I.F. Day Two

I didn't sleep very well last night. I remember waking up a couple of times and just laying there, trying to put myself back to sleep. This morning though, I woke up feeling pretty swell. I expected some sort of bizarre hangover-like symptoms from eating so close to bed time, or a headache from waking up so often, but nope! I felt good.

Today, my eating began at 7:30 a.m. I had chocolate pancakes (GF + V, of course) and a green tea latte from Starbucks. Before I fell asleep last night, I made a note to myself to remember to make chocolate pancakes for breakfast. Well, mission accomplished, but they weren't up to par. I blame the flour. I really need to find (make) a flour that tastes less like beans a lot more like yum. I also asked Coco yesterday if she would accompany me to Starbucks this morning before History because it sounded good at the time. I wasn't craving anything from there, per se, I just really got snuggly with the idea of having a hot cuppa something as I sat next to her in History class on this lovely Wednesday morning.

NEVER. 

AGAIN. 

Not only do I hardly ever eat pancakes for breakfast as they don't keep me full long enough, I also hardly ever order lattes from Starbucks because of the fact that they have nearly as many grams of sugar in them as my parents' age! Of course, some higher (and purely evil) power thought it'd be a great idea for me to knock back both rarities out in one shot. 11:00 rolled around and BAM. Sugar crash of the century. Jitters, weakness, and an uncontrollable desire to eat tofu consumed me (pun not intended) during the last stretch of our History class. As soon as I could, I booked it to my car and scarfed down my tofu and quinoa...although to onlookers, I was probably eating as slow and leisurely as a turtle in the hot summer sun. For some reason, a half hour after eating that, I was hungry again! So I ate the cannellini beans with more quinoa and zucchini  that I had packed to eat at 3. Nope, it was devoured by 2. Then disappeared the spinach salad and mushrooms and almonds down the hatch. 2:45 rolled around and I was hungry yet again! So I took a short walk to the snack store on campus and discovered absolutely no options that did not contain gluten or dairy other than these:

"Dirty" is quite the appropriate word to describe this greaseball of a "snack."

Literally, this was the only item that I could have eaten. Well, that's a lie; there were also Naked juices, but I wasn't about to dish out five bucks for yet another sugar crash. No flippin' thank you. 

Anywho, upon my first bite into the chips, I was greeted with a wonderful crunch and crisp that is undeniably inviting, but after the initial crunch came a flood of awkward-tasting oil into my mouth. TMI time: I had to spit them out into the nearest receptacle. I gave the chips a second chance, and the second chip was definitely less greasy than the previous, however, the 3rd chip was just as nast. Sure, these chips were salty and crunchity and crispity, but my heck to the goodness, I will not be paying this company another dollar for two grease-produced pimples (that's right, TWO on the [face] cheeks within 30 minutes of consumption) and a stomach ache to follow.

At least I stopped being hungry once I finished the chips at around 3:20ish. Surprisingly, this lack of hunger has been effortless. I naturally drink a lot of water, so that's all I've been having since then. It's now 8:51 and I don't even want food! This is my prime time to raid pinterest and try out new dessert recipes right before bed and I don't even care to do that! What is haaaappppeeeennnniiiinnnnnggggg?!!!! I'm not quite sure, but I have a whole lot of mental clarity right now and I'm not complaining. :) 

Time to figure out what to do with my life (obvz homework is not happening right now...let's not kid ourselves) since I've watched practically every food/health documentary on Netflix. 

Love, peace, and dirty potato chip grease,

cg.

Intermittent Fasting?

Mother calls it starving yourself.
Some call it unnecessary.

Others call it a healthful way to improve digestion and prolong your life.
I call it experimentation time.

My favorite time. :)


For some slightly-creepy reason, I get a real kick out of trying fad diets for a day and then going back to my naturally better eating habits. I've been reading so much information lately about intermittent fasting and I've decided to see what all the fuss is about. There are far too many comments on internet forums for me to reference, so I will just summarize all of them like this: some people are huge fans and have adopted this way of eating as a lifestyle, others think you may as well say "goodbye" to the universe because it's a guaranteed way to send yourself straight to the grave. A little dramatic, dontcha think? If that's the case, why can people live to be one hundred years old by spacing their meals out pretty far apart? I'm not saying everyone who partakes in intermittent fasting will live to be one hundred, and I'm not saying that someone who eats 18 meals a day can't live to be one hundred either. Point is: I'm on a mission to see how intermittent fasting affects my body and mind. I don't plan on weighing myself, I simply want to feel my best.

Free Yogurtland happened last night. Red velvet cake batter on taro on strawberry on pistachio...ouch.

I've had it up to *here* with lethargy from eating a huge sugary snack right before bed or feeling sick from my (at least) once-weekly froyo binges. So, here I go, in addition to my total freedom from gluten (which is effortless now), I'm also cutting out eggs, meat, fish, and dairy (FROYO) for the improvement of my own health and the health of the environment. Call me crazy, but I'm not a huge fan of the whole eating something that more than likely had a panic attack before it entered my body deal. No eggs or frozen yogurt, my main breakfast and dessert until recently? How ever will I live without them?! Upon pondering these questions, I realize that this is precisely what people ask me on a weekly basis about gluten. After a short while, it becomes effortless! I know in my heart of hearts that, when I eat gluten or dairy, my body disagrees with me in more ways than you can probably imagine. We won't go into that right now, but let's just say I feel my best (mentally & physically) when I don't eat wheat bread, steak, cookies, chicken, red velvet cake batter frozen yogurt, etc. My digestion runs far more smoothly (pun in...ten...ded....?)


I am one of those people who are always "in their head." I analyze everything and anything, and I've noticed that the more unhealthily I eat, the more tension I harbor in my mind and body. Anxious thoughts cloud my mind when I'm glutened, my eyes itch and feel foggy when I have dairy, and I feel like there is a rock in my gut when I consume meats. Caffeine gives me migraines the day after I have it. Chocolate, especially dark, prevents me from falling and staying asleep at night. Peanut and sunflower seed butter give me horrendous acne on my face, and pinto beans, bananas, and oils of any kind disagree with my tummy. Apples make my stomach rumble when eaten alone. Too much nutritional yeast (I'm talkin' over 1/4 cup consistently everyday) makes me break out in puffy hives, beginning with my scalp and ending with my elbows and knees. I know my body very well, to say the least.

BUT WHAT WILL I EAT?!  

Ohhhh trust me. I have plenty that I can eat. Protein shakes that literally taste like brownie batter for breakfast? Check. Quinoa and black bean tacos for lunch? Check. Endless vegetables for snacks and sides? Check. Gluten-free vegan baked goodies, vegan nachos with homemade nooch nacho cheeze sauce and guac on top? Yes friggin please, in moderation ;). Basically, the idea behind my eating habits is that I literally do eat whatever I want, whenever I want it. The more vegetables I eat, the quicker my "I'm full!" signal activates. The more vegetables I eat, the less sugar and salt I crave. The less sugar and salt I crave, the more incredibly delicious vegetables and fruits taste. Kinda cool, huh?
While I'm not the fattest pig in the pen, I'm always trying out different ways of eating. This is because I am always on a hunt for mental clarity and energy. I like to see what works best for me. When my energy is up, my anxiety level and negative thoughts subside. This, in my opinion, is far more important and desirable than any particular weight or body type.

So, with this quest for mental clarity and physical fabulosity in mind, I will now embark on a new journey--one that requires me to eat any amount of whatever I want in an 8-10 hour time period. Today, I had breakfast (brownie batter milkshake and toast) at 7a.m., lunch at 11:30 (black beans, tofu, salsa, nooch, cholula, tortillas), and second lunch at 2 (quinoa, slow cookered zucchini, yellow squash, onions, and sweet potatoes, spinach salad with balsamic, almonds, and mushrooms). To say I was stuffed was an understatement. Because I eat so slowly, I finished eating lunch #2 at around 3:15 (don't h8) and my eyeballs felt as though they were going to pop out of my face. I usually don't eat a big lunch, so I'm thinking it'll take a bit of time for my body to get used to eating all of my day's worth of calories in a very short period of time. Eyes popping out aside, I feel much better now (it's 4:29 p.m.) I'm about to enjoy a hot cuppa TJ's organic ginger pear white tea. Not my absolute favorite, but it'll do :). If I get ravenously hungry tonight, I'll check back in on this bloggity blog and write about it. As for now, I'm feeling fresh and fancy and may even pay a visit to the gym with my boo before my evening class. Time to wrap this up with a toodle-oo and an unconvincing promise to post here more often. :P

Love, peace, and bacon unrefined coconut grease,
Cg

UPDATE: I became exceptionally hungry around 8 p.m. and couldn't think straight. After chugging two fat glasses of water, I gave in and ate. A lot. Sesame seed butter + banana + a slice of GF bread, and some black beans with slow cookered veggies. Oops. Better luck tomorrow.