Sneaking in the Veg!

I may have noted this when I first started journalling this whole experience but trying a vegan lifestyle lead me to just load up on carbs - brown rice, brown rice pasta, sweet potatoes etc. Riiiiiiight, the point is to be plant-based. So I've tried to get better about sneaking more veg into my meals and even though I'd say I probably meet the daily requirements, I feel like I can be better. So for my latest meals I've been throwing more in!

Last night I was debating do I make dinner at home or eat when I hit up The Ballroom for their quinoa salad? Decided to cook at home, of course, because I spend so much money on fresh, organic produce - why let it go to waste?!

I'd heard a lot of rave reviews for Meghan Telpner's Veggie Rice Wraps so I decided, meh, I've got all the ingredients around and aside for the rice paper it's straight up vegetables (I didn't include the noodles in mine) so out came the food processor to create deliciousness. 

I should have done a picture w/ them cut in half to see the rainbow inside but ah well, nice thought. i was hungry and am really more impressed that I took a picture period. Ooooh and that reminds me that the fourth one is still in the fridge for me to snack on before tonight's workout!

My easy go-to lunch is a brown rice pasta with a veggie sautee - 1/4 of those boxed spinach containers, king oyster mushrooms, onions, garlic and sundried tomatoes prepared with olive oil and balsamic, sprinkled w/ parsley and nutritional yeast. Who wouldn't look forward to eating that for lunch?! Lunch can be a challenge b/c I don't believe in microwaves so I always have to make my food from scratch in the morning and eat it at room temperature. This is pretty easy to prepare, maybe takes 10 minutes of dedicated time from me (pasta cooks while I do my hair!)

Breakfast of course was a green smoothie then lots of water and a cup of herbal tea. Gonna go pick up some groceries over my lunch break and get inspired about what I might eat for dinner!

Letting Other People Cook for Me

Today is officially day 19 of my 21 day cleanse and what can I say? I'm killin' it! I'm not necessarily looking forward to going back to meat but I'm definitely looking forward to food being less of an effort. Not that I won't continue to eat well but the restrictions in being gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free and vegan all at the same time are, well, legit, to say the least. Given that I've probably mentioned that at least once a week on this blog!

Friday's lunch was easy enough to make though and one of my favourites, lettuce wraps! Normally made with ground chicken in my world, this version with mushrooms was delightful. I love looking forward to what I eat!

This weekend's eats allowed me to let others do the cooking for me. Luckily I have a handful of friends who can put up w/ my food neuroses and will accompany to restaurants that I would have never even gone to a few years ago!

Started off dining with my wonderful friend Rochelle who is getting into clean eating as well. On Friday night we went to Fresh, a delicious vegetarian restaurant in Toronto. God bless them for having two locations near my house and opening one by my office! All week I've had a crazy craving for sweet potato fries and I was able to get them here b/c they make their BBQ sauce in house - I avoid the Kraft's of the world w/ their phood like ketchup chock full of ingredients you'll never find in a grocery store but rather in a chem lab. Seriously, they were so good that my delicious main, their beach bowl, just sat there and went into a takeout container as I continued to wolf the fries down. If they weren't going to charge me the extra $1 for more sauce I would have polished off the whole container, but you can see how far I got w/ them in the pic (they're hiding behind the beach bowl!) 

Apres Fresh I went over to the house of another good friend of mine, Wolfie, and brought Meghan Telpner's berry crumble over for him. I tend to be suspicious when I share my 'healthy' eats with my 'normal' friends so was weary that he wouldn't like it since it's not your typical crumble with copious amounts of sugar, milk, eggs, CRISCO (blech!), etc. Did I mention he's a super foodie and amazing cook? Pressure's on. Well, given that the second he finished his piece he went back to the kitchen for round two, I was delightfully pleased! 

Saturday morning after TRX I hit up Evergreen Brickworks specifically for Doug McNish's gluten-free coconut crusted french toast with tempeh bacon - SO GOOD. I love that I can trust that anything  he prepares will be healthful for me. Naturally I was ravenous and forgot to take a picture (you'd think I'd get better at this!) but luckily I was able to scoop an image from his Facebook page:

Oh, and a note on tempeh: I read somewhere that tempeh can convert the biggest steak lover. Whoever said that is a rotten liar. I had two tempeh experiences over the weekend and both made me sad that I had some in my freezer. It ain't tasty.

Saturday night I had a crazy craving for pizza. Let's note that Lisa is not a big pizza person. I hated it as a kid and only gave it a try because I had a crush on Michelangelo (clearly the Ninja Turtle, not the artist). Actually that craving hit me on Friday and I ignored it but by Saturday, eff it, I had to. People at my old company raved about the Magic Oven and I knew I could get a gluten-free, vegan pizza from there, as fun-free as it sounded. Verdict? Pas mal.

It's obviously a white-flour gluten free crust but I wasn't about to die over it. Some things I just make peace with. It hit the spot, not something I'll probably ever crave again but if you're avoiding gluten and dairy, I'd certainly recommend it.

Sunday's kitchen adventure (single) was lame. Just some brown rice rotini with sauteed king oyster mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, onions and spinach. Make no mistake, totally yum. But a regular from my repertoire. Dinner was a simple baked sweet potato with maple syrup, cinnamon and olive oil and when I got home around 11:00 (I know, too late to eat) I made my quickie apple crumble.

Dear Lisa: just because maple syrup isn't refined sugar doesn't mean it won't have an effect on your sugar levels. STOP IT!

Fun Finds at the Farmer's Market

How crazy is this produce from the Farmer's Market?!

Puff Mushroom

Some type of gourd/squash

Time for an Honest Admission

So I've been pretty gung-ho happy, smiley on this whole 21-Day Adventure Cleanse (as Kris Carr calls it in Crazy Sexy Diet!) but I'm gonna be honest with this: I do not feel deprived of anything on this cleanse, my energy levels are awesome and I'm leaning out a bit BUT the challenge with this whole thing? All of the prep work - it's EXHAUSTING being a vegan! Instead of simply cracking an egg, I have to first whip out the blender, grind up a tablespoon of chia seeds then soak them for 10 minutes. Lots of planning in advance so I can soak beans, nuts, grains etc the night before. Pretty sure my neighbours hate me because they're always hearing my blender, food processor or juicer in action.

That being said, last night I made Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese, so delicious! Again though, it was a two hour process instead of my usual 15 raved-about three-cheese dish. Anyway, time well spent as it's an investment in my health, right? Despite the time commitment, this will definitely be added to my regular repertoire!

Weekend Recap

Well I was nervous I would break over the weekend and guess what? I'm totally strong and soldiered through! Wedding and TIFF parties be damned, I was going to stick to being a gluten-free, sugar-free, non-alcoholic vegan!

On Saturday morning I hit up my usual TRX then Pilates classes and came down with an extreme case of a) laziness and b) a serious craving for Doug McNish's gluten-free french toast but alas when I got there I found out it wasn't on the menu. What I did have instead was an AMAZING veggie burger. Now, I've always turned my nose up at veggie because, well, I'm an omnivore. What use is a veggie burger to me?! On this experiment though it's my only choice so alas. It. Was. So. Good. Served with some sweet potato fries and organic ketchup. Delish! Definitely something I want to try making at home, maybe with a portobello mushroom. I'm not intense enough just yet to make some kind of crazy combo for the 'pattie'.

Later on in the day I had the beautiful Lisa McLaren's wedding - aka my twin, simply b/c she's black and her name is Lisa. I figured the wedding would be a bit of a struggle because a) hello alcohol and b) being served food. She had a buffet style dinner so I figured I could take control of my plate and I didn't do too badly:

Chickpea salad, regular salad, rice, potatoes and green beans. I will make peace with the fact that the potatoes and beans  more than likely had a solid dose of butter on there but know what? I did the best I could in the situation, had to eat something so I'm okay with it. Not eating chicken or roast from the carving station was my fait accompli du jour.

Apres my kettlebell class at the gym on Sunday, I knew I wanted to experiment with a fritter recipe so off to the bulk barn I went in search of a bunch of flours. I'm pleased to say that my cupboard is now stocked with brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, coconut flour, chickpea flour, quinoa flour, almond flour and arrowroot flour!

The fritters turned out pretty deliciously, a combination of sweet potato, zucchini and onion with an avocado/cashew cream to dip them in.

Dinner last night was a brown rice pasta (ooh need to stock up on some more of that!) and today I'm guzzling down my green smoothie, essentially of whatever leftovers I had before I go grocery shopping today!

Now I just need to find someone who'll do a cooking class at Marni Wasserman's Fully Nourished studio with me b/c they're doing a two-for-one special!

Day 8: So Damn Hungry!

I can't handle how ravenous I am today! So much so that I bought FOUR things for lunch from two different restaurants!

Seaweed salad and brown rice veggie sushi from Hosu, roasted potatoes and mushrooms plus a carrot/banana cupcake (gluten-free, dairy-free, processed-sugar free, vegan, of course) from Kale.

Dining at Rawlicious

Tonight I had dinner plans w/ my buddy Paolo before heading to Adam's house for our Thursday night ritual of The League. Eating out is a bit of a disaster w/ friends right now. As if I'm not high-maintenance in life in general, now I'm just a straight up pain in the ass to eat with. But Paolo enjoys a healthy lifestyle and I knew he'd tolerate coming to Rawlicious with me for dinner. I'd been there once with a vegan friend and thought it was god awful. Don't give me twirly zucchini with tomatoes on top and call it 'veggie pasta with marinara sauce' - it's still a glorified salad and tastes NOTHING like a delicious Italian pasta dish!

Regardless, for the purposes of the cleanse Rawlicious and Cruda Cafe are the only places I can go and eat without having to think twice (with the exception of their use of agave, cuz that has fructose in it). Well maybe because my palette has changed mind was BLOWN with how yummy my food was! I ordered a tomato and onion flatbread and am going to buy a dehydrator if only to learn how to make that! And the bread was some random nut combination. I am going to master this for sure.

Paolo got himself the taco wrap and while I didn't try it, it looked pretty good. I wish their offshoot market near my house had as much good stuff as the original restaurant!

More Adventures in my 21 Day Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse!

It's official, I've been a vegan for a week! No energy dips, feeling clear and a faux sense of superiority :p I'm super impressed that my workouts haven't been compromised too. Yesterday's adventures in foods included: 

• Breakfast - a green smoothie. Both Crazy Sexy Diet and The Beauty Detox recommend sticking to liquids in the morning so that the digestive system can continue its cleansing process from over night and this is something I'm going to incorporate permanently. Morning consumption looks like:
• Glass of water with cayenne pepper and lemon
• A green smoothie OR a fruit smoothie if I did a morning workout - I've also learned that fruit should only be consumed on an empty stomach, all the more reason for fruit smoothies in the morning, even if they're a bit higher in sugar
• Herbal tea
• Lots more water
• Lunch - DELICIOUS brown rice rotini with sauteed garlic, spinach, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. Of course I wolfed it down then thought, oh crap shoulda taken a picture
• Dinner - Did my red thai coconut curry soup again and actually remembered to snap a pic! So fantastically yum.

Glad that I managed to do a Gravity class in the morning and see my trainer in the evening. Today I'm taking it easy and just doing a barre workout at work!

This is sustainable. I could do this for life, surprisingly.

Almost One Week!

I legitimately can't get over how well this is going. I really thought being vegan and only drinking smoothies in the morning would be hella difficult but almost a week in and no complaints! My meals have been tasty, I haven't missed meat and drinking, well, I can easily live without that.

Yesterday I had my first challenge of eating out. Met up w/ my gf Kate for sushi dinner and figured it'll be easy enough, seaweed salad, a veggie roll with brown rice and I brought some tamari with me, just in case they didn't have gluten-free soy sauce.I was pleasantly surprised by how satisfying the veg sushi was. Make no mistake, I would have loved for some fresh salmon to be on top but I made peace w/ it. The only crappy thing was realizing halfway through eating that it wasn't on brown rice. Sigh. Oh well!

Lunch was brown rice tortilla chips (ahem, threw a brown rice wrap in the oven then cut it up) with a Mexican-inspired mish-mash of leftover black beans, tomato, avocado and red onion. Super filling and satisfying. 

Also, I shouldn't be allowed to go out at lunchtime because I inevitably spend money that I shouldn't. Picked up Kimberly Snyder's The Beauty Detox Foods for more inspiration!

Day Five: Gluten-Free Vegans Eat Fettuccine Alfredo?

Well yesterday I was all sorts of surprised to say the least. I'd read a recipe on Kris Carr's site for an Amazing Alfredo and given that one of my 'last meals' before this cleanse was a delicious, rich carbonara pasta, I was curious how gluten-free vegans got by without the tastiness of creamy pasta in their lives. Now I know!

I cooked up some brown rice fettuccine and then suspiciously blended up my cashew cream and left it to cook on the stovetop. Put my lil pasta dish together, sprinkled on some nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy nuttiness and of course some parsley to look pretty. I. Was. Pleasantly. Surprised! It was so tasty! The ONLY thing I'd note though is it gave me a heavy-ish feeling around my heart and under my breastbone. I don't know what any specific term for that feeling is but it was an uncomfortable fullness (I didn't overeat, I swear!) so it will be something that I eat sparingly, but absolutely left me feeling satisfied.

After my delicious dins, I baked up some banana bread muffins, grabbed a gluten-free recipe off of Joyous Health's blog and swapped out the eggs for chia paste - here's a video of one of my other favourite nutritionists, Meghan Telpner.

It tasted fine but the only thing I didn't like is the gumminess of the end result. I used all brown rice flour so next time I bake I'm going to try some different flour combinations. Buckwheat and brown rice left things a bit crumbly and dark, I find coconut flour to be gritty so my next experiment will include quinoa flour. Must grab some on my lunch break today!

Day Four: the juice fast

One of Kris Carr's recommendations during the cleanse is to do a juice fast once a week to give the digestive system a break. In an effort to go full tilt I decided to give it a whirl. Not being a stranger to juice cleanses I figured out how to balance that with my workouts.

With the previous day's energy stores I could power through a Pilates then kettlebell workouts at the gym, then dry brush and sauna (other cleanse recommendations).

Sucked down a good 1300ml of green juices and a ton of water. I will admit, by 11:00 pm I rationalized that it had been 24 hours since I had solids and was conveniently clear to eat the previous day's leftover baked falafel. 

Whoops there goes the 'no eating three hours before sleeping' rule!

Toronto was also home to the Vegetarian Food Festival so I took advantage of the free admission, grabbed my girlfriend Drea and hit up the festival to meet like minded vendors and enthusiasts plus grab some meal ideas!

Day Three: Visiting the Middle East!

Good god do I love middle eastern food. I had a can of chickpeas in my pantry and wanted to do something other than my regular staple of a chickpea salad. The winner? Baked falafel! After a little Google Google action I found a recipe from Mark Bittman which was great given that Easy Vegan Before 6 is on my list of books to read.

Whipped out my trusty old (not old at all actually) good processor and added some other herbs, veggies and spices and made a delicious (albeit salty) baked chickpea mess! Note I call it a mess because my delightful little falafel balls were more like a flattened out mush. Needless to say no image but the taste was great! Next time to perfect the binding process.

Later on my gf Ana came by for Les Miserables (we lasted 10 minutes) and I wanted to bake her a delicious treat that we wouldn't have to feel guilty about. Enter Meghan Telpner's gluten free fruit crumble! Amazingly good. (And of course I swapped out honey for maple syrup.) It's great to be able to make these types of recipes for my friends and show them that clean eating is actually quite delicious!

Day Two: Adventures with Thai Cooking

I've always loved being in the kitchen. Adapting to my newly embraced plant powered, non-refined, dairy-less (mostly) non-processed lifestyle has been a challenge but a fun one, especially when I do well at it ;-)

With September rearing it's ugly, chilly, fall self I've been craving soup and had an opened can of coconut milk in the fridge that had to be used before going bad. My immediate thought was to try making a Thai coconut curry soup! I spent the day scouring Google for recipes and inspiration that I could adapt and make mine. The verdict? Success! By my own rating anyway. Mom? Not so much.

The trouble is that I remember to take pretty before pictures but by the time food is ready I'm ravenous and have a stronger interest in ingesting than instagramming. I'll try and remember to take after pictures from now on to show off the deliciousness, if I may say so myself!

I Never Thought This Would Be Me

If you told me at this time last year that I'd be (healthily) obsessed with working out and eating clean I would have straight up laughed in your face.Sure I did PR for a fitness company and was a group fitness instructor by night, but I only exercised to stay in a size 6 - 8. And working in a fitness environment listening to gluten-free this and cashew cream that just made me want to eat a cheeseburger even more.

But then last December, quite honestly, I ended an ongoing, umm, mistake shall we say and watched an episode of The Secret Lives of Trophy Wives (I never said that this was going to be a deep, meaningful blog) and figured, know what? I could probably do better in the dating department if I lost a few pounds so off I went on a mission to get thinner.

For the first few months, I continued eating whatever I wanted to and exercised. Saw 15-ish pounds come off which was fantastic! But then I realized if I wanted to lost 15 more (and let's note I was never particularly overweight, could just stand to be healthier and fitter) I would finally have to change the way that I ate.

Long story short, this adventure began with sheer vanity and has since evolved nine months later to a keen interest in my health, well-being and longevity.

So here we are today, as I do something I never thought I would do: live a vegan lifestyle for 21 days. The inspiration for this project came from Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet book and I figured let's see what changes I'll feel and see physically if I adopt this lifestyle. I've read a bunch of books and documentaries on the food industry and after the China Study, you can't really argue with the fact that consuming animal products can lead to diseases like cancer. In the quest for optimal health, I don't foresee myself ever giving up meat for good but for now? Let's see how the next three weeks pan out!