Day 30

30 day trial officially completed.  Woo woo!

Here’s how day 30 went.

Breakfast:

Good ol oatmeal, almond milk, and fruits.

Lunch:

Lentils still around so I add them to my brown rice and broccoli.

Snack:

A quick mocha protein shake with almond milk.

Dinner:

End the night with some more lentils and brown rice.

Review:

Nothing crazy about day 30. All standard meals.

But I’m glad I was able to finish this trial.  I’ll do a separate post about my overall thoughts and experience of going through with the trial.  Right now I got to plan for partying up the New Year 🙂

Day 29

Quick update on Day 29.  Here we go…

Breakfast:

Oats, almond milk, and fruits.

Cooking:

Made some lentil and spinach again. It’s so easy to make and tastes pretty good.  I’d be a fool not to make it.

Lunch/Dinner

Kept it pretty simply with lentils, brown rice, and brussel sprouts.

Snack:

Had a late night avocado toast snack.

Review:

Nothing major to report.  Everything be copacetic. Day 30 next.  Let’s finish strong.

Day 28

28 days later and here we are.  So far it’s been better than the movie 🙂

Here’s a look back at day 28.

Breakfast:

Starting off with breakfast oatmeal bowl with almond milk and fruits.

Workout:

Went to the gym and did the following exercises:

• Squat Leg press
• Bench Press
• Pull Ups

Felt a bit tired so don’t think I pushed myself.  I don’t think this has anything to do with Vegan diet.  Just an off day.

Post Workout:

Finished off the workout with a protein mocha shake and banana.

Lunch:

Some good old chickpea curry, brown rice and brussel sprouts.

Dinner

Went out to dinner with friends and had a vegetarian enchilada with some brussel sprouts and potato and cilantro.

This was surprisingly tasty and I should have ordered 2 more 🙂

My friend couldn’t finish her Seitan taco……Azmat to the rescue.

Almost Dessert:

Our table ordered some Tres Leches. It was very tempting….

I didn’t eat it but man it looked good. I did scoop up all those strawberry sides.  So at least I got something.

I guess I have to look for vegan version of this.  

Review:

Another day in the books.  I feel like I have a basic routine down in terms of which foods I like to eat.  When I go out I’m not worried that I won’t find an option. I guess I never really looked at non-meat options before but now I’m actively look for them and usually find something for entrees and appetizers.  Not that lucky with desserts though. But I guess I don’t get diabetes….so win?

I’ll put the intention out there for the universe to bring me a tasty vegan dessert.  Let’s see what Day 29 brings.

Day 27

Day 27 was fun and now it’s done. Spent most of the day outside in the cold NYC walking around central park and window shopping. Nothing beats winter in NYC 🙂

Here’s how yesterday went.   

Breakfast:

Oatmeal, almond milk and fruits.

Snack:

Some leftover banana muffins.

Lunch:

Went to a ramen place called Ippudo  in NYC. It’s one of the best places to get Ramen.

Started off with an eggplant bun.

Next ordered a Vegan ramen that used tofu noodles.

I’ve been here before and did not have the vegan option that time. I think this ramen did not have as much flavor as the non-vegan ramens I had before. However it still was pretty tasty so I didn’;t regret getting it.

Dinner:

Closed off evening with lentils and spinach, brown rice, and brussel sprouts.

Review:

I spent most of my day in the city away from my usual prepared food.  I didn’t actively seek out vegan places so it was a bit of a challenge to finding something to eat on the menu. But it was still doable so I’m glad I didn’t have to make any compromises.

Maybe next time I’ll actually go to a vegan place and see what they have to offer 🙂

Day 26

Day 26 was pretty good.  Here’s how it went.

Breakfast:

Start off strong with some oatmeal and avocado toast.

Cooking:

Decided to cook something simple: lentils and spinach.

This came out surprisingly tasty and so simple to make.  Just fry onions, add some garlic paste and lentils and just let it cook.  While it cooks make spinach separately and add in some cumin powder. So simple even I could follow it 🙂

Baking:

My friend Alyssia was kind enough to make a vegan cooking video for me so I now had to do my part and follow through.

The recipe was pretty straightforward.  I made some small adjustments like using almond flour instead of white flour.  And we were off.

While the muffins bakes I kept my self occupied by finishing off the leftover batter

Why throw this away?  Someone should just sell this ala Seinfeld Muffin Tops.

30 minutes later….

Bam.  Look at those tasty treats.

These came out so good.  Very light fluffy and tasty.  I was eating them and thinking man I can’t believe I made something which actually tastes good.  Now I can’t to make them again and try other vegan recipes.

Sad part is I will probably gain so much weight eating these now haha.  Winter’s bulking season right?

Dinner:

Closed off dinner with some leftover chickpeas.

Don’t worry chickpeas I have not forgotten about you.  You know you’re my first vegan love

Review:

Lots of cooking today but it wasn’t that bad.  The recipes were simple and I had most of the ingredients.  It was encouraging to see how tasty meals may not require as much energy and time as I initially thought.  Even if I wasn’t vegan I’d still enjoy these meals. So that’s a good sign.

Now I just have to find more recipes and have Alyssia make more videos 🙂

Day 25

Here’s how my Vegan Xmas went…

Lunch:

Didn’t eat till much later in the day so went straight for lunch.

Chickpea, brown rice and brussel sprouts

Snack:

Decided to have my usual breakfast as a snack

Oatmeal, almond milk and fruits.

Snack 2:

It’s xmas.  Why stop at one snack.

Always room for avocado toast.

Dinner:

Close off the evening with more chickpeas, brown rice, and brussel sprouts with some festive holiday mats 🙂

Review:

Christmas meals were pretty straightforward.  Nothing special. But maybe next time I’ll make some yummy holiday themed desserts.  

Twas the day before xmas and my vegan-nes was still stirring

Here’s how day 24 went….

Breakfast:

Oatmeal, almond milk, and fruit.

Snack:

When I drive I pop on my audible and drink my protein shake.

Cooking:

Decided to make some roasted cauliflower

Spiced it up with cayenne, turmeric, black pepper, soy sauce, and lemon.  Came out pretty decent.

Dinner:

Went out for dinner and got a vegan burger with some spicy okra.

Dessert:

Christmas eve means movie night and something sweet.

Some nice coconut ice cream and a couple of pieces of cocoa nutmeg chocolate.  Yum.

Review:

Simple day with some quickie meals.  Ain’t nothing wrong with that 🙂

Day 23

Quick update on how day 23 went…

Breakfast:

Oatmeal, almond milk, frozen fruits and ground flax seeds.

Lunch:

Chickpea curry, brown rice, and asparagus.

Snack:

Avocado toast.

Dinner:

Chickpea curry and brown rice.

Late night snack:

Some well earned dessert.  It tasted pretty light and I only had a few spoons.  This took a bit of self control for as I have a sweet tooth and I can usually devour gallons of ice cream .

Review:

Pretty straight forward day.  Only thing I had to “prepare” was the avocado toast (which is obviously pretty easy).

Smooth sailing so far.  See ya’ll tomorrow.

Day 22

Week 4 has officially started.  Let’s review it’s humble beginnings…

Breakfast

Starting off strong with some avocado toast and some leftover tofu scramble.  Don’t remember exactly when I made this. Probably 2-3 days ago. Still good right ?  🙂

Snack:

Mocha protein shake.

Lunch/Dinner

Chickpea curry, brown rice, and asparagus.  Gotta get my vitamins on.

Review:

Week 4 off to a good start.  Kept it simple and lean. Going to have to cook something again tomorrow.  Hopefully I finish off the last trial week in deliciousness.

See you tomorrow tasty treats.

Day 21

Week 3 is over.  My Vegan trial is now old enough to drink.  Let’s see how it went on day 21…

Breakfast:

Workout day so I gots to load up on my carbs.  Had myself a nice bowl of oats, almond milk, and fruits.

Workout:

• Leg Press
• Squat
• Pull Ups
• Basketball

Felt like I had good energy today and was able to get a solid workout and pickup game.

Post Workout:

Got my banana and a mocha protein in my Liberty Mutual sports drink bottle.  Yay free promotion swag.

Cooking:

Had to cook today so I made an indian chickpea curry.

Ended up having this for both lunch and dinner with some brown rice and brussel sprouts.

Fried some onions and mixed in some cayenne pepper, turmeric, ginger/garlic paste, tomatoes to make the gravy.  After that just had to put in some canned chickpeas and let them cook. I was worried about having too much sodium in the canned chickpeas so this time I made sure I washed them a bit before adding them to the pot.

This turned out to be quite tasty dish.  So I think this will be in future rotations.

Review:

Felt like week 3 went by pretty quickly.  Must be because of all the holiday stuff. Only 1 week left.  Let’s finish strong. Vegan Power!

Day 20:

Day 20 done and done. Here’s how it went…

Breakfast:

Oatmeal, almond milk, ground flax seeds and some frozen fruits.  Quick and dirty. Just how I like it.

Grocery Shopping:

Had to stock up from trader joe’s

Total bill $89.93.

Lunch/Dinner:

I was planning on cooking some tofu red curry but they didn’t have any.  Was getting late in the day so I figured I just order take out.

Ordered some yellow tofu curry.

This meal was a bit weird.  This is usually one of my favorite dishes with chicken.  However, the taste with tofu just didn’t do it for me. For one the tofu tasted very spongey  A little disappointed by this one.

Fortunately I added some in some Asparagus, Avocado, and Cucumber sushi with brown rice to the order.

Thankfully this saved my day 🙂

Snack:

Closed off the day with a nice cold mocha protein shake.

Review:

Still trying to nail down which foods to add in the rotation.  So far lentils and chickpea meals have tasted the best. Haven’t really figured out how to make a good tofu meal (besides my tofu scramble for breakfast).

Will have to look more into more diverse recipes to try out.  

Day 19

Another day in the books. Here’s how it went…

Breakfast:

Made some tofu scramble with lots of spinach.  

Was going to eat it plain but decide to sandwich it up.

It was a workout day so decided to carb up with some oats, fruits, and almond milk

Workout:

Lifts:

Leg press

Back Row

Shoulder Press

And some basketball.

Lifts stayed pretty much the same as before.  Will have to push myself harder next time. Gotta get them gains.

Post Workout:

A protein shake.

Dinner:

Leftover tofu scramble with brown rice and roasted cauliflower.

Review:

Pretty uneventful day.  Didn’t feel like cooking but since my previous tofu curry meal didn’t pan out I had to make something quickly.  Fortunately tofu scramble is pretty easy for me now that I have most of the stuff prepared ahead of time.

Will have to find something else to eat tomorrow.  Might be takeout day. One day at a time I guess. See you tomorrow future meal.

Day 18

Here’s how day 18 went….

Breakfast:

Avocado toast with some Sriracha for some spiciness.

Cooking:

So I had to finally cook something today.  I decided to go for something simple: chickpea salad.

Had a few cans lying around and figured it wouldn’t require a lot of ingredients.

Step 1 : How NOT to Mash the chickpeas.

This turned out to be more difficult than I initially thought.  Started off with a fork and wasn’t making much progress. I realized I probably needed one of those stone bowls and smashers.  Sadly I did not have one.

But fear not I got the next best thing….a jar of Nescafe coffee.

Some beautiful mashed chickpeas.  Next stop Top Chef.

Next I added some avocados, lime, tomatoes, salt and pepper and Voila….

A good ol fashion chickpea sandwich.

It got a bit thick once I closed it.  Me thinks I added too much chickpea to contain in one sandwich.

But oh well. At least it was filling.  

This ended up being my lunch and dinner.

Snack:

Closed off the night with some mocha protein shake.  Yum.

More cooking:

The chickpea sandwich was going to only last me one night so I decided to cook some tofu red curry.

I don’t have the skills to make this yet so I decided to use a premade curry from Trader Joe’s.

Everything was looking and smelling good.  I was going to have food to eat tomorrow which might actually taste great.  Vegan life was looking good.

Alas it was short lived.

AFTER I already cooked my meal I decided to take a peak at the nutrition label and ingredient list.

Holy high sodium batman.

I guess I expected high sodium from premade curries but this was ridiculously high.  Especially considering since the recommended daily amount is 2500. I’d easily surpass that with one meal!

I probably would have been fine with it for this one meal but I also noticed it had some cholesterol.  That seemed odd since it should not be using animal products. What gives red curry?

Turns out egg yolks is one of the ingredients.  Well that sucks.

So I made some semi tasty red curry which I cannot have because it has too much sodium and some animal ingredients.  Another fun adventure in cooking.

Review

Overall I guess I can’t complain.  I made a decent chickpea sandwich. Will have to test some things out to improve the flavor.

As for the red curry I should check the labels next time before buying.  That or I should learn to cook. I guess we’ll find out if my laziness will overpower healthy eating.   Let’s see….

Day 17

And the working week has begun.  I feel bad for people with jobs 🙂

Here’s how Day 17 went.

Breakfast:

Oats, almond milk, and fruits.  Quick and delish.

Workout:

Gym day.  Here were my workouts:

• Leg Press
• Bench
• Pull Up Assist

Bench went slightly down in terms of reps.  But pull ups getting better. Guess my back stronger than my pecs.  Gotta even those babies out.

Post Workout:

My go to mocha protein shake.

Lunch

Daal, brown rice, and brussel sprouts

Dinner:

Daal, brown rice, and cauliflower.  And you thought I was predictable. Shame on you 🙂 

Review:

Another vegan day in the books.  My daal is finished now so I actually have to cook now.  So lazy but I do like to eat so I guess I should get on it.  Hopefully it comes out edible. See you tomorrow “food”.

Day 16

Here’s how day 16 went…

Breakfast:

Started the day off with some almonds and cashews.

Tofu scramble with peppers, peas, avocado toast and sriracha.  This baby’s real easy to make since I have all the peppers and onions precut.

Lunch/Dinner:

Daal, brown rice, and brussel sprouts.  This seems to be my go to meal when I don’t know what to eat.  So far I haven’t gotten tired of it.

Snack:

Mixed up some frozen spinach, banana, and cashews with almond milk in the blender.  It came out kind with a slushy texture which made it feel like it was almost dessert.  Still haven’t quite nailed the ratio of ingredients down but adding the cashews did make it better.

Review:

Another lazy Sunday so just ate what was easiest to make.  Will have to cook something this week so the hunt is on. I’ll try to cook some “non” daal meals 🙂 .

Day 6:

Breakfast:

My usual tofu scramble with some avocado toast.  Yea I’m millennial baller now.

Prep:

I ran out of some pre-cut ingredients today so I decided to make a small batch of chopped onions and red bell peppers for future breakfast meals.

Lunch/Dinner:

Chickpea curry season is over. So I had to cook.  I took a stab and made some daal and had it precooked frozen brown rice from trader joes.  Having this brown rice ready to go make things easy. Just pop it into the microwave and enjoy the healthiness.

The daal came out ok.  It was a bit mushy for my taste.  It was also missing something. What’s the technical culinary term…..flavor.

Definitely not how mom used to make it.

I’ve asked my mom to show me how she cooks and whenever I observe her she makes it look so simple.  Yet I always mess up. The woman’s a sorceress.

To make up for the lack of flavor I added more salt.  Better but still lots of room for improvement.

Good thing I made 3 cups of it to last me the week.  Live and learn man.

Snack:

A nice cold mocha protein shake for the hard days of cooking.  

Review:

Today was a bit of challenge since I didn’t have any stuff prepared.  Cutting up the veggies and having some “delicious” daal for the next few days should give me some room to try new recipes and make improvements.

First road bump but nothing too bad.  See ya soon Day 7.

I’m on a 5 day winning streak.  Crushing it.

Here’s how day 5 went:

Breakfast:

Good ol muesli bowl with almond milk and frozen fruit from Costco.  I usually make this the night before and have it ready to go in the morning.   A tasty way to start the day.

 

I was missing a warm meal for breakfast so I just quickly warmed up some toast and added some hummus.  Simple and tasty. Just how I like it.

Workout:

Today was a workout day.  Here’s what I did

• Leg Press
• Back Rows
• Shoulder Press

Overall my energy level was fine.  I haven’t really noticed any difference in my energy since switching to a Vegan Diet.  Maybe once my Vegan powers are fully developed I will be benching like a boss.

Post Workout:

Quick post workout protein shake and banana

 

Lunch and Dinner:

 

Had some chickpea curry and veggies for dinner.  Must say this is probably the most greens I’ve seen consistently put on my plate.  Mom would be so proud.

This was my last batch of chickpea so I will finally have to cook my next meal.  All good things must come to an end I guess.

Review:

The past 5 days have been pretty straightforward.  I had meals prepared eat so I simply ate them. Nothing too complicated or difficult to follow.

At this point I may even be feeling arrogant that man I got this.  It’s too easy.

Cut the scene I’m chasing chickens around like Rocky.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Bring on Day 6.

Another day another update.

What I ate:

Breakfast:

Tofu scramble with peas, onions, red bell peppers, kale, broccoli and whole wheat toast.  I seasoned the tofu with cayenne peppers, turmeric, black pepper, and salt. Added a drizzle of Sriracha for a bit of spice.  

Snack:

A quick protein shake using Vegan Mocha Protein almond milk and flax seeds.  This usually satisfies my cravings to have some chocolatey dessert.

Dinner:

 

Lentil soup.  Nothing fancy.

 

Chickpea curry with some asparagus and vegetable medley from trader joes.

Really getting some mileage out of the chickpea curry batch I made.  It’s almost done so will have to eventually cook. Oh the horror.

 

Review:

Another fine day.  So far I’ve not felt any urges to try meat or have any close calls.  It feels pretty normal.

Maybe it’s good I anticipated this trial to be really difficult so I could over prepare.  For example I bought premade vegan snacks and identified vegan dishes I could order from nearby restaurants. So far I’ve not had to break my “ In case of Vegan emergency” glass.  Fingers crossed.

 

Moving on…..

What I ate today…

Breakfast:

Muesli bowl with almond milk, flax seeds, blueberries and raspberries

Red pepper hummus with whole wheat toast

Exercise:

Did some weightlifting:

• Leg press
• Bench Press
• Pull ups

Post Workout:

Had a quick Vegan mocha protein shake with flax seeds

Chickpea curry with brussel sprouts

Dinner:

Same as lunch but added a bit more greens

Shopping:

Went vegan shopping at trader joe’s.  Here’s what $98.77 gets you 🙂

Got some Vegan must haves like:

• Cashews
• Almonds
• White kidney beans
• Avocados
• Yams
• Extra firm Tofu

I included some emergency snacks like pre-made tofu with sriracha sauce.

Also got some Pea protein powder to further increase my protein intake.  Not sure if this brand is good but I just grabbed it.

Review:

Day 3 went fine.  So far I haven’t really seen any major issues.  I had already prepared the chickpea curry a day or two ago so it was good just to pop it in the microwave.

Food prep is going to be the hardest challenge so I need to make sure I build some positive cooking habits. My plan right now is to cook/food shop on days when I don’t workout.  I think that should be a good enough to start with.

 

So far so good 🙂

Today was a relatively light day.  Here’s what I ate:

Protein shake:

This is quick shake I made using Vega Mocha Protein powder, almond milk and some flax seeds.

Lunch:

I had a quinoa burger

I met up with a friend of mine who was visiting from out of town. He suggested we try out a Vegan restaurant in NYC called Terri.  He also recently switched from being a vegetarian to being a vegan and recommended we check it out. We both ordered the quinoa burger (though he got a gluten free wrap).

I thought the burger tasted pretty good.  It was like eating a regular beef burger but much lighter.  I probably could have substituted a healthier bread option but I was hungry and just ordered the default option.

Dinner:

For dinner I just had some lentil soup.

Snack:

I usually eat more when I’m home. But since I was out I couldn’t eat my normal amount.  I ate a small amount of dark chocolate from Vietnam.

It tasted a bit sour compared to the regular milk chocolate but nothing I can’t enjoy.  If I can be Vegan and enjoy some dessert treats I’ll be very happy 🙂

Adjusting Diet

My plan going into this whole vegan experiment was to rely primarily on tofu to get my protein.  I figured it’s the equivalent of how I ate chicken. It’s high protein, low fat and low carbs and can be pretty much mixed in with anything from rice to salads.

However, my friend warned me not to overdo it with soy because it can raise the estrogen level in men.

I’ll have to read into this a bit more to see of how realistic is this concern and if it’s scientifically backed.

Regardless, the main message was to diversify my protein sources.

He also suggested I add in some asparagus and vitamin b12 to make up for the most common deficiencies in a Vegan diet.  So I’ll try to include these going forward.

Some ethical considerations

Even though my friend is Vegan he shared with me that he still eats mussels as a source of protein.  That seemed odd since being Vegan means eating no animal products.

Apparently there are other types of vegans out there….ostrovegans.  To my knowledge ostrovegans follow all the vegan guidelines but include oysters and mussels into their diet.  The main rationale being these creates lack a central nervous system and simply do not feel the pain to the same degree as mammals and other living creatures do.  

To my friend their closer to being plants than animals.

He explained he chose to adopt a Vegan lifestyle for strictly ethical reasons.  He did not want to cause any animal suffering. And he believes the being an ostrovegan fits in with the spirit of what it means to be a Vegan.

I don’t know enough about this to form an educated opinion.  But it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the subject.

Review:

I thought today would have been tough since I didn’t know where I was going to eat but it turned out just fine.

On to Day 3..

Yesterday was the first day of my Vegan 30 day trial and it went pretty smoothly.

Here’s what I ate:

Breakfast:

Tofu scramble with whole wheat toast

I cooked a nice tofu scramble breakfast to start replacing the eggs I used to have.  I used one pack of tofu mixed with some spices and seasoning like turmeric, red pepper, black pepper and salt.  Added some chopped yellow onions, red bell peppers, kale and some nutritional yeast to give it a bit of a cheesy flavor.

Overall this was a light and nutritious meal that has almost 40g protein.

The annoying part right is now the prep.  I have to drain the tofu which is different but nothing too bad.  I thought I had to completely drain it (which would take a couple of hours).  But it looks like most people simply let the pan dry out the water. That’s a relief.

The other prep work I have to do is to precut the onions and red peppers so I can simply toss things in without spending too much time in getting things ready.

Lunch:

Chickpea curry

This was a pretty basic dish to make.  I followed this recipe.

But since I eat a lot and don’t want to spend everyday cooking I decided to increase the serving size to 4.

I made this dish before and thought it was delicious.  This time however it was less impressive and that could be because my ingredients weren’t portioned properly.  Will experiment with this but at least I have 2 days of chickpeas.

Quick Snack:

Carrots with Hummus.

Snacking will be an area I need to improve on in case I get emergency needs to eat something non vegan.  Having carrots with hummus is pretty simple and straightforward. It’s also yummy.

Dinner:

Sushi – Avocado, Asparagus, Cucumber with brown rice

For dinner I went out with my friends.  I told them I will be eating Vegan food only for the net 30 days so we decided to go to a sushi place.

I don’t want to become one of those people who make it more difficult for their friends to find places to eat.  I was already a picky eater but now I’ve added the Vegan layer to it.

So far no problems and I don’t expect this to be a major issue for now.

Review

Overall my first vegan day went fine.  I’ve done a a full vegan day here and now so it wasn’t anything new.  Just have to repeat the process and optimize a few things like having recipes and food prepared in good quantity.

Let’s see how Day 2 goes.