The Vegan Diet: Day 1

Today I began a rather sadistic journey:  Two weeks of eating everything but meat products and sugar, all in the name of wishing for a lifestyle of less body pain.  Read the back story here. 

I'll be honest.  Today was obnoxious.  I spent almost every moment of it fixated on eating sugar.  I wasn't even hungry.  I just wanted ice cream or chocolate covered fruit or or or... I felt rather crazed.  Like I was trying to quit cigarrettes.  Cigarettes.  It makes me  happy that I didn't know how to spell the word on the first try.

Best food of the day:  I quickly chopped 1/2 onion, 2 zucchinis, and 2 garlic cloves and tossed them in a pan.  I tossed them into a bowl of Trader Joe's Creamy Corn & Roasted Pepper soup.  YUMMY!!!  Adding anything to soup is always a quick way of seasoning and creating a seemingly fancy meal.  Try veggies, noodles, and/or rice.

Guiltless Cheat:  I needed dinner and was out of the house.  My raw almonds and dried cranberries were entirely uninteresting.  A friend purchased a carved turkey sandwich for me.  It was amazing. (I actually do feel a bit guilty.)

And I enjoyed my dark chocolate.

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In other news, my bowels seem to have "awoken."  It is healthy to need to use the bathroom more often, and my stool has a more natural tone and consistency, but it's a bit bothersome to need to go to the bathroom on short notice.

Only two weeks.  ONLY two weeks.  That's what I must remind myself.

To my health: Vegan adventures.

Howdy.
Rose is going on a diet.

Goal:
1.  Remove specific foods from my diet to determine if their absence lowers my average pain level.
2.  Lose no weight.
3.  Be 98% "good," and not feel guilty about the other 2% when it happens.
4.  Try it for two weeks.  If I'm tolerating it well, try it for a month.  
5.  Faithfully read ingredients on food packaging.

Back story:  Well, it truly technically is a back story.  I am diagnosed with fibromyalgia and spondlyosis, in addition to arthritis in specific joints and a growth on the back of my knee caps.  Fibromyalgia means I have chronic pain everywhere for no specific reason.  Spondlyosis is degenerative arthritis in the spaces between my vertebrae.  It's awful.

My list of attempted remedies for the pain is extremely long.  What works best?  Sleeping more than 9 hours.  Using lumbar support.  And not much else.  I need to exhaust all possibilities before I surrender to medical mj.  :)  Which will likely never happen.  Sigh.

I honestly don't know what a vegan's diet technically is.

My diet:
As many raw fruits and vegetables as possible.
No animal products.  (No meat, milk, eggs, etc.)
No sugary foods.  (YES, this includes milk chocolate!)

But what I do know is that animal products and sugar are typically inflammatories.  I'll skip them.  I may go out and find some free-range, grass fed bird meat at some point, but for now I'll avoid meat, except that I will likely buy some wild salmon (guilt-free).  I'd rather take all these animal products away and see what my body does than only try a few at a time.  If I still feel the same level of pain, I'll drop the diet, and know that I finally actually tried it.


Strategy:
- Leave a variety of healthy foods around the house.  Great Harvest bread, loads of fresh veggies and fruits, juices, rice pasta (yum!), and anything else you can suggest.
- I will keep dark chocolate very handy.  I eat about 1/4 of a bar of 86% cacao a day, and this serving only has 1 gram of sugar.  WOW.  A slice of normal bread has 4 grams!
- Muddle through it blindly and hope you have some quick food ideas.
- Pray.  This will probably suck.

Any super fast ideas to mix up raw or cooked fruits and veggies?
Specifically, what are your easy seasonings?  I discovered curry powder and now use it all the time.  Thoughts?

Home alone. A decidedly (damned) delightful short poem.

Delighted to have the house to myself for just one night.

Decided to cheat:  I turned on the oven, much to the demise of a meat-lovers frozen pizza.
Decided to redeem myself:  I added spinach, bell pepper, and onion to top the frozen grease.

Decided to be distracted by tv while placing the pizza in the oven.
Decidedly melted the skin off my right wrist.

Delighted to find my burn gel still in the bathroom cupboard.  Sometimes minimalism is overrated.


(the pizza was awesome)

RoseBark Reviews: Products, Services, and Places

Greetings, faithful readers!

I regularly write letters to companies when I have a very positive or negative experience.  I spent most of my employed career working in the customer service industry.  I firmly believe that one of the most helpful tools for a company to improve is to receive feedback.

With this in mind, I write diplomatic or, at times, very emotional letters to companies.  And they reply.  Sometimes I receive contact in 24 hours, but often they contact me after a week or three.  Or never.  In the last months, I always state that I write a blog with a large readership, and I will post the results of our communication on the blog.  That being said, they have endorsed everything I make public.

My purpose in posting the dialogs is principally this:  I believe good should be rewarded with good, and poor quality should be acknowledged as such.  I believe the public ought to have access to reviews for products, services, and places.  I had a particularly strong experience, and I want others to know about it.

I also take the time to post some of my reviews on public sites.  Stuart's Auto has my glowing review on both Google and Yahoo, amongst others.  I leave feedback on Ebay, general product review pages, and anywhere I believe it pertinent for the public to locate the valuable information. Most often, however, I simply write a letter and mail or email it off, never mentioning it again.  That, my friend, is what I intend to change.

I'll be archiving the reviews to one date within my blog (Like January 1, 2008).  Details to be posted.

Any thoughts?  Do you think this is appropriate?  Am I wasting my time by bothering to write them in the first place?

Love,
Miss Rose

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Product 1:  Shick ST2 Slim Twin Razor, Sensitive for Men.

I love you, Dave Ramsey!!! (Debt, food, and loans)

I just finished balancing my 2010 December and Q4 budget.

I worked more than double my scheduled hours in November, and the cash went directly to my university.  I'm proud of myself.

LESS THAN $400 to go on this loan!  It'll be paid off in APRIL!  I love you, Dave Ramsey!
Details on this loan

In 2010 I spent 296.25 on dining experiences including alcohol - all the food I ate which was not prepared at home. Average monthly spending: $24.70. Again, I'm proud of myself.

Dinner tonight: Wild salmon with fresh veggies, and rice noodles with pesto and sun dried tomato sauce. 

All the money I "saved" on meals (READ: Didn't spend) went directly to the Uni.
It takes determination, determination, and more determination.  I create boundaries for spending, bring snacks and prepared meals wherever I travel, and decide when it's ok to fudge and splurge.

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When a friend said he is impressed with how precise I am in food budgeting:

Thanks to Marke McC for his Excel budget spreadsheet.  I'm happy to share it with you.  I update my budget every Tuesday (Banks clear weekend payments on Mondays.)  I save my receipts, and note when I pay cash.  I compare these with Debit and Credit spending.  I carry NO balance on my credit card - I just spend wads of money every month on it, but pay the balance BEFORE I ever spend the money.  REI rewards, here I come!

The right man

When I've found the right man, shouldn't the world make a bit more sense?
Shouldn't I feel more settled, because everything seems right, seems at peace?

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If I like someone, and there are looming big questions, and these questions prompt deep, continued conversation, and it seems that these big questions must be resolved even before we kiss... Do all these big "issues" mean that I should not take time to become emotionally involved with him?


It's one in the morning, and I'm contemplative.  I have no answers, and my intuition seems murky.
Post comments below please -

Personal value. Love. Orphanages in Ecuador. Sharing Jesus.

I wrote the following letter to Lilly.  I met her when I sat next to her on a bus in Ecuador.  She was volunteering at Santuario del Olon, an orphanage on the coast in Olon, Ecuador.  We started a dialogue which I... didn't much enjoy.  Everything she spoke of somehow had to do with Jesus.  I felt a bit awkward.  "There's more to life!"  I was thinking.  Later I emailed her and said she shouldn't preach at people.  Then I realized - If she truly believes that Jesus saved her soul, I should hope to God that she would tell everyone about it!



A recent letter I wrote to her -
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I think it little coincidence that the day I choose to reply to you is the day I happen to read the chapter in Blue like Jazz about loving yourself.

"The key to everything rests in the ability to receive love...  I had no peace.  I was clingy, always wanting affection and approval."
It says that one cannot truly love others if they're not loving themselves.  And the only way to really love yourself is to realize how God sees you, and how he loves you.

Who or what chooses my personal value?
Do I allow my mom or my boss or statistics or accomplishments or titles determine my worth?  Do I let little nasty jabs from friends 10 years ago continue to fester, telling me I will not ever amount to anything? 
Do I choose to allow my internal or immediate circumstances to determine my value?  Of how much I accomplished that day or staying depressed in my overwhelmed state?  What about my tremendous physical illness?  Does the way I physically feel, and the medical diagnoses I have determine my value?

Somewhere in there I'm supposed to "hear" God.  To know He exists.  I know he exists.  And to know he really really cares about ME - me.  I don't know that he really cares about me.  I know that he is good to me, that he has richly blessed me, that he has intervened on my behalf - But I don't know how this is personal on his end.

THANK YOU for caring.

Merry Christmas!  (It's 2 a.m.  Be nice.)

It honors me that you read my words.

My blog just surpassed 10,000 views.

That's rather astonishing, to be frank.  4,800 individual people have visited my site.


I encourage you to comment on any blogs you read - your reflections are always welcome in my life!
And it makes me feel good.  :)
Cheers and love,
-r

In Love (?)

I wrote this blog last summer.
But I wasn't emotionally ready to share it...
My heart is in a different place now.  Further along on my path, I hope.
Please comment.
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Disorganized musings from a hurting girl

Love.

There is a man that I know.

I love him.

- It is nighttime. I sit on the second story deck in the dark as the rain pounds down hard, splashing back up on my face. -

He is perfect; yet he and I both know he is not perfect. In fact, a few times we discussed his weaknesses and faults. It was a good talk.

I haven't seen him in months. I don't know when I will see him again. And that's ok. But it... it's difficult.

He treasures me. He tells me he loves me, even after I dump out the words describing the things I like least about myself. He reassures me when I feel weak or confused. He knows when to hold me close. Except that we are not close. He is not with me, he cannot hold me, and I am left simply knowing that he would if he could.

I haven't written a song in almost ten years. But one night some months ago I wrote a song. Because I was hurting, and I wanted to tell him that he was foolish for not chasing me with all his being. It's the type of song with a fast beat and happy-sounding melody, but intense words calling for attention and agreement from both the audience and the foolish boy. I wrote the song lyrics in my journal. Some parts are scratched out because they didn't fit the tempo. And the pages are warped from all my crying while I wrote. I don't know when I'll be able to look at the song again.

- Tears trail down my chin and drip onto my hands. I wipe my nose and take a deep gulp of red wine, muffling my sob. -

I choose to not see him. We choose to not see each other, better said.

You see, we simply cannot be. We cannot be because, albeit an amazing connection, albeit we feed each other energy and feed off each other all while remaining independent, well, we cannot be because something is missing.

That knowing.

Easy: 60 seconds to write to our troops

(shameless copy-paste blog)

Note:  I don't usually pass these along, but thought it was a worthwhile cause.  It is not meant to imply that I agree with any of the conflicts we are currently engaged in, but that we do need to support our troops regardless of our personal opinion. 

 
If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will send it to a soldier that is serving overseas. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! It is FREE and it only takes about 60 seconds.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our soldiers over there need to know we are behind them.

Please take the time and please take the time to pass it on for your friends to participate as well.
Cheers-
r