February 22 - Update and what's next

FAIL! MEGA FAIL! I have not been great. We have been eating dinner together at home at the dinner table and I have started my new course. I know this has nothing to do with February's goal, but I just wanted to say something positive. Oh, I did get some iron, and have been taking it occasionally. And I've been eating more vegan meals, I think. But that's about it. March is coming quickly, and I'm going to spend the next few days focusing on exactly what all my organization goals and projects for the month will be. Think I'll get started on it now; need to ensure March success!

February 12 - Part 2

I've been thinking and reading and scaring myself about my health, and I've decided to expand the scope of February. It might not be smart, trying to do too many things at once (especially in only two weeks, rather than a full month), but here goes. If' it's too much to take, I'll cut the month back down to just the daily exercise.

1. 30 minutes of brisk exercise daily
2. Cut back on diet coke intake until I am at one a day (by the end of the month; I'll deal with a complete banishment of it later, if I decide to)
3. Eat a healthier breakfast (oatmeal, fruit, etc. and no items that contain chocolate/excess sugar for breakfast)
4. Take multi-vitamin, B-12 and iron supplement supplements.
5. Book a physical with the doctor.

Reward? A massage at the end of the month.

February 12 - New plan?

Okay, I've been doing good so far this week with getting in some vegan meals and bringing my breakfast and lunch to work. I think I'm getting back on track. So, with that in mind, I need to set myself a new goal for February.

A bunch of different goals have been swimming around my head for a couple of days now. Reading more. Education -- I started my new course today and put a request into work for another course as well. Losing weight. Getting organized (it's one that keeps popping up in my head, but I know I need at least a full month for that one, so it's on tap for March). Meditation. Working on my relationships. Basically, I feel like every aspect of my life could use some help -- not that my life is terrible, but what couldn't use improving?

But I think I've settled on something for the remainder of February. I need to incorporate more physical activity into my day. Every day. I'm not exactly sure when I'm going to get the time, but it needs to be done. I can walk on my lunch hour. I can do an exercise video when my daughter goes to bed. On weekends, I can play and run around with my daughter in the park. But I need to do something everyday for at least 30 minutes. Thirty vigorous minutes. If they aren't vigorous, let's say 60 minutes. So, starting tomorrow, exercise, physical activity, ParticipAction (if you grew up in Ontario), moving -- whatever you want to call it -- we have a date. We've flirted with each other occasionally over the years, but we really don't know much about each other. Let's change that. Let's get serious. Let's get physical.

February 7 - Time to 'fess up

Okay, so the vegan thing has not gone so well. I haven't been super prepared for this challenge and dairy and eggs are in a lot of prepared vegetarian foods. So, I've eaten more than a fair share of both. This challenge has shown me is that (1) I eat a lot of prepared foods, (2) I do not have the time to make every meal from scratch and (3) I eat a lot more dairy and eggs than I realized (I didn't think it was much because I use soy milk and don't cook eggs often). So, going completely vegan just isn't going to happen for me right now. But I'm going to try to massively cut back on my use of both dairy and eggs, and maybe do vegan days every week.

I think the main thing I'm going to focus on right now is getting back to bring my breakfast and lunch with me to work again, because that's fallen off massively in the last week or so. And my budget can't allow that to happen. And there may be a reducing/getting rid of diet coke in my future. Hard to say. I don't want to let February go to waste and be goal-free. So watch this space; I'll come up with something for the rest of the month soon.

February 5

FAIL. That is all.

Dal

I made a great dal this weekend, and I'll have to make a double or triple batch soon, because it's soooo good. My sister-in-law made this for us about a year ago. It's super simple to make, cheap and tastes delicious. We freeze individual portions and defrost as we need them. It's a great dinner or lunch over rice with a few veggies thrown on top (any veggies will do and everything goes with it). Highly recommend making this. I forgot to take a photo (I'll try to do that and add it to the post when I make it again), but here is the recipe. Note: I didn't add the cardamom (I just didn't have it) or the cilantro (because I don't like it), but I did add garlic (when I added the ginger) and black pepper (to the fried spices).

February 4 - Being vegan is hard

Damn, being vegan is hard. For the most part, eating out is nearly impossible, and until you know by memory what you can and can't (and what brands you can and can't) eat and your fridge is therefore stocked with the correct items, it's tough to just grab a snack or make a meal on the fly. I suppose I went through the same thing when I became a vegetarian, but that was 20 years ago and I've forgotten. I think at the time I also chalked it up to still living at home with my parents and not being in charge of the grocery shopping.

I goofed this weekend. Sunday afternoon we went to my in-laws and had Swiss Chalet (always so good for so little). I'd done my research in advance and knew that I could have the veggie burger (even the bun). But without thinking, I opened a packet of mayo and smeared it on my bread. It wasn't until we were talking about the vegan trial after the meal, that my husband held up the packet and I'd realized what I'd done. Ugh! I knew enough to pick up vegan mayo at the health food store on the weekend, but in that moment completely forgot about it. Having already eaten eggs, I accepted a piece of chocolate cake, which I'm sure had more eggs in it, and possibly milk.

Also, though I did copious amounts of baking and cooking this weekend, I did not make myself muffins and so I bought my usual banana bread this morning. Ugh. Eggs and dairy are in everything!

So, my night tonight will consist of picking up groceries, baking muffins, and making a stew. Maybe somewhere in there I'll get to spend time with my family and sleep too.

Sweets From the Earth

Okay, a quick note on sweet vegan treats. I've had baked goods from Sweets From the Earth before, but now that I've challenged myself to go vegan for the month, these guys saved me from a 3pm lack of sugar (I know that's something I need to deal with) and filled me up after my salad at lunch was a little wanting. Super delicious, available in a lot of places, like Rexall, I have a feeling treats from Sweets From the Earth will be saving me more than once this month. I had one of these Peppermint Nanaimo Bars today:

Okay,  it's not "healthy" but it's vegan! And it's yummy.

February 1 - New month, new goal

So, it's February and Goal #2 - being vegan for a month - has officially started. Honesty time: I am ill prepared. Earlier in the week, I made vegan muffins (using a "flax egg" and soy milk). I had a few of those left over, so breakfast was taken care of, but I had nothing to bring to lunch today. So, I will have to buy a salad today (without blue cheese) because I have no idea what's okay to eat otherwise. I know I have some tofu and veggies at home for dinner tonight, but I need to do some more research and more shopping. It's been so long since I became a vegetarian that I forgot how much work it was in the beginning. If I wanted to get Chinese food, are the noodles vegan? I already know I have to watch for sauces. What kinds of bread are okay? What fillers are used in veggie burgers? So much to figure out and so many labels to read. A long trip to the grocery store and health food store are in order. AFTER I get my recipes sorted and figure out what I need.

Also, as I mentioned yesterday I was going to weigh myself, just to see if, anecdotally, being vegan for a month helped me lose weight. Well, I forgot. It's Friday, people. My shirt has a stain on it that I didn't notice until I got to work and my jeans are a bit tight. Everyone is lucky I got to work on time, and I was clothed at all.