This month, I learned it’s incredibly difficult for me to budget my time the way I thought I could.
Like… incredibly difficult.
Tag Archives: vegetarian
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 “I-Don’t-Remember-What-Day”: Starting Over, Tonight, Tonight
I tried very hard to live off of a plant-based whole foods diet. I was successful for about two weeks, and really “success” is a bit of a stretch. I ate a little cheese here and there.
But living on the poverty wage makes it extremely difficult to eat the food I want to eat.
Professionally, I work with the Development & Program Directors at Dwight Hall at Yale through the New Haven Education Initiative, AmeriCorps VISTA program in New Haven, CT. The VISTA program specifically means Volunteers In Service to America. I take the same oath as the President of the United States. And I earn a stipend based subsistence pay that is adjusted to the poverty line in my area. In New Haven, this means between $11k-$12k for the year.
I am not complaining about the wage. I signed up, knowing I would earn that wage. I merely mean that because of this wage, I qualify for food stamps, aka EBT or SNAP.
In some ways, I am very lucky. New Haven has a series of farmer’s markets that run year round. CitySeed, who run these farmer’s markets, have an amazing initiative to get SNAP recipients to the farmer’s market: they double your amount up to $10. The extra amount, up to $10, has to be spent on produce. I love that. But organic prices can still be difficult to maneuver around, even when you are getting double your money each day you go to the market.
Also, I forgot to mention, I’m trying to diet. I recently invested in appx 40 Lean Cuisine meals. My boyfriend’s parents bought me a step, which is my favorite form of exercise.
Lean Cuisine does not a whole food plant based diet make.
This blog will now be used to update, from time to time, about my thoughts, and complex difficulties with eating low fat, meat-included diets vs a whole food plant-based diet.
There are also variations of both that confuse that crap out of me.
Tonight, I start keeping track of my meals. Tonight, I start exercising on the regular. Tonight, I keep checklists to organize my life.
Tonight, I start a blog version of the debate in my head over a practical life of including whole foods, and specifically organic foods. Oh, and trying to figure out if that means including meat. Oh, and if that means including dairy.
Day 6 & 7: Volunteering Is My New Favorite Thing
On Saturday September 29th, I volunteered at CitySeed (http://cityseed.org/) for the first time. I spent three hours at the Wooster Square Farmer’s Market helping Nadine Nelson (http://about.me/NadineNelson) with her demonstration on tomato curry chutney.
While working with her, I learned a few really awesome techniques. She said with chutneys, it’s all about just putting everything in the pot together and letting it boil down and get thick. The portion of produce can be substituted out with other produce. For instance, we made tomato chutney, but you can make plum by substituting in the same amount of plums as you did tomatoes. Below are the photos I took while helping her:
Day 3&4: Compromise, But Not Too Much
I have maintained eating a plant-based diet, and I met some of my new goals with exercise. Today, and yesterday I walked for the full hour over my lunch break. It was invigorating, and I was happier after. In fact I even felt more productive at work!
But after I got home, and helped my partner through a difficult day, I spent an hour making a salsa from scratch, sour no-cream (tofu), pitted and sliced two avocados, and shredded pepper jack almond cheese. And then, because I had forgotten to preheat the oven, I microwaved two bake potatoes to put all of my toppings on. After I did, I took a big bite… and almost threw up. It tasted disgusting. I thought, at first, it was the sour cream. Then, I took a bite of the potato, and realized it was the potato. It was totally disgusting. It was too late to take it back to the grocery store, so I didn’t really have anything to eat.
Quinoa is for Lovers 