Ah, I Should Have Known.

Vegetable Lo Mein & Bean Curd

Originally uploaded by dr.coop

This Vegetable Lo Mein & Bean Curd was so good, well the noodles were really good. I should have know they were not vegan. I couldn’t stop eating them. I haven’t been eating a lot of pasta, so I think my body was craving starch. Oh well, this was my first big vegan mess up. I’ll blame it on the take out. Take out is always bad. Lesson learned.

So I only have 10 more days to go. I haven’t blogged much this week because it was C’s turn to cook. She does pretty good since she is already a vegetarian. But she is the biggest cheater. Yesterday she bought fried chicken for our 18 year old, and guess who ate a whole chicken leg? Not me. Her. Such a cheater. lol.

Anyway, all is well. I’m not eating as well, but I’m eating. Here’s some info on the lo mein noodles: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/chinesedishfaqs/f/lomeinchowmein.htm

Calling it a Week (21 Day Vegan Kickstart)

Curry Tofu Stir Fry from Roy's at Desert Ridge by soul4real

I started a day late, so my days are off, and I’m just going to call today 1 week in the books. I think it was a very successful week for me, vegan wise and exercise wise. Today was another dining out experience, only this time we had lunch in a restaurant. I was expecting a salad again, but we had a special menu for our event and not the full menu at Roy’s at Desert Ridge. The stuff on that menu was devine. Of course there was nothing but edamame on the menu that I could eat. When the waitress came around to take my order, I told her I was vegan. I felt like such a liar, but I’d feel even more ackward saying I’m a temporary vegan. So I went for it. She was very accommodating. They didn’t have their full vegetarian menu, but she offered up what they could make for each course.

After devouring half the bowl of edamame, I was served a nice sushi roll with rice, avocado and asparagus. For my entree, pictured above, I had a curry tofu stir fry over white rice, and for dessert I was served a fresh bowl of fruit. It was so good. I would have never ordered any of that before this kickstart, but today I was glad I did. I was hard to pass up the wine though. I know some wine can be vegan, but I’m passing on the alcohol for this 21 day cleanse.

I made Gardein for dinner. We call it Ficken (fake chicken). More on that later. I still need to add all my food into my diary and workout.

Eating Out Is Scary (21 Day Vegan Kickstart)

Vegan Lunch Out

Originally uploaded by dr.coop

Okay, I know. My workout blog is turning into a cooking blog. Don’t worry; it won’t last long. So today was my first real test for eating out vegan. Up until today I’ve been lucky enough to be vacationing from home, so I could plan and prepare all my meals. Today I had an all day meeting at a resort here in Phoenix. I packed leftovers just in case, but I really didn’t need to worry. McGraw-Hill, the hosts of my meeting today, did it up right. They had fresh fruit and water everywhere. I could have just eaten that all day alone, but the Mexican themed lunch was surprisingly healthy. I had this wonderful salad with a vinagarette dressing, grilled vegetables and a Jicama salad. I don’t think I’ve ever had jicama before. It was really good with the roasted corn. I need to find that recipe.

It was a bit chilly in the building. I swear they had the air conditioners on. I was really hoping for some soup. Surprisingly they had tomato tortilla soup. The server swore up and down that it was vegan. I didn’t really believe she understood what I meant, so I rattled off all the culprits I thought might be in the soup. She said nope to meat, chicken broth, milk and cream. Of course, she’s probably trained to tell me whatever I want to hear. So I figured if there wasn’t any obvious meat in the dish, I’d give it a try. It’s not like I’m going to keel over and die if I slip up here and there. The soup was really tasty.

So I survived another day in vegan land. For dinner I roasted butternut squash and soy sauce & lime tofu with some long grain and wild rice. Yum! I’m getting pretty good at this.

Finding my Groove Day 4 (21 Day Vegan Kickstart)

Hoppin’ John Salad & Steamed Collards

Originally uploaded by dr.coop

Tried making the Hoppin’ John Salad again. This time I made the steamed collard greens to go with it. I’m starting to figure there’s something to the pairings on the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart website. I’ve just been randomly choosing things off the menu and making it for either dinner or lunch. I think I’ll pay attention now to why foods are prepared together. It might just be taste.

One thing I’ve noticed for sure is I’m loving Fresh & Easy all of a sudden. Before I despised it because of all the plastic, but now I”m loving it for it’s convenience. I’m in and out of there in 10 minutes. Sweet! And the vegetables appear to be fresh and they taste good. Everything I need is one aisle.

Tomorrow will be a real test, as I have to work all day. I’m planning to pack my lunch just in case the provided lunch is not vegan. I’m thinking they have to have salad, but you never no. I’m also skipping breakfast and showing up right at start time. I’m almost certain there will not be anything for me eat there for breakfast, especially since I’m not eating bread either for 21 days.

So today was another success: 1434 calories =
Fat(g) Carbs(g) Fiber(g) Prot(g) KCals
31.11 227.02 39.8 65.47 1434

Vegan Stir Fry Tofu for Day 3 (21 Day Vegan Kickstart)

Vegan Stir Fry Tofu

Originally uploaded by dr.coop

Up until today I was not getting enough protein or calories in my body. I was worried because I wasn’t really working out, but today I started P90X again. I need as much protein and calories as I can get now. What I ended up doing is using a vegan protein powder – Naturade Total Soy Meal Replacement. It’s not as good tasting as my normal protein powder, but it’s doable for 21 days. I also added Soy milk to my breakfast cereal and the protein shake, and dinner included about 5 oz of tofu.

So I’m learning how to get more protein in the diet. I just have to keep reminding myself that the ratios are a little different since all my carbs are vegetable and beans instead of bread, pasta and what not. It’s okay to have a lot more carbs when that is the case. My biggest problem is that I’m never hungry and I can’t seem to eat enough at one time, so I’m doing my usual every 3 hours thing. Since I’m sleeping in right now, that’s only 4 meals. Once I start getting up earlier I’ll be able to add the 5th meal and get the needed calories.

Total calories today: 1614, 78g protein, 262g carbs, 47g fiber and 39g fat.

Vegan Cooking is Fun! Who Knew? (21 Day Vegan Kickstart)

Roasted Corn, Black Bean & Mango Salad by soul4real

I
survived day 2 of eating nothing but vegan cuisine. It’s really not that bad. It’s a lot of cooking. You can’t just grab whatever out of the cupboards and chow down. I have to plan my meals. I still have a lot of “regular” food in the cupboards and fridge, so I have to be careful. For instance, today C made some Smart Balance popcorn. I thought, that can’t be bad, it’s Smart Balance light butter with hardly any calories. Well, turns out I ate a minuscule about of “artificial flavor derived from lactose free milk.” I don’t really know what that is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not vegan. Oh well, it was only a handful of popcorn.

I made two really good vegan dishes today. I got the recipes from Eating Well.com. The first we had for lunch. It was Roasted Corn, Black Bean & Mango Salad. I’ve never made anything with mango before. I love black beans and corn. It was so good, but what really made the dish was the chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. I loved it. It was spicy, yet sweet. So good. See the video below on how I made it. For dinner I made Black Bean & Hominy Succotash with Barbecued Portobello Mushrooms, but I made some changes to the recipe. I used black eyed peas instead of black beans and I scratched the hominy and bbq sauce. It was still pretty good, but I could tell the sauce was missing. I loved the grilled vegetables and portabello mushrooms. I’d never grilled mushrooms before. They are very meaty and yummy.

Below is the rest of my diet for day 2.

21 Day Vegan Kickstart for 2010

So a couple of days ago I saw a tweet from a friend about the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart. First off, I do not want to be a vegetarian, let alone a vegan. I love my prime rib, BBQ and sushi. And I really did not know for sure how this would all go down since I don’t really have a clue about what I can eat and not eat. But a challenge is a challenge, and I thought, what the heck. I can do anything for 21 days. Heck, I did P90X last year for 90 days. This should be a breeze.

After some reading and surfing different websites for recipes, I figured this wasn’t going to be as hard as I initially thought. The 21 Day Vegan Kickstart website has menu plan with some pretty good information. My first day I tried to used some of the recipes from this site, but it almost seems skimpy to me. I mean a girl could starve only eating what they recommend in a day. In fact, day 1 I ate only 900 calories. I’ll be anorexic in no time if I keep that up. Well, fortunately anorexia is not my goal, so I need to figure out how to eat more calories on this vegan diet. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

This is what I ate today:

I made two of the recipes from the Kickstart website, and they were both really good. Here is my rendition of the Hoppin’ John Salad. You have to try this. Video below -




P90X Round Two Begins Today

Yep, I had pretty good success with round 1 that I thought I’d try it again. Although the original plan was to start over right away, that didn’t happen. So now 3 weeks later and it is time.

So today was spin class for cardio and Chest & Back with Ab Ripper X. I burned about 777 calories today. Below is what I ate. Thought that might be insteresting, but no I’m not going to post that everyday. That’s what Posterous is for. Take a picture, send it to Posterous, and it posts to the mobile blog. Pretty simple way to keep track of your diet. Anyway…

April 27, 2009

Dinner 6pm

Day 1: 4oz baked salmon, grilled squash and 1/2 cup black beans. Sent from my new Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm!

Snack 2 3:30pm

3oz baked salmon and 1/2 cup black beans Sent from my new Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm!

Lunch 1:30pm

Protein and raw cashews 
Sent from my new Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm!

Snack 1 10:30 am

6 inch turkey on honey oat. Sent from my new Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm!

Breakfast 7:30am

Day 1: cereal and milk. 2 servings. Sent from my new Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm!

Read more: “soul4real’s diet & exercise – 90 days to fit & trim” -http://soul4real.posterous.com/#ixzz0Dvjs6y9S&A

I Did It! Lost 10% of Body Fat

So my 90 days of P90X and 12 weeks of the Body Challenge ended last week, P90X on Wednesday and Foothills on Saturday. I didn’t win, but I have some good news on my progress to share. I lost 10% of my body fat during the 3 month period of eating healthy (between 1400-1600 calories) and working out daily. I started at 40.9% body fat and ended with 30.19%. It was actually amusing watching Nicole trying to grab the fat on my thigh for the skin caliper fat test. Look out! There’s muscle there. lol. Here are the top three finishers:

1^st Place – Dave (27.2% change)

2^nd Place – Stacey (23.6% change)

3^rd Place – Alisa (18% change)

We were all winners. 18% change in 90 days is pretty good. So good, I think I’ll do it again. “Thank you, Sir! May I have another.” P90X round 2 begins today! X

On Wednesday I did a yearly health screening at school where they take your vitals and draw a little blood to analyze your blood sugar and cholesterol levels.  I’ve never had a problem with either, but it was still fun to see those numbers go down. My blood pressure on Wednesday was 100/64 and was even lower on Saturday when they took it at Revolution. Optimal is less than 120/80. My total blood cholesterol level was 118, with the desirable level being less than 200! Sweet! My HDL cholesterol level was 59. 40-59 is the normal range. Optimal is 60. My LDL cholesterol was 39, with less than 100 being optimal. So diabetes is NOT in my future. That’s a good thing.

I didn’t lose a lot of weight during the challenges, but I did lose inches. Weight wise I lost 6.5 lbs according to my scale, but I lost about 4.5 inches in my hips and about 2.25 on my waist. My thunder thighs just traded in the flab for muscles. I lost 1.75 inches in my thighs. My legs have always been like that. Rub, rub, a chub, chub!

Here’s the run down on my numbers:

 

• Upper Arm: 12.5 —> 12.0
• Chest: 34.5 ———-> 34.25
• Waist: 33.5 ———-> 31.25
• Hips: 40.5 ———–> 35
• Thigh: 25 ————> 23.25
• Calf: 12.65 ———–> 12.5

 

I have before and after photos from the challenge and P90X. The challenge photos so more of a change, but here is my own P90X before and after photo. For some reason I just don’t look as fat as I was on day 1 in this picture. But I do in the Revolution photo.

Now for my P90X Pre and Post test numbers:

• Pull-ups: neither one of us could do a pull-up at the start — I did 3 after!
• Vertical Leap: We marked up a photo from our jumps on the side of the house. I didn’t have a measuring tape that long. See photo. Minimum is 3 inches. Before 8.5 inches — After was about 9 inches.
• Push-ups: I did 10 in the beginning – 23 in the end.
• Toe Touch: I was 4 inches away from touching my toes in the beginning. Now I still can’t touch my toes, but I did improve my Sit & Reach in the Revolution challenge from 11 to 15. 
• Wall Squat: I sat on the dang wall for 1:30 in the beginning. End was 3:00.
• Bicep Curls: I did 22 curls with the 10lbs weights. I did 35 in the end.
• In & Outs: I hate ab work. I could only muster up 11 in the beginning. I did 40 on a regular basis through out the program.
• Heart Rate Maximizer: We had to do jumping jacks for 2 minutes with the last 30 secs as hard/fast as we could to get our heart rates up. I did the full 2 minutes. Heart rate after 2 minutes and then every minute for 4 minutes: Before –>156-126-102-96-96  After –> Can’t get my crappy heart rate monitor to work, so no after on this one. I did increase my V02 Max in the challenge from 41.5 to 43.4.

So that’s the tail of the tape. I’m off to do Day 1 of P90X (Round 2) – Chest & Back.

Week 8 for Revolution is in the Books

A Picture Worth 1000 Calories?

Originally uploaded by dr.coop

Week 8 is in the books, so that means only 4 more weeks to go for the Foothills Revolution Body Challenge. I’m also in the middle of week 10 for P90X. There are 13 weeks total for that, so I should be finishing up around the same time for both: April 1st for P90X and April 4th for Revolution. But enough about the finish, I still have 4 weeks left.

I’ve hit a bit of a rough spot and the only thing I’ve lost in the past two weeks is my mind and a bit of my motivation. My weight is stuck in “I Love the 140’s, please don’t go” mode. That has been my weigh-in weight for the last 3 weeks. I shouldn’t really expect much since I didn’t have a great week of dieting. I’m not usually one to over eat. My problem is when I get busy I under eat. I just completely forget about it and my body doesn’t do a very good job of reminding me.

Workouts are still good. That whole high protein diet thing was a bust. I much prefer cold cereal or oatmeal in the mornings to fried egg whites or protein shakes, plus I had no energy to workout. I did, but I was pooped. So my diet morphed into something else completely. I couldn’t even begin to analyze it. My best guess is Girl Scout cookies (Thanks Michelle) are probably not good. Completing my 60 days of no beer probably didn’t help and eating out more sucks.
Week 8 Progress Report

• Week 8 Sunday Diet
• Week 8 Monday Diet
• Week 8 Tuesday Diet
• Week 8 Wednesday Diet
• Week 8 Thursday Diet
• Week 8 Friday Diet

Week 8 Workouts:

• Sunday: P90X Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
• Monday: OFF
• Tuesday: P90X Legs & Back
• Wednesday: Spinning
• Thursday: P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X, Spinning
• Friday: OFF
• Saturday: Spinning, P90X Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Next week will be equally challenging since I’m traveling to San Francisco for 5 days. I’ll be downloading my P90X workouts to my ipod and packing my workout bands. I don’t leave until Wednesday morning, so I’ll be spinning Monday and Tuesday, back to back.