30 Days as a Vegetarian - Day 26

Day 26 of 30 Days as a Vegetarian.

Today at noon (after lunch) I weighed in at 195.6 lbs, and yet surprisingly my waist measured only 40.5 inches at the widest point.

So compared to 4 days ago (before Valentines) when I weighed 192.4 after breakfast, I have gained 3.2 lbs in 4 days - most of which happened on Valentines with the ridiculous amount of food I ate.

I don't even want to know what my weight was yesterday (Sunday). All I can say is wow. Binging on Valentines really can make a huge difference to your weight.

What is strange however is that this extra weight didn't go to my belly (possibly because it has not yet had time to do so) as my waist is still hovering at 40.5 at the widest point. I am uncertain WHY or WHAT happened, but if my waist hasn't caught up to this sudden weight fluctuation maybe there is hope this is just temporary.

Update: Today I had cereal, veggie soup, mashed potatoes and peas - and a beer closer to the evening.

30 Days as a Vegetarian - Day 24

Day 24 of 30 Days as a Vegetarian.

Okay so technically I am writing this on Day 25 because yesterday was Valentines and I was too busy to have time to write it.

And honestly I am not even going to check my weight today. I am just going to try ignore everything that I ate on Valentines as it was a lot...

Friday I had cereal, soup and a veggie burger.

Saturday (Valentines) I had:

1. [Breakfast] Cereal + green tea.
2. [Snack] Hot Chocolate from Tim Hortons (while visiting the Toronto Archery Range).
3. [Lunch] All you can eat Chinese food (vegetarian items only), many of which were deep fried.
4. [Snack] Chocolate.
5. [Supper] Grilled Cheese, Fries, Nachos and roughly 2.5 beers at a pub.
6. [Snack] More chocolate.

By the time I went to bed last night I felt like a beached whale and "so full I might burst".

Hopefully if I play my cards right that Valentines food binge will likely be meaningless by the time Monday rolls around. Eating all that food yesterday for Valentines seems to have resulted in a deflated appetite today. We shall see when I weigh in on Monday (tomorrow).

Update - I did go to an event on Sunday where I had a plate of fries (it was the only thing vegetarian on the menu) and a beer. I didn't feel hungry that day and was probably still on a sugar high from Valentines.

30 Days as a Vegetarian - Day 22

Day 22 of 30 Days as a Vegetarian.

Weighed in after breakfast at 192.4, waist at widest point is now 40.5 inches. Huzzah!

For lunch I will be trying something new soup wise, using a lot of chick peas. It will be similar to my old 2013 post titled How to Make a Hearty Vegetable Soup in a Jiffy.

Later tonight I am going to an event (again at 7 West) and will be trying something other than their veggie burger (which was horrible the last time I was there).

Nothing else new to report at this time.

Update - I had the grilled cheese sandwich, a salad and a Guinness. I have determined that grilled cheese, while not very healthy, tasted waaaaaaaaaay better than that horrid veggie burger I had last time at 7 West. I should have taken a photograph of the sandwich and the salad, but I forgot so I will just use a clipart example instead.

30 Days as a Vegetarian - Day 20

Today is Day 20 of 30 Days as a Vegetarian.

Yesterday I had leftover pancakes and veggie stew to eat. This morning I had cereal, I will be having soup for lunch and later today I will be having a veggie burger (like I do every Tuesday and Friday) at Johnny Rockets.

Weighed in this morning at 192.8, waist at widest point is still 41 inches.

I have concluded that my food options as a vegetarian are very boring. I have started searching through recipe books / vegetarian websites looking for recipes that are healthy that I would actually like.

Unfortunately recipe books written for vegetarians seem to think wheat grass can be added to anything and ignores the possibility that most grocery stores don't even sell wheat grass. (And have you ever tasted wheat grass? Yuck!)

Thus what I have started doing is looking through mainstream recipe books (like America's Test Kitchen) and looking for examples of things that are healthy / vegetarian.

Many of the things in some of these cookbooks are quite complicated to make and it occurs to me that I am actually really horrible in the kitchen at anything that doesn't involve meat, pasta or cookies*.

* Mostly because my mother was absolutely amazing at making cookies, squares, chocolate covered peanut butter balls, etc and that such things rubbed off on me.

Note to Self - Visit grocery store and stock up on various things, I am running low again.

30 Days as a Vegetarian - Day 18

Day 18 of "30 Days as a Vegetarian".

Yesterday I think I ate too much food I probably should not have. Why?

Because I was at the Toronto Sportsmen's Show as part of the Toronto Archery Club. I was there talking to bow makers, hunters, fishermen, camping enthusiasts, etc.

DnD Meats Dried Cured Bacon

With respect to food however the healthiest vegetarian foods I could find at the convention centre was vegetarian pizza from the Pizza Pizza stand and french fries from one of the food stands at the convention centre - which is to say, not very healthy even though they are vegetarian.

There was also venison meat and other meat packages for sale, but I knew that was definitely off limits. eg. I snapped a photo of the D&D Meats Dried Cured Bacon, shown here on the right. It doesn't look very tasty, but I betcha it is if you are a bacon lover like I am. Only 12 more days to go!

And today I fell off the diet wagon a bit because I ended up ordering a vegetarian pizza from Domino's Pizza so we could have a treat while watching The Walking Dead later tonight. So I didn't fall off the veggie wagon, but that pizza was most definitely not healthy. Whether this abundance of high carbs food will have an impact on my weigh in on Tuesday (Day 20) we shall find out then.

My weight this morning, before breakfast was 193.3, so the pizza yesterday may have been offset from the amount of walking around I did at the convention centre. I wouldn't have thought walking around carrying bags of stuff I purchased counted as exercise, but apparently I was wrong. My waist at widest point is still 41 inches.

Below are three of the photos I took while at the Toronto Sportmen's Show. I admit they are totally off topic for the vegetarian theme my current posts are on, but I wanted to share them in case any fellow archery enthusiasts are reading.

My girlfriend and I have been discussing what things I might eat after my 30 Days as a Vegetarian is over. Topics include Korean BBQd samgyopsal, a bacon cheeseburger, fish n chips... I know it is only 12 days away but it feels like longer.

Anywho I am hungry now so I am going to go make some veggie stew.