Thanksgiving Day post

Happy Thanksgiving! I have a post over at The Mouse and More for your reading pleasure.

Vegan at Walt Disney World - not easy, but not hard either

My family went to Walt Disney World last week, my first extended trip away from home after I became vegan. I'd read up on what WDW could offer vegans and it's more than you'd think. The week before we left, the Disney Food Blog had post about vegan dining at WDW, which helped reinforce what I had already read or heard. Many resorts have grab-and-go areas of their food courts or quick serve restaurants. At Pop Century, the resort we stayed at, I found hummus, Silk Soy Milk, Divvies cookies and caramel corn, and corn flakes. At Epcot, the Sunshine Seasons food court in The Land pavilion of Future World had vegan black bean soup, which I had three times in the week we were there! They also had veggie sushi rolls and hummus, so I was very happy to eat there as often as we did. We celebrated our wedding anniversary while we were down, eating at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. A chef came out to our table and walked me through the buffet tables, telling me what was and what wasn't vegan; if a dish wasn't vegan, he offered to make a similar dish that would be! I had a great meal there. I've heard that Boma, a buffet restaurant at Animal Kingdom Lodge is also a good option, so I may have to try that next time we're down.

Overall, I had no real problems eating as a vegan while I was at WDW, although a few times, I had to look carefully at what was included in a dish or read labels to make sure I would be okay eating something. I do miss, a bit, having a Dole Whip, but I'm sure that, if pressed, the chefs at the restaurants would whip up something equally delicious. I knew that I wouldn't have too much trouble, but I'm glad that I have now experienced being vegan at Walt Disney World for myself.

Doing better with portions, but still...

Over at my other blog, The Mouse and More, I just posted an entry about why I run. I thought I'd do the same thing here about why I became vegan, but I explain it somewhat at the other site. If interested, feel free to read it. I'll wait.

Ok, so, instead, what I thought I'd do with this entry is briefly describe how I'm trying to restart the weight loss I'd experienced earlier this year as I became vegan. I've cut down on the vegan junk food (yes, as far as I can tell, there is such a thing - at least there's no animal-based products in what I was eating). For example, coconut milk frozen dessert is yummy, but if you eat most of a pint, with a crapton of blueberries and cashews on top of it, that's not necessarily a good thing, weight loss or health-wise. Neither is doing that every night. That's not what a treat should be. Once a week or so, that's a treat.

Vegan burritos nuked and covered in salsa three or four times a week isn't necessarily "bad", but without anything else on the plate, especially anything in the vegetable family (salsa from a jar doesn't really count) is less than optimal in my mind. Now the last couple of months have been tough with some extended family issues, but still, a salad is just as easy as a burrito. Change is coming as I get back into the cooking habit again. I've come to enjoy cooking again and even though I'm still making two or three different meals each night (depending on if my wife and son each the same thing), I'm learning how to prep ingredients quicker, how to combine things for different meals and how to finish off a dish with a different twist each time. I've moved beyond relying on tofu so much, too. Seitan is great and very versatile. I've done a little with tempeh and plan to do more as we get to the time of the year for comfort food (at here in Minnesota when it getting chillier).

So, I'm doing much better about what I'm eating (still all vegan) and how much (the bigger issue) and hopefully, I can reach my weight loss goals and be a better and healthier runner.

Food choices good, but amounts? not so much

I've been doing really well lately catching hidden non-vegan ingredients and finding vegan alternatives when eating out, but in the last few weeks, I've had a hard time with how much I'm eating. I can attribute much of the problem to being injured and not running as much as I had been. Not only was my exercise cut way down, but I was not in the best of spirits for the last few weeks. I haven't gorged myself or anything like that, but I have found myself eating more than I need to whenI'm feeling stressed or bored.

A bad habit I've had for years, this pattern can be overcome with some determination and, now that I can start getting back into running again, a strong desire to continue my journey toward more mindful food choices. It's not easy sometimes and we've had some family stresses lately that have not helped being planful about preparing good meals, but there's light at the end of that tunnel, too. As I get more comfortable with what I can eat, I'll get better at figuring out how to eat.

Hitting my stride?

It seems as though it is becoming easier for me to find vegan foods, find hidden ingredients in non-vegan foods, and find good food to eat. I think that as I get more used to what to check for, it will be easier to eat better. Although I am still checking labels because I'm getting store-bought foods, for the most part, I have moved to getting veggies and fruit every week, eating all of them (yes, much like the clean plate club!) and rinding new ways to make good, nutritious meals fairly quickly. I had thought that cooking my meals would help hone some knife skills, but I have found that a kitchen shears does wonders dicing or mincing peppers, green onions, broccoli, and spinach. I still cut up the veggies, but the more involved prep is done with shears. Works great and pretty quick, too.

A couple of weeks ago I got to make a trip to Whole Foods that didn't involve dashing in to pick up a few things. This trip, I got to check all the areas of the store that have what I'd want and I came away with a good sense of what's available for me to make that I'll enjoy and my family may try, too. It was very exciting to have that first trip under my belt and I look forward to finding more treasures next time. Now, if I could only figure out what to do with the tempeh I bought!

Pitfalls and hidden traps trying to become vegan

Recently, my friend Gordon posted on his new blog A Vegan in the South a rather surprising and shocking piece of information for those of us who thought that they were keeping vegan by eating certain brands of “veggie burgers.” Reading Gordon’s post actually depressed me briefly, as I had been using Morningstar burgers as a primary means of getting some protein into my diet without using tofu, seitan, or tempeh (which I use, but I haven’t used enough to be really comfortable using all the time yet). I think I will ultimately be much better off not eating Morningstar burgers and I have found actual vegan burgers (Gardenburger brand) since I read Gordon’s post, but his warning opened my eyes to how much I don’t know about what I should and shouldn’t eat and how so very important carefully reading those labels is to making sure that what I’m eating is indeed vegan and not some weird marketing hybrid of ingredients.

Slight shift in focus

This blog was intended to be a chronicle of my life as I went through a difficult time for me. I made it through that time and decided to keep the blog going, updating it infrequently while hoping to post more often. Rather than set an expectation that may or may not be met, I'm going to shift the focus of this blog slightly and post when I feel I have something interesting to say. Now, honestly, I would really like to post in a more timely manner, and the focus shift may help get me to be more regular with my posts.

So here's the focus shift: I've changed a large and important part of my lifestyle drastically in the last five months (although I started these changes last July) and I have seen my weight drop from 226 lbs. in July of 2009 to 192.5 lbs. as of last week. I'm still running and training for races, so the change isn't getting more exercise. The other way to lose weight is by changing how and/or what you eat. Portion control, calorie or carb counting, special diets, etc. all can drop weight, albeit temporarily unless you stick with the program or book you're following. Lifestyle and habit changes, however, last longer (hopefully for the rest of your life) and are easier, in my opinion.

I have made lifestyle and eating habit changes and since at least late March, I became a vegetarian with hopes of becoming vegan. I am almost there. I say almost, because I can't 100% guarantee that food I eat that I did not make myself is vegan. I try very hard to make sure and experience and learning will get me to the point I feel comfortable saying I'm vegan.

But why? Well, right now, I have 33.5 reasons why. I've lost weight without feeling weak, tired, or hungry for foods I used to eat (and eat a lot!). I don't miss meat or dairy products and as I learn more about what I should eat and what I can eat to be vegan, I find that I actually like most of the foods people think vegans eat. Yes, that means tofu, hummus, veggies, fruit, soy milk, almond milk, but I already liked these foods. I didn't have to make a huge adjustment. I'm re-learning how to cook and re-learning that cooking everything on high is not necessary or even a good idea! Now, as time goes on, I may embrace the other aspects of a vegan lifestyle, but right now, I know that I can eat well, lose weight, and feel good about myself. And that's just fine with me.

So, how does this change affect this blog? Well, the posts may be more oriented toward my journey to a full vegan lifestyle (or not), but I wanted to give context to why you may see posts that talk about good vegan recipes, creative ways to make tofu, or what seitan is and why I eat it (once I try it).

Odds and Ends - briefly

Again time passes and this blog sits lonely, feeling forlorn. It's not, of course, just not top-of-mind right now. All of the great ideas I get for posts here get lost before I can write them. I even carry a small notebook to jot ideas down, but I forget to do that. Sad, really, but I will rectify that starting with this post. I may not write a lot each time, but I will write more often. I started this blog to post about my life in general when I was not in the best of places emotional and personally. I'm much better now - much, much better. We'll just have to see if I'm more timely.

Not forgotten

I've not forgotten this blog, I just tend to write more at The Mouse and More instead. Since last August, I trained for the 2010 Walt Disney World Marathon, which I ran in the coldest weather Orlando had seen in over 30 years; I celebrated my one year anniversary at my current job; and generally enjoyed life. I had thought I would use this blog as a general, catch-all for non-Disney related thoughts, but I haven't found the time I'd like to have to do more meaningful posts than simple updates. I still intend to try to post more often, because I feel like I have things to say. Hopefully I will be much better about updating more often. I mean, really, I don't think I could get worse, could I?