Vegan Day 1

My first day as a vegan has been spent with a fever of 38.5…and sleeping for aprox. 14-15 hours of the day. As a result, it hasn’t been terribly difficult to eat vegan! haha. My diet has consisted of tea, water, and toast with vegetable margarine! (Aprox two pieces over the course of 28 hours…)

Tylenol has been my best friend. I finally allowed myself to have a bath once my temperature briefly repreieved to 37.9, but of course the bath brought it back up over 38 again. I am a nurse and yet I do these things to myself. Dummie.

I am feeling so terrible in fact, that I don’t have even one pair of clean underwear (due to working and not being around to do laundry) that I have gone commando all day to avoid getting out of bed. TMI, I know. But its THAT bad. Hopefully this is a quick 24-hour feverish time and I will be back to my functioning self for the new year.

Have a safe, happy new years everyone! Remeber to hail a taxi if you are drinking despite the long taxi waits which there will inevitably be!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymiF-okrdMg&feature=fvwp

 

Big Ol’ Germ

Today focused on fighting my cold. Really hoping one of the benefits of going vegan will be a boosted immune system!!! I have never been sick as much as I have the past two years, being a nurse! Bah! Trying to wash my hands 200% of the time, take my vitamins, eat healthier, exercise, but those night shifts really kick my behind! Yay for being off of nights in two days! Back to a normal rotation of half days, half nights! Here’s what I am doing to combat this thing today….

Immunity boosting super nutritious soup….

Experimental vitamin C boost which I do NOT reccomend. Consisted of soaked dates and their water, mandarine oranges and ice all blended up: perhaps it would have been better through the juicer and minus the dates. Turned out a little too chunky and blah…..but I drank it in hopes of a cure!

David’s Tea which I got for christmas from the hubbie + honey + the usual vitamin mix. TMI, I have no peed no less than 12 times and its only just back noon: TONS of fluids….. Off to sleep again for nights soon. Aiming to get in a solid 3 more hours before work!

 

 

 

Sinus Clearing, Cold Busting Soup

In desperation to kill my cough and cold, I dug out every nutritous thing I could find to boil up a 20 minute vegan, cleansing soup. It may be my sick taste buds, but I think it turned out pretty delicious!

Cold Busting Vegetable Soup

Serves 4

Calories unknown: Did not calcuate today!

2 small potatoes, chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

2 large carrots, or 10 baby carrots, chopped(I had baby on hand)

1 cup frozen peas & carrots (I hate peas, I am THAT desperate)

2 cups fresh spinach

2 tsp grated ginger

15 oz. canned diced tomatoes (not drained)

15 oz. water

3 cloves mashed garlic, or equivalent in freeze-dried(this is what I had on hand)

1 tbsp freeze dried basil

1/2 tbsp chili powder (I have a SUPER spicy indian one: add more for a sinus clearing one if yours is on the tamer side)

2 tsp poultry seasoning

2 tsp montreal steak spice

2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp dry chicken broth: mine is made from nutritonal yeast, not real chicken, thus, vegan. You can use any broth though!

Drop everything in a giant pot and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until carrots and potatoes are tender.

 

Final Day

Today will be my last taste of any meat products for 6 weeks exactly. Why? For health reasons, for ethical reasons, and mostly because veganism is something I have fiddled with for years and have never been brave enough to conquer fully for a long enough period to know if it is something I am serious about or not.

I think the hardest adjustment for me will be to give up my beloved home made coffee creamer and yogurt. I have found some similar vegan recipes and I hope to substitue them in. Pending they work out!=)

Ill keep you posted. For now, eating up all the yogurt and eggs left in the fridge so they don’t go to waste. Will share my sucesses and failures in the vegan cooking world as I go. 

As for the oil cleansing method of cleaning my face (see previous posts), I have taken it down to every other day and am mearly cleansing with water in between. This seems to make my face much happier. I am far from a CLEAR face, but no longer have the crazy breakouts I had a month ago. Will be continuing with this method.

Running. I have been stuck on week three of my training plan for weeks. Repeating and repeating and repeating due to illness, travelling, working, more illness, and more working. Plan to just start from scratch for the new year as my work schedule starts to calm down again!=) I have yet to weigh myself since christmas-will do tomorrow. Bracing myself for the consquences of over-indulging over christmas!

Off to sleep some more. Have caught that awful coughing cold everyone seems to have right now. Keeping the humidifier going all time of day is the only thing keeping me sane right now. Two more night shifts to go and then a whole, glorious FIVE days off!

Few Words

I have been absent as I have been loging long nights for days! I still have a few more to go, but I have one night repreive.

Came home to make myself a delicious scramble for breakfast, smothered in ketchup with a side of a smoothie!

Here are some snipits from our low-key-not-on-christmas christmas!:)

Eating appetizers for dinner on christmas eve. Tradition. While watching a christmas movie on the laptop: our TV died!

Graeme and I Christmas morning. We staying in our pajamas all day and relaxed together before I went to my night shift! Graeme got a pair of superhero issue converse shoes…

Then, I went to the bathroom and found this little bugger. Thought I had bedbugs, *PANICKED*, *ITCHED LIKE CRAZY*, looked up bug and found out it is a pseudoscorpian. Don’t bite or pinch…..eat pests.

Ate homemade pumpkin pie.

Admired my new Garmin for way too long. Its the 410 Forerunner-LOVE. Can’t wait to be off and put in my first run on it!

Enjoyed way too many cinnamons for breakfasts, snacks, extra snacks. Another tradition: I rise them christmas eve for breakfast on christmas!

Even more feasting: Christmas eve appies and the movie!

Off to have a bubble bath, watch Glee and sleep way too many hours!=) Will be back routinely blogging in the new-year!

We’re Back!

We’re Back! That is right! After being at my parents house for an extra day, we got back yesterday for me to work the night shift.

After coming out in the morning to -30 (-20 without wind…), recovered last night….After deciding NOT to having a christmas tree this year (since we are celebrating tomorrow and still hadn’t dug it out of storage)….my husband started rummaging around in the storage closet around 10:30pm saying ‘We have to have a christmas tree’.

So we set up out little, ugly, white, charlie brown tree. And by we, I most definately mean he. I sat on the couch eating hummus, critiquing where everything should go! =)

Why is store bought hummus SO good? I mean, my hummus is GOOD….but not SOOO GOOD! They must add some crazy ingredients that aren’t labelled! Probably not…

So Anyways. We now have a tree. It looks like christmas. AND *Angels choirs sing*….THE TREE IS BROKEN!! YAYYY!!! The mid section lights are toast which means this is our last year with the dreaded ugly white and blue tree (Graeme’s dream…I must have been coming off a night shift when he convinced me to buy it). Real tree for us next year!

We stayed up very late admiring our charlie brown tree, and watching The Santa Clause. Graeme is pretty upset we haven’t watched any christmas movies and christmas is ‘tomorrow’. So now we shall cram in about 5 before then!

Off to do some last minute christmas gift-shipping, meet my bestie for lunch, and pick up everything we need for specculas/christmas feast tomorrow!=)

Home.

Home. They say home is where the heart is. For me, I have two homes. The place I love, and choose to live in, and wherever my parents live.

The past couple days have been a wonderful, slow, coffee-sipping, messy-bun wearing blur of chatting with my family, and lazing around this house that has become a home-despite never actually living here.

The only crappy part-this AWFUL pillow in the guest bedroom. But my Dad went to the city today…and came back with ‘the last part of my birthday present’ (they got me a bunch of Bath & Body Works soaps I wanted)….a wonderful, new, down pillow! I am in love. Best birthday gift they could have given me!

Potentially heading home in the morning. We’ll see. It is an hour and a half drive to get to the greyhound station and there is a winter storm called for. Road conditions are predicted to be terribly. Thankfully and angel, D, from work was able to take my shift. If the roads suck, we will stay home one more day. Fine by me. The only thing that could have made this visit better would have been my sister here! Miss you Katri!

Off to sleep. Must be up in a 6 hours.

Random Thought Sunday

A quick check in. No. I have not vanished. Busying myself visiting family.

Some random thoughts this weekend:

– What is it about home? Parents ALWAYS have the best food! Its like….all this wonderful snacking food, and home made soup, and ahhhhh! None of the things I buy at home. Even the things I do buy at home, taste so much better! So weird. There must be magical fairy parent dust sprinkled on it! Ha.

– Enjoyed the day, relaxing, drinking coffee, chatting with my Momma, Pappa and brother. My little sister wasn’t able to come home this weekend.

– Caught up with an old friend last night…sort of. Chatted a bit. It is amazing how long you can NOT talk to people, and still care so SO much about them! So need to put more effort into my long-distance friendships. Finishing school, getting married, starting my career made time pass so quickly, yet SO much has happened in such a short time.

– I haven’t been taking any pictures as we have been just relaxing around the house. Will probably go out and do some small town photography when everyone is at school/work tomorrow.

– Small towns, so not something I am used to. I didn’t grow up here…so I thought my wake up call today was aboslutely weird. They had the fire truck driving snail-speed down the street with a santa-clause-type-parade-procession….knocking on your door asking for food for the food bank. Great idea…but so so strange.

On the greyhound.

I always forget how some people have ZERO respect for others when crammed like a sardine onto a bus or plane. Amen to driving my own car most of the year!(no winter tires right now + slippery roads=greyhound)

Christmas Truth

Confession time. I. HATE. DECORATING. FOR. CHRISTMAS.

Yesterday, we had all intentions of FINALLY getting out the tree and decorations and doing our ‘thing’, but of course, I found every other possible thing to do. Pretty much our entire home is squeeky clean, and not a single glimmer of sparkle or christmas has appeared.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t that I don’t like christmas, I don’t like what christmas has become.

We live hours away from our families, so it just isn’t feesible to travel home every christmas anymore. Not only this, but I work every third christmas, leaving my husband alone at home. 

I hate the rush to find ‘the perfect gift’, and to ‘make it fit’ the budget; which almost ALWAYS is blown.

I hate the grouchiness, the shoving, and the clutter of the malls.

But through it all, I still love what christmas SHOULD be. I love the time with family, even if it is just a long, drawn out phone conversation or skype-chat. I love the tradition, the foods, the coziness of staying in your pajamas all-day for one day a year.

My absolute favorite part of christmas is church. As a christan, and growing up in a christian home, this has been the most important part of christmas. As a child we would get all-dressed up to attend the candle-light service on christmas eve at church. The church would be glimmering, and beauitful. In those moments, life was perfect. It didn’t mater what, or how much we were getting, but that we were together, celebrating the TRUE meaning of christmas, under the beauitful christmas lights and candle-light.

After church we would read the christmas story once we had the cookies, milk and carrots set out for Santa, and then usually around 3 or 4am begin our ‘Mom, Dad, can we get up yet?’. Yes, as children it was exciting to get a new toy, or shiney new pencil case for school in january, but the best thing of all, was for one day of the year my Mom AND Dad were both home, relaxing with us, taking it all in. Family time.

I don’t remeber many of the gifts I got as a child, I DO however remember my dad checking the turkey, crumbling bread through my fingers as I helped my dad make stuffing, the electric turkey carver, the smell of the bird roasting. 

My mom all cozied up in the same purple and white robe she wore every year, sipping tea, getting out her ‘good china’. 

Those are the real things about christmas for me.

So this year, as you brave the malls, the hussle and bussle. Remeber the true meaning of christmas. Remeber that this is a day of rejoicing the birth of christ. A day for family, for love, and for happiness.

Off to spend some time with my family pre-holiday as I will be working this year. Just as good if you ask me. 😉 Merrry Christmas All!