Week 3

I've read a lot about vegan diets, which is partly why we're even eating vegan (obviously).  So one of the things that always kind of stuck out to me was theory that after eating vegan for a while the body gets used to breaking down the chemical compounds in the grains, vegetables, and protein areas and therefore has to work much harder to break down the more complex chemicals that are found in meat & animal products.  There are multiple reports out there of how after eating vegan for a few weeks, people noticed how meat & other animal products affected them negatively when they accidentally (or purposely) ate them.  So, for the sake of research, I conducted my own experiment.

Last weekend for Halloween I made Oreo Truffles.  Basically, it's a mixture of crushed up Oreo cookies creamed together with a block of cream cheese, then dipped into melted chocolate.  (Well what did you expect - I said they were truffles!!)  There were still a few left over (don't you just hate it when that happens?  I just love bringing home an empty plate!) so I put them in the fridge.  Well, this afternoon I decided to see if we'd been eating vegan long enough to induce a reaction from animal products (if there even is one).  So, for the sake of research (you're welcome), I ate 4 balls/truffles.

Now, the following could be a reaction from the cream cheese, milk in the chocolate, and milk & butter in the cookies.  Or, it could just be that I haven't eaten something that sweet/rich in 3 weeks.  Regardless, the results were pretty crazy.  Within the first 30 minutes, I had some digestive issues (lots of gurgling and noises all over...although I promise I haven't eaten any beans this week.  And FYI, speaking of beans, after a while the body gets used to breaking them down and it doesn't produce as much gas.) and some cramping in the abdomen area.  The cramps intensified over a period of about 15 minutes at which point they finally began to subside.  But the fun wasn't over yet...my stomach felt really really heavy (like I swallowed a brick) and I had a dull headache for about an hour afterward.  Maybe the result of a blood sugar rush and a subsequent insulin release?  Who knows.  But I truthfully felt the sugar high much more now than I did before we went vegan.  So I think for a while I'll stick to vegan desserts (mostly sweetened with maple syrup, agave nectar, prunes, and dates) or at least go much less in quantity if I choose regular sugared desserts.


Stats:
Lori: loss of 1 lb this week; net loss = 5 lbs (although after the truffles, I might have already gained it back)
Brent: loss of 2 lbs this week; net loss = 5 lbs

Week 2 Update

Well, we're two weeks in!  It doesn't really seem like it...oh how time flies!

We did break our veganism on Saturday night when we hosted a potluck, pumpkin carving, and s'mores night at our house.  I had worked out most of the day on Saturday and was STARVING when I got home, so unfortunately I ate a lot of cheese and desserts that night (hey, you try to say no to homemade apple strudel and 3 types of homemade enchiladas!!)

Workouts are going well and no big news to report.  I think last time I reported I said we felt tired and had to push through the entire workout...not so much anymore.  They're starting to feel like they did before in that even if I'm having a day I don't want to workout, I force myself to start and then it's usually smooth sailing from then on. 

Digestion is going well...I would even venture to say that I'm feeling better eating vegan.  I am going to the bathroom a little more than I used to, but a lot of information I read says that's the result of better digestion.  But who knows, really.  I also noticed that my bowel movements are not only a little more often, but takes less time to get out.  Still good consistency, just better movement.  I consider that a plus.  Although it is kinda sad in that that's usually the only time I get to read non-school books or magazines, and now I'm getting to read them even less!  Ha ha ha!  

A friend that knows we went vegan came up to us Sunday at church and told us how proud she was of us.  She was a vegetarian for most of her life (since she was 7), but went back to eating meat about 8 years ago during the pregnancy of her first child.  She also said she could already see my face getting thinner.

This week could prove to be a challenge (again).  We're invited to two Halloween parties this weekend and I get extra credit in my class on Monday if I bring in something sweet.  Then again, this is the perfect time to use up the last 3 eggs & a block of cream cheese in our house that have been just sitting there. 

I've found that eating at friend's houses is probably the hardest.  We don't want to feel like we "inconvenience" anyone, and when someone who's not vegan hears that we are after they've invited us over for dinner, there's an initial panic phase of "what in the world am I going to feed them?".  No one's rescinded their invitation, though....yet.  :)


Stats:
Lori: loss of 1 lb this week; net loss: 4 lbs
Brent: no loss or gain this week; net loss: 3 lbs

Week 1 Stats

We are officially one week in!

I've got to say - I'm liking our new eating plan more than I thought I would.  I find that I get fuller faster, eat less or about the same amount at meals but feel more satisfied, and feel better overall about the increase in the amount of vegetables I'm consuming.  The hard thing about it is there are a lot of things out there on grocery store shelves that have milk or egg ingredients.  More than I ever thought.  Things that I would think, "Oh, that definitely shouldn't have eggs or milk", when I look at the labels, certainly DO have them.  So, it's a lot of label-checking when grocery shopping.  

I am missing cheese a little bit, mostly for fast comfort foods like nachos or cheese toast, but Brent reports no food cravings. 

Since we live pretty much in the middle of nowhere, we haven't gone out to eat yet.  But there's this restaurant we've been wanting to try (even before we decided to go vegan), Annapurna's World Vegetarian Cafe.  Their menu looks amazing!  It looks as though it's going to have an international flair to the food, which we're both excited about.  I just love trying foods from different places!  And it apparently has a vegan bakery, which of course, if you know me at all, I'm really excited about!!

So far, the cooking experience at home has been fun.  I love trying out new vegetables and new techniques.  I feel like I'm a beginner cook again, as I'm following recipes exactly since I'm unsure of what flavors go well together or how strong a spice will be when added.  There's a definite learning curve for me here, and I'm still not to the point where I feel comfortable subbing ingredients out (unless we know we don't like them).  So we're just taking everything as is right now and so far everything's been eaten and at least liked, with a few favorites in the lead.  No major disasters or throwing out meals.  I haven't had the time to try baking vegan yet, but that's definitely on the menu as soon as I find some time.  Hopefully next week.  Oh, and I also hope try to make vegan sushi rolls soon.  I'm sure it won't be the same as regular sushi (sad for me, yay for Brent), but I love sushi and I'm still excited about it.

One of the cool things about going vegan is they make all sorts of cool stuff I never would have noticed otherwise.  Like vegan chocolate chips, vegan marshmallows, vegan miso, vegan ice creams (right now our favorite is So Delicious (Coconut Milk) Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough), and seitan (a wheat protein substitute...sorta like tofu).  I've always been a fan of soy milk, so that hasn't been a huge change for me, but we found that Brent likes soy milk better than almond milk.  I'm a fan of either.  We have yet to try rice milk...that's for our next shopping trip.  :)

Okay, so finally, here are the stats:

Weight Loss/Gain
Lori: down 3 pounds
Brent: down 3 pounds

Grocery bill
This week we spent about $150 total, including a lot of set-up costs like Earth Balance butter, miso, seitan/tofu, vegan cereal, soy milk,  rice, quinoa, bread, etc that should last us a little while.

Thoughts/feelings
The beginning of the week (so the middle of last week) was a little rough for both of us...we were super tired.  Things are better now and we can tell a little bit of energy is coming back.  No big mood swings.

Physical stuff
Workouts were a bit harder at the beginning of the week, just feeling like I had to push myself through every step.  However, now some energy is coming back and workouts are getting a little easier than last week. 

I had slight headaches that would come and go last week, but we're unsure if that was caused by the new vegan diet or not.  No headaches in the last 3 or 4 days.

First test

First test = fail.

Tonight we had our first test of going to a neighbor's house for dinner.  We haven't exactly told them about our new eating habits, and as an avid hunter, I don't think our neighbor would know what to feed us even if we did tell them.  So tonight we broke our new diet and ate a tiny bit of meat.  Then we totally splurged and had ice cream for dessert.

What???  It was mint chocolate chip!!!!!!!

Day 2.5

So we officially started our vegan diet on Monday night!

Today's Thursday, so we're 2.5 days in! (Not that I'm counting...)

And I am TIE-RED.

It's kinda weird since I'd heard many times that a vegan diet should actually give you a lot more energy, help to clear up ache (not that I struggle a lot with that particular aspect), and help you lose weight (if you choose the right foods, that is).

So I'm not entirely sure why I've been feeling so tired this week. Maybe it has to do with the amount of hiking we've been doing lately. Or the exercise tests I've been undergoing in classes. All I know is, it's a different kind of tired than workout-tired, or sleep-deprived-tired, or even I-haven't-worked-out-in-a-week-tired.

Even yesterday, when I forced myself to workout (starting the workout is usually the hardest part for me), usually after the first few minutes I'm in a grove, ready to go, and can feel a release of energy to help fuel my workout. Not so much yesterday. More like I had to push myself at each step and all the way through it.

Even Brent noticed & mentioned it, and that was before I ever said anything. We've been sleeping longer at night, usually ready for bed around 9:30pm, and sleeping until 7am or 7:30am, and probably could sleep longer if we didn't have places to go & people to see.

I'm hoping this is part of the withdrawal phase and that our energy will return soon!!



Other than that, not too much to report. I did have a little bit of a headache on Tuesday, but not sure if it was due to the diet or to slight dehydration.



I also noticed that I get hungrier more often, even though I'm eating roughly the same amount of food as I used to.

Grocery Shopping for First-time Vegans

Lori and I went vegan shopping on Monday. We decided to buy ingredients for just a few new recipes to ease our way into this experiment. Frankly, we had never heard of some of the items we were looking for: Seitan and Nutritional Yeast. While I went to grab a few of the items we had heard of, Lori went to ask for some help. As I am walking back over I hear Lori say to the clerk, "My sister is vegan, and she is visiting soon. I'm having some trouble finding some things on her list." To keep from completely cracking up, I quickly changed my direction and noticed the fresh leafy greens on my left. I guess it's official: We are total vegan NOOBS!

Slight Delay

Okay, okay, okay. So I know I said we were going to start our new diet today. But our weekend was more packed than we originally planned, and we haven't had a chance to go to the grocery store yet to stock up on things like tofu and fresh vegetables. Plus, we haven't gone through all of our cheese stash yet, and if you know me at all, you know how much I hate to waste food. Really, I can't stand it. I'd rather eat something I don't like instead of seeing it go to waste. Maybe learning about the Great Depression in 5th grade scarred me more than I realized.

Anyway, I digress.

So tonight we have plans to go to the grocery store. Therefore, either tonight for dinner or tomorrow at breakfast we will commence and embrace our new vegan diet.

Oh, and just in all honesty, the day before we decided to embark on this new adventure, I bought about 150 Greek yogurts. Have I mentioned we love Greek yogurt? We each usually eat one every day. So, even though we may officially start our new vegan diet tonight or tomorrow, we will be cheating a little bit by eating the rest of the yogurt. I really hate to waste food (see above). But other than that, totally vegan. And once they run out, soy or coconut yogurt it will be!

P.S. So happy to find out that Whole Food's Crunchy Flaxseed Granola is vegan! It's sooooo delicious. I'd even venture to say it's better than my homemade granola. Okay, so maybe they're about on the same level.

Why?

I know what everyone's thinking...why are you doing this??

For us, this is being brought about mainly due to the nutrition classes I've been taking. While the books give many reasons to try to eat less meat (and therefore more vegetarian), the main reasons for us are:

1. it could be fun,
2. we're interested to see what, if any, physical changes may occur (weight loss, better digestion, more energy, etc),
3. we're interested to see what all the hype is about,
4. we're interested to see how, if at all, this diet will change our workouts,
5. we're hoping it may save us a little money on groceries,

oh, and last but not least,

6. for a school project, and
7. what scientist can resist a fully-controlled experiment??


Brent has said for a few years now that he'd be fine if he didn't eat meat. He just loves salads. Spinach and strawberries with berry vinaigrette, romaine with Caesar dressing and croutons, baby spring mix with nuts and raisins, a last-minute-dinner salad with avocado, red onions, carrots, and whatever else he can find in the fridge...he loves them all. It's more me we're worried about. When we go out to eat and the server tries to put the salad in front of me and the steak & potato in front of Brent, we both pipe up to make sure the server knows to switch them. Not that I eat meat at every meal, but I certainly do love a medium rare steak, any type of potatoes, and maybe a salad (if I still have room at the end).

So! This will definitely be an interesting time. As the blog title suggests, we'll be going vegan. That means no meat, no meat products/flavorings (like eggs), and no dairy. Yup, no dairy. No eggs, no yogurt, no cheese, no milk.

Our initial goal is to go vegan for one month. At the end of one month, we'll evaluate how we're doing and hopefully extend it to two months. Brent's optimistic that this may become a lifelong thing, but I'm just taking it one step - I mean, month - at a time.

Along the way we'll be sharing our findings. Our plan is to weigh ourselves once a week & keep working out 5-6 times a week. We'll then post here how we're doing....how much weight we lose (if any), how we're feeling, how our workouts are going, etc. Our plan is also to report on any withdrawal symptoms we have (like headaches...okay, so that's mostly my plan), cravings (and how we handled them, & if we cave in to them), how we handle eating out/at friend's houses, and digestive issues.

Speaking of that, we'll be treating this blog as a sort of journal for us, so we're pulling out all the stops. If you're not comfortable reading about digestive issues or the like, then you may want to stick to a different blog (like my other blog - innermusingsoflorigail.blogspot.com, which I haven't posted to in months, but am going to try to get better...really).

Our hopeful start date for this adventure is Monday, October 10, 2011.

So wish us luck & say a little prayer for us!