Today is Day 4 of being vegan, no cheating. I've noticed a couple of things.
First, I have a ton more energy than I normally have. Now, I normally have zero energy, so the fact that I'm a little energized is a huge thing for me. So that's awesome.
There's also some crazy digestive things that are going on that I won't elaborate on, but it's good.
So let's talk food. I had vegan cheese (Daiya brand) for the first time last night. I made brown rice and broccoli, and I thought it would be a good place to try adding some in. Out of the bag, it tasted a little like playdough. But I thought I'd take a chance, and throw some in. And... it was actually cheese-like. I used the mozzarella style, shredded, and I'll use it again. Look. It's not cheese. If you go in expecting it to be cheese, you're doing to be disappointed. But one of the things I'm craving most is something warm and creamy, and this works as a fix for that. I was really impressed with the way it melted, and the flavor could've passed as cheese if I didn't really think too hard about it. So I'm happy with it.
One of the other challenges for me as been the idea of junk food. I like some junk food, mostly chips/salty/crunchy. Nuts doesn't fill this need for me. I decided to have a bag of chips today, and I struggled to find one from the neighbor business store that wasn't filled with crap or dairy (why do bbq chips have dairy??). Cape Cod Waffle Chips only have potatoes, oil, salt. Winner!
Okay, I know, the whole idea with this is to NOT eat junk. I get it. But I have to work into this. I'm trying to find solutions that will work with my cravings instead of just telling myself to not eat junk. I'm not going to eat potato chips daily. I do have some whole grain pita chips that I've been dipping in hummus, but I consider those healthy. I think it's important for me to find these items that will fill a craving early... it will help keep me on track.
Alright, enough justifying. Except... I did eat those chips instead of taking part in a potluck we had at work today. I know it would've been the awesome move to bring a killer vegan dish to share. I know that. But I couldn't decide what to make, and, at the last minute, I brought nothing and didn't take part. My cube-mate was kind enough to get fried chicken with Polynesian sauce from Chick-fil-A (one of my favorite things), and literally hold his fan up to it towards my desk in order to envelop me in the scent. If I didn't adore him, I would've killed him.
Beyond chips, I have a delicious-looking lunch waiting for me. I made what I'll simply call Zucchini Not-asean. No recipe, just sauteed onions and garlic along with a whole bunch of zucchini and some veggie broth, cooked all the liquid out, threw in a bottle of Bertolli mushroom tomato sauce, cooked that down, and placed it over brown rice. I would've made rice pasta, but I didn't want to boil water. I think I've mentioned I'm lazy.
There are several things that have been difficult about this so far... Not having creamer in my coffee, no sodas (I've cut out diet sodas completely), and the ice cream I was consuming at an alarming rate. I'm drinking at least 60 oz of water a day, and I'm trying to increase that, which is pretty difficult, even cutting out sodas. But even these things aren't that hard. Now I think it's lunchtime!
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