or ranch dressing, and I just want to stuff myself with it until I'm at the point where I never want to eat again. It is hard when I have people on my case about being vegan, stating how unhealthy it is not eating any meat (though no one said anything about my unhealthy eating when they saw me eating nothing but meat and cheese for two years on my low carb diet). But I'm at a point now where it isn't about weight loss for me anymore. Now, it is about being healthy. I feel so much better about what I'm putting into my body every day.

No, I haven't lost any weight on this "diet". The next step for me is starting to exercise, which has been a long time coming. I know that the weight will begin to go when I become more active. But, I know that this way of eating is going to be different for me. Being vegan isn't a diet for me, it is a change in the way that I eat. I am always going to crave the crap that got me to the weight that I am today, but I am not going to indulge myself anymore. This is the only body that I have, and I'm going to do my best to keep it as healthy as possible.

Gary and I ran a 5K last week, so I suppose that is a start :)