vegan lovin'

I love being vegan. It's only been 4 days, but its wonderful. I'm having so much fun. There are definitely negative parts, so after my one month, I'm probably going to put a few not vegan things back in my diet, but at this point, I don't miss meat or dairy all that much. I miss honey in my herbal tea the most. And since I'm doing vegan for health and weight loss rather than animals, I don't think it's a big deal to use honey. I've also started taking a shit ton of vitamins. And they rock. 

My vitamins:

-ace (it's a weigh loss herbal combo)

-vitamin B12

-b complex

-vitamin c 

-vitamin d

-st. johns wart 

-black cohash

-this Chinese lung stuff 

-biotin

-fish oil

I've been drinking a detox herbal tea every morning and drinking fresh green juice at some point during the day. The only hard part is when I'm out and hungry and would rather just go grab a burger at McDonald's than going home and making something healthy and organic. the weight loss herb is really helping me with not being hungry or needing caffeine. Thank goodness. My husband and I bought a love seat recliner yesterday and the women who sold it to us asked me when the baby was due. I'm not pregnant. Yikes. Yikes. Damn. :/ 

I'm so thankful I have such a loving sweet husband who loves my curves. Since I've been planning and started this vegan deal, he tells me all the time that I'm not allowed to get real skinny because he won't have anything to cuddle and hold onto. :P  

So enough about my personal problems, lets talk food. I'd never eaten tofu before this experience. On Thursday, August 1st, my first day of being vegan, I made vegan chili. I had been wanting chili recently and hadn't gotten around to making it before I made the change. I found some ground not beef (soy beans, etc) made by the veg company Boca. I also got vegan sour cream and vegan cheese shreds. I made some homemade Fritos to go with it. 

  

Let me tell you this right now, vegan cheese is GREAT. I love cheese and thought I could never live without it, but the vegan alternative sure works for me. 

Last night Kevin and I made a big fancy meal. Teriyaki tofu. Firm tofu cut into chunks and marinated in teriyaki sauce. Fried rice with tons of veggies. And some awesome pot stickers filled with portobello mushrooms, avocado, and silken tofu. 

Today we had a major cleaning day. We got that new love seat yesterday, so we had to do some living room cleaning, major kitchen cleaning, and too tons of laundry. I ran the dishwasher twice and Kevin did like five loads of laundry. I also baked bread. Lots of bread. I had two kinds rising at the same time. I wanted to use the rest of the portobello mushrooms in the fridge for burgers, but we didn't have buns. I found a recipe on Pinterest for this cool loaf bread that I had blueberries and strawberries in it. Since I wanted to make that anyways, I figured I could make my own vegan friendly buns. 

I found the bun recipe here:

http://thehealthyfamilyandhome.com/how-to-make-homemade-vegan-hamburger-buns/

It was awesome!! It uses almond milk, flaxseed, and coconut oil. The bread was fluffy and plain ole' beautiful. 

Gorgeous, aren't they?

As for the loaf of bread, the recipe came from here: 

http://www.veganricha.com/2013/07/strawberry-blueberry-bread-loaf-vegan.html?m=1

I haven't tried it yet, but I think it will be good. 

As for dinner, we had portobello burgers, baked fries, and corn on the cob. 

New month, new me.

Where do I begin? I quit no poo, if you've been reading my blog lately. I'm using an organic shampoo for black people and a leave in organic olive oil conditioner. The split ends of my hair were getting worse and worse with the no poo, so I stopped and got my hair cut for the first time in over a year and a half. She had to cut a lot because my hair was so ridiculously broken at the bottoms. It feels wonderfully healthy now! 

I really miss my looooong hair, but I know it will grow back soon enough. 

In other news, I am trying out veganism for the month of August. I am also trying to be more intentional with God. I am going vegan for health, NOT animal rights. I would like to lose 50-60 lbs. In late November, me, my husband, and his family are going to Orlando to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I want to look and feel good by then. 

Coconut oil fail.

I have dry hair. Even with not using shampoo, it doesn't get very oily. I read a post I found on Pinterest about coconut oil hair masks and how awesome it is for your hair. She totally convinced me. Especially since she is no-poo and gave tips on not using baking soda and ACV, but using Castile soap to remove the oil. 

So last night before bed, I massaged coconut oil into my hair. I combed it in and wrapped my hair in Saran Wrap and a tshirt. I went to sleep and got up early to shower it out. I washed it probably 4 times with Castile soap. It felt pretty oily still, but I was hoping that it would dry clean and shiny. 

It didn't. 

 

It was gross. Extremely crunchy. And even more gross. I have never used hair products. I've tried to use curl spray and stuff, but I don't like the way my hair looks or feels. I think my hair today was like greasy super full of product hair. I couldn't handle it. So I got back in the shower when I got back home. 

I tried Castile soap again. Not happening. The oil was just repelling the soap. It would get foamy, but not remove the oil. So I surrendered to my old shampoo. :/ 

I had to. It stripped it. Then I rinsed it with ACV. It looks lovely now. The ends are still a little crunchy. I just had Kevin feel it and he says it is like hay. I think it's because my ends are dead. I have more split ends than mystery stories. (That was a lame analogy, but its all I got). I haven't had my hair cut in probably 18 months or more. I trimmed it myself about 6 months ago, but not enough to actually cut the dead hair. I'm going to do something about it soon, but I just looooove how long it's gotten and don't want it to be shorter. 

And check out my new glasses!! I'm in love with them! 

Itchy.

Today (friday) my hair looked great. It was frizzy, but that's normal. I washed it yesterday with baking soda & apple cider vinegar for the third time since I began. My hair had gotten really greasy in the roots before I washed it. It still looked decent and wasn't too noticeable, but the top felt kind of gross. 

Tonight however, my scalp is super itchy. I'm guessing I must have used too much baking soda. I poured an extra bit into the water mixture that I already had prepared because my hair felt so greasy. I'm assuming that it was a mistake now. All I want to do is get in the shower and wash the crap out of my hair, but I think I need to wait it out. 

In other news, I'm trying to remember to take fish oil and biotin everyday to make my hair grow longer and stronger. I'm horrible at being consistent when it comes to vitamins. I picked up some Chinese herbal capsules at the health food store today for respiratory health. My lungs suck, so maybe I can make myself a schedule or something to help me to take all the various vitamins I'm trying to get into my system. I need to get something new to help me sleep also. Because well, it's 5:39am and I'm not tired. I was tired at midnight when i got into bed, but still haven't fallen asleep. I even got up and cuddled with my kitten and watched tv for a while, but here I am, still wide eyed. 

Tylenol pm makes me sleep, but I'd rather be taking something natural and melatonin doesn't cut it for this gal. I'm jealous of my husband so peacefully sleeping next to me. Speaking of my husband, I'm going to snuggle into his arms and try to fall asleep again. Goodnight... Or good morning, as it is almost 6am. :)

I was born a hippie.

From the womb, I have had hippie roots. My dad and mom met working at concert venues in Atlanta with bands like the Rolling Stones and Madonna. They had long hair and rode horses bareback. My mom never taught me to apply makeup because she doesn't wear it. I followed my friends when shaving legs and armpits. My parents don't think pot is a drug.  I was raised by hippies, and now that I'm almost 22, it's time to embrace the good parts. 

Today I stopped using shampoo. It's a viral thing to do among organic gurus. It's nickname is "no-poo". Instead of shampoo, I am now using baking soda. For conditioner, apple cider vinegar. I've read tons of blogs on it and decided that it is for me. One of my favorite parts of my body is my long, extremely thick,  brown curly hair. I get compliments on it all the time. I've spend the last three years growing it out after a high school/freshman year of college crisis of cutting it extremely short. Growing it was a grueling process at times, but it is more beautiful than ever. My hair is very natural. It has never been dyed. It hasn't been cut in probably 18 months aside from me trimming some split ends. I only wash it a couple times a week. I have never owned a hair dryer. I don't use hair products. So for me, going no-poo seems like the most natural thing to do. Why put shampoo and conditioner in my hair when I don't use any other chemicals in it? Why not let it get to its natural state? 

Because I found so much help in reading blogs to decide to go no-poo, I've decided that I will document my process on this blog. :) 

We'll see if it really is worth it to toss hair products and take the natural road. I'm excited. 

Now I'm going to post some pictures of the evolution of my hair. Maybe in a year it will be better than ever! 

Long hair doll. 

Short hurrrr. 

Last summer. 

Now. 

It's been far too long

I should write about my life since its been a year that I last posted on here.  However I need time to write creatively and that I don't have. Alas, I am starting a new project that I would like to document, so I'm going to *try* to post on here and I'm sure in time I'll get you up to date on the wonderful year that I've had. :) 

I should mention that this might turn into a more hippie blog...