geeklover80 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
geeklover80) wrote2012-12-13 01:42 pm
geeklover80) wrote2012-12-13 01:42 pm
Entry tags:
Going Vegan?
So my boyfriend, Mike, has always been kind of health conscious. Any information about what's good for you and healthy foods I've gotten in the last two years has been because of him. Before he moved to Flordia, he had a membership at a pretty swanky gym and went there regularly. He took martial arts classes(has a couple of trophies from there.) He said that he used to have a six pack, and I've seen pictures and he used to be skinnier. But when he moved down here, he stopped going to the gym. And, now with his job, he has no time for it.
I've been trying to lose weight since 2008, when I really saw how heavy I was getting. Those first few months, I was actually pretty successful. I lost more than 15 pounds. But then I put on the weight again and have never been able to lose that much again. Ieither stay static or put on a few pounds. One of my problems is, I can exercise, but I have trouble dieting. Not only is fattier foods, tastier but most are lesss expensive than healthier foods and easier to make. For someone poor and who can't cook, eating the bad stuff is a little easier
But since I've been with him, I've kind of gotten better. We try to eat a little better when we're together. Like when he told me about what was so bad about trans fats, I pretty much cut those out of my diet. One of the problems is we live with his mother and her husband and they really like to make things like steak and lasagna and eat out.
A lot of times you see them saying that some healthier foods taste just as good than the alternative, but usually I find that not to be the case, at least not for me. But recently I've eaten some healthy stuff that I've liked. A couple of months ago we went to this restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes and they had this vegetarian spaghetti, that was to die for. When I was a kid, I loathed cereals like Special K and Total. But I tried a couple of brands of Special K, and I really liked it.
Mike is also a really big fan of documentaries. I'm not so much a fan, but we watch TV toogether, so I've watched a few of them. We watched one months ago about people who went on this diet of just drinking vegetable and fruit smoothies. So, we went out and bought a juicer. Most of the juices he made we liked, especially Michael. But cleaning the juicer takes a lot of time and buying all of the ingredients can get expensive, so we don't use it too often anymore.
I asked Mike whether he would ever go vegetarian a couple of times and he's always said he couldn't do it, because he not only likes meat too much, but said that their are nutrients and things that you need that come from meats, dairies, etc. But we watched another documentary the other night called Vegucated about three people who go vegan for six weeks. It was pretty informative (did not know double stuff oreos were considered Vegan approved.) What was kind of funny about it was that we knew we were having hamburgers for dinner than night, and I asked him if he still wanted to watch it, and he did. So we did. The things about how the animals are treated were pretty sickening. I asked him afterwords, if he had changed his mind about vegetarianism, and he actually said he was open to it now. We still had the burgers that night. But the next night, we didn't know what dinner was. And when I saw it was pot roast and gave him some, I came back after getting my own piece, and he had eaten all the vegetables but said he didn't want the meat. I gave him some leftover pizza and he took off the pepperoni and sausage.
Since then he's been pretty good about not eating meat, even when we went to Olive Garden yesterday. And actually not having any meat resulted in the smallest tab we ever had there. I've been pretty good about the no meat thing. The only meat I've had, besides that pot roast was a small slice of canadian bacon on these really delicious Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches he bought, which are low calorie. I asked him if he's really going to stick to the vegetarian thing and he said he's going to try. We bought soy milk, which we saw in the documentary, and I actually liked it. We bought veggie burgers, liked that too. We had vegetable lasagna last night, which was really hard because everyone else was having really yummy looking regular lasagna. I like the veggie lasagna. None of the alternative veggie stuff I've had, have I loved as much as the regular version but they've tasted good which is good enough right now. I don't know if either of us will ever be full vegetarian, because I think that includes making sure your clothes and other products aren't animal based. I'm not throwing out my clothes and neither of us buy much leather anyway.
We also joined a gym. I've never been a gym member before, so when we went there and she said the membership would cost $50 a year, I thought it was a bargain and so Mike really thought that was cheap, since just for him it cost a lot more than that for him alone, and this would be $50 for both of us. And that's exactly how the woman stated it. It would be $50 a year for the both of us. We were both skeptical so we asked how much it would be if we didn't do that plan. She then said it would be $29.95 a month individually. She invited us to have a fee visit and think about it. We went home and later we told his mom about it and she thought that was very, very cheap and asked if we were sure she said $50 for the year, and we said yeah.
The next day we went there and took a spinning class( more on that later.) So afterwards, we thought about it and decided to join. We were filling out the contract and that's when we saw, no, it's not $50 a year. But $50 a month. When we explained our confusion the lady looked at us as if we were crazy because we thought it was $50 a year. I didn't really appreciate that because it was her wording that made us think that. So, anyway we left so we could think about it. Mike could afford it, but he wasn't sure with other expenses we have if we should do it. But Mike has always talked about how much happier he was when he was working out. And I could see it when we were doing the spinning class, he had a huge smile on his face. His job is so stressful and he's always so miserable and tired when he gets home, that if it was going to make him happier, I wanted to do it. So the next day we signed up.
The spinning class was brutal, for me. When I was a kid I had no problem riding bikes. I was always comfortable on the seat. But Mike and I have gone riding a couple of times and that first time, I was having trouble because my butt kept hurting. He bought a bike seat pad for me and it got better. I hadn't really considered that before we went to the spin class and as soon as I sat down my butt hurt. And I don't really get it because, let's just say, I have some more padding down there than I did when I was a kid but it still hurts like crazy. I do not know how I made it through that class. I wanted to stop and get off several times because it hurt so bad. While I stopped pedaling a couple of times, I never got off.
We went out and bought some supplies before we went to the gym the first time as official members. We got a bike pad seat and gloves, since my hands hurt too during the spinning class. We got yoga mats, gym bags, towels, headbands(he likes using them. I don't sweat as much in my face.) We went to the gym a couple of days ago and it was actually kind of fun. Well, not at first. We started out on the ellipitical machine and I thought it wouldn't ne much harder than the treadmill, but I barely made it through it. We tried to use all the different machines and we had fun. And we ate out afterwards, to replenish some of the nutrients we lost. It was a good night. I was sore and stiff a little in my arms and legs yesterday, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
So we'll see if we can keep up with going to the gym and the vegetarian thing. Mike says he's already starting to feel better. I don't feel much different, but it's still early.
Stacey
I've been trying to lose weight since 2008, when I really saw how heavy I was getting. Those first few months, I was actually pretty successful. I lost more than 15 pounds. But then I put on the weight again and have never been able to lose that much again. Ieither stay static or put on a few pounds. One of my problems is, I can exercise, but I have trouble dieting. Not only is fattier foods, tastier but most are lesss expensive than healthier foods and easier to make. For someone poor and who can't cook, eating the bad stuff is a little easier
But since I've been with him, I've kind of gotten better. We try to eat a little better when we're together. Like when he told me about what was so bad about trans fats, I pretty much cut those out of my diet. One of the problems is we live with his mother and her husband and they really like to make things like steak and lasagna and eat out.
A lot of times you see them saying that some healthier foods taste just as good than the alternative, but usually I find that not to be the case, at least not for me. But recently I've eaten some healthy stuff that I've liked. A couple of months ago we went to this restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes and they had this vegetarian spaghetti, that was to die for. When I was a kid, I loathed cereals like Special K and Total. But I tried a couple of brands of Special K, and I really liked it.
Mike is also a really big fan of documentaries. I'm not so much a fan, but we watch TV toogether, so I've watched a few of them. We watched one months ago about people who went on this diet of just drinking vegetable and fruit smoothies. So, we went out and bought a juicer. Most of the juices he made we liked, especially Michael. But cleaning the juicer takes a lot of time and buying all of the ingredients can get expensive, so we don't use it too often anymore.
I asked Mike whether he would ever go vegetarian a couple of times and he's always said he couldn't do it, because he not only likes meat too much, but said that their are nutrients and things that you need that come from meats, dairies, etc. But we watched another documentary the other night called Vegucated about three people who go vegan for six weeks. It was pretty informative (did not know double stuff oreos were considered Vegan approved.) What was kind of funny about it was that we knew we were having hamburgers for dinner than night, and I asked him if he still wanted to watch it, and he did. So we did. The things about how the animals are treated were pretty sickening. I asked him afterwords, if he had changed his mind about vegetarianism, and he actually said he was open to it now. We still had the burgers that night. But the next night, we didn't know what dinner was. And when I saw it was pot roast and gave him some, I came back after getting my own piece, and he had eaten all the vegetables but said he didn't want the meat. I gave him some leftover pizza and he took off the pepperoni and sausage.
Since then he's been pretty good about not eating meat, even when we went to Olive Garden yesterday. And actually not having any meat resulted in the smallest tab we ever had there. I've been pretty good about the no meat thing. The only meat I've had, besides that pot roast was a small slice of canadian bacon on these really delicious Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches he bought, which are low calorie. I asked him if he's really going to stick to the vegetarian thing and he said he's going to try. We bought soy milk, which we saw in the documentary, and I actually liked it. We bought veggie burgers, liked that too. We had vegetable lasagna last night, which was really hard because everyone else was having really yummy looking regular lasagna. I like the veggie lasagna. None of the alternative veggie stuff I've had, have I loved as much as the regular version but they've tasted good which is good enough right now. I don't know if either of us will ever be full vegetarian, because I think that includes making sure your clothes and other products aren't animal based. I'm not throwing out my clothes and neither of us buy much leather anyway.
We also joined a gym. I've never been a gym member before, so when we went there and she said the membership would cost $50 a year, I thought it was a bargain and so Mike really thought that was cheap, since just for him it cost a lot more than that for him alone, and this would be $50 for both of us. And that's exactly how the woman stated it. It would be $50 a year for the both of us. We were both skeptical so we asked how much it would be if we didn't do that plan. She then said it would be $29.95 a month individually. She invited us to have a fee visit and think about it. We went home and later we told his mom about it and she thought that was very, very cheap and asked if we were sure she said $50 for the year, and we said yeah.
The next day we went there and took a spinning class( more on that later.) So afterwards, we thought about it and decided to join. We were filling out the contract and that's when we saw, no, it's not $50 a year. But $50 a month. When we explained our confusion the lady looked at us as if we were crazy because we thought it was $50 a year. I didn't really appreciate that because it was her wording that made us think that. So, anyway we left so we could think about it. Mike could afford it, but he wasn't sure with other expenses we have if we should do it. But Mike has always talked about how much happier he was when he was working out. And I could see it when we were doing the spinning class, he had a huge smile on his face. His job is so stressful and he's always so miserable and tired when he gets home, that if it was going to make him happier, I wanted to do it. So the next day we signed up.
The spinning class was brutal, for me. When I was a kid I had no problem riding bikes. I was always comfortable on the seat. But Mike and I have gone riding a couple of times and that first time, I was having trouble because my butt kept hurting. He bought a bike seat pad for me and it got better. I hadn't really considered that before we went to the spin class and as soon as I sat down my butt hurt. And I don't really get it because, let's just say, I have some more padding down there than I did when I was a kid but it still hurts like crazy. I do not know how I made it through that class. I wanted to stop and get off several times because it hurt so bad. While I stopped pedaling a couple of times, I never got off.
We went out and bought some supplies before we went to the gym the first time as official members. We got a bike pad seat and gloves, since my hands hurt too during the spinning class. We got yoga mats, gym bags, towels, headbands(he likes using them. I don't sweat as much in my face.) We went to the gym a couple of days ago and it was actually kind of fun. Well, not at first. We started out on the ellipitical machine and I thought it wouldn't ne much harder than the treadmill, but I barely made it through it. We tried to use all the different machines and we had fun. And we ate out afterwards, to replenish some of the nutrients we lost. It was a good night. I was sore and stiff a little in my arms and legs yesterday, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
So we'll see if we can keep up with going to the gym and the vegetarian thing. Mike says he's already starting to feel better. I don't feel much different, but it's still early.
Stacey