Day 25 - Portion Control

I went out to eat at Moe's tonight. It's a burrito joint. I used to get a full burrito crammed with stuff and then I would eat a side of chips with queso. Today I got two tacos with chips. It was a much more reasonable amount of food. To be honest, one taco would probably have been fine. I'm getting a much better handle on portion control. This seems crazy that I even have to talk about this, but when you're eating fatty, salty foods, you're never really full until you're over full. 

Day 24 - Still Going

I don't have much to post, but I wanted to affirm that I'm still making progress.  I'm down 16.8 lbs and I haven't cheated yet.  I'm totally gonna do this thing.

Day 21 - I Think I'm Changing

I just got back from having lunch with a colleague at the small cafeteria where I work. Something struck me while I was there. I ordered a spinach wrap with lettuce, tomato and pickles. On the side was a small bag of Lay's Chips and a pickle spear. This was a pretty small wrap. About 2/3 of the way through I felt stuffed. I kept eating it so as not to waste it and now my stomach hurts.

The change is in how I'm approaching food. This going to sound ridiculous, but I'm 3 weeks in and this is the first time in the 3 week period that I've felt overfull. It's unpleasant. It's also not new. Not that I've been "clean" for 3 weeks, I realize that I used to be overfull pretty much all the time. I used to eat way too much food. I used to hit the point where I was full and then finish whatever I had... and then maybe have dessert. Right now, all I can think is that there's no way I'm eating dinner tonight. This would never have happened a month ago.

I'm really happy about the change. I'm seriously considering staying Vegan, or at least 95% vegan + fish or something. I'm sure there's a name for that. The benefits to my weight and the way I feel are to good to throw away for a cheap hamburger.

Current Weight: 220 lbs

Day 20 - Today is Hard

Today is hard as crap.  It's just been rough and most news is bad news.  However...

Day 20 - Vegan Fish is Gross

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. We went to the grocery store last week and bought an assortment of pre-prepared vegan foods. Beer brats, fish patties, chicken patties. That sort of thing. All made with some sort of unholy melange of vegetable protein strands.

I tried the fish patties last night. I had to toast some bread and drown them in ketchup to make them edible. I cooked two of them for a grand total of 360 calories. I didn't want to throw away food, so I ate them both. I was actually over full from eating what would have been a meal prelude a month ago. I'm actually still hurting a little this morning.

Fake food is a terrible idea. If you're going to go vegan, just embrace it and eat "normal" foods that are vegan to begin with. Make a nice curry. Eat some stir fry. Don't eat fake meats and fake cheese.

Current Mood: Grumbly
Current Weight: 221.0 lbs (13.2 lbs lost so far this month)

Day 19 - I feel Like Crap

Yesterday was pretty rough.  Today seems even worse.  My stomach is killing me and my head is throbbing.  And I can't sleep.  I laid awake until maybe 3 AM with the TV on and now it's 7:42 AM as I type this.  I've read that a lot of people who go Vegan get sick over the course of the first month or so.  I'm really hoping this is just something I ate and not a longer term thing.  I totally called out sick today, which sucks because I only have 3 more days I can use for the rest of the year.  You always want to use your days off for fun things...  like pretending to be sick!

Day 18

Long fucking day. Needed comfort food. Did NOT cheat. That is all.

Day 17 - Preperation is Key

I went to an all day party/event today and didn't adequately prepare for it.  I knew that food was going to be provided and I thought to myself, "you'll just eat the cut up veggies and maybe go get a granola bar or something."

Didn't happen.

All that was available was pizza and cake.

Literally nothing else.

So by the time I got home I was starving.  I had made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich early this morning and forgotten about it.  I tore into that thing when I got home.

On the upside, it was a really fun event.  I have a friend who runs a gaming store and I'll be helping him plan and execute some all day type events.  We'll even be throwing a midnight release rave night next month.  I just know now that for these all day type events, I'll need to plan ahead and bring food to eat.

It might be worthwhile looking into keeping some granola bars or something in my car.  That obviously won't work with the summer heat, but come fall I don't see why it should be an issue.

Also, I'm almost below 220.  This is historically the weight limit below which I don't store nearly as much.

Day 16 - Restaurants :(

I went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. There were two things on the menu I could eat. Fried mushrooms and applesauce. The fried mushrooms were burnt and the applesauce was, well, applesauce. Being vegan requires better planning. I should never have gone there.

Day 15 - Still Going Strong

Including July 31st, today is the halfway point. I'm certain the second half is going to be easier. I've tried new things and lost over 12 lbs so far. All in all, this has been a very positive experiment. I'll post more tomorrow morning.

Day 14 - Tofurkey Apocalypse

These things are effing terrible.  They don't taste anything like real brats.  Do not, repeat, do not purchase these weird, fake meat tofurkey beer brats.  Just make some Indian food, or a nice stir fry.  Make something that is intended to be made with veggies.

Again, these things taste awful.  I couldn't even get a whole one down.  I ate maybe a little more than 50%.

Day 14 - Weight Update

Oh yeah, I'm down to 222.6 lbs. Down 11.6 lbs overall so far.

Day 14 - In Which We Successfully Avoid Unlucky 13

So, I'm totally superstitious enough that I didn't post anything on day 13. I know this is crazy, but I have a couple of weird, almost OCD like superstitions.

1. I will not start anything on the 13th of the month. I don't know why. I guess growing up being told that the 13th is unlucky just worms it's way into your brain.
2. I don't pick up face down pennies. If I'm at a store, am exactly 0.01 USD short for a purchase and see a penny facedown on the floor, I'm not making that purchase. I have this weird theory on pennies and luck. If you drop a penny accidentally and it lands face down, you're divesting yourself of bad luck. If you drop a penny accidentally and it lands face up, you're divesting yourself of good luck. When someone else picks up the penny, they get your good or bad luck as the case maybe. This keeps balance in the universe so far as luck is concerned. Now, I know this is crazy. I know this isn't the way things really work. But at the same time, I don't pick up face down pennies. One an interesting side note, if you accidentally drop a penny and it lands face down, you CAN immediately pick it up as your luck would stay in balance. You know, in case you were wondering how much I've though about this.

Day 12 - Tired, but Can't Sleep

I've been finding it harder to get a good night's sleep lately.  I stay up to late and then I toss and turn and have pretty vivid dreams.  The problem is that I'm dreaming about eating something and then I freak out because I know I need to weigh myself in the morning...  and clearly if I'm eating in my dreams, I'll weigh more in the morning.  I realize this is crazy, but there you have it.

I'm also not entirely certain I want to go to sleep.

Day 12 - Project Time

I'm totally going to try and make these.

http://hellyeahitsvegan.com/vegan-cadbury-creme-eggs/

Day 12 - Almond Milk

Let it be known...

UNFLAVORED ALMOND MILK IS BETTER THAN SOY MILK.

Buy this stuff if you need milk on your cereal.

Or better yet, eat something that doesn't require milk. I've found forcing a vegan diet to conform to a non-vegan diet selection results in some foods that are pretty terrible. Fake bacon is gross. Fake meat is gross. Fake cheese is gross. Delicious vegan/vegetarian options that aren't pretending to me non-vegan are delicious. A good amount of Indian cuisine is fair game. Same with Thai, Japanese and Korean. There are a fair number of African dishes as well, depending on the country. Every cuisine on the planet has at least some options that are amazing... except maybe Southern cooking in the US. I think they put butter and bacon grease into everything.

Current Mood: Killcrushing It
Current Weight: 223.2 lbs (11 down)

Day 11 - 10 lbs

It's hard to believe, but I've dropped a little over 10 lbs in just 12 days (since I really started tracking on Day Zero).  I feel generally healthier and it's really nice to get comments about how I look like I've lost weight.  It's nice to receive encouragement when you're doing something tough.

It's actually getting much easier.  I bought Sabra "Supremely Spicy Hummus".  I'm pretty psyched.  I think one of my coping mechanisms for not being able to eat meat or dairy is to make everything spicier.  It's working out pretty well.

On a totally unrelated note, I just found out that my newish car has free Sirius Satellite Radio until October 7th.  I went through the setup steps earlier today and it's pretty awesome.  I felt like this:

Day 10 - I Dream of Moe's

I went to Moe's last night for dinner.  It's a burrito place kind of like California Tortilla or Chipotle if you're not familiar with it.  The options were awesome.  They actually had tofu as one of the protein choices.  They also had fresh sliced jalapenos and sauteed mushrooms in addition to the normal array of toppings.  I'll definitely be going back and will have no problem at all going vegan when I do.

Also, now that I'm roughly a third of the way through this month long experiment, I want to share my weight loss progress.

Day 10 Weight Loss Progress Chart

I think the first three days were just my body cycling out the mass of heavy foods and replacing them with healthier foods that cycle out quicker.  That would explain the quick weight loss.  The next 2 days were reasonable.  Then I ate an entire bag of potato chips and a bunch of other snacky foods and spike two pounds in one day.  Past that, I've seen a steady, but reasonable loss.  I'm not sure how long this will go one for, but clearly my new diet has a different equilibrium weight that I'll eventually get to.  Seeing this sort of progress really motivates me to stick with this.

Last, but not least, a friend sent me this.  I thought it was funny.

Day 9 - One More

I think this is what a lot of people do...

Day 9 - Up And At 'Em

Not much to say this morning. I ran across this image and thought it suited my experience thus far pretty well.

That is all.

Current Weight: 226.0 lbs
Current Mood: Too early to be awake, much less have a mood

Day 8 - One Week Crushed

This whole vegan thing is actually getting a little easier. I picked up some more of those Odwalla brand Blueberry Swirl bars. Those things really get your through the day. I also picked up some "Certified Vegan" mac and chreese boxes. I didn't spell that wrong by accident. Chreese. Evidently, it's made mostly of nutritional yeast. I'm gonna give it a go tonight. I'm curious to see what it tastes like and I never, ever would have bothered to try it if I wasn't doing this vegan thing. Also, despite being "Certified Vegan", I could find no evidence of a certifying agent or organization. I think they just certified themselves. Maybe I'll do the same. Meet the new and improved Kris... no Certified Vegan.

I'm meeting a friend after work today. Normally we'll go out to eat somewhere - generally fast food or similar. I'm not actually sure what I can eat. His favorites have zero vegan options. It's not like Taco Bell has a soy crumble and nutritional yeast strand taco. And if they did, who would eat it? Their food is low enough on the totem pole as it is.

On the upside, my energy levels are getting back to a normal level. I've started walking/jogging again instead of lounging on the couch. I'm up to 430km for the year so far.

Current Mood: Upbeat
Current Weight: 226.8

Day 7 - Harder Than Expected

So, this is totally harder than I expected it to be. I seriously considered cheating yesterday. I was on the way home and thought to myself, "I could stop and grab a burger. I have cash. Noone would know."

But then my internal competitive natured kicked in with two points to add. One: I would know. Two: If I'm going to fail this challenge, it's sure as shit not going to be over a crap, fast food burger. If I go down, I'm going down in a bacon wrapped, perfectly charred blaze of glory. The blaze of glory will probably also be covered in cheese.

Instead, I stopped at the grocery and picked up a box of those Boca fake chicken patties. Now, these things actually taste like "real" chicken patties. I put the real in quotes, because the "real" patties have been processed to the point where there is no real chicken flavor or texture left. The fact that it's easy to replicate without meat speaks more to the low quality of the meat product and less to the ingenuity of the Boca company. Don't ever buy these. Make something real instead.

On the upside, I picked up some Odwalla "Blueberry Swirl" bars. Organic. Vegan. Awesome flavor. At $2 a bar, they're not cheap, bu make for a really good get-you-through-the-day backup plan.

Cuurent Mood: Tired due to inability to sleep
Current Weight: 228.2

Day 6 - The Classic Mistake

I didn't have a lot of time last night and I wasn't feeling particularly motivated to make something healthy, so I pulled a classic new vegan mistake. For dinner, I had a bag of kettle cooked potato chips. Not some chips. A bag of chips. Now my stomach hurts, I didn't sleep well and I feel like fear and pain are fighting inside me. I kind of hope fear wins. It hurts less.

I'm beginning to think that when you eat what is basically a very restrictive diet, there is almost no tolerance at all for shenanigans. Here's what I mean. If you eat, over the course of a week, half a buffalo, three chickens, part of a cow, half a dozen tacos, some mozzarella sticks, pepperoni pizza, mix in some salads, etc., you can eat a bag of potato chips for dinner on Sunday and you'll be ok... because you're carrying an entire culinary ecosystem inside you at any given moment. If you eat mostly fruits and veggies, that stuff moves out of town pretty quick. You don't have the buffer in place to take a hit like 1000 calories of potato chips. You will feel it and it will hurt.

Let this be a lesson. Also, I put back on almost two pounds. There is probably a two pound brick of semi-digested potato chips inside me right now.

On a lighter note, I do tend to learn from my mistakes, so I took all the over high carb, greasy snacks in the house and pitched them this morning. It felt good. I would recommend you save yourself from having to learn this lesson the hard way and do the same thing.

Current Weight: 228.4
Current Mood: grumble grumble

Day 5 - Vegan Wasteland

So, I went to the mall food court today with a colleague. These types of places are wastelands of bad food. You can typically make at least a few healthy choices, but there was precisely one vegan choice. So... I had a salad from SaladWorks. The ingredients were fresh enough and the selection was ok. I chose a raspberry vinegraite (I know I'm spelling this wrong) which was just awful and ruined the salad. It was super sweet and thick - almost like a syrup. And it coated EVERYTHING in a sweet, pink slime. So now I've had my lunch but have had no satisfaction. Thank God I brought a granola bar to tide me over until dinner.

Current Mood: Let Down
Current Weight: 226.4

Day 4 - Temptation

Sadly, I almost slipped today. A friend was eating a bowl of seasoned ribs and asked me if. Wanted some. Out of reflex, I said yes and reached forward. Then I remembered. Kinda sucked.

I stayed on task though. It's midnight and I can't sleep even though I'm tired as crap. I don't do well alone. I'm watching tv to keep from having to think about things. Lol. Total first world problems.

• Current Mood: Meh and unfocused

Day 4 - Slept Well Again

I slept like a baby again.  This may be just coincidental, but I think eating better and completely cutting out caffeine can't be hurting.  I've also sorted out breakfast.  I have some fruit.  I'll be eating BP&J for lunch, with a granola bar along with me when I go out.

Tonight I'm alone and have nothing going on.  I might try to make something crazy.  I'm considering meatless tacos.  Ok, ok.  That's not crazy at all.  But normally my tacos are meat and cheese, so I'll have to at least be a little creative.

I have some mushrooms.  I think I'm going to make mushroom tacos.  Garlic mushrooms are awesome.  Tacos are awesome.  Surely, the two shall mix.

Lastly, my weight is done and is staying down.  No movement today, but that's good if the number isn't going back up.

• Current Mood: Still a little sleepy 
• Current Weight: 227.0 lbs

Day 3 - Hummus

So I totally had hummus for what was basically the first time ever.  I got the roasted garlic kind.  How have I never known about this before?  This stuff is awesome.  If you've never had it before, go buy some.  It tastes almost like that garlic herb cheese spread.  Not quite, but close enough for government work.

Day 3 - Withering Away

I slept in for the first time in a long time this morning.  It was really nice.  I wake up at 6AM on an average day for work.  Normally I wake up around 6AM on the weekends also.  No alarm, just automatically.  Today I didn't wake up until 9:30AM or so.

Also, I seem to be losing weight REALLY quickly.  I weighed myeself this morning, and while I'm sure a little of this was water weight, I'm down to 227.0 lbs.  I was 234.2 just a couple of days ago.  7.2 lbs seems like a lot for what is more or less a slight diet change.  I didn't eat very much meat before...  but I may have eaten lots of snacks.

I guess one of the points of documenting this process is to become a little more self aware.

I still haven't worked out what to do for breakfast.  I think today is going to involve some research and a trip to the grocery store.

• Current Weight: 227.0 lbs
• Current Mood: Content but Confused

Day 2 - Crushed It

After a particularly challenging day at work, I'm glad to be home.  I did another 5 kilometer walk tonight.  Now I'm debating on what to have for dinner.  I might just crash and worry about eating in the morning.  Bad idea, but I'm done.

• Current Mood: Exhausted

Day 2 - I Want a Steak for Breakfast

I am so grumbly and tired this morning.  I'm pretty hungry and a fruit breakfast isn't going to do the trick.  I will not lose this challenge on day two.  It would make the evil Vincent de Tomato too happy.

I think my system is recalibrating pretty quickly to the new diet.  I've dropped several pounds very quickly.  I'm pretty sure that's just my system not actually losing any real weight, but just hitting a new equilibrium since I'm not carrying around tons of heavy foods in my system at any given time.  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to lose at least 10 pounds over the course of the month.

Just have to keep remembering...

• Current Weight: 230.6 lbs
• Current Mood: ::growl::

Day 1 - This Was A Triumph

I'm making a note here...  Huge Success!

I've successfully completed one day of being vegan and while I'm certain this is in my head, I feel better. I've definitely eaten healthier. I went out and did a little grocery shopping.

Granola bar breakfast.

Lunch was peaches, applesauce, chips and a bean dip.

Dinner was a stir fry consisting of tofu, cabbage, broccoli, bean sprouts and mushrooms.

• Current Mood: Pretty Damn Solid

Day 1 - Mother Nature Disagrees With My Plans

So, today is my first day of eating vegan. I have no idea what to have for breakfast. Maybe some fruit? I really need to work these things out. I do have a lunch prepped and ready to go. I found and bought this cool Bento Box from Cool Gear.

I woke up again at 5:45am with the intention of going for a 5K walk.  Unfortunately, it was raining out (and still is).  I'm hopeful that the weather will be more cooperative after work.  I feel like this is somehow the evil Vincent de Tomato's fault.  Can tomatoes control the weather?  I don't know for sure, but all signs point to yes.  This has started my day off on the wrong foot.

• Current Weight: 232.4 lbs
• Current Mood: Disappointed

T Minus 1 - Dinner

The last per-vegan meal was, sadly, jalapeño and cheese nachos. I really couldn't think of anything better. I just don't think I look forward to having certain meals. But... I will be having chocolate ice cream before bed. That is all. Wish me luck, for tomorrow I become a vegan.

T Minus 1 - Lunch

I just had my last lunch before going on my month long vegan eating extravaganza. The bosses ordered in pizza, so I had some pepperoni pizza. Afterwards, I went to the local mall with my colleague, the evil Vincent de Tomato (pictured below), who convinced me (with very little convincing involved) to have half of a Cinnabon. From here on out, it's healthy lunches.

Yes, this is an evil tomato. Kindly note the goatee.

Achievement Unlocked - Morning Exercise

I totally did it.  I woke up and walked 5 kilometers.  I'm pretty psyched.  It was really nice.  There was some sunlight, but otherwise I was more or less alone.

• Current Weight: 234.2 lbs
• Current Mood: Victorious

Adding Exercise

I've decided to add an exercise component. I've been doing quite a bit of walking over the last six months or so. Add this to the fact that I wake up an hour early every morning and just sort of mill around. 

I think I'm going to use that time instead to do some exercise. I've set my alarm for 5:45am with the intention of going on a 5 kilometer walk. I guess the next post will say whether or not this really happened.

T Minus 2 and Counting

So I've decided that I'll be trying out the Vegan lifestyle for the month of August.  Today is July 30th, so I have two days left to eat whatever I want.

I'll be tracking my weight and general feeling of health and mood on this blog.  I'm intending this to be a journal of sorts.  I'm terrible at keeping a paper journal, but this I can post to from my phone.

I'm dedicated to making this work.  In the meantime, I have to decide what my last meal is going to be!

I think I'll be able to get some good resources from online.  PETA seems to have quite a bit on living vegan.

• Current Weight: 234.4 lbs.
• Current Mood: Cautiously Optimistic