Week 3

Well, I'm halfway through my experiment. Week 3, the magical number that I'm supposed to feel better by. Let me tell you what, I kinda do. Now I don't feel like a million bucks or anything, but I'm done feeling super gross. Yaaaay!!!

I am running out of ideas for food though. Doesn't help that I'm not in my own kitchen. But that's ok! Asian food is easy.
I also want to give my heartfelt thanks to the vegan bloggers who post recipes. Really, you guys are life savers.
Here try some Coconut Creamed Spinach.


More than the veganry, I'm kinda here to complain a little.

You all might remember that my dude is military. Perhaps you noticed that my blog got really really quiet while he was deployed.
Jex is a reservist. It basically means ten times the stupid, a quarter of the time and a few of the benefits. Unless you have the stupid pink reserve Dependant ID on a nonreserve base, then no one knows what the hell is happening.
I just spent the better part of an hour trying to find a reserve support group online to help me out with the finer points of Jex's reintegration headache. Specifically the healthcare bit. Guess what I discovered.
Army, Nat. Guard, or Marine reserve spouses have it covered. Navy and Air Force reserves, not so much. I think I was more surprised over the fact that Marine reserves exist rather than the lack of support for someone in my position.

I live over 300 miles from my husband's station. No I did not type that wrong. To top it all off were in a totally civilian community. It is so hard to connect with some one who has lived in one place their entire lives. Especially when your struggling to figure out something like TAMP.
There is no key spouse to walk you through things. To share stories of the times she fell to little tiny pieces when no one was looking. To laugh with you about the lovely, but totally awkward, phrases the nonmilitary wives would say to to you. And as much as the active duty spouses get it there are still things they don't have to deal with because, well, it's kind of completely different.

I want to start a site for people like me. But from what I hear every reserve base does things completely different from every other base. I also have no idea what to do.
You know that "Yeah, that's a great idea" moment that is immediately followed by silence? Yeah that's where I am.
I guess I could try the Facebook thing... Even though I kind of despise the book of face.
Oh well. I guess I'll figure it out. Always do, eventually.

Till next time,
The light heart lives long.

Running into Recipes

The Spartan sprint is coming up guys!!! March 9 I'm going to go do a stupid 5k filled with stupid obstacles for a T-shirt, some beer, and a little Pride.
You might have to be in the military, or a military brat to fully apreciate this next bit. While testing my 3.1 mile time on base the anthem played.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with why that might have been an issue let me explain. At about 4pm every day the base speakers play the anthem. While the song is playing you stop driving, walking, doing whatever it is you were doing, face towards the nearest flag and put your hand over your heart or stand at attention (if in uniform).
I have done this all my life. Never have I been caught mid PT. And there I was, running my buns off, fighting with my self. Do I stop? Would it be ok if I jogged in place? Is it ok if I keep running?! I had no idea what to do.
Being so close to the end of my run I kept going; feeling guilty the entire time.


Over the past few days I feel like the luck fairy kissed me on the nose while I slept. I have discovered delicious things to eat. Thank God! Salads were starting to make me want to cry.
So, I decided to post some recipes here, maybe some aspiring vegan or someone who is having a vegan over for dinner will stumble across a post or two.

Here's a tip: Asian food is the easiest to veganize.

Lunch/snack
Avocado and brown rice Onigiri (rice balls)
Makes 6 Onigiri

1 Avocado
1 1/2 cups of cooked brown rice. Note: rinse your rice before you cook it or it won't stick properly. I rinse mine 5 or 6 times.
2 tsp white cooking wine/sake
1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce
Salt to taste.
Furikake (optional seaweed topping)
Saran wrap for forming.

Cut the avocado into cubes. In a small bowl combine the other ingredients. Add the avocado and toss.
Tear off about 16 inches of saran wrap. Place 1/4 cup of the brown rice in the center of the wrap and squish it down into about 1/2 inch layer. Place a heaping teaspoon of sauced avocado in the center and fold up the sides. The saran wrap keeps your hands clean as you press the rice ball together.
Repeat the process, and tada!!! Tasty vegan food.

Till next time my lovelies,
The light heart lives long~

I can't believe it's not butter!!!

On any regular day I'm about as far away from 'vegan' as one can come. No I don't binge on Velveeta Mac n Cheese or eat TV dinners on the regular. But I do, or did rather, eat a lot of meat.
Every meal typically had a flesh element to it. Or did before I decided to run my little experiment. Most, if not all my recipes are centered around meat in one form or another. Chicken pies, beef and broccoli, pork chops with apple stuffing and sweet buttered carrots; you get the idea.
Relearning how to cook has been the single hardest part of being vegan for me. But even more difficult than finding new recipes and not so mainstream veggies (one can only eat carrots potatoes and onions for so long) has been what to use instead of butter. I cook everything in butter; everything. Pan frying things with butter has been my go to when I don't know what to do with a new menu item.
I love butter. Buttered toast is one of my favorite snacks. I miss butter.

Coconut oil is a silly fad. Or at least that's what I've thought. Before my foray into veganry I even bought a jar of it to see what the big deal was. You know the white louanna jar one can find in just about every grocery store. I wasn't impressed. It smelled kind of nice, but that was about it. I think the jar is still over half full and I've had it fore more than 6 months.
While shopping I realized something: I don't buy cheap butter. I spend a little extra on the challenge butter. The only butter in my area that says on the package "No rbgh." So, why was I buying the cheap coconut oil?
I bit the bullet and bought the organic, virgin, unrefined coconut oil. Truth be told I was prepared to be let down. You can imagine my surprise when it was actually really good.
Not only is it smooth and creamy you can spread it over toast with a little salt and it tastes just about the same as butter. I kid you not. Jex tested it for me. He had a piece of toast with the salted coconut oil and one with butter, both melted so he couldn't see a difference, and he couldn't tell which was which.

I'm so excited!!!!! I'm still forever hungry, but at least I discovered a few new tricks to make my life a little better.

The light heart lives long~

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!