I Ask YOU: How to Stay Full on a Vegan Diet?

My biggest issue thus far being a vegan has been staying full. The joke about how you eat at a chinese buffet and two hours later you’re hungry, or that same attitude about processed foods… has been happening to me now.

I’m not a big starch person. I like potatoes ok, but I’m mainly a pasta girl. I like quinoa (of course, it’s for lovers!) and I like wheatberries and cous cous. I do not like brown rice. I should also say, that while i like the above items, I feel overloaded by them when they appear in my diet every day. Oh man… especially bread. I learned recently how to make bread from scratch. I love making it, but I eat a slice for breakfast until it’s gone and then I really can’t eat it again for 2-3 weeks.

I know some people who could eat carbs til they are blue in the face, but I’ve never been a huge fan.

I am almost always hungry about an hour or two after I eat a meal. I don’t starve myself, I eat until I’m full, but I always have a hard time keeping full for more than 2 hours. I know it’s healthy to eat many small meals… but I’d be eating around 6 small meals a day if I did that.

Also, it’s a monetary issue. Some people say “it’s your health, it’s worth it!” Look… I’m on SNAP. I budget $50 a week for groceries. I take advantage of the farmer’s market and get $10 doubled once or twice a week (up to four times during the summer, that’s way easier!), but it’s very difficult. I’m lucky when I get all my meals for that amount between my local vegetarian grocery store and the farmers market.

I’m asking for tips from everyone out there: What are low cost, efficient ways I could stay full. I’m vegan for another week, and then I still want to eat like this as best possible. Please help!

And In The Beginning, There Was Food… And Holiday Weight Gain + RECIPE: Stir Fry with Avocado over Cous Cous

(Intended to be posted on the 2nd)

Parental Guidance Warning: This blog entry contains two pieces of foul language on account of eating terribly over the holidays. I think you’ll understand.

I stepped on the scale this morning, and I was really disappointed with myself. I gained 5 pounds in a week and a half.

::Shakes fist angrily in the air:: I let the holidays fuck up all my hard work for a month and a half.

Never has it been more clear to me why I need to maintain eating healthy food and exercising.

The Day Before the Day Before the Day: Re-Motivating

Dear January 2013,

I just completed a half hour walk with my partner, and we said something to eachother we haven’t had a chance to say for the last three weeks: “Hey, can we talk about my life?”

Starting the Transition

Update #1: Update to change all updates: Updates will become regular, starting this week.

In January, I will go completely vegan for one month. I already know the most difficult part for me will be not eating cheese. Especially because I cannot afford “faux” cheese. But, I do believe in trying to cut out as many processed foods as possible, so that’s good.

Day 1: Go Crazy

Hi. My name is Gina Caciolo. Here I am wearing a hat I crocheted out of sustainable eco-alpaca yarn and a shirt I bought at the thrift store Impact!

Today is my first day towards a life of change and healthy living. This past Saturday I was drinking wine with my loving partner. I went to the bathroom at a certain point, and stepped on the scale. What proceeded was a lot of tears, and eventually a few slow pouty steps back to the bedroom. When my parnter looked at me, he could tell immediately I’d been crying, and I told him I stepped on the scale in his bathroom and found that I had gained 40 pounds in the last 4 years (in fact 20 in just the last year.)

He sat next to me, and held me, and said, “Well, this is the moment that you have to remember. Be determined and move forward.” He was right. That was the moment I needed to say, “Stop saying you’re going to do something, and start doing it.”