The Hungry Blogger

If you read my previous couple of posts you'll note that I'm trying to go Vegan.
Some of you might not appreciate how hard this has been for me. I eat bacon, eggs, down raw milk because warm and with a little honey it's kind of Ambrosia, and veggies are more or less a side dish that should be covered in cheese or garlic cream sauce.

It's been a little over a week now and I've not been satisfied since starting my veganry. I cannot get enough food. I ate 8 cups of broccoli soup and I might as well have been eating cheap sugary cereal, there's this gaping hole were my stomach should be. It's awful, I'm literally hungry all the time. I keep nuts and dried fruit on me to snack on. The closest I got to being full was when I ate some Spicy Stir Fry night before last over Brown Rice.
Doesn't matter how much I eat I'm never satisfied. I'm always hungry. God, it's like sophomore year all over again! *laughs*

I also have learned that you'll find animal and milk bits in the weirdest stuff. I was going to buy some of those premixed seasoning shakers. You know like McCormick has the different spice mixes for different meat and all that. I think it was like 'spicy asian five spice' or something; in any case I was reading the label more out of habit that anything and found 'chicken fat' in the ingredients list. It kind of confused me. Any 'italian' seasoned thing is going to have parmesan in it. Interestingly enough nasty packaged cookies are pretty vegan as far as I can tell, hey I might have to eat them if this infinite hunger continues to be.... well... infinite.

Jex says it's probably because I'm detoxing but I feel gross. I have more muscle spasms that ever, my intestines are kind of pissed off at me, no energy, lots of weird joint pain, and did I mention that I'm hungry? It's only been a little over a week and I already want to give up; throw in the towel and eat a brick of cheese, or a nice hot Ruben. Ugh!

I'm still doing cardio at least twice a week for more than 20 minutes, and smatterings of strength training here and there when I remember. *shrugs*
Even though I really, REALLY, want to quit being a vegan already I'll stick with it. Jex said that one of his coworkers assured me that I'll start feeling much better after week 3. *sadface*

Till next time my lovlies,
THe light heart lives long.

I hate hills

Helloes!

I'm feeling more like a normal human being. There's nothing quite like a nice juicy grass fed steak.
Wait, didn't I say I was going vegan for 6 weeks? Yes, yes I did. I am. As soon as I finish the gallon of milk in my fridge.
I don't waste food if I can help it. I have 3 beers (alcohol is one of the other things I will cut out for the 6 week veganry, not that I drink a whole lot of it anyways. In fact I bought that 6 pack back in October) a third of a gallon of milk and one 8 oz block of cheese that will get eaten by the end of the week.
While I have this little extra cush time I've been checking out the prices and selection of the organic available in Appalachia. It's kind of disheartening. The town we live in seems like a black hole when I look for things. There are NO comic book stores, what kind of an American town doesn't have a comic store... that's just unAmerican. NO organic/natural markets. They say they have a farmer's market but I'll believe it when I can find the damn thing. NO quilting/spinning/old lady type stores (no JoAnn's doesn't count). Not a camping specialty store (think REI) in 50 miles of us. Bleeeeeeh.
But I can do it!!! I've already amassed some good recipes. I'm actually kind of excited for vegan shepherd's pie and noodleless lasagna.

Oh right, activity. I was supposed to be discussing my activity today. (^_^)
Well I've finally got the Zumba class worked out. I run every other day for at least 20 minutes, usually 25-30, up and down the hills around our house. I'll have to take a picture/video for you guys; I don't think you'll understand the title of this post unless I show you.
Also I've been throwing in some strength training for the Spartan Sprint Jex and I are doing with Sir Will and Melly. I'll definitely post pictures of that! It's not a whole lot, just three rounds of body weight lunges, rows, and burpees. I plan on working my way up from here.

I joined this really cool site called NerdFitness. It's been a big help. If anyone wants to hop on over and check it out just stick a '.com' on the end. It's really great to have a community to turn to when you're making changes in your life. So far I love the people. They're really positive and helpful, and totally nerdy so it make analogies so much easier for me. *laughs*

I just wish there were more people within arms reach of me.
Call me old fashioned but I miss knowing my neighbors. When we lived on base overseas we could run up the stairwell to borrow some sugar if the Commissary was closed. Or have tea with the ladies down the street. I miss being with people. I kind of hate the computer screen.
I'd love to have a running buddy. We could run up and down the damned hills and curse them together. Share our goals, swap weird heath food snacks, and, I dunno, be friends.

But I digress.
Anyone else working on working out this year? I know it's a popular new year's resolution.
How well are you doing, or not doing? So far I've kept up a par performance. Which is kind of amazing for the Queen of Inconsistency.

Till next time lovlies ~ The light heart lives long.

Because I'm back, from Outer Space!!!

I can't even remember the last time I posted anything. And you know what I'm just a little too lazy to go and check.

Hello Internet and my Internet Buddies!!!
Like the Phoenix I kind of thought of while naming this blog I completely gave up and now I'm back again.
It is the nature of being me. I'm like the ocean tide or something.

Did you guys know that there's a Super Moon out today!!! I haven't seen it yet. It's also a Black Moon, which is what one calls a new moon if it happens to fall in a month that has already had a new moon.

So I'm back for a bunch of reasons. A) I missed you guys. B) My life is less hectic right now while still being full of fun stuff, and C) I'm going to be a vegan for 6 weeks for reasons I will explain below and decided that I might need to log my journey in a more public forum because I know I'm not the only person in the world going through what I'm going through.


*Ahem* You guys ready for a little bit of a sob story?

Jex and I have been trying to have kids for over 2 years now. Yeah. No big deal, right, we're young maybe we're just not timing things right or whatever. Then my periods and my hormones went absolutely insane. I'm not kidding. I had some serious breakdowns where I felt kind of trapped in my own body watching it ride around on a crazy train while I tried to reassert control. It was all so new and weird and not on any kind of schedule I could figure (even after keeping a food/activity log).  Recently I finally got my butt into a gynecologist's office and they found two little fibroid cysts.
Did you know that fibroid cysts are like little demons that feed on your hormones and mess up all your 'normal' girl stuff? But there's not a whole lot about them on the interwebs. And even my super nice, super straight forward, doc said that there's not a lot of research done about them because they are benign growths that, unless in a bad position or if they get very large, don't really effect one's over all health.
They'll make you crazy and randomly bleed for no reason, but they won't effect anything else.

I know that the food in this country is all kinds of bad. How? Because I didn't grow up in this country and because I  left the country for 2 1/2 weeks in December and came back.
What the hell does that have to do with knowing the food in America is TRASH? I'm glad you asked.
When I first returned to the U.S. I got sick, really sick, so sick I had multiple infections and was forcing myself not to throw up on the regular.
Nope, I wasn't eating McDonald's or any of the greasy offerings that the University Cafeteria had to offer. I was eating salads, veggies, meats, and cheeses that my friend's would buy and I would cook up. I was eating healthy and it still wrecked my system so badly I had to go on antibiotics.
I just figured that was from 10 years of being away from all the molds, pollens, you know the environment or whatever.
Well it happened again, to a lesser degree, when I came back just a couple of weeks ago. I feel like shit, pardon my french. I have no energy, I threw up a lot the first week back 'home', and I wasn't eating anything stupid. I made stirfry with brown rice and ate veggie omelettes with hormone free cheese. I'm not eating potato chips or boxes of hamburger helper and cheap mac-n-cheese and I feel awful.

So, I'm going to try and cleanse my system. As well as get a freaking job to pay for the-must-be-gold-plated-because-this-price-is-ridiculous CSA organics I want/need to get my hands on this year.
I did a little bit of research. Mostly talking with friends who have changed their diets and had a lot of success. It looks like going vegan for 3 weeks, doing a weekend cleanse, then going back to vegan for 3 more weeks is the path I'm going to try.
All the veggies are going to cost me a fortune, because I won't buy anything non-organic and I'm doing my best to identify and avoid GMO's but that's harder to figure out. But like my dude says: Which is more expensive; hospital visits or food?

Pintrest is kind of my best friend. Why? Because I can't eat soy. In small quantities it's ok but it can't be a big part of my diet. And that is where 80% of vegan recipe's get their protein. Ugh.
But there's a great board on Pintrest full of gluten-free soy-free recipes. Thank GOD!
Also because I'm a meat and potatoes girl. I don't do the above mentioned crap. Give me a steak and a baked potato covered in bacon and cheese and I'm a happy camper. I don't feel right without a slice of bacon, sausage, leftover steak, with breakfast. I don't eat fruit if I can help it, though oranges are nice. As logic would have it all my recipes reflect this. Vegan is so totally opposite my usual diet that I honestly got anxious simply thinking about it.

Also, there's this image that one associates with vegans. You all know what I'm talking about. That one person who turns their nose up at anything offered them because it's not their diet. They 'don't eat anything with a face' or 'I don't exploit animals' or whatever crazy crap you assume will come out of their yoga pants wearing, size 2, sickly skinny, hemp smelling face.  Somehow they come off as looking down on you as an inferior/ primitive human being. (Note: I have since met a really sweet, cool, vegan so I know not all ya'll are like this)
^ I am not that person! ^
Frankly I don't really even want to be associated with those people. But it's something I feel like I need to do. If for no other reason than to force myself to find places that sell more fun veggies, please I just want my celery root and kohlrabi, in this land devoid of natural grocers and to learn which producers use GMO and which don't. To force me to get creative with my dinners instead of the rut I've dug myself comfortably into. And maybe to get and keep my hormones in check since I have two little demons hanging out in my uterus.

So, send me your positivity, well wishes, and/or prayers, please; because this is probably going to be the most difficult thing I've done in my life. I don't even know what to do with quinoa or how to even pronounce it. I remember my mom used to eat it with milk or something. I don't know! And this post is already so long I think I'll talk about my activity plan tomorrow or the next day.

Anywho, I wish you all the best in your own endeavors.
Remember~ The light heart lives long.

I found a POKEMON!

Jex and I have a Ford Fusion. We liked it a lot at first but then it started falling apart. The car isn't even 5 years old.
That however is not the point.
While I had the car up at Tony's shop to have him help me replace the door handle I found this little guy hanging out on the hubcap. I have no idea where he came from or how he got there, or what he'll turn into, but I thought he was pretty out of this world. Sort of literally.

I might have more posts later... but right now I'm working on a short story for a contest on the writing forums of which I am a member. 

Anywho, I'll see ya when I see ya. 

The light heart lives long!

Today I learned...

Today I learned three very important things.
Well one of them I re-learned but that's not the point.

1. Don't stand on your gears.
When going up a hill made of lost hope and death sit your butt back down on that bike seat before shifting into baby gears. If you don't the jarring impact of the bike angrily slamming into gear beneath you will throw your leg right off the pedal and into a nearby tree.

2. You can do anything you put your mind to. Really you can! Just don't expect it to happen at the speed you want it to. It will take as long as it takes and very few things will make it take less time.

3. Barbecue (BBQ) sauce is basically incredibly fancied up Ketchup.

Till later my lovelies!!!
The light heart lives long.

Scenes from a Marriage # I've lost track

Jex and I have been spring cleaning recently. Trying to really get rid of crap that has started to accumulate in our lives.
While on this road crawling with dustbunnies and surprise spiders Jex decided he would take on our little reading nook. All by himself. For a long while all was well, then he called me over to organize my books the way I wanted them.

This is what I was greeted by.

The Book Tower; Architect: Jex. Built in commemoration of Ashes' excellent taste in literature.

The light heart lives long, my friends.

Sunshine 2013

Jex and I had to go to the Sunshine State for some stupid military stuff. So we decided to make a trip of it and visit our super rad friends who we miss so dang much!
You remember the posts I did about a year ago about the long ass trip we took from one coast of the U.S. to the other right? Riiiight? Yeah them.
This time we got to fly. Yay! So it took 1 rather than 4 days. Well it would, if we could ever get out tickets squared away.
There's this funny thing the military likes to do: completely forget about the dependent. Doesn't matter if you're the spouse, child, or mother who lives with ya'll because of extenuating circumstances, if you are not the military member they sometimes forget that you exist. After weeks of talking to every person we got handed off to and promised that the tickets would be taken care of the day we were supposed to leave I still had no ticket, as far as we knew. We decided to just go to the airport anyways, maybe things would work out for the best.
We walked up to the ticketing counter and to the person behind the weird castle wall they've got going on. Lo and Behold, I had a ticket! YES! But Jex's ticket had been refunded. The travel office opened 30 min before our flight was supposed to leave. So we waited and called and waited and called again and prayed and waited and someone picked up the phone! After about 10 minutes the super rad chick at the travel office had Jex a new ticket and we were off. That chick is so getting cookies.

We got to Sunshine, not many problems later and waited for Cait not to DIE driving through the scariest city on the west coast. Then we drove 5 hours north to where she and her lovely little fam have made home for a little under a year now.
It was soooo good to see them again. God knows how much we've missed their distinct and shiny presence in our lives. Cait is the only one who can take my complaining for what it is, venting. Then turn around and give me super radtastic advice. It also helps that we're kinda married to the same person.
Whoa, whoa now. We're not actually married to the same person. Our husbands just tend to be semi-clones of one another on the personality level a lot of the time.

Pterodactyl and Kitten have gotten so BIG! They're still the most adorable things ever. Pterodactyl is talking now and she's super astute. Kitten is in danger of being sold from time to time, but he's still the sweetest snuggle bug. Two is a hard age.

Then we drove back to where we had to do our thing. Bought armloads of Japanese goodies from the super cool Japanese mall we found. Melon Cream Soda how I've missed you!

Now we're home, cleaning everything, trying to downsize and get rid of unnecessaries.

Picture time!

Everyone loved these silly disguise glasses

Remember these magical toys?

Best Picture Ever

Uncle Jex and the Pterodactyl

The Gaggle Rock

Helping

Kitten was tired. He is also made of lead.

Look!

Underwater shot with the super rad Olympus Tough. I love that thing.

Kitten and he's pretty mama.

Jex looking all thoughtful and stuff

Pretty

Pterodactyl's favorite things right now are sharks. She's so awesome.

This Jellyfish reminded me of a wedding gown

Sea Lion 

Hurry take a picture, we're passing the Dreamworks Studios!!! Oh we were so lost. 

What? Me addicted to Japanese junk food? You must be confusing me with another dashingly handsome fellow with an armload of goodies.

Taiyaki Pan! It was so hard not to buy this

And this guy. 

I would've gotten a better picture but we literally ran from one flight to the connector and barely made it

Have a lovely week all of you.
The light heart lives long~ <3 p="">