Feeling A Lot Better Today

I'm pretty tired, but I feel a lot better.

I was supposed to have dinner tonight with friend Heidi, who has been both vegan guide and animal-free cheerleader on my vegan journey, but I canceled because I felt pretty crummy this morning. In the process of canceling, she gave me this recipe for sunny milk which is ridiculously healthy and serves as a base for things which fight colds. She recommended ginger which is supposed to increase blood flow (a great thing for getting toxins out of the blood.)

Even better, she was nice enough to let me share the recipe.

• 1/3 to 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup ice
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar (vegetarians could use honey)
• 1/8 teaspoon mineral salt

1. Blend and serve

This recipe will save for three days refrigerated in a glass jar.

Again, this recipe is just a base. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, even cayenne to kick up the flavor.

Sickness: 0 Me: 1

I felt pretty crappy all day yesterday and into today. I am sure this is largely due to lack of sleep and the fact both Tina and Ethan have been sick.

Oh, and the fact I've had to wake up at 6:30 the past two days when usually I get up at 8 (did I mention how nice it is to work 9-6?)

If fact, I strongly attribute the fact I have not gotten sick to this point to be a sign that there's something to this vegan healthy living stuff.

Anyway, traditionally sick time in the Perrin household has meant one thing: the world is the sick one's buffet. No expense is spared nursing the ensickened back to health. Which, before being vegan, meant hot and sour soup and fried wontons. Mmmm hrmm...no vitamins, empty calories, what more could I ask for.

Not this time. Largely because I have to answer to this blog, I made the vow not to break down and eat ice cream and fried foods. Yesterday I ate what I would have eaten any day since I started being vegan. (Though I did get some really spicy noodles that did wonders for opening my plugged nose...)

Today, I vow to do the same. 7 pounds in two weeks. That's my motto this time. And I am going to stick to it.

WORKOUT REPORT

Even though I was sick, I still did an arm work out. I didn't do cardio because I didn't want to wear myself out.

I just felt it was important to stick to the plan.

Not Sure About Hemp Powder

A few posts ago, I talked about vegan protein pwoders and how I was currently using hemp powder.



I'm not so sure about hemp powder.



With the whey powder, I was used to adding a little water and making a sort of vile chocolate milk. The key was to only add enough water to fully dissolve the powder and then open throat and down it goes.



Hemp DOES NOT DISSOLVE IN WATER. It retains this sort texture sort of like ... well ... grass. Toasted, nutty tasting grass.



I am pretty sure it's good for me because there's I am not jonesing for protein (which was my major concern about doing vegan strength training) but I'm just not sure if it's worth it.



I think I am going to try soy protein next. My coworkers be damned.

Onion Rings: 1 Me: 0

At work today we carried on our tradition of welcoming new employees into the company by taking them to Jackstack, which for those of my readers outside of the Kansas City, is perhaps the finest BBQ restaurant in the world.

And even though I am vegan, I come from KC. I know a thing or three about what makes good BBQ.

The thing that makes Jackstack so great, though, is their veggies. They have seasonal veggies and veggie kabobs and bunches of delicious non-meat foods.

And they have onion rings. Which should be vegan right? Right??

Of course not...milk/cream and probably eggs form the binder on the stupid things, making them still delicious, though decidedly non-vegan.

D'oh.

Down 6 Pounds...

...Maybe more...

More later...

Update

...Sorry I've fallen off the radar for the past few days. Life has a way of being busy.

For those keeping score at home, I exercised a mere four times last week. That's kind of shoddy, but hopefully I did my body good by walking around the Plaza with my son for an hour, maybe an hour and a half on Sunday. Frankly, chasing him around is a pretty intense cardio workout.

Friday night, was arm night. I got to try out my new weights. I'll blog more on them later, but they are both supersweet and a distraction at the same time.

Saturday was back and shoulders day and then I went for a nice jog. I jogged somewhere between a mile and a half and two miles. It was rainy out, so it was nice and cool, and I was running by Turkey Creek which was higher than normal and running fast...

All in all, it was a good time for exercise.

The food front, I did okay. On Saturday, I think I only ate twice and they weren't small meals. But I did develop a new sweet potato recipe that I'll share soon as well.

But for now...sleep.

Vegan Protein Powder

Part of strength training, no matter if its vegan or carnivorous, is getting enough protein so that the body has the building blocks to build muscle.

Normally, this is not that much of an issue. Studies are showing that most Americans are ingesting far more protein than needed to be healthy, even active. In fact, I'll try to find the link, but there's a study linking increased rates of kidney disease with high protein intake because so many Americans are making their kidneys work harder to pull all the loose protein out of the system.

Anyway...when you don't eat meat, eggs, milk, etc. protein is a bit harder to come by. Yes, foods like my beloved seitan is a good source of protein, but they are not a completely protein. I still need to eat legumes (i.e. beans) to get a full amount of protein. And frankly...if I eat too many beans I have unhappy coworkers. If you know what I mean.

Normally I take whey protein, being that it's complete and easier to digest than other animal-based proteins. Again, not really an option because of the whole milk thing.

So, I asked around at Whole Foods and the nice lady there said I should try Hemp Protein. I had never heard of it before, but the lady seemed to know what she was talking about. I asked specifically about soy protein, which is sold in stores next to the friendly whey in containers that looked very similiar.

I was told I could take it, but that it was harder to digest and might (can you guess what's coming...) make me gassy. Hemp Protein it is.