Vegetarian-Vegan Challenge: Day 1

Today, I woke up and decided to start on my goal of eating half the week vegan/vegetarian. I always feel sluggish when I eat meat. I like the taste of meat, but I hate the feeling I have after I eat meat. Today, I felt wonderful all day! Today I did vegetarian. I didn't have any soy milk or cheese this morning, so I went vegetarian today. I had some hot chocolate that I didn't finish last night for breakfast this morning. My hot chocolate has milk in it. I had a glass (mason jar) of milk, some apple slices and wheat toast with all natural peanut butter butter on it. It was just enough breakfast for me. 
It was pretty tasty too! It kept me full for a long time too! I made my garlic facial mask, and then made some lunch. I was kind of stumped on what to make for lunch. I saw that we had bagels and cream cheese. I knew that I had a cucumber and I got the idea to make cream cheese cucumber sandwiches. They were so delicious. I spent time and made all my meals today. I felt accomplished today! I added some more cucumber to the side and some baby carrots. I had them in a pretty design at first, but they kept rolling around. :(  So, lunch was very tasty. I blogged about my garlic face mask, and then got ready to do some yoga. I want to start making it an every other day thing.  Freshmen year, I bought a yoga mat from my school. I was taking a yoga class, and they ordered a big shipment of yoga mat material. I bought my yoga mat for $10. It stayed at home. I use it when I do yoga at home. I don't take the yoga class anymore, but I would love to take a yoga class again, like at a community center. I do know of this place has it free for teenagers on Sunday. It is some place down town, and I want to check it out some time. I think that would be a lot of fun. I downloaded a yoga work out app on my phone, went to my 'Nature's Lullaby' station on Pandora, got my mat out and was pumped up to do my yoga! In my yoga class freshmen year, my teacher would turn off the lights and we would just use the natural light coming in from the window. Having the room dimmed does help. The light can distract you, so I turned off the lights in the living room and kitchen. I left the window light on in the kitchen and my only light was my phone and pellet stove. When the lights are off, or the room is dimmed, it helps you focus.With yoga, you need to be completely focused. Now, at my house with so much activity going on, I can't focus on my yoga. I can focus enough for it to do the job, but I need no human activity and only my relaxation medley playing. Before I start any yoga sequence, I spend 3 to 5 minutes in Child's Pose. This pose is where you tuck your legs under your chest, you reach your arms out, and place your forehead flat on the mat. It is such a relaxing pose.  I went into the app, and started the sequence. It was also hard for me to just look up to the ceiling or close my eyes because I had to watch the app, to make sure that I keep up with the app. I think I should just get some yoga videos from Amazon and do that. That might be nice.  Anyway, it was a fabulous yoga session. After Yoga, I started thinking about dinner. I knew that for dinner, I would make some sort of pasta dish. Maybe spaghetti noodles with some butter and Parmesan cheese. I ended up making spaghetti and soaking cucumbers in balsamic vinegar. My dad came up with the idea of soaking cucumbers in balsamic vinegar. I am sure he got the idea from someone, or maybe he came up with it on his own, but I was introduced to it a couple years ago. My dad usually makes it with Italian dishes.  I made the spaghetti (without meat of course) with some wheat spaghetti noodles and a tomato and basil sauce. It was really delicious! After dinner, I was having a major chocolate craving. I needed something sweet. We have tons of brownie mixes up in our cupboards. I decided to make some brownies from the mix, but I made them healthier than most. I used coconut oil and fresh eggs. I know that brownie mix isn't the healthiest, and I was curious what was actually in the brownie mix. I didn't like the fact that there was bleached flour in there, but knowing that there was soy bean oil in there helped a little. Plus, I was only going to have ONE brownie square. It was my reward for being good and keeping up with my vegetarian-vegan challenge all day.  My mom went to the store today, so I asked her to pick up some soy milk, soy based cheese, and some tofu. I gave her some money because I don't want her paying for my stuff... well, the special stuff that nobody else eats. She got me some Silk soy milk, some soy cheese, and some tofu. The most expensive thing was the cheese! I would expect it to be the tofu, but I got this big thing of tofu for less than $2! I am excited to make something with the tofu. I will post pictures of the products tomorrow on Instagram and the blog. Tomorrow's dinner, I am making for the whole family. It does not involve tofu what so ever. It is zucchini lasagna. My mom made this dish during the summer (2012). It was the night of the big lightning storm. It was such an amazing, tasty dish! I am going to make it tomorrow and blog about it! I will also blog about my vegetarian challenge. Tomorrow, I am going to eat half vegan/half vegetarian. My dinner tonight was fully vegan. It was tasty. I feel so healthy and I have had three of my Camelbak water bottles today. I am really proud of myself.  Anyway, I am keeping up my 2013 goals so far. I feel great not eating meat! I won't give it up completely. I just won't eat it often. I feel better when I don't eat meat.  I love the concept of veganism. (Kinda obsessed) Have a wonder half hour left of the day! I only have 4 days left of Christmas break, then it is back to the grind. Wonderful....