exceptional eating habit experiment

HIIIII!

So I hope I did not scare anyone with my interpretation of the real Slim Shady.

Last night I had plans of going to yoga, but then everyone bailed, and I didn’t really want to be coming home at 10pm by myself so I bailed too. I am sure I missed out, but I slept instead.

In more exciting news, my parents watched Food, Inc and have a new respect for the food industry! In the spirit of that, the new year and just for kicks, we are doing a 21 day vegan based diet. [not diet, but that is how you say eating habits and that is our new eating habit experiment.] I tried the whole vegetarian thing once before, I know, I know. But then I focused entirely too much  on carbs and not enough on vegetables. Anyway, this is just for three weeks to see how it goes!

I started the morning with stove top oatmeal. Not usually a luxury I get to enjoy, as I am normally pushed for time and make microwave oatmeal which is not as delicious.

• oatmeal
• apples
• raisins
• almond butter

Oatmeal is always better with a nut butter…this was no exception. It was exceptional.

For lunch I did not skimp on the veggies. No sir, I did not!

• broccoli
• peas
• corn

Carbs for breakfast, veggies for lunch! I am already doing much better than my previous experience.

For my snack I had this apple:

As well as my almonds I did not finish the day before, and some craisins that I happened upon.

Apples are not enough for a snack…not for this girl!

I helped Mama D make the most fantastic dinner. By help, I mean I assisted in the rolling out of Tandoori Rotis and opened a can of black beans.

So basically I did nothing to help prepare this deliciousness.

Like this salad. Did not lift a finger toward it, but it was delicious nonetheless.

• spinach
• apples
• pears
• almonds
• raisins

Seriously, so good. The apples and pears against the blander almonds and spinach made this mouthwatering. Completely.

I think I did help roll out my roti.

Given it’s misshapen appearance I have gathered that. It was still good. I love soft chewy breads.

Sweet potato! Natures candy…

This was the best meal I have had in a long time…probably because it was prepared with love, no?

And it was vegan. Vegan Thursday, what!?!?

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Just like her sister

Hey there, friends!

Can you believe it’s December 1st already?!?!

Not me!

I sure can’t!

Had oatmeal today though.

It was yummy.

Now that.

That’s believable. 

• 1/2 cup oats
• protein powder
• almond milk
• banana
• pb
• jam

Love me some protein oats with pb&j! My belly does too. It was full ALL MORNING! ♥ that.

Also ♥ leftovers. They make life so easy. ‘Specially when it’s flying by.

Steamed broccoli + taco soup.

My aunt Jennifer made this taco soup last night, and she so kindly gave me a portion for my lunch. I just heated it up in my breakfast bowl, and it tasted good as new!

Beans and rice!

On the side I steamed some broccoli in the microwave.

Gourmet cook, I am not.

But it was tasty.

****

Side note:

Little sis got her braces off!

MILESTONE!

Look how pretty she is.

Just like her sister[s].

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Vegan-Fur-A-Day

[Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Rather PETA friendly, no? ]

I almost forgot about Katy + Michelle’s Vegan-4-A-Day challenge this morning. I was just about to fry up an egg when it popped in my brain.

So pumpkin oatmeal shall have to suffice.

It did.

• 1/2 cup pumpkin [Libby’s!!!]
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 banana
• water
• pumpkin spice
• agave syrup

Licked the bowl in fact.

Lonchi was a little harder.

I reeeeaaaallllly [yes that bad] wanted my leftover tuna salad. But I packed black beans instead. I didn’t really want them cold, so I made a makeshift black bean burger on the spur of the moment.

Messy bowl of Heaven.

• salsa
• black beans
• romaine
• ketchup [it was vegan!]

After scarfing that down I boot scoot n’ boogied over to the barber shop. Ok, not really the barber shop. It’s a legit hair salon where I get my locks trimmed. I ♥ my hairdresser. Seriously, if you are in the area and need a hair stylist, convo me. [Convo me?!?! Regretsy much?] She has been doing my hair for 2+ years now. That’s longer than my longest romantic relationship. She informed me that I had not gotten my hair cut since August 11th! I did a little researching of my own, and guess what? She was right! I guess that’s why I’ve been sporting Medusa-like locks for the past month and a half.

It’s looking much better now!

I’ll have to do something about that camera in my face later. Also we may need to do something about the lighting in our bathroom at work. Fugly, it is.

Handy dandy fact. There is a Starbucks within spittin’ distance of my hair salon. I picked up a peppermint mocha for my coworker and a soy misto for meself. I’m nice like that.

New love.

And I noshed on a pear.

Juicy.

After work I ran to the gym and ran on the treadmill. 6.2 sweaty miles later, I was done! True fact: My feet have been hurting me pretty badly since my long run Saturday, but I didn’t want to complain about it on here. I figured with me being sick that was enough complaining from the peanut gallery. Anyway, I was a bit worried about it, perhaps overly so. Good thing for me, my run today was lovely. It felt like a little massage on my feet the whole time. LOVE.

I was struck with a dilemma for dinner.

What was quick + vegan? And then I saw the shiny lights of Chipotle!

[Insert generic picture of Chipotle sign here]

Vegetarian Burrito Bowl, you shall be mine!

• rice
• black beans [twice today!]
• corn salsa
• regular salsa
• guacamole
• lettuce

History. I tucked that away in about 5 seconds.

So there you have it ladies + gents! My vegan eats for the day, plus the added bonus of my new haircut.

And that’s a wrap!

[Disclaimer: I am not, nor do I plan to become a vegan in the near future. This was just for fun!]

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ya dig?

I really like this jacket I’m wearing today:

Ya dig?

Of course, it doesn’t actually belong to me. But then, what are sisters for, if not to borrow clothes from?

Thought so.

I also like bfast cookies.

‘Specially pumpkin bfast cookies.

That kind of look like flowers.

• pumpkin pureé
• 1/2 cup oats
• pumpkin pie spice
• 1 scoop protein powder
• almond butter

I topped it with greek yog and a dollop of White Chocolate Wonderful PB. Party in my mouth, yo!

I haven’t really done anything else of note this morning, other than eat that beauty, so let’s get straight to lunch, shall we?

Lovely leftovers.

Mama D’s reheated clam chowder, which is basically heaven in a bowl.

+

Frozen broccoli, microwaved. Which is not heaven, but I love it anyway.

And it’s back to work I gooooo!

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toast and post

Yo!

Glad everyone enjoyed our pumpkin carving festivities. ‘Twas a night to be remembered indeed. If you are looking to throw a pah-tay I suggest pumpkin carving as a theme, indeed.

This morn I could not think of a quickie breakfast I wanted more than toast.

So toast it was.

And what a toast!

Strawberry + Ricotta toast and plain Butter toast.

Both come strongly recommended from my toast lovin’ mouth.

Lunchi was exciting, because guess who remembered their pasta sauce from last week?

ME, that’s who!

So I had a Hugh Jass bowl of carb loading 15 mile running pasta.

AND, although it looks to have no veggies, it’s fooling you.

There’s an entire carrot and a zucchini in that sucka!

Now it’s work, work, work and gym lata! Gotta work those kinks out of these legs.

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Plan A

My Larabar grew a ‘fro.

But she seems pretty happy with it, so I let it go.

After work I scrambled to get to CharlotteOne, and low and behold I actually got there on time!!

What! What!

I never do that!

CharlotteOne was amazing, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Dinner was an SIAB [Kath speak for Smoothie In A Bowl]

I happily dumped a muffin in that thing.

Muffins go with everything.

My smoothie consisted of:

• 1 frozen banana
• 1/2 a bag of spinach
• 1 scoop protein powder
• 1 spoonful PB
• coffee (!!!)
• almond milk
• ice

It had a lovely mocha flavor. I was mucho excited about adding the coffee. SCORE!!!

On the side I had some crunchy + crispy grapes.

Yes, they are freshly washed, but are they clean?

That is the million dollar question, because I did indeed spy some dirt on one even though I vigorously ran water over them.

Wash fail.

***

At CharlotteOne tonight the topic was Epic Fail. It’s the same topic that we talked about last week, but this week it hit really close to home.

I am sure that we all have had at least one epic fail in our lifetime, or else you must be living under a rock somewhere, which would be an epic fail in and of itself. Rocks are darn uncomfortable. Plus, I just don’t know that they make very good homes.

Anyway, Dave [the worship leader] started out by saying ‘God is bigger than your epic fail.’ Wow. Just wow.

I posted that to twitter, and honestly you guys, I don’t always think twice about what I post on twitter, but I was so surprised to see that get RT [retweeted] several times.

One girl put ‘I needed this today’ in front of her RT.

It just brought a huge smile to my face to see the response to that, because we all do have epic fails, but in truth God is bigger than any epic fail we make.

Not only that, but he forgives us our failures and shortcomings and makes something great from it.

Remember God’s Plan is always Plan A for you. Not Plan B or C.

If you are living Plan B, why?

What’s stopping you from living your dream?

Get out there and do it. God has your back.

Me?

I’m doing some soul searching and figuring out just what Plan A is.

I’ll let you know.

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Bowls, pt. 2

Ok, it’s gray around here again.

Yep, that means day of bowls #2!

Today’s breakfast bowl featured PB&J oatmeal, which consisted of:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup water
• mashed banana
• flax
• pb
• Je’s jam!

I went from EMPTY to FULL in about .005 seconds! Seriously, oatmeal has been keeping me SO FULL in the mornings lately. I love it.

Except, then I haven’t really been hungry at lunch.

But when you have delicious ingredients, you must use them, right?

Yes, you must.

You must use them to make delicious STIRFRY!

So that you can eat it out of a MUG!

With GRAPES!

GRAPES! are so delicious right now, no?

GRAPES! and APPLES! [now I want to go apple picking.]

****

So, as you saw my friend Amanda got married over the weekend. [Congrats to her!]

All your comments + my own thoughts got me thinking…am I going to be the last one to get married? Should I be worried that I am not even in a relationship [of any kind?] I mean, most of my friends are married. Gah, some of the even have KIDS! [Mama D. made certain of that not happening by giving birth to a little devil angel at a most opportune time in my life.]

I feel sort of behind, even though I am really happy with where I am in life.

What about you?

Are all your friends married, pregnant or in serious relationships? Do you often find yourself chilling with a cup of coffee watching Gossip Girl alone? [GG is my show of choice, insert your own here.] If you are in the same boat as me, do you find it a little strange? Like everything is happening so fast? And how did it happen?

As to not end this on a downer [not that I am down about that, as stated earlier] can I mention something I am excited about?

CharlotteONE is tonight! Yay, I get to connect!

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Upgraded

To a new camera.

Well, Linden upgraded, so I bought her old D40. Which is not old at all. Like a few months.

Anyway, I most pleased, but I have no frigging idea how to use it!

But I do know how to make and eat a breakfast cookie.

• pumpkin
• spoonful pb
• 1 scoop protein powder
• 1/2 cup oats

Also I drizzled it with honey for a more beautiful look.

And then I proceeded to try to pack a lunch, but I didn’t have any groceries.

So I called McAlisters.

And ordered a HUGE pizza! Apparently ONE person is supposed to eat all this?

This, of course being a Mediterranean Feta Pizza Flat.

I failed to eat it all, instead choosing to go with 1/2.

And that was enough for me.

(Can you tell I <3 the new camera?)

****

Kreativ Blog Award

The lovely Whitney (awesome name! ) from Lettuce Love nominated me for a Kreativ Blog Award, which I am most honored to accept.

Apparently according to the rules, I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself that you didn’t know, and name 7 other blogs to receive the award.

Let’s start with 7 blogs, beginning with some new ones that I am pretty excited about, as well as some of my favorites.

1. SoundEats! Lindsey used to blog at Mrs. LC, but she just moved (yesterday!) to her new blog. She has an awesome header. Love.
2. Britt Likes Beer! She’s Homegirl’s bff, and she likes beer. What’s not to love?
3. Peanut Butter and Jenny! Because she loves peanut butter as much as I do, as well as plaid. And she’s awesome.
4. MegaNerdRuns! Umm, a nerd who runs? She might have the cutest blog name around.
5. The HealthyEverythingtarian! Well, she has an awesome blog name too. And curly hair.
6. Mama’s Weeds! Because she has two of the cutest kids ever, and drinks green juice. I admire people that drink green juice.
7. Green Dog Wine! Lando is one of the cutest dogs ever, and Allison is one of the most fun people ever. Not that I have met her in real life or anything. I can just tell these things.

Now for step 2: Well, I pretty much put myself out there, so honestly there isn’t much you don’t know, so that’s kind of hard.

But I’ll try.

1. Today I have a guest post up at On A Lobster Placemat. I think you’ll like it.
2. Last night, instead of going to bed I read this book. It was awesome. I recommend it.
3. I like to read books in the bath tub.
4. I read that book in the bath tub, in fact.
5. Tonight I am going to dinner at Cabo Fish Taco with the sisters and some friends.
6. Tomorrow I am running in my 4th Susan G. Komen 5k, and my first race of the season.
7. Later today I am celebrating Cookie Friday with this:

A cookie as big as my head. I’m pretty excited.

Have a great FRIDAY!

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LOOK!

It’s a mango and a banana,

it’s a flattened mango and a flattened banana, in fact.

Looks like a truck ran over those two.

After my snack, I ran 7 miles and then rolled around with my new buddy the foam roller. He and I are getting pretty tight. BFFS.

Dinner brought about the end of my tempeh.

As well as some green beans on their last legs.

And some corn that looks pretty fresh.

Which of these three does not belong?

A bit of a trick question there, eh?

Technically you have two options:

1.) The tempeh, as it is not a veggie.

2.) The corn, because it looks fresh.

Frankly, I don’t really care which one you pick, because I ate every single bite.

In much more interesting news Meredith got a new hair color for fall:

Yep, I have a sister that is a brunette now!

(Also she’s single, guys.)

(As am I.)

On that note, I am going to bed.

Well, maybe not to bed, as it’s early yet.

Who am I kidding?

I am so going to bed.

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Oktoberfest

October! The month of Halloween, aka the most wonderful holiday ever!

I mean when else can you dress as a police officer and handcuff cute men to your wrist?

Maybe that’s just me. Never mind.

Forget I mentioned that.

Wellllllll…

I had coffee and wore my hair wavy today! One of these things is a normal occurrence, one is not.

I also wore my most BOSSY boots, but failed to get a decent picture of them.

Ah well, you get the idea.

They are kind of awesome.

Also kind of awesome:

This bossy breakfast.

Oats in a jar, yes, but not just any old oats.

PUMPKIN OATS!

• pumpkin
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup soy milk
• 3 dates
• cinnamon
• a squeeze of maple syrup
• and of course ALMOND BUTTER!

About that much, in fact.

Yes, Operation More Veggies/Less Nut Butter is going splendidly. Thanks for asking.

For lunch, as I ate up all the spinach yesterday, I had a tomato sandwich.

• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• 1 tomato
• 2 slices provolone
• marinara sauce

Only my most favorite way to eat tomatoes EVER. (Besides pizza and spaghetti, that is.)

I must say that if I had some carrots, they would have gone fabulously on the side. Or grapes. Even perhaps a celery stick. (Who am I kidding? I hate celery.)

But I did not.

I only had my little sandwich, because once again, someone is slap out of groceries. Imagine that.

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