Day 3

Okay. It pains me to say this but this does not suck.

My son, Quattro and I have two days of vegan (plant based) eating under our belts.
This thing all started when I was reading about Jay Z and Beyonce going on a 21 day vegan "cleanse".
You can read all about it in a previous post, but basically I challenged myself after a friend pointed out how easy this diet/cleanse/whatever would be for someone like them. They don't shop, cook, clean or have to wrangle the whole deal with their kids climbing up their leg while they are trying to rinse the quinoa or the fact that they don't have three kids that need to eat before they have time to make their "green monster" drink.

SO, anyway... I got to thinking that it must be hard for people, normal people, to get this kind of lifestyle under their belts. Whether it be for a lifetime or for a little time. I have been on a quest to find something that will help me lose weight, as with my third child I just sort of got stuck with some lbs that I loathe. I don't hate the way I look but this is not my body... it just isn't.

Okay. Back to the food.

I went to the store set out to fill my house with things that are strictly plant based and living in Seattle, there are so many options, it is a wonder why it would ever be a problem. The closer I looked at stuff labeled "vegan" and "gluten free", I noticed that it was full of other crap. Chemicals in fact. So this quickly changed the way I wanted to do things. I went from being curious about ready to eat, so I could actually accomplish this "challenge", to knowing that I would be making everything.  Like, everything.
My diet is consisting of almond, rice and soy milk. I use it to make things more than eat, so I know that I am getting calcium but there's nothing like cow milk. I love it. Lots of greens. Spinach to cooking nad for the morning smoothie. Quinoa and lots and lots of veggies and beans.
I made a huge batch of hummus. I didn't have any tahini so I just used a little grape seed oil and 2 lemons, roasted red pepper. It was amazing. I am eating some right now with plantain chips and carrots.

I am going to stop right here and just say that I know how this sounds. It sounds crazy and a month ago I never thought about animal products being "bad" and I don't think they are bad but I do think (hope) that they are linked to my lack of weight loss. That is what this is about. I want to shed pounds to feel better. My baby is 20 months old. I am still breastfeeding so dieting isn't something I feel comfortable doing- I don't believe diets work. I think if you change the problem you change the outcome.
Will I become vegan forever. No. Probably not. Will I have a better sense of what is working for my body and what isn't? I hope so.

So back to the food...

Starting with cheese. There are many vegan "cheese" products and they sound disgusting. After a little research I found that if you soak cashews (or any raw nut) that you can blend the shit out of it with some nutritional yeast (weird?) and a little water and lemon, you can have some "veese" as we are calling it. It is gross right off the bat but when you get it nice and cold, it changes it's texture and therefore the experience is better. It's rich and that is a good sub for cheese. Is it better? Hell no.

Sauteed cabbage is one of my favorite things. I slice it thick and use balsamic and oil and put it with everything. Over quinoa is my favorite right now.
Yesterday we made split pea "stew". I used one whole sweet onion with olive oil and chili powder. I added two sweet potatoes, a bag of dried split peas, large can of my favorite tomatoes, 4 cups of water and it was amazing. Amazing. The kids made crispy cornbread, so we all ate vegan and gluten free and it was simply delicious. (the only thing we did different was when we flipped it, I put it directly on the oven rack and let it broil until it was starting to char- about 8 minutes).


I have three kids, so ridding my house of dairy, meat and wheat isn't something I can do. Although we do eat a relatively clean diet, animal products are a plenty. Kids drink milk, eat yogurt by the tub. And cheese? Please. It goes on everything. So this journey is more about not eating it than not having it. Making the kids eggs in the morning is rough and the quesadilla was looking pretty good but I am determined to make this work. I want to know if it works.

The one thing I know for sure is that I feel less bloated. That's gross but I do. My stomach feels lighter and I am not lacking energy at all. I need to drink more water, I need to do that for sure.

Stay tuned.

Go check out our family podcast on itunes, The Spaghetti Family Podcast and visit our website too!

Jay Plea- Z

So I have been reading and watching all the "news" (ha!) about Beyonce and JayZ's diet. Their vegan diet to be exact. I guess they went on a 22 day vegan diet to better their health and after reading about it, I have come to the conclusion it is to better their wealth.

I know what you are thinking, "OF COURSE IT IS!" but I am just a ridiculous consumer and I will believe stuff like that. My cousin is vegan (like a real vegan) and so this didn't sound insane to me really, I am all for wellness. Mental and physical. I am currently on the quest to lose the rest of my baby weight. I will be real, I weighed 190 when I had Z. 190!! I am pretty comfortable at 140-145 lbs normally and lets just say I have a ways to go. Like a long ways.

So I have begun my quest to find a better way to lose weight and to just be healthier in general. When you have a kid you slowly start to think about all of that, when you have 3 you quickly realize you need to be on top of your game and I have found myself out of steam sometimes.

I have no interest in dieting. Like weight watchers and that stuff. No thanks. No judgement but no thanks. I like to eat healthy. I am not a label reader nazi but that is because I usually don't buy things with too many things on the label. We eat a lot of whole foods (don't interpret Whole Foods the grocery store- that's for another blog. We like to call it "Whole Paycheck")
Anyway, I make 3 meals a day but we aren't opposed to ordering pizza, grabbing Chinese or cereal for dinner. I am healthy, not crazy. I don't buy a lot of candy but that doesn't mean I don't like candy.

But it has occurred to me (the last time I put on my, snug, size 10/12 jeans) that I might need to do a little something extra. The first and most obvious thing was to stop ordering pizza for dinner. Done. I no longer picked up take out and I stopped eating cereal altogether. Like seriously. I stopped eating bread. I thought it would be hard but turns out it really isn't. I still eat whatever meat and dairy I want so I am doing pretty good. Oh and I stopped sugar. That was tougher. I use that super yummy (crappy) creamer in my coffee. I put sugar in my tea (and milk). So that was rough but after a day or two it wasn't so bad. I miss tortillas. Today I made the kids some quesadillas for lunch and snuck a bite or two and it was so good. BUT I am on a mission. I am on a m=other fucking mission.

Do I want to be a gluten free, sugar free, vegan? No.

Do I think I should try it? Yes.

Back to Jay Z.

So I am reading about this vegan 22 day diet and I am thinking this guy is pretty great. He was turning 44 and he just wanted to give his body a flush. He wanted to cleanse himself of animal products, what he was doing (with his lady) sounded cool. It wasn't a diet bar they were trying to sell. There were no meals that would get delivered to my house... I thought it was a real thing. Real people doing a real thing and I liked it.

Then my friend started pointing out that they have chefs and nannies and they don't go shopping or clean up. This is something that they can do because someone does it for them... she was right. She IS right. They don't have to do anything and so I was immediately challenged. I was immediately in.

With more investigation I have found out that J & B are probably doing this for money. Their friend hosts this website that IS THE 22 DAY VEGAN CHALLENGE. Say what now?
You mean they are not only NOT doing this all themselves, the cooking, cleaning, shopping (with kids)... AND THEY ARE GETTING PAID?!

Well shit.
Lucky them.

I'm not. Or, I am. I am not getting paid and I am doing it alone.
22 days? Probably not. 7? Hell yes.

Tonight I bought every vegan item I could find. I am actually surprised at everything out there. But that sort of takes away from my low processed food. Everything is made from plants into something else, so it is really processed. Or it can be.
I didn't buy the butter. I use coconut oil instead of butter already. And I LOVE butter but CO is better for me. I heard there is a cheese that is pretty good, but the two words "pretty good" better be no where near my cheese. I love cheese and I would rather go without.

I bought an ass load of veggies. Zucchini, spinach, carrots, broccoli. Lentils and beans, some tofu... the milks they have out there. I love the coconut milk by Silk, its so good. SO GOOD. Like a dessert.

Anyway, I am starting on Monday.