Last Day as a Vegan!

Wow! I can't believe 3 months have already come and gone!  I also can't believe I was a Vegan for 3 months.  I have to admit the past 2-3 weeks have been a lot harder.  Not sure if it's because I knew it was ending soon or I was just getting sick of it??

Most of the diet I didn't mind at all...It was easy.

So what am I going to keep from this diet?  The first thing is Almond Milk.  I love it!  I also really enjoy coconut milk ice cream.  I will also take the recipes that I tried with me because I liked them all.  I learned that I can cook better than I thought I could.  I learned a lot more about using spices in my cooking for flavoring.

Tomorrow morning I'm getting my blood drawn and will check my Cholesterol, Vit B12 and Vit D levels.  I will post the differences as soon as I have results.  I will also see how much weight I lost tomorrow after I get on the scales. (I'm not expecting much after the last couple of weeks!!).

In the end I'm really glad I did the Vegan diet.  I feel great being on the diet and was able to get off my blood pressure medicine.

On to the WHEAT BELLY!!! I can do anything for 3 months....right?????

Less than a week!

I can't believe that the Vegan diet is about to end! Sunday will be our last day being Vegan. I am planning on having my blood drawn on Monday to check my cholesterol.  Should be interesting.

I went to some friends for dinner on Sunday night and had meat for the first time.  We had pork sandwiches and they tasted delicious!  I am not a huge pork fan but it was the best I've ever eaten! I had a bad week and actually had 3 cheat meals. The other 2 contained a lot of cheese (still the thing I missed the most).

This week I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to start eating next Monday.  Looking at some new recipes and convincing myself it won't be too bad...

10 weeks down!

So this is what I've learned about blogging.....I'm really bad at it. 
I really never imagined it would be this hard to blog once a week.  I'm not doing the best and getting it done weekly.  I talked with Meghan last night and she has the same problem.  But blogging does hold me more accountable so I will continue to try my hardest to get it done. 

Still losing a little bit of weight and still feeling good.  I went to my cousins birthday lunch on Saturday and they all had pizza and I settled for the salad bar.  I really wanted that pizza because once again it's the cheese that is my biggest craving.  I did use my cheat meal to have a piece of cake and wished I would've used it on the pizza instead :)

I made one of the greatest things I've ever made last week. It's called Red Red and it's delicious. It was my favorite dish when I was in Ghana and when Barbara would make it for us (about 2-3 times a week) I would always get excited.  I tried to make it a few years ago and didn't have a good recipe and it didn't turn out.  Sometimes in Ghana they put fish in it or fish oil or shrimp powder but other than that it's Vegan. So I just left out all of the gross seafood stuff and it was still delicious.  I recommend trying it, you will not be disappointed.  The recipe is on the recipe blog. 

Time is almost here for the new diet.  I'm excited to see if my cholesterol has changed much.  I am a little scared of knowing what I'll eat for the next diet but that just means I have to try new recipes!

7 weeks down....

Ok, so I've come to the conclusion I'm a really bad blogger.  Yesterday was actually 8 weeks down but I was a little slow blogging about week 7! Before I know it the Wheat Belly will be here!!!!
 
Now on to things that have nothing to do with being vegan...My biggest accomplishment this past week was that I was able to get on the eliptical for the first time since my surgery and my back didn't get worse!  Not sure I could do it everyday with my back but it's a huge step forward. My second big step forward is that I'm starting to be able to walk a little better on my heels. After my 1st surgery I got foot drop on my left foot and it was nice and floppy.  Since my second surgery I've been doing PT and helping get the strength back in it. I know all this seems minor to most people but they were 2 huge accomplishments for me!

Now back to the diet....The first thing I can say is that I had a really great cheat meal this week.  I have a friend who told me about a great Thai place.  After she told me all I could think about was Pad See Ew....So I had some and it was amazing! 

My friend Meghan and I went to whole foods to buy a slice of our favorite Vegan chocolate cake this past weekend.  We found out that they also have Vegan cupcakes and Vegan brownies in addition to the vegan scones and cookies.  We decided to do what any good Vegan would do...try new desserts.  So we got a banana cupcake and a chocolate peanut butter cupcake along with our chocolate cake.  Overall they were all delicious. 

I wish I could say I tried a new recipe this week but all I tried was new food!  I'm planning to make something this coming week but just haven't decided what yet...

Don't forget to check out Meghan's blog...she is supposedly trying to make some Vegan Fried Pickles and should be posting about it soon!

6 weeks down!! Half way there!

I have to admit, I think I'm sort of dreading the next 6 weeks.  Not because it will be hard but because I'm dreading the next diet!
Wheat Belly is going to be sooooo hard for me! But I guess that's part of this experiment I'm doing. It's not supposed to be easy.  I keep trying to look ahead for recipes to figure out what I'm going to eat and then all I think about is how hard it will be.  I really think that the Vegan diet will be the easiest diet for me.
I haven't craved any meat at all since I've started the Vegan diet.  I'm not a huge meat eater to begin with so I knew that would be easy.  I haven't even craved my daily yogurt!  The only thing that I keep craving is cheese.  The Vegan cheese isn't terrible, but it isn't great.  This week my cheat meal consisted of making a birthday cake for a friend and having a piece.  Then last night I was talking to a friend on their way to Vegas and I'll I could think of was getting The Bobbie from Carpriotti's.  If you've never been or heard of Carpiotti's you need to check them out and you need to eat a Bobbie for me!
I did try 2 new recipes this week.  One was Pumpkin Hummus and it was NOT good so I will not be posting that on the recipe blog.  But I did make a Fresh Vegetable Basil Soup that is quite good and will be posted on the recipe blog.
I will cherish the next 6 weeks because I know what will happen after that!  I guess it's good we started slow with an easy diet!

5 weeks down!

I was a total slacker this week and didn't try any new recipes.  But I have one that I am planning to make this week so we'll see if I can stop being a slacker. 
Things have went well.  I have to say that Whole Foods makes a great Vegan Chocolate cake!  It is a little spendy but Meghan and I sure do love it. 
I can't believe that I'm almost half way through being Vegan!  I'm a little nervous starting a new diet and reintroducing certain foods back into my diet. I am very curious what my labs will show though.
If you are ever looking for a great documentary to watch I would recommend Forks Over Knives.  It's a great film about a plant based diet.  It goes into some research behind plant based diets and the benefits from that.  It is on Netflix to watch.  Their website has some good recipe ideas and hopefully I can try some this week and post them on the recipe blog. 

4 weeks down!!

This is still a very easy diet to do. I still feel great, and still dropping a little weight. Everyone kept telling me how hard it would be and most people tell me they could never do it. I think both of those statements are false! I can eat so many good things on this diet.

I had 2 of my co-workers over for a vegan meal this week. One of them is gluten free so I had to change a few things up but overall it turned out fairly well. My advice is make sure you read the high altitude instructions while making brownies, if not they will turn into a brick!!!  I made vegan lasagna  and used rice lasagna noodles to make it gluten free.  I also made a kale avocado salad and vegan peanut butter ice cream.

Once again check out our recipe blog so you can see for yourself that not all vegan food is gross!

And as always don't forget to read Meghan's blog. I guarantee you will laugh!!