Week Two

Ok, now I think I'm really getting into the flow of making the best choices for my health, life, and body. It's becoming natural and stress-free. This past week was great. I continued along the same path, and faced a few tough choices (to buy or not to buy a cookie? Eat popcorn or don't eat popcorn?) but came out on top, feeling positive. I did a lot of walking this week; I like to walk to Westwood village, a little shopping center about a 20 minute brisk walk from my house. Since I eat salad pretty much every day, I run out of salad greens fairly quickly so instead of driving to PCC, I walk to QFC (they have a decent organic selection) when I have the time and energy. I've been working evenings lately, so taking a nice, energizing walk in the morning is perfect. My eating habits have remained mostly the same, except not quite as stringent. I've been snacking a little more (I had popcorn after my dinner salad one night, a couple spoonfulls of peanut butter when I was still hungry, etc.) but not uncontrollably. I still eat fruit first thing in the morning every day (unfortunately, I haven't had much green juice this last week except for twice at Juice Plant, a fresh juice place in the mall I work at), usually two pieces 30 min - 2 hours apart, followed by a snack at work like two carrots, or like yesterday and today, a Nana's cookie. For dinner I've had a big raw salad almost every night, along with pasta, popcorn, or homemade whole wheat biscuits. I had spring rolls and sushi one night, and last night I made a delicious salad; greens, avocado, carrots, cucumber, and tomato tossed in a little lemon juice and agave nectar and then topped with more fresh avocado and "Tamari Chickpeas" from Dreena Burton's "Eat, Drink, and be Vegan" (my new favorite vegan cookbook!) It was delish and I look forward to eating the leftovers tonight.

For the week, I think I spent about $46-$50 on food and groceries (including my Juice Plant juices.) Not bad at all! I spent about $30 at Trader Joes at the beginning of the week (and still have stuff to feed me throughout this week too!) and then the rest was from misc. goods like salad greens, avocados, a couple cookies, etc, throughout the week. And I'm still maintaining my perfect weight! I know that walking is helping with that too. I would like to make it a goal to walk to Westwood village as many days out of the week as possible. It feels so good to walk in the fresh air, especially when I need something from the store (having a goal or mission really helps!)

I'm also reading this wonderful book, "Real Magic" by Wayne Dyer. I've been curious to read his works ever since I read that he was a huge influence in the lives of Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, the writers of "Skinny Bitch". I'm a big fan of self improvement books about The Laws of Attraction like "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne, "The Success Principles" by Jack Canfield, and "Excuse me Your Life is Waiting" by Lynn Grabhorn. While reading Wayne Dyer's book, I'm remembering all the things I have learned from these other books (it's easy to forget if you are not constant in your practices and thoughts) and am also learning so much that I haven't caught on to yet, like the power of meditation. I intend on trying meditation on a regular basis. I tried for the first time the other day and it was very interesting. I didn't get too deep, and kept falling asleep for split seconds and mini-dreaming, but it was a start! What this has done for my eating habits is it has put me more at peace. I had already naturally shifted from self-loathing to writing and saying positive affirmations about my self and my choices whenever I would over-eat or snack on something I didn't need, etc, and this book just confirmed that I am on the right path in doing so. I don't think I'm even half way through the book yet, but I'm taking it slow, practicing what I learn slowly every day so it will really sink in.

I have discovered a couple new favorites this week (don't I discover something new every week?!). First up is "Eat, Drink, and be Vegan" by Dreena Burton. This is a vegan cookbook that I got for Christmas from my boyfriends sister the year before last. At the time, I was mostly into vegan comfort food and excited by desserts, desserts, and more desserts. My life pretty much revolved around making vegan mac n cheese, grilled ham n cheese, and anything else with "cheese" and mockmeats. Oh, and did I mention desserts? Yeah, there was A LOT of that. So anyhow, I also received "The Joy of Vegan Baking" by Collen Patrick-Goudreau, which is probably the most delicious and complete cookbook of vegan desserts- lemon bars, cookies galore, cheesecakes, cookies- can you guess which cookbook got the majority of my focus? I thumbed through EDABV a few times, but I saw a lot of unusual-at-the-time ingredients like Spelt and oat flour and there weren't many recipes that included mass amounts of vegan cheese or mockmeats, which was all I was really interested in. So poor little book sat on my bookshelf and was nearly forgotten about until earlier this week. When I finally did pick it up, I was filled with awe and excitement; the recipes are exactly what I need in my life now! Why didn't I remember this book when I was sick of vegan comfort food, and craving whole grains and healthier foods? This book is it! She uses healthy, whole ingredients, whole wheat or gluten free flours, unrefined sugars, minimal oils, and the recipes are unique and awesome! I have yet to make anything except the "Tamari Chickpeas" but I expect this cookbook will become THE cookbook that I use from now on. I would also like to pick up one of her other cookbooks, "Vive Le Vegan."

This just makes me realized the importance of the Vegan Transition; moving from exciting, hearty comfort food dishes (in order to get you motivated and thrilled with the vegan diet) and onto lighter, healthier dishes (in order to maintain health and balance). I wish more writers would include this ideal in their books. If I realized there was somewhere to go beyond "vegan mac n cheese" and pancakes besides a life of salad, I wouldn't have stressed out so bad when I got fed up with comfort food! You know, I could always write a book like that. Haha there I go with my ambitious ideas again! But I really could...I also need to finish my novel though.

And my second favorite of the week is Living Harvest Hempmilk. I was recommended hemp milk by a worker at Fresh Vitamins (a store at Westwood specializing in vitamins, raw, and vegan products!) and then saw it again recommended on Dreena Burton's blog. When I wanted to make "Simple baking powder biscuits" from Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan, I realized I would need non-dairy milk halfway through sifting my flour mixture. So I sped to QFC and decided to try out the hemp milk (I bought the "Original" flavor.) The biscuits turned out amazing (I made them with whole wheat pastry flour) and after I tasted the hemp milk alone, I fell in love and ended up drinking the rest by the glass over the next couple days. Today I bought the chocolate flavor at Fresh Vitamins and can't wait to try that!

Fresh Vitamins is worth mentioning here alone. Today was only my second visit to the store, and I just have to recommend it to anyone living in the West Seattle/White Center area who is interested in raw, vegan, and gluten free products. While their selection isn't HUGE, they do have a lot of stuff you can't find other places, such as a GIANT tub of Really Raw Honey. Some of their items are also a little pricier, but they are worth supporting. I look forward to shopping there during my walks to Westwood. They carry my favorite bread (Food For Life Sprouted Bread), vegan chicken nuggets, Nana's cookies, Kombucha, Lydia's live food products, and so much more that I probably haven't even noticed yet.

And now I should probably get ready to go to work!