5-Day Core Report
So it's been 5 days on Core, and things are going... mostly well. My usual routine has been oatmeal for breakfast, leftovers from dinner and an apple or some other fruit for lunch, some more fruit for a snack when I get home from work, dinner, and then a sweet snack/dessert. For the last two days I've found myself hungry just an hour or two after my oatmeal, which is weird, but I think it has more to do with, erm, upcoming female events than anything diet-related.
I like not counting. Or, you know, limited counting. It makes me feel less like I'm "on a diet" and more like I'm just making better choices. What I don't like is the complete and utter ban on bread. You can have it, of course, but you have to spend your points on it. Most of the time I'm okay with that, but it limits my lunch options a little bit. I can't just throw together a sandwich or take a pita and hummus, because I'd rather not spend my discretionary points on bread when I could spend them on, say, a delicious bowl of the carrot cake rice cream that is calling my name from the freezer. But then you have a situation like tonight, when I decided to make flatbread, have one, and put the rest away for use over the next few days. I ended up eating two, for a total of 6 points, because I was really hungry and I'm running low on veggies and I didn't feel like making a big effort for anything else. And now my stomach kind of hurts. Bleh.
So basically, I wish one serving of some wheat bread-like product was on the Core list. It would make my life easier. Also, this plan is much better for people who earn a lot of activity points. There was a time when I was exercising every day and getting 3 or 4 extra points, but right now I'm getting up at 6 am and spending 8 hours a day painting murals outside in the very hot sun, and when I get home I want nothing more than a shower and a comfortable chair in a cool room. I don't know if it's the heat or what, but I've had very little energy of late. Everything takes a lot of effort. It's a little distressing, but I'm too tired to do anything about it.
I'm going into the weekend with less than 5 flex points, and I'm having dinner at my favorite Indian restaurant tomorrow night. I'm not sure how I'm going to swing that. I may just get something bean-based and call it trying my best. On Flex this would probably send me into a spiral of junk food and badness. What's nice about Core is that even if I don't have any flex points left, I can still eat. And even if I go out to eat and I'm eating stuff that might not be Core, I'm not trying to count points for everything I put in my mouth, so I don't feel like a failure if I can't assign a number to something. So far this plan has led to much less obsessing about food and points and more enjoyment of my food. I like it.
And now, some pictures:
Lemon-Herb Seitan (the tofu recipe in Vive le Vegan, but with seitan instead), brown rice, sauteed yellow squash, steamed broccoli. Delicious. After reducing the oil a bit, the lemon-herb seitan is Core enough for me. Meaning that there's a tiny bit of agave (seriously, like 1/2 tsp), I'm not worrying over things like that. Seriously, it's 10 calories worth of agave spread over 2 servings (I halved the recipe). Not a big deal. The seitan is the last of Joanna's awesome chicken-style seitan that I had frozen; I'll have to make up another batch soon.
Joni's 50/50 Flatbread. Easy, and really tasty too. I halved the recipe and made them larger; I got 4 instead of 8. In retrospect, I wish I would've stuck with the little ones, because then eating two wouldn't have cost me so many points. But otherwise, the only downside is that I set off my fire alarm while making these and couldn't get it to shut off for like 3 or 4 minutes, during which time I thought my eyes were actually going to start bleeding. Awesome.
I like not counting. Or, you know, limited counting. It makes me feel less like I'm "on a diet" and more like I'm just making better choices. What I don't like is the complete and utter ban on bread. You can have it, of course, but you have to spend your points on it. Most of the time I'm okay with that, but it limits my lunch options a little bit. I can't just throw together a sandwich or take a pita and hummus, because I'd rather not spend my discretionary points on bread when I could spend them on, say, a delicious bowl of the carrot cake rice cream that is calling my name from the freezer. But then you have a situation like tonight, when I decided to make flatbread, have one, and put the rest away for use over the next few days. I ended up eating two, for a total of 6 points, because I was really hungry and I'm running low on veggies and I didn't feel like making a big effort for anything else. And now my stomach kind of hurts. Bleh.
So basically, I wish one serving of some wheat bread-like product was on the Core list. It would make my life easier. Also, this plan is much better for people who earn a lot of activity points. There was a time when I was exercising every day and getting 3 or 4 extra points, but right now I'm getting up at 6 am and spending 8 hours a day painting murals outside in the very hot sun, and when I get home I want nothing more than a shower and a comfortable chair in a cool room. I don't know if it's the heat or what, but I've had very little energy of late. Everything takes a lot of effort. It's a little distressing, but I'm too tired to do anything about it.
I'm going into the weekend with less than 5 flex points, and I'm having dinner at my favorite Indian restaurant tomorrow night. I'm not sure how I'm going to swing that. I may just get something bean-based and call it trying my best. On Flex this would probably send me into a spiral of junk food and badness. What's nice about Core is that even if I don't have any flex points left, I can still eat. And even if I go out to eat and I'm eating stuff that might not be Core, I'm not trying to count points for everything I put in my mouth, so I don't feel like a failure if I can't assign a number to something. So far this plan has led to much less obsessing about food and points and more enjoyment of my food. I like it.
And now, some pictures:
Lemon-Herb Seitan (the tofu recipe in Vive le Vegan, but with seitan instead), brown rice, sauteed yellow squash, steamed broccoli. Delicious. After reducing the oil a bit, the lemon-herb seitan is Core enough for me. Meaning that there's a tiny bit of agave (seriously, like 1/2 tsp), I'm not worrying over things like that. Seriously, it's 10 calories worth of agave spread over 2 servings (I halved the recipe). Not a big deal. The seitan is the last of Joanna's awesome chicken-style seitan that I had frozen; I'll have to make up another batch soon.
Joni's 50/50 Flatbread. Easy, and really tasty too. I halved the recipe and made them larger; I got 4 instead of 8. In retrospect, I wish I would've stuck with the little ones, because then eating two wouldn't have cost me so many points. But otherwise, the only downside is that I set off my fire alarm while making these and couldn't get it to shut off for like 3 or 4 minutes, during which time I thought my eyes were actually going to start bleeding. Awesome.
Labels: bread, core plan, seitan, vive le vegan
Subscribe
Ok, first of all, who is Joanna and where can I score this reicpe for Joanna's awesome chicken-style seitan? I'm on a quest to find the perfect seitan - like the kind you get at a restaurant. I've had some good ones, but any mention of gluten or seitan has me sitting up pretty like a praire dog. Seitan? Did someone say seitan? where? where?
One thing I hate about WW is the obsessing about food. I was a little anal with points, but don't worry about 10 cals for agave. Pffft. You probably burned that off chewing up your food. Once at a meeting some members were getting into a heated discussion about carrots. The WW book says 0 points if raw, 1 point if cooked. After a bit of bantering back and forth the leader said "Look, if it's 10 or 15 calories difference, it doesn't really matter. None of us got here from eating too many carrots." Best of luck and keep the inspirations (and honesty) coming!
Posted by
Carrie™ |
12:13 AM
Joanna's blog is Yellow Rose Recipes, but alas, the seitan is a tester recipe for her upcoming cookzine, so I'm not really at liberty to share. I've never had seitan in a restaurant, though, so I can't say whether or not this is similar.
I have never understood worrying about carrots and green beans and stuff. Seriously, the leader is right, no one got fat from eating too many vegetables!
Posted by
Amanda |
6:48 AM
the food looks great! dont woory so much!you will do great!
Posted by
Anonymous |
9:04 AM
Oh it's so great to see you blogging again! I'm sorry I missed your big post announcing your return, life has been a bit crazy for me as well, but I'm so happy that you're still going to be around here in the blogosphere. Good luck with the diet, but I agree with the earlier commenters; Don't worry so much! :)
Posted by
Anonymous |
12:04 PM
Nice to see you back again, and your food looks great! This may be a silly question, but what is the "core" plan? I know it is WW, but I have never really done WW.
Either way, I have to agree with others--you are doing great and don't worry about teeny amounts of agave or eating out! Do the best you can and make the best choices you can--that is all that you can do!
Courtney
Posted by
Anonymous |
6:24 PM
Wow! Your seitan meal looks wonderful as does your flat bread too. I am on WW, but have not done core because of bread and soy ice cream. Keep up the good work. I am down 61lbs and kinda stuck on another plateau. Just gotta hang in there.
Posted by
Sheree' |
11:39 PM
I love your pictures! I found your blog looking for vegan corn pancakes and I want to make them right now, 11:43 pm, but all are sleeping in my house, 2 kids and husband. I can't wait til tomorrow AM. Every night I fall asleep fantasizing about the morning coffee and tonight I will fantasize about corn pancakes... Don't tell my husband, he would be jealous, and rightfully so! YUM! Ooh, with salsa, yeah, with salsa, right there!
If you don't have the ExtraVEGANza cookbook, you should! If only for the baked goods!
I will definitely visit again. I usually browse by ingredient, but now I know just where to go for ideas.
Posted by
Anonymous |
12:52 AM
ohhhh that seitan looks delicious!!
JENNA
Posted by
JENNA |
11:23 AM
The seitan...and everything on that plate looks delicious. Glad to hear the WW is working out for you. You always take such lovely photos, I'm envious of your skillz :)
Posted by
sarchan |
11:48 AM
I miss your posts!
Posted by
Anonymous |
5:28 AM
Ugh... It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one who gets super hungry every month. Nothing like feeling bloated *and* chunky ;)
Posted by
Mikaela |
11:32 AM
Glad to hear things are going well on the WW front so far. Mmm, the seitan looks delish! I've been meaning to make Melody's one of these days, I've only made the VwaV and the 'o greatness.
Stemed broccoli makes me happy, I had a big pile of it with dinner last night.
Posted by
Shananigans |
4:14 PM
Hey, I hope things are going well for you. That core thing sounds interesting.. a neat plan of attack. Your food is looking mighty fine!
Posted by
theONLYtania |
1:26 AM
I like dieting cooking because it really challenges you and give you a chance to be more creative!
I have a blog about such things if you feel like checking it out/commiserating about the struggles of being healthy and trying to lose weight, http://vegandietsolution.blogspot.com/
Posted by
KB |
1:17 PM
Hey,
I'm just catching up to your blog after a few weeks, and was sorry to hear about your break-up. I hope you're doing well, and it certainly seems like you're eating well. I can totally understand the frustration of trying to restrict eating for health reasons- I decided to experiment with going raw, just for the month of July. Well, it's only my third day and I'm tempted to eat everything in sight! Fortunately, cravings are things you can usually ride out. Those flatbreads look amazing, by the way!
Posted by
bazu |
8:02 PM
Hope you're still sticking to it! Post updates pleasssse!! xox
Posted by
velouria |
12:58 PM
Thank you for posting about the Core program and veganism! There is too little information out there about it.
Posted by
~ Cee ~ |
7:42 PM
Hi,
You have great blog. Would you mind to have a link exchange with me.
Please email me if you are interested.
my email : kamarul[at]hoteltravel[dot]com
I'd like to exchange your link with our company website.
Thanks.
Note: You can delete this comment.
Posted by
Anonymous |
4:12 AM
We Have Not Received Reply from You
Dear Sir/Madam/Mr/Ms,
We have not received confirmation from you concerning our link exchange.
If you agree to exchange a link, kindly send me an email as below. I will explain to you the procedure to exchange a link.
I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Kamarulzaman Suief
Kamarul[at]hoteltravel[dot]com
Note: You can delete this comment.
Posted by
Anonymous |
9:32 PM
Carrot cake rice cream?..from Vegan Ice Cream blog? How many points is that? I'm afraid to make it because it sounds heavenly and of course fattening.
Posted by
CookieMonster |
4:00 PM
Carrot cake rice dream is the worst thing that ever happened to any idea of my own self-control... seriously, I usually have it, but I can't buy that stuff because I'll eat the whole pint standing up in the kitchen.
I totally get the calorie-obsess. I used to be a lot rounder, and now I'm just used to making a sandwich with one piece of bread, or one pita. The idea of cooking with more than a tsp of oil in anything is pretty new (though I'm trying, I know it's healthy).
Anyway, I just stumbled onto your blog and it looks wonderful, and good luck with your points, it sounds like you know what you're doing!
Posted by
Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) |
1:56 AM
hi,
i just discovered your site and i love it. i have recently started blogging so the more inspiration the better. i am also an artist and checked out your art...extremely awesome...I look forward to seeing more of your stuff foodwise and artwise :)
Posted by
...barbara... |
2:35 PM
Mmm, that seitan and flatbread look fabulous!!!
Posted by
Katy |
4:44 PM
That herb seitan looks sooo tasty Amanda.
Posted by
Anonymous |
5:52 PM
This comment has been removed by the author.
Posted by
Anna Down Under |
9:28 PM
Is seitan included in the core plan? I think I saw tofu but don't recall seeing seitan. Since bread is out, I was worried about including seitan being as it's made from flour.
Posted by
Anna Down Under |
9:29 PM
Hello! I thought my website might be of interest to you: www.vegerator.com
Vegerator is a vegetarian recipe website that helps you create tasty meals based on what you already have in your home. It’s simple: you type in the food you currently have in your fridge and pantry; then Vegerator presents you recipes that include those ingredients.
I understand this is probably considered spam, so no hard feelings if you delete it! We're new to the web & just trying to get the word out.
- Zachary
Posted by
Unknown |
2:06 PM