Vegan Challenge: Starting Week 3

I've been MIA from blogging for a few days, but I haven't stopped being vegan. I'm pretty much halfway through my challenge, and I have to say, it's really not feeling like much of a challenge! I'm eating healthy, filling, and most importantly, YUMMY food. I'm trying new recipes and cooking more than ever before. I'm honestly feeling happier than I have in a long time. I'm also very excited to announce that I've reached my goal weight!

Between August and November of last year, I gained about 8 or 9 pounds. That may not sound like a big deal, but when you're only 5'2", it's definitely going to make an impact. I had a stack of jeans and dress pants that I could not fit into anymore. I felt awful. Even though I was still exercising pretty regularly, I was dining out too much, drinking too many alcoholic beverages, and eating enough junk food that it was catching up with me. So as soon as the holidays were over, I swore off fast food restaurants, cooked most of my meals at home, and cut out alcohol consumption almost entirely. From January 1st to April 1st, I lost the weight - 8.8 pounds. Since I started following a vegan diet two weeks ago, I lost 3.5 more pounds and have finally reached my goal weight of 125. I feel best at 125 - I've been here several times before, and it's a comfortable weight for me. I feel good about how I look at this weight, and it is an easy weight to maintain with eating healthy and exercising regularly. I'm curious to see if I lose a few more pounds in the weeks to come. It's not something I'm striving for, but if it happens, I certainly won't complain! I'm not uncomfortable with saying my weight on here. You all can see what I look like, announcing my weight is simply a number! Of course, weight is not everything, and so I keep a log of my measurements also. I'll chart my final totals at the end of the month.

This past weekend was a social one and I ended up going out to a restaurant each day. By planning ahead or eating beforehand, I was not tempted at these restaurants in the least, but I was still able to enjoy the social aspect of going out to eat. I think my tactics are ones that everyone can and should use if you are trying to eat healthy:

1. Decide what you're going to eat before you arrive. Pretty much every single restaurant out there has their menu available online. Take a look at the dishes and research what would be the healthiest choice. Then when you get to the restaurant, don't even open your menu - just order what you planned!

2. If it looks like a healthy option isn't going to be available for you, or if you're vegetarian or vegan, then you should eat something beforehand. Now I've read this tip in the past and scoffed at the idea. I've thought, "Come on! If I'm going to go out, I'm going to enjoy myself!" But at some restaurants, it is not just going to be easy to order a vegan plate and so I have to have a different plan. Turns out it didn't bother me to do this at all!

Feels like I should have a third point there - "just because" - but I don't, so two is what you get!

So where did I go this weekend? On Friday my co-workers planned to go out to Rock Bottom after work for drinks. Usually, we order food as well. Now as most of you know, Rock Bottom is one of my favorite restaurants. Dan and I frequent RB every few weeks and usually order their amazing loaded nachos. Towards the end of my work day, I ate one of my tasty black bean burgers so that I wouldn't want to order food at RB. Once we got to the restaurant, I did end up ordering something later on - but no worries, it was vegan! I spotted tortilla chips and guacamole on their $5 Happy Hour menu, so I ordered that with a side of salsa. They hit the spot! I think I've come to realize that it's not even their nachos that I'm so in love with - it's their guac! Now, since I do want to be honest here, I might have violated being a "true" vegan by ordering a beer at RB. There is a possibility that they use isinglass in their brewing process. Still, the main point of this challenge was to eat like a vegan, and that's just what I've been doing. However, I felt I had to mention the beer thing.

On Saturday, Dan's mom came out to Naperville to visit with us. I haven't seen her since the Super Bowl, and we were overdue to spend some time with her. We planned to go to the Two Brothers Round House in Aurora because first of all, it's awesome, and second of all, they have vegan enchiladas there. We ordered an appetizer of house chips which came with beer cheese sauce and ranch dipping sauce - I couldn't have those, so I stuck to ketchup. The chips are like homemade potato chips, basically. I noticed they had "small plates" on their menu and spotted vegan tacos. I wasn't really feeling the enchiladas this time, but tacos sounded great! I ordered those and a garden salad, since I was pretty hungry. I was expecting a tiny side salad of romaine lettuce, but their salad was actually great - a big heaping pile of mixed greens, diced tomatoes and shredded carrots. The vegan tacos were delish - I was just sad there were only two of them!

Today Dan and I met my parents and my cousin Jessica and her husband Justin at Giordano's to celebrate her birthday. Happy 30th Birthday, Jessica!

Now, I really haven't been having any food cravings EXCEPT for pizza. I knew this would be a tough one! I still have some of my tofu spinach lasagna left, so I ate that at home before we went to the restaurant so that I wouldn't be hungry. At Giordano's, I ordered a house salad. Despite all the cheesy, deep dish pizza sitting in front of me, I stuck to my salad!

It came with a piece of ciabatta bread, which I did eat - I was reading about vegan bread online the other day and it seemed the general consensus on ciabatta bread is it is vegan. It was a good substitute for the doughy pizza. Overall, I felt pretty good at the restaurant - while the pizza smelled and looked delicious, I wasn't overwhelmed with "MUST HAVE PIZZA!" thoughts. I have five witnesses who can testify I did not have any pizza!

Nice pic of Dan and me :)

Jess and me

Family pic out front

I'm sorry to say I do not have a bunch of exciting recipes to share with you all this week, mostly because I made a batch of black bean quinoa burgers today that will last me the week for lunch. I noticed I need to make the patties smaller - they don't cook well if they're too big and get mushy. I still like them, but they're better when dry. I'm also wondering if the quinoa I've been adding is keeping them too moist.

Tomorrow I'll be making falafel stuffed pitas. I had these on the meal plan for last week, but we had so many leftovers between the enchiladas and the lasagna that I didn't need to make them. Today's shopping trip was an easy one, as I already had most of the ingredients I needed. Just had to pick up a few things like almond milk, cereal, and some fruit and veggies.

Earlier today, I did an interval session on the treadmill. I would have loved to run outside in this gorgeous weather, but I happened to wake up at 6 AM today and it was only 40 degrees out then. I was actually really happy I woke up early, I got all my errands out of the way. I tried a new interval workout today - it was tough! It's a 45 minute plan, I stopped at 38 minutes.

Give that one a try! You'll burn more fat and calories from an interval workout than you will from working out at a constant pace, and they're also a great way to strengthen your heart and improve cardio endurance.

Well I'm off to relax with my honey for the evening before another crazy workweek hits. Hope everyone had a great weekend!