Praise Jesus! For more than one reason, obviously. You know, these past 6 weeks really have been pretty spiritual for me. I mean, I wasn't praying every second of my day, but I did talk to God more often, especially when I would have cravings and be tempted, and the meaning of Easter and my appreciation for what Jesus did for us really came together for me at the end. It's truly a blessing...and what I did for Lent is nothing in comparison to it.
To kinda have closure to the Daniel Fast and the past 40 days, I'll give you a brief update on how things are. During my journey on the Daniel Fast, I lost 13 pounds. I haven't weighed this since my senior year in college when I went on the super nazi diet. You must be thinking, "Well, couldn't be worse than the Daniel Fast!" This was different, for obvious reasons. I wasn't dieting, I was fasting. It felt easier than when I was dieting. Which leads me to my next topic of discussion - what the #$%^ am I going to do now that I'm off the fast? Well, I've decided to add dairy and fish back into my diet. I'll have chicken and red meat if I crave it, but not on a regular basis like I used to. Oh yeah, I've definitely added back sweets. Probably not a good thing...
We'll see how this goes...
Hmm...what should I eat today?
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
T-3...
Well, it's been an interesting journey these past 7 weeks, but man...I'm ready for Easter! This week, by far, has been the hardest week. Everywhere I look there's food...food, glorious food. I spent much of the day yesterday, daydreaming about carrot cake. To add to the torture, I kept reading carrot cake recipe after carrot cake recipe, looking at pictures...yes, it was torture.
But today's a new day. I'm not going to torture myself like that today. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I'm going to be thinking, reading, daydreaming about food! I've already tortured myself this morning by making sticky buns for the shop. I used Ina Garten's recipe, which uses puff pastry for the dough, rather than making a yeast dough and waiting for it to rise. I heart puff pastry with a passion, so I thought, "Perfect!" However, the reviews were a little mixed - people kept talking about how the sticky buns came out hard or burnt, and how there was too much sugar. I decided to follow the ingredients exactly, but lower the temperature of the oven to 375 from 400 and reduce the cooking time from 30 mins to 25. Well, some of them came out hard, some did not. That probably had to do with the different temperatures in different parts of my oven. They also had waaaaaaaaaay too much butter on them. Seriously, they were to the point where butter was dripping down my first guinea pig's hands (aka: Andrew Parsons). So here's how I'm going to modify it for Easter Sunday's breakfast: reduce the amount of butter and sugar by 1/3 and rotate the pan halfway through baking. If that's successful, I'll post the recipe.
But today's a new day. I'm not going to torture myself like that today. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I'm going to be thinking, reading, daydreaming about food! I've already tortured myself this morning by making sticky buns for the shop. I used Ina Garten's recipe, which uses puff pastry for the dough, rather than making a yeast dough and waiting for it to rise. I heart puff pastry with a passion, so I thought, "Perfect!" However, the reviews were a little mixed - people kept talking about how the sticky buns came out hard or burnt, and how there was too much sugar. I decided to follow the ingredients exactly, but lower the temperature of the oven to 375 from 400 and reduce the cooking time from 30 mins to 25. Well, some of them came out hard, some did not. That probably had to do with the different temperatures in different parts of my oven. They also had waaaaaaaaaay too much butter on them. Seriously, they were to the point where butter was dripping down my first guinea pig's hands (aka: Andrew Parsons). So here's how I'm going to modify it for Easter Sunday's breakfast: reduce the amount of butter and sugar by 1/3 and rotate the pan halfway through baking. If that's successful, I'll post the recipe.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Turning a New...something.
Well, I've had to let go of BaaSpice. It's a good thing! I'm growing up...or something like that. I'm definitely getting older.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Three more weeks...
Since the beginning of my fast, I've lost 10 pounds, and I'm proud to say that I've been on track for most of it. Yes, I've had moments of weakness and cheated...but I'm only human, and I'm okay with that. It was especially hard this weekend when Andrew was out of town. He wasn't here to keep an eye on me. Not to say God wasn't watching...
Anyways, I saw this post that Kevin Gillespie had on facebook about adding more green veggies to the Woodfire Grill menu, and so I commented, asking if he'd share some vegetarian recipes so I don't have to eat salads for the next three weeks. Guess what - he actually responded! He said he totally understands about giving up meat for Lent, and he said that he did a series of vegetarian dishes for Food and Wine last fall. I look them up, and they look pretty good! I think I'm going to try the Creamless Cream Corn with Mushrooms and Lemon and the Toasted Farro with Greens and Tahini tonight. I'll finally get to use that farro I bought four weeks ago! Andrew was actually complaining about it the other day. He looked in our pantry, saw the farro and said, "Are we going to have a bunch of weird vegetarian stuff left over after Lent?"
Speaking of Andrew, he said I can get an iPad2! I love my husband...
Since the beginning of my fast, I've lost 10 pounds, and I'm proud to say that I've been on track for most of it. Yes, I've had moments of weakness and cheated...but I'm only human, and I'm okay with that. It was especially hard this weekend when Andrew was out of town. He wasn't here to keep an eye on me. Not to say God wasn't watching...
Anyways, I saw this post that Kevin Gillespie had on facebook about adding more green veggies to the Woodfire Grill menu, and so I commented, asking if he'd share some vegetarian recipes so I don't have to eat salads for the next three weeks. Guess what - he actually responded! He said he totally understands about giving up meat for Lent, and he said that he did a series of vegetarian dishes for Food and Wine last fall. I look them up, and they look pretty good! I think I'm going to try the Creamless Cream Corn with Mushrooms and Lemon and the Toasted Farro with Greens and Tahini tonight. I'll finally get to use that farro I bought four weeks ago! Andrew was actually complaining about it the other day. He looked in our pantry, saw the farro and said, "Are we going to have a bunch of weird vegetarian stuff left over after Lent?"
Speaking of Andrew, he said I can get an iPad2! I love my husband...
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Hm....
The past week of fasting has been pretty tough. I started getting tired of eating cold food (I was eating a lot of salads and such), I started to crave sweets A LOT, and I went out to eat a lot more, which sucked. When Yasmin and David came into town, they wanted to go eat at Steak and Shake. The only thing on the menu that I could have was the salad - not even the fun salads that they have, but the garden salad, probably with no dressing (sugar). So I chose not to have anything at all. Bad idea. It took all my strength to not stick my face in the string fries and motor boat that sucker. Mmm...fries...
On the upside, I did get to eat at J. Christopher's on Sunday. Hooray! Can I just tell you that I ate *e v e r y t h i n g* on my plate? I had french toast, two sunnyside up eggs, a cup of grits (I added extra butter), bacon and three cups of coffee. Oh, and I had half of Andrew's english muffin and some of Yasmin's bagel and lox. Yes. I gorged myself. Definitely not my proudest moment. And in reaction to all the caffeine and food, my body kinda wigged out. I got super jittery from the coffee, and I couldn't even think about eating another bite of food for the rest of the day....that is, until Andrew decided he wanted New York style pizza from Brickhouse. I mean, what do you expect me to do? Not eat the gooey, cheesy, filled with pepperoni, thin crust perfection that is New York style pizza? I had one slice, okay? Geez...don't hate.
So after that episode, I told Andrew we couldn't go out to eat during the week anymore. It's definitely been better. Andrew made taco the other night and made a separate batch of taco "meat" for me with tempeh. Have you ever had tempeh? It's GROSS. If seitan's anything like that, I don't want to eat that either. Thank goodness the beans and the sauce covered up the taste. I ate it with salsa, lettuce and corn tortillas. Not bad. Of course, I had to give Andrew the stink eye for flaunting his cheese and sour cream around me (okay, he wasn't flaunting, but he still used it in front of me).
I think part of the reason why I've been having all these cravings and thoughts of caving into the temptations is because I've kinda forgotten the reason for the fast. I want answers. I need to know what my path is. It's not about the food, it's not about losing the weight, it's about getting spiritual guidance from God and seeing things clearly for the first time in a long time. The past year has made me lose control of myself, and it's actually physically visible. Hopefully by the end of this fast, I'll be back on track.
On a side note, I had this weird dream last night that I was running to Duluth. I was actually running. Like, not being chased or chasing after something. I was doing it because I wanted to. Maybe it's a sign. But MAN, do I hate running...
The past week of fasting has been pretty tough. I started getting tired of eating cold food (I was eating a lot of salads and such), I started to crave sweets A LOT, and I went out to eat a lot more, which sucked. When Yasmin and David came into town, they wanted to go eat at Steak and Shake. The only thing on the menu that I could have was the salad - not even the fun salads that they have, but the garden salad, probably with no dressing (sugar). So I chose not to have anything at all. Bad idea. It took all my strength to not stick my face in the string fries and motor boat that sucker. Mmm...fries...
On the upside, I did get to eat at J. Christopher's on Sunday. Hooray! Can I just tell you that I ate *e v e r y t h i n g* on my plate? I had french toast, two sunnyside up eggs, a cup of grits (I added extra butter), bacon and three cups of coffee. Oh, and I had half of Andrew's english muffin and some of Yasmin's bagel and lox. Yes. I gorged myself. Definitely not my proudest moment. And in reaction to all the caffeine and food, my body kinda wigged out. I got super jittery from the coffee, and I couldn't even think about eating another bite of food for the rest of the day....that is, until Andrew decided he wanted New York style pizza from Brickhouse. I mean, what do you expect me to do? Not eat the gooey, cheesy, filled with pepperoni, thin crust perfection that is New York style pizza? I had one slice, okay? Geez...don't hate.
So after that episode, I told Andrew we couldn't go out to eat during the week anymore. It's definitely been better. Andrew made taco the other night and made a separate batch of taco "meat" for me with tempeh. Have you ever had tempeh? It's GROSS. If seitan's anything like that, I don't want to eat that either. Thank goodness the beans and the sauce covered up the taste. I ate it with salsa, lettuce and corn tortillas. Not bad. Of course, I had to give Andrew the stink eye for flaunting his cheese and sour cream around me (okay, he wasn't flaunting, but he still used it in front of me).
I think part of the reason why I've been having all these cravings and thoughts of caving into the temptations is because I've kinda forgotten the reason for the fast. I want answers. I need to know what my path is. It's not about the food, it's not about losing the weight, it's about getting spiritual guidance from God and seeing things clearly for the first time in a long time. The past year has made me lose control of myself, and it's actually physically visible. Hopefully by the end of this fast, I'll be back on track.
On a side note, I had this weird dream last night that I was running to Duluth. I was actually running. Like, not being chased or chasing after something. I was doing it because I wanted to. Maybe it's a sign. But MAN, do I hate running...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
It's been a week since the beginning of the fast, and...I haven't cheated once! Well, intentionally, anyway. On saturday, we went to our nephew's first birthday party, and they were having burgers and hot dogs, so Andrew went out and got me veggie burgers. It had less than 2% egg whites in it, so technically, I cheated. I wasn't going to not eat the burgers because of less than 2% egg whites - Andrew drove all the way out to Publix, just to get the burgers (so sweet...although, his Lent "thing" is to be a better husband. Still...sweet). Besides that little incident, I've been very successful. I did have a dream last night that I cheated, and I felt very bad about it in my dream.
With all this vegetable/fruit eating, I've lost 6 pounds in 7 days. Wow. Kinda makes me wonder what kind of crap I've been putting into my body.
Since I've been able to keep it up without slipping up, I've been thinking about perhaps continuing this eating habit. I don't think keep it so extreme - maybe I'll become a pescatarian...
With all this vegetable/fruit eating, I've lost 6 pounds in 7 days. Wow. Kinda makes me wonder what kind of crap I've been putting into my body.
Since I've been able to keep it up without slipping up, I've been thinking about perhaps continuing this eating habit. I don't think keep it so extreme - maybe I'll become a pescatarian...
Friday, March 11, 2011
Daniel Fast day 2 & 3...
It's really amazing how your body reacts to a diet change. Actually, it's amazing how my body reacted to the Daniel Fast (can't say I've had this kind of a reaction to any kind of diet change before). Over night, I lost 3lbs. I know that's from water weight, but still! So maybe we are meant to eat just fruits and veggies (actually, I know that's not true. I'm reading Numbers right now, and God pretty much commands his priests to eat some of animal offerings).
Anyways, on the first night of the fast, I had pan fried tofu with a little "Asian" sauce over brown rice and broccoli. It was good! In fact, Andrew liked it and said he could probably have a whole serving of it. Of course, this was said while he was eating his "The Bomb" burrito from QT (that thing has like 1000 calories per serving. He is definitely not doing this fast with me). Here's a sort of recipe:
Pan Fried Tofu with "Asian" sauce
1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
2 1/2 tbl. soy sauce
1 tsp. hoisan
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 thing (um...box?) of firm tofu
1) combine first four ingredients together
2) heat non-stick pan over med-high heat
3) cut tofu into 1/2 inch slices
4) add a little olive oil (i dunno...1 tbl?) into pan and fry tofu, about 2 mins on one side
5) flip tofu and add sauce on top. done!
Tonight, I'm having curried couscous with dried cranberries and nuts. Here's the recipe for that:
Curried Cousous with Dried Cranberries and Nuts
1 cup whole wheat couscous
1 tsp. salt
1 tbl. curry powder
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped onions
3/4 cup pistachios
1) add first four ingredients in a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water. stir and cover tightly, let it sit for 5 mins.
2) give it another stir; add rest of ingredients. done!
So you might now like these, but I do! Aaaannd the best part is, it's both Daniel Fast friendly! WOOHOO!
It's really amazing how your body reacts to a diet change. Actually, it's amazing how my body reacted to the Daniel Fast (can't say I've had this kind of a reaction to any kind of diet change before). Over night, I lost 3lbs. I know that's from water weight, but still! So maybe we are meant to eat just fruits and veggies (actually, I know that's not true. I'm reading Numbers right now, and God pretty much commands his priests to eat some of animal offerings).
Anyways, on the first night of the fast, I had pan fried tofu with a little "Asian" sauce over brown rice and broccoli. It was good! In fact, Andrew liked it and said he could probably have a whole serving of it. Of course, this was said while he was eating his "The Bomb" burrito from QT (that thing has like 1000 calories per serving. He is definitely not doing this fast with me). Here's a sort of recipe:
Pan Fried Tofu with "Asian" sauce
1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
2 1/2 tbl. soy sauce
1 tsp. hoisan
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 thing (um...box?) of firm tofu
1) combine first four ingredients together
2) heat non-stick pan over med-high heat
3) cut tofu into 1/2 inch slices
4) add a little olive oil (i dunno...1 tbl?) into pan and fry tofu, about 2 mins on one side
5) flip tofu and add sauce on top. done!
Tonight, I'm having curried couscous with dried cranberries and nuts. Here's the recipe for that:
Curried Cousous with Dried Cranberries and Nuts
1 cup whole wheat couscous
1 tsp. salt
1 tbl. curry powder
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped onions
3/4 cup pistachios
1) add first four ingredients in a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water. stir and cover tightly, let it sit for 5 mins.
2) give it another stir; add rest of ingredients. done!
So you might now like these, but I do! Aaaannd the best part is, it's both Daniel Fast friendly! WOOHOO!