Health & Hurricanes

  After watching the documentary Vegucated and re-learning how terrible animals are treated and how quickly they are killed (poor "useless" baby boy chicks, not being able to lay eggs), I am testing out the vegan waters again. I say that I am re-learning this because I know that a bunch of us watched Food Inc. at the beginning of Full Sail (for fun, not during class) and I remember being effected by it then. But I guess not for very long because I don't remember having a "vegan phase" during that time. Sadly last year, I remember that the reason I switched back to eating meat in September was because I was visiting my Grandma in Naples and got very hungry and needed a quick snack, so I went to the Publix deli and ordered turkey slices to go with my crackers. I'm sorry, turkey. This could end up being another 12-day phase, but as of right now, I don't think so. Trying and preparing new foods has been pretty fun, although time consuming while I get to decorated just right for the pictures.

  To be honest I do get nervous to try foods that are so different, and part of that is just because I don't like wasting money on food I don't like, but I do like trying new things! I was pleasantly surprised that I really liked the kale and veggie burgers that I bought. I tried butternut squash (the yellow stuff in the picture) which doesn't really taste like anything and is kind of crunchy like carrots. "It provides significant amounts of potassium, important for bone health, and vitamin B6, essential for the proper functioning of both the nervous and immune systems." I got meatless bacon today and when I ate it "raw" it tasted pretty good like salami, but when I cooked it -as instructed- it got dry and sort of tasted and smelled like dog food. I remember a long time ago Sharanya had Mia and I try tofu. To me it tasted like wet cat food, so I probably won't try that again. 
  Side note: V8 has way too many grams of sugar (12) for being vegetable juice.. Here are some other beautiful pictures I have taken of food I have eaten lately:

   I got very excited pushing around my cart of fresh fruits and veggies! I felt so healthy already. Another thing I started doing is bringing a cloth bag with me to put my groceries in so we don't waste so many plastic bags. Today when I shopped and only got four items, I told the cashier that I didn't even need a bag and simply carried my items out. =)

 Sasha likes to help with my breakfast photo shoots. I really like when she follows me around.

  This spaghetti was very good and I will have to make more soon, after I buy another jar of sauce. I used spinach noodles and added more of the spaghetti squash spirals as a filler rather than eating twice as much spaghetti. This morning I whipped up some vegan pancakes that are made from bananas and flour. They were okay. Better than the fake bacon, but I might not make them again. I mixed two recipes and left out a couple ingredients from the main recipe.

   The first pancake didn't brown as much since the pan wasn't as hot. I actually liked the ones that were burnt a little more. It added taste. Also, if you make these, don't use Pam in the pan. The batter is slippery enough (probably because of the coconut oil) that they flip easily and don't stick. I did spray Pam in at the beginning and the very first pancake, which I didn't take a picture of, got so messy and wouldn't stay together when I tried to flip it.

   Dog tested and approved! (She only licked a strawberry. I didn't let her eat any of it.)
Recipe:
     1 & 1/2 bananas, mashed
     1 & 1/4 cup of flour
     1 cup of almond milk
     2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
I also added an unmeasured amount of oats (probably at least one cup?), salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon, brown sugar, and chia seeds.

   This post will end up being pretty long since I'm less than half done, but I also want to post some pretty walk and flower photos. The first photo below is from yesterday when I walked to the nearest library- the second closest was still closed due to the power being out from the hurricane. I had my distance tracking app on during the walk home and I have to admit I was a tad disappointed that the walk was not as long as I thought it was. The total roundtrip was 3.4 miles and I thought I would go at least 4. But that's still pretty good since most walks are closer to two miles!

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   Florida was hit by another hurricane recently. We are very lucky and chose a great place to live considering we did not have any house, window, or fence damage. A lot of our neighbors did though (to their fences). Michael and I stayed up streaming the various weather and news channels on his iPad. He stayed up until about 11pm that night and Orlando was scheduled to get the worst of it starting around 2am. I was a little bit scared as I snuggled in bed with Sasha, pulling the covers over us each time a huge gust of wind made the tree branches hit the walls and roof. Michael got up a couple times to look outside and take videos to send to his parents later. We had one branch that kept scraping against the dining room window, but that was about it. There was a lot of yard work to be done (we still aren't finished yet) and it made me miss living in an apartment. In the morning everyone was walking around looking at the mess and see which trees fell where.  It was really nice to see people working together, especially since we all seem to own different tools.

 I took the pictures around our neighborhood on the Canon using the zoom lens.

 One thing that I liked about the fences being down was that we could finally see what some of our neighbors' back yards looked like.  I guess the hurricane brought these brown ducks from another area because before we've only had white ducks.

 I picked up a few nests around our yard. They were all empty.

   I thought we had lucked out again without having to worry about our power going out, but Monday morning at 9:20am, it went out and stayed out until 10am Tuesday morning. An alternate title to this hurricane half of the post is "Amish is Better".  Not spending so much time on our phones (because we can't charge them) and not watching TV is better. Doing plain things that don't require electricity, like making scrapbook cards, is better. Taking shorter showers because the water is cold is better. Talking to each other is better.

  Sasha was able to get her cone taken off after the hurricane. She has been good about not scratching her neck in the area where the papilloma was removed. I would not have minded the power staying off longer knowing that we had ice to keep the milk cold. I could have kept eating peanut butter and jelly crackers with grapes, but instead we were excited that it came back on and proceeded to spend the next hour on our phones texting everyone about it. Why? Why was that so necessary? Next Lent has to be about me not using my phone. It is a serious time waster.

Health Distraction

  I love being able to text my friends and proudly tell them that "I lost another pound!" On Tuesday I went for a bike ride for the first time since January. I went 5.3 miles which was a pretty good amount and I explored a new area and saw that one huge field that I think looked like Africa (obviously I've never been there, but I could imagine elephants walking around) which has now been turned into another neighborhood. The weather was hot, but the shaded areas of tree canopies provided a nice breeze.

  I went on a walk on Thursday and took these pictures below. I like stopping to look at the flowers or watch the lizards and squirrels scurrying around. And I have noticed that along the trails, all of the walkers and bikers say hello to each other, which I think is very nice. I talk to my friend Danielle a lot about making healthy food choices and we motivate each other to exercise. She has a group chat including me and some of her other friends, posting inspirational pictures and quotes. Tonight she started a group challenge about not eating sweets, less carbs, and more fruits and veggies!

  After my walk, Michael and I went to a very cute town nearby and tried a new place for dinner. I got this pizza without cheese, due to not eating dairy right now. I have to admit ~ pizza is not the same without cheese, but their crust was very good! Michael got mozzarella sticks and a pepperoni roll. He said he would like us to go back there again. Lately I've just been craving Chipotle tacos! We also walked further into the town in hopes that the building with several vendors was still open (it was). I like being able to support small local businesses, and I got the mango popsicle. It was basically like eating a frozen mango ~ it was very delicious. I keep asking Michael to go to the Farmer's Market with me because I prefer not to go many places by myself, but he doesn't seem interested. There are at least ten other food places that I would like to try in that area. Sandwich and smoothie cafes, dessert and pastry shops, and they are building a new Mexican restaurant.

   I went for three short walks today. The first one was 1.5 miles, second was 1.2 miles, and then when it got dark and was only 78 degrees outside, Michael said he would go for a walk with me! Woohoo! So we did two loops around the neighborhood (3/4 mile) before he got too hot.

This is just a picture I really like that Mia sent me of her neighbor's cat who looks like Toby!

Valances

  In May, I wrote a post about how Michael had been making valances for our friend Lindsey to put over the windows in her bedroom. He also made three valances for our house, but with everything going on with Emma and then wanting to rest and have beach fun on the weekends, he didn't get ours painted and hung until a couple weeks ago. But they look terrific! I thought the house looked nice before, but this really adds a special sparkle. I took the "Before" pictures back in May, and the "After" pictures today. You will notice that we got new bedsheets recently and that Sasha has a cone around her neck. We finally got her gross papilloma removed from her neck, so she has to wear the cone so she can't scratch the stitches. Also, she turned 10 years old a couple weeks ago!!

 

Hot Mom Diaries, Part 2

  I lost 5 pounds this month! I'm down to 121 now and I see it mostly coming off in my stomach and face. I've been on a non-dairy diet mostly and that seems to be helping me be healthy. It made me realize that dairy has less healthy foods associated with it and helps reduce sugar. I was eating yogurt before, which seems healthy, but then I saw (after I started eating them) that they all had between 16 and 26 grams of sugar!! Yikes. Without milk, I don't eat cereal and when Michael and I went to Bahama Breeze one night I ordered the quesadilla without cheese or sour cream. So it was basically a "drydilla" with spinach and chicken that I scooped diced tomatoes, onions and cilantro on top of. It was still very good- and a lot healthier. This diet also makes grocery shopping much easier and faster because I'm eating a lot of the same things every day. 

Spring mix salad with Southwest quinoa

  Work days: I always have bananas and deli meat on Triscuts. Then I have also brought a quinoa salad, bratwurst with sauerkraut, grapes, salty and sweet nut mix (including creme brulee almonds from Starbucks!) and raisin english muffins with peanut butter. I don't eat all of that in one shift, but I like having options.

  Days off: Scrambled eggs for breakfast, a banana if I have one left over from work, tacos with chicken flavored rice, pulled pork, tomatoes, corn, and cilantro. Michael even liked those a lot. I am big on turkey or chicken and lettuce wraps with hummus too. For a while I kept buying granola from Bulk Nation (I never went there before since I assumed it was a gym for body builders- ha!), but haven't eaten as much granola lately. Until yesterday when I attempted to make my own. I really don't like making food because I don't like messing up a recipe or not liking the taste of how it turns out makes me cranky. Plus the fact that it takes so much longer to make it than eat it, and then wash all of the dishes. Luckily I was able to get a good batch on the second try when I did not use peanut butter.

   Granola is known to help with milk supply, which is why I have been eating it more the past couple of months. But with it also causing "roughage" in the intestines later due to high amounts of fiber, I don't eat much each day. Here is the recipe I used that turned out pretty well:

2 cups of oats

1 beaten egg white

1 tbsp melted coconut oil (might not use that next time)

A bit of olive oil -- I didn't measure much

A good amount of maple syrup -- this helps the oats clump together which is how I like it

Some brown sugar chunks

Vanilla extract

Salt

(Usually the recipes say to add cinnamon too but I don't think we had any?)

I put it on aluminum foil -- parchment paper was suggested but I wasn't going to go to the store to get ingredients because at that point I might as well buy premade granola! -- but it came off okay, and baked it in the toaster oven at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. After it had all cooled I was able to start pulling chunks apart, but it was still soft and sticky because of the syrup. So I flipped the pieces over and cooked them for another 10 minutes until they were dry and crunchy.

Beast of the Middle East with hummus and pita chips -- Yellow Dog Eats

  I haven't gone on a walk for the past 10 days. My last walk was with my friend Jackie and the walk a few days before that was with Alana. I prefer walking with a friend because it is more fun and safer. I have definitely felt myself getting stressed due to not going on walks and having that outlet for my negative energy, so I need to get back into that. I have dedicated this month as Sweaty Saturday starting tomorrow. Bike rides on Tuesdays, Yoga or Zumba on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, PiYo (Pilates) on Thursdays and walking on the weekends unless I'm super pooped. There are free exercise classes at the gym at work, so I'll be participating in a lot of those this month. I have worked there for 4 years and this will be my first time going. I did swim a little bit in the ocean at Clearwater when we went last weekend and mowed the grass on Wednesday which feels like it burns a load of calories considering sweat is literally dripping down my face.

   Luckily after the first week on this diet I stopped having cravings for unhealthy foods, but I did buy a frozen cheese-less pizza. It was okay, but not my favorite since it only had a few ingredients (broccoli, mushrooms, onions & tomatoes). I didn't eat the outside crusts.. One thing that makes me really proud about losing weight and being healthier by listening to my stomach, is that we can still go out to eat a bunch. I know a lot of people hate losing weight because they think they can't have good food anymore. Well for one, even I get surprised how good healthy food can be, especially if you're hungry, everything tastes good!! Secondly, a lot of it is about portion control. You can eat what you want, just don't eat so much of it. Serving sizes are there for a reason. I once was told a story about Michael's sister-in-law who lost weight by simply following the serving sizes, even though she was still eating whatever she wanted (including cake). For me, I just take home more left overs when we go out and control myself from stuffing the whole bread basket in my "face hole".

   I also get a lot more interested in trying new places, especially ones that are local small businesses. Last night we went to a place called Oreganatta. It was a pizza and pasta buffet, so like CiCi's but more expensive. We went there because I had picked that restaurant as one of the free $100 worth of coupons that we got when we bought our Wicked tickets last year. Michael said the dessert bar was lacking as the mini cakes and brownies were dry. He said the pizza was fine in a way where he would eat it after a long day if he was really hungry, but he wouldn't order pizza from there. I didn't have any pizza due to all of it having cheese and I'm not eating that right now, but I was still satisfied with my salad, tortellini, and chicken pesto pasta.

   This pressed juice made me think of the documentary that Michael and I watched a couple years ago called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" about a guy who did a juice cleanse for 60 days. He had been on a load of different medications, but after losing 100 pounds all of his symptoms went away. It's similar to a smoothie, but not thick because it only contains all of the juice that is pressed out of the fruit or vegetable. This one was the flavor of the day including spinach, kale, apple, pineapple, celery, cilantro and mint. I was half expecting it to be gross, but decided to be adventurous and a supportive customer anyway. It was pretty good, but I did notice a lot of tummy rumbles later in the day and the next day. Surprisingly Michael was very interested in that documentary and even looked at juicers around that time, but never bought one because the amount of food used to make one drink would add up in cost so quickly!! Maybe he'll share the next pressed juice with me. Cheers to the rest of the month.