The scale was my first visit today. Let me re-cap: I weighed 119.5 at the beginning of this, I weighed 117.5 after the first week, and I weighed 120.5 after my gluttonous day on Friday. What is my starting point going to be for the week? Turns out I'm starting at 117.0. How about that? Proof that indulging a bit didn't set me back---at least weight-wise. There's always a chance my insides are singing a different song but I can't see those, so right now I just don't care.
Yesterday began my focused attention on adding more protein to my diet without using the powdered stuff. I settled on trying two new things: seitan and black beans. The seitan was kind-of an accident. While strolling through Whole Foods--trying to resist the urge to by another container of their guacamole--I glanced through their "fake meat" section. You know the one. It's that refridgerated end-cap with boca "this" and tofu "that" which most people whisk past in feverish pursuit of the glorious cheese section. Well, since cheese is only a pipe dream for me, I decided to stop and look a bit. Like usual, I picked-up a lot of different things, read the ingredients which revealed some Satan-like substance like olive oil, and put most things back. This package, however, I put in my basket. It's called seitan (pronounced see-tan). It looked like the latest attempt at "ground beef" and one serving contains 30% of my recommended daily value of protein.
Once home, I pulled out my frying pan, crumpled the seitan--it does indeed look and act like ground beef--and fried it up. (Side note: frying is a bit of a loose concept on this diet since oil is a no-no. A Teflon pan is a MUST and the diet Gods suggest you "fry" by sprinkling water over what's in the pan until your stuff is cooked). On a whole wheat tortilla I spread the last of my Friday guacamole and added yellow pepper strips, pea sprouts and my Italian-flavored seitan. It was damn good. Crunchy and chewy with lots of flavor. Making a satisfying meal on this diet is a little like throwing darts in the dark: you point yourself in the right direction and hope you hit somewhere close to the target. I'd gotten close enough this time. A meal like this gives me hope that the Forks Over Knives diet can be sustained in a satisfying way. I'm not necessarily concerned about this for me, but there are many who need this diet to sustain or improve serious health conditions and my hope is that they don't have to eliminate something as wonderful as the pleasure of food in order to succeed. This little wrap scores one for the food lovers of this crazy diet. It filled my gut, satisfied my need for good-tasting food and is Forks Over Knives diet-approved (I think). This seitan stuff--which apparently is quite common in other parts of the world-- is made of water, wheat gluten, soy sauce, whole wheat flour, garlic and spices. Of course, the soy sauce could be an argued ingredient, but I choose to ignore that fact.
Once home, I pulled out my frying pan, crumpled the seitan--it does indeed look and act like ground beef--and fried it up. (Side note: frying is a bit of a loose concept on this diet since oil is a no-no. A Teflon pan is a MUST and the diet Gods suggest you "fry" by sprinkling water over what's in the pan until your stuff is cooked). On a whole wheat tortilla I spread the last of my Friday guacamole and added yellow pepper strips, pea sprouts and my Italian-flavored seitan. It was damn good. Crunchy and chewy with lots of flavor. Making a satisfying meal on this diet is a little like throwing darts in the dark: you point yourself in the right direction and hope you hit somewhere close to the target. I'd gotten close enough this time. A meal like this gives me hope that the Forks Over Knives diet can be sustained in a satisfying way. I'm not necessarily concerned about this for me, but there are many who need this diet to sustain or improve serious health conditions and my hope is that they don't have to eliminate something as wonderful as the pleasure of food in order to succeed. This little wrap scores one for the food lovers of this crazy diet. It filled my gut, satisfied my need for good-tasting food and is Forks Over Knives diet-approved (I think). This seitan stuff--which apparently is quite common in other parts of the world-- is made of water, wheat gluten, soy sauce, whole wheat flour, garlic and spices. Of course, the soy sauce could be an argued ingredient, but I choose to ignore that fact.
On to the black beans... I can handle them in small quantities, like as part of a soup or in a burrito with other stuff, but their dry and pasty qualities don't really excite me. One serving is 8g of protein. The typical woman needs 46 grams of protein every day so a serving of black beans would cover about 15% of that.
While strolling through grocery-store #2 yesterday, Rainbow Blossom, John suggested black bean burgers. He's been wanting to make his recipe of them for me for a while so we decided to give it a try. Once we started talking about his recipe, though, we discovered that the binding ingredient he uses (mayonnaise) is illegal. He found a vegan black bean burger recipe online and we decided to try that but it required wheat flour (didn't have) and canola oil (also illegal). Finding myself completely frustrated, again, by the limitations of this diet, I said screw-it to the recipes and decided to do it my own way. It worked. Lots of spices, finely chopped veggies, lime juice and hummus (to bind it together) worked to give me my second, tasty, protein-filled meal of the day. Wahoo! I added some runny salsa and raw sweet corn on top to give the burger more moisture and some sweetness. I could eat this a lot so I'm putting it in my arsenol.
While strolling through grocery-store #2 yesterday, Rainbow Blossom, John suggested black bean burgers. He's been wanting to make his recipe of them for me for a while so we decided to give it a try. Once we started talking about his recipe, though, we discovered that the binding ingredient he uses (mayonnaise) is illegal. He found a vegan black bean burger recipe online and we decided to try that but it required wheat flour (didn't have) and canola oil (also illegal). Finding myself completely frustrated, again, by the limitations of this diet, I said screw-it to the recipes and decided to do it my own way. It worked. Lots of spices, finely chopped veggies, lime juice and hummus (to bind it together) worked to give me my second, tasty, protein-filled meal of the day. Wahoo! I added some runny salsa and raw sweet corn on top to give the burger more moisture and some sweetness. I could eat this a lot so I'm putting it in my arsenol.
Side Effect Update:
If you've regularly been reading my blog, you are aware of my complaints about side effects as I wean myself from my regular diet (which I assume is similar to the diet of the every-day, normal, American) to the Forks Over Knives way of eating. Depression, anxiety, restless nights of sleep, moodiness, feeling "like I'm in a fog," have been par for the course thus far. But since my sinful Friday, I have felt perfectly normal. And note that my sinning was, in fact, only on Friday. Saturday morning, I was up doing smoothies and weird snack foods once again. I've been sleeping great, my mood has been consistently pleasant, and the crappy anxiety has settled down. I have to wonder how much of these symptoms were side effects of sleep deprivation (which could cause all the symptoms) but even if that were the case, I feel comfortable attributing the diet to the trouble sleeping. So eventually, it's all coming back to the diet. I'm so relieved and really appreciate "Benny" calling-out this cleansing process and telling me it would only take about a week. He was right and I can now say I'm back to normal and feeling good.
What is NOT normal, nor in any way feeling particularly good, is my gas. Yes, I've said it. I have to. Something this pronounced cannot be ignored. The beans, the copious amounts of fruits and veggies combined with strange foods I've never heard of before are all getting to know one another in my lower intestine. They party all day and all night and then escape when you least expect it, leaving a nasty trail of stink. The problem is that I can't escape myself. I can warn others or go to another room so this embarrassing issue is kept quiet, but (despite my trying) I cannot run away quick enough to spare myself. It is AWFUL and like nothing I've ever smelled before.
The stench of my bum and my breath are two things I'd love to find an answer to. If anyone has suggestions, there are a lot of people who would welcome your help ;)
If you've regularly been reading my blog, you are aware of my complaints about side effects as I wean myself from my regular diet (which I assume is similar to the diet of the every-day, normal, American) to the Forks Over Knives way of eating. Depression, anxiety, restless nights of sleep, moodiness, feeling "like I'm in a fog," have been par for the course thus far. But since my sinful Friday, I have felt perfectly normal. And note that my sinning was, in fact, only on Friday. Saturday morning, I was up doing smoothies and weird snack foods once again. I've been sleeping great, my mood has been consistently pleasant, and the crappy anxiety has settled down. I have to wonder how much of these symptoms were side effects of sleep deprivation (which could cause all the symptoms) but even if that were the case, I feel comfortable attributing the diet to the trouble sleeping. So eventually, it's all coming back to the diet. I'm so relieved and really appreciate "Benny" calling-out this cleansing process and telling me it would only take about a week. He was right and I can now say I'm back to normal and feeling good.
What is NOT normal, nor in any way feeling particularly good, is my gas. Yes, I've said it. I have to. Something this pronounced cannot be ignored. The beans, the copious amounts of fruits and veggies combined with strange foods I've never heard of before are all getting to know one another in my lower intestine. They party all day and all night and then escape when you least expect it, leaving a nasty trail of stink. The problem is that I can't escape myself. I can warn others or go to another room so this embarrassing issue is kept quiet, but (despite my trying) I cannot run away quick enough to spare myself. It is AWFUL and like nothing I've ever smelled before.
The stench of my bum and my breath are two things I'd love to find an answer to. If anyone has suggestions, there are a lot of people who would welcome your help ;)
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