Lunch (and still no snow day)

It has stopped snowing for the moment, but promises to get more slushy and disgusting later. I’d really rather be home. Also, lots of pain makes it hard to work. I took a bit of a walk around my building but I really wasn’t feeling well, and that sucked. And I hate feeling how out of shape I am. I used to run up the 3 flights of stairs to the top, and back down and around (it’s a very fun and winding old building) View from my building:

Snack this morning was strawberry kiwi fruit leather (i love my dehydrator!), lunch was leftover GF vegan mac & cheese and a salad with black beans, avocado, and chipotle ranch dressing. Chocolate coconut date balls for a snack. I packed a lot of food today in case I got hungry – as long as I’m eating clean, I don’t want to let myself be hungry/tempted to eat something I shouldn’t . I feel like I’m doing really well, and this diet switch has been much easier on me than I thought it would be. I haven’t weighed myself (I probably should, just for progress’ sake – or maybe just wait til the doctor next week and see if there’s a change?) but I do feel like I have lost some weight, and I’ve certainly gained some energy and am feeling better, even with the pain that never ends.

 

I love cooking and making food from scratch, I love eating clean, healthy food, and most importantly, i love WANTING to eat that way. I love health foods and recipes and trying new food – if only I weren’t so broke, I have an entire amazon wish list of gluten free ingredients and new health foods to try! But, even being broke, I’m doing really well and I’m really happy – I can stick with this. It will always be harder with the boyfriend or eating out, but I think I’ll have a lot of support from him now because I’m doing this for my health.

Also, I finished The China Study – if you haven’t read it, please do! It’s such an important book, and I think everyone should be privy to every last bit of information in it.

Adventures in Gluten-free breakfast

I wanted pancakes this morning. My version of pancakes is : put some dry ingredients in a bowl. wet them. cook. This never fails.

Except when you’re not using flour and you maybe use too much baking soda…

I used almond flour, oatmeal, flax, coconut milk, and almond milk. some salt and stevia and baking powder… and they just kind of foamed. and foamed and foamed in the pan. Eventually they did get flippable, and when i ate them with coconut butter, a sprinkle of coconut, and maple syrup, they were delicious. So, pancakes accomplished. But next time, recipe. Or at least some oat flour. The second one came out somewhat better than the first. But coconut fixes all!

Also, I don’t think i ate too much last night. It was so hard to listen to my body because I had such a screaming headache, but by the time I finally fell asleep, i was very,very hungry and my stomach was growling, so I wasn’t stuffed at all. And I haven’t been weighing myself, but I do feel like I’ve been steadily losing some weight the last couple weeks and I feel really good about that. Now if I could only feel well enough to get some real exercise!

I’m not sure at this point if I’m sick or it’s hayfever. I feel like death, but then an antihistamine clears it up. I still wind up with that fuzzy under the weather feeling, but I just don’t think I have a cold. I do, however, have lots of endo pain today. i took something for it and i”m icing my tummy, so I hope that helps. Looking forward to a relaxed day of video games and painting minatures for D&D.

 

I stayed up late reading The China Study – he goes into a lot about how politics and food lobbies keep this research from being mainstream knowledge. He explains how the diet ranges recommended by the goverment do absolutely nothing – and shows how a very unhealthy diet could easily fall into those ranges and rely entirely on crap foods.

Feeling lousy and eating too much (?)

Sometimes I feel like I’ve spent so long fighting my body that I can’t always tell him I’m really hungry or not. I know I didn’t bring enough food to work today, but then I had a horrible headache when I got home. Eating seemed to make it better… but then it came right back. And I still feel awful and achy and sick and have abdominal pain.

I had a granola bar for a snack at work, and an unpictured jolly rancher. When I got home I had brown rice cereal with almond milk, a hot pocket, a picnic box, a couple crackers, some wine, and a lean cuisine. god, that sounds awful. Now I feel worse. And to top it off, I was reading The China Study the whole time. I can’t get over the research in this book. Plant-based diets have such a startling amount of research backing them, it’s amazing that animal protein hasn’t been classified as poison. I’m also watching Weight of the Nation (an HBO series) that I downloaded. Pretty interesting stuff, too. Hoping that watching this and getting some rest helps me start over tomorrow. But I did have a ton of produce this week!

    

 

Lunch & Dinner & a long day!

Today was long and busy – meetings and lots of work to be done. We’re finishing up a big backend change to our website and it’s launching after Easter.

Lunch today was a salad with black beans and some (stale) crushed up tortilla chips and chipotle ranch dressing. Sort of sad without avocado, but delicious anyway. And a picnic box. Snacks were granola bar, fruit and grain bar, yogurt, and of course, tea. And I had an unpictured jolly rancher.

 

I went to my boyfriend’s after work for what was supposed to be a minute because I am hurting and not feeling well. We have been making our own wine, which seems to be far more difficult than the kit lets on. We thought we had a 5 minute step today (de-gassing) but we spent hours and it’s still fizzing… *sigh*. If we have 6 gallons of crappy wine, it is not going to be good (I said we should just buy 20 gallons of sprite and make wine cooler!)

So I was starving when I got home and just wanted to eat a big dinner. I made a lean cuisine, a salad with caesar dressing (Brianna’s is vegetarian and delicious), whole wheat toast with butter, and a glass of sweet red wine. really hit the spot. Then I made a microwave brownie concotion with almond flour, cocoa powder, coconut butter, a dash of salt, water, and soy/dairy free chocolate chips. It was really delicious. Funny how this meal seems so unhealthy to me but it really isn’t, when you look at it. Not endo-diet, but hey, i didn’t eat out, and I had my vegetables! One step at a time 🙂 And I was in a lot of pain and tired of it so I took some Vicodin. I haven’t all week, but my dreams have been awful anyway so it doesn’t seem to matter. I just don’t want to take it during the day.

 

I’m planning on reading for a while (almost halfway through The China Study – more and more fascinating every chapter! So much I didn’t know) and then getting to bed. I am so tired and drained, I could barely stay away today, and I need to review my code and make sure things are really in shape tomorrow at work.

Dinner – Vegan “Alfredo”

I LOVE this recipe for vegan alfredo sauce (and pretty much anything from Oh She Glows). I usually soak the cashews for a few minutes (at least 10 or so, while the water boils), skip the butter, go heavy on the seasoning/garlic/spices, and try to add some green. Today I added a blender full of spinach, and it was so good. I had a bowl with some quinoa/corn pasta, but I didn’t have much pasta… so then i just ate the sauce 🙂 I love that you can put spinach in pretty much anything. I think I’m going through about 3 big bags a week (and a couple handfuls go to my rat, Webbles, he loves his veggies, too). Nothing like comfort food that’s totally good for you.  Also, I was out of nutritional yeast for the longest time and i finally ordered some from Amazon, and I just wanted to make something with it. I think I’m going to go through it pretty quickly – I need to find a cheap source of it! It’s so hard to find in grocery stores, even the nicer ones  – Whole Foods is about the only place that has it and I never make it out there. Also had a coconut water popsicle after dinner.

 

I’m devouring The China Study – it’s so fascinating! I can’t believe the amount of links between animal protein and disease. And given that this information is out there, I can’t believe that veganism still seems “radical” to so many people! It seems like the only sane thing to do if you don’t want to die. This is not some “diet” book or fake study – this is one of the most monumental nutrition/health studies ever conducted by some of the most renowned scientists in the field – and it’s not new, either! Endo or no, permanent veganism seems more and more like the best option.

Speaking of endo, I have been having some pain off and on all day. I still can’t tell if it’s residual from the surgery (which was a month ago today) or if the surgery didn’t help. There’s so much pain that it gets hard to tell what’s what. I’m sure other endo girls know what I’m talking about.  I haven’t taken Vicodin in days and I don’t want to – I’m tired of being fuzzy and messed up and not myself. I’m a web developer, and my programming is suffering because of it – I need to be sharp and clear and not make stupid mistakes because pain meds have me in a fog. It’s not even right for me to be at work if I’m feeling like that.  I hope that I can just keep my head up and that changing my diet helps with the pain so I can feel like myself again!

Lunch, snacks, nutrition, and reading

Snacks today were a tiny greek yogurt and a fruit leather, and some green tea. Lunch was a salad and Lean Cuisine. Interestingly, yesterday I was entirely vegan/gluten free, and had no pelvic pain. Almost immediately after eating lunch, it came back. Is the link between food and endo pain that strong, or is it coincidence?

    

I’ve also been reading The China Study, which is really fascinating, and is a very long and detailed book about a series of studies that proved that a plant-based diet is healthier for you. The chapter I’m reading now is about a study where they showed that animal protein (specifically casein) in various levels could literally turn cancer on and off. Crazy stuff. And definitely enough to make you want to stop eating animals entirely. At this point i just want to eat up what’s in my kitchen! I’m too poor to throw it out 🙂

 

Some more afternoon snacks (granola bar, fruit & nuts from a picnic box) and more tea.