28 Day Challenge Reflection

When I went into the 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge with Whole Foods, I outlined a few of my obstacles:

• I have had a soda a day since college. The caffeine in Coke and Pepsi helps my chronic headaches. I only had four cans of soda throughout the challenge - one while out at a bar with friends and the other three near the end of my challenge. I can go without soda, but I did notice a negative change in my headache levels without the caffeine kick. And empty calories.
• I will also be exercising - 20-30 minutes 5 days a week. Haha. I paid attention to how much I walk and I realize I walk A LOT! Living in the city without a car means I lead a very pedestrian lifestyle. I am disappointed that I never managed to take my bike out for a ride during the uncharacteristically summer days in the past month.
• I'm skinny and cannot lose any more weight. Despite my best intentions and even with increasing my healthy-fat intake of foods like avocado and nuts, I lost 4.5 pounds in 4 weeks. I am currently at my adult all-time low and hope that at this point I can only go up.
• I normally do not eat any breakfast or will snack on dry cereal from a plastic bag. I am happy to report that I did not eat any dry cereal from a plastic bag like a five year old on this challenge. I woke up early and ate breakfast or made a shake or smoothie every day.
• I love white rice and haven't really enjoyed brown rice too much. I'm learning to like brown rice. The only time I had white rice was in my bowl at Chipotle and with my vegetable sushi rolls.
• I need to be careful with so I do not accidentally eat any gluten. My last reaction was probably from the smallest trace of gluten and yet was so severe I had to leave work early. My only reaction came from nutritional yeast - either cross contamination from bulk bins or the yeast itself. I'm leaning towards the nutritional yeast being the culprit. At some point, I will probably give it another go before permanently ruling it out of my diet.
• And I need to do all of this while working over 40 hours a week. Done.

One of the risks of going vegan is going heavy on vegan products, like meat replacements and veggie burgers and veggie sausage and such. This is the same for gluten free. It is easy to run to the grocery store and buy gluten free cookies that are five times the price of its wheat-filled counterpart and only have a third of the taste and even less of the nutrients. While I used the term vegan a lot the past month, it really was a plant strong meat-free diet. Going away from eggs was shockingly perhaps the most challenging - it is so easy and quick to have an egg or two for breakfast. Most gluten and dairy free baked goods contain only one allergen: eggs. I'm surprised at how easy it was for me to eliminate fish and meat products from my diet. I went the firefighter route for this - a drastic change in my diet rather than a gradual change. Figuring that I already was dairy (except for goat and sheep cheese) free, I had an advantage. The hardest thing though was going oil free. As soon as I saw a drastic change in my weight, I added oil back in my diet. I'm now much more conscious of how I use oil and like the freedom of knowing that it is possible to cook without it. Back in the day, I used to cook everything in butter and I only owned canola oil for baking purposes. Eliot showed me how to cook with oil instead of butter and that simple switch opened up another giant culinary door for me. Oil based pan frying is a staple in a dairy free kitchen. Even my fake butter is a vegetable oil spread. Now I have a few more culinary tricks up my sleeve and can add basic techniques such as sauteing and baking to my skillset.

My over arching goal was to diversify my plate. It was becoming very white and very boring. And expensive! I love cooking with fresh ingredients and there were several meals throughout the challenge where I looked at my plate and smiled because I was accomplishing my goal of "eating a rainbow".

For our last meal of the challenge, the bloggers got together at Whole Foods for a dinner of salad, fruit salad, vegan macaroons and perhaps the most impressive: lasagna. I was super excited to have a raw vegan lasagna earlier this year. It was tasty, but obviously cold and radically

different from the lasagna of my childhood. One of the first dishes I learned to prepare as a kid was lasagna. My mom had the clipped recipe on a little piece of paper and I would dutifully follow it, layering the uncooked noodles with the sauce and various cheeses. It was really my first all-by-myself-I-don't-need-your-help-any-more-thanks-mom recipes I made. And made several times for my family. When I needed to go off dairy but learned that I could tolerate sheep's cheese, I toyed with the idea of making a lasagna, but quickly realized that a lasagna with only four servings could easily add up to over fifty dollars with all the specialty products I would need to use. I had quite honestly given up on ever eating a hot lasagna again. Or at least until my budget would allow for such an extravagant meal. But then the Engine 2 book published a delicious, colorful, dairy free lasagna recipe. And it was heavenly! Loaded with fresh veggies, tofu, nuts and pasta carefully placed between brown rice noodles (gluten free so I could also enjoy the dish!), the lasagna was what I was missing. But presented in a new way. Just because I can't eat something in the traditionally prepared way doesn't mean I can't have it again. It just means that a little bit of creativity is the only thing standing in my way.

Overall, I think this challenge was the best thing for me. It shook up the colors on my plate, got me eating a lot more fruits, veggies, and nuts, pulled me away from being so meat-focused with meal planning, and helped make breakfast part of my morning routine. The cooking habits I developed are likely to stay with me. I only need a small portion of meat to feel satisfied and my cravings for vegetables are pretty strong now. I used to only eat two or three times a day. Now, I snack and can easily eat 6-7 times a day. I also started eating foods that were unfamiliar to me, like eggplant, and learned some more ways to add tofu and beans in my diet.

Check out what the other bloggers have been up to!

What are some of your healthy eating goals? Have you ever done something to shake up your plate? How did that go?

A trio of healthy eating

These past four weeks have certainly flown by! I thought I would be struggling to come up with food options while on a budget and gluten free doing this 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge, but I have been eating a bigger variety of food than ever before! Since I found myself in the kitchen more than at the computer, I'm afraid I'm going to cheat and just do a "I wish I could go into detail" post for three of the great things I have been eating. There are a few more straggling posts coming and I think shake up what I present on the blog. Rather than having so many meat based dishes, I am going to share my joy in making more vegetable and fruit dishes.

This mushroom strogonaff is from Engine 2. The recipe is really easy and when served with brown rice, a very filling lunch! I never really ate mushrooms before this diet and I'm happy to report that I like them!

I found a recipe for gf vegan bread and used Pamela's Flour Mix for the first time. The bread turned out to be amazing - I ate it all within 24 hours of baking it. The Brown Rice and Lentil Burger recipe came from Engine 2. I used about a tablespoon of flour to help bind the ingredients together. With not the greatest luck. A friend pointed out that flour was probably called for because of its glue (gluten) qualities. Overall, very tasty and the broken burgers would go great over pasta or on top of a salad.

This is perhaps one of my prettiest pictures. Don't these tacos look beautiful? They are guac tacos. That's right - guacamole in a warmed corn tortilla. I disregarded the serving size and ended up with over 3 cups of guac one weekend so I plopped the mix on a tortilla and called it a taco. Turns out that too much of a good thing is just that - too much. Next time I make guac for just myself, I'm going to remember to cut the recipe into quarters since there's no way I could eat that much!

Avocado Summer Salad

Going plant strong meant eating many more salads. I didn't eat salad until last August when I went on a cruise with my family and needed to start eating fish and salad almost out of necessity because I knew if I was ever hungry, it would be my fault. The springboard for this salad was a picture I saw on a foodie website as well as on TV. I jazzed it up a bit and was so excited to finally eat it by the time I managed to buy all the fresh ingredients. This was great to make on those hot summer days when you want to properly cook, but at the same time, want a fast meal that gets you out of the kitchen and on to another adventure. From entering the kitchen to fist bite, this is easily a 30 minute or less meal - much less if the quinoa is already cooked or canned or frozen corn is used.

And can I just ask who the hell am I that I got excited to eat a salad?!?

Avocado Summer Salad

Serves 2-3 meal sized portions

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1/2 T sugar

Lemon juice

3 ears of corn, husked

2 tomatoes, washed and diced

1 handful cherry tomatoes, washed

1 head of butter lettuce, washed and torn into pieces

2 avocados

Directions

Prepare 1 cup quinoa according to package directions.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water with sugar and a splash of lemon juice (mom's special recipe) with to boil. Add the corn. Cook until corn is tender. When corn is cool enough to handle, cut kernels off.

In a large bowl, toss together lettuce, corn, quinoa, tomatoes. Immediately before serving, add diced avocados on top.

(Note: This was so good, I didn't even bother adding a dressing.)

I've never had butter lettuce before, let alone be a savvy enough lettuce consumer to truly appreciate the range of varieties available and their unique flavorings, but the butter lettuce was really, really good. The whole salad, in fact, was delicious! My 28-day plant strong (no animal product) diet ends this week. I see more salads like this in my future. This one had quinoa as a source of protein. I think when I make it again, I will cook the quinoa with chicken stock and add about 1/2 cup of cooked chicken to the recipe for the extra protein/calorie punch without sacrificing all the healthy nutrients this salad already has going for it.

Corner Bakery

While out shopping with a friend over the weekend, he asked where we were going to have lunch. I planned for everything else - what stores we were driving to and where the sales were, but I didn't really plan for lunch. I had an extra big breakfast and threw some larabars in my purse to tide me over if I started getting hungry. But there were were in the north suburbs in the shopping districts dotted with restaurants and I had to find some place to eat on the fly. I looked in the window of the first suggestion - a burger joint. We passed. Next up was Corner Bakery. The teenage cashier greeted us. I didn't even bother looking at the menu. I told her that I was gluten free and vegan - what would she recommend. I got the confused look from her and asked if she knew what gluten free meant. The light bulb clicked and she said that I couldn't have wheat. We're going on the right path now! I fleshed out the rest of the definition (no wheat, barely, rye or oats or anything that came in contact with those). And then she recommended the soup. I asked if she was sure that there was no gluten in there (some broths contain gluten) so she checked the allergen binder. Someone walking by pointed out that there was milk in there. Yikes! So we figuratively took a few steps back. There were pictures of salads and we figured out that I could have a salad without bread or sauce (soy sauce often contains wheat). The Asian Endamame Salad was a great choice. When ringing me up, she asked what size - apparently the larger portion was served over wontons. Delicious, but deadly (or at least, illness-inducing for me). I went with the side salad and heard her carefully repeat no bread, no sauce and the order was passed along the line with those instructions. When my food arrived, it was identified as with no bread, no sauce. This may seem like a little much, but this is now my typical dialogue with food service employees when dining out. I'm grateful for allergen charts and binders of nutritional information available so employees can quickly identify safe options for diners with food allergies. Corner Bakery, which has many locations in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, did a great job with their online material. Their allergen information is on the last few pages of their document. It is also dated from 2008. They are one of the first restaurants I've seen with check marks in a separate column for vegan items! Awesome!

The salad itself was loaded with vegetables - halved cherry tomatoes, julienned carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, endamame, green onions - and herbs like cilantro and basil all over a bed of lettuce. A very colorful and delicious dish that hit the spot!

Chocolate Mousse

When I went dairy free for health reasons, I started cutting out desserts. My intake easily dropped by half. And then when gluten free was added to the mix, I became too depressed to even want dessert! Over five dollars for a box of gluten free dairy free cookies? Or box mix for the same price? Gone are the days of finding packaged dessert items for under a dollar. I've heard that people on a gluten free diet easily spend three times as much as their wheat consuming counterparts. Whether the number is accurate or not, what remains true is that finding specialty items that are gluten free and not manufactured in the same facility as wheat gets pretty pricey pretty fast.

Even though I've been dairy free for twice as long as gluten free, I never really exploited the dairy-alternatives out there beyond rice milk ice cream and soy dream ice cream (lovingly dubbed "fake ice cream" in my house). When I went gluten free, I knew I needed to get creative and get back in the kitchen.

One of the joys of participating in this plant-strong Engine-2 based diet is that it is vegan. The emphasis is on plant-strong rather than vegan so people are running out to the stores to buy their fruits and veggies rather than the processed meat-alternatives. But for me, I take extra delight in vegan because it means dairy-free. I get to relax my guard for wondering if butter or a tablespoon of cow's milk could be in a dish or racking my brain trying to figure out a replacement for dairy in a recipe, only to give up before I finish reading the ingredient list.

My vegetarian friend opened the door to exploring vegan options for desserts last year when I tried vegan fudge for the first time. If I want a creamy dessert, it doesn't need to be cow's milk based - it is easy to explore other ingredients like tofu! Yes, tofu in dessert. It is what made the fudge so good, too!

One of the recipes I really liked from the Engine 2 book is the chocolate mousse. The ingredients are simple: tofu, cocoa powder, vanilla, and maple syrup (or agave nectar). And the recipe? Toss it all in a blender until well mixed. Refrigerate until firm. Enjoy. For some extra fruit flavor, I added frozen (defrosted on the counter for about 20 minutes) strawberries, blue berries, and raspberries. I ate most of the mousse in one sitting, in case that vouches for the dessert's amazing sweet flavor! Give it a try! It is the perfect snack on a warm Chicago day!

Macaroni and Not Cheese with Nutritional Yeast

I culinary-ly geeked out over a recipe in the Engine 2 book, ate it, loved it, and then realized my body had another idea.

There's a recipe for Macaroni and Not Cheese. Whenever I have had gluten and dairy free mac and cheese, it was with goat cheese - a specialty of Eliot. (I'm actually cow's milk intolerant and my body is perfectly fine with goat's and sheep's cheese - sorry for any confusion caused by my misuse of the terms "dairy free" or "lactose free".) Of course, the vegans/plant-strong eaters found a delicious animal-product free version of this tasty meal. My first year out of college was filled with the Kraft version - I think my roommate and I kept milk in the fridge just so we could make the blue box favorite. I never branched out and really tried oven-cooked mac and cheese, so was excited to find that it wasn't too late - I could make my mac and cheese and eat it too! (With certified gluten free brown rice noodles, of course!)

The recipe was easy - onion, cashews, lemon juice, water and sea salt combined in a food processor topped with a mix of red peppers, nutritional yeast and garlic and onion powder on top all tossed with noodles before being baked in the oven before adding cilantro on top. Yum! Dinner that night was delicious - I liked the taste the nutritional yeast added to the party of flavors. When I was going to bed, I wasn't feeling well any more. I brushed it off. The next morning, I got sicker. I wasn't sure if I was having a food reaction or not since I only had two symptoms and a normal gluten reaction has over six immediate effects. I ate the mac and not cheese for lunch and felt horrible.

The internet is pointing me towards nutritional yeast as being gluten free. I didn't have an all-out gluten reaction, so I'm hesitant to label it as such. (Plus, I do not know the brand I ate.) The nutritional yeast was likely from a bulk bin, so the possibility always exists for in-store cross-contamination. Or, quite simply, my body does not tolerate it. Since I can't over-analyze what went wrong forever, I threw out the rest of my leftovers as well as the tablespoon or two I had left. I'm adding nutritional yeast to my intolerant list.

Since I had a detour from the nutritional yeast reaction that caused me to lose 2.4 pounds in two days (scary! This was my fastest weight loss ever, too!), I have added oil back into my diet for a calorie pick-me up. When I started, I dove straight into this 28-day challenge. I went the firefighter route which meant from the get-go, no dairy, animal products, oils, sodas, and more for the full 28 days. (I only "cheated" by having an egg as an ingredient in two pieces of gf bread, soda water in a mixed drink when out with friends, and small amounts of oil in homemade bread in a total of three weeks! Not bad!) When I went off lactose, it was a gradual process. For a few months, I could tolerate milk in packaged goods if it was in the bottom 5% of the ingredients. A few months after that, I was reacting to small amounts of butter. With gluten, I had to go cold-turkey and turn my diet around immediately. There was no cheating. One of the reasons I wanted to do this challenge was the excitement that I can get when I realize that I can eat forbidden foods again. With dairy, I'm going to slowly try to build up a tolerance so I can have foods with trace amounts again to ease anxiety over eating out and cross-contamination. With gluten, there's really no chance (unless medical science makes a giant breakthrough) that I'll ever be able to eat wheat, barely, or rye again. After my 28 days are up, I can eat fish. I can eat bacon. I can have a can of soda. I can toss my white rice pasta with extra virgin olive oil. These may not be the healthiest decisions I can make, but I can make them without wanting to die from pain within the hour I eat them.

Ultimately, I need to listen to my body. I should have better read my first round of reaction rather than aggravating it with a second round of the trouble-making food. (Not that this happened with meatballs only a few months ago or anything...) Am I sad to add another item to my intolerant list? Yes. Is it going to be hard? I was just starting to explore the possibilities of this new-to-me food, so it falls under disappointing but not life-changing.

EDIT: I found out that one of my favorite vegan chips contains nutritional yeast and I have been eating it in such quantity that I would have had dozens of reactions by now, but haven't. I think in this case I was just victim to cross contamination in the bulk bin.

Eggplant and tofu curry

As part of my twist on the 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge, I'm trying hard to eat a rainbow of foods and broaden my horizons. I stocked up on tofu and was searching my favorite recipe site (Food Network) and discovered this recipe! Eggplant and tofu curry! It met my gluten and dairy free requirements without any substitutions (yay coconut milk!) so I was good to go. To meet the oil free requirements, I sprayed a little bit of Pam in my wok while cooking with no negative results. This was a really basic curry I served over a bed of quinoa. I liked the variety of veggies - eggplant (which I really only had before on a tofu kabob during Battle Tofu), onion, garlic, and loads of spinach. I always pass on adding jalapeño peppers. My stomach is very gringa - I'm not ready for spicy foods. I'm not totally sold on eggplant yet. I think my chunks were too big and probably not cooked long enough. I'll have to give eggplant another try with a different cooking style before officially moving it to the "meh" list.

The recipe is a super basic introduction into making curry. Now that I know the formula to follow, it will be easy to create loads of other curries in the future. And THAT'S what cooking is all about - learning the basics so you can create an endless variety of meals on the fly!

Arya Bhavan

My friends are great - they are all supporting me on my food journey - whether it is my lifelong standard cow's milk and gluten free or my temporary vegan hold-the-oil and no-soda challenge. We love to go out to eat, and the girls came up with a great place: Arya Bravan on 2508 W Devon in Chicago.

One of the boys teased that he had a doctor's note saying he needs to eat meat. Wrapped in bacon. Upon looking at the menu online, I learned that this friend could have his health in jeorporday! The girls chose a vegetarian Indian restaurant with loads of vegan options.

My friends had plenty of tasty, colorful plates as they loaded up from the buffet - an exciting opprotunity for the vegetarian in the group who said that she doesn't eat at buffets unless they are totally vegetarian. Our server said that there were lots of gluten free options on the buffet, but I'm still too nervous to partake. One wrong move with a patron and a spoon could easily cross-contiminate a dish. Plus, I rest easier knowing that when food is prepared just for me, the chef is aware of possible cross-contimation issues.

The server recommended a Dosa. I had no idea what it was, so told her I trusted her. A dosa is esentially a very thin crepe (bigger than my head) with some veggies inside and some dipping sauces. It was made with rice flour, she said. And probably some oil. When eating out, I haven't had the courage to ask for an oil-free dish yet. Since I already need to avoid gluten and cow's milk since I am super sensetive, I don't want to be precieved as an overly-picky guest. At a vegan restuarant, I only needed to say the wonderful v- word and I had loads of options available to me. One disappointment with the menu - online, vegan entres are clearly marked. This is not the case with the menu at the restaurant. There are also plenty of vegan drinks, our server said, but I didn't try one. Maybe next time.

Overall, this was a great place for eating Indian food with my friends. And I'm happy to report that my carnivore friend said the food was very good!

Basil Polenta

Here's an easy throw-together gluten free, vegan, nut free dish with generous portions of fresh foods!

Ingredients:

1 18-oz package of polenta (I used Ancient Harvest Quinoa Polenta - Heirloom red and black), cut into 1/3" rounds

2 shallots, sliced

2 tomatoes, diced

3 gloves of garlic, minced

1 handful of basil, cut into strips with kitchen shears

Pam cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheet with tin foil. Spray with cooking spray. Place polenta on foil. Bake for 15 minutes.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray. Add shallots and garlic, cook until tender. Add tomatoes and cook for another two or three minutes. Add the basil on top. Cook for another two or three minutes.

Place the shallot/tomato/garlic/basil mixture on top of the polenta from the oven. Serve!

This made a fantastic grab and go lunch for me. One of my coworkers never tried polenta before (shh...I didn't either before going gluten free), so I gave her a spoonful and this recipe was awarded her seal of approval! So what exactly is polenta? The variety I buy is yellow corn meal with quinoa - yum! There are loads of recipes to try with it! For my super super easy pan-cooking polenta recipe, check out this post. Now is the BEST time to expand your culinary repertoire and try new foods! (If not now, then when?)

Tofu Stir Fry

Mise en plas.

That's the secret to eating your veggies when stir-frying. The idea is to prepare all your ingredients ahead of time. Notice how recipes say "1 onion - diced" rather than saying "1 onion" and then step 1 is to dice your onion? It's because you're supposed to be ready to go before the stove is turned on. And if all your ingredients are chopped and neatly prepped in their respective bowls awaiting their orderly turn to enter the wok, you'll be able to quickly tell that your rainbow of vegetables is rather white. With my herbs standing only 1/16" tall in my windowsill garden, I couldn't even have the final splash of greens to the finished product.

Here's a delicious (even if rather white), oil free, gluten free, vegan stir fry:

Tofu with Rice Noodles and a Splash of Color

Marinade:

2 T gluten free soy sauce (I use San-J)

1 T brown sugar

1/2 t (or more to taste) Bragg's Liquid Aminos

2 cloves garlic, minced

Other ingredients:

1 package of extra firm tofu

2 bell peppers, diced

2 shallots, sliced

Pam cooking spray

1/2 T grated ginger

Rice flour noodles

Cut the tofu into equal sized cubes. Place in a medium sized non-metal bowl.

Whisk the marinade ingredients together in a small bowl. Pour over the tofu. Marinate in the fridge for about half an hour.

Prepare rice flour noodles according to the directions.

Heat the wok. Spray with cooking spray. Add the bell peppers. Cook for 3 minutes while stirring. Add the shallots while stirring. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add the ginger, tofu, and drained rice noodles while (you guessed it) stirring until everything is evenly heated. Serve!

For more ideas of how to maximize tofu, check out some of the dishes my friends and I created during our vegetarian and tree nut/dairy/gluten free dinner party when I was fully introduced to the chameleon qualities of tofu!

Here's a kitchen tool that normally doesn't get a lot of mention: my bamboo spoons. Aside from the eco-friendly, green-ness of the product, they are super cheap. When I went gluten free, I got rid of two things in my kitchen: my toaster and my wooden spoons. Since wooden spoons are often used for things like wheat pasta, gluten is allegedly absorbed in the cracks. Um, no thank you. I recently bought a set of three spoons and since I live with a completely gluten free kitchen, I have no worries of cross-contamination. Meanwhile, my family knows to switch to the plastic spoon whenever cooking something I will eat while at their house. Wooden cutting boards are off limits. Being gluten intolerant means I have to pay attention to not only the food, but the utensils used to create it! Stir frying with bamboo spoons is so easy! These spoons remain in perfect condition after I'm done, unlike my plastic spoons which tend to chip away during the stir fry process! Gross!

Sorghum Bread

The Engine 2 Healthy Eating challenge goes beyond just a plant-strong vegan diet. No carbonated beverages or oils. Two staples in my standard gluten and cow's milk free diet. With the hope of saving money and trying new bread recipes, I decided from the start that I was going to bake one vegan gluten free bread a week.

Quickly, I ran into two problems:

• Most recipes call for millet flour - which I do not have and the dreary Chicago weather was preventing me from wanting to leave my studio
• Almost everything contains oil

Where was I going to compromise my standards a little? The bread. Making gluten free vegan bread and trying new recipes that have the potential to become staples in my lifelong repertoire is much more important to me than bending the rules a smidge with 1/4 cup of oil during a 28 day challenge.

I found this sorghum bread recipe from Book of Yum - a gluten free vegetarian website and it had some of the most accessible list of flours (translation: I had everything but teff or buckwheat flour already, so easily substituted garbanzo bean flour.) Instead of hemp milk, I used rice milk.

Making it was pretty easy. I used my handheld mixer with great results. I never worked with ground flax and water as an egg substitute before and I'm glad to say that it was an easy hands-off process thanks to my 3-cup food processor!

How did it taste? I should have taken better before and after pictures. I ate about several large slices within the hour it came out of the oven. I miss homemade, fresh tasting bread. Tomorrow, I plan on making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a spinach salad for lunch just so I can delight in the flavors again!

Breakfast

As part of my challenge, I'm eating breakfast. Weekdays, that means I have to get up the first time my alarm clock sounds - not after the third time hitting snooze. So far, I've been eating Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (certified gluten free from Bob's Red Mill), toast with peanut butter, or fruit. This morning, I wasn't under any time pressure, so I made myself a proper breakfast.

With spinach.

One of the benefits of doing this challenge is access to related events. On Thursday evening, I went on a Health Starts Here tour of Whole Foods (actually, you can always go on a tour of the store - just ask an employee - I've always been too shy to do it before). Our first stop was the mangos in the entryway. Becky showed us how to choose a ripe mango and I asked what would go in a mango smoothie. (After all, the Mega Mango from Jamba Juice is my go to drink. Maybe I could make a similar product myself...) She and Mary from asmallloss suggested anything...but add spinach! (Mary also suggested some frozen berries, which I bought but haven't used yet.) I bought two mangos and took them home. It seemed like a crazy idea, but maybe they were on to something...

I mixed my smoothie and had some toast with peanut butter and a side of grapes. Bread is the only way I am cheating or bending the rules with going vegan. I found some egg-free bread, but have loads of gluten and dairy free bread in the freezer that needs to be eaten to make some room for the vegan bread. I'm currently loving Glutino's flax seed bread - a find in the clearance frozen section at Jewel a few months ago! Apparently no one was buying it? It was a ridiculously low price, I want to say $2.00 or so. Don't worry - the bread is almost gone and I'll be making some gluten free, oil free, vegan bread tomorrow!

My Mega Spinach Mango Banana Smoothie

1 banana

2 mangos

1 handful of spinach, washed

1/4 c rice milk

Mix all ingredients together in a blender. Add ice cubes and straw.

Makes: 1 generous serving

This shake was a far cry from my delicious chocolate one that I totally did not eat for dinner that night (in case my mom is reading). Was it good? Were Becky and Mary on to something delicious? Yes. Couldn't even taste the spinach and I've been on a spinach kick lately!

Healthy Eating Challenge - Day 2

My first day vegan and soda free went off without a hitch. So of course, Day 2 was going to present some unusual situations.

I went to my first ever conference for work through The Day Job. They advertised one of the perks of going as a free contential breakfast. Oh goodie! Bagels and cream cheese. The registration form included a spot for special needs, so I wrote in gluten and lactose intolerant and saw what would happen. I stopped a Jamba Juice and had an all-fruit Mega Mango (all their smoothies can be made non-dairy and only one of their smoothies and a handful of boosts contain gluten). At the conference, there were bagels, cream cheese, coffee and dougnuts galore. Thankfully, there was some fresh fruit and water also available. In the afternoon, there as a refreshment break: they served cookies, hot soft pretzels, soda, juice and some fruit. I went with the juice. The only thing I had to choose differently from my standard gluten/dairy free diet was passing over the soda. I'm more tired than usual - I didn't realize how much I depended on my lunchtime soda for a mid-day pick me up!

For lunch, my co-worker and I went over to foodlife at Water Tower Place - great for tourists, shoppers, and conference attendees. foodlife is organized so you can order what you like and pay at the end - they swipe a credit card style card. I'm always a fan of these cafeteria-like settings - I can be as difficult or indecisive as I need to without slowing down a coworker and we all have loads of choices. I asked the host if he had any recommendations for gluten free foods. And then I got a sheet. Nine different stands had gluten free food! Win! But then I noticed the heavy mention of meat. The salmon and sushi sounded so good - so did the hamburger on the homemade gluten free bun! For ease, I went to the salad vendor and marvelled at all their gluten free choices, marked with a green g. I identified myself as gluten intolerant and ordered tofu for my protien and choose some other toppings. I told the man wild rice (clearly labeled gluten free) and he put the ingredient next to it on it. I asked what that was but he didn't understand. I asked someone else and she told me: bulgar.

I had them make me a new salad.

I've never done that before. I felt like a royal pain since it was the last ingredient to go on the salad, but of all things, why did gluten end up on my salad! I'm all for gluten free ingredients in salads, but there were a lot of gluten containing items surrounding it that made me nervous. Labeled gluten free goodies were next to wheat containing items. One unsteady move with a spoon could easily contiminate my food.

Thankfully, I made it through my salad (take 2) with spinach, tofu, corn, endame, guac and wild rice with a basic vingerate without any other incident. (Grand total of my salad lunch with water: $9.81. Got to love city lunches!)

foodlife has loads of choices for people on a gluten free diet. I'd be interested to compare a gluten free list with a dairy free list (if one was available) and truly see all of my available options. That homemade gluten free hamburger bun is teasing me...I'd love to go back after the 28 Day Challenge and give it a taste!

Healthy Eating Challenge - Day 1

I'm going on a diet.

Correction - on a lifestyle.

For 28 days, I am participating in a Healthy Eating Challenge through Whole Foods. This is a plant-strong way of eating from the book The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn.

My biggest challenge? I can't lose any weight.

Today, I weigh 88.4 pounds. I stand only 4' 11 1/4" tall and have always been tiny. When I first went dairy free over two years ago, I lost about three pounds. After going gluten free 11 months ago, I lost an average of 8 pounds. At my skinniest only about two months ago, I was 85 pounds.

So why go plant-strong and say no to all animal products (including meats, fish, and eggs)?

My plates have been very white lately. My diet was turning into white rice with meat. Maybe some veggies or fruit. The pictures I posted on the blog were the best-of's. Not every meal had a vegetable. I am also scared to get into a diet rut. With a limited number of gluten and dairy free packaged goods available, I was finding myself eating the same products over and over again. As I heard from the Gluten Free Expo, we eat the same foods over and over - just in different combinations. A white plate is devoid of nutrients - I need to eat a rainbow!

So for the next 28 days, my diet and blog will be:

• Vegetarian and vegan
• Oil free
• Carbonated beverage free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Fish and shell-fish free
• Gluten free
• White rice light
• Devoid of (or very light on) packaged and unnecessarily processed foods (translation: I need to be able to pronounce all the ingredients)
• Focused on healthy eating and maximizing nutrients readily available in fruits and vegetables
• Recipe testing - one gluten free vegan bread a week!

The only three of the top 8 allergens that will be represented will be soy, peanuts and tree nuts.

And here are my obstacles:

• I have had a soda a day since college. The caffeine in Coke and Pepsi helps my chronic headaches.
• I will also be exercising - 20-30 minutes 5 days a week.
• I'm skinny and cannot lose any more weight.
• I normally do not eat any breakfast or will snack on dry cereal from a plastic bag.
• I love white rice and haven't really enjoyed brown rice too much
• I need to be careful with so I do not accidentally eat any gluten. My last reaction was probably from the smallest trace of gluten and yet was so severe I had to leave work early.
• And I need to do all of this while working over 40 hours a week.

I will be one of 18 Chicago-based bloggers taking part in this 28-Day Challenge with Whole Foods. I'm excited for the opportunity to change my diet.

For those new to the blog, here are some "recap" style links: a Memorial Day versus Labor Day comparison of me on and off gluten and a year in review entry. I had an appendectomy on October 15, 2008. I was still having health problems and saw a gastro who told me to simply get on the pill. In early Spring 2009, a friend help diagnose my lactose intolerance. I tested her theory with a milk challenge and realized that milk was making my symptoms worse. (My stomach hurt, I didn't feel like eating, I drank a milk shake, my stomach hurt...it was a nasty cycle.) In December 2009, my symptoms were getting much worse even though I was completely off dairy. Three gastros, 5 tubes of blood, 2 rounds of stool testing, 1 CT scan, 1 chest x-ray, an echo later and a colonscopy and upper-endoscopy later, I self-diagnosed as gluten intolerant near the end of June 2010. The gastro agreed, wrote it in my chart, and I maintained a gluten free diet ever since. There was a major difference in my health when I was off gluten. All of my symptoms disappeared within five days. Do I think a gluten free diet is the answer for everyone? Not at all. If you are intolerant, then yes, you should follow a gluten free lifestyle. If not, enjoy your wheat, barely, rye, and (most) oats!

Here's to the rainbow!