Veeg-Log Day 24

Weight: 266

Not much to report today. Turns out my vegetarian sandwich on the Grounds' menu is awesomely delicious! Kell had it for lunch today and I helped her mange it. It's a veggie quesadilla. The fillins are garlic, onion, red pepper, poblano pepper, jalepeno, black beans, seasoned rice, corn, and cilantro. It also has pepperjack cheese, but obviously we left that out. NOM NOM NOM.

I'm gonna make me a cucumber sandwich soon - that might be all I have to say for today, or it may not. you'll just have to hold your breath until I get back! (IF... I get back!)

Veeg-D, out!

Veeg-Log Day 23

Weight: 268

SO.... I've got some explaining to do! Last week, my laptop broke. All on it's own. It just up and kicked it. I didn't fall asleep listening to music and wake up with my laptop underneath me, the earbuds sandwiched between the keyboard and screen; the screen shattered to an inky blackness with neon spiderwebs or anything! So don't ask me what happened!!

At any rate.. I'm still alive and kickin'! Still rockin' the veeg-life and still bein' all around awesome. It's getting easier and easier to keep up with the new diet - as well as ignore meaty-cheesey snacks. It helps A LOT that people are starting to notice and comment that I look different! As you can see, I weighed in at 268 this morning - that's a whole 17+ pounds down from my initial weigh-in! : ) My goal is still 260 by the 14th, so wish me luck!!

So much has gone down since my last post, I don't even really know where to begin. The long and short of it, though, is that it's really become quite easy to be a vegan in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday was the first day of a new menu at The Coffee Grounds - it was kind of a pain to write/cook a menu blind, not being able to taste the food I was making for the first time. But I had plenty of guinea pigs running around to sample for me!

Sunday, Kell and I had the whole day off together. It was a gorgeous day, and we celebrated it by walking to the grocery store and grilling out! We had an amazing feast of pasta salad, potato salad, grilled asparagus & portobello mushrooms (with pesto!), and veggie burgers with avacado and sprouts. (We're hungry vegans - don't judge us!!) it was UH-MAY-ZING!!

Yeah.. be jealous.

So as I'm heading towards the end of this experiment, I'm trying to decide what to do next. I don't think that I want to stay vegan - at least not completely. I need to figure out the best way to go about eating, shopping, exercising, etc.

Aaaaaand now after uploading those pictures, i'm a hungry hungry hippo! (What.. hippos eat veggies.) So I'm gonna go make me some toast! Lata Hata's!!

Veeg-D, Out!

Veeg-Log Day 15

Weight: 278

Holy moly, am I ever behind!! Let’s see… the last time I checked in with you cats it was Thursday -  I was bitching about my new scale and getting psyched for  a livery veggie burger (which was TOTALLY worth the hype, b.t.dubs).. so that puts us at Friday!

So y’know how I was joking (except I wasn’t) about a pursuit for vegan super powers? Well guess what, all you nay-sayers.. Friday I discovered that my first veeg-mutation has begun to manifest itself! As I was driving down Hastings, I noticed something. An aroma. A wonderful, delicious, delight to the nostrils.  Turns out, I now have a super-human sense of smell. That’s right. I woke up that fateful morn with the ability to smell cooking meat from miles away. Which leads me to my second (and slightly less hygienic) power – the ability to drool in hyper-massive quantities.

(Sidebar: I like the sound of trains. Like… really REALLY like it.)

Today at work was hard. I made A LOT of delicious looking food. Marinated Hawaiian pork sandwiches, Teriyaki stir-fried chicken and vegetables, a calamari-scallop soup, a Mandarin Orange salad, and all the regular goodies – but could not try ANY of it. Stupid meat, STUPID cheese!! Everybody assures me that the food was good, but it’s just not the same. OKAY, enough whining! It’s my choice, right??

Last night Kelly made us vegan veggie afredo. This might honestly be one of my favorite things that she makes! Seriously, it’s SO FRIGGIN AMAZING!! “Alfredo?” you’re thinking, “without milk, cream, butter or anything?!”

YES!!

And it’s to die for. She adds mushrooms, asparagus, and broccoli – then just a little bit of tomato. It’s suuriously amazing.

Aaaaand, that was the third time tonight I’ve fallen asleep at the keyboard. I know I owe you all a longer post, but that might have to wait until tomorrow.

Night all!

Veeg-D, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

P.S.- I got Kelly and I a couple of fish yesterday! Betas. (We’re starting off small and safe). Her’s is named Carina and mine is Puppis. (Long story) Anyway, they’re cool and safe from being turned into fishsticks! (suuuure.. you may THINK that there are no betas in fishsticks, but do you really KNOW?? I like to think of fishsticks as ‘hotdugs of the sea’. So who’s to say for sure?! Did you know that fish food is NOT veeg-friendly?? It’s not, I checked. (by habit and curiosity.) it’s mostly made out of other fish, actually! (They may be aggressive little cannibalistic freaks, but they’re CUTE aggressive little cannibalistic freaks!!)

Veeg-Log Day 11

Weight: 280.2

Entry One – 6:45pm

I got a new scale. It sucks. It says that I’m fat again. Boo. Actually, I figure that if my old scale was a few pounds low yesterday, it’s safe to assume that it was a few pounds low for my initial weigh-in, so one can safely assume that the poundage lost is the same – even though it’s disappointing as hell that I’m not actually under the 280 mark like I thought. Ah well… hopefully tomorrow!

I’m currently sitting on my front porch finishing my taxes (woo.) and sipping on a Crispin Extra Dry Hard Cider (WOO!). Manly, I know – but cider is delicious! I was supposed to be sipping on a Crispin Honeycrisp Hard Cider, until I realized that instead of honeycrisp apples, the cider is composed of actual honey. (and... crisp?) This leads me to a “ask the audience” question. Is it legit for a vegan to consume honey? Word on the street is that it’s kind of a controversial point amongst the veeg-crowd; as it’s generally safe and natural for the bees to produce it. A bee-keeping friend of mine (HI KYLE! Unless you don’t read my blog, in which case: YOU SUCK, KYLE!) tells me that the bees are treated very humanely (many times BETTER than) and they will continue to produce honey naturally whether it’s harvested or not. In light of this, some vegans feel it’s okay to eat it, especially if it’s procured from a trusted, local source. Other vegans adhere to the code “no food that came from a face”. Bees have faces – honey’s off the table. (Literally.) Thoughts? (Okay, all you voiceless vegans out there, it’s time to weigh in – I’m legititmately interested in your opinions!) Kelly is a non honey nommer, though, so I too shall remain bee-poopless for the next twenty-one days.

Okay, time to head down to Kell’s. We’re going to walk over to The Livery (Our local cow-town saloon) and enjoy the best damn veeg-burger in the Chippewa Valley. Seriously, it’s BOMB. I ordered it even before my little challenge! Be jealous. Lata playas! 

Veeg-D, outski!


Entry Two - 10:55pm

Told ya.

Veeg-Log Day 10

Weight: 278.6

HOWDY!! Veeg-D here, checking in on Veeg day 10. THAT’S right folks - we just entered DOUBLE DIGITS, BABY!!! Still rockin’ the greens and still feelin’ groovy. Actually, I’m feeling better than ever! (No lie!) Kell and I aren’t sure if I’m any more energetic than I was before (I’ve always been a weeee bit... excitable) but I feel like I’m up for doing more and am generally in a better mood. So… good job, veganism!

Kelly lent me some reading materials today! The first is a booklet entitled “A Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating” – which seems odd, as I’ve never eaten cruelty in my life. The second is “An Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Living”. This one seems more appropriate. As I is an idiut liveeng a veegun lyfe. (Kind of.) (About living a vegan life – not about being an idiot. I do plenty of idiotic things.) (Ask Kelly.) (Or anybody else who knows me, for that matter.) So I’ll probably dive into those babies tomorrow. Fuuuuuuunnnn…. *

Hey, did y’all know that at one point (a while before this experiment, but after I started dating Kelly) I weighed in at 298 lbs?! YES it’s true! I was rockin BK** like three times a week, and putting down entire boxes of fish sticks (not the small ones. The BIG dogs. The 44 counters.) in one evening… y’know, pretty much just being SUPER awesome (not gross at all) and eating anything that came within arm’s reach. For New Years, I gave up fast food, and that got me down to the 285 where I started this “cleanse”.  All said and done, that terrible day is now pert near twenty pounds away – and that feels pretty damn good. It’s almost hard to believe that that stuff can be THAT bad for you. I lost almost 15 pounds in a couple months just by ditching the fast food bags!

I feel like there was more I wanted to say, but I can’t remember now so you’re just gonna have to wait. Gee, only 22 more entries to remember! (OY…)

Veeg-D, out!

* I kid, of course – I’m sure I will learn a lot and get some good ideas from my suggested [assigned] readings

** Burger King

Veeg-Log Day 9

Weight: 280.4

Quiet day. Vegetables were consumed. Kelly and I opted for DOMINATING at beer pong instead of going for a walk. Woops! S’okay, our next walk will just be twice as long!

Finished the menu today  - it’s awesome. Gonna sell lots o’ sandwiches come April! (As we SHOULD, it’s my birthday month! It’s an entire month dedicated to celebration and making merry!)

Aaaaand… that’s all I’ve got. I’m beat – night all!

Veeg-D, out!

P.S. - I think I need a new scale. Sometimes mine goes all wonky, and that's not helpful at all to a weight loss experiment!!

Veeg-Log Day 8

Weight: 282.2

Entry One – 6:07pm

Huh. I seem to be GAINING weight! That’s not the purpose of this experiment at all! It was that damn shot of Irish cream on Saturday, I know it! Grrr…..

Not much to report today.. Accidentally skipped breakfast (I know, I know.. most important meal of the day, blah blah..) but tonight Kelly and I are gonna grill up some Portobello mushroom caps and mange those burger-style along with some of the butt-ton of left over potato salad from last night. I’m stoked for the grilled mushrooms! They’ll be much better than the vegan burgers, as they don’t even pretend to be burgers. They’re just mushrooms; chalk full of grown-on- a-poopy-log-in-a-dark-warehouse goodness. Mmmm… Fungalicious!!

Oh yeah, we’re going on a walk, too – just as soon as she’s done with work. Hopefully it’s not storming by then. (It’s supposed to be.) But even if it is, what’s not awesome about going for a walk in a thunderstorm?!

Okay, back to my menu writing! (I’m figuring out the April menu for The Coffee Grounds tonight.) Stay tuned for such tantalizing delights as “The Spring Chicken”, “The Big Kahuna Tuna”, and “South of the Birder”!! OH YEAH! And I made a KILLAH Spring Carrot soup with Ginger and Almonds at work today. It’s mighty fine, and toats vegan!

Veeg-D, out!