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.
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.
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