Meatless Week 4 Recap!

Ah, Week 4, how you taunt me so. 

If you’ll recall, I announced last week that I’d be foregoing both meat and fish going forward.  Yup.  Did that.  Was it hard?  Not moreso than meat.  I did start to crave, of all things, dumplings, but I can fend that off.  Be sure that I’ll be going on a revised Dumpling Tour in a few weeks, though!  I’m getting through this, though again, I’m a little nervous, this time because my blood loss is increasing exponentially and I really don’t look forward to fainting in the middle of anything.  I’m going for a run in a little bit and am a bit hesitant.  Blegh.  I’ll get through this!  I know I will! 

Week 4 is marginally better in terms of what I’m eating, but there were still transgressions insomuch as I ate something that is kind of disgusting or gross or unhealthy.  Still no meat, but … not healthy.  Ah well. 

Saturday, 3/21/09 – Meatless Day 22

breakfast: True Delights roasted cashew bar
lunch: homemade bibimbap, sort of, minus the meat that is usually thrown in there (according to Wiki, it just means mixed rice, so I’m okay for using that name anyway, phew) – I’ll be posting more extensively on this another time.

dinner: 3 slices of New Park pizza
snack: sour cream & onion chips; Froot by the Foot strawberry (I was at my boyfriend’s house; I don’t keep that stuff at home!)

Sunday, 3/22/09 – Meatless Day 23

breakfast: 2 slices of pizza
lunch: 1/2 veggie omelette, home fries with ketchup, 2 slices white toast, 3 cups of coffee (yes. I had caffeine. it was scary and led to…)
dinner: portobello/pepper/onion fajita; portobello parm over spaghetti with roasted broccoli

I actually ran 2 miles in the park on Sunday, went grocery shopping, had breakfast, met up with my best friend for brunch/lunch, and then we went back to the park where I’d run and walked the same trail.  So I was pretty good for exercise at least.  Weekends are harder for me to regulate what I eat than weekdays, for obvious reasons. 

Monday, 3/23/09 – Meatless Day 24

breakfast: 1/2 veggie omelette and home fries
lunch: bento #315; an orange
dinner: bento #316; pretzels

Stupid pretzels.

Tuesday, 3/24/09 – Meatless Day 25

breakfast: Fage yogurt with honey; an orange
lunch: plain congee; 1/2 “cow’s tongue” (it isn’t meat; it’s a pastry shaped like a cow’s tongue)
dinner: giant Fuji apple; bento #317

I met up with Spammy, my new lunch buddy, and we headed to Chinatown to my fave congee spot (which I will NOT be reviewing; it’s crowded enough as it is… and I don’t know many non-Asian people who eat congee.  Unless forced.  Actually, even my BF didn’t have congee when I took him there; he had wonton mein, lol).  Anyway, when we got there, it turns out that 1- there’s no vegetarian congee, although there IS vegetarian mein (sort of; I’m pretty sure everything there is made in the same broth, so meat touches the broth and that’s not strictly vegetarian), the only meatless congees had fish or seafood in them; and 2- the last of the youtiao/yau jha gwai were sitting on the tray so I ran up to the counter to order it – in my experience, this place runs out of them, and they’re done for the day – but someone pushed ahead of me and ordered take out and got it.  Grrr!  So we ordered cow’s tongue instead, even though it’s slightly sweet and texturally different – it’s denser than youtiao, so I felt really bad and kept apologizing to Spammy.  But she didn’t seem to mind.  The bad part was when we were getting up to leave, the lady who sat down next to us… had youtiao!  The lady told me they were sold out, but when this other lady sat down, she got one!  What the fartballs, yo!  Spammy and I just looked at each other with WTF faces but… ah well.  We were done eating.  And our entire bill came to $6, hahaha.  (And yes, I did leave a tip that would make my mother cringe – $3 – she says to me all the time “yau kwai yau gueh” which translates roughly to there’s rhyme and reason or etiquette to these things, and tipping too much is definitely outside that realm.  Whatever.)  So I had plain congee which was still good – I need their method because my congee invariably SUCKS, and when I’m sick, I’d like GOOD congee, damn it! – and cow’s tongue which I don’t really like except very occasionally.  This will last me for a few years. 

Wednesday, 3/25/09 – Meatless Day 26

breakfast: 2 slices whole grain bread toasted with a schmear of cream cheese
lunch: Fuji apple; handful of pretzels
dinner: bento #318

I ran during my lunch hour instead and hit a personal best of 2.51 miles in 30 minutes.  Which I won’t be attempting anymore; I’m capping myself at 2.5 because I didn’t feel that great afterwards.  I felt elation at getting it so high, but then slightly sick from pushing myself so hard.  And my midterm was that night, too. 

Happy birthday FeistyMom!

Thursday, 3/26/09 – Meatless Day 27

breakfast: Fage yogurt with honey… and some Chex mixed in.  It was GOOD.
lunch: bento #319; more Chex mix
dinner: eggs scrambled with shredded broccoli & cheese; portobello/pepper/onion mixture; sour cream

my own personal “this is why you’re fat” – yes, that is sour cream and I ate it all

Friday, 3/27/09 – Meatless Day 28

breakfast: one slice whole grain toast schmeared with cream cheese; one slice whole grain toast with butter
lunch: Fuji apple (and a run); Chex Mix
dinner: two big bowls of spaghetti with marinara and loads of cheese ;X
snack: chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels (Trader Joe’s… these are sooo good!)

So as you can see, not too bad.  I still ate well.  Don’t know if I’d want to live eating like this though – so restrictive!  Part of how I was able to do much better though, of course, was due to planning and proper grocery shopping beforehand – I had the bread and yogurt I needed for breakfast.  I had the makings of lunches and dinners and everything.  Great example of how properly planning out my week in food really helped keep me on track… minus those transgressions with munchies but at least I stuck to what I’m supposed to be doing. 

Happy eating!!!

But wait… why am I going meatless?
Week 1 recap
Week 2 recap
Week 3 recap