free

These are the things my rockin body (rockin as in humpty dumpty not as in Cameron Diaz) has been free of for the past 26 days…

Free of Caffeine
Free of Meat
Free of Milk
Free of Cheese
Free of Animal Bi-Products of any sort
Free of Facebook
Free of Twitter
Free of Alcohol at least 4-5 days a week (sorry, a girl has limits)


These are the changes I have noticed:

• I have not gained or lost weight, I stayed exactly the same weight for the last month, which is unlike me. Usually I gain and lose around 10lbs every few weeks (I know, that cant be healthy)
• I feel much cleaner overall; as much as I crave all the great foods I have been deprived of, when I think about actually eating them I get a little queasy
• I AM STARVING
• I eat on average 5-6 times a day as a non-vegan, on this diet I catch myself hungry ALL the time, eating on average 6-8 times a day (I know, that cant be healthy)
• I have found a new love/hate relationship with beans… I will spare you the details.
• Surprising being caffeine free, I have had more energy the past month than when I was sucking down my usual 2 Starbucks a day.
• I AM STARVING
• I am so excited to eat a good meaty meal; I have already made reservations at a nice restaurant for the first weekend in November (true story, I.can.not.wait)
• I didn’t get sick as a vegan; maybe I learned my lesson as a vegetarian and remembered to take all of my vitamins but being a vegan had only positive effects on me whereas being a vegetarian for 147 days last year landed me in the hospital on several occasions.
• With that said, being vegan is NOTHING like being vegetarian. I can give up meat (with a gun to my head) but cheese was the real torture
• Which leads me to the realization of exactly how much I love cheese
• Which also leads me to believe that I am lactose intolerant again (yes again, I was as a child) but I just don’t know if I can give up dairy for good… As a matter of fact I know for sure I couldn’t give up dairy for good. Looks like I will be investing in some Lactaid
• Soy milk is way better than regular milk
• STILL STARVING
• I have never wanted the weeks/days/weekends to go by so fast in my life; I can not wait to be off this diet
• With that said, I will still incorporate a lot of the vegan diet habits into my regular diet on a daily basis, again, I can’t express enough how I have never felt so “clean” on any other diet/regimen
• Over processed food sucks
• We spent over double our weekly grocery budget as Vegans, so if you are considering going Vegan for good, I’d consider being rich too
• I am envy free since I have been off the Face; it’s been nice not knowing what every single person is doing at every single second of the day
• On the other hand, I have missed keeping in touch with my friends
• I did not miss Twitter once
• I have budgeted and re-budgeted my checking account like a million times, yeah , THAT was my Facebook substitute, how sad and how incredibly boring
• Which lead me to realize that I definitely do not utilize the World Wide Web to its full capacity
• Also, that I have almost no use for my phone other than to text when I am off all social media


Well, that about wraps up my Veganism-isums! (exciting stuff I know)

Next October I plan on a month of indulgence, this “will power” stuff is for the weak and feeble. I have proved strong and powerful through all of this(wanting to quit every single day is considered strong and powerful, right?).

a great man once said...

“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”


— Steve Jobs, 2005

yet another reason why we shouldnt be allowed to have babies yet

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 9:09 AM, Koay, Rai wrote:

Good Morning Time!

I've been thinking...

In the next year you are going to have to get a job with crazy good benefits, seriously. If you ever want babies, that’s what you'll have to do, b/c Lord knows I will be in the hospital every other day. It doesn’t have to be forever just until the baby is like 1 or 2 and we don’t have to ever take it to the doctor again (right?).



From: Jamie V.
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 9:31 AM
To: Koay, Rai
Subject: Re: Good Morn Fair Maiden


Dont worry, I will have a very nice benefits when it's time to start pumpin out the little rugrats. I was thinking this morning on the drive in to work that we can use our baby as a prop in movies and skits. I've already thought of a couple it's gonna be awesome. I'll give you a preview:

Skit one: Baby Genius

Plot: We teach our baby how to do complex things like math equations and physics and sh!t. We go through a montage of us teaching him/her really hard stuff. After all this we then ask him/her a question and all he/she does is poop and giggle and fall over. THEN we show an infomericial for our "Baby Genius" program. Where we go through all the teaching an stuff, but in the parts where we ask him/her questions we are blatantly putting the babies hands on the right answers (making it look like the program works).

Skit two: Baby Diva/A-hole

Plot: Our baby is an actor/actress. He/she has his/her own dressing room and we come in and tell him/her it's time for a scene and then he/she throws an empty liquor bottle at us (off camera of course so the baby is just sitting there in front of a mirror with the bottle and a glass then it cuts back to us and we're ducking the flying bottle) and we get upset, but we grovel to him/her and act like he/she is so important.

That's all I got right now. It's gonna be youtube goal and our baby will be a cash cow for us. That's actually what we should name him/her... cash cow. It's got a nice ring to it.


From: Koay, Rai
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 9:53 AM
To: 'Jamie V. '
Subject:

Sounds like a great idea for our baby! We have enough freeloaders at our house with the cat and the dog. This baby needs to earn its keep.

how to tell if your fiancé really loves you...

Me: “Babe, will you watch Kims Fairy Tale Wedding with me tonight? Think of it as wedding research”

Jamie: “I guess”

2 hours later

Jamie: “Im getting tired, is this almost over?”

Me: “ Ummm, yes, this one is but the actual wedding is in part 2, will you watch part 2 with me? Think of it as wedding research”

Jamie: “WHAT? Its still the FIRST part? What the hell?!”

4 hours later

Jamie: “I cant believe I just watched that for 4 hours”

Me: “You are the most amazing fiancé ever and I swear I won’t tell a soul about this”
;)

Day 11

So the biggest difference I have noticed being vegan has been the ever growing hole in my bank account. It’s the most expensive “diet” I have ever been on. Eating shitty (aka uber healthy) food is expensive! I have also noticed that I eat twice as much as usual (yeah, I didnt think that was possible either), I am not sure if it’s due to lower caloric intake or that everything tastes like something I would feed the dog therefore I find myself dying to find a cheeseburger substitute, so I just eat everything stamped vegan and pray for some flavor. No cheese burger substitute yet but I have found a few faves that I will share incase any of you decide to do something as ridiculous as go vegan for a month!

Breakfast:
Soy-rizo & potato scramble
Fry up some potatoes with onion and peppers
Put potatos to the side and then fry up the fake chorizo
Once browned, add potatoes and mix over low heat
Warm vegan friendly tortillas and add mix with avocado and hot salsa (or mild salsa for those of you that can’t handle the heat)

Lunch:
Fake Chicken & Hummus Wrap
Fry your fake chicken in a pan with whatever spices you want
Warm your vegan friendly tortillas and add the chicken, lettuce, jalapeños and hummus of your choice
I also like to add a side of spicy black bean soup

Dinner:
Vegetable Marsala Burger
I usually top with hummus and avocado on vegan friendly bread, or you guessed it, a vegan friendly tortilla
I also add a side of either black bean soup or a baked potato with vegan chili on top

Hungry now aren't ya?


Well that's been my life for the past 11 days and will continue to be my life for the next 20 days. I just want to go into a wine coma (an organic vegan wine coma of course) and wake up in November. I would be lying if I said this was easy, it’s not, hell being vegetarian at this point is way cooler than being vegan. The only thing way cooler than being a vegetarian is being a meatatarian where you do things like normal people do.

How do I get myself into these situations?! I mean, who really needs to test their will power for no reason other than to make sure you still have some? I guess I do.

Next October I am going to give up giving up stuff.



Potential Halloween Costume?

i knew it was true

I have to credit Daily Sparkles for this fact. I do apologize though, I can not credit whomever she stole it from, that's on her ;)

when did it become this way?

It was like one day I was in my bikini, in the bay, in an inter tube made for an 8 year old, with a beer in my hand, worrying about not spilling my beer and worrying about whether or not we were going to die from getting tangled in the ropes and drowning.

Then I woke up one day and I was in my sweats, in the living room, in rubber gloves made for an 80 year old, with a sponge in my hand trying to scrub our radiators in preparation for winter, worrying about if they were coated in lead based paint and worrying about whether or not we were going to die from breathing in heated lead based paint.

When did it become this way?

Where were the tell tell signs that would show me that things were evolving and that I was getting old and “responsible”. Why didn’t my bank call me when they noticed my debit card went from being used for 30 packs of quantity over quality cans to being used for 6 packs of quality over quantity bottles? Where was the call when I stopped buying $200 boots and started buying $200 worth of cleaning supplies and linens or when I stopped buying microwaveable dinners to buying actual ingredients to make things “from scratch”? Don’t banks pride themselves on detecting when something is “out of the ordinary” on your account?? You know, someone in Spain stole my identity once and drained my bank account, they called me then- and I’m not even remotely as upset about my identity being stolen as I am about being a real responsible adult. At least then my identity was worth stealing. I think the guy from Spain keeps calling me from an unknown number, trying to give me my identity back. He doesn’t even want it anymore (he probably got a look at my student loan bill).

Why haven’t my friends called me to say “Hey Rai, you haven’t partied on a Wednesday in a while, what’s up with that? Are you ill?” Oh right, that’s because they are busy buying houses, building sheds and raising small humans.

Seriously, when did it become this way?

I started a real savings account, not a “saving for Mardi Gras” savings account, an actual savings account, one that has no meaning until “an emergency occurs” (btw, needing a Gucci bag because mine is “so last season” is surprisingly not considered an emergency (so says Jamie)).

I started thinking about my future and making decisions that count beyond “what’s for dinner?” (which is a legitimate future decision if you ask me, it’s tough to know what to eat for dinner, I mean, it depends, am I craving something? Am I PMSing? How long has it been since I’ve had wings? Do I feel like fast food? a sit down dinner? a fast sit down dinner?)

Anyways, I guess it became this way the day I decided to settle down and marry the love of my life or the day I realized I cared more about the quality of our thread count than the quality of my rain boots (other things like handbags, jeans and winter coats are a work in progress) I guess it became this way the day I got a puppy and could no longer leave from work and go straight to Happy Hour on Wednesdays. Either way, I am not necessarily saying I am happy about all these "sudden" changes, but I will say that I wouldn’t have had my life become any other way, but this way...





















… Unless I were to accidentally win the lottery, like this woman did. Lucky bitch.

someone should feed me

I decided since I am going to be Facebook free, shopping free, animal and animal bi-product free this month, I am going to have A LOT of time on my hands. I tend to do all 3 of those things pretty often (I will save myself the embarrassment and not break down into percentages how much each of those 3 things make up in my day to day life). Aside from working smarter (different from harder (when are people going to learn that?)) in hopes of climbing a notch higher on the Corporate America ladder, and aside from working out (in hopes to get abs of steel and an ass like Beyonce), I am going to invent a program that will tap into everyone’s WebMD history.

Can you imagine…

Man, this is just too genius to not do.

is eating your own placenta vegan?

I know, I know, you are probably so sick of hearing this question. Well, rest assured, I have found the answer! So feel free to pass it on the next time you're at the water cooler and you hear your bosses secretary ask you AGAIN "If I ate my own placenta, would it be considered vegan?"

My Google search bar has been getting it’s workout on… I have replaced my usual “how do you spell [insert any word with over 3 letters in it here]?” and “what does [insert any word that you do not learn the meaning of organically by age 10 here] mean?” and “When will Kim Kardashian’s Wedding FINALLY be televised?” to “Is [insert any word that is consumable here] vegan?” Everything I see has become questionable to me, the gum on my desk, the peaches in the cafeteria, the dirt I found in my beans the other night… Can I not bite my nails now? I can’t imagine nail biting being vegan. Hmm, I am going to have to Google that one.

Ok, I regret that. When Googling “is biting your nails vegan” the first thing to surface was a picture of a woman’s placenta with an article attached and in that article they asked whether eating your own placenta is considered Vegan, they came to this conclusion:
“At first thought eating placenta might be an affront to veganism considering the fact that placenta is an animal bi-product. But I think we decided that eating your own placenta did not foster a cruel exploitation of yourself and is, therefore, vegan.”

So, what I gather from this is this: it is ok to eat your own fingernails, but possibly not ok to eat someone else’s fingernails, UNLESS said person has given you permission to eat their fingernails, and in doing so no one becomes victim to cruel exploitation. I also gather that it is NOT vegan to eat your dogs fingernails (since they obviously can not give you written or verbal permission to eat their fingernails). *damn opposable thumbs*

Side note: Thanks to Google I learned it was "opposable thumbs" not "disposable thumbs" and I also learned how to spell "opposable", so thanks Google!

You would think that with all this finger nail talk (BTW I do not bite my (or anybody else’s)fingernails, I was curious for informational purposes only) and seeing placenta recipes online, my appetite would be curbed, but I regret to inform myself that it is still very much there. I was craving mayonnaise in my sleep last night. Although it’s very typical for me to crave food all hours of the night, I usually do not crave condiments alone. Plus I am a Miracle Whip kinda gal, so this veganism stuff is clearly just plain messing with my head.

Gone Vegan...

I am going to back track to yesterday, my preparation to go Vegan. First off, I had to drive across the city for 35 mins just to get to a store that sold Vegan groceries (this is where I miss CA a lot, you can buy vegan on every corner there). Anywho, so I slipped on my sheep skin and wool Uggs, grabbed my leather bag and started my journey across town to become a bonafide vegan! I had done all of my due-diligence, I emailed myself A) Directions to and from the store (it’s seriously hard to navigate in this city) B) 3 vegan recipes for the week and C) anything else we would need to go complete vegan without a hitch!

Of course, I left my phone in my room, so this was of no help to me what so ever. I got lost going there AND coming back and without a grocery list, I spent hours reading every ingredient on every possible thing in the store. UNTIL I realized that at Trader Joes they put a Vegan stamp on all things Vegan! (awesome) (yet another reason I love TJ’s so freaking much!!) So I just threw every single thing in my cart stamped Vegan and called it a success! Whew!!

Ok, so now it’s day one of my Veganism (word?) and so far so good… I have only had breakfast, so I am not speaking from much experience (yet). I will share my eatings today but I will save everyone the boring details on my everyday eatings going forward (I tried that last year as a vegetarian and I started boring myself of my own blog posts.)
So far- Breakfast:
Vegan Berry Oat Bran Muffin w/vegan substitute spread NOT cream cheese (that’s literally what its called on the package: vegan substitute spread NOT cream cheese)
Enriched Farina Hot Wheat Cereal w/chopped bananas
Pumpkin Coffee with Vanilla Soy Milk

I came to this conclusion, that in the end, it all just tasted like peanut butter without the sweet or without the peanut and actually without the butter part too. It had the consistency of peanut butter, but tasted more like a smacking sound rather than an actual taste, so I washed it all down with several cups of coffee and some water (and I hate water in the mornings) and that was that!

All in all, I am full, so I guess it got the job done.

*sigh*

Only 30 more days, only 30 more days…