So it seems that being sick makes all my resolve just fly out the window... along with sleep and happiness. Or maybe it's the other way around, since I'm not sleeping and am generally miserable, I decide to sooth myself with food. I've known for quite some time that I'm an emotional eater - I eat because of and to 'fix' my emotions. If I'm particularly down, then I eat wonderful foods that will poor endorphins into my brain. On the other hand, if I'm happy and content, then there is nothing to fix so I stick with my 'good foods' and all is well.

This past week I have been fighting with the mother of all colds. It started late Saturday night and continued to consume my body for the next six days. Today is officially day 7 of "Cold-pocolypse 2012" and I think it is just about over. Unfortunately I have a lot of damage to repair. Not only the obvious damage, such as the nasty, red, rough skin all around my nose from blowing my nose constantly for a week.... but also the damage I've done to my body with the comfort foods I so needlessly ingested. Although, I say 'needless' now, but at the time I sure as heck felt they were necessary. Bread, ice cream, cheese, creamers, ice cream, coffee... it is all adding up. My tummy no longer looks or feels quite as good as it did a week ago.

Plus! To top it all off, I was just getting back to exercising. Another fact I've known for quite some time about my body is that my weight will not go down unless I exercise religiously (barring, of course, extreme starvation and such). So, even when I stick to my guns and completely cut out wheat, dairy, meat, and all animal products, my weight stays about the same... It's taken me about three weeks to lose about 5 pounds, and due to this past week alone I'm pretty sure it's all back on :(

So it is back on! Oh yes, IT'S ON! It's on like Donkey Kong... ok maybe I shouldn't have gone there but I did! I'm back on track! I slipped up already this morning but I'm back and with stronger resolve (perhaps due to a little more sleep last night)! One of the main reasons for my 'slip' this morning was the lack of available options. I'm realizing just how important it is to plan ahead, have a fully and appropriately stocked refrigerator, and to eat regularly in order to avoid hitting the starving/hangry mode. I'm stocking the fridge and getting back on track. I'm even considering a three day juice cleanse!! Which I will most definitely chronicle here in all it's amazing and probably gross details.

Challenge of the day: finding vegan choices at a restaurant. It is a lot more difficult than I had thought. I knew it would be hard but usually restaurants really offer options to cater to as many people as possible. The funky thing about vegan food, is that it's more than just no meat, it is no animal products what so ever - no eggs, cheese, cream, milk, etc.

As I've said before, I'm not 100% vegan yet. As made quite evident by my splurge of an iced espresso with a splash of half and half... yes milk is most definitely and obviously an animal product. I'm still sticking with 100% vegetarian but having some difficulties with the vegan part.

So back to the challenge of restaurants... Met a couple friends for lunch at a Sushi place, which is one of the kinds of places I think of a stereotypical restaurant choice for vegetarians, since there are so many options. But, I hate seafood, I hate seaweed, and therefore I can't stand sushi :D Hench my predicament.... Basically for lunch I had edemame!! Also I enjoyed a plate of veggies tempura which probably doesn't exactly fit in with my idea of 'whole foods' since it is friend... or something. To be honest I'm not entirely sure what tempura really is, but I can tell you it is really good! :) I love it!! But my point is, those two items are the best thing I can find on the menu that fit with my general diet restrictions and tastes... TWO ITEMS?!?! From an entire menu, I have found two items. Technically they do have vegetarian fried rice but I'm also not sure what all goes in to that or goes in to making that so I'm not sure if it's truly vegan.

Overall, The Sushi Place (at Freedom Crossing) is a great place and I love the atmosphere. I admit I really do love my two options, but at the same time I'm a bit bummed I only have two options. It is a challenge, but also one I'm going to rise to! I now feel the need to branch out of my comfort zone and really go out in to the town to find restaurants that have options that I can actually eat! Any suggestions?? :)

8:15pm and sitting down to dinner :) Funny thing is, I just had a conversation earlier today about how I don't really cook while the hubby is out of town. Guess I'm making myself a liar! This is the second time I've cooked a fun, big meal for just me!! This one is sort of a repeat. I've made it before but decided to give it another go. I saw it on pinterest and decided to give it another go. Pretty glad I did :) here is where you can find the original pin-worthy recipe, it is from the Eat Clean Diet website. That Tosca is a great woman!

Anyways... on to the good stuff. The food!! Cauliflower is the main staple of this recipe and adds some tofu to keep the protein content high. I used a base of quinoa instead of the bulgur wheat that the recipe calls for. Still not sure I really know what bulgur wheat even is...

I already had some left over quinoa from my other cooking frenzy so I jumped straight to sauteing the onion and garlic. Added to that veggie broth, chopped up cauliflower, cut up firm tofu, some raisins (the recipe calls for golden raisins but I didn't have any... I think the golden would be better but even the regular ones add a pop of sweetness to cut through the spices). Then I just tossed in the spices, which included goodness such as curry powder, coriander, cumin, paprika, cayenne, salt, and pepper. I probably should have measured, because I kept having to add more and more when I would taste test it because it didn't have enough kick IMO :) As a point of advice, if you plan ahead for this meal I'd recommend marinating or rubbing the tofu with something in advance so it has a little more flavor. But it also helps balance out all the spices. Once it's all tossed together, boil, then simmer so all the flavors meld together and get super duper yummmmmmy. :)

As I said, I still had left over quinoa so I just nuked a little bit. Then I cut up a bunch of cilantro to garnish and now my kitchen smells so good :) I love cilantro!

Now just put it all together and what do you get?!?! A wonderful, vegan, healthy, and protein rich dinner!!! Dig in!! :) Don't mind if I do....

My resolutions were tested today. Technically I failed, but overall I think I succeeded quite well.

For my latest leg of the journey, I have decided to be vegan. From much reading, watching, and research, I have decided that a whole foods-plant based diet (easiest way to say that to other people is just 'vegan') is the best and healthiest choice for me. I tried the Paleo diet because it mostly stands on the single legged argument that it is based on what our bodies 'are naturally created to eat'. Now, I do agree that we were/are designed to eat meat, but on a much, much smaller scale than what is being promoted in today's society. Centuries ago, when a hunter went out and caught an animal in the woods, that animal would then usually feed the entire village!! Chickens could probably feed at least an entire family, and not even the fattened chickens of today's standards. One 'serving' of meat then was a probably a lot closer to the proper portion of the size of a deck of cards, and was probably once or twice a week... if that. When people did not have meat, what was left? Plant-based foods!! And no that does not mean onion rings, potato chips, or even whole-wheat bread. It means whole, natural foods the way they were intended to be eaten - not processed, not loaded with sodium, and definitely not fried.

I have not completely jumped on the bandwagon of the "raw" revolution. I still do cook some of the foods I am eating, but overall not all of it. It is a fine line, for fresh produce, to where cooking it can allow some of the nutrients to escape or be 'cooked out'... But that is also why I have learned to love juicing! When juicing produce, it is reduced down to the most essential nutrients, and no longer has the fibrous elements. Juicing allows me to ingest a much higher level of healthy nutrients and vitamins, without actually having to eat that huge quantity of food! Also, because juicing simply is extracting the essential juices from the vegetables, there is not as much of the fiber left intact, which makes it much easier for the body to digest. Or in other words, a lot less gas from all the green stuff!! :D

Anyways, back to today's failings. I went to a luncheon this morning where I was not allowed to pre-chose my food because it was simply an assortment of appetizers. The tables were spread and it all looked delicious, but I can pretty much guarantee you that with all the amount of food, the was only one single option that fit my 'vegan' life style - strawberries. Which, were actually intended for the huge fountain of flowing chocolate behind the big bowl of strawberries. So, instead of sitting there starving for two more hours and binging on something I knew I'd completely regret, I indulged in two mini quiches. This is why I say that I technically failed. We all know that a quiche does not fit the vegan rules, it's all egg!! Not to mention the yummy flaky crust doesn't exactly fit my rules of no wheat and also the rule of 'whole, non-processed foods'. But, I think this is just one of those instances where I have to go back to my commitment of 90% vegan for now as I'm making the transition and allow myself that 10% slip-up, but at least stick to being 100% vegetarian.

I know that this is not the last time my resolutions will be challenged. But, I'm at least hoping to stand firm and be much more grounded next time and have the willpower to say no, and also the courage to explain why. I'm so afraid of telling  people I'm vegan now because I am afraid of what they might say.

Two nights ago I went to a friend's house for dinner. She was gracious enough to welcome me in to her home and let me hang out with her and her kids for a few hours. Little did I know I'd actually be going home with a little 'present' :D In the conversation leading up to dinner, somehow the topic of juicing came up. At some point, the topic of a food processor also came up... Now see, the situation is that I've been contemplating, seriously contemplating buying a juicer for some time now but couldn't quite swing the cost unless I knew for a fact I'd use it... a lot. In preparing the delicious dinner we were about to eat, my friend mentioned that she had been thinking that she'd love to have a food processor and it would make her life so much easier. Now, it just so happens I have a food processor that's been sitting in the box it came in, unopened, for a year now... and she just happened to have a juicer that she had barely used sitting on top of her fridge right then and there. So, what do you think we did?? We struck a trade!!! Oh I was so excited to get home and try my hand at juicing, that I even stopped at the 'local' health food store on my way home to stock up on some yummies. Unfortunately by the time I got home I was so tired and cold (strange cold spell her in the EP area) that I just set the juicer on the counter and my spoils in the fridge and headed to bed.

Fast forward to the next afternoon and so begins my fun!! I had never really juiced before so I watched the intro video online and got some good tips. Then I went to town! I have a box of those little oranges, otherwise known as Cuties, so I peeled a bunch of them and started popping them in the juicer. Let me tell you, the product was pure heaven. Absolutely delicious, fresh orange juice!

Now, as if that wasn't good enough... I decided to branch out a bit. I knew, deep down, the spinach is really healthy and the main ingredient in most juicing concoctions because it is barely detectable. So, in went some spinach, as well as a few blackberries and some more oranges. And tah-dah! delicious!

For my third, and final attempt of the night I decided to get a little more daring and upgraded the green goodness to kale. Now, kale has not been my friend in the past so I was quite apprehensive, but I did it anyways. After the kale I added a peeled kiwi and a few more peeled Cuties :) The first few sips through the straw were not so good... but it really grew on me and by the time I finished the glass I kind of wished I had more! :) It turned out to be quite yummy!

Now that I had some more experience under my belt (and hopefully that belt will start getting smaller....) I plan on branching out a little more. In the morning I'll make another creation and this time add some carrots. We'll see how it goes! :) Cheers!!

Good afternoon all and welcome to my blog. As I mention in the 'about me' section, this blog is meant as a place for me to chronicle my journey. I feel that posting everything on Facebook gets to be a bit boring and not everyone there wants to see it. Here, people have the choice :)

So today turned out to be a good day. Nothing specific, just one of those days where things seem to be going right and the world just seems at peace. Well, at least my world does. As I'm getting ready to go through yet another deployment I'm quite aware that most of the world is not at peace, rather far from it. But, I digress...

I'm still learning how to do all this 'blog' type of stuff so if it seems a bit strange at first... please stick with it :) I promise it will get better. Also, as I should have mentioned on my 'about me', this mainly is about my journey to get healthy. Yes,  one of my main goals is to lose weight, but that also is a part of being more healthy. It is not all about vanity. This body is the only one I have and the only one I'm going to get, unless they develop some sort of brain transplant possibilities in the near future... but I don't see that happening so I'll just stick with making sure my body is as healthy as it can be and therefore will last as long as possible.

Today was a good day so I came home and had the urge to cook. I keep coming home hungry and nothing sounds good, yet I really don't feel like cooking anything either. So, I had just stocked up on veggies from the store and I decided to put them all to good use. In my pantry is a bag of quinoa that had just been sitting for way too long and begging to be used. To the stove I went with quinoa in hand!! After that was starting to boil and simmer, I decided to try my hand and sauteeing some kale. Normally, I shy away from kale, but knowing the health benefits I'm striving to use it more!

 Now that two burners were going, I got to the chopping! In to the bowl went diced red onion, sliced green onion, chopped up red pepper, chopped up orange pepper, chopped up yellow pepper, some squished black olives, and a can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans). It looked so pretty and colorful! Then, I added in the kale, a bunch of the quinoa, and a good drizzle of Olive Garden Italian dressing for flavor. Let me tell you... it is amazing!!!

Now I just have to clean up all the dishes :( I hate dishes... worst chore ever.