So, being a vegetarian can be confusing! lol. Some people count eggs, some do not. I got two vegetarian cookbooks from the library only to see TONS of recipes WITH eggs. I didn't get it. To me, how would an egg be ok, but a little chicken NOT ok? So, I looked it up. I guess you can go either way. This is why lots of people are vegan I guess, because why stop there, why not avoid anything that hurts anything else? So...my thought was I'll STILL do the egg thing, only because I had already had pasta (made with, yeah, egg) and I thought I was doing well, so I will just cut out eggs June 9th when my month "no meat" goes to straight up Vegan.
I am officially "meat free" though. I had a CHANCE to eat some meat FOR FREE (had coupons) this weekend, but I couldn't do it. Shane ate it. Was for some McD's food (not very veggie friendly, I must say, at least BK has a veggie burger!)- some might ask me what the diff is if I see SHANE eat it instead of me, it's going to be eaten anyway... here's the diff: I don't want to. To me, it's no longer something I'm okay doing. If others want to eat anything and everything, feel free. But, I just choose not to. And, that's all.
So, word of my new "lifestyle" has been taken in very different ways so far. (i've been using quotations alot in this post so far...lol).
I've had the SUPER supportive, from my buddy John who send me links of an enormous wealth of info for me to be more knowledgeable. I've had regular support from my mom: "Try it for a month, if it works great, if it doesn't, there's nothing wrong with going back" and I've had the OPPOSITE of support from my sister. lol. I think this was her reaction,
"WHAT?!!---(insert loud laugh)--- Yeah! Right! Good luck with that, You won't last a day!"
She said that to me on day 2, so at least I'd already proved her wrong...lol.
But, I don't care, behind me or not it's already been an interesting journey. One of my first vegetarian meals was me making up some vegetable soup for lunch (I usually have cereal or oatmeal for breakfast, so I don't have to worry much in that category). As soon as my soup is heated and I'm seconds from taking a bite, Shane says,
"What's the base for that broth?"
I look down at the label. First ingredient? Chicken broth. I groan.
Straight to the internet I go. Is chicken broth vegetarian? I looked lots of places because as much as I figured it probably wasn't, I didn't know if it was just "flavored as chicken" you know? Nope, I couldn't eat it.
So, Shane enjoyed my veggie soup. It's okay though, because then creativity got the best of me and I wanted to make a yummy meal, not just some soup. I opened my bag of brown rice (had it for 3 years, OPENED it for the first time! lol) and cooked up 1/2 cup of rice. Then I added in a can of french style green beans, and an once of cheese. Stirred it all up and cheesy, rice, and beansy was my meal.
And, quite a tasty one!
I know eventually I won't have cheese, and that will be a weird day (imagining pizza....) but I've come to terms with it, and I'll be okay with that.
I bought a little frozen lasagna entree that's supposed to be meatfree and organic. The picture looks really good. I'll let you know how that was later... :)
I feel like trying all these new things will be a trial and error process. I'm actually excited about discovering new dishes and recipes. I've learned about "roulades" which is a fancy looking dish that's meat free, that I can't wait to make. (it looks like a swirl/wrap of prettiness when you're done.)
Okay, well, any mothers' out there, I hope you had a great weekend, a great Sunday in particular. I did! :) I ate one too many cookies, but oh well, they were delicious. How I lost weight, I'm not sure. I won't blame it on not eating meat, because I ate LOADS of cookies and I'm pretty sure calorie-wise my cookies were worse than a prime rib would've been. But, maybe I'll see a gain tomorrow. We'll see I guess.
Have a great brand-new week! Love you all!
ash

weight: 137.0 (not sure how that happened. was very gluttenous yeserday)

lbs left to hit goal: 2

time left to hit goal: 11 days

Oh, and here's my latest progree picture. This is me yesterday for M-day getting ready to go out. We were going to go to dinner, but ended up eating at home. But we bought treats like cookies and pie.

Okay, so here goes. I usually say what's on my mind and in my heart. Why should I hold back now? Something really big is going to change in my life, so why not share my story? It's something not alot of people understand, so think what you want, to each their own.
I'm going to become a Vegan.
Not a weird sign toting hippie that condemns others or anything like that. I don't think I'm "better" than anyone or "healthier" than anyone. This has actually been coming in my mind for awhile, I just never liked that many veggies to think I could commit to it properly. (I prefaced it with a warning because so far the responses have been, "UH, WHY?" and enter strange look/tone)
I've read "Fast Food Nation," which put me off fast-food burgers and "Skinny Bitch" which wanted to put me off all food, lol. These were read within the last 6 months, and lately with my experimenting and trying new foods, I looked into vegetarianism (sp????). It's something I tried as a kid, but with your parents cooking for you, things get difficult to control your food. When Shane and I would do long road trips, I'd look out at pastures when driving by cattle or whatnot, and I'd say, "one day I'm going to stop eating meat".
Well, that day has come and I start tomorrow (today technically). I heard of a site that eases you into becoming a vegetarian, and I figured if I had some help (menus, recipes, facts, things to order at a restaurant, etc) i'd be in good shape. Here's the thing: I've never liked that idea that when I'm "eating meat" i can visualize the animal walking around and having a life BUT then it's gone because I'm eating it. I've never enjoyed that feeling.
Shane gave me some funny looks today when I told him of this plan, and I said, "listen, I'm doing this for animals. Not for weight loss, not for attention, and I won't push it on you. BUT, you know my feelings now, so the only thing I want from you is understanding and support."
Maybe it was looking at one too many pictures of animals in slaughterhouses, maybe it was the fact that I don't even like killing flies if I can help it, maybe it was lots of things combined, but I'm FINALLY going to act on it.
If you'd like to follow my journey, I will continue to blog and it will be a strange transition, but one that I look forward to, not fear. The other day, the fact that I ate all these peppers that I used to *think* I hated let me know I could do it. The only thing out there that I really DON'T like is officially an onion. And ONLY raw onions. Grilled ones, I like. lol.
So, this is the plan: For the next month I will be vegetarian. That means NO meat or eggs. AFTER that one month, if it was as easy as I actually think it will be, I want to continue and become a vegan, which will mean that I don't eat anything to do with animals. No milk, cheese, egg/egg white, etc. Some might say that "milk doesn't hurt an animal" or you "need protein" but go to "goveg.com" and you will read things that inspired me to make my decision. So, I signed the pledge they have on that site and starting here and now (may 9th now) for one month it will go. wish me luck, though I don't need this. I'm doing it for my soul, so I can't see anything going wrong. lol.
love you all, and don't worry, i'll never get preachy, BUT i might share facts that i learn, and i don't expect you to agree/disagree, i will simply share knowledge that I get and if you keep an openmind, that's all I hope for.
Have a good and happy friday today all of you,
Ash

weight: 139.5 as i assumed

lbs to hit goal: 4.5

time to hit goal: 2 weeks from today

Happy things:
Well, I got into the 130s. Exciting as it is, it also makes me nervous. I've gotten this far before and it's where I fell apart and went the other way. Now, where as before, holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas didn't help AT ALL! This time, I don't have anything coming up, and again that gets me all fired up and excited about hitting goals I haven't made it to yet.
Today I woke up and was 139.4, I was 138.2 yesterday, but went out to eat. Although today I ate MORE THAN PERFECT!!!!!- I feel like I'm still "bigger", ever just "feel" like that? So, if I didn't drop any tomorrow I won't be surprised. It might just be yesterdays going out to eat STILL catching up to me, and then in that case, I deserve it. This week I've been eating really well and hitting the gym really consistently. I didn't log much into my Traineo account because I'll do like 5-6 exercises and it only gives me room for 3, and I keep a home log anyway. But...I still log my weight because that's fun to watch drop whereever possible!
Fun things:
Today at the gym I did something EVEN more daring and neat than I'd expect myself to do. I told you guys that I like to run on an incline of 2.0 for the first song on my mp3, then after that I run normal to feel like I was gliding on air. WELL, the other day we're at the gym and Shane really wants to get out of there. I was doing my usual "incline walking" on random. He said I should run it. He was joking and I was like, "I couldn't do that!" and he said, "why not?" and with that for SOME reason I hit the 5.0 button and my speed went from 2.5 to jogging at 5.0 over an incline of anywhere from 5.0 to 15.0 (although on the 15.0 I hit the calorie goal I set up and THANKFULLY could get off!) BUT...this got me thinking. Everyday I run a mile. At least. It's like me showing myself I can always do it. It's been getting easier and more boring, but I do it anyway. Today I wondered how long I could last running on random at level 6- (that's inclines from 0.8 to 4.6) and I ran 1.20 miles doing that the WHOLE time. NOT just the first song, NOT just ONLY one mile, but til I hit my calorie goal of 150 I'd set up on that machine. Now, I know to non-treadmill people everything I just went on and on about sounded like this,
"blah, blah, incline, blah 2.0, blah, treadmill, blah random",
but to those of you who know what I'm talking about, hopefully you understand why I was so pround of myself. WEIRDEST of all? I thought it was fun. I liked watching the little meters fill up as I ran up the mini hills. I plan to do it again, and now that I'm getting lighter, anything that helps me burn MORE calories is a GOOD thing. :)
So, that was my day. Nothing else really. Shane grilled out today and offered me grilled burgers and baked beans about a hundred times. I kept saying no, although when he brought them in with the cheese all melted, I did have a quick temptation, but I didn't give in. I made up some chicken breast that I seasoned, and tossed it with green, red, yellow peppers, and broccoli. Like stir fry without the soy sauce OR rice. It was GOOD, and I made too much because I had to put half in the fridge. I ate 3 hours ago and I STILL feel full. That's always a good thing. lol.
Okay, that's it for me today.
Love ya'll!
ash

weight: 139.4

lbs left to mini-goal: 4.4 (woo-hoo!)

time left to try to hit mini-goal: 2 weeks 2 days. (do-able.)

First I'm going to address the comments I got, to the first one: Yes, for SURE I was eating enough. Thinking now, maybe it was too much. I'd been eating 1500 calories a day and working out bout 400 calories off. That brings me into what I want to say about the second comment. I think that MY body (everyone is different) DOES need me to do MORE than that to lose weight. Since I always seem to come to the 140s, and it's where I've been whenever I haven't been huge, I think my body looks at it right now as the "set point". So, for me to *think* I was eating great and working out. It was probably more of a maintanence thing to my body. The second I kicked it up, and dropped my calories to 1200, my body is NOW responding. John, I think you're totally right. For ME, I think I need to have a HUGE amount of cardio and always be on point with my eating, otherwise my body won't gain, but won't lose.
So....that's ok. Now that I realize that, it's not so frustrating. Also, since I lost back that annoying pound, I'm also not as annoyed. ALSO, today I woke up feeling GREAT. I feel like I'm starting to get toned again and I *feel* stronger and all that. It's a great feeling. I don't even care what the scale said today, my body *feels* good. lol.
But enough about all that mumbo-jumbo.
I have a roadblock, but I'm going to look at it as a "challenge". Tomorrow, Shane's parents are coming into town and want to take the family out to dinner. Going out to eat is SOOOO hard on me if it isn't Applebees. (if it is, then forget it! I'm set! I LOVE their weight watchers menu!)But if it isn't.... urg. So...THIS is how I'm going to look at it. IF I can get through tomorrow, ordering something sensible, like a LONG time ago when I was in the zone: then I'll be fine. That is my challenge.
I accept.

I'm in a goofy mood today.
Anyway, that's it for my ramblings. I'm going to get the kids dressed and then hit the gym. (we're going twice today!) Yesterday I ran 1.5 miles non-stop, and I LOVE that my endurance it coming back. I don't know if this will help anyone (but it helps me, so i'll share it) but I listen to my mp3 while I run and for the first song I run on 5.5 at a 2.0 incline for the WHOLE first song. When you tell yourself you only have to make it through one song, it's easy to get through it. THEN, at the beginning of the second song, I turn the incline back to 0, and it feels like you're just gliding because of the incline shift. I do that everyday now, AND it burns a few extra calories.
So, anyway, I'm going to get the kids dressed like I said. Have a great humpday!!
ash

weight: 142.8

lbs left to hit mini-goal: 7.8

time left to hit mini-goal: 3 weeks 2 days

*OH* and at the circus I DID bring my own snacks (apple that I ate and 100 calorie cheese nip pack, that the kids ended up eating...)and a big bottle of water. I didn't eat bad there EVEN WHEN leaving Shane told me to get some cotton candy if i wanted some. I said no.

Today was frustrating. ALL weekend to Shane's talk of thickburgers, pizza, McD's....etc, I said NO. I didn't eat bad once. I hit the gym everyday. Well, guess what? Appearantly with MY body that equals GAINING weight. It's annoying to say the very least. SO...today I pumped it up and did a nice calorie blasting cardio AND strength training. (over 1000 calories burned!) I even did something I've been wanting to for quite a while now, run 1/2 a mile without stopping at 7.0 on the treadmill (that's 1/2 a mile in 4 mins 17 seconds) Well, I DID it. My endurance is getting much better, I did that half mile run after my normal daily mile run. So...all that is positive and me gaining weight today was negative, but oh well. Tomorrow is a new day.
Tomorrow should be a fun exciting day, we are taking the kids to the circus, and that is always FUN. We haven't been since Jordyn was about 2 1/2 and John was so little he slept through the entire thing. So, that should be fun. Hopefully the snacks and treats don't smell TOO delicious. I'm such a snacker! It's horrible! lol.
Anyway, I'm STILL going to try for my goal of mid-130s for the weight competition between Shane and I. I know it's seeming even more ambitious, but if I'm not doing anything wrong, then I can only hope that soon enough my weight loss speaks for itself, and maybe my body was stalling for some crazy reason. Okay everyone, hope you had a good weekend. :)
ash

weight: 143.8

lbs to go: 8.8

time left to hit goal: 3 and 1/2 weeks.