Friday was a cray cray day! Sorry for not posting but I didn’t get home til about 12:30 and was way too sleepy to do an entry.
In fact all damn day I’ve been really sleepy and not feeling that great. Why? Ohhhhhhhhhh I don’t know, but I suspect it had something to do with my first really and truly ‘free food’ day of the year.
I took full advantage.
Breakfast was nanogreens and kombucha, nothing fancy. I was set to go Beet’s with the co-workers BUT my old department (where they all still reside) was apparently having a cray week of their own and so everyone was a bit too frazzled and busy to be able to take a lunch outside the office. Having had those days for the past year, I totally sympathize. We plan on rescheduling for this coming week! But we did all manage to head over to the Whole Foods express where I indulged! Cabbage crunch (yummy!), very lightly sauteed broccoli and this magnificent beautiful delicious creamy warm baked mac and cheese (that I added some more shredded cheddar to ;p)
SO GOOD!
If that had been the extent of the abuse I planned on giving my stomach I’m sure I’d have been fine. As you can see the mac and cheese is only about a 1/4 of the plate, the cabbage was the largest component and the broc wasn’t insignificant.
However…you remember pancakes right? Yeah. Pancakes. Delicious freaking pancakes. Kerbey Lane, me, Misha, Tim, and Will and cinnamon roll pancakes.
I got one, just one, because I told myself that I didn’t need a full stack. Kerbey’s pancakes are large and while they are by far more wholesome and natural than just about any restaurant anywhere, they’re still flour and sugar and all that. Still, it was beautiful. Worth the wait.
But if the abuse I put my stomach to had just been the mac and cheese and the pancake (which didn’t really need syrup but I had a bit, small bit) I think I’d have been ok…ish.
But oh no, no no no no no nonononooooooo I couldn’t just say mmm pancake! I’m good! I’ll have some beans or a salad or whatever (kerbey had a million healthy clean and even some raw options) no I had to say…mmm you know what sounds awesome?
A burger.
Yeah, a burger. On a whole wheat bun with avocado and sweet potato fries. Yeah that sounds marvelous!
Well, it was! I only ate a few fries (too occupied with my pancake!) but the burger was fabulous…at the moment.
But see from there, all full and bursting with food I haven’t had in a month, we ventured downtown to our friend Deepu’s birthday party. There I was, in a club, and was very very glad I was with people who do not drink. I managed, wisely, to abstain from the boozahol all around. This was helped, in part, by the fact that my stomach was now protesting very very much. And not just my stomach, but my pancreas. It has been a long time since I’ve felt my blood sugar crash like I did last night. I do not miss it.
Needless to say, this morning I welcomed back my juice with open arms and have been battling the food hangover all day. I am tired and have zero energy, been feeling so cold and my stomach has been wonky this morning but I’m sure that will pass by tomorrow.
I began today with a really really really really big juice from Whole Foods while I did a bit of shopping for juicing supplies . Green goodness with double beets and spirulina! 36 oz of pure awesome. It carried me through the morning and most of lunch. Other than that, I’ve had a kombucha, a bunch of tea (i’ve been cold, so cold) and coconut water from 3 young coconuts. I love them. I LOVE THEM! But a very nice surprise has come with dinner, citrus sunrise! I’ll have it again for breakfast:
1 grapefruit
2 oranges
4 oz cherry juice (you can score it at whole fuds or use pom’s cherry)
that’s it! Doesn’t even need a juicer, you can just squeeze. Delicious.
But while grocery shopping I also picked up a new milk that I’m going to be interested to try along with my Vega One protein. Flax milk with pea protein. I got the unsweetened kind because I plan on using it to mix things not to drink on its own but it might also be good for cooking. We will see! I like almond milk but it’s very much almond flavored and while I really enjoy the vanilla variety, that limits it’s use. Also it’s higher in calories than this is without the added protein benefit. I’ll try some tomorrow morning with my vega one and report back.
That is a difference in this fast too, I am not just juicing, I’m also incorporating as meals my protein mix and other supplements. What is similar, however, is that it’s all vegan and natural still. Check em out! I’ve got my NanoGreens, my Vega One Chai, bee pollen and spirulina and of course my gummy vitamins…because I’m 5, and also vitamin supplements make me vomit when in pill form. I don’t know why, but they do.
Neat huh? And I have to say, Vega One is perhaps the best tasting protein mix I’ve ever tried and I’ve tried a LOT of them. After I finish this one I might switch to their sport line since it’s heavier in the protein department but doesn’t yet come in chai, which is what drew me to this one in the first place. Plant based ftw!
Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking a lot about what my clean phase will mean to me. I’ve read a lot of different interpretations on ‘clean’ that vary depending on source, body builders, vegans, dieters, etc…even some people who would claim that slim fast style shakes are considered clean???
Sigh, here are my simple rules for what I will consider clean:
-Can I identify every ingredient as having come from something I can grow or raise?
-Is the word bleached, hydrogenated, or artificial present in the ingredient list?
-Can I (in theory) from scratch, as in right from the ground or pasture, make what I am eating?
Basically, is what I’m eating real food?
No hard and fast rules but there will be some things I choose to avoid because there are better options– wheat, for example. I’m not banning it but I will opt, when I can, for gluten free.
I will also strive to avoid soy and other GMO crops. Not only are GMO crops creepy as sin they’re also a major source of economic conflict in the world. I’ve always felt strongly about GMO but have been lazy about avoiding it (also poor) and it’s about damn time I cut them out.
For health and nutritional reasons I’ll be limiting the amount of grains of any sort I take in, fact is I can get a lot more bang for my calorie without them and to be honest, I don’t miss them all that much. Still, I’ll have them from time to time. 🙂
I’ve also been thinking a lot, recently, about my animal product intake. I love meat, of all kinds. I really do. But I’ve lived for years without pork and shellfish (three guesses why!) and haven’t had so much trouble.
I don’t want to go vegan or vegetarian but I do want to be much more responsible with my animal product intake. I’ve decided then that I will only eat meat and poultry from responsibly sourced humane providers. When possible at restaurants I will opt for vegan entrees or vegetarian if there are no vegan choices unless I have verified that they source from humane providers. You can bet your ass I’ll be making a list of those places 🙂
When I shop for meat it’ll likely be from Whole Foods as they have an Animal Welfare Standards program that is handy dandy. (They have a similar program for seafood sustainability) I, personally, won’t accept less than standard 4. I realize that many restaurants won’t be meeting that standard, but I will applaud any efforts they make.
Why? Because I love animals, and while I believe that we are omnivores and it has a place in our diet, I also think what we do in commercial ranching is a crime, both to the animals and to ourselves. Conventional beef and grass fed beef have DEMONSTRABLE nutritional differences. Why? Conventional beef is raised on the cheapest diet they can produce and it’s often corn mixed with other leftovers and supplements as well as hormones and antibiotics. We feed them trash and that’s what they become. Grass fed beef is not only better for you and for the cow but it tastes better too!
We all deserve better, cows, birds and people. It’s about respect, in a lot of ways, for me. The animal is being raised to one day nourish me, which means until that day we have a responsibility to them to care for them and make their life worth living. That means no tiny cages, socialization, enrichment, natural diet and ability to see the sun. There’s no excuse for less.