Oxymoron

What's an oxymoron, you say?

How about healthy vegan junk food.

Ok, maybe not all of it is healthy.

But I'm pretty damn proud of this flat bread "pizza" my roommate and I made.

Homemade cornmeal crust with flax and sesame seeds

Organic mild salsa (Newman's Own has no junk in it, surprisingly.)

Organic orange grape tomatoes

And a basil leaf from the basil pots we have in our window.

Sounds like a pretty good substitute for "junk food".

And it was.

And here's my actual not healthy stuff I've had

....yeah.

The sushi in this picture was vegetarian. However, I remade these tonight with vegan mayo.

Probably one of my favorite things about this whole change is the experimenting with food. I absolutely love cooking up stuff and making new recipes. It's also the thing about this change that has been the most difficult. I rarely have time to make lunches, so I make a lot of my food ahead of time and in big enough batches I can just refrigerate it and save it for later. But according to my landlord, his sister (who is vegan) tends to make her food in bulk, freeze it, and then thaw it when she decides she wants that particular dish. I have a feeling it would take away from the freshness, but it's probably not a bad idea. 

That being said, I've also managed to make all of my lunches for work in 5 minutes or less. This has also included the making things ahead of time and just throwing them together in the morning. The following is a typical lunch I have at work.

Not too exciting, but look at that salad...

 

Anyway, I supposed that is enough pictures for one day. Maybe I might actually get down to business and make some real recipes I can post on here. I also may or may not have had a bunch of fun with Photoshop with these pictures, when I was supposed to be doing homework..

 

What Veganism is to Me.

Veganism is...

• being healthier
• feeling good about what you're putting into your body
• knowing your food didn't suffer before it got to you
• having boundless more energy
• getting over illnesses and ailments naturally
• watching inches come off my body
• becoming a chef
• never having to worry about eating unbaked batter
• helping the environment in a way I didn't before
• being stronger
• feeling more empowered
• taking control of your health and your life.

Veganism is NOT...

• a phase
• a fad
• becoming a crazy hippy
• giving up a bra, wearing deodorant, or an otherwise normal life
• extreme, or something to shy away from

Vegans get wrapped up into all sorts of negative stereotypes, just like other minorities. I told one of my friends at work today about how I have decided to become vegan and her immediate reply was "Oh, my son went through that phase, too". Which, needless to say, infuriated me. I was polite and listened to her ensuing rant, but why is it necessary for meat-eaters to do that sort of thing? It's obvious I've made up my mind about what I want to do-- I didn't ask for a meat-eater's opinion, so what gives? I don't harass people when I see them eating a cheeseburger (even though there are some vegans/vegetarians that would). I had another friend at work tell me that he hated vegetarians today. I just let that one lie, even though he said it right after I told him about becoming a vegan. As soon as I tell them my main motivation is to cure a health condition, they back right off. Anything "extreme" is acceptable as long as it's "curing" a disease or condition, but if it was for ethical reasons, you face the scorn of others. 

Even with the negativity, I am going to continue this. I need to--for my health and well being. A little bit of negativity never stopped me in anything in my life thus far; it's definitely not going to stop me now. I've got all the proof I need that this is a healthy lifestyle that I am going to continue for the rest of my life. When I'm thin and rid of my health problem, people will take notice and they'll ask me how I did it. And I'll reply with a big smile on my face and say "Simple. Stop eating meat." There's a reason you never see a fat vegan. Because it is healthy, and because it works.

Fabulous After-Effects

I love being vegetarian.

Simple as that. 

I love feeling way better, having so much more energy and knowing that I'm finally doing something good for my body. I can see the difference in my body already and I haven't even lost that much weight yet. My collarbones are peeking out a bit more, my skin looks brighter, my hair is super shiny and soft. My nails are growing at a ridiculous rate, and I feel happy and confident almost 100% of the time. Who wouldn't want this?

This afternoon I had a wonderful breakthrough. I ran. I know that doesn't sound like much, and it was only for five minutes out of my usual 20 minutes walking routine, but this is a huge step. I hurt my knee during my sophomore year in high school. I was on the track and field team and our track was made of asphalt that completely screwed up my knee. I was in physical therapy for a few months. I couldn't walk up stairs and I began gaining a lot of weight because I had previously been running every day during my two hour long practices. Ever so slowly, I've been able to regain function in my knee. I can even walk up stairs without feeling like someone shot me in the kneecap. 

And today I ran.

This means I'm finally almost back to normal. This means that I can finally get back to my running routine and being healthy. I've wanted this for years. So this is a huge huge huge deal for me.

This is me looking victorious after my workout today. HA.

So food-wise today I was not vegan, however, I had a completely vegan dinner. My breakfast included eggs, but also had some delicious whole oat old fashioned oatmeal with this coconut nectar syrup as a low glycemic sweetener, and almonds and a ton of cinnamon. Lunch wasn't really a lunch but more of a snack that consisted of 3 organic carrots. And for dinner I made vegan sushi with brown rice and edamame as a side. I sauteed red peppers, red cabbage and mushrooms in soy sauce and more of that coconut nectar along with some avocado. I'm pretty good at making sushi, for a non- Asian :P

Not my actual sushi, but I wanted to get your mouth watering anyway ;)

 

 After a couple rolls of my delicious sushi, both Jon and I were stuffed, so I saved the leftover veggies for a possible sandwich tomorrow. I'm hoping that I can eventually afford some glass "tupperware" so that I don't have to worry about plastics leeching into my food. This is a big deal for women with PCOS because the plastics (most commonly BPA) leech into food during normal use and then the plastics convert to fake estrogens in the body. Which continues to completely eff up my hormone balance in my body, as you can imagine. Glass can be microwaved and refrigerated without any concern for leeching chemicals into my food. If only I had enough money, since the stuff tends to be pretty expensive. I read once that certain plastics are safe, depending what number is inside the recycle arrows located somewhere on the container. However, I forgot what the acceptable numbers are, so it's probably a better idea to avoid plastic altogether.

Opening Post

Ever start something new and feel like you want to tell the world?

Well that's pretty much where I'm at. 

So let me introduce myself.

 My name is Cara

This is me.

I recently packed up everything I own and moved into an apartment on the West side of Buffalo.

Having my own apartment for the most part is pretty awesome. I get to be an adult and live on my own (with roommates, of course).

Probably the best thing is finally buying my own groceries and ultimately deciding what goes into my body.

I've been a meat eater for the majority of my life. Until my freshman year of college. My first roommate ever was a vegetarian and she got me to go vegetarian for a while. From that point, I've been experimenting with diet preferences. I have cut out pretty much all dairy products, in addition to beef, pork, and for the most part chicken. I have been eating a primarily pescetarian diet for the past year or so. But I've never been super strict with it. 

Another thing, I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 14. PCOS is a reproductive disorder that, as I've come to learn, affects a lot more than just my reproductive system. Everything in my body has been affected, including my ability to lose weight. Essentially, PCOS stops me from being able to get pregnant, not that that's a huge issue for me right now in my life. But what my doctor didn't tell me is that PCOS is essentially caused by the buildup of all the hormones that we get from food. The hormone levels in my body are all out of whack because of the food I've been eating since I was a child. PCOS is basically a pre-diabetic diagnosis. Right now, western medicine dictates that women with PCOS eat birth control until they want to get pregnant, and then they are fed diabetes drugs until they get pregnant, and the cycle repeats until they're of menopause age. 

SO! As a way to combat all of the damage by body has undergone for the past 22 years, I'm going to be venturing into the vegan unknown. The only way I will be rid of unnatural hormones from food is by eating food that hasn't been feed or injected with hormones. Eventually, I'd like to transition into a completely organic, vegan diet, however, this poor college student can't afford organic EVERYTHING.

So far, I have transitioned into being vegetarian for the past 3 days, with the addition 20 minutes of cardio in the form of walking on the treadmill that my brother so nicely delivered to my apartment. 

Tonight I made these little beauties for dinner, minus the "bacon". Click here for the recipe.

This recipe is amazing. I've many veggie burgers, and these are the best I've ever had. I never thought to put apple cider vinegar into a veggie burger before, but it really made these taste amazing. I actually caught myself eating the leftover mix right out of the bowl! My roommate came charging up the stairs after coming home from class exclaiming how delicious my dinner smelled. The best part about this veggie burger is that it's 100% vegan...I've never had a decent tasting veggie burger that did not use eggs to keep it together. 

Among all of this, I also have been tracking my exercise and food intake on LIVESTRONG . This site helps me track calories in and out. Plus it has thousands of foods by brand name that have been verified so you know the nutrients recorded are the ones you're actually ingesting.

So how's that for a first blog post? I didn't intend for it to be so long winded but I guess I had a lot to say. Also, I was given the idea to start this blog by a friend of mine, Cheurice. Her blog is incredibly inspirational, so check it out!