(Forks Over Knives) - Week #2+

While it is technically within the parameters of "plant-based eating," I'm not sure how much the F/K docs would approve of our not one but two dinners of popcorn and smoothies.

Alex:

Energy Level = 5
Sleep Quality =  6
Exercise = 4
Time Management = 7
Adherence to F/K Plan = 4
Ease of F/K Plan = 5
Participation in Cooking = 7
Joy of Cooking = 5
Joy from Food = 4
Self Image = 5
"Life Snapshot" = 6
Comments: "I don't feel any different. I don't feel any better or any worse."

Jo:
Energy Level =  4
Sleep Quality =  6
Exercise = 2
Time Management = 7
Adherence to F/K Plan = 6 
Ease of F/K Plan =  6
Participation in Cooking = 6
Joy of Cooking = 4
Joy from Food = 5
Self Image = 5
"Life Snapshot" = 4 
Comments: I tend to focus on the ways in which I did NOT follow the F/K plan, even though I technically don't feel that rigid about it. We ate out last week so Alex could have a burger, and there was feta cheese on my hummus plate. I was at a conference for two days last week and ate whatever they provided, which included cream in my coffee, roast beef and cheese slices (both of which were terrible), cheese on a bowl, diet soda, Snickers bites at the movie theater, etc. Today when I desperately wanted a latte they were out of soy milk. We've been using more than "minimal" oil in our cooking, but at least think twice about it, and tend to default to coconut oil, if that is really any better. So I definitely followed the plan less closely than the previous week or so, but not out of cravings or desperation or anything. I still feel like we aren't eating enough veggies, particularly green veggies, and always default to some element of a carb and a protein/fat (nuts, avocado, etc). Also, my skin feels TERRIBLE, whether it's related to recent uptake of soy milk, stress levels, or just plain hormones, I don't know. Also, I haven't exercised very much in the past week, and that always takes a toll on my overall "snap shot" of life. In general, I've been in a serious funk on and off the past several months, and particularly this last week, and I'm sure some part of this effort to overhaul the diet is to see what factors do and do not contribute to my overall wellbeing. Also, I'm still buying/drinking daily lattes with some kind of milk "alternative," ingesting regular dark chocolate (dairy free), and hoarding dried mangoes.

In providing today's ratings and comments, it appears that we forgot we had a fabulous pizza dinner one night, and thoroughly enjoyed our popcorn + smoothie dinners ...

We learned about this salad "recipe" from the Engine-something movie - it's just kale (we buy the pre-washed bag salad because I'm lazy), avocado, and juice from a lemon, mixed all together with your hands to make the avocado more of a creamy dressing consistency.

Here's the recipe for the pizza pictured below, which we actually loved. And not in a "it's okay for vegan" way, but in an all-around way.

Artichoke with tofu, sundried tomato, onion, and kalamata olive pizza.

Today's breakfast - tasted good, but didn't seem to satiate us for long this morning. We ended up at a cafe on our walk to the Village today (where Alex ate a monte cristo sandwich, for the record).

We just bought a polenta load from Trader Joe's and used frozen blueberries.