Egg Rolls Home Made

These were tasty. I want to experiment with the filling for them. I have been eating meat recently but I miss how great I feel when I'm eating superhealthy. I miss how my body feels super clean and efficient. I'm looking forward to getting back to eating like this.

One Year Cleanse?

I have decided to carry out some of the major elements of the cleanse for a year in order to be as healthy as I can be. I'm sticking to no caffeine, no alcohol, no processed sugar, no meat and mostly no dairy products. I'll have some occasional cheese in small amounts. I'm not being too obsessive about it, just doing my best. If I do eat meat or dairy it will be from a source I know for sure did not use any questionable or harmful processing/feeding practices.

The meal above is my new favorite: quinoa with roasted asparagus, mushrooms, onions and tofu. Very tasty flavored with olive oil and a little fresh lemon juice.

Day 15: More Pictures

Polenta and Pinto Bean pie, with soy nacho cheese. (Not our favorite!)


Jasmine Rice Fantasy and African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew with figs and grapes.
Good Meal.

Day 14: Irony

Back in May we ordered a quarter of a cow. One of Patrick's coworkers raises cows and we thought we'd try getting our beef from a local, responsible source. On Day 14 we recieved the call that it was ready at the butchers. Sofia, Otis and I drove out to pick it up and I packed the freezer full with roasts, steaks, and ground beef that we're not going to be able to even think about trying for another week.

Day 15: Catching Up

We're two thirds of the way through our cleanse. While it has been less challenging than we expected, we are anticipating the return of certain currently forbidden foods. Patrick is looking forward to a good beer. I am excited about cutting up a nice freshly baked loaf of bread.

This week it has been a little harder to mix it up and keep the variety and flavors interesting. I had a day when I didn't want to cook so we bought some fairly vegan Thai food. We tried something new, a pumpkin curry. It was delicious. Patrick found himself wishing for it again the next day. Our favorite home cooked meal so far has been the spring rolls and rice with Spicy Peanut Sauce (above). Wow. We will definitely be adding it to our normal lineup. The spring rolls were fun to make.

Day Seven: Motivation

Both Patrick and I have noticed in the last day or so that we have been suddenly ready to take on old tasks that we have been procrastinating for a long time or tackling problems that have needed solving. This is an unexpected but good development. What would happen if everyone in the USA went off sugar, caffeine, alcohol, gluten and animal products for a week?

Day Six: Calm

Today's lunch is blue corn chips with freshly picked cherry tomatoes and hummus and baba ghanoush from Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet. Yumm. The hummus with the tomatoes on chips is especially delicious.

This morning and afternoon I have been feeling very calm. No jitters from caffeine or sugar highs or lows. I can read my body better.

Day Five: New Cookbooks

Above is polenta with two tomato topping from Robin Robertson's "quick-fix vegetarian", one of the cookbooks we bought yesterday. It includes sun dried tomatoes, yellow heirloom tomatos and basil from our garden (and other things). We liked it. A nice variety to the soy based meals we've had so far.

After we bought two vegan cookbooks yesterday, we went ingredient shopping. This time I tried New Seasons, with much success. They had everything we needed. Whole Foods selection wasn't as good when I went there, but maybe I missed things because I had the kids with me.

I had so much fun today trying new things. I made my own hummus and baba ghanoush as well as a dairy free creamy salad dressing using soft silky soy. An interesting tidbit I learned from one of the cookbooks: In Japan, because of the large amounts of soy in the diet, it is very rare for women to experience hot flashes during menopause. There is not even a word for it in the Japanese language because it is so uncommon.

Today is the first day I feel really good. No achey muscles, no headache. I like how I feel. Also, the scale keeps turning up miracles. Perhaps helped by the 6 mile walk we did yesterday... Patrick mentioned today that he keeps feeling "stuffed" full after our meals. I have been surprised also by how quickly I fill up.

Day Four Dinner: Vegan Tacos

Dinner tonight was ground "soy" beef crumble tacos with a nacho soy cheese. Would have been better if I had used our regular taco seasoning, but it did hit the spot and felt nicely familiar.

How Patrick coped:

Day Four: Good Cookbook Required

When I weighed in this morning I found I have lost 4 lbs since Day 0. I have been drinking lots of water and tea. I know you can only lose about 3 lbs of fat per week and I don't want to lose muscle, etc so I'm hoping that's the water weight. But there's not much I can do about it. It's hard to eat extra calories when you are eating mostly fruit and vegetables with no animal fats, gluten or added sugar.

I need to go buy a good vegan cookbook. I'm running out of ideas. I made a puffed rice noodle dish last night with veggies and herbs I picked straight from our garden. That felt good, but it didn't taste fabulous.

Day Three: Hard.

Today I looked up what the side effects of detoxing on your body would be. The muscles in my back and legs were aching all day and I had a head ache. One article I read said that any problems you have normally would be magnified for the first couple days or even the first week or two as the toxins flush out. This was not the most fun day but Sofia was sick so we both rested all day. Patrick had to make it through a big family gathering dinner where the meal served was one of his favorites, sloppy joes. Tough!!

Day One Dinner

This is what we ate for dinner last night. Lettuce and parsley from our garden and tomatos and blueberries from a nearby farm. Mashed potatoes (red, sweet and yams) sauteed in olive oil and garlic. I used a gluten free salad dressing from Annies Naturals and we both really liked it.

Day Two: Gluten, Where?!!

Sofia was up until 2 am last night and woke up again at 5 am. While I feel good without the jitters I get from coffee, the morning grog this morning was harsh. But then again, it hasn't been too long since I got that amount of sleep regularly when the kids were babies. I am thankful that this is just one morning and not every morning.

I have had a low grade headache since yesterday afternoon. Hoping that will pass. I feel good in my body, clean. No deprivation feelings yet. We need to go buy more fresh fruit today. Surprisingly, my kids have been asking for sugar frequently in the last day. I didn't realize they had so much. Good to know!

Patrick seems to be surviving so far (his words). He's not missing coffee as much as he thought he would.

What I've learned so far:
Tea must say "gluten free" on it to be certain it is.
Fruit tastes so much better when I'm not eating refined sugar.

Day One: Optimistic

The veggies above are all from our garden.


I read somewhere that people starting a vegan diet find that their food options greatly expand, contrary to what you might think. I can see what they mean so far. The variety of food in our meals from the first day have been much greater than normal. Instead of eating cheese and crackers for lunch, I've added in much more fresh fruit and veggies. The fruit tastes amazing, especially since I'm not eating any CHOCOLATE. The kids and I drove out to a farm not far from our house and bought fresh blackberries, blueberries, and tomatoes. So good! And it was fun to go see the farm and the animals. The kids gobbled down the blueberries. This has to be the very best time of year to do this cleanse.

Tough things: No coffee in the morning! Patrick and I enjoy a good cup of coffee together usually. I found a good tasting substitute, a decaf chai tea with unsweetened soy milk and agave nectar. We were both surprised at how tasty it was. Then I looked at the box and saw the tiny little words: contains gluten. RRRRRR. Gluten is much harder to avoid than I knew. I bought some yogi detox tea for us to use every day but now I'm scared to use it because it doesn't say gluten free on it. How to find out?

Introduction

Patrick and I have some challenging weight loss goals to achieve by this December, so we're kicking it off with the three week "cleanse" from the book Quantum Wellness.
We're going:
Gluten Free
Sugar Free
Caffeine Free
Alcohol Free
Animal Products Free

I hope this will help me kick my sugar habit and bring our whole family into a more healthy eating pattern (the kids are only going moderately sugar free and of course alcohol and caffeine free). We are also curious to see what being gluten free will be like and if it will make a big difference.