My last day.

Today marks the last day of my month long challenge.  So I decided to come here and detail out the good the bad and the often hilarious.

The best part about being vegan is also the worst part.  I have not been truly "full" in a month now.  Everyone else will get up from the table and say things like I won't be able to eat again for a week and I just look around and think well I could eat that amount again and still not be full.  I kind of miss the full feeling but then again it has been extremely nice to not feel so weighed down.  I have found a lot of creative ways to make dinners that my whole family can eat.  Two nights ago I made personal pan pizzas but used portabella mushrooms as the pizza crust and skipped the cheese and meat on mine, but added just a ton of veggies like artichoke hearts, onions and peppers.  Joe said one of the best compliments by saying Wow even normal people would think this was good. :-)  Last night I made coconut Thai shrimp over rice, so I just skipped the shrimp, and again with just a ton of veggies in it.

I've never really had greasy skin but I have noticed that I don't have grease on my face at all now, even when I sweat. I can only attribute that to not eating fat, specifically animal fat.

I don't really get the shakes when I haven't eaten like I used to.  In fact there have been numerous times in my life that I have had to excuse myself and go throw up before a meal because my head is spinning so bad from the lack of sugar in my blood.  I have to give this credit to not eating processed sugars, although I am sure this is one that I accidentally cheat on more than I realize with condiments and such.

I do have to say that I have tried a ton of diets/life styles and this one has to be the hardest to follow.  Sometimes it feels like there is nothing on the menu I can even eat, and when I do find something and just absolutely butcher it down to nothing...no cheese....no meat....no mayo....no ranch and so on, it feels foolish to even order anything.  Luckily my Mom and I's favorite place to eat lunch is Souper Salad which (since it is a salad bar) is great because I can find a ton of things to eat. This also happens to be the life style that I have been made the most fun of for but also had the most amount of people saying that they would try it...truly an odd combination.

As far as the what the future holds.  I am going to continue with several meals a week for the whole family that are vegetarian, simply for heart health I think it is a good idea to give up some of that meat.  I don't believe that I will be going back to eating the way that I was, although I am just about ready to pass out at the thought of eating a buffalo wing for the Super Bowl.  I will continue to eat less meat and dairy although I won't be as strict as I was this month.  Of course we will have to see how my body responds to this and whether or not it becomes apparent that it would be better to eat vegan most of the time.

I love feeling light and clean which this diet definitely does for you, so there will be huge parts of it that I keep up with to feel better over all.  Hopefully my body will respond slightly better with the weight loss part.  To date I have lost probably 12 pounds which isn't that great considering I had gained 7 of that in Indiana for Christmas.  Eating amazingly well for a month and losing 5 pounds is not great but I am sure some of this has to do with house hunting, the wedding and what not.  The added stress that these things have brought on has undoubtedly added some additional hurdles for this poor diet.

We put in an offer!

So we put in an offer on that home we liked.  Fingers crossed because we offered less than they asked for but we will see what they say. :-D

If you want to snoop around here you go.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/7070-Mcshane-Rd_Colorado-Springs_CO_80908_M18868-82450

3 Days

Since I know you are all waiting around with bated breath...3 days, no salt, no booze...and no ring! :-D

I mean as you can see there will probably be some kind of permanent mark but oh well.

The house hunting continues although we had a second showing yesterday on a house that we really like and we're all pre-qualified and everything but man oh man does the stressful part start now.  We have to sell this one to have the down payment for the next one but we don't want the next to be sold out from underneath us so we want to start selling ours soon but don't want to be homeless.  Ugh!

The Ring Diet

Anyone reading this knows that I am a completely neurotic person, so it should come as no surprise that when my wedding ring arrived on Saturday after ordering it (without trying it on I might add) I couldn't help but attempt to put it on to see what it looks like.  Well the problem in this story is that the day before we had done all that house shopping so I had a few cocktails Friday night.  Drinks make me swell, so when the ring wouldn't go on I was bummed but didn't think much of it...after all I was swollen.  So then in the afternoon when I finished cleaning the house and such and my hands felt much smaller I decided now was the time to try that blasted ring on.  Well it went on with the slightest push but...and wait for it...won't come off. :-(  I mean won't come off after soaking in ice water or using oil, lotion, soap, Windex ..I have tried it all.  And since I was now panicking while pulling my finger it was very angry at me.  I spent the next few hours debating on my decisions should I just have this brand new platinum ring cut off my finger, or perhaps the other way around  cut off the finger spare the ring...or worst case scenario would the finger just fall off.  I decided on the taking of water pills and trying like mad to lose any additional weight I can, water weight, fat weight, muscle weight anything that could possibly allow for this ring to pop off my finger.  I have given up all salt and can't drink...since after all drinking makes me swell.  Effectively I am now a sugar free, salt free, sober, vegan...boy if that's not a turn on, I don't know what is.

That is one angry fat finger there, but isn't it a beautiful ring?!?!?

It looks much better this morning but still won't come off.

I totally cheated!

I totally cheated but for what I believe is an absolutely fantastic reason!  We went out to Carabba's last night for dinner to celebrate our 7 year anniversary!  Holy cow!  So I splurged and had steak and chicken. :-)

Can I just give a shout out to people that are looking to buy a house?!?!  We have started house hunting to see if we can find that "perfect" home, I have to put that in quotes because there are no perfect homes which I also have to keep reminding myself.  Today we had 8 houses to walk through all the while my Mom laughed at us dragging two toddlers in and out of people's homes...we look insane yelling at the kids to not touch anything and take off their shoes.  Actually currently I must admit I feel a little insane.  Our homes today varied by over $200,000 so as you can imagine there is quite a difference from bottom to top and it just makes everything harder. I need a drink.

Look at this amazing bunch of flowers Joe brought for our anniversary...he even put it together himself. :-D

Fun new recipes.

In my quest to find things that I can eat other than re fried beans, I have found some fun variations on classics.  Like take for instance last night I made a Italian dish with noodles, mushrooms, capers, squash, zucchini, artichokes, basil and spinach and then in a separate pan I made spicy sausage in a Alfredo cream sauce.  So everyone else ate everything mixed together and I just ate the veggies and the noodles.  Or the night before I made a vegan red chili that I ate with lettuce, tomato and onions and everyone else smothered a burger patty and topped the whole thing with cheese and sour cream.  That's what I call a win-win. :-)  I also made Chile rellenos the other night with a fiesta rice so I just ate the rice which had beans and a bunch of other veggies while the girls and Joe at the cheese stuffed peppers and the rice as a side.  I am debating on what I want tonight which is always the hardest part, then when I get my mind made up the cooking part is always fun. It's like Anne said you end up making numerous variations to one meal but then at least I still feel creative and we all eat together.

Updates

So I've been quiet on here for a bit and let's just be honest it's because I didn't want to be negative but here goes.

First off let's talk about the elephant in the room (in this case that happens to be me).  I always gain weight when I travel and Indiana over Christmas was no exception to the rule.  With that being said I have been on this diet for 14 days now and haven't even lost the Indiana weight I gained, which normally goes away within the first week back home naturally.  I can't be exactly sure what's happening here, I haven't cheated with even a starburst and drastically reduced my alcohol intake so really I should be losing just based on sugars and booze.  But no instead I am still carrying around a couple of the pounds that found it's way to my ass in the midwest.  By no means did I want to try this diet because I thought it was the most magnificent chance to lose the greatest amount of weight but co'mon...I figured out my calorie intake for the other day and please keep in mind I am not trying to make these numbers this low but since I can't have an entire shelf of condiments due to sugar and veggies just don't have a lot of calories in them....I consumed all day 750 calories.  For a near 6 foot tall, near 200 pound female I should have forced my body into a panic that dropped weight super fast that first week or so and then attempted to rebound by burning muscle.  I am a life long dieter so I definitely know the drill but this is completely baffling. 

Secondly probably in part because I am not losing ANY weight, I feel like crap...near tears all the time.  And hungry with really unnatural desires for cheese...meat I could actually care less about but cheese is an all consuming thought in my mind most days. We went to the boat show yesterday with my folks and had a wonderful time followed by an early dinner at Pappadeux's.  For anyone that has not eaten there it is arguably some of the best seafood on the planet.  After mulling over the menu I finally just brought the waitress over to my side of the table and started the conversation with I am on a vegan diet and I need some help putting together a meal...no matter what the cost is.  Noodles, olive oil, broccoli, spinach and garlic was served 20 minutes later it a big bowl by a waitress who then asked so is this like a double dog dare you are doing or something?  Nope I just choose to eat the worst of the menu (with the freaking noodles probably having egg whites in them) and pay too much for it.  I sat uncomfortably close to Joe so I could smell his food.  Don't get me wrong if I felt awesome either with a lot of energy or weight loss or whatever I am sure I wouldn't be so cynical but this is just complete crap.  I am the fat girl at restaurants ordering like a marathon runner.  **Sigh**