30 Day Vegan Challenge: Let them eat cake. And baklava. And pizza.

There's something about warm weather that makes me incredibly happy. It just makes me love life more and feel much more motivated. I ran 4.02 miles (39:07 minutes) on Saturday and 5.29 miles (50:25 minutes) on Sunday. I love my Log Your Run app! I noticed it's even tallying my miles and minutes each week. I did a shorter run today, 3.43 miles (33:10). I'm staying pretty consistent with my pace. Compared to many, I'm not a fast runner, but a 9:30/9:40 pace is something I am perfectly content with. I'm hoping to improve my time to a 9 minute pace during my half marathon training this summer.

I spent several hours cleaning my apartment and doing laundry on Sunday. I cannot understand how my small one bedroom apartment gets so dusty and dirty all the time. I also swapped my fall and winter clothes for my spring and summer clothes. I know we're due for some more dips in the temperature, but I just couldn't stand looking at my gloomy winter clothes any longer.

So nice to see some color! I have a bad habit of buying all black and gray in the winter. I need to remember that when shopping for new clothes this fall. However, let's not even discuss that - my favorite season, summer, is still on it's way and I want to savor that as long as possible!

Last week I was faced with all sorts of temptation when it came to food, but with some planning ahead, it really wasn't too bad. As I mentioned about a week ago, the worst craving I was having was for pizza. Last Monday, Dan and I decided to make vegan pizza. I bought a multigrain crust at Target, some regular ol' pizza sauce, and tried out some Trader Joe's vegan mozzarella cheese. I previously only tried Daiya vegan cheese, which was just okay. This Trader Joe's cheese was far tastier than Daiya and melted much better too - and it was nearly $2 cheaper! Score! Dan made a plain cheese pizza and I put pineapple, green pepper, and red onion on mine.

The finished product:

Looks legit, right?! Only thing was I think we either A) used too much cheese or B) didn't let the crust cook long enough or C) combination of both - the pizza was a little heavy and messy and I had to use a fork and knife to eat it. Still, it was quite delicious and satisfied my pizza craving. Haven't craved pizza since!

On Tuesday, I had a half day off work for a doctor's appointment. I did some shopping before my appointment and ate lunch at a nearby restaurant that I've been meaning to check out: I Dream of Falafel.

Holy. Freaking. Deliciousness. The wrap you see here is called laffa bread - it's a Middle Eastern leavened flat bread. For meat eaters, the restaurant does offer chicken, lamb, steak, and Turkish style seasoned meat. Besides the wrap, you can also choose a platter - basically a plate of hummus, baba ganoush, falafel, couscous, and a salad mix such as tabbouleh or a cucumber and tahini sauce mix. I realize I'm throwing a lot of words out there that many people probably aren't familiar with! So let's do a quick breakdown here:

Hummus: I think most are familiar with hummus, but if you're not, it's a thick paste or spread made from ground chickpeas and sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon, and garlic, made originally in the Middle East.

Baba Ganoush: Usually made of roasted, peeled, and mashed eggplant, blended with tahini, garlic, salt, white vinegar and lemon juice. Cumin and chili powder can be added.

Falafel: Sweet heaven! Haha, really it is a Middle Eastern dish of spiced mashed chickpeas formed into balls and deep fried. OK, so the deep fried part isn't the best. You can also make them at home and bake them, if you're looking to be healthier!

Couscous: Couscous is a dish made from tiny granules of durum wheat. The couscous grains are then prepared by steaming them until they have a light, fluffy consistency. Couscous is closely related to pasta.

Tabbouleh: An Arab salad of cracked wheat mixed with finely chopped ingredients such as tomatoes, onions, and parsley.

Tahini: A Middle Easter paste made of ground sesame seeds.

All you really need to know is that's freaking delicious. Seriously. Holy flavor explosion. I also got lettuce, red cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, and onion in my wrap. I loved this place so much, that I met my friend Brittney there for lunch today - and she loved it too!

So, back to the temptations.

Not those temptations! These...

It started on Thursday morning, really. I met my friend Christina at our favorite breakfast restaurant - but I could not order my usual of eggs, feta cheese and tomatoes with hash browns. I also knew I couldn't use any coffee creamer, so I took my little carton of Silk French Vanilla soy creamer with me! For my meal, I made up and ordered a hash brown scramble - hash browns with green peppers and onions with a plain English muffin on the side. I added ketchup to the hash browns and grape jelly to the English muffin, and I was quite happy with it.

Then on Thursday at work, one of my coworkers mentioned that it was my friend and coworker Catherine's birthday on Saturday and that she would be out of the office the next day, so if we were going to do birthday cake, it had to be that day. I volunteered to go pick up a cake. I walked into the grocery store and stood around the bakery section for a good 10 minutes debating what kind of cake to buy and what size. I finally settled on a checkerboard cake with whipped cream frosting. While I waited for the bake shop staff to write "Happy Birthday, Catherine" on the cake, I was practically drooling as stared at the various cakes, cookies, and doughnuts before me. I debated giving in and having cake that day. But then I told myself, "You have not done this for 25 days just to give up now. And besides, do REAL vegans just give up on their beliefs for birthday cake?! No, they do not! No cake for you!" I spotted a cupcake shop on my way to the office and popped in to ask if they had vegan cupcakes. Unfortunately, they did not.

One thing I love about my office and coworkers is we always celebrate each other's birthdays - birthday cards, cake, off key singing of "Happy Birthday!" and all. It's just one of the ways I find my company has a family feel to it. Now there have been days where I truly have not wanted a piece of cake, but somehow, a slice always ends up on my desk. Not this time. When one coworker asked, "Aren't you having any cake?" and I said, "No, it's not vegan", the pressure stopped there. Of course, not before two of my coworkers looked at me like I was an alien and asked, "WHY?!" I gave the briefest answer I possibly could, because I knew the two asking me the question love their meat and cheese. "For health reasons. And the animals." "Oh, you can't think about that!" one of them said in response. Still, they pretty much dropped it after that. I must say, it felt damn good to not have a piece of cake. Normally, I would have spent the rest of the work day beating myself up over having some cake. Not this time!

On Friday, I accompanied two of my coworkers over to a lunch with one of our major clients. We brought them Giordano's pizza. Thankfully, I was able to put in a request for a salad. As I dug in to my salad, one of the women teased, "Oh sure, you get the healthy salad and we just get the pizza!" That's when my coworker Brian announced, "Desiree went vegan for the month!" Oy. There were about 8 or 9 people in the room, and the focus turned on me with one question after another.

"What made you decide to do that?"

"Is it hard?"

"So...what do you eat?"

I answered their questions, but I didn't want to monopolize the entire lunch. Still, it was pretty neat to have people so interested in it and listen. Brian later told me he thought it ended up being a great ice breaker. Whatever works! Personally, I was amazed at myself that I was able to sit in a small conference room filled with people eating pizza and I didn't crave or have a single piece. I also didn't have any of the baklava desserts or brownies we brought as well. Part of my interest in this challenge was to reset my taste buds and gain more self control over food, and I truly have done that. Telling myself, "You can have some next time" is a good way to forget about whatever it is you're craving.

Tomorrow is Day 30, and although I can technically drop this whole thing and order a big cheeseburger on May 1st, I have no desire to. I've still planned meals for the week, including:

Leftover lack bean burger patties from last week. I had cooked up a double batch and froze 4 of them. I love having these in 1/2 a pita.

Detox salad consisting of spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, shredded carrots, dried cranberries and tomatoes. I altered this recipe a bit.

Quinoa taco salad - nom nom nom!

Black bean and potato plate - looks so delicious!

Grilled tofu with pineapple - I'd love to make the coconut rice in this recipe, but kept my grocery shopping pretty cheap and basic this week so I'll be pairing it up with some quinoa and pineapple peach salsa that I have on hand).

I am falling more in love with tofu than ever. Dan and I went to my favorite Thai restaurant on Saturday and I ordered the pad Thai (no egg!) with tofu and veggies. In the past, I'd always order the chicken pad Thai there. I honestly could not tell the difference and did not miss it at all. I also made sure to request the dish not be prepared without fish sauce, but it turns out they don't use fish sauce in their recipe. Hooray!

After the Thai restaurant, Dan and I went to a wine tasting nearby. Wine and a Rock Bottom beer have been the ONLY things I've consumed that violated my vegan challenge. As I've mentioned before, almost all wines and some beers are not vegan because of isinglass. I have still stayed true to eating vegan! The month has flown by and I have really enjoyed all the new foods I've tried, higher energy levels, and overall just feeling much healthier. I do feel very conflicted when I think about staying vegan, or staying vegetarian/mostly vegan, or even allowing myself meat on certain occasions. I do still believe that every little bit makes a difference - for the animals, for my health, and for the environment. I'll be pondering this a lot over the next few days.

Cheers to almost finishing 30 days of a vegan diet!