First off, I'm sorry to those who are reading that I've been a HORRIBLE blogger lately and haven't posted for a while.
What I really want to talk about today has nothing really to do with being a vegan or anything, but it's something that's been on my mind a lot lately and I feel the need to talk about. I have been working casually at the hospital the last couple of weeks to save up some money for school and there was recently a family we were working with that certain coworkers of mine termed "hippies". Now, I consider myself to be somewhat of a hippy. No, I don't smoke pot or do drugs, but I do eat a clean vegan diet and try to advocate for environmental awareness, etc. I love the planet, what can I say? I don't especially consider the term "hippy" to be offensive either. That being said, when someone says that a person and the room they are occupying in the hospital, "smells like hippy" in a derogatory tone, then I start to get my back up a little bit. Of course, being the trouble-maker that I am, I ask, "What exactly does hippy smell like?" to the nurse issuing the rude statement. I am then "informed" that hippies smell like unwashed dreadlocks or something equally ridiculous. I wish I could say that this was the only negative comment I heard towards this family, but again a few days later a completely different group of nurses were making equally rude jokes. It was mentioned that a certain individual was healing up really quickly and getting ready for discharge much sooner than anticipated and a nurse made a very sarcastic comment about how it must be all the "rocks" and shit the family were using. Let me clarify, the "rocks" they were talking about were gemstones that the family was using for crystal therapy. Something I know quite a bit about myself as I also practise gemstone therapy. I was actually too stunned to say anything. What I should have said was, "You are being quite condescending of their beliefs. How would you feel if you were made fun of for believing in Christ and wearing cross earrings? Just because you do not understand what they believe in does not give you the right to pass judgement."
Ultimately, why this bothers me so much is not because I can identify with this family and understand why they are the way they are (FYI, the room and the family smelt like nothing unusual as I had the opportunity to work with them). What really bothers me is how often we are quick to judge someone that we don't know. What makes people think that you can take one glance at a person and know them well enough to decide whether or not they have any value? In this world, we are all fighting our own battles and developing ourselves as people. None of us is more or less than the others. Passing judgement on each other actually does no good in this world. It is the foundation of ageism, sexism, racism, and any other form of stereotype you can think of. This happens when we pass judgement on another person and decide that for whatever reason that they are less than us. I recently read a quote on a motivational blog that says, "What Susie says of Sally says more of Susie than of Sally." And that has stuck with me. When a person jumps to conclusions about someone they don't know and proceeds to spread their filth on the world, they are showing the filth of their own soul, not whatever message they are trying to spread.
I know it sounds a bit "hippy-like" for me to preach about everyone learning to love instead of hate, but I really do think that this is probably one of the biggest keys to a happy life. So please, I beg of you, the next time you catch yourself "judging a book by its cover", stop and remind yourself that you know nothing of the person you are passing judgement on and that the world would be a better place if we could learn to accept people for who they are. What difference does it make in your life if so-and-so wears dreadlocks in their hair? What difference does it make to you if the gentleman across the street is gay? It makes no difference at all. Focus instead on your own life, on making yourself better. Focusing on what someone else does with their life wastes your time and energy when you could be using it to do something worth while. Just some food for thought.
Saturday, 24 August 2013
Sunday, 2 June 2013
A Quick Catch-Up!
I've already admitted to being the worst blogger that ever was. Ah well, I could feel bad about it but I choose to move on. I will summarise the latest madness here and we shall be starting on a fresh page afterwards.
On the FITNESS FRONT:
Stopped the BBL program after about two months of doing it religiously. Not because I wasn't seeing results so much as doing the same series of exercises over and over again was: 1) Driving me bonkers, and 2) Causing me to get a bit burned out and I was having achy knees from the repetition (or so I think...). Either way, since I stopped doing it, I've been absolutely dreadful for staying consistent in my workouts. I've done a few weeks of yoga, some running, some sporadic weight-training. It's all been a bit of a mess! And then of course, I'll make a plan for myself that ends up falling apart due to a week-long stint of depression, an injury, and so on and so forth. You all know how it is! Sometimes life messes you around a little bit. On the up-and-up however, I've found an exercise plan on prevention.com that is for a Ballet Boot Camp! I love dance and all the exercises are familiar to me which will make it enjoyable. Basically, on monday I have a combined ballet strength workout and my own choice of cardio, and then I alternate between the ballet workout and my choice cardio until my rest day on sunday. It looks like it won't be SUPER challenging, but it will help get me back into the routine and help me slim and tone up a bit before I go away on vacation with my beautiful sister at the end of the month!
On the VEGAN FRONT:
I just... love being vegan. Sometimes, I'll admit, I have these moments where finding something vegan-friendly to eat at home (when we're low on produce) or out feels quite exhausting and if I were a weaker person, I'd feel tempted to "give up" and switch to a regular "vegetarian" diet. Ultimately, this hasn't happened and I've always pulled through the low moments. Mostly, I love experimenting and trying new things and I love feeling good about what I'm doing. I'm doing something every single day that's good for my body and the planet. How cool is that!? I accept that maintaining my vegan diet is going to be difficult on vacation and am a little worried about it. My sister and I are going to spend 10 days in London, England and then 5 days in Dublin, Ireland. I'm super pumped about it but food may be a slight issue! Reality is, I don't want to spend my whole vacation worrying about finding a place that I can eat and being neurotic every time I order food trying to make sure it's "pure". I just worry that I'll be causing a lot of unnecessary stress. What I've decided I'll probably do, is eat vegan as often as humanly possible, and where not exactly possible, make sure at the least that my diet is pure vegetarian. So still no flesh foods but not being psychotic checking that there's no egg or milk in everything I consume, you know? I'm sure there are a lot of vegans out there that would give me flack for that kind of attitude, and I understand your perspective. It isn't ideal from my perspective either. At the end of the day, I'm going to do my best and that's going to have to be acceptable.
On the LIFE FRONT:
In other news, I have been tentatively accepted to the university to start my Archaeology degree this September! BOO YA!!! I have no words to describe how totally excited I am! It's really nerve-wracking switching careers, but I really feel like I'm doing what is right for me. I want to have a job that I can be truly passionate about, that will reward me and challenge me at the same time, and where I can continue to grow and advance. I really feel like I'm on the right track there. I'm considering the slight possibility of moving to a smaller university after about a year or so to enjoy smaller class sizes and to live in a city that's much more to my liking that the one I'm living in now. Bonus points would be being closer to a good friend of mine. The things stopping me from doing that though are: 1) Dad being sick, 2) I wouldn't be able to continue my concentration in physical anthropology if I moved, and 3) Being at the bigger university leaves me more options as far as graduate studies and so on. I'm a bit between a rock and a hard place, but I'm sure I'll know what's right for me by the end of this academic year.
I have been struggling a bit with my romantic life lately. I've been single for well over a year now and for the most part, pretty content to be on my own and not particularly lonely or anything. Recently when down hanging out with my close friend, I met this guy that goes to school with her and thought we hit it off really well. The first weekend we hung out was really sexy and fun. Then when it was time for me to come back home, we had to decide to what extent we were going to pursue any sort of a relationship. It ended up coming out, for many reasons, that if we were to start a relationship at this point in time, it would mostly likely end in a catastrophic manner. There are just too many factors in both of our lives that would make a relationship quite difficult to maintain. We, or rather he, came to the conclusion that we should go about our lives and be friendly as best as possible and then if in a while, when our lives settle, we're both still single and interested then giving it a go. Which is logical and adult. But being honest, it really sucks. The last time we hung out, despite my being spralled out on his couch the whole afternoon, he was very careful not to touch me. It really doesn't matter that I know it's best, it's still rubbish for my ego. What, you mean you can actually resist me? Ouch. Here I am alone with you, batting my eyelashes at you, and you're not putting your hands all over my body? What gives? You know, that sort of thing. For me, it's also difficult to be "friendly" when I think of someone romantically. I know that's my own issue, and isn't something that I'm going to put on him. I also feel that if you're always waiting around for the perfect time to start something, be it a relationship or a new exercise regime or whatever, that you're bound to never start anything because life is constantly getting in the way. If something matters to you, you find a way to make it work regardless of the curve balls that get tossed your way. What I have to remember is not to make someone a priority that only makes me an option. I really like this guy, and because of it I'm giving him time and space to sort himself out. That being said, I'm certainly not waiting around. Life is much too short for that sort of nonsense.
I think that just about sums up the last couple of weeks since I've blogged last. Hopefully, I'll be better at keeping up? DOUBT IT! Haha ;)
Cheers!
On the FITNESS FRONT:
Stopped the BBL program after about two months of doing it religiously. Not because I wasn't seeing results so much as doing the same series of exercises over and over again was: 1) Driving me bonkers, and 2) Causing me to get a bit burned out and I was having achy knees from the repetition (or so I think...). Either way, since I stopped doing it, I've been absolutely dreadful for staying consistent in my workouts. I've done a few weeks of yoga, some running, some sporadic weight-training. It's all been a bit of a mess! And then of course, I'll make a plan for myself that ends up falling apart due to a week-long stint of depression, an injury, and so on and so forth. You all know how it is! Sometimes life messes you around a little bit. On the up-and-up however, I've found an exercise plan on prevention.com that is for a Ballet Boot Camp! I love dance and all the exercises are familiar to me which will make it enjoyable. Basically, on monday I have a combined ballet strength workout and my own choice of cardio, and then I alternate between the ballet workout and my choice cardio until my rest day on sunday. It looks like it won't be SUPER challenging, but it will help get me back into the routine and help me slim and tone up a bit before I go away on vacation with my beautiful sister at the end of the month!
On the VEGAN FRONT:
I just... love being vegan. Sometimes, I'll admit, I have these moments where finding something vegan-friendly to eat at home (when we're low on produce) or out feels quite exhausting and if I were a weaker person, I'd feel tempted to "give up" and switch to a regular "vegetarian" diet. Ultimately, this hasn't happened and I've always pulled through the low moments. Mostly, I love experimenting and trying new things and I love feeling good about what I'm doing. I'm doing something every single day that's good for my body and the planet. How cool is that!? I accept that maintaining my vegan diet is going to be difficult on vacation and am a little worried about it. My sister and I are going to spend 10 days in London, England and then 5 days in Dublin, Ireland. I'm super pumped about it but food may be a slight issue! Reality is, I don't want to spend my whole vacation worrying about finding a place that I can eat and being neurotic every time I order food trying to make sure it's "pure". I just worry that I'll be causing a lot of unnecessary stress. What I've decided I'll probably do, is eat vegan as often as humanly possible, and where not exactly possible, make sure at the least that my diet is pure vegetarian. So still no flesh foods but not being psychotic checking that there's no egg or milk in everything I consume, you know? I'm sure there are a lot of vegans out there that would give me flack for that kind of attitude, and I understand your perspective. It isn't ideal from my perspective either. At the end of the day, I'm going to do my best and that's going to have to be acceptable.
On the LIFE FRONT:
In other news, I have been tentatively accepted to the university to start my Archaeology degree this September! BOO YA!!! I have no words to describe how totally excited I am! It's really nerve-wracking switching careers, but I really feel like I'm doing what is right for me. I want to have a job that I can be truly passionate about, that will reward me and challenge me at the same time, and where I can continue to grow and advance. I really feel like I'm on the right track there. I'm considering the slight possibility of moving to a smaller university after about a year or so to enjoy smaller class sizes and to live in a city that's much more to my liking that the one I'm living in now. Bonus points would be being closer to a good friend of mine. The things stopping me from doing that though are: 1) Dad being sick, 2) I wouldn't be able to continue my concentration in physical anthropology if I moved, and 3) Being at the bigger university leaves me more options as far as graduate studies and so on. I'm a bit between a rock and a hard place, but I'm sure I'll know what's right for me by the end of this academic year.
I have been struggling a bit with my romantic life lately. I've been single for well over a year now and for the most part, pretty content to be on my own and not particularly lonely or anything. Recently when down hanging out with my close friend, I met this guy that goes to school with her and thought we hit it off really well. The first weekend we hung out was really sexy and fun. Then when it was time for me to come back home, we had to decide to what extent we were going to pursue any sort of a relationship. It ended up coming out, for many reasons, that if we were to start a relationship at this point in time, it would mostly likely end in a catastrophic manner. There are just too many factors in both of our lives that would make a relationship quite difficult to maintain. We, or rather he, came to the conclusion that we should go about our lives and be friendly as best as possible and then if in a while, when our lives settle, we're both still single and interested then giving it a go. Which is logical and adult. But being honest, it really sucks. The last time we hung out, despite my being spralled out on his couch the whole afternoon, he was very careful not to touch me. It really doesn't matter that I know it's best, it's still rubbish for my ego. What, you mean you can actually resist me? Ouch. Here I am alone with you, batting my eyelashes at you, and you're not putting your hands all over my body? What gives? You know, that sort of thing. For me, it's also difficult to be "friendly" when I think of someone romantically. I know that's my own issue, and isn't something that I'm going to put on him. I also feel that if you're always waiting around for the perfect time to start something, be it a relationship or a new exercise regime or whatever, that you're bound to never start anything because life is constantly getting in the way. If something matters to you, you find a way to make it work regardless of the curve balls that get tossed your way. What I have to remember is not to make someone a priority that only makes me an option. I really like this guy, and because of it I'm giving him time and space to sort himself out. That being said, I'm certainly not waiting around. Life is much too short for that sort of nonsense.
I think that just about sums up the last couple of weeks since I've blogged last. Hopefully, I'll be better at keeping up? DOUBT IT! Haha ;)
Cheers!
Monday, 18 March 2013
Prognosis
So it's been a long few weeks here at my house. I'm a bit depressed, to tell the truth. I hope that I will have a little pity party and then turn into this masterful superhero-esque female with bulging biceps who takes on the weight of the world without breaking a sweat (this may prove difficult as shoulder-presses just slay me...) but I suspect I'll be lucky to get my ass out of bed everyday and get my hour and fifteen minute long workouts in before I realise that my life is ridiculously difficult.
My dad has been diagnosed with stage IV melanoma. Without treatment, we could expect him to live 6-9 months. Fortunately, there are a few treatment options that we are willing to try. The first, and most promising, is a new drug (the name of which apparently sounds like umpa-loompa, according to my mother) that he'll be able to start on if his blood work determines that he has a BRAF gene mutation. If he does (here's hoping!) it looks like we can expect it to prolong his life for two years. If he does not have the gene mutation, he is going to undergo two rounds of chemotherapy followed by immunotherapy, however the chances of that combo working is a lot less than our first bet. As you could imagine, two years left with my dad seems like the biggest rip-off ever... and that's the best case scenario. So I'm a bit pissed off with the world right now. Naturally, we all handle ourselves as best as we can. And in our family, we handle ourselves with humour. He mentions that the doctor encouraged him to avoid any activity that is going to get his heart rate up too high, so I'm like, "Okay mum... time to start dressing like a nun." So lols all around, and then my mum replies, "I can't, he'd like that too much."
So we're coping in our special... special ways. Unfortunately, it's going to be about two weeks until we find out whether or not he has this gene mutation. So, as I said to my dad earlier, "This may be the weirdest thing I've ever said, but I really hope you're a genetic mutant."
My dad has been diagnosed with stage IV melanoma. Without treatment, we could expect him to live 6-9 months. Fortunately, there are a few treatment options that we are willing to try. The first, and most promising, is a new drug (the name of which apparently sounds like umpa-loompa, according to my mother) that he'll be able to start on if his blood work determines that he has a BRAF gene mutation. If he does (here's hoping!) it looks like we can expect it to prolong his life for two years. If he does not have the gene mutation, he is going to undergo two rounds of chemotherapy followed by immunotherapy, however the chances of that combo working is a lot less than our first bet. As you could imagine, two years left with my dad seems like the biggest rip-off ever... and that's the best case scenario. So I'm a bit pissed off with the world right now. Naturally, we all handle ourselves as best as we can. And in our family, we handle ourselves with humour. He mentions that the doctor encouraged him to avoid any activity that is going to get his heart rate up too high, so I'm like, "Okay mum... time to start dressing like a nun." So lols all around, and then my mum replies, "I can't, he'd like that too much."
So we're coping in our special... special ways. Unfortunately, it's going to be about two weeks until we find out whether or not he has this gene mutation. So, as I said to my dad earlier, "This may be the weirdest thing I've ever said, but I really hope you're a genetic mutant."
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
BBL and Life Drama
Lots to say today but let's start straight off with the BBL (Brazil Butt Lift) update. So finished week 2 on sunday and it was a very busy week. Continue to see improvements in my muscle recovery time which is just straight out amazing. Week 2 introduced the "Sculpt" workout which is 50 minutes of whole body toning and I have to say, I'm actually impressed. I was kinda expecting there to be lots of lower body focus and that I'd end up feeling unbalanced in this program a bit. Nice surprise to discover that "sculpt" has a good upper body and core focus. I really feel like I hit my upper body and core from all angles which is awesome because I feel like I'm lacking in upper body strength and who doesn't want rockin' abs? Loved the "high & tight" workout again this week, I really feel this routine is an absolute winner for butt and thigh training. Though it said in my program guide to start using equipment (booty bands and ankle weights) for week two, I still felt very challenged and wasn't ready to add them in yet. By the end of the week however, I can see an improvement in my strength and have started to slowly add in equipment and increase weights for week three which I'm already started with. In terms of weight loss, week one I lost 1.2lbs and week two I lost nothing but did see a decrease in my lower ab measurement by a whole inch! That and my sister told me, as she was walking up the stairs behind me, that my butt was "so shapely!" at which point I proceeded to bug eyes, fish face and shout, "FOR REALS?!" Oh yeah, love them compliments. On the downside though, I really felt this second week that I was lacking in the cardio department. I wasn't mad on the "cardio axe" workout from the beginning because I really don't feel it's challenging enough for me, so now into week three, I've started replacing my scheduled "cardio axe" sessions with a zumba on my wii fit session where I find I move more, sweat more, and push myself harder. We will see what difference this makes on sunday when I do weights and measurements again.
In other news, things have been really difficult on the home front. Last monday, I received a text from my mum saying that she was taking my dad to the ER because he wasn't feeling well. His chest cold symptoms were getting worse and he was starting to have some chest and shoulder pain. I told her to keep me posting with what was going on and the series of events went as follows. The docs went to check his heart and make sure he wasn't having a heart attack but all those levels came back perfectly fine. They then were concerned that perhaps he had a blood clot in his lungs (pulmonary embolism) and decided to run some more blood work and do a chest xray. The blood work came back completely fine showing no signs of any clotting problem but the xray came back suspicious so they decided to be extra cautious and get a CT scan of his chest. What the CT found is that he has seven masses in his lungs. To be completely honest, none of us could be more shocked. The doctor was very sombre and told us that the prognosis was likely very poor and that we would need to set up a biopsy in order to learn more about his condition. He went in on wednesday morning for a series of lung function tests and was put under to have several biopsies taken from the masses. One of the masses is about the size of an orange and pushing on his esophagus. My understanding of what the pulmonologist said (second-hand from my parents) is that it's almost definitely cancer based on the lymph node involvement and if we're lucky, it will turn out to be lymphoma which is considerably more treatable than lung cancer. My dad is 51 and a non-smoker. Needless to say, it's been very difficult for us. Harder to explain to my younger sisters and hard waiting around to find out what needs to happen next. My parents have an appointment to discuss the results of the biopsy tomorrow morning. I have too many emotions and fears right now to really sit down and verbalise them. For the time being, I've just been trying to keep the house clean and organised, keep everyone sane, and try to stay positive. I hate not being able to do anything. Nothing I say or do is going to make it go away. There have been days where it's been hard to get out of bed and force myself to workout because I'm just so emotionally exhausted. That being said, I'm proud of myself for how I've pushed on and taken care of myself despite the severity of the situation. I try to remind myself that if I don't take care of me first, I won't have anything left to offer my family. Depending on what we get back from the docs tomorrow, I may very well be quitting my job (taking an extended leave of absence really) as I just refuse to bring in all the germs from work while my dads immune system is under fire.
Unfortunately not a very happy note to end this entry, but what is positive is that we're all looking out for each other and trying to make the best of every moment. I have shown that I CAN push through with my workouts even when my head isn't in the game and that kind of determination is what is going to get me results in the long run. Sometimes life gets tough, so you've got to be tougher.
Until next time.
In other news, things have been really difficult on the home front. Last monday, I received a text from my mum saying that she was taking my dad to the ER because he wasn't feeling well. His chest cold symptoms were getting worse and he was starting to have some chest and shoulder pain. I told her to keep me posting with what was going on and the series of events went as follows. The docs went to check his heart and make sure he wasn't having a heart attack but all those levels came back perfectly fine. They then were concerned that perhaps he had a blood clot in his lungs (pulmonary embolism) and decided to run some more blood work and do a chest xray. The blood work came back completely fine showing no signs of any clotting problem but the xray came back suspicious so they decided to be extra cautious and get a CT scan of his chest. What the CT found is that he has seven masses in his lungs. To be completely honest, none of us could be more shocked. The doctor was very sombre and told us that the prognosis was likely very poor and that we would need to set up a biopsy in order to learn more about his condition. He went in on wednesday morning for a series of lung function tests and was put under to have several biopsies taken from the masses. One of the masses is about the size of an orange and pushing on his esophagus. My understanding of what the pulmonologist said (second-hand from my parents) is that it's almost definitely cancer based on the lymph node involvement and if we're lucky, it will turn out to be lymphoma which is considerably more treatable than lung cancer. My dad is 51 and a non-smoker. Needless to say, it's been very difficult for us. Harder to explain to my younger sisters and hard waiting around to find out what needs to happen next. My parents have an appointment to discuss the results of the biopsy tomorrow morning. I have too many emotions and fears right now to really sit down and verbalise them. For the time being, I've just been trying to keep the house clean and organised, keep everyone sane, and try to stay positive. I hate not being able to do anything. Nothing I say or do is going to make it go away. There have been days where it's been hard to get out of bed and force myself to workout because I'm just so emotionally exhausted. That being said, I'm proud of myself for how I've pushed on and taken care of myself despite the severity of the situation. I try to remind myself that if I don't take care of me first, I won't have anything left to offer my family. Depending on what we get back from the docs tomorrow, I may very well be quitting my job (taking an extended leave of absence really) as I just refuse to bring in all the germs from work while my dads immune system is under fire.
Unfortunately not a very happy note to end this entry, but what is positive is that we're all looking out for each other and trying to make the best of every moment. I have shown that I CAN push through with my workouts even when my head isn't in the game and that kind of determination is what is going to get me results in the long run. Sometimes life gets tough, so you've got to be tougher.
Until next time.
Saturday, 2 March 2013
Brazil Butt Lift and more Vegan Extravaganzas!
I have so much to say today! What a week it has been. As some of you may or may not know, I started my first week of the Brazil Butt Lift program on monday. This is from Beachbody, the company who brought us home workout crazies P90X, turbofire, insanity, etc, etc, etc. This is actually my first beachbody program and at some point I'd love to try P90X, but as this is just my first week of BBL, I'm not going to get ahead of myself! So here are my thoughts on week 1:
So reasons I started doing BBL were primarily because: a) I have never felt confident in shorts. I've always had kinda flabby butt and thighs with cellulite (at 22 what a rip-off!) and I'd really like to have a backside worth showing off this summer, and b) I really haven't felt good about what work I'd done on my legs with my fitness regime leading up to BBL. You know how you work your muscles really good and the next day, they just kill? Yeah, well I'd be doing Jillian Michaels dvds from home with squats and shoulder presses and my shoulders would be super sore the next day, but my legs? Nothin'! It was like all the squats and lunges were moot. So I heard about this program when researching how I might switch things up a bit and figured that maybe the lower body focus would be really good for me.
So when you purchase the program, there are four different booty programs/schedules to choose from depending on what you feel your "butt type" is. I chose the "too big" option because I definitely have a big booty, but a little too much in the love-handles area and the saddle-bags... and my butt, I'd like it to be big with muscle, not fat! Day 1 had me doing a look at the basics and the signature "Bum Bum" workout (pronounced "boom boom" which is Brazilian slang for your booty, apparently). For someone who thought they had their lower body strength under control, man oh man, was I surprised at how hard bum bum was! I actually put my knee out trying to keep up the pace and wasn't able to finish because I could barely stand anymore let alone to high powers squats and lunges. So what with hurting my knee at all (it's a sensitive little bastard) I learned a valuable lesson right from day 1, which was: slow down and watch your alignment! Today I did "bum bum" for the third time, and I still can't quite get to the end of the video, and I still have to take modifications on some of the moves so that I'm more controlled and am not hurting myself again. My knee is still a bit on the tender side, but I know that I'm watching myself closely enough not to injure myself again. Truthfully, I'm hoping that this program will help strengthen all the muscles around my knee so that I'm better supported for running.
Other workouts this week were "High and Tight", "Cardio Axe" (pronouced "ashay"), and "Tummy Tuck". "High and Tight" was freaking amazing!!! Super challenging workout that rocks your butt from every angle and I could really feel it in the backs and insides of my thighs the next morning! Very challenging but not in a "bum bum" sort of way. Between this and "bum bum", I waddled for the first four days of this week. Then there's "cardio axe" which is just supposed to be a dance-inspired cardio workout, but truthfully, I didn't find it nearly as challenging as the cardio I'm used to doing. I'm used to my zumba workouts where I'm dripping sweat everywhere, my heart is beating so hard and fast, and I get an insane endorphin rush. With this, I work up a bit of a sweat, and my heart rate is up, but it's nowhere near the cardio I enjoy so much. I will probably continue to do this workout for the next three weeks (until the first 4-week program is done) and then I think I'll start subbing in zumba with my wii so I keep pushing myself cardiovascularly. Today was my first attempt at "Tummy Tuck" and I've got to admit, I just wasn't in it today. I had done "bum bum" first so I was already fatigued and then found that the first half of it (which is all I completed) was so focused on the upper portion of your abs than I didn't feel balanced and once those muscles were fatigued, there was no recovery while working on other muscles. So I called it quits about halfway through. Next time, I'll consider doing tummy tuck before my lower body so I have more energy for it.
Overall impressions: amazing workout! Time consuming for my booty type program because I do two workouts most days making my total workout time over an hour most days, but I really feel like I've accomplished something by the end of it. The first three to four days of the program, I could barely walk the next day! I was sore like I've never been sore before!
That being said, I started taking better care of myself in terms of getting a good post-workout stretch, doing hot-cold alternations in the shower for circulation, sitting on a heating pad when my butt was sore, etc. Already by the end of week 1, I have noticed a huge increase in the rate at which my body recovers from intense exercise. At the start of the week, I could barely walk the morning after a good workout. By the end of this week, I noticed that I wasn't so sore after working out and the next morning, I could barely tell that I had worked so hard the previous day. I also noticed that climbing that huge slight of stairs at the train station close to my work was substantially easier and that I wasn't even remotely out of breath. I can feel myself getting stronger everyday and when I put on my tight fitting scrub pants yesterday, they were loose in the butt and thigh! Hello progress! It's a bit addicting to be honest. So I'm really looking forward to starting week 2 on monday. Don't know if I lost any weight this week as my weigh-in is on my rest day tomorrow but I'm feeling pretty damn good about things so far.
As far as vegan extravaganzas go, I just wanted to share with you one of my fav lunches! Super easy to make and pack to bring to school/work and loaded with good nutrition! Introducing my black-bean pitas!
So when you purchase the program, there are four different booty programs/schedules to choose from depending on what you feel your "butt type" is. I chose the "too big" option because I definitely have a big booty, but a little too much in the love-handles area and the saddle-bags... and my butt, I'd like it to be big with muscle, not fat! Day 1 had me doing a look at the basics and the signature "Bum Bum" workout (pronounced "boom boom" which is Brazilian slang for your booty, apparently). For someone who thought they had their lower body strength under control, man oh man, was I surprised at how hard bum bum was! I actually put my knee out trying to keep up the pace and wasn't able to finish because I could barely stand anymore let alone to high powers squats and lunges. So what with hurting my knee at all (it's a sensitive little bastard) I learned a valuable lesson right from day 1, which was: slow down and watch your alignment! Today I did "bum bum" for the third time, and I still can't quite get to the end of the video, and I still have to take modifications on some of the moves so that I'm more controlled and am not hurting myself again. My knee is still a bit on the tender side, but I know that I'm watching myself closely enough not to injure myself again. Truthfully, I'm hoping that this program will help strengthen all the muscles around my knee so that I'm better supported for running.
Other workouts this week were "High and Tight", "Cardio Axe" (pronouced "ashay"), and "Tummy Tuck". "High and Tight" was freaking amazing!!! Super challenging workout that rocks your butt from every angle and I could really feel it in the backs and insides of my thighs the next morning! Very challenging but not in a "bum bum" sort of way. Between this and "bum bum", I waddled for the first four days of this week. Then there's "cardio axe" which is just supposed to be a dance-inspired cardio workout, but truthfully, I didn't find it nearly as challenging as the cardio I'm used to doing. I'm used to my zumba workouts where I'm dripping sweat everywhere, my heart is beating so hard and fast, and I get an insane endorphin rush. With this, I work up a bit of a sweat, and my heart rate is up, but it's nowhere near the cardio I enjoy so much. I will probably continue to do this workout for the next three weeks (until the first 4-week program is done) and then I think I'll start subbing in zumba with my wii so I keep pushing myself cardiovascularly. Today was my first attempt at "Tummy Tuck" and I've got to admit, I just wasn't in it today. I had done "bum bum" first so I was already fatigued and then found that the first half of it (which is all I completed) was so focused on the upper portion of your abs than I didn't feel balanced and once those muscles were fatigued, there was no recovery while working on other muscles. So I called it quits about halfway through. Next time, I'll consider doing tummy tuck before my lower body so I have more energy for it.
Overall impressions: amazing workout! Time consuming for my booty type program because I do two workouts most days making my total workout time over an hour most days, but I really feel like I've accomplished something by the end of it. The first three to four days of the program, I could barely walk the next day! I was sore like I've never been sore before!
That being said, I started taking better care of myself in terms of getting a good post-workout stretch, doing hot-cold alternations in the shower for circulation, sitting on a heating pad when my butt was sore, etc. Already by the end of week 1, I have noticed a huge increase in the rate at which my body recovers from intense exercise. At the start of the week, I could barely walk the morning after a good workout. By the end of this week, I noticed that I wasn't so sore after working out and the next morning, I could barely tell that I had worked so hard the previous day. I also noticed that climbing that huge slight of stairs at the train station close to my work was substantially easier and that I wasn't even remotely out of breath. I can feel myself getting stronger everyday and when I put on my tight fitting scrub pants yesterday, they were loose in the butt and thigh! Hello progress! It's a bit addicting to be honest. So I'm really looking forward to starting week 2 on monday. Don't know if I lost any weight this week as my weigh-in is on my rest day tomorrow but I'm feeling pretty damn good about things so far.
As far as vegan extravaganzas go, I just wanted to share with you one of my fav lunches! Super easy to make and pack to bring to school/work and loaded with good nutrition! Introducing my black-bean pitas!
So here's what you do:
- Cut open a whole grain pita and slather the inside with your fav hummus
- Line the inside of the pita with baby spinach or a spinach/kale mix
- In a fry pan, briefly saute a good sized handful of black beans (canned, drained) and equal amount of coleslaw mix (or other shredded veggie mix) with lemon juice, a smidgen of coconut oil, fresh garlic and ginger, and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.
- Use this quickly-sauteed mix to stuff your pitas full and get your nom on.
Note: When I'm going to pack this in my lunch, I toss the saute ingredients (sans coconut oil) in a bowl and stuff them into the pita raw so nothing gets soggy in my bag :)
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Thoughts on nudity...
This is a bit of an odd-ball entry for me because it really has nothing to do with veganism or the environment at all. However, this is a self-discovery related post which has been a theme for me since the beginning. This is a much more serious post than what usually can be found on my blog but I'm putting my thoughts out there regardless.
I just today finished watching a very... well look, I'm at a loss to describe it... fascinating, eye-opening, thought-provoking, spiritually-conflicting documentary called "The Workshop". It's on Canadian netflix, if you're interested in watching it after reading about my two-bits here, fyi. In a nutshell, the workshop takes place in california on a spirituality retreat that brings people in greater connection to their inner self and their relationships through nudity. The workshop starts out with a look at various people who have come to the workshop and what they're hoping to get out of it. Most people are in greatly conflicted places in their lives where they feel unconnected and lost, and the workshop kicks right off with everyone stripping of their clothes and going around the room meeting each other. The rest of the documentary depicts the journey's of a few individuals, including the documentarian himself.
The story had many levels to it that brought out a number of reactions in me that I'm still thinking about and trying to understand. The removal of clothing signifies the removal of something that defines you. How easy is it to define yourself on what you wear or what job you have or what car you drive? I can understand completely how letting go of those boundaries forces you to connect to the person you are behind the image you put out for the world. It not only causes you to explore yourself, but to allow yourself to be seen just as you are by others. Boundaries for the individuals in the documentary continue to be pushed through sexual encounters. These people start to challenge their own views about relationships and what it means to be honest with others about your thoughts and your feelings. The sexuality of the film becomes a feature discussed quite often, though the documentarian Jamie does say that he feels "sexual" component of the healing is just superficial layer of the changes that take place at the individual level.
NOTE: This is not for the faint of heart. There were scenes that were nearly pornographic... but then I feel bad saying that because I feel the term "pornographic" implies a deviant or "naughtiness" which was so far from the open and vulnerable experiences which were explored. What I found thought-provoking is that I didn't even need to be participating in the experience to start questioning my own beliefs. Watching two people touch each other made me feel uncomfortable. Why? I have no difficulty acknowledging that a sexual connection between two people can be a beautiful, even spiritual, thing so why would I feel discomfort? Is it because I have been brought up in a society where such a thing is frowned upon? At one point, the nature of monogamy is discussed. Is monogamy the natural way or is it something that we have inflicted upon ourselves that opposes our nature and will forever be a source of suffering for us? I've discovered about myself that I have a strong attachment to the idea of monogamy. I can't claim whether it is the the natural way or the right way, but I didn't realise how strong my feelings about it were until being presented with the alternative. Where do our feelings of jealousy and guilt stem from? What can be learned about ourselves through those feelings?
Despite the distractions (sexual encounters, humour around the idea of it being an "alien sex cult", etc.) what ultimately happened for the people who took part in the experience was a great deal of self-discovery and self-acceptance. The leader of the workshop said at one point to Jamie that what he had discovered was what it felt like to be loved by others just as he is, with no judgement, and that the next step was to feel that of himself. I found myself getting quite emotionally involved in the stories of these individuals, which naturally makes me wonder about my own self-acceptance. Do I feel loved, without judgement, for exactly who I am? Am I completely open and honest with myself and those around me? Do I love myself, without judgement, exactly as I am? Do I feel connected to myself? The answer to all of these questions is, unsurprisingly, no.
While I'm not sure running off to california, stripping off my clothes, and participating is orgies is a solution to my problems and my lack of self-awareness and acceptance, I found watching "The Workshop" to be eye-opening and touching (emotionally, you pervs). I feel a heightened need to reconnect with myself and love whoever I find myself to be. On a funny note, I will not be joining the workshop, but I may start participating in some naked yoga in my basement ;)
Anyone else watch a documentary that made them question the nature of life?
I just today finished watching a very... well look, I'm at a loss to describe it... fascinating, eye-opening, thought-provoking, spiritually-conflicting documentary called "The Workshop". It's on Canadian netflix, if you're interested in watching it after reading about my two-bits here, fyi. In a nutshell, the workshop takes place in california on a spirituality retreat that brings people in greater connection to their inner self and their relationships through nudity. The workshop starts out with a look at various people who have come to the workshop and what they're hoping to get out of it. Most people are in greatly conflicted places in their lives where they feel unconnected and lost, and the workshop kicks right off with everyone stripping of their clothes and going around the room meeting each other. The rest of the documentary depicts the journey's of a few individuals, including the documentarian himself.
The story had many levels to it that brought out a number of reactions in me that I'm still thinking about and trying to understand. The removal of clothing signifies the removal of something that defines you. How easy is it to define yourself on what you wear or what job you have or what car you drive? I can understand completely how letting go of those boundaries forces you to connect to the person you are behind the image you put out for the world. It not only causes you to explore yourself, but to allow yourself to be seen just as you are by others. Boundaries for the individuals in the documentary continue to be pushed through sexual encounters. These people start to challenge their own views about relationships and what it means to be honest with others about your thoughts and your feelings. The sexuality of the film becomes a feature discussed quite often, though the documentarian Jamie does say that he feels "sexual" component of the healing is just superficial layer of the changes that take place at the individual level.
NOTE: This is not for the faint of heart. There were scenes that were nearly pornographic... but then I feel bad saying that because I feel the term "pornographic" implies a deviant or "naughtiness" which was so far from the open and vulnerable experiences which were explored. What I found thought-provoking is that I didn't even need to be participating in the experience to start questioning my own beliefs. Watching two people touch each other made me feel uncomfortable. Why? I have no difficulty acknowledging that a sexual connection between two people can be a beautiful, even spiritual, thing so why would I feel discomfort? Is it because I have been brought up in a society where such a thing is frowned upon? At one point, the nature of monogamy is discussed. Is monogamy the natural way or is it something that we have inflicted upon ourselves that opposes our nature and will forever be a source of suffering for us? I've discovered about myself that I have a strong attachment to the idea of monogamy. I can't claim whether it is the the natural way or the right way, but I didn't realise how strong my feelings about it were until being presented with the alternative. Where do our feelings of jealousy and guilt stem from? What can be learned about ourselves through those feelings?
Despite the distractions (sexual encounters, humour around the idea of it being an "alien sex cult", etc.) what ultimately happened for the people who took part in the experience was a great deal of self-discovery and self-acceptance. The leader of the workshop said at one point to Jamie that what he had discovered was what it felt like to be loved by others just as he is, with no judgement, and that the next step was to feel that of himself. I found myself getting quite emotionally involved in the stories of these individuals, which naturally makes me wonder about my own self-acceptance. Do I feel loved, without judgement, for exactly who I am? Am I completely open and honest with myself and those around me? Do I love myself, without judgement, exactly as I am? Do I feel connected to myself? The answer to all of these questions is, unsurprisingly, no.
While I'm not sure running off to california, stripping off my clothes, and participating is orgies is a solution to my problems and my lack of self-awareness and acceptance, I found watching "The Workshop" to be eye-opening and touching (emotionally, you pervs). I feel a heightened need to reconnect with myself and love whoever I find myself to be. On a funny note, I will not be joining the workshop, but I may start participating in some naked yoga in my basement ;)
Anyone else watch a documentary that made them question the nature of life?
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Confession
Some days, you're a champ. You workout like a boss and eat like a clean, green machine (yay!). And then there are days, quite like today, where the little PMS monster in your brain makes you eat all the vegan chocolate cake with your bare hands... It happens.
On a positive note, I've moved up the start date of my Brazil Butt Lift program to February 25th. I'm a bit superstitious and feel that it's good luck to coordinate the start of a new weight-loss/fitness program with a full moon. Sometimes, I'm just a little weird like that.
That is all.
On a positive note, I've moved up the start date of my Brazil Butt Lift program to February 25th. I'm a bit superstitious and feel that it's good luck to coordinate the start of a new weight-loss/fitness program with a full moon. Sometimes, I'm just a little weird like that.
That is all.
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
I should wear a lab coat...
THE VEGAN CHEESE EXPERIMENTS CONTINUE!
It's all very exciting and you know it... so today's cheese of choice is "Daiya Shredded Mozza"
Dun duh NA NA!!!! (Oh hey... that picture says "cold pack item!" teehee oops!)
So I have been craving pizza pretty hard core the last couple days and needed a good cheese for it. This chick I met (who was working at Indigo at the time) and I got talking about being vegan and she told me that her fav vegan cheese, hands down, is daiya. She also said that she wouldn't eat it cold and it must be melted but that it's darn tasty. So after forgetting to grab it every time I was in the grocery store for about a month, I finally grabbed it and tonight was the pizza experiment.
I'm actually eating it right now! And you know what? It's pretty tasty... The truth of the matter is, it's not dairy cheese. I've got to wrap my brain around the fact that it's never going to be quite as good to me as real cheese is, but this makes it much easier to cope without!
So I made a whole grain pizza crust (which would have been better if I didn't overcook it... oopsie!) topped with marinara sauce (who needs separate sauce for pasta and pizza? Not me obviously...) and then topped with baby spinach and kale mix, chickpeas, and daiya shredded cheese! As far as the cheese in concerned, it's texture is quite like regular cheese with a slight stringiness though it did take a bit of time for it to melt. Flavour wise, it was mild and cheesy but with a slight Alfredo-y-ness (oh yeah I did...) I didn't mind that garlicky undertone but it is different. Another point I feel I should mention is that I did a fairly light sprinkle of cheese vs. back in the dairy-days when I like my pizza with a solid inch layer of cheese. I'm not sure how I'd like it with a whole gob-load of this cheese on there, but who really needs the extra calories anyways?
All in all, I rate this experiment a success and look forward to eating the rest of the bag on pasta, a beanball sub, and other tasty cheese-requiring things :) OOh ooh! And I also can't wait to try the cheddar style shreds.
Until next time,
Get your nom on!
It's all very exciting and you know it... so today's cheese of choice is "Daiya Shredded Mozza"
So I have been craving pizza pretty hard core the last couple days and needed a good cheese for it. This chick I met (who was working at Indigo at the time) and I got talking about being vegan and she told me that her fav vegan cheese, hands down, is daiya. She also said that she wouldn't eat it cold and it must be melted but that it's darn tasty. So after forgetting to grab it every time I was in the grocery store for about a month, I finally grabbed it and tonight was the pizza experiment.
I'm actually eating it right now! And you know what? It's pretty tasty... The truth of the matter is, it's not dairy cheese. I've got to wrap my brain around the fact that it's never going to be quite as good to me as real cheese is, but this makes it much easier to cope without!
So I made a whole grain pizza crust (which would have been better if I didn't overcook it... oopsie!) topped with marinara sauce (who needs separate sauce for pasta and pizza? Not me obviously...) and then topped with baby spinach and kale mix, chickpeas, and daiya shredded cheese! As far as the cheese in concerned, it's texture is quite like regular cheese with a slight stringiness though it did take a bit of time for it to melt. Flavour wise, it was mild and cheesy but with a slight Alfredo-y-ness (oh yeah I did...) I didn't mind that garlicky undertone but it is different. Another point I feel I should mention is that I did a fairly light sprinkle of cheese vs. back in the dairy-days when I like my pizza with a solid inch layer of cheese. I'm not sure how I'd like it with a whole gob-load of this cheese on there, but who really needs the extra calories anyways?
All in all, I rate this experiment a success and look forward to eating the rest of the bag on pasta, a beanball sub, and other tasty cheese-requiring things :) OOh ooh! And I also can't wait to try the cheddar style shreds.
Until next time,
Get your nom on!
Monday, 11 February 2013
Um... plateau? Busted!
So true story, I had plateaued on my weight loss for about two months solid. Nothing I was doing seemed to be working and I got to the point where working out hard 7 days a week still wasn't breaking through. So I sat back and thought about where I might be going wrong in my diet and realised I was doing a lot of snacking. You know, what difference is a few chips while I'm eating dinner going to make? Or hey, I've been really good today, how about some homemade strawberry jam on some rice dream? Yum! So I figured that maybe I should start tracking my calories for a bit to see where I'm going wrong and just get some awareness really.
Now I had been tracking calories online a long while ago through www.prevention.com and their fitness trackers, but I found there to be a lot of problems with it. First of all, it was ridiculously slow! Secondly, it was hard to find things. A lot of the time I'd search for something that just wouldn't be there... so it made keeping track pretty tedious. So I hitched up with my 'ol friend google to find another online calorie and exercise tracker and was SOOO lucky because I found www.myfitnesspal.com. HOLY CRAP! Fast, easy to use, efficient, and the forums are amazing for meeting people on similar weight loss journeys and the support you get from people is phenomenal! I can track a whole days worth of food in exercise in minutes and it calculates my calories for me based on my weight loss goals and how much exercise I've done that day. Talk about a no brainer! After one week of using it, I not only broke through my two month plateau, but I took my goal of losing a pound per week, and lost 2.2 pounds in the first week! Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty freaking awesome!
Not to mention that the 7 days/week of working out that I do now is making my bod look pretty swell... Not to brag or anything, but my belly is looking leaner, my legs are looking leaner, my butt is looking perkier... not too shabby at all! Speaking of my perky posterior, I've decided to give the Brazil Butt Lift (BBL) program by Beach Body a try. I am actually going to pick it up tonight and then I'm setting a start date of March 1st. I don't know how it's going to go, and I haven't tried any programs by the same company before, but I figure it really can't hurt. For you readers, I'll post before (ew) and after pics as well as give a brutally honest review so you can decide if you want to try it for yourselves!
That's about all for now. Will hopefully be posting yet another vegan cheese experiment in the very near future!
Take care!
Now I had been tracking calories online a long while ago through www.prevention.com and their fitness trackers, but I found there to be a lot of problems with it. First of all, it was ridiculously slow! Secondly, it was hard to find things. A lot of the time I'd search for something that just wouldn't be there... so it made keeping track pretty tedious. So I hitched up with my 'ol friend google to find another online calorie and exercise tracker and was SOOO lucky because I found www.myfitnesspal.com. HOLY CRAP! Fast, easy to use, efficient, and the forums are amazing for meeting people on similar weight loss journeys and the support you get from people is phenomenal! I can track a whole days worth of food in exercise in minutes and it calculates my calories for me based on my weight loss goals and how much exercise I've done that day. Talk about a no brainer! After one week of using it, I not only broke through my two month plateau, but I took my goal of losing a pound per week, and lost 2.2 pounds in the first week! Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty freaking awesome!
Not to mention that the 7 days/week of working out that I do now is making my bod look pretty swell... Not to brag or anything, but my belly is looking leaner, my legs are looking leaner, my butt is looking perkier... not too shabby at all! Speaking of my perky posterior, I've decided to give the Brazil Butt Lift (BBL) program by Beach Body a try. I am actually going to pick it up tonight and then I'm setting a start date of March 1st. I don't know how it's going to go, and I haven't tried any programs by the same company before, but I figure it really can't hurt. For you readers, I'll post before (ew) and after pics as well as give a brutally honest review so you can decide if you want to try it for yourselves!
That's about all for now. Will hopefully be posting yet another vegan cheese experiment in the very near future!
Take care!
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Chewy Vegan Chocolate Cookies!
I mentioned in my last post that I love vegan biscotti and cookies that I bake. This is the absolute truth. I have become a vegan baking fanatic! There's just something special about throwing these ingredients together and having them come out tasting freaking amazing and knowing they're completely free of animal products. I feel a bit like a magician who has just pulled off a brilliant trick. It's quite good for my ego really. I feel even better when my omni family devours them and I get to feel good about sneaking a fairly healthy treat into their days.
As promised, I said I would post recipes and pictures which is exactly what I am doing today! This recipe I stole from this link: http://www.food.com/recipe/chewy-vegan-chocolate-chocolate-chip-cookies-99094 (give credit where credit is due!) but I adjusted it slightly and this is what I came up with:
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp ground flax seed
- 1 cup white all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole grain all purpose-flour (sifted to remove large pieces, you could use whole-grain pastry flour here)
- 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used soy)
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup chopped raw pecans
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 C
2. Add non-dairy milk and flax seed together in a small bowl, mix for thirty seconds and set aside.
3. Cream the oil and sugar in a large bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda.
5. Add the flax mixture to the oil mixture, combine. Add the vanilla.
6. Add the dry mixture to the wet and combine.
7. Gently mix in your pecans (you could substitute pretty much anything here like the original recipe says)
8. Roll the dough into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You could flatten them out on the cookie sheet into disks, again like the original recipe, but I like 'em fat
9. Bake for 10 minutes. They will probably done after this time, be careful not to over bake!
10. Let rest for 5 minutes for cooling and then get your nom on.
P.S. Because there's no raw egg in the batter, you don't have to feel guilty about your little ones licking the spoons... as they do.
Let's just say, my altered recipe increased the fibre content and cut the sugar content by half! This recipe made for about three dozen nicely sized cookies and my family (with my help of course) gobbled them up within three days.
Get your nom on!
As promised, I said I would post recipes and pictures which is exactly what I am doing today! This recipe I stole from this link: http://www.food.com/recipe/chewy-vegan-chocolate-chocolate-chip-cookies-99094 (give credit where credit is due!) but I adjusted it slightly and this is what I came up with:
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp ground flax seed
- 1 cup white all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole grain all purpose-flour (sifted to remove large pieces, you could use whole-grain pastry flour here)
- 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used soy)
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup chopped raw pecans
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 C
2. Add non-dairy milk and flax seed together in a small bowl, mix for thirty seconds and set aside.
3. Cream the oil and sugar in a large bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda.
5. Add the flax mixture to the oil mixture, combine. Add the vanilla.
6. Add the dry mixture to the wet and combine.
7. Gently mix in your pecans (you could substitute pretty much anything here like the original recipe says)
8. Roll the dough into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You could flatten them out on the cookie sheet into disks, again like the original recipe, but I like 'em fat
9. Bake for 10 minutes. They will probably done after this time, be careful not to over bake!
10. Let rest for 5 minutes for cooling and then get your nom on.
P.S. Because there's no raw egg in the batter, you don't have to feel guilty about your little ones licking the spoons... as they do.
Let's just say, my altered recipe increased the fibre content and cut the sugar content by half! This recipe made for about three dozen nicely sized cookies and my family (with my help of course) gobbled them up within three days.
Get your nom on!
Friday, 1 February 2013
Update
So truth... I'm actually far from being the best blogger in the world.
My problem stems primarily from being busy (and a bit lazy) so I go a little while without posting an entry. Then once I go a while without posting, I feel this dread about posting again because I feel like I'm going to have to catch up on all the stuff I should have been posting all along... but didn't... and that would require thinking .... ? You follow?
A quick update then, so I am a better blogger in future. In theory. I have officially been fully-vegan for 37 days. I'm almost surprised it's been that long because I really thought it was going to be more difficult. The only craving I have had really is for cheese (which I am working on what with the vegan cheese experiments and all) and I think my body is mostly over the "new diet" shock. Oh what is this new diet shock you might ask? It's basically that awkward moment where your body basically forgets how to digest anything you eat and freaks out, you have horrid gas, your skin breaks out, and you detox. Part of that was transitioning into my protein powder, but my body seems to have mostly sorted itself out. I imagine it will take about three months to be completely settled in my diet, but the worst part is over.
I was going to post a shwack load of recipes with photos and such, but quite frankly I'm really much too lazy at the moment. I hope to slowly add them on, one at a time, over the next little while but I'm not going to stress about it.
Things I love:
Eat your vegetables!
My problem stems primarily from being busy (and a bit lazy) so I go a little while without posting an entry. Then once I go a while without posting, I feel this dread about posting again because I feel like I'm going to have to catch up on all the stuff I should have been posting all along... but didn't... and that would require thinking .... ? You follow?
A quick update then, so I am a better blogger in future. In theory. I have officially been fully-vegan for 37 days. I'm almost surprised it's been that long because I really thought it was going to be more difficult. The only craving I have had really is for cheese (which I am working on what with the vegan cheese experiments and all) and I think my body is mostly over the "new diet" shock. Oh what is this new diet shock you might ask? It's basically that awkward moment where your body basically forgets how to digest anything you eat and freaks out, you have horrid gas, your skin breaks out, and you detox. Part of that was transitioning into my protein powder, but my body seems to have mostly sorted itself out. I imagine it will take about three months to be completely settled in my diet, but the worst part is over.
I was going to post a shwack load of recipes with photos and such, but quite frankly I'm really much too lazy at the moment. I hope to slowly add them on, one at a time, over the next little while but I'm not going to stress about it.
Things I love:
- Nutritional yeast sauce (NOOCH!)
- Vega One protein powder
- Wraps with blackbeans, cabbage slaw, and hummus
- Vegan biscotti and cookies (that I bake... because I'm a balla like that)
- Ginger fried tofu on brown rice
- Lemon blueberry cornmeal pancakes (eating about fifty of these is my new sunday morning tradition.)
- Sherlock Holmes... Totally unrelated to being vegan but it's the truth...
- Tofu in my curry (OOOH sure it takes good when you eat it at a restaurant and then you make it at home and it's icky...)
- How vegan un-friendly my city is.
- Working (umm hellloooooo I'm going back to school so I can get NEW job..)
- The fact that there's whey in basically every prepackaged food out there.
- When I've scheduled myself in for a form of exercise other than zumba. Sadness :(
Eat your vegetables!
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
The Vegan Cheese (and other) Experiments Continue!
So I've recently tried out another vegan cheese in a few different recipes. The vegan cheese of the last week or two has been "Earth Island Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella". So I was basically terrified, despite my positive experience with the last vegan cheese but decided if I was going to do this, I needed to really put this cheese to the test.
Experiment #1 with Earth Island mozza: Mozza sticks!
This is basically the ultimate test of mozza cheese. I mean really, deep fried cheese sticks that are ooey-gooey and total naughty? Count me in! Make 'em vegan? Bit of a scary concept to a former dairy cheese lover. Anyhow, god bless google for recipe searches, I managed to find a vegan mozza stick recipe. The only pain was having to freeze the breaded mozza sticks for an hour before frying them, but the process despite being messy was relatively easy and painless. The sticks once fried were very convincing to look at, if you didn't know it was vegan cheese, you might assume it was dairytastic. So I got my marinara sauce ready to go and got me a plate of vegan mozzarella sticks. The verdict: not bad. This cheese does NOT get stringy when melted, which really took some of the fun out of it for me, but the flavour was mild and creamy. Actually could have used a bit of salt (I never say this...) but not barf worthy. Only thing was, after eating I felt really bloated. Possibly the frying? Maybe too much soy that day? Either way, an experiment mildly successful.
Experiment #2 with Earth Island mozza: Baked pasta
So I already knew that this cheese wasn't gag worthy which made this experiment much less intimidating, but ultimately I decided that this cheese should be the addition to a meal rather than the centre-piece of it. So I made a delicious dish of penne with tomato, portabello mushroom, and collard greens sauteed in garlic and chili. As if this dish couldn't get any better, I decide to toss some vegan cheese on top and melt it in the oven. Pretty tasty I must say. The cheese melted nicely, and while didn't add tons of flavour (it's a fairly bland cheese) added a nice richness and creaminess to a pretty swell pasta.
What I've learned: Earth Island mozza is edible but not especially flavourful which would make it a decent base for a creamy "cheese" sauce so long as there were other flavours involved. I won't be trying mozza sticks again until I can get my hand on some "teese" vegan cheese which is supposed to be stringy and spectacular.
In other news, I am slowly working on my mission to seduce my family with vegan baking. I have two of my sisters obsessed with my vegan carrot muffins (next batch less sugar though!) and have just pulled out of the oven vegan chocolate hazelnut biscotti. My cookbook of choice: "VEGANOMICON" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero. Aside from being full of amazing recipes, is loaded with fun and humour which makes it a pleasure to go through.
Looking for a website with lots of vegan recipes, chat, and info? www.vegweb.com has been a fantastic resource for me.
Well that's it for now, once I find my camera I plan to start taking pictures of some of my amazing creations to post here and will include recipes for you adventurous folk.
Cheers.
Experiment #1 with Earth Island mozza: Mozza sticks!
This is basically the ultimate test of mozza cheese. I mean really, deep fried cheese sticks that are ooey-gooey and total naughty? Count me in! Make 'em vegan? Bit of a scary concept to a former dairy cheese lover. Anyhow, god bless google for recipe searches, I managed to find a vegan mozza stick recipe. The only pain was having to freeze the breaded mozza sticks for an hour before frying them, but the process despite being messy was relatively easy and painless. The sticks once fried were very convincing to look at, if you didn't know it was vegan cheese, you might assume it was dairytastic. So I got my marinara sauce ready to go and got me a plate of vegan mozzarella sticks. The verdict: not bad. This cheese does NOT get stringy when melted, which really took some of the fun out of it for me, but the flavour was mild and creamy. Actually could have used a bit of salt (I never say this...) but not barf worthy. Only thing was, after eating I felt really bloated. Possibly the frying? Maybe too much soy that day? Either way, an experiment mildly successful.
Experiment #2 with Earth Island mozza: Baked pasta
So I already knew that this cheese wasn't gag worthy which made this experiment much less intimidating, but ultimately I decided that this cheese should be the addition to a meal rather than the centre-piece of it. So I made a delicious dish of penne with tomato, portabello mushroom, and collard greens sauteed in garlic and chili. As if this dish couldn't get any better, I decide to toss some vegan cheese on top and melt it in the oven. Pretty tasty I must say. The cheese melted nicely, and while didn't add tons of flavour (it's a fairly bland cheese) added a nice richness and creaminess to a pretty swell pasta.
What I've learned: Earth Island mozza is edible but not especially flavourful which would make it a decent base for a creamy "cheese" sauce so long as there were other flavours involved. I won't be trying mozza sticks again until I can get my hand on some "teese" vegan cheese which is supposed to be stringy and spectacular.
In other news, I am slowly working on my mission to seduce my family with vegan baking. I have two of my sisters obsessed with my vegan carrot muffins (next batch less sugar though!) and have just pulled out of the oven vegan chocolate hazelnut biscotti. My cookbook of choice: "VEGANOMICON" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero. Aside from being full of amazing recipes, is loaded with fun and humour which makes it a pleasure to go through.
Looking for a website with lots of vegan recipes, chat, and info? www.vegweb.com has been a fantastic resource for me.
Well that's it for now, once I find my camera I plan to start taking pictures of some of my amazing creations to post here and will include recipes for you adventurous folk.
Cheers.
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