It's Really Healthy

I am getting sick of salad. I really don’t know how people eat 2 big green salads EVERY DAY, especially in the winter. I made a lovely salad Monday night, but the greens are going fast, and it’s well before they’re date. I was supposed to eat the last of it with lunch today, but so many of the leaves were slimy! I had the same problem with the bunch that I washed and dried with the salad spinner, and hadn’t added anything to yet. So, I need to go to the store, but I won’t be home until late tomorrow, and I won’t be home over the weekend, so it seems like such a waste… fortunately, there is a small salad bar at work. Not great stuff, but it will do for tomorrow and Friday.

I also wasn’t feeling great this morning. Not anything specific, just out of sorts. I was glad I had soup.

Breakfast: banana with flax
Snack: Kiwi
Lunch: Part of a green salad (leftovers from yesterday), red lentil and carrot soup (very filling!)
Dinner: Black bean soup and rice

Yes, I should have had more fruit and more veggies today. I just so didn’t feel like it today. I wanted warm comfort food. I’m feeling again today that this is hard.

The good news is, I’m done with this in a month.

I had a minor fail today. Vinegars are on the okay list as far as using for a salad dressing. So, I’ve been buying every cool vinegar I can find. I had been looking for Ume Plum Vinegar before I started this whole thing, so when I spotted it, I got it. Then I thought I’d try it on my salad this evening.

Turns out it contains salt. A fair amount of salt. The thing is, I figured this out before I used it, and I used it anyway, because I really wanted to try it. Man, that salad tasted awesome, with just a sprinkle of vinegar…

It was also a tough day. I overslept (forgot to reset the alarm after shutting it off for the holiday yesterday), woke up to a ton of ice all over my car, and was really busy once I got to work. It was a hard day for taking the time to eat. I was able to eat my breakfast (I usually eat before I get to work these days, but today I didn’t have much choice) and my salad at lunchtime, but it wan’t easy. I didn’t get to eat all the other fruit I brought with me, but after yesterday, I think that might be okay. 🙂

Breakfast: Banana and flax, coconut water
Lunch: salad (chard, mixed greens, carrots, onion, red pepper, cucumber, rosemary, parsley and grapes, with the last of the strawberry dressing from the weekend) and chickpeas
Snack: Honeycrisp apple, 1/2 oz walnuts
Snack: Chickpeas with spicy tomato sauce
Dinner: same salad as above with the aforementioned vinegar, red lentil and carrot soup with 1/2 cup rice

Today was fruit day. Just wait and see…

Breakfast: Banana, flax, blood orange and kiwi
Lunch: Salad- mixed greens, spinach, carrots, onion, cucumber PLUS 1 blood orange, 1 clementine, 1 kiwi and 1 mango, 1/2 oz walnuts
Dinner: salad (mixed greens, carrot, onion) and chana massala (I promise, quick and easy recipe coming soon), with 1/4 cup of rice
Both salads had a bit more of that strawberry dressing from yesterday (whole strawberries, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar).

That would be SEVEN whole fruits in one day. I think that may be a record for me!

The last few days have been quite doable. I won’t say that I don’t want other foods, but I’m not feeling like I’m starving or anything. I think one of the things that I have to work on is not feeling like I have to have something now because I subconsciously feel like I won’t be able to have it again.

When I was a kid, I was already overweight. Always have been. My younger brother was not. So, my mom bought junk food for him, not for me, and I got into the habit of food hoarding, because I wanted junk too. So when it was available, I would scarf down as much as I could. When I first went vegan, I didn’t have access to a lot of vegan junk food, both because of where I lived and the fact that a lot of the (vegan) junk foods hadn’t been developed yet. Now that we have so much vegan junk available, I buy up way more than I need whenever I see it. So, instead of buying one “treat” for the week, I buy six treats. I’m not sure if that’s because I think I won’t be able to get back to the store for a while (which is bogus, I probably go to the grocery store an average of two times a week, with the different stores I go to for different stuff), or because I just don’t notice how much it is when I’m buying one of this or one of that, but I definitely buy too much.

Heck, I’ve overdone with the buying on the veggies over the last week. I know I need a lot, but I end up buying too much, and with veggies, they’ll spoil. (So far haven’t had to toss too much, but that’s due to using every trick I can think of to extend the life of veggies). It’s a problem. One I need to figure out.

It really is getting better.

Breakfast: banana, flax and an apricot. Well, half of an apricot, because the apricot really wasn’t very good.
Snack: Clementine
Lunch: more chana massala, plus a salad with cucumber, romaine and purple cabbage; kiwi
Snack: Honeycrisp apple. I also had part of another clementine, but threw the rest away, because it also was not very good. It had a lot of tough pith. Not a good day for fruit!
Dinner: More chana massala. Also, green beans with a little Bragg’s.
There was also some tea and a coconut water in there somewhere.

I can’t say that I’ve stopped wanting other food, but it really is getting better. And I really do have more energy!

I do really need to work on eating more greens in relation to the amount of beans I eat. There was a little bit of rice in all of the chana massala, but not more than 1/2 cup over all. I think I could go without, and not notice any difference in taste. 🙂