Hiccups in the Plan

I rebooted this challenge on Monday with much optimism but the rest of my week went south very quickly!

Monday was also a day that I donated blood,  I use the apheresis method which takes out blood and returns everything but the red blood cells.

By the next day I had a cough which turned into something worse and then something worse. 

So I was in bed all week.

When I was able to eat it was a banana and almond butter sandwich or a Vega One protein shake.

I'm still on course as I haven't had any dairy but I think I may not be ready to resume the blogging just yet.

2014 - A New, New New Years Resolution

Happy New Year!

Yes, I'm a few days late at that start of my resolution, but I will tell you that I rarely ever do them - which means I rarely have something to regret when I quit.

If you have read the previous posts and the journey of the 28 Day Challenge, you will know that I had successes and failures. More failures than not, but I think I figured out why...

Our bodies are machines that run better when they have the correct fuel mixtures. If you put the wrong fuel type in your car, you notice a performance difference. Same goes with our bodies. After a year of research and a resolution to change my eating habits "by the math", I have rediscovered things that I did remember back in my nutrition class from 17 years ago. My diet has been all over the place, protein heavy, fat heavy, carb deficient. It's crazy how quickly an ounce of cheese can flip the scales to fat heavy.

Basically, we need to have carbohydrates (as not all carbs are bad), protein, and fat. The importance is the percentage of each that can make or break your eating habits and goals.

Here is a good source I found: http://weighing-success.com/NutritionalNeeds.html

If you go down toward Step 3, you will see a chart that shows the percentages of the popular diets and meal plan services. The average is almost all carb heavy, with the exception of Atkins and South Beach... which are just not good for you... I had to look up Ornish, it looks to be some new fad diet.

My goal is going to be 50%-Carbs, 30%-Protein, 20%-Fat AND maintaining a plant based diet for ONE YEAR! Keep in mind, that it isn't just percentages, but the grams of each that are important. On an 1,800 calorie/day plan, I am allowed:

Type	%	grams	calories
Carbs	50%	225	900
Protein	30%	135	540
Fat	20%	40	360

For example, the breakfast listed below has 34g (38%) / 17g (19%) / 17g (43%)... that's C/P/F. This means that I only have 23 grams of fat left for the day which would have gone WAY over the balance if I were consuming dairy... sad, because I do love cheese... and that explains the 40+ lbs I intend on losing.

This may be beyond the scope of an Engine 2 Challenge, but I will continue to post here until I come up with a name for my new blog. Besides, I'm getting visitors and I like seeing numbers.

Day 1 - Breakfast

Tofu breakfast sandwich - 34g (38%) / 17g (19%) / 17g (43%)

3oz. Broiled tofu slice seasoned with cumin and smoked paprika

2 slices of Milton's whole grain bread

1/2 avocado

1 cup cooked kale

Where are we now?

It has been almost a year since I did the 28 day challenge and I am here to tell you that keeping up with it takes more willpower than I was willing to give. I ended up gaining 20 pounds in the course of the year and eating more and more crap foods.

Where did I fail?

Oils, dairy and processed vegan food products. After the challenge I remember running out to Del Taco and getting a bean and cheese burrito with sour cream. Cheese pizza after that. The rest is 20 pounds of history.

Why did I fail?

I failed because, like most of us, I am a creature of habit. I like fried eggs with my fried potatoes "smothered and covered" in vegetarian respects being cheese and salsa... not the cheese and gravy made popular by the Waffle House. I failed because as much as I enjoyed my plant based pizza, the craving for greasy, goopy cheese pizza won out. 

That being said. I will restart the 28 day challenge after Easter Sunday and post more about my experiences during the process.

Stay tuned.

Day 28

Done.

And the weight in is 203.5!!

I was hoping for 200 even, but I'll do that on my own time. This is 13 pounds lost in under a month.

What have I learned from this experience?

•  We (Americans) use way too much oil in cooking.  Look at the ingredients of anything near you. I was shocked how much oil there is in everything.  Why does there have to be additional oils in peanut butter? To make it spread better, that's why.  The convenience of the food has made it more unhealthy for us.  I can guarantee that the majority of the weight lost was due to the lack of oil.
• Vegan / Vegetarian alternatives are just as unhealthy as their counterparts (if not worse). Again with the addition of oils and other refined crap, you might as well just eat the real thing. Fake cheeses, spread and dressings are still oil based.
• Processed wheat products has the consistency of marshmallows.
• It is possible to create unique meals using only plant-based items. Maybe not for me since I kept making too much and having left overs, but for you it will work out.

Will I continue eating this way? I think I'll keep it going and explore more options of what I can add to my menu.  I don't know. I'll probably keep the plant-based for myself and be less picky when I'm out with friends. I want to say that I'll go plant-based and be done with it, but my last meal wasn't what I had hoped for. My palate has been cleansed and I can really taste the variety of what whole foods has to offer and I find that cool as well as depressing. For example, I was watching Chopped on FoodTV and one of the judged kept complaining about about the lack of salt. It was the same judge on almost every item that kept complaining about not enough salt. I don't think I would trust this guy as a cook, judge or food critic as his palate has been compromised. Salt is seasoning, yes, cooks out there, I am aware of that. Are you aware that food naturally has flavor? If we weren't so...

This blog wasn't meant to be a platform for anything, so forgive the rant. Everyone has their own opinions and lately it seems that food can join the category of "Things you don't discuss in public" with religion and politics.

It has been a fun 28 days and if anyone has been inspired by this challenge or others, post a reply.

Again, sorry for getting sick. My meal plan would have been more exciting and lengthy had I not been asleep most of the week.

Breakfast
Simple Cereal w/ Banana and blueberries
Vegan Pumpkin Muffin

Late Lunch
1 cup Soo-Foo grain mix
Avocado and Broccoli sprout sandwich
Spring Mix with Salsa


The End.

Day 27

1 day left. Do I celebrate with a cheese pizza?

Had I not lost a week with being sick, I probably would have been more active and been able to reach my goal quicker. Next time.


Breakfast
Simple Cereal w/Bananas & blueberries

Lunch
Broiled Tofu sandwich with avocado


Dinner
Left over Acorn Squash and Soo-Foo
Left over Miso Asparagus

Day 26

I'm feeling better now. Not at the top of my game as I should be, but I'm getting there. I slept in a bit longer than planned this morning and by the time I got moving it was around 10am, so I turned lunch into more of a snack time that meal time.



Breakfast
Simple Cereal
Vegan Pumpkin Muffin


Snack
2 Pita w/Hummus 
1 Celery stalk w/ peanut butter 


Dinner

Acorn squash w/SooFoo
Miso Asparagus

Dessert
Vegan Pumpkin Muffin 

Day 25

I was hoping by day 25 I would be showing some cool recipes and other things I have learned during this journey, but I am still sick. This illness has nothing to do with the challenge, being vegetarian or anything related. It is purely my own stupidity of donating twice the amount of red blood cells and running off to Disneyland where snotty kids wipe their snotty noses on everything.

I am beginning to feel better, but I still have that haze of ache all over the place. One thing that I have noticed is this feeling of a painful hangover floating over me and not knowing why.  It might be lack of caffeine over last few days and I'm feeling the effects of it leaving my system. I'll go decaf for a bit to see how that feels overall.



Breakfast
Green Smoothie

• 1 Bunch Rainbow Chard, washed and broken into small bits
• 1 cup of carrots
• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
• 1/2 cup raspberries
• 1 banana

Lunch
Vegan Chili 
Pumpkin Muffin 
 
Dinner
Theraflu