Way of Life

[Caroveggie]

Breakfast: oatmeal, blueberries, soymilk.
Lunch: can of chickpeas with nutritional yeast
Dinner: broccoli & brown rice with sweet potato

Busy lately.

[Caroveggie]

I made a curry a few days ago. I'm having the last of it today for lunch. I think I want to get some fruit and keep it at my desk. Pears, bananas, maybe peaches and nectarines. They'd make a good snack.

My left foot is still a little out of whack. Not sure what I did to it. I haven't been running so I won't aggravate it. I did walk to work today though. I'm looking forward to swimming again soon, maybe Sunday. Let's hope it's warm in SF.

The latest Star McDougall video of the cancer survivor is quite inspiring.

I'm checking out different fat free vegan blogs that are out there for some more ideas for recipes. Although tonight I think I'll go back to one of my old standbys ~ baked brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar. What can I say. I'm a creature of habit. Yum. The newsletters, I notice, are full of recipes. So I should really look there. I'm just a sucker for easy stuff though.

I also want to take some yoga at the gym. Maybe tomorrow morning.

That's it for now.

[Caroveggie]

The weekend was busy, too busy to get any yoga in. I did finish writing an interview of an artist friend yesterday. I had some off-plan veg. food over the weekend at a party. So back to life:

B ~ oatmeal with blueberries
L ~ chickpeas with nutritional yeast
S ~ dried fruit nibbles

I have corn in the fridge I should eat for dinner, but I really feel like cooking brussel sprouts. Maybe I'll have them instead. I also have left-over veggie curry and brown rice. Maybe I'll have that for lunch tomorrow.

Tonight I think I'll go to the gym.

[Rosey]

mmmm I love brussel sprouts I should buy some more of those. HUGS!!!!

[Caroveggie]

Hi Rosey! Thanks for stopping by. Tonight would've been a good night for brussel sprouts but I ended up biking in the Mission. The weather has been unbelievably hot for SF. I didn't need a coat all day. I biked to work today and then biked to my non-existent screenwriters' meeting in the Mission, but I was the only one there at the cafe. (The meetings sometimes dwindle down to just a few people and they cancel it. I forgot to RSVP so that's why I didn't get the cancellation email. It's always because I check my email at work but meetup/facebook/etc. are blocked by my work. So I can't RSVP unless I check my email at home which I tend to not do. Tend to keep away from the computer after work is over. Anyway.)

I had a hummus plate at the cafe that was pretty good. The hummus might have had oil in it, but it wasn't super oily. The rest was pita bread, sprouts, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and some olives. It was pretty yummy.

Then I biked all the way home. I'm pretty slow on my bike and was feeling out of shape as all these other bikers passed me. It might be because my bike is heavier though.

It'd be a great night for a swim but I don't want to stay up late on buses mostly to get to the gym. Maybe tomorrow.

I've been wearing a pedometer. Yesterday was 11,000 steps. Today only 7,000. Biking works out to be a lot less steps. I'm going to shower and then I might take another walk to boost my steps. But probably not. I'm tired.

[Caroveggie]

I have the sniffles and a small cold. I worked the Castro St. Fair last Sunday (instead of seeing our dear Dr. McDougall at the Veg fest ) but at least this means I get tomorrow off. I really need it, this week has been dragging.

I ran out of chickpeas so I've been making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. Not the healthiest, I know. I haven't made it to Costco yet. Chickpeas are somewhat of a lunch staple for me. They go well with so many things.

Anyway, I think I've gained some peanut butter weight. It's also been cold and with this cough/cold I don't feel like getting exercise in the mornings, trying to get all the sleep I can. I tried sleeping upright in my recliner even yesterday. (Every time I lay down the nose plugs up.)

Did anyone see Dr. McDougall's talk? I'm sure it would have been inspiring. I did manage to see the nutrition facts.org guy the day before, but my weekend was too busy to see more than that.

Looking forward to 5pm! Hope everyone's enjoying their Thursday.

[Caroveggie]

For breakfast I am trying something different which is really good:

uncooked old fashioned oats
grapenuts (the cereal)
small apple chunks
cinnamon
soymilk

It's really good!

Today I might go to a farmer's market with a friend. In which case I want to get dry farmed tomatoes. I also want to work out.

[Caroveggie]

I got dry farmed tomatoes which are really good chopped with chickpeas. So that's what I had for lunch. Breakfast was the same as yesterday, apple, oats, grapenuts, and soymilk. I'm still hungry so I might have another can of chickpeas with chopped onion. Chickpeas. All I brought. Not sure what's for dinner but I do have some chard to cook up. Also lettuce. So I'll get greens in tonight. Think I will have more chickpeas. I was super sleepy this morning so no exercise (took the bus to work instead of walking). I might walk after work. I might go to a red box at Lucky's to rent a movie. Not sure what I want to see though.

[Caroveggie]

Happy Halloween everyone! Let's see who we've got.

smurf:
ninja:
Groucho Marx:
devil:

I'm not dressing for Halloween this year. My workplace is too corporate for that. After work I'm going to the East Bay to go trick or treating with my nephews.

In the lobby there's a bowl of yummy candies that I'm avoiding. I need to get in a healthier headspace where I don't even notice the treats.

For breakfast I had my usual uncooked oats, Grapenuts, blueberries, and soymilk. Yum. Lunch will be chickpeas and dry farmed tomatoes. Not sure what I'll have for dinner since I'm having it at my sister's. I'll try to be compliant. It's easier now that she's eating more veggies herself.

Hope people on the East Coast are doing all right.

[Caroveggie]

I am doing nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) so I am eating out of coffee shops every evening. I have never had so many veggie sandwich combinations in my life. There's with hummus, without hummus, with sprouts, no sprouts, etc. Each cafe makes them differently. Even without the mayo there's still the avocado and the bread... so not MWL and not low-fat.

I plan to get much healthier in December because I'll stop all the cafes and get moving. But for now I am enjoying all the writing I'm doing though, being lazy, sipping coffee, sitting on my behind.. and I'm halfway through my novel. We have to write 50K words and I just passed 25K last night. Woo-hoo! I am determined to finish!

See you in December when you can refer to me as "my novelist friend, Caroveggie..."

This is why I have to finish, no matter how weird my story turns out!

[Caroveggie]

Well I got to 35K in my novel and thought the quality was too poor to continue. I might have done it if it were nonfiction and about a vegan diet, I can talk or write a lot about that topic.

I've started studying for the CBEST (the basic skills test all California teachers have to pass). I'm passing the practice tests but not great on some of the math/probability questions. So I need to study more. I haven't set a date yet when I'll take the CBEST.

I also got a Groupon for a TESOL certification course that was only $69! Usual price $550! Awesome, huh? It's an 150 hour course and I just started it. So I can't tell if it expires at a certain time so I'm going to concentrate on getting the TESOL certification before it might expire on me and then go back to studying for the CBEST. TESOL is Teach English to Students of Other Languages.

As far as my diet, it has been pretty bad. With Nanowrimo and studying it's been easy cafe food but not the healthiest. So I'm going to try to fix that and start eating healthy again. I haven't been getting a lot of exercise lately either, just occasional walks to work or back home. So I'm feeling very sloth-ish.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend who is sort of naturally discovering a starch-based diet because meat upsets his stomach and he avoids dairy. He's practically McDougall except he likes fish. I always think about all the overfishing problems and ocean floor destruction. People think you need to eat fish for your brain but the truth is you don't and it has mercury. Besides, dead fish are very smelly.

[Caroveggie]

Yesterday I had my tooth implant and today I also have off work to recover. I am doing just fine.

Also yesterday I watched the colon youtube movie that someone posted in the Lounge. It was very interesting although at times completely gross. But it definitely is motivating and I decided to start today going back to strict McDougalling. The difference between a healthy colon and one even slightly unhealthy is night and day.

I'm on soft-ish food for a while while the tooth implant heals, and I don't think I'll have much of a problem with that. For instance this morning I had steel cut oats cooked with Very Cherry Berry mix from Trader Joe's added, a little soymilk, and a packet of raw sugar. It was delicious and completely soft to chew.

I'm already thinking about dinner and I think I'll make some curry lentils with sweet potato and maybe some cooked garlic spinach to go with it.

I didn't have lunch or dinner yesterday because of the surgery and now I'm pretty hungry. I had two big helpings of the oats at breakfast. I can't stop thinking about curry lentils and sweet potato.

So life is good.

[Caroveggie]

I've been enjoying steel cut oats and the Very Cherry Berry Mix every day for breakfast. I think it's my favorite breakfast aside from vegan french toast.

Tonight I'm going to have potatoes with split pea soup. The soup is pretty thick. Should be good.

[Caroveggie]

B: Sweet potato with cinnamon and salsa
L: Sweet potato with cinnamon and salsa

A simple yet tasty meal.

The salsa I had this time is from Costco. I get two big containers for pretty cheap, and they're no oil. They're pretty good. Casa Sanchez is also good but it's much more expensive.

I bought Dr. Novick's burger and fries DVD. I watched a little bit of it and then had to leave. I think it's great. I really want to try the Indian style burgers. Yum. I wish I could have one now.

After work (about an hour left), I'm going to walk to Albertson's and get curry powder. I'm all out. Too bad I don't have my pull-cart though, only my backpack, which means I can't really do much shopping. Oh well. I really only need the curry anyways. I can do more shopping closer to home with the pull cart afterwards.

Unfortunately I will have to miss the McDougall meal in Santa Rosa. I was looking forward to connecting with old friends again and meeting new people. My friend is having a birthday party in the East Bay. So instead of having my choice of a full menu, I'll be eating beforehand and nibbling. Ah well. Life as a McDougaller. Luckily I am getting more and more turned off by fatty foods so I don't mind and it's a nice test of my will power too.

[Caroveggie]

Last night I had veg curry with rice and bread. Plenty of starches there.

This morning I had a little bit of oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch will be leftover curry.

Going to read journals for more inspiration.