Vegan Day 5 and 6 Recap and moving forward!

I continuted to eat vegan into the weekend and finally gave in and had seafood, cheese and non vegan cake. I knew that I could not maintain this lifestyle with the weekend of friends and Birthday celebrations. I think its great that some people choose veganisim for animal rights and commit to it completely, but I am a foodie. I am NOT a picky eater (sometimes this is bad news when it comes to weight loss haha) and I eat very healthy. I also enjoy foods from every food group and dont think it is for me long term.

Top 5 Things that I have learned from Eating Vegan

1. You do not need meat and dairy to survive. As long as you are eating protein from Tofu,Quinoa etc you are getting what you need along with taking a multi vitamin.
2. When you limit your diet in a new way, it can eliminate "mindless eating". I learned to say NO to foods I really didnt need and couldnt eat because they were not vegan during my trial.
3. Vegan DOES NOT mean its healthier. I discovered the chocolate cake I had from whole foods had just as many calories/fat as regular cake. French Fries are vegan....get my point? You really need to still becareful about the ingredients you are using etc.
4. Vegan eating definitely makes you feel more full, for a longer period of time.
5. Vegaan allowed me to cut out all procssed snack food like granola, luna, fiber one etc and replaced them with something fresh like fruit and grains.

Going forward....as I mentioned...I am going to eat vegan breakfasts and lunches during the week, while I am at work. At night, I will eat mostly vegan but have some meat and cheese. On the weekends I will eat what I want as far as variety but keep within my WW plan.

Over the weekend I made Vegan Cowboy Cookies check out the recipe...it makes a million cookies...make for a party or bring to work!! (NOT ww friendly unless you make over 70 cookies and use a teaspoon of dough per cookie still 2pts)

I also made what I am coining as "Stop Light Pizza" ww friendly 4 pts per slice, 8 servings per pizza ( I made a rectangle)

1 bag of Trader Joes Whole Wheat Pizza dough (120 Cal 2 Fat, 4 Fiber)
1 cup of Reduced Fat Shredded Cheese
1 cup of frozen red,green, yellow pepper strips
1/2 cup of Sauce

Arange and bake at 425 for 10-12 minutues...so good and healthy

Vegan Day 5 : Tempeh Tacos!

Well its almost the weekend yay...Its supposed to hit 70 here in Boston...that would be amazing!

Today was a great day. Today was the first day I felt any signs of hunger between means since starting the veganism. There are 2 possible explanations for this:
1. I got up an hour earlier than usual so I feel like my eating times were thrown off a bit.
2. I gave a pint of blood...Im not sure but maybe this did something..I had OJ after no snacks (not vegan) but I had one of my vegan cookies when I got back to my desk to feel better.

So after lunch I was craving something sweet...I wanted chocolate....I had the points so I decided to walk to Whole Foods. It was a mile,there and back. I walked briskly in the gorgeous weather.

I bought a banana, 4 clementines and a slice of vegan chocolate cake.

I ended up eating 2 clementines and the cake for dessert. I'm saving the banana and other 2 clementines for tomorrow. The cake was 4 pts...not bad at all and it was delicious! I could not tell the difference honestly. Whole Foods really has some amazing food!

Now every week Melissa and I make turkey meat tacos. She felt bad cooking it but I insisted she make them but just to save me some seasoning (vegan I checked). I had bought  a 5 grain tempeh so I mixed the seasoning in and added some green onion and sauteed them for a few minutes. I put them inside 3 mini flourless tortillas that I got at whole foods. I topped them with my Vegan Creamy Mexican Dip and Lettuce. I got a very filling dinner for 6 pts. I still have 2 pts left over.

Staring at the meat, cheese, and sour cream did make me miss them but honestly my meal was A. healthier and B. probably more satisfying.

So far my plan still stands as eating vegan meals for breakfast and lunch mon-fri then eating meat and dailry at night and on the weekends as needed.

I still have all day tomorrow and saturday until dinner time to enjoy Vegan treats.

At dinner I plan to have Tuna Tar Tar because its amazing at the restaurant were going to. I will also indulge in their french fries and a fruity martini!

Vegan Day 4:Creamy Mexican Dip

So I posted earlier about yesterday so now Ill talk about the rest of the day...

I stayed within my points again yay! 4 days of eating completly vegan

I havent really craved anything yet. I think that changing what I eat has required a lot more planning so Ive had no "mindless eating" where Im just snacking on random things and all my dinners have been planned out. These are key tools for ww working and I think that this has made me realize that to continue to be successful with weight loss I need to plan meals better and not just grab anything thats around. When you limit certain things it makes you think so much more than oh I can just eat anything I want. For example not being able to eat cake and pizza at work this week simply because it wasnt vegan. Normally I wouldnt have thought twice about either. Thats prob 1000 calories I didnt have!

So tonight I made Vegan Creamy Mexican Dip
1 Jar of organic salsa,
1 package of lite silken tofu
1 jalapeño diced
1 avacado
Juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime juice
1 can of black beans rinsed,
Salt
Pepper
1 tsp of Cajun
3 Tbs of sun dried tomatos in oil

Add seasoning until it tastes spicy and mexicany and not like tofu :)

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth....add in beans after you empty into a bowl to add some "chunks"

1 ww pt for 1/4 cup

Enjoy with Vegan Tortilla chips or veggies

Vegan Day 3

I didnt get to blog last night because I was at a friends watching LOST.

I had another successful day. I had to give up free pizza at lunch..1. I had already eaten lunch (but that may not have stopped me, being honest) 2...it was vegan so I did not eat any!

I peeked at the scale this morning...official weigh in is tomorrow but it was the lowest its been in probably 6 months.(down 5 lbs from sunday) If anything eating vegan will cleanse and jump start my metabolism in a new way. I have not eaten any processed snack foods at all which is crazy.

Cheese....3 days without cheese...I honestly cant believe it...I havent really craved it to be honest but 3 days is not a long time by any means....but I usually have some kind of cheese at every meal. Its sad I know.

As far as my ww plan goes I have stayed within my Daily Points...another success of 3 days...that hasnt happend in awhile either!

Yesterday I also ran over 5 miles. It was my first run since the Half Marathon. I sprinted at one point to catch up with some people at run club and I think that killed me. I ran fast but it was not an easy run. Perhaps.

Oh yea...Happy St. Patricks Day!

Day Two:Vegan WW Success

Let me just say that I am loving this already! I have not felt this full during work in a lonnng time. The highlight of my day was saying *NO* to birthday cake at the office because it wasnt vegan. I am definitely an all or nothing person, which has its positives and negatives. When I am on my game I am SO on, when im off...lets not even go there. BUT I AM ON!

Today I stayed within my DPA and also did Spinning for an hour.

My dessert tonight was a smoothie!
2 frozen bananas (i freeze them when they get too brown)
1/2 cup of Trader Joes Very Cherry Blend frozen fruit
1 cup of Whole Soy Plain yogurt
1/3 cup light original silk
1 tbs peanut butter

This makes 2 servings for 5 pts each

SOOO AMAZING! Try it!

So 2 days into my week long of Veganism I am basicially feeling this so far as a comitment to WW and eating as healthy as I can

I feel like I would like to maintain eating vegan for breakfast and lunch Monday-Friday.

Dinners can have dairy and meat

Sat and Sun can be a combination of both vegan and non vegan depending on if I am eating out or at home.

Going Vegan for a week!

After reading *Bitch Cakes* blog and how she follows WW and veganism, and talking with a friend who has been doing it over a year I decided to check it out. Since my diet consists of mostly fruits and veggies, low cal low fat, I am hoping that this will be an easy transistion. My main issues are the dairy. I am a cheese-a-holic. I do luckily like soy milk. I am a bit nervous to try soy yogurt, but I will try it.

At Whole Foods, I bought Nutritional Yeast and Ground Flaxseed which are two specific items to add for protein and fiber benefits.

I started this morning and ate oatmeal, at lunch I had a Middle Eastern platter and Soy Fro-yo and then for dinner I made soy nuggets and Mac and Cheese...but honestly it did not taste like mac and cheese AT ALL, but dont get my wrong, it wasnt bad, jsut not what I expected. I am going to try and make recipes from Fat Free Vegan in order to follow WW as well. So my goal is to do it until dinner time on March 20th, that night I have a birthday party and I love the Tuna Tar Tar so I am probably going to eat that then. So almost a week.

My goal going forward is to integrate veganism into my diet but still eat some dairy and meat. I don't believe that it is for me long term, but I am interested to see the benfits and difference in how I feel after this.

So after day one I feel full and satisfied which is a good sign!

Heres a pic of my lunch today!