Good morning everyone! Hope all is well.
Last night was interesting, to say the least. I went to bed early since I was tired, and had dreams that irritated me. I woke up in a bad mood at certain people that didn't really do anything, and it was just one of those mornings. Do you ever have those? It seems to happen a lot during TOM, when in any other context I may be civil but turn into Norman Bates once a month, lol. But I digress. :-)
My Celiac's flare-up is starting to relax just a bit. I am still having some dull pain and swelling in my gut but it isn't nearly as bad as it was, and I'm thinking some of it is because of other things. I tend to get flare-ups every six months by the look of things, as my first one was in November around the same time. (At Thanksgiving actually, when I was supposed to be celebrating with my in-laws.) But I am learning how important it is to take care of yourself! If I had been gluten-free in that time I may have avoided the intensity that it was. But oh well, you can't fix the past, but you can learn from it.
My fiancé and I are going to a fruit orchard in Illinois and maybe pick up something yummy. There is a restaurant there but it's like deep-fried everything, so I may make myself some lunch beforehand and let my fiancé go to town on the deep-fried biscuits and fried chicken. :-D He is actually trying to gain weight as a healthy weight for him is around 145-150 and he got as low as 139 at one point since he was constantly working and not eating much. I wish I had that problem, lol!
Speaking of the scale, the flare-up and the change in my diet have caused me to plateau at 191.4 for the past 3 days. I'm really kind of annoyed with that, especially after the fitful sleep last night. I am hoping I can get it all sorted out without inhaling meat and dairy by the handful (sometimes it does help me to lose weight, but I feel all gross afterward). I am hoping to do the 21 Day Fix eventually, and maybe try my Shakeology again. I am never consistent with the Shakeology, mostly because I keep thinking it's not helping. But I'm thinking it actually helps my Celiac's and with other things you probably don't want to hear about in excruciating detail. ;-) But I digress yet again.
I hope all of you have a great day. I will have a good time relaxing with Frodobutt (Frodo is the kitty cat) until the fiancé comes over. :-)
With metta,
Shelly
Friday, April 25, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Vegan Sushi and Running
Evening all!
I seem to be doing better after my tummy issues yesterday. My fiancé and I went to Sushi Ai, which is this amazing sushi bar over by my house. I got two rolls of vegan sushi (vegetable and avocado rolls) plus four avocado sushi. The difference is that a roll is wrapped up in nori (and sometimes rice) and cut horizontally. This is what you usually see at the sushi bar at the grocery store. A single sushi piece is a bed of rice with a piece of seafood (or avocado, in my case) wrapped with a small strip of nori. It's all pretty amazing. My fiancé got the all-you-can-eat and polished off at least five rolls of sushi and one single shrimp sushi (my fiancé is an omnivore). I think he thought that it was going to be a roll of shrimp sushi, but he ate it anyway. :-D
My sister had a birthday party with tons of things I couldn't eat, and tomorrow we will go to the Outback Steakhouse (boo hiss) for even more things I can't or won't eat. So I may get several sides and go to town on those and not get too terribly bent out of shape. :-) Besides, the a la carte items are usually cheaper!
After the eating today and the eating of things to come, we decided to take a walk around Creve Coeur Lake in where else, Creve Coeur. I love to walk and run but I refuse to run on a busy street as you never know when you may be struck. At least the running path there is 4 miles long and far enough away from the roads that you don't have to worry about one of them going rogue on you. And even better, it's completely paved and flat and very easy to run and walk on. We started at about the same pace but I started getting a bit tired and the fiancé passed me. I started saying rude words under my breath because he is ALWAYS faster than me and sometimes passes me up by quite a bit, but thankfully he saw me way at the back of him and decided to finish up the last part of the trail with me.
I have been fully vegan and gluten-free so far today. I have had a few frustrating moments but I have to admit it is easier this time around without the crazy medication issues (for more about that, reference my previous blog or my personal page). I just decided that I was going to do it and I did. Even if it means passing up some other things that I like to eat, but don't like me too much.
Well, I'm keeping it nice and short tonight as I'd like to chill and continue surfing the intertubes. Have a nice day and stay dry! (Raining here.)
With metta,
Shelly
I seem to be doing better after my tummy issues yesterday. My fiancé and I went to Sushi Ai, which is this amazing sushi bar over by my house. I got two rolls of vegan sushi (vegetable and avocado rolls) plus four avocado sushi. The difference is that a roll is wrapped up in nori (and sometimes rice) and cut horizontally. This is what you usually see at the sushi bar at the grocery store. A single sushi piece is a bed of rice with a piece of seafood (or avocado, in my case) wrapped with a small strip of nori. It's all pretty amazing. My fiancé got the all-you-can-eat and polished off at least five rolls of sushi and one single shrimp sushi (my fiancé is an omnivore). I think he thought that it was going to be a roll of shrimp sushi, but he ate it anyway. :-D
My sister had a birthday party with tons of things I couldn't eat, and tomorrow we will go to the Outback Steakhouse (boo hiss) for even more things I can't or won't eat. So I may get several sides and go to town on those and not get too terribly bent out of shape. :-) Besides, the a la carte items are usually cheaper!
After the eating today and the eating of things to come, we decided to take a walk around Creve Coeur Lake in where else, Creve Coeur. I love to walk and run but I refuse to run on a busy street as you never know when you may be struck. At least the running path there is 4 miles long and far enough away from the roads that you don't have to worry about one of them going rogue on you. And even better, it's completely paved and flat and very easy to run and walk on. We started at about the same pace but I started getting a bit tired and the fiancé passed me. I started saying rude words under my breath because he is ALWAYS faster than me and sometimes passes me up by quite a bit, but thankfully he saw me way at the back of him and decided to finish up the last part of the trail with me.
I have been fully vegan and gluten-free so far today. I have had a few frustrating moments but I have to admit it is easier this time around without the crazy medication issues (for more about that, reference my previous blog or my personal page). I just decided that I was going to do it and I did. Even if it means passing up some other things that I like to eat, but don't like me too much.
Well, I'm keeping it nice and short tonight as I'd like to chill and continue surfing the intertubes. Have a nice day and stay dry! (Raining here.)
With metta,
Shelly
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
You Can Vegan Again!
I have come back to Blogger to give it a shot again.
I have been on Weebly for way too long, and although it does give you quite a bit of customization abilities, it's really not my thing. There is something to be said for typing in something that vaguely resembles a word processor. As a writer and perpetual student, I spend more time in Microsoft Office then any normal person should. So I like the posts that are reminiscent of many a late night using Microsoft Office and staring at a blank document, with the blinking cursor seemingly mocking me for my perpetual lack of writing ability. Hey, I said I was a writer, I didn't say I was a GOOD one... :-D
So anyway, back to Blogger for a remake of my Vegan365 blog. For those of you that don't follow my obsessive blogging efforts, Vegan365 was my first vegan blog, in which I chronicled 365 days of continuous vegan living. At least, that was the idea. I believe I got to Day 40, and even that set of posts was plagued by continual self-doubt. One thing that tripped me up is that I'm not much of a cook unless I'm following a recipe. Even then it is hit or miss, but at the time I was a VegWeb junkie and actually found some pretty good recipes. Unfortunately, the ones I found were pretty highly processed and grain-based, which is a no go for me.
For those of you who also don't know, I found out I had Celiac's in 2013, which I had probably had mildly my whole life, but it became chronic last year. So I had to radically alter my diet and try the arduous task of being a gluten-free vegan. Which pretty much means you can't eat out anywhere except Asian restaurants, sushi bars (get the veggie rolls!), and gluten-free and vegan-based restaurants. I also discovered Lindsey Nixon at Happy Herbivore, and her cookbooks have been a godsend. :-) But trying to navigate all that after being only a nominal vegan for five years was a hot mess. You would not be surprised that I went from periods of intense devoutness to intense rebellion. Especially when my immediate family, my fiancé's family, and my extended family are all omnivores!! :-)
The problem was, in 2013, it became chronic and I would get severe abdominal pain and inconvenient digestive issues, as well as headaches, fatigue, and all that jazz when I ate gluten for long periods of time. I learned that like most AI diseases, you can have flare-ups if you don't manage it. So for six months I killed my gut, and recently I had excruciating pain in my abdomen and needless to say wasn't too thrilled about it. So I decided that I should try not to abuse my body anymore. I will be 30 in less than five months and figure my gut can only take so much swelling and stretching before it gives up and I'll be in real trouble. :-P
My veganism is not purely ethical, as much as I would like it to be. I do have health issues and I find that I am more clear-headed and happy when I eat vegan foods. But I am not doing it to manage diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease either. My heart is wonky but strong and I don't eat a lot of sweets. So I'm a happy combination of both.
So what does that mean for you? I will be continuing along the thread of Vegan365 and Read. Write. Vegan, and posting some of my favorite products, recipes, and other goodies. They will also be gluten-free, since I also can't have gluten in beauty products. I will post about my exploits with START (St Louis Animal Rights Team) and Arch Vegans and hook you up with any events (if you're local to the St Louis area) that I think are super cool. :-)
Thanks for reading through this post! I look forward to connecting with all of you.
With metta,
Shelly
I have been on Weebly for way too long, and although it does give you quite a bit of customization abilities, it's really not my thing. There is something to be said for typing in something that vaguely resembles a word processor. As a writer and perpetual student, I spend more time in Microsoft Office then any normal person should. So I like the posts that are reminiscent of many a late night using Microsoft Office and staring at a blank document, with the blinking cursor seemingly mocking me for my perpetual lack of writing ability. Hey, I said I was a writer, I didn't say I was a GOOD one... :-D
So anyway, back to Blogger for a remake of my Vegan365 blog. For those of you that don't follow my obsessive blogging efforts, Vegan365 was my first vegan blog, in which I chronicled 365 days of continuous vegan living. At least, that was the idea. I believe I got to Day 40, and even that set of posts was plagued by continual self-doubt. One thing that tripped me up is that I'm not much of a cook unless I'm following a recipe. Even then it is hit or miss, but at the time I was a VegWeb junkie and actually found some pretty good recipes. Unfortunately, the ones I found were pretty highly processed and grain-based, which is a no go for me.
For those of you who also don't know, I found out I had Celiac's in 2013, which I had probably had mildly my whole life, but it became chronic last year. So I had to radically alter my diet and try the arduous task of being a gluten-free vegan. Which pretty much means you can't eat out anywhere except Asian restaurants, sushi bars (get the veggie rolls!), and gluten-free and vegan-based restaurants. I also discovered Lindsey Nixon at Happy Herbivore, and her cookbooks have been a godsend. :-) But trying to navigate all that after being only a nominal vegan for five years was a hot mess. You would not be surprised that I went from periods of intense devoutness to intense rebellion. Especially when my immediate family, my fiancé's family, and my extended family are all omnivores!! :-)
The problem was, in 2013, it became chronic and I would get severe abdominal pain and inconvenient digestive issues, as well as headaches, fatigue, and all that jazz when I ate gluten for long periods of time. I learned that like most AI diseases, you can have flare-ups if you don't manage it. So for six months I killed my gut, and recently I had excruciating pain in my abdomen and needless to say wasn't too thrilled about it. So I decided that I should try not to abuse my body anymore. I will be 30 in less than five months and figure my gut can only take so much swelling and stretching before it gives up and I'll be in real trouble. :-P
My veganism is not purely ethical, as much as I would like it to be. I do have health issues and I find that I am more clear-headed and happy when I eat vegan foods. But I am not doing it to manage diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease either. My heart is wonky but strong and I don't eat a lot of sweets. So I'm a happy combination of both.
So what does that mean for you? I will be continuing along the thread of Vegan365 and Read. Write. Vegan, and posting some of my favorite products, recipes, and other goodies. They will also be gluten-free, since I also can't have gluten in beauty products. I will post about my exploits with START (St Louis Animal Rights Team) and Arch Vegans and hook you up with any events (if you're local to the St Louis area) that I think are super cool. :-)
Thanks for reading through this post! I look forward to connecting with all of you.
With metta,
Shelly
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