Discussion Board

I'm excited to report that I did not burn the house down while roasting the peppers, in fact they came out grate. Unfortunetly the recipe called for fresh Parsley and I forgot to get some at the store so I'm freezeing the peppers until Tuesday when I can get to the store. I'm happy to say that all things munchy are out of the house, or at least the things I've been known to much on. I finished up the last of the fiances crispy onions because he said he was over them. Now all that's left in the house is my healthy food and his non food. I've been hearing a lot of people talking about how they just don't view certain things as food anymore and I think it's rubbing off because I really am starting to look at say chickens nuggets as something devoid of nutrition and honestly not particularly tasty so therefore it's not food. Now I need to carry this over into the things I could still see myself eating like regular hummus or crispy onions. I need to realise vegan doesn't equal healthy. So since I didn't have everything to make the Mexican Green Rice and Beans I'm making the Savory Beans and Rice. I'm excited because I've been hunting for the herb Savory for probably a year now. They didn't have it at Walmart, Winco, Marvall, Big Boy or any of the other stores I've tried. Well the fiance finally convinced me to try O'Brians a gourmet grocery that I wouldn't normally shop in and low and behold they have it. Now I hope it lasts a while because it was like $6 for a little spice bottle full. Tomorrow is my weigh in day and I'm really excited to see how I've done. I've been tracking my calories on My Fitness Pal along with fat, protien, fiber, and sodium intake. I've been having around 1200 calories and about 10% fat, 30% protein, and 60% carbs. I'm pretty happy with that. I think over all this week I did really well. There were a couple slips but for once I didn't say screw it you already blew it. Just start over next week. Instead I tracked it and moved on. I've been reading through a lot of peoples journal and I think that's really helped with the new mind set. It shows that even people who've done amazeing and lost a lot of weight aren't perfect and that's ok and long as you pick yourself up and keep going. I still think foods at least certain ones for me are an addiction and that relapses happen. Eventually though somethings clicks and said person conquers their addictions once and for all. I am determined to make the someone me.

I've lost exactly 7lbs! I was pretty shocked when I stepped on the scale and is said 195.6 down from 202.6. I stepped on it a few more times just in case it was messing with me because scales are evil like that but no it just kept saying the same number so I guess it's the truth lol. So for right now the lady who lives in my scale and reads me my weight is my friend. I've really gotten into reading journals and I need to start commenting because I'm learning a lot through them. Now I'm looking into DDP Yoga and I'm pretty excited to see what it's about. I am deffinetly a workout at home kinda person. My only problem is now that I'm blind not all workout DVD's are discriptive enough for me to know what's going on without someone else watching them with me. A good example of this is Zumba. Whitch is to bad because I love danceing but a lot of the time they won't say when there doing another move they'll just start doing it or they'll say something like now move your arms like this and I'm left going "like what"? So I've learned to cough download cough cough potentially exspensive workout programs and watch them first to see if it's something I can do on my own. If it is and I like it then I buy it. It's kept me from wasteing a lot of money. So I'm going to watch DDP Yoga it's the first packege and see if I can do it on my own without sighted assistance and if I like it. If I do then my birthday is in August soooo... Something I've noticed is I haven't really been feeling the stews I've been makeing. I mean they're ok but not awsome and I don't know if I'd make them again. My problem is all the soups I know are awsome are not MWL. Examples would be Pasta E Fagioli, and Peanutty Pumpkin Stew. I've been really likeing the rice and bean dishes I've been making though so maybe I'll stick with those. The exception to this is the Savory Beans and Rice I made yesterday. It's not that I don't like it, It just doesn't have a lot of flavor. I think that will be the one dish I have to add a little salt and pepper to. Today I'm makeing Sweet Potato Succotash Stew. I hope I like it. I forgot the put the beans out to soak last tonight to today's dinner will be a late one but that's ok. My mom called today and she's doing really good and her infection is practically healed so I'm really happy about that. I'll call my aunt today or tomorrow to see how my grandma is doing. Hopefully she is doing better and maybe out of the hospital. I'll write back later with a review of the stew.

Well my grandma is still in the hospital but should be released this week. We're not sure if she's going into a skilled nurseing facility for a while or what so It's wait and see I guess. I like the stew I made. I still think I'll stick to rice and bean dishes because I like them more but it's nice to have found an MWL friendly soup. I've noticed the past 5 days or so my calories have been like 1000 or even less sometimes. I think I'm gonna switch back to oatmeal for breakfast since it's more calories and more filling then the frozen hash brown potatos I'm currently eating for brekfast. I turned on the Diamond Dozen tape from DDP Yoga and it's deffinetly something I'll have to watch with someone. Maybe I'll get the fiance to take a look with me. He has like half a working eyeball so we should be good lol. My current mission is to find a tasty oatmeal recipe. So far I've tried cut up banana in a bowl of plain oatmeal not to bad and a banana blended with a couple TBSP of cocoa powder ok but not awsome. I've seen on a couple vegan blogs where people use flavored tea bags to flavor their oatmeal. I'll have to see what's in there tea bags. I don't want a bunch of artificial ingredients since I'm working towards having a whole foods plant based diet. Now off to go check out teas.

Today is just one of those days... I was supposed to go shopping today for the second half of my bi-monthly shopping trip but the person who takes me canceled. As much as that bugs me it's probably a good thing because I was gonna get 2 more of those Amy's TV dinners. Second I was gonna go to Winco instead of the much closer Walmart to get some nutritional yeast since it's cheaper then ordering it. As I'm talking to the grocery guy on the phone he says someone walked out with 2 bags full of nutritional yeast and when he went back there they had taken all of it grrr. So then I resign myself to order it since they won't have any until tomorrow and then the above situation with the ride plays out soooo looks like I'm going to Winco tomorrow. I'm going to call in the morning to see of they got their nutritional yeast order in and if they did I'm going to see if they can hold it for me. The cravings are starting to hit me in force. I was reading on Bob and Farley's boards that cravings tend to hit about 10 days after starting this WOE so I'm right on schedule I guess. Since I'm planning to switch to rice and bean dishes from soups I'm worried I'll be hungry since the soups are very volumous with their tons of veggies and broth so I thought I'd add a salad to dinner or maybe lunch and dinner. I'm gonna try these massaged kale salads. I got the idea from a poster on Bob and Farley's blog. I've kinda invented my own dressing so I hope it's good... we'll know day after tomorrow, it needs a day to let the flavors blend or something like that. I'm thinking of doing the Gallo Pinto from the recipe index for lunches since I have some fresh tortillas. I'm gonna make fresh Pico De Gallo to put on top. My mission for the next couple of days is to acknowledge my craveings without giving into them and to not take my craving induced grumpiness out on those around me. I'll let you know how I did.

Have you ever had a day where you just wanted to scream?? When I was a kid and I was having a bad time I'd ride my bicycle to the back field behind my apartments and have a good scream. Awww the beauty of living in the ghetto is people are always screaming and yelling at someone/something so nobody really pays attention. Well now I don't live in the ghetto and I don't drive so I can't go somewhere and scream without someone thinking someone is dieing and calling somebody. So i'm venting through journaling. So here goes my vent *warning* long vent ahead... Soooo Jessica was supposed to take us shopping on Wensday but felt she had to workout first. She asked if we wanted to go shopping really lake Wensday/early Thursday morning or do it Thursday after work. I said whatever was easier for her since she's helping us. She picked Thursday. Thursday her friend comes home from visiting Sweden and she forgot he was only going to be home one day then leave again to go be a summer camp councelor. She says she wants to do the shopping as early as possible, now this is at 2pm and she has work so I call her around 6pm no answer. We call at 8pm and she's at Yohan's and she won't be able to do it. She calls Cindy because James it out of food and she says she'll just buy him something. Well she asks if we can buy it and she'll pay us back. Well James has no money *I might get into this later* whitch is one of the many reasons we have seperet bank accounts still. So I pay for the pizza. It wouldn't bug me but I'm on a strict budget this month of $200 for all food/personal care products and if I can't make the $200 then I've agreed to rethink how I'm eating... so now I'm out $30 out of my food budget plus more money from earlier in the month. Back to Jessica, so now it's Friday and no call from her. We call 3 times with nada. finally we call Cindy and she says she's at the bull fights WTF? So now James is out of food again and we're both pissed. I don't cuss alot but angry is just not the word. Cindy says she'll take us early tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. I feel bad even asking because she just had sholder surgery a month ago. James says she probably won't be able to pull the shopping cart... so who's going to stear the cart? I don't think 2 blind people running around walmart with a shopping cart would be a pleasant experience for anyone. On one hand I feel bad for being upset because Jessica does alot for us. Normally she takes us shopping once or twice a month and I know it's alot more work to take a blind person shopping and go down all the isles and read the signs of what's on what isle verses dropping someone off and picking them up after they've don their shopping. So for that I feel bad for being upset but on the other hand I feel like she's just totally blwoing us off and now James has run out of food twice. I had this feeling something was going to go terribly wrong today and I'm thinking I was right. Oh and 1 more drama we have this friend Matt. He's a nice guy and he really likes to help people. Unfortunetly he has this thing where he inserts himself in the middle of someone elses problems. So our roommate and Matt got into a verbal arguement and our roommate hit him. It was more drama then that but that's the Cliff notes virsion. So now Matt doesn't really hang at our house and we're working towards moving. We've been taking a break from Matt because he invites drama but he called today and I felt so bad and some how we're supposed to come over tomorrow after him and his many roommates move into their new house and crash there for the night. I have a couple problems with this... 1. I already had a crazy day of cooking, 2. Cindy is now possibly taking us grocery shopping early tomorrow morning so not conducive to staying up all Saturday night, 3. He's already having rommmate drama, 4. I've been having this weard sleeping thing... I've been sleeping for like 14hrs some days and yet I'm still tired so I'm afraid I'll be to wiped come tomorrow night. Honestly I'm a little concerned about this sleep thing plus I've been getting headaches so I'm going to try a couple things for it. I'm going to document exactly when and for how long I'm sleeping so see if there's a pattern. I'm also going to up my calories because they'vve been pretty low. Under 1200 calories most days and I've never functioned well when I've tried any other 1200 or less calorie diets. I'm going to be adding more McD aproved foods nothing bad for me. So that's my solution for the sleep headache thing. My solution for the Matt thing is we're just going to tell him straight up tomorrow that we won't make it to his place but once he's settled in we'll come see his new digs. As for the Jessica thing well there's nothing I can do about that but wait and see what happens. We'll just have to see if Cindy takes us tomorrow and who steers the shopping cart. As for James having now food well there's nothing to be done now since he won't eat my alien vegan food and the pizza place is closed not that I would have bought him another one...
Ok now for some good news, My grandma is doing good. She had and still has this weird breathing thing going on and now conjestive heart failure but the procedure she had to get her heart beat back into a normal rythm and check for blood clots went well. No clots and normal heart beat. I've been looking at Chef AJ's Hail to the Kale salad but couldn't reconcile the 1c of almond butter even if I make half a recipe it's still alot. Then I remember in The Happy Herbivore Cookbook there is a recipe for Nutty Spread and I've heard of people using it for a nutt butter replacement. So now if I make half a recipe I'll only be ingesting about 2tbsp of nutt butter. So I've cut the Almond butter by 75% and I'm pretty stoked to try it now. So even though today wasn't steller it did have it's good points. Now hopefully tomorrow we can get some groceries.

OMG it's so freaking hot! So Jessica can't take us today and I didn't go shopping at all yet. Cindy offered to take us today and even called twice bwhile James and I were sleeping. When I got up I called her and asked if we could go after the sun goes down because it's 105 today and if I'm in the heat I tend to get sick and nobody wants to watch me throw up least of all me. Cindy said that would be fine so hopefully we'll go shopping tonight. Jessica can't take us because she has a date whitch I'm not sure I was supposed to tell Cindy but whatever. I got another 10hrs of sleep woot! Now I just need to make sure it's not between 5am and 3pm. I'm one of those people if I say I have to get up at a certain time I'll be so worried I won't get up on time that I won't sleep so by 5am I said forget it. So since I had a butt load of cooking to do today that I was going to do tonight whitch has now been interrupted by the shopping I'm hopefully doing tonight... me frustrated? No not me. So I've re arranged my menu a bit to include dishes that don't take as long to cook. Now I have to figure out what to do with the beans I started soaking last night in preparation for todays cooking marathon. So here's my plan of attack... Cook 2 grains quinoa and brown rice. Both take about 30 minutes. Buy some canned beans or suck it up and cook the beans I have soaking. Maybe a combo of both. If I do the beans then I can cook them on the back burners since they take 1.5hrs to cook and cook the grains on the frunt burners. It would be interesting to have all the burners going at once. Then when the grains are done cook some veg on the now vacant 2 front burners... sounds like my mind has already planned it interesting. when I'm done I should have the folowing dishes Quinoa Puttanesca and Gallo Pinto. 2 more things, first I've decided to drink the half gallon of almond milk I bought at my last shopping trip. Honestly I don't even know why I bought it but when I got home there it was in my bags. No more once it's gone. I decided to try these stevia packets I've had in my cupboard for a couple months. I tried a packet in the almond milk with some cocoa powder and a tiny bit of instant coffee and it wasn't half bad. So I'm going to try them in my oatmeal today. Wish me luck for tonight I will probably need all the positive vibes I can get.

Hey- sounds like you've had some challenges getting to the store! Geez, I didn't think about how hard it must be to always have to rely on and work around someone elses schedule. I hope this gets better for you!
Just a suggestion to make your cooking a little simpler....not that you're doing anything wrong but you seems a little stressed about getting your cooking done! I cook off large quantities of beans and then cool and freeze in smaller sized zip-lock bags...that way I can pull one out and make a quick dinner. For example, mix 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 zip-lock bag beans of choice, serve over 2 c. mashed potatoes OR mix 1 c. frozen mixed veggies, 1 zip-lock bag beans season with soy sauce, serve over rice. Easy, quick (15 minutes at most) dinners without sweating and not needing to spend my entire weekend cooking. I do on occasion cook on weekends, usually it involves making large quantities of beans/rice that I can freeze for the quick mid-week meals or a batch of soup.
Glad to hear you are still plugging along at the new WOE. Sorry to hear it's so darn hot. I, too, can't stand extreme heat. Here in ND it will hit the upper 90's only a couple of weeks if we are lucky. Usually in the 80's but VERY humid so I don't know if that's any better.
Remember this is for life, so make it as simple as possible!

Hey Lexus, Thanks for the support and suggestions. It really helps me know I'm not plugging along alone ya know? I'm a huge fan of batch cooking. I usually do lunch and dinner for 4 days at a time since most recipes are 4 servings and it's just me eating it. I try and leave the freezer to the men folk since they are huge fans of TV dinners and what not. I do keep my big container of frozen bananas in there for ice cream and some frozen veggies but I hear about their lack of space lol. Anyways thanks for checking on me and I hope all is well with you.

Audrey

So I have to say I pretty much rocked yesterday. I decided to make as much of my food before we went to the store and possible because I knew we were going late and I wouldn't feel like doing a whole bunch of cooking when I got home. I cooked the beans on the back burners and the grains on the front burners. I've never had all 4 burners going at once but luckily everyone came out good and no fires were started though it felt kinda like there should have been whith how hot it was. I started cooking around 8pm and it was still at least 90 outside but I stood the heat of the kitchen. We went shopping around 10pm and I didn't even think about those Amy's TV dinners until we got home and then it was just to notice I hadn't thought about them in the store. I didn't get quite everything I came for but that's because they were out of some things. I also splurged on some stuff like premade Pico De Gallo since they didn't have the celontro I needed to make it fresh and I bought a 1lb bag of almonds to make lower fat peanut spread with. So I spent around $60 includeing none food stuffs and now all I have to buy for the remainder of the month is fruit and veggies so I'm pleased with that because this means I can afford my foods on the budget I and the fiance set for me. Next month I won't have to rethink how I'm eating and re-arrange my food/recipes yay! When I got home I made Chickpea Quinoa Puttanesca useing largely stuff I had around the house. The only things I bought for it were 2 cans of checkpeas and 2 cans of no salt added diced tomatos. OMG that is the best sauce I've ever made. I'm not sure I like it over the chickpeas and quinoa but I'm used to having sauces like that over pasta so mayhaps I'll learn to like it this way. I have officially found my morning oatmeal and I am soooo happy about that. I've been trying so many different oatmeal combos but just couldn't find one I liked. I switched to frozen shredded potatos but they just didn't keep me full like oatmeal plus oatmeal is way cheaper. So it's Snickerdoodle oatmeal for me from Chocolate Covered Katy's blog without the almond milk and with stevia to sweeten. It's pretty good. Reminds me of the Cinnamon Roll instant oatmeal I used to eat but better for you and probably cheaper. It's another crazy hot day today so I'm staying in my house but it still feels hot even with the air on./ sigh So tonight I'm going to cook the veggies for the Pinto De Gallo and have it for dinner... a late dinner when it's cooler. Since I've been tracking my sleep I've been getting roughly 10hrs and I'm happy with that. I've noticed my headaches come on when I haven't eaten in several hours so I'm thinking it could be the hunger and lack of enough calories. We'll know today when I eat more. I'm shooting for around 1400-1500 calories. I know we're aren't supposed to count calories but I just can't seem to help myself. Maybe it's because every time I've tried to lose weight it was all about counting something be it calories, carbs, or points. I only lost 4 tenths of a pound and while I'm not happy about it I'm not going to let it derail me because for once this just isn't about loseing weight it's about being a healthy as I can be. I'll let ya know how the Gallo Pinto turns out tomorrow.

Hi There,

My name is Chef AJ and I would be happy to send you a copy of my cookbook UNPROCESSED in Braille or on audio. I volunteered teaching SOS free Whole Food/Plant Based cooking to the blind at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles for years. Apparently, one of the students requested my book which means they will have to either record it or translate it into Braille. If you would like a free copy, please e-mail me at chefaj@att.net.

As far as emotional eating, the best book I have read on the subject is "Shrink Yourself" by Roger Gould, MD. He practiced at UCLA for over 30 years and is considered the foremost authority on the subject. You can sign up for his blog for free at www.shrinkyourself.com

Love & Kale,
Chef AJ
www.EatUnprocessed.com

Chef AJ I would love an audio copy of your book. I'll email you tonight. I'm waaaay to slow a brail reader for anything longer then a page or two lol. Very cool that you vollanteered at the Brail Institue.

Thanks again
Audrey

Today is going pretty well, nothing particularly exciteing to report. I didn't really like the Pico De Gallo from Walmart whitch is to bad because it was $3. So I've decided to only get my Pico De Gallo from the mexican market here since it's amazeing and I know exactly what's in it. Basically all the stuff I'd put in there but without me having to do the work plus it's reasonably priced. I haven't mastered chopping tomatos into small bits so I'll leave it to the experts. The Gallo Pinto was ok. I googled a couple different recipes and found out all the recipes I found use wherstishire sauce in the place of the Costa Rican salsa whatever it's called. Luckily I had some home made vegan wherstishire sauce chillin in the fridge so that solved that. I was kinda lazy and cooked all the veggies together instead of cooking the bean veggies seprate from the rice ones and for some reason the celery didn't get done. I'm not a huge fan of raw celery but I'm gonna eat it anyways. Tonight I'm roasting the jalepenos I have before they go bad and putting them in the freezer with my roasted pablanos since they're gonna end up in the same recipe... I think. I made myself get up earlier today whitch for me means noon instead of 3pm. I wanted to get back to my normal schedule, at least normal for me. I made a smoothie out of the bananas I usually turn into ice cream and added 1 cup of almond milk, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1 packet of Great Value stevia, and 1tsp of instant coffee. It was not bad. I'll probably continue to do that until the almond milk runs out. It's down to 93 degrees today and I'm happy about that. Now lets seee how long this cooler streak lasts.

Forgot my password last night so couldn't post. Here's last nights journal entry,

Not to much to post. Staying on plan and starting to like the food. Also I used to love my Tapatio I mean LOVE it. Now I put like 3 shakes on my rice and beans and I'm like OMG water now! Interesting... Also I'm totally upsessed with Puttanesca sauce whitch reminds me to go look up capers. James says their something to do with fish but I don't believe him since my vegan cookbooks use them. Today I made the Hail to the Kale salad. I made it lower fat by addeing 1/2c cooked white beans and 1/4c raw whole almonds and blended it with the other stuff. Didn't have quite the right somethin so I added 1tbsp regular old PB to it and next thing I know I'm licking the blades to my blender clean, I do not reccomend that though lol. I didn't have that nifty knife Chef AJ uses so I just got stuck in squishing mushing and tearing the kale into tiny kaley bits. It's marinateing over night. Should be interesting. I've only had kale in a green smoothie before. This month I took all my grocery money out of the bank and kept it as cash in the wallet. Well some how $40 has gone missing over the month. So I'm thinking this weekend is going to see me give my bedroom a deep clean. I'm curious to see what I've got in there. Luckily though I've got enough veggies to make it for 5 more days. I've got plenty of startches for the rest of the month so all I've gotta buy at the store is some veggies. Yay for cheap shopping. I'll let yall know how the kale turns out tomorrow.

Found out what kapers are. Unripened flour buds. That is sooo much better then something to do with fish. I have a kinda fish fobia so that would've been a problem besides the fact that It's not MCD aproved. I also tryed the Hail to the Kale salad. I'm not sure how I feel about it but it's eddable. The dressing is good I'm just not used to salads. I've decided to kinda ease my way into the world of salads and by salads I means ones not coated is dairy/oil based dressing and full of non vegetables. I'm going to use a tea cup and eat a little salad before each meal. I started with 1 after breakfast but I think before is better. I'm super excited for July because I am gonna buy me some nutritional yeast and I need that to make Mock Chicken Broth Powder from The Happy Herbivore Cookbook. I'dd buy premade no salt veggie broth if I could find some but maybe it's better I don't because this way I know exactly what's in everything because specialty foods aren't really available near me. I weighed myself today even though it's not weigh in day. Well I've lost a whole 4 tenths of a pound. I think I'll start exerciseing and see if that helps because I don't want to eat less and I'm not really huge on veggies because we didn't eat a lot of em growing up but I'm working on it. Eventually I'd like to get to 50% veg and 50% startch but right now it's about 75-80% startch lol. So that's the plan slowly add more veg and add exercise. Ya know a couple years ago I went on a really unhealthy and scary diet and during that diet I made myself drink water. I'd basically chug 2 16oz classes twice a day. It's 2yrs later and I ditched the diet, regained all the weight I'd lost on it plus more but kept my water habbit. Now I drink a gallon a day and I don't chug it. I really really used to hate water so maybe the salads will end up like the water did and become a habbit. Of course I'm planning to make this whole WOE a lifestyle but greens are gonna be tough. I'm determined though... I will love greens, I will love greens, I will love greens.

Whew it's been a while since I journalled. It's also been a while since I've been McD compliant. I've been back on the wagon for 4 days now and though it's really freakin hard I am determined to at least stick it out for 30 days. I'm more motivated now as soon I'll have the money to get married and we've decided to do a destination wedding in Jamaica. The only thing is I refuse to be a fat bride. So I've got 1yr... a little over actually to lose 80lbs or so. I know i can do it and low fat plant based is the means to get me there. I've been lurking for a while on Bob's board and decided to go in for the personal coaching he offers. I think it's awsome that he offers to do that for free. It's been quiet over there as of late since he and Farley are in the middle of a house remodel but the thought that he could pop in with a comment keeps me in line lol. I've decided to give up on salads for now and go in for soups. I'm bringing fall into my house rather it likes it or not even if it is 95 degrees outside hehe. I did make a salad for the first 4 days and thank you lord today was the last day I had to eat it lol. From tomorrow on it's oatmeal for breakfast with a chopped green apple, cinnamon, and vanilla soupe for lunch and soup for dinner. and frozen red seedless grapes for snacks along with baked russett potatos. The next few days of soups will be a vegetable lentil and a minestrone all made with no salt broth powder, no salt tomatos, and dry beans, and veggies. I'm also off the coffee and sugar. I still miss it but I'm adjusting. While I can't say the foods tasty it's edible and I'm hopeing eventually my taste buds will get with the program. Now if I could convince the other people in my house to eat like me so I wouldn't have to be around all their tasty but oh so bad for you foods life would be grand. Who knows if I stick with it and make it into a lifestyle maybe they'll join me. Now to catch up on journals and posts.

Audrey