Vegan Rap

Vegetarian and Vegan Diet Pyramid

This pyramid is pretty close to the diet I'm following. The only non-vegan thing I have is an occasional cookie or muffin. I usually have 7-9 servings of fruit and vegetables a day thanks to my Vitamix.

End of Summer

My summer is coming to an end soon as Fondren Library will start regular hours this weekend. I've enjoyed my Sundays off and have finished a lot of projects I have wanted to do for a long time. My biggest accomplishment was a huge photo organization project. I'm happy to report that every single picture in my house is now organized in an album and all the newspaper clippings and mementos are in acid free envelopes in a binder. Since my blog is now mostly about family this really helps when I am looking for a particular picture.
I also organized my books and got rid of quite a few. Same with clothes. I'm hoping this will make my next move a little easier. I'm still looking for a condo to buy but haven't really found anything I love in my price range. I'm also considering moving to Austin in a few years but don't know how practical that is job wise.
My diet is finally on track. I went to a Dr. a few weeks ago and found out my thyroid wasn't functioning as well as it should. I've now been on some pills for a little over 2 weeks and have finally started losing weight. I'm sure I could lose more if I could start walking again with the dogs but with triple digit temperatures it's too hot right now even in the mornings.
I've given up coffee and almost all sugar. I still get a little caffeine and sugar in my Mango Acai White Tea (Honest Tea) that I have for lunch. My diet consists mostly of fresh fruits, fresh pressed vegetable juice, and tofu or beans. I'm 99% vegan and may never be 100% because I would like to be able to have an occasional cookie or maybe a little cheese on something when I eat out. Probably no more than once a month though. I'm also addicted to Annie's Organic Honey Wheat Pretzel Bunnies and honey isn't vegan. I try not to buy these too often and always end up sharing with the dogs because they love them too.
The pups are doing well and I'm trying to trap all the stray cats in the complex and have them spayed or neutered at SNAP (Spay Neuter Assistance Program). So far I have had one female cat done, the slate gray kitty I call Cinza. I believe there is a picture of her on my blog. She had been pregnant a few months ago but never got real big so I assumed she had miscarried when she showed up one day not pregnant. Last night an older kitten who obviously belongs to her showed so I guess she had him/her well hidden. Fortunately the kittens will go in the trap willingly for food. The tiger mother cat is the one I'm having trouble tricking into the trap.
I've stopped watching the news because it's too depressing. I now watch all the cooking shows and HGTV shows plus some shows on Bravo. I love Rocco's Dinner Party on Bravo, Chopped on The Food Network, Design Star on HGTV, and Food Network Star. I guess I'm getting old. This reminds me of my father watching the Weather Channel. I used to tease him about this. Now I've become him.
Houston is HOT. Water mains are bursting all over the city and it takes the city weeks to fix them. One just broke on my street on Sunday. Water rationing begins next week I think and we have all been asked to limit electrical use between 4 and 7 pm to avoid rolling blackouts. I usually turn the thermostat up to 80 when I get home so the AC doesn't come on and then turn it back down before I go to bed. The apartment doesn't get nearly as hot as my old house and my electric bill was only $107 this month. Pretty low considering what other people are paying.
I hope we get some rain soon and some relief from the heat.
Back to work.

I've been on my plant based/99% vegan diet for about 2 months now. I feel better and think I may have lost some weight even though I haven't actually been weighing myself. I did buy a new scale on Sunday and might start keeping track. Weighing can be dangerous because if I don't lose any weight I can get discouraged and use that as an excuse to eat. Finding all vegan prepared foods can be tricky. You really need to look closely at all the labels on everything which isn't easy for a old person to do. I appreciate Amy's Frozen entrees because they state clearly on the box if it is vegan and I don't actually have to look through a long list of ingredients.
I'm continuing to have a fresh fruit smoothie every morning and a fresh vegetable juice several days a week.

My Diet

I've been on my new vegan/plant-based diet for a few weeks now and it's going pretty well. Here is what I eat on a typical day:
Breakfast: A smoothie with fresh orange juice, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, a banana, and a scoop of Spirutein protein powder. Everything is organic, if available. I got the idea for doing a smoothie for breakfast from my favorite ex-president, Bill Clinton, who is also on a plant-based diet.
Lunch: A soy ham or turkey sandwich on Rudi's 7 grain bread with some greenery. Today I had Whole Foods vegan mock chicken salad with sprouts. Their mock chicken salad is to die for delicious and I would eat it everyday if I could. I also have a low sugar white or green tea, usually Honest Tea mango acai tea. Today I'm having Steaz lime pomegranate white tea.
Snacks: I allow myself 10 raw almonds a day as a snack and also fresh fruit. If I don't put a banana in the smoothie I will usually eat one around 10 am. I don't really love bananas but if they are not too ripe (a little on the green side) I am ok with one. If they are a little brown I put one in the smoothie.
Dinner: This is the meal I need to work on. I am content eating an Amy's frozen dinner every night but realize this is probably not the healthiest thing to do. This summer when I have Sunday's off I'm hoping to do a little experimenting in the kitchen, maybe even freezing a few things for dinner.
The thing I miss most on this diet is SALT. I'm really trying to eat less salt and I miss it. When I do buy Amy's dinners I try to buy the low-sodium ones but then I want to add salt (I don't). I also miss my Annie's Honey Wheat pretzels. I have no idea if I've lost any weight. I don't own a scale anymore. I probably haven't but I'm giving myself a year. I'm also planning to do more juice fasts. Last Friday I went out to eat with a friend. We went to Fendee's Mediterranean Grill on Westheimer and I had the very best falafel I've ever had. Good hummus too.
OOPS: Forgot to mention that I also have 1 cup of instant organic coffee in the morning with almond milk. I've tried giving up coffee before but I always go back. Sigh.

Juice Fast

I'm on the 4th day of my juice fast. One more day to go then I'm going to start my healthier plant-based vegan diet. I really hope I can stick to it this time.

UPDATE: It's 9:00 pm Friday night and my 5 day juice fast is over! I won't eat anything until morning but I made it.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and start my vegan, or plant-based diet (again). Plant-based is so much nicer sounding than vegan. I just finished listening to the audio book Veganist by Kathy Freston and it convinced me this is the way to go. I don't expect to be 100% but will do my best. I'm also going to try and start this week with a juice fast. I used to do this all the time but haven't tried in awhile. I would like to make it through 5 days. It was a lot easier when my SO would get me a juice every night. Now I have to make my own. Luckily I have citrus juicer and a vegetable juicer.

UPDATE: It's almost 8 pm Monday and I've made it through the first day of my fast! I honestly didn't think I would make it yesterday when I was planning the fast so this is great. The first day is always the hardest for me. I also took the pups on 2 walks. One was at 6 this morning. The weather is totally awesome. I have all the windows open.

UPDATE: It's 8:20 pm Tuesday and I made it through another day. Spent 4 hours at the dentist too.

Wednesday Update: I made it through another day! Don't know how I used to stay on these fasts for more than 5 days though. I'll feel really good if I make it through tomorrow.

I decided to try to be vegan for the month of September. I've been a vegetarian since 1989 but have never been able to give up dairy completely. So far it's been working out pretty well. The only non vegan thing I've had was 1 ginger cookie that The Decider brought in. Normally I would eat a dozen, so having just 1 doesn't seem too bad. I tried soy yogurt but just didn't like it so I decided to try So Delicious coconut milk yogurt which lives up to it's name (So Delicious). I'm not all that excited about yogurt but am trying to have breakfast every morning so I have yogurt with granola and ground up flax seeds. Another product I've discovered is NuGo Bars. They are made with chocolate but are dairy free and vegan. The Mocha Chocolate is really yummy. I've also switched from soy to almond milk because I think I get way too much soy in my diet. It has a really nice flavor.

Nutrition and health

Here are the results from 3 studies that I just read today.

1. The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet: Researchers followed 88,000 healthy women for 25 years and found that those who followed the DASH Diet which favors fruit, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and plant-based protein were 24% less likely to have a heart attack and 18% less likely to have a stroke than women on a more typical American diet.

2. Swedish researchers have found that a gluten-free vegan diet of nuts, sunflower seeds, fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes for people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.

3. An apple a day really does keep the Dr. away according to data collected by the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. The study which collected data from 1999-2004, found that adults who eat apples and applesauce and drink apple juice are 27% less likely to have metabolic syndrome which is a cluster of health problems linked to diseases such diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Apple eaters also tend to eat more foods with vitamins A and C, calcium, dietary fiber, and potassium than non apple eaters and also less fat.