The Not "Quite" Skinny Enough, Pretty Enough, Talented Enough Actress.

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day 12

Dearest 10's of readers! You'll have to forgive me but I need to take the next 4 days off from blogging about my vegan challenge journey. I'm about to enter 3 overnight shoots into a day shoot and am already resigned with the fact that the next 4 days my brain will be like mush! I'll be back day 17 to update you all on my journey. Hopefully in my sleepless haze I will not faulter and eat a mozzarella stick (which almost happened today.) Wish me luck!

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #11

I am NOT happy! After last nights cupcake debacle I soothed myself knowing that I would have time this morning to run to Whole Foods and grab the illustrious vegan cupcake that I have so been craving!

Well, there were none! At least not at the Whole Foods on 24th and 7th! I settled for a $5 piece of chocolate vegan cake....which did not do the trick! As soon as I have a free day I'm either going to run to Babycakes Bakery or bake my own damn cupcakes! This should not be this hard! Now I know why I am vegetarian and not vegan!

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #10

 

I WANT ONE OF THESE RIGHT NOW!

Just did a grocery shop at Trader Joe's where there are NO vegan cupcakes! Gary literally had to drag me from the cake aisle kicking and screaming! I feel like I've lost control and I'm about to go nuts! I am CUPCAKE MONSTER and I want a cupcake!!!! Day 10 and I guess the vegan challenge is getting to me. I know there are loads of yummy vegan cupcakes I could have....but it's 9pm on a Saturday night and I don't feel like searching! I want it NOW! There is a Duane Reade downstairs! How easy it would be for me to run downstairs and grab a nice toxic box of Hostess cupcakes! Mmmmm!!!! But I won't because I will feel guilty in front of all my 10's of blog readers that have been following my journey! I think this is a lesson in how vegan foods aren't as easily accessible as we would like them to be. Yes I live in NYC. Yes Whole Foods is 5 blocks away. But, wouldn't it be fabulous if Hostess had a vegan cupcake that I could grab at my local CVS or in a vending machine! I would never feel a need to cheat, like I almost did at Trader Joe's just now! Hostess, read my blog and get to work! 

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #9

There is a youtube channel that has had a huge influence on me deciding to take this Vegan challenge...and to eating mostly vegetarian in the first place. It belongs to that of: Freelee the Banana Girl! She made up and promotes a "Raw til 4" diet that consists of eating raw mono fruit meals in the morning until 4pm when you can have cooked starches with veggies. There is no calorie counting but the diet is low fat with food combining. Not being a big lover of fruit myself I haven't been following this diet specifically. I have been paying attention to the amount of fat I've been eating and trying to shove in the raw greens and starches as much as possible. Regardless, I love Freelee's energy, her love of animals, and her blunt honesty about what eating meat not only does to your body but what it does to the environment! Every night before I go to bed I watch one of her videos! They motivate me to be a better more health conscious person. 

Here is just 1 of her 100's of youtube videos: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRuytGHlpNc

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #8

Today is a sit around the house and get boring stuff done kinda day! That kinda stuff makes me crave junk food! Before I went nuts and started eating everything in sight, I made myself a Wasabi Chickpea Crunchy Snack! It's fairly healthy accept I do have to use some coconut oil to keep the wasabi and salt sticking on it. I know I know, Coconut oil is healthy....but it's loaded with saturated fat and calories so I try to keep it to a minimum! It came out great! This is how you make it:

Soak dry garbanzo beans over night. Boil them for about 45 minutes in water. Dry them out for a little bit. Rub em in Wasabi powder, Wasabi Salt, and Coconut Oil. Spray a cooking sheet with non fat coconut oil spray. Cook em for 45 minutes at 350. Take em out mix em up a little and put them back in for another 30 minutes...and then they are done! They taste best right out of the oven! Yummy!

 

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #7

I started to feel sick last night! I don't know if it was a "detox" from going completely vegan, being around other sick people, or the weather that did it....but 8 zinc/elderberry lozenges, 2 Emergen-c's, and 3 glasses of water with lemon and apple cider vinegar later I feel way better! Feeling like I had a cold coming on also made me WANT to eat more fruit because it's soothing on the throat and I know it's loaded with vitamins! Perhaps my oncoming cold went away quickly because there is no mucus forming dairy in my system? I don't know! Either way, still going well on day 7!

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #6

Six days, no dairy and fish! But also no weightloss. I didn't do the challenge expecting to loose weight because I am still eating in BULK...but with the wedding approaching I'd like to shed a couple of pounds!

Lani Muelrath promotes a LOW FAT plant based whole foods diet. She's had similar weight issues as I, and in her 60's has a strong lean body. In the past I would eat healthy oils/avocado's/nuts in bulk. While these foods are nutritionally good, they won't do anything for the waistline! I've already stopped cooking with oils.....but Peanut Butter remains my POISON! Hopefully I can use this momentum of my vegan challenge to quit the junk...at least temporarily! 

Here is Lani's website! She's really awesome so check it out!: 

http://lanimuelrath.com/about/

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #5

I didn't cheat on my challenge today...but I feel like I did!

Today was wedding menu design day! With our cocktail hour we get a ton of food options. Some I get to choose myself and some are already included. I had pre-chosen as many vegetarian "ish" things that I could....but my event coordinator pointed out that there was not a lot of options for meat eaters. I felt peer pressured into adding more meat! Even though this is MY wedding (and my fiance's) I want my guests to love the food and have an amazing time. At least 75% of my guests eat meat! So in addition to our carving station, cold cuts, sesame chicken, sushi bar....there will be chicken piccata and kielbasa. Kielbasa is pork. That's a pig! Innocent sweet little piggies are going to die for my cocktail hour and I'm feeling like this challenge is so hypocritical!

  

http://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/pigheaded-smart-swine/

 

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #4

Day number four and I haven't had any problems with maintaining a vegan diet. Probably because my diet leading up to this challenge was 90% vegan based on the teachings from different books I've read and different lectures/interviews with nutritionists and doctors I've listened to. But, I was thinking about my childhood/young adult eating habits earlier today and reminded how I've done a 180 positive change nutrition wise since my youth! If I still ate the same way as I did when I was in my teens I'd probably have severe health issues! 

I was living in Los Angeles "attempting" all the fad diets: Slim Fast, Atkins, Grapefruit Diet etc. when a girlfriend turned me onto THIS book:

 

 

This book opened my eyes for the first time to how harmful a typical American diet can be. She writes about the hormones and puss in cows milk. She explains what all the chemicals and additives in canned and other preserved food can do to you. And for the first time I had a better understanding of how much sugar I was ACTUALLY having even though I wasn't eating sweets. Because of her, I started reading labels and I saw how much High Fructose Corn Syrup was added to EVERYTHING! Marilu changed my life. I've read 100's of books and seen many documentaries on the same subject since...but every couple of years I re-read this book because it uses a common sense approach to diet and lifestyle...and while it doesn't advocate a 100% vegan diet it definitely doesn't promote meat!

30 Day Vegan Challenge: Day #3

I was really nervous about my vegan challenge today because it was my first day at the mercy of other people for food. I went to a friends place to work on a film! Said friend was such a gracious host he prepared a veggie burger on gluten free bread for me! Then later on I grabbed a vegan burrito (pictured below) at this amazing hole in the wall Mexican place next door to his apartment! I expected to go hungry today and instead I have a full belly! Success!