Vegenaise

So yesterday, I was vegan condiment shopping which led me to Healthy Options. There... I saw this...

I've seen a lot of vegans online putting this in their food. At first, I wasn't excited coz I am not that much of a fan of mayonnaise. However, I saw this pesto variant and I succumbed.. 

I made breakfast moments ago and added it... 

I made some sort of breakfast wrap with veggies, boca vegan burger seasoned with liquid aminos and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. 

This pesto vegenaise is sorcery. I kid you not. I want to eat it with everything now. Its so good that I wanna make a cold pasta salad with it next... It would probably taste amazing with some black olives and loads of garlic... Hmmmm. Salivating just thinking about it. Haha

Love this new discovery!

Vegan life made easy :)

Vegan day 67

Today is vegan day 67!

Thank you 416vegan on Instagram for making me laugh so hard at 12mn...

Way too funny. Yep... I feel like when I talk about being vegan, nobody cares haha 

Anyway... I always try to get more fermented food in my system, so for lunch I had red rice, 2 kinds of kimchi-cabbage and perilla leaf, and a boca vegan burger. I didn't get to take a photo of it... 

The fermented food does not end there.. I decided to transform my nearly sour kimchi into kimchi stew to salvage it. 

Turned out quite good... I also added flavor with miso paste. 

Fermentation overload! 

Vegan day 51

It's been awhile since I last posted about my vegan food journey so I shall update today with my green and filling lunch break with Angie at Pipino.

Angie got fried brown rice loaded with so much broccoli and taro chips which she really, really enjoyed. It was super affordable too at P155.  

What I got was adobong kangkong with grilled eggplant and mango. It was a super big and filling serving at P165. 

Super happy tummies! 

We just had to have dessert because its THAT kind of day... I got a vanilla cinnamon cupcake and Angie got an oatmeal and chocolate chip cookie. 

This diet is already so well integrated in my life. I am still not closing my doors to going back to meat, but seeing all the positive result being vegan does to my health and well-being, I can't give up on it just yet. 

Vegan day 28!

Yay!!! I lasted! Well, I honestly think I can continue beyond 28 days on this plant-based diet :) 

Celebrated by having vegan Pinoy bistek at Pipino :D 

Vegan day 23

Dairy-free, meat-free and egg-free for the past 23 days. 

I'm able to go home and cook lunch again after a long time! 

I made a tofu stir fry which I seasoned with aminos, sesame oil and coconut nectar which pretty much tastes like teriyaki.

Super quick, easy and delicious. 

I wasn't the only one who thought it was good. Angie and Ate Wow even almost licked the serving platter clean. 

Success. 

21 days after

I haven't posted in a while... Its been such a busy season.

Just wanted to celebrate my 21st day today. 

One of the main reasons why I decided to go on this diet is to make my skin better and below is a photo of my skin after 21 days of eatinv plant-based food. 

It has improved a lot and all I've been putting on my face lately is our Balancing Toner and Overnight Elixir.  

I feel like I need to put less makeup nowadays and I'm happy about that. 

Vegan day 8

I forgot to post this... I made some really good kimchi fried rice this morning. 

Instead of using the sticky dark purple rice I usually use, I used light red rice. 

It tasted really good especially because I topped it with seasoned seaweed. 

Seaweed just makes everything better.  It's pretty amazing. 

I've been salivating over my favorite blog nowadays which is vegan8korean. Just really amazing vegan korean recipes. 

Anyway... I'm so agit nowadays. 

ㅠㅠ 

This... For inspiration. 

Vegan week day 7

Conclusions?

I think I just want to really cut out dairy but would like to have some egg on occasion. 

Since I'm doing this to feel better and lose weight, I think that change would be pretty much okay. 

I did have some Pipino yesterday again. 

Its really good... I die. I had eggplant and tofu miso rice. 

It was so creamy and rich it was amazing!

Ice cream! I had dessert! Vanilla graham vegan ice cream. It had weird texture. It was alright. I won't order it again. Haha

My skin has improved a lot! Yay!!! 

Vegan week day 5

Posting my past 2 meals today... 

I didn't intend to... I accidentally made sisig for breakfast. 

This is made with vegan Boca burger, bell peppers, onions, garlic, cooked in sunflower butter, black pepper and liquid aminos.

 

I had it with a piece of pita bread and some cranberry-pomegranate juice. :) 

For lunch, I asked my mom to deliver a packed lunch of the curry and some fruits and veggies to me as I was busy getting a hair cut. 

Its my veggie curry, with mixed veg and some papaya.

Oh my goodness... Total negative vibes at the Bench Fix Salon at UP technohub. Rudest, rudest stylist I've ever experienced in my life. Oh my... Never going back there again!!!!!

Groceries

And then I realized how much crap I've been eating all my life.. Chips, instant noodles, canned goods, sweet baked goods... 

I'm hoping I can sustain healthy eating. So I decided to go grocery shopping. 

Please, time, make me cook all of these! 

Vegan week day 3

Not the prettiest photo but here's to vegan lunch number 3!

Japanese veggie curry and toasted pita bread. I also had orange slices which are not in the photo. 

So posting an outfit photo from yesterday... 

Crop top and no bloating and this photo was taken after having dinner. I am amazed. Haha

Snack attack

A drawback of this vegan diet is since I have faster metabolism... I always feel hungry!

Which leads me to always have to snack.. 

Today's snack is salted cashews... Cashew is my favorite nut hands down. 

On to my 3rd vegan day...

I'm feeling pretty happy about this. Not bloated at all. 

Willpower, please!!!

Vegan week day 2

Day one of vegan week, passed with flying colors! 

Most difficult part of the day was a family dinner that we had at home for post-Father's Day celebration and everyone had key lime cake! I'm a major sucker for anything lemon or key lime when it comes to dessert but yep... Self-restraint. 

Breakfast today was miso soup, black rice and slices of mango. 

I made a packed lunch for today because we have our weekly super long meeting and I'm pretty sure it would be difficult to find vegan choices for takeout.

So I made korean rice rolls, kimbap... I also packed some side dishes of pickled seaweed and kimchi.

Yes so much probiotics!

I also made a salad out of the leftover cucumber, mango and carrots and I just put some light sesame dressing. 

I'm definitely still at the excited, creative stage of this vegan week. Hoping to have the willpower to sustain this :) 

Veg it out..

I really think I got inspiration about being vegan from Pipino...

Here are additional inspiration for me...

Exhibit A - improved skin

Exhibit B - amazing weightloss 

So here's my vegan packed lunch... Black rice balls with loads of seaweed, kimchi and tofu "spam" haha 

It doesn't look so pretty but it sure is tasty! 

Vegan week

Tofu 

Black rice

Miso

Seaweed

Satay sauce 

Potatoes 

Bell peppers

Pineapples

Bananas

All in my grocery cart yesterday because today I start my vegan week. 

Yep its pretty funny how I do these random stuff but the reasons for deciding were: 

1. My skin is getting pretty bad thus I need more veggies in me 

2. I have randomly come across vegan fitness gurus on Instagram and their food posts look so delicious 

3. Just for the heck of it

Well I have been going to Pipino the past week and they make it too damn easy to eat vegan food. 

I had their kare-kare and during the time I went with Angie I got a squash risotto. 

Yeah so... Don't these look amazing? I personally hate cashew cheese but everything else I can totally live with. 

I'm a sucker for tofu and I just had thinly sliced tofu this morning and they taste like friggin' bacon! (Yes, with a lot of psychological convincing and imagination , of course)

Anyway, I made lunch today. Will post it later. 

Here's to me being crazy and random! 

Overloaded

Overloaded with nutrition this morning...

Coco nectar
Miso 

Kelp

Mango

Probiotics

Lemongrass 

Green tea 

Whew! If I dont get enough energy to last through today after consuming all that, i dont know what will. 

The post workout breakfast soup of the champions haha 

In other news, I decided to change my routine, so it will be alternating days of brisk walk + NTC, then the other day would be run + 300 abs workout... 

Today was the day for the run + 300, and I'm so happy because I beat my usual time when I run a mile around our neighborhood.  I usually do a mile in like 15 minutes, because our neighborhood is mostly uphill.  However, I did my mile today at 13 minutes which is my usual time running a mile around UP which is really flat with no inclines. 

Well, I don't know what's with today but I definitely had more speed. :) 

Wish vs. do

바라지만 말고, 실천해~ 

I just recently learned about this quote this week from YG official trainer, Hwangssabu. 

It means: "Don't wish for it, work for it"

I love it. Its a really good quote to live by. 

Today, I didn't feel like doing anything or working out. I could easily have called it a rest day. However, I felt guilty and still brisk walked with good time too. 

Standard breakfast today still savory oatmeal and organic egg from the Enchanted Farm.. Cooked it poached just to deviate from the usual boiled egg. 

I tried eating chicken yesterday at Tala's party... Gosh it was good to eat meat again, but as I tried to feel what my body was telling me, it felt as if it was having a really hard time digesting it. 

So I'll stick with veggies for now.

At Tala's party, there was a painting activity, this is what I came up with...

Yup, once a dreamer, always a dreamer. :)

Day 9

Its my 9th day being lacto ovo today. Kinda running out of creative juices for food to cook... Then today I tried something new! 

So I got oatmeal and instead of cooking it in milk, i cooked it just in water. Once it was cooked, I seasoned it with Liquid Aminos, raw onions, soft boiled egg and some pepper.

It tasted amazing! 

I'm not a fan of sweet stuff so whenever I try eating oatmeal with honey and cinnamon, I feel like I'm just trying to force it down my throat, but this one is different! I enjoyed it because it was savory... 

I need to research and stimulate my creativity in cooking my food. 

Another update is that, since last Saturday's MTO, I was sales talked into buying Dr. Gerry's Coco Nectar. It apparently has 20 or more amino acids compared to honey that only has 9. Anyway, I gave it a try yesterday... And the past 2 days, I've been taking a spoonful first thing in the morning (on an empty stomach) and I don't feel the need for caffeine to do my morning workouts! I feel super energized. 

So happy! 

My mom was telling me about other improvements in her health that she's been experiencing like better metabolism, etc. 

Anyway... We shall further observe :) 

Home cooking

Went home to cook lunch today. I have seen some pretty good results about being lacto ovo vegetarian for a week, mainly how it made my skin not terribly breakout during my PMS week. So I decided to push being vegetarian further to this week too.. 

I made this tofu/sweet pea/mushroom stirfry with lots of garlic and laced with green chili, red pepper paste, soy sauce and honey. 

Super spicy but tastes pretty amazing and I ate it with red rice. 

I'm feeling pretty good learning and continuously researching about health and fitness.

I've been consistently exercising for the past 3 months and I've never lasted with a fitness routine longer than a few weeks. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. *pat on the back* 

8.5 lbs in 9 days

I've lost 8.5 lbs so far...

The olive pants I've just recently purchased in Bangkok last July are now hanging a bit loose compared to when I first got them... They were skinny jeans too.

I'm grateful that most of my clothes are mostly dresses coz if they were mostly pants, I'd have to purchase a lot of new things.

Celebrating the loss of the weight (as heavy as a healthy new born) from my body with an iced cappuccino.

How will I be able to continue my Phase 2 in Bangkok? I'm worried. The home of all things salty and starchy... Extra challenge up ahead in 2 weeks...