how i do #veglife

Hello!

Earlier this week, I shared with you, why I decided to become a vegetarian.  Now, I want to share with you how I do it!

I really think that there is a misconception out there about there being strict rules to being a vegetarian.  There aren't.  What I have enjoyed is being able to research as much (or as little) as I want to and shape my philosophy based on my research and my lifestyle.  Cool, right?

So let's dig right in!

Here is my basic framework for #veglife:

1.  I do not eat any meat.  No chicken, no beef, no pork, no fish.  At first, I thought about including fish, but factory farmed fish is no better than factory farmed beef.  As for "wild caught" varieties, check out my initial #veglife post regarding bycatch.  Oh, and no gelatin-containing items, either.

2.  I do consume eggs.  But try to keep it to a minimum.  This is not ideal, but I still find myself slightly clinging to the notion of needing to get my protein.  And have you ever had veggies and eggs for breakfast?  It's amazing.

3.  I do consume dairy and cheese.  But try to keep it to a minimum.  There is some evidence that cultures that traditionally consume more dairy and cheese actually have a higher incidence of osteoporosis.  Plus, there are a wide variety of plants that contain calcium.  Broccoli, anyone?  Yum!  I also rarely consumer cow's milk.  Haven't you ever thought that it was odd that humans are the only species that consumes the milk from another species into adulthood?  Mother Nature is amazing, so consider this:  cow's milk is naturally created with a specific set of nutrients that are meant to grow baby calves into big ass cows.  Not to grow toddler humans into adult humans.  It's weird.

Spinach pizza = the best version of cheesy goodness

4.  I do consume beer, wine, kombucha....all of that fermented goodness.  I ain't about that vegan life.  (yet)

Now, let me share some of the practices/guidelines that I use to help keep myself in check and to make sure I don't become a bread & cheese vegetarian .  My philosophy is that if one of my reasons for adopting this lifestyle is for my health, then I need to create practices and guidelines to make sure I am keeping in line with that thought.  Here we go:

1.  Eat as many whole, plant foods as possible.  Even when I indulge in pizza, I make sure it is FULL of veggies.  I'll be sharing my veggie pizza recipe a little later on the blog.  I have pasta and I try to make sure it is more than 50% veggies and less than 50% pasta.  There are so many vegetarian substitutions that you can make for the refined crap food in your local super market, that it's crazy!  Spaghetti squash pasta, anyone?  Anyway, I try to keep it simple.  I have some favorites that I use often, but I do like to mix it up and find new ways to use whole foods as possible!

There's a little pasta in there, at the bottom!

2.  Eat veggies for breakfast.  I adopted this practice about 6 months ago when I realized that even as a vegetarian, I was probably not consuming enough veggies.  The struggle is real.  My favorite to whip up, if I have time is veggies & eggs.  My go to veggies include:  zucchini, peppers, potatoes, eggplant (occasionally), carrots, broccoli, and of course, onions & garlic.  I purposely exclude cheese.

Eggs and veggies are my favorite breakfast!

3.  Reduce use of vegetarian/vegan versions.  I would hazard a guess that this is one of the biggest struggles for vegetarians and vegans alike.  Again, my focus is health and getting all of the nutrient dense foods that I can, so it doesn't make sense to buy an abundance of vegetarian or vegan processed foods.  Examples: Veganaise, Vegan butter, vegan cheese, veggie burgers, vegetarian cereals, snacks, etc.  Now, I do have some in moderation when it comes to snacks, but overall, I try to keep them to a minimum.  Here is my reasoning:  Have you ever heard the philosophy that every time you see a "low fat" snack or "reduced sugar" snack that you should instead interpret "chemical shit storm"?  My thought process is similar.  If I'm a vegetarian for my health and I'm eating vegetarian cookies, does that make them healthy?  No.  Don't get me wrong, I have some veggie dogs in the freezer because I felt left out at an event, but to be honest, they weren't very good anyway and I don't think I have had one now in several months.

4.  Avoid health claims/health foods.  I promise I wont repeat the entire previous paragraph, but it all still applies.  This is called marketing.  Think about the claim on Twizzler's candy that it is a "naturally low fat food".  This may be true, but that's only because it is pure sugar.  Now when it comes to eating things like cheese, I would prefer to eat a full fat version, than reduced fat because it is at least closer to its natural state.  To be honest, I avoid almost all reduced fat/sugar products.  So, I try to keep packaged foods to a minimum, but if I do get them, I go for the packaged products that ARE full sugar/full fat.  Example: breakfast cereal.  Due to marketing and government recommendations, many people assume that breakfast cereals are healthy because they are naturally low in fat and ohhh, look! It has been fortified with "xyz" nutrient!  And the manufacturer says it's healthy!  So it must be healthy, right?  Wrong.  If we are being realistic, breakfast cereal is not much more than processed grains and a few vitamins and minerals that they added back in so that they could say it's healthy.  Most of those nutrients won't be absorbed into our bodies as well as if they are consumed from a whole foods.  (Look up bioavailability).  I also want to add that this applies to organic products, too.  Just because the "cane juice" on the label is organic, that does not make it better for you than regular sugar.  Which brings me to my next point:

5.  Reduce added sugars.  This applies in a few ways.  I do not put sugar or cream in my coffee or tea.  I don't usually get a latte at Starbucks (maybe 1/month).  I avoid fruit juices like the plague (sugar water, anyone?).  I'm sure all of my coworkers would interject here that I have a hard time staying away from the candy jar in the HR office.  Sugar is as addicting as cocaine!  And the Butterfinger cups have no added colors or preservatives, so they must be healthy, right?!  RIGHT?!!  Anyway.  My key word here is try.  When I do use sweeteners, I try to stick to organic raw honey or organic maple syrup because there is at least some mineral content.  I tried agave awhile ago, but to be honest, I wasn't a fan anyway.  Also, check out the documentary called "Fed Up".  You can find it on Netflix and it is a very interesting perspective on the obesity epidemic, particularly in young children and the addictive nature of sugar.  Which, of course, the sugar industry doesn't mind.  Also, I'm sure you have heard now that the FDA will require "Added Sugars" to be listed on nutrition labels beginning in July 2018.  Apparently the sugar industry is not too happy about this.  If you reduce the sugar in your diet to naturally occurring sugars in whole foods, you will be amazed by how you feel after a couple of weeks.  For more info on my experiment with the No Added Sugar Challenge, click here for the background, here for day one reflections, and here for week one reflections.

6.  Take my vitamins!  I am currently taking a multivitamin and a vitamin D supplement.  I would love to take a gummy because I have the hardest time swallowing large pills, but most have gelatin in them, so I settled for a children's chewable.  I don't know that I truly believe that vitamins work.  From what I recall from college, if you remove all confounding factors, there is no evidence that they work (read: due to bioavailability and such).  The reason that I continue to take them is as a reminder that those who take them typically engage in healthier habits like exercising, eating well, hydrating, and resting.

7.  Eat when hungry.  Stop when full.  I do not count macros or calories, but trust that if I am eating a whole foods, plant-based diet, then I am doing well and likely consuming more nutrients that most Americans anyway.  I'm a total grazer, and I always have been, so I snack throughout the day.  The only times I have experienced issues with energy levels is when I have found myself reverting to the bread & cheese lifestyle or making other less healthy decisions and I course correct as needed.

I can't wait to share my favorite go-to's!

As always, feel free to ask any questions that you have!

xoxo,

Anne

no added sugar: week one feels and aha's

I officially survived week one of no added sugar!  It was interesting, I learned a lot, and I made some personal guidelines to stick to for the remainder of the challenge.

First though, it was a roller coaster last week and this is just some of what I felt and found:

Cravings.  The first couple of days, if you caught me at the right time, I might have actually killed someone for Starburst jelly beans!  I was hungry all day every day for the first few days.  I had some rough cravings and my schedule being all messed up did not help that out.  I turned to dried fruit to help with the cravings, but I don't know that I would do that again.  See my "aha" moments below for why not!

Lack of appetite.  After the cravings subsided, nothing sounded appetizing.  I usually love hard boiled eggs and almost all fruit and I just didn't want anything.  I would prepare food and push it around on my plate because it didn't sound good and it didn't taste good.  This lasted another 2-3 days and it was so frustrating because my body was telling me that I was starving, but anything I tried to eat immediately lost its appeal.  Again, my appetite has bounced back in week two and I pretty much eat every 2 hours, like a hamster.

Thirst.  Throughout most of the first week, I was soooo thirsty.  All.  The.  Time.  I would wake up and chug water.  I would grab a snack and chug my water.  I would chug water just to chug water.  It's not as intense in week two so far, but I have also focused on drinking more water throughout the day and not just when I feel like I'm dying of thirst.

Sleep.  I slept pretty poorly the entire first week, too, but again, this could be due to my overnight shift throwing the rest of my week out of whack. I think there were other factors contributing too, but for the whole week, it seemed like all I did when I wasn't at work is nap and then I would sleep for 10-12 restless hours at night, too.  Not a good situation.  But like I said, I think there were other factors at play here, that I am working on addressing now.  Who knows, you might hear about them in a later post!

Coffee.  Toward the end of week one, I found that I didn't drink all of my coffee in the morning and I wasn't dying for more midday.  This is a completely new experience for me because I love coffee (the actual taste).  More to come after week two....?

Cheats.  My cheating incident was a glass of semi-dry red wine with dinner with my best friend on Sunday.  I'm going with the claim that the antioxidants outweigh the negative effects of sugar.  Yes.  Anyway, I wish that wouldn't have fallen within the challenge period because I wanted to make it a full 30 days, but I definitely don't regret it.  It was a well-used cheat.

Also, behold the best snack out there if you need a little crunch in your life:

Aha's:

1.  A pancake is still a pancake, even if it's a "healthy" pancake.  Before the challenge started, I read through the Whole30 page since it is related to the No Added Sugar Challenge.  One of the most interesting pieces that I found is that they talk about our psychological relationship to food and how even if you make a pancake with a banana and an egg, you are still eating a pancake.  That was so interesting to me and I've taken it with me as I go on this challenge.  I'm trying not to make "healthy" versions of sugary foods and just focus on eating whole foods...which has proven difficult as PMS hits this week....boo.  Pancakes sound amaze-balls right now....

2.  Would you ever eat 180 grapes?  This is related to the cravings bit from above.  As I noshed away at my dried banana chips and dried apple slices, I got to thinking:  how much fiber is still present in this and is it even helpful?  How similar would this be to drinking a glass of fruit juice?  First, you should know that at some point in college, I decided that fruit juice is nonsense because it is basically sugar juice, and I stopped drinking it.  Well I did a little research on dried fruit and found a website called PaleoLeap.  Now, bear in mind that this is not cited as scientific evidence, but rather food for thought.  They title an article "Dried Fruit and Sugar:  Would You Eat 180 Grapes?"  Would you?  Because that is how many grapes you would consume in a regular sized box of raisins.  It makes you think, doesn't it?  I'm not going to steal all of their thunder and tell you everything from the article, but click the link to check it out.....it's some good info.

3.  Bioavailability.  This is in a similar vein as the grapes, but I think this is the beauty of biology.  You will often see supermarket claims that processed foods are high in a certain vitamin or mineral that is a) not normally be in that food, b) not normally in that food at that level, or c) was removed when the food was processed and added back in afterwards.  THIS IS NOT NATURE.  I understand from a scientific perspective the need to isolate specific nutrients and to try to add single nutrients into foods, but that is not how nature intended us to eat!  Those foods are not real foods!  The beauty of biology and nutrition is that the nutrients that our bodies need are absorbed more easily when they are in whole foods.  There is something special about the relationship of specific nutrients in a specific food item and eating processed crap, whether a single nutrient is added back in or not is simply not the same as getting the same nutrient from a whole food item.  I'm sure you have heard that multivitamin tablets are nonsense because we don't absorb many of the nutrients.  This is a factor in why that happens.  Now, I am not saying to quit your multivitamin, but think about it.  Wouldn't you rather eat your nutrients from nature than out of a lab?  Anyway, the point is that nutrients in whole foods have a high bioavailability. All this means is that our bodies like nutrients in whole foods and absorb them more easily than the ones added to processed crap.  So simple, even a caveman could do it, right?  ;]

This got a little long, but I hope you enjoyed!  I will be back after week two for an update, but I will leave you with this to ponder:

stay fit!

xoxo

anne

no added sugar: day one

WOW.  I woke up this morning and the first thing I wanted to eat was Starburst jelly beans!  They aren't kidding when they say that sugar is more addicting than cocaine!

I wanted to document this journey here so that you guys can follow the process and see that A) it's not easy 100% of the time and B) YOU CAN DO THIS, TOO!

So I wanted to start off by telling you guys what I did about my insane jelly bean craving this morning!  First, I put the jelly beans in a Ziploc and will be dropping them off at work tonight so that I can't be tempted.  Then, I drank a HUGE glass of cold water...I try to do this every morning to kick start my system anyway.  Finally, I made a wholesome breakfast of oats and fruit and hard boiled eggs to energize me for the day and the strawberries gave me a little sweetness.  THAT'S IT!

Now, for the fun part....going through my pantry, fridge, and what my grocery list looks like for this week!

For this challenge, I put everything with added sugar in the BACK of the pantry/fridge so that I wouldn't be tempted.  It's amazing how many foods (vegetable broth?!?!) have added sugar in them!

First, here's the pantry:

So I like to keep my breakfast and snack foods on the top shelf and foods I might cook on the bottom shelf.  On the top shelf: old fashioned oats, museli cereal (sweetened with dates & raisins), organic natural peanut butter, raw & roasted nuts and seeds (cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds), nutritional yeast, roasted chickpeas, dried/freeze-dried fruits, herbal teas.

On the bottom shelf: several types of boxed beans, canned veggies, whole wheat pastas (lasagna & spaghetti), lentils, quinoa, brown rice, spirulina, vegetable broth (off limits :[)

Now onward and upwards to the fridge:

For the record, I have NO idea why this one won't upload in the right orientation, but whatever.  In my fridge: organic eggs, basil pesto, ground flax meal, hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese, unsweetened greek yogurt, cold water, hummus, steamed asparagus, kombucha, fresh berries (strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry), cheese :]

This one is tough!  The only items here that are no sugar added are the unsweetened vanilla almond milk, organic maple syrup, grated cheese, and soy sauce.  So all of the dressings, ketchup, and even teriyaki sauce are OUT!

Finally, my drawer:  carrots, snap peas, peppers, lettuce, and an apple.

Last but not least....the freezer:

This one is pretty self explanatory: frozen veggies, frozen strawberries, and bread.  Believe it or not, Simply Balanced makes a bread that is stored in the freezer that has no added sugar! The pizzas and even the meatless burgers are OFF limits for this month!

Now believe it or not, in addition to these items, I have a fruit bowl on my table with grapefruits, bananas, an apple, and clementines and a potato bowl in the pantry with sweet potatoes, onion, and garlic.

This got kind of long, so I will save my grocery list for next week!

Stay fit!

xoxo

Anne

no added sugar challenge

Hi friends!

I just wanted to shoot out a quick update about a challenge I am participating in for the next 28 days!  A friend of mine from high school is hosting a NO ADDED SUGAR CHALLENGE on Facebook and I cannot WAIT.  I've know that this is something that I want to focus on for some time, but I think this group will provide the perfect amount of support and accountability to see some great results.

If you are interested in joining, just search for Lilly Polivoda on Facebook for the link!  Or check out her post about the last time she did it here and the FAQ that she put together here!

I would also HIGHLY recommend the documentary "Fed Up".  You can find it on Netflix!  I've really gotten into food documentaries since last fall, so this will likely be the first in a long line of docs that I recommend!

But really...it's very interesting.  I also find it to be a very sad reflection of our society and how we let companies dictate the choices that we make that effect our health, well being, and longevity.  Personally, I think it's utter nonsense that our elected officials let this happen, but as you will see, there is a lot of money and dirty politics involved.

If it doesn't pull a little bit at your heart strings to watch the kids talk about their struggles, then you more than likely are a robot.  Just sayin.

Check it all out and I hope to see you in the challenge group!

stay fit!

xoxo

anne