Just Around the River Bend.

This is my 150th post! Wowzas! I really enjoy writing this blog. Not only does it give me a chance to vent, ramble, and recommend.... it is also a great place for me to keep my memories. I've never been very good at keeping a diary or a journal, but I wish I had been. There is something really neat about going back and being able to see how you were at a certain time in your life. Just looking back over the past year and a half I can see how much I've changed and grown.

I've been thinking a lot about the path I want to take now. I've been graduated from Western for almost 3 years now (holy crap) and have not found a career/passion/decent job. I guess it sort of got me thinking about what I REALLY want to do with my life. I started off by thinking about what I definitely don't want to do with my life.

Basically.... work at a desk. I guess this is because I can't really imagine being creative in this type of job. I know there are many people out there who have desk jobs and love them and thats great (never say never) but I don't think that is my path.

I've thought long and hard about going back to school (become a librarian, nutritionist. dietitian, writer, rocket scientist you know the usual...) but I've never really followed through with finding info and going through with the process.

So now I'm unveiling my my recent life idea plan....

Going back to school.

The Art Institute of Seattle.

Baking & Pastry Program.

Thoughts?

I have a lot to think about and figure out. On Monday I've taking a virtual tour with one of the admissions officers and will have the opportunity to ask a lot of questions (like.... is studying abroad an option?).

So my life idea plan after school would go something like this....

Work for a little while in a bakery. Then open my own Cafe.

They say you should look back at what you wanted to do when you were little to find out what you should do when you grow up. Well when I was little I wanted to open up a bakery that sold muffin tops. This was long before the name had such a negative connotation.

I have a larger menu in mind for the Cafe now, but it would basically be focused on fresh and local ingredients. I'd offer low-fat options, gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan. Basically everything that I look for in a restaurant and so rarely find.

I'll know a lot more after next week and there is a good chance that it might not work out, but if you never try you never know. I don't want to be 80 yrs old thinking to myself, "If only I had just gotten more information about that Culinary Program."

Today was such a great day! Sunshine and beautifulness! I've kind of gotten out of the habit of taking photos but here are a few food shots. I attempted to carb and protein pack my day so I'd be ready to race in the morning (which really means I ate a ton of food)!

The spinach was supposed to go into the omelet but I forgot! 

Dinner was inspired by my most recent Blog obsession: The Vegan Stoner
They make simple simple simple vegan recipes.
Usually vegan recipes have some weird ingredients and long drawn out processes, not these!
Simple ingredients, simple instructions and cute art!

Yummy Vegan Sloppy Joes!

I'm off to sleep so I can be well rested for my five mile race tomorrow morning! 

Here's a Story....

Stop reading if I've told this story before...

When I first became a vegetarian 13 years ago (still eating fish), I didn't have any of the resource that are so widely available today. So I learned a lot through my mistakes (Clam Chowder has bacon in it! What?!). At first my only concern was not eating hunks of meat, today I'm much stricter and if something has even a little chicken stock in it I wont eat it.

I decided to become a vegetarian on New Years Eve (as a resolution!) in the middle of a family ski trip to Whistler. My last meal as a red meat eater was steak. I remember vividly on the drive home we stopped at McDonalds for breakfast, and it was a big deal that I got a pancake meal instead of an Egg McMuffin.

When I was right around 14 I decided to give up chicken. I don't really remember why, but I think I was just sick of eating so much chicken. When I was little I used to get sick with terrible stomach pains, and once I gave up meat those stomach aches were a thing of the past.

For the most part my family has always been very supportive of my decision. I think that in the beginning this was because they thought it was just a phase. And I am grateful for all of the times someone made me a special dish because they knew I wasn't eating the pork loin. 

That leads me into something interesting I've found... the backlash you sometimes get when you tell people that you are cutting out animal products. You would think that you were saying their baby was ugly or something. People get defensive and sometimes angry. It is one thing to give up red meat and chicken, but cheese?! I had to try not to get defensive myself, but it's difficult not to. I'm constantly confused as to why people take it so personally what I do and don't eat. I don't think I need to come up with some grand reasoning for my choice. I guess I get it, its different and different is scary... but honestly, I'm not trying to turn you into a vegan or a vegetarian. My choices are my own, I'm just doing what feels right for my body.... do what feels right for yours and we don't have to argue!

Anyways! I had a pretty rough time with food today, I may have eaten the better half of a bag of tortilla chips while at my grandma's house. I think part of this was because I haven't really wrapped my head around what I want to eat. How much sugar am I going to cut out? So dairy is out, but what if it is in something... like lets say a cookie? :) Eggs are back in... as is fish. So now I'm going to try to protein pack my diet and see how that feels. Only two servings a fruit a day?

I also looked at labels today and found that nothing I eat has cholesterol in it.... and half of the things I eat claim to lower cholesterol... sigh...

Blended oats with pumpkin! I didn't add any sweetener... It was just decent, I missed the sweetness that bananas or fruit gives to the mix! Lots of chia seeds and walnuts with the soy yogurt and soy milk (hooray for protein!).

I'm obsessed with salsa on top of salad! It makes it so much easy to skip all that chopping!
I buy a local brand from central market that has big chunks of onion, tomato and celery!
(Also those are Vegan tofukey beer brats! So yummy and packed with protein!) 

Tomorrow is the NFL draft! I'm going to a draft party! Anything football gets me excited!

A Naturopath.

This morning I wrote half of my post... all about my journey as a vegetarian and the 30 days of veganism, which I'll share tomorrow because a lot changed this afternoon after my Naturopath appointment that has me questioning whether I will continue on for the next 28 days.

I had an awesome run this morning, I was slow but steady for 4.5 miles. The sun was out and I didn't need gloves! It was glorious. But it does seem that anything over the 3.5 mark and my calves start to freak out....

This afternoon I had my appointment with the Naturopath. It was so interesting and such a different experience from a traditional doctor. We talked in his office instead of an exam room. He asked me questions about every aspect of my life. Before the appointment I had filled out a patient history sheet that we discussed. The first thing he wanted to discuss was me being vegan. At first he thought that I had been a meat eater last week and was just now deciding to cut everything out. It turns out that he is not a very big fan of the meatless diet. I explained that the not eating meat thing has been going on for the past 13 years and wasn't going to change. After looking at my last set of lab results from my old doctor he recommended that I keep eggs, butter and fish in my diet (apparently I have dangerously low cholesterol). Also, because I am putting the additional strain of training onto my body, I need way more protein and other vitamins and nutrients that you can't get from a plant source.

One of my biggest concerns that we discussed was my energy level, I am exhausted all of the time. He also found on my lab report that I have a low blood sugar level. Which at first I was thinking awesome! Does that mean I should eat more sugar?! It actually means the opposite, he recommended that I cut my fruit intake down to just 2 pieces of fruit a day and no sweet! oh man oh man.... The fruit is gonna be hard.

He then took a blood sample (my blood type is A) and will be testing for all sorts of things including a food allergy test! I am really interested to hear if I have any food sensitivities. So that was a very brief play-by-play of what we discussed, there was more and if anything doesn't make sense its because I'm ready for bed!

For now I am going to bring fish and eggs back into my life, continue not eating dairy, cut back my fruit, cut out sweets, and try to eat more protein. I'll know more in 4 weeks when the test results come back in.

So to answer your questions Lisa... is chocolate vegan? The answer.... Sometimes! Milk chocolate is obviously not, but most semisweet and dark varieties are. Things that may seem like they would contain dairy like cocoa butter, are actually vegan. Chocolate itself is actually a plant product. I'm still feeling sinful about eating it after the 40 days of lent...

Vegan Day 1.

Today is my first day without dairy, eggs and fish! After the weekend of food I had, I'm welcoming the change. After all that sugar yesterday and all the dairy on Friday, I felt terrible! I was so sluggish yesterday and had an awful nights sleep. Which led to me having a pretty lazy morning! I got nothing accomplished in my mess of a house! The weather turned from grey yesterday to continuous rain today, so I didn't get any sun energy! Today was also my first morning without coffee or black tea! Green tea still has a touch of caffeine, but nothing like what I'm used to! I'm hoping that this 30 day experiment will leave me feeling light and naturally energized. I predict that after the 30 days I will continue to eat a mostly vegan diet, but I don't see myself giving up dairy, eggs, and fish completely. They will probably be a rare occurrence. I'm looking forward to trying new foods and new baking techniques! I'm also excited to see if it will effect my stamina for running. Race day is coming up soon!

An update on weekly goals:
The only goal I completed was doing yoga twice! eekk!
I didn't swim (this is hard for me because I work so early there are only two days out of the week for me to do an AM swim and usually I want to sleep in on those days!)
Sleeping more and eating better portions is continuing to not really happen!
I am continuing walking to do errands or to work one day a week. The weather forecast for this week makes me nervous though!

This weeks goals:
Read a book.
Do more random acts of kindness.
Keep up with washing dishes and laundry.
Get more plants in pots!
Stick with my week 4 training schedule.

So what does a vegan eat? A lot actually. I don't think my eating changed very drastically....

Swapped Almond milk in my oats this morning!
Tasted exactly the same.

Lunch was an experiment! A successful one too!
Kale, Veggies, and lentil salad:
2 C Kale
3 Carrots Shredded using a potato peeler
Sprits of olive oil
1/2 C onion
1 green onion sprig
1 minced garlic clove
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 C cooked lentils
1 T sunflower seeds

Saute the onions and garlic in oil 2 min.
Add carrots cook for 2 minutes
Add kale and lentils.
Cook until the kale heats up but doesn't wilt.
Top with sunflower seeds and enjoy!

So many variations for this recipe...
Collard greens, leeks pretty much any veggies.
This was my first experiment with lentils and while they aren't as good as beans, I still liked them very much.

Tonight was Classics Night at the Lynwood Theatre!
Once a month the old time-ish theatre shows classic movies.
Tonight's show was Giant the 1956 epic (over 3 hrs! I've never experienced an intermission during a movie before!) starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean.
I had seen this movie before, but nothing compares to seeing it on the big screen!

Before the movie we met for dinner  next door  at the Tree House Cafe.
The big Vegan test... What to order when out to dinner?!
How about pizza?! Hold the cheese of course!
The waiter looked at me like I was nuts!
Carly and I split this veggie filled delight.
It was so light and tasty without the cheese, but I must admit that a part of me did miss it!

Girls night!
So much fun!

End of day one of being vegan and I don't feel any different! It was interesting having to ask what exactly was in each of the items I ate. Fun fact:  the theater uses sunflower seed oil to pop their popcorn!

Chocolate Overdose.

The nice weather we were blessed with over the last few days disappeared by this morning. Its a good thing you don't need sunshine to eat chocolate. Lent was officially over and the chocolate eating could have commenced yesterday, but since I had that slip up a week ago I still owed a day. And since tomorrow I begin my 30 vegan adventure... I basically ate enough chocolate to last the 70 days and then some!

On Friday as I left my house for a run, I got about a block away when I felt like I was missing something. My IPOD! I never run without it. I decided not to go back and test out running without it. It was such a great run! Instead of blaring my music and forgetting that I was running, I was completely involved in the run. I was very aware of my breathing and stride (also, has my knee always popped like that?!) my pace was much faster that normal. I ended up running 5K in 29 minutes (in March I during my St. Paddy's day run I did 3.1 miles in 32 minutes) I don't think I could always run without music, but it's good to know I can do it successfully! Today I was kinda sore from my hike yesterday so I only did a mini run, I think it is important to keep moving when you are feeling sore!

Today was all about CHOCOLATE! With a few side notes!

Lunch! I had some leftover pesto and decided to make an open faced sandwich.
One of the many things I love about Italians is their gift of pesto to the world!
This was a surprisingly delicious combo.

Yes, I'm 25 and still get an easter basket!
And its awesome!
Don't be jealous!
My two favorite things are Reese's eggs and cadbury chocolate mini eggs!
That giant reese's was awesome, but I like the little ones better... they have a better ratio of chocolate to peanut butter.

I was feeling the effect of all that sugar in my system so salad sounded good for dinner again!
Roaste veggies and salsa with cheddar broccoli risotto on the side! 

Remember how for my brother's birthday at the end of March my sister-in-law Carly made a Chocolate Chocolate cake?!
Well she froze a slice for me! So I got to enjoy it today! So chocolatey!

Well my 30 days of veganism begins tomorrow. I'm pretty excited! Especially after the gorge fest that happened this weekend! I need to cleanse my body!