As the evening draws to a close I have filled my belly for the last time with unholy foods! The cupboards are stocked with healthy foods. Lets go vegan!
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Sunday, July 31, 2011
Final Day
I have been enjoying my final day, drinking lots of coffee. You may wonder why I can't drink coffee after today and the reason is I love a little coffee with my cream and sugar! Given I can't have cream or sugar no more coffee...yeehaw here comes the caffeine headaches!!
Once my daughter wakes up from her nap (she is 3) I am taking her for either wings or burgers and a chocolate milkshake! I have found quitting bad habits requires me to binge to the point of being ill and then quitting is much easier.
I have planned out my meals for the week and it is looking good. I have used the E2 Diet and I have also used "The Thrive Diet" by Brendan Brazier (http://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Nutrition-Optimal-Performance-Sports/dp/0738212547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312134105&sr=8-1). There are some really great recipes in there that I have made in the past including the pizza recipes!
I am nervous and excited to be entering this new chapter in my life. I need to lose weight and I need to be healthy. We have complete control over how long we live and how we live.
Happy final day!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Once my daughter wakes up from her nap (she is 3) I am taking her for either wings or burgers and a chocolate milkshake! I have found quitting bad habits requires me to binge to the point of being ill and then quitting is much easier.
I have planned out my meals for the week and it is looking good. I have used the E2 Diet and I have also used "The Thrive Diet" by Brendan Brazier (http://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Nutrition-Optimal-Performance-Sports/dp/0738212547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312134105&sr=8-1). There are some really great recipes in there that I have made in the past including the pizza recipes!
I am nervous and excited to be entering this new chapter in my life. I need to lose weight and I need to be healthy. We have complete control over how long we live and how we live.
Happy final day!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
1 Day Left!!
I can not believe there is only 1 day left until 28 days of veganism! I think the hardest part of this will be business meals and my family vacation. As well I am a compulsive snacker so that will be tough as well.
I have been pouring through some vegan blogs and E2 and other vegan sources trying to come up with my meal plan for the week. The hard part will be as the main chef in the house I will have to prepare food for others that is not vegan. An example is tomorrow on the first of 28 days we are having 16 guest over for a BBQ and I am cooking the meat!!! Normally when I cook I like to sample to make sure it tastes good and is ready etc. Now I will have to leave that to my wife or others.
Breakfast will be the easiest as I have been eating smoothies for months using my trusty Vitamix Blender. If you don't know about Vitamix blenders they are amazing. They take whole fruits and vegetables and fully liquefy them. This apparently makes the nutrients in the fruits and vegetable more available then just chewing alone. Check out the link http://www.vitamix.com/. Often you can find them for sale at Costco for a pretty reasonable price (given they last forever). Normally my smoothies are, 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 cup of frozen blueberries, 3 ice cubes, 1 cup of spinach, 1 cup of hemp milk and 2 servings of Vega Whole Food Smoothie Infuser (http://myvega.com/products/whole-food-smoothie-infusion/features-benefits). I share this with my spouse so it makes two servings.
Dinner is also fairly easy as we usually eat fairly healthy meals, though they contain meat maybe 4 nights a week. So I will have to look at eliminating these from my rotation if not the rotation of the family.
Lunch will be tough. Most of my lunches are in restaurants with customers and I have to say most of the restaurants around where I live have very poor vegetarian options let alone vegan. I am going to try to stick to places like thai or mexican which have reasonable veggie options.
The other guideline (not rule because I am not a fan of hard and fast rules) is that if I am served something at someone's house I will eat it as I don't wish to offend people. That being said I like a recommendation I saw on a website which is to offer to bring something and make it vegan so you can eat it! :-)
Well off to do my grocery shopping....good luck to the rest of the 28 dayers heading into the first day!!
I have been pouring through some vegan blogs and E2 and other vegan sources trying to come up with my meal plan for the week. The hard part will be as the main chef in the house I will have to prepare food for others that is not vegan. An example is tomorrow on the first of 28 days we are having 16 guest over for a BBQ and I am cooking the meat!!! Normally when I cook I like to sample to make sure it tastes good and is ready etc. Now I will have to leave that to my wife or others.
Breakfast will be the easiest as I have been eating smoothies for months using my trusty Vitamix Blender. If you don't know about Vitamix blenders they are amazing. They take whole fruits and vegetables and fully liquefy them. This apparently makes the nutrients in the fruits and vegetable more available then just chewing alone. Check out the link http://www.vitamix.com/. Often you can find them for sale at Costco for a pretty reasonable price (given they last forever). Normally my smoothies are, 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 cup of frozen blueberries, 3 ice cubes, 1 cup of spinach, 1 cup of hemp milk and 2 servings of Vega Whole Food Smoothie Infuser (http://myvega.com/products/whole-food-smoothie-infusion/features-benefits). I share this with my spouse so it makes two servings.
Dinner is also fairly easy as we usually eat fairly healthy meals, though they contain meat maybe 4 nights a week. So I will have to look at eliminating these from my rotation if not the rotation of the family.
Lunch will be tough. Most of my lunches are in restaurants with customers and I have to say most of the restaurants around where I live have very poor vegetarian options let alone vegan. I am going to try to stick to places like thai or mexican which have reasonable veggie options.
The other guideline (not rule because I am not a fan of hard and fast rules) is that if I am served something at someone's house I will eat it as I don't wish to offend people. That being said I like a recommendation I saw on a website which is to offer to bring something and make it vegan so you can eat it! :-)
Well off to do my grocery shopping....good luck to the rest of the 28 dayers heading into the first day!!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Jonny O
I have now committed to being a Vegan Wannabe with Jonny O and the rest of the Wannabes. I have to say I have a fair amount of nervousness about the idea of becoming vegan for a month. I have a birthday in August as well as a week long trip to the US West Coast.
I have found that if you explain to people you are entering a contest as opposed to changing your lifestyle they are far more supportive. Somehow the idea of becoming has become a dirty word to a lot of folks. Maybe that is why Forks over Knives decided not to use it in their documentary.
I have flirted with vegetarianism and veganism in the past and have for the most part enjoyed it. The real difficulty I find is twofold: being prepared and business meals. My job requires me to do a fair amount of entertaining and business meals and most restaurants have very bad options when it comes to vegetarian meals let along vegan.
I am a good cook but often pressed for time between activities for children and work (I commute 2 hours per day). So planning and preparation will be the key. I am going to try to do a lot of the prep (sous chef) work on the weekends to help for the week.
I think Brendan Brazier's vegan supplies will become my best friend over the next couple of weeks. For those of you not familiar with Brendan he is a Vegan triathlete who has written a couple of books and established a company called Vega. Vega makes all kinds of vegan products that can help you survive in a hectic world. Check them out at myvega.com.
The D-Day of August 1st is fast approaching so I am enjoying my last vegan meals.....So what does this mean? I am giving up for the month of August:
Dairy
Meat
Refined white flour
Sugar
Processed food - other than things like raw crackers and Vega products
Exercise - up until this point I had always relied on my metabolism which seems to have escaped me thus the weight gain. I have exercised in fits and spurts with cycling being by far the most fun. However, I know that I have to mix this up with strength training. My goal is to exercise 5 times per week for a minimum of 45 minutes mixing cardio (Cycling) and P90X for strength training.
As well I am going to try to give up TV during the week and only watch programs on the weekend (shouldn't be too hard as it is August).
The goal of this blog is not only to hopefully inspire, but also be a diary including documenting cool recipes that I come across. Hopefully you the reader will find it of interest and of use.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I have found that if you explain to people you are entering a contest as opposed to changing your lifestyle they are far more supportive. Somehow the idea of becoming has become a dirty word to a lot of folks. Maybe that is why Forks over Knives decided not to use it in their documentary.
I have flirted with vegetarianism and veganism in the past and have for the most part enjoyed it. The real difficulty I find is twofold: being prepared and business meals. My job requires me to do a fair amount of entertaining and business meals and most restaurants have very bad options when it comes to vegetarian meals let along vegan.
I am a good cook but often pressed for time between activities for children and work (I commute 2 hours per day). So planning and preparation will be the key. I am going to try to do a lot of the prep (sous chef) work on the weekends to help for the week.
I think Brendan Brazier's vegan supplies will become my best friend over the next couple of weeks. For those of you not familiar with Brendan he is a Vegan triathlete who has written a couple of books and established a company called Vega. Vega makes all kinds of vegan products that can help you survive in a hectic world. Check them out at myvega.com.
The D-Day of August 1st is fast approaching so I am enjoying my last vegan meals.....So what does this mean? I am giving up for the month of August:
Dairy
Meat
Refined white flour
Sugar
Processed food - other than things like raw crackers and Vega products
Exercise - up until this point I had always relied on my metabolism which seems to have escaped me thus the weight gain. I have exercised in fits and spurts with cycling being by far the most fun. However, I know that I have to mix this up with strength training. My goal is to exercise 5 times per week for a minimum of 45 minutes mixing cardio (Cycling) and P90X for strength training.
As well I am going to try to give up TV during the week and only watch programs on the weekend (shouldn't be too hard as it is August).
The goal of this blog is not only to hopefully inspire, but also be a diary including documenting cool recipes that I come across. Hopefully you the reader will find it of interest and of use.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
How it all Started
I have always been interested in reading books on health and wellness while ironically sitting on the couch eating chips. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would say I was mostly a carnivore eating some fruit and veg but not nearly what I should.
So what changed? One day driving to T-ball with my son he asked me why there was a picture of a cow on his baseball glove. I explained that it was there because baseball gloves are made from cow skin. He asked if the cow was already dead and was that why we could use the skin. I then had the pleasure of explaining to a 6 year old that we kill animals for meat and their skin. Needless to say he was pretty horrified.
This of course led me to thinking about meat and where it comes from. Fact is sometimes children see things in a way that makes you think. I am not saying that I have moved towards vegetarianism because of cruelty to animals but it certainly doesn't hurt.
The main motivations for me are health and vitality. I find that I can recover faster from exercise when I eat a very clean vegetarian diet. So let's see where this experiment takes me. The rules are simple, no meat, dairy or sugar for one month.
My goal is to lose 60 pounds and lead a much healthier life filled with energy and vitality.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
So what changed? One day driving to T-ball with my son he asked me why there was a picture of a cow on his baseball glove. I explained that it was there because baseball gloves are made from cow skin. He asked if the cow was already dead and was that why we could use the skin. I then had the pleasure of explaining to a 6 year old that we kill animals for meat and their skin. Needless to say he was pretty horrified.
This of course led me to thinking about meat and where it comes from. Fact is sometimes children see things in a way that makes you think. I am not saying that I have moved towards vegetarianism because of cruelty to animals but it certainly doesn't hurt.
The main motivations for me are health and vitality. I find that I can recover faster from exercise when I eat a very clean vegetarian diet. So let's see where this experiment takes me. The rules are simple, no meat, dairy or sugar for one month.
My goal is to lose 60 pounds and lead a much healthier life filled with energy and vitality.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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