“You have no power over me.”
Today I had the opportunity to fall back into bad eating behavior OR I could triumph over that very last vice I had in regards to food.
I am happy to report… I overcame.
Today was my son Tim’s birthday as you know, and unlike most people, he doesn’t do cake or ice cream for his birthday celebration. My boy is all about cheesecake.
In fact, both boys would rather have a cheesecake than a traditional cake.
So we bought him one, and to my surprise my son did not realize I had adopted the Vegan lifestyle. I decided since it was his birthday, his 20th no less, this situation falls under those random, special occasions that warrant a more lenient attitude when it comes to food.
In other words, it would have broken his heart had I not had a piece. So I decided to have a piece, as long as it was small. A couple of bites wouldn’t kill me, and it’d make my son happy. It was a no brainer.
It would either throw me headlong off the wagon OR I’d realize that cheese no longer held the same appeal it did a week ago.
Tim served his mama a slice of cheesecake so small the fork seemed gigantic beside it:
So I took a bite, expecting to experience the glorious cheese high we now can attribute to opiates. And it was… okay.
I mean, it tasted good but not good *enough*. It’s not enough for me to go eat anymore – I could probably go another year easy without needing or wanting another bite.
Tenacious G has defeated The Cheese.
{bows} Thank you. Thank you.
My Vegan food experiment didn’t go as well, sadly. I made a black bean burger, and it ended up being too dry. I didn’t use the egg like was suggested in the recipe I found. Instead I substituted cornstarch and it ended up being super super dry.
So I’ll buy them prepackaged from now on. No biggie 🙂
Actually I tease. Like I’m going to let one failed experiment stop me from the Culinary Journey I’ve discovered. If any of you out there have suggestions, feel free to leave comments.
Meanwhile the other four patties I have left will just have to be served with liberal dollops of ketchup and mustard.
On the back front (ha), I listened in to another fantabulous Hal Sparks Q&A Ustream show this afternoon. He is my health guru as you know. He’s a big big motivator to give up the cheese, which they talk about some during the Q&A, and since he’s amazingly fit as well I asked him what exercises, aside from walking/stretching, would be good for the back.
He explained that posture is a big key to a stronger back, because it strengthens the abdominal muscles (the core), which in turn protects the back. He said that just holding yourself in the right posture is like an abdominal workout.
I took his advice to heart (as I try always to do), and held myself up into a full upright position while I was soaking in the tub earlier.
It hurt like bloody hell.
It was like someone pulled a string on all the muscles down around my spine to my hips and pulled everything back into their proper order. Every swollen muscle made itself loudly and painfully known, which I figure is the body’s way of saying, “Listen to Hal… he was right.”
I’ll be working on that more. Thankfully I have a balance ball that will help me stabilize my core even more. It dawned on me that while I was using Pilates my back never went out. It was only after I stopped doing it and the muscles began to lose their tone and flexibility.
Time to literally get back on the ball.
The posture experiment took me from the 4 on the pain scale I was able to enjoy most of the day since I woke up from my drug induced semi-coma, back up to a 7 bordering on an 8. I’ve taken my pills and will likely go out yet again… so if you don’t see me much online or out and about, it’s because I’m unconscious.
There is progress though.
That, added to the successful cheese experiment, made for a very positive and productive day. Considering I didn’t do much of anything.
In case you missed it, here’s the Q&A with Hal and artist extraordinaire Chris Bonno. It’s not only entertaining… you learn something too!
Ginger@Large 
I found a Spicy Black Bean Burger from Sparkpeople. I haven’t bought the ingredients and made it yet, but I can send it to you if you want.
I haven’t had cheese in days. Yay! I wonder how I’d like it now. I’ve been following the same advice about posture. I’ve been doing ab workouts at the gym, but I want to have better posture, too. See, I have upper back issues due to a car wreck I had when I was 22. I’m hoping all my ab workouts and focus on a straighter posture will pay off. That’d be much cheaper, better psychologically than a breast reduction. (I thought maybe that was the case, but I don’t think it is. As I lose weight and improve my core, I’ll feel better, I think).
I’ve thought about a breast reduction too. But we’ll see how it goes with improving the posture and stabilizing the core. I’d definitely like to see that spicy black bean burger recipe 🙂 Feel free to post it in the comments if you want.
Congrats on the no cheese. Like I said the cheesecake tasted good but nothing I can’t live without.
Breast reduction is something I absolutely don’t want to do, so that’d be the a last resort. I love having big breasts!:)
Here’s the recipe:
Spicy Black Bean Burgers
These burgers are spiced to perfection. To make them even spicier, you could melt jalapeno soy cheese on each patty and serve topped with salsa.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup flour
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 small hot or jalapeno pepper, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium red pepper, diced
2 cups cooked or canned black beans, mashed
1/2 cup corn niblets
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp parsley, minced (optional)
DIRECTIONS
1. On a small plate, set aside flour for coating. In a medium saucepan, sauté the onion, garlic, oregano, and hot peppers in oil on medium-high heat until the onions are translucent. Add the peppers and sauté another 2 minutes, until pepper is tender. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mash the black beans with a potato masher or fork. Stir in the vegetables (including the corn), breadcrumbs, cumin, salt, chili powder, and parsley. Mix well. Divide and shape into 6 patties.
3. Lay down each patty in flour, coating each side. Cook on a lightly oiled frying pan on medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes or until browned on both sides.
Makes 6 patties.
Reprinted with permission from HOW IT ALL VEGAN! by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer (www.GoVegan.net) Arsenal Pulp Press.
I’ll probably make it tomorrow for my very first meatless Monday. I’m skerred. LOL
Awesome!! Thanks for the recipe 😀 Guess I’m gonna hafta stock up my spice cabinet. I only have a few of those on-hand.
How was your meatless Monday? What’d you eat?
You’re welcome. I’m such a dumbass. I got my days mixed up thinking it was Sunday, so I’ll have my first meatless Monday next week.
That’s okay. You can have a meatless Tuesday. 🙂
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking of doing.:) Just do meatless Tuesday this week and Meatless Monday next week.
Yes, especially if you’re going flexitarian. You might want to do every other day meatless – that’s what I did. Then on the days you do have meat, only have it at one meal.
Well, last week I only had one meal each day that had meat in it. I think the MM will be a good way to transition into flexitarianism.
That’s what I did. Just started with MM because Hal was promoting and figured, why not? It just built on itself from there.