40 Hour Famine 2011 part 3.

I've now completed my 40 hour food/iPhone/house phone/laptop/desktop/internet famine!
In some ways it wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, as the hunger didn't really bother me so much, not as much as the effects of hunger did.

I had a fairly good and mildly energetic day of running around with the dogs and picking firewood at my parent's place, maybe not the best activities to do when running on empty, but it was good to get out of the house and keep busy.

I had planned to do all these wonderful things like organise my Tupperware cupboard, clean out my pantry, read my board, look through and organise my old course work to start to get a feel for what I will be teaching next year. None of this happened, I was just too lethargic. Instead I just hung out on the couch, watching TV, for about 8 hours. I couldn't concentrate on words on a page or anything even mildly physical from about 2:30pm.


Having said that, the first 24 hours were the easiest, even though I did feel a bit weak and tired, it was right around the 24 hour mark that my hunger pangs kicked in, for just a little while then they went again. It was around then that I started to feel a lot weaker and more tired.
I had a great "meal" of juice for dinner, followed by my 3rd and final barley sugar for the day.

I woke up this morning and weighed myself, I lost a whole 2kg (4.4lbs) in 48 hours, I know this isn't "weight" it's probably just fluid, and by tomorrow I will probably have put on a kilo again, but I was very surprised how much had gone. NO I WILL NOT STARVE MYSELF TO LOSE WEIGHT!! And neither should anyone else! This was not a comfortable experience, and nor should it be, it's supposed to make you feel crappy so you understand how people living in poverty around the world feel every day. Carl looked at me last night when I was looking woeful and said "Imagine feeling like this walking long distances to a refugee camp with a baby on your back." I could not ever imagine how horrible that could ever be!

I've eased my way back into eating as I actually felt too weak to eat. At about 12:30 I had a small bowl of Sultana Bran, around 2pm I had some gluten-free crackers with Nutelex and Vegemite and shortly I will eat an apple. This is so I don't make myself sick and to gradually get my energy back as I still feel really crappy! And now I'm just waiting for my veggie delivery, which is late(!), so I can figure out what to cook for dinner tonight.

Don't forget, if you haven't donated yet it's not too late just go to my 40 hour famine profile page, here you can see how much I've raised and who has donate.
Every little bit helps.

40 Hour Famine 2011 part 2.

Hello fellow bloggers,
just a reminder that I am doing the 40 Hour Famine from 8pm tonight (20th August) until 12 noon on Monday 22nd August.
Please help support me in my efforts go to my 40 Hour Famine Profile Page and just remember I'm not just going without food for 40 hours, but also my iPhone, laptop, desktop PC, house phone and INTERNET!!!

SO PLEEEEEEASE HELP ME STOP THIS:

thank u :)

Lamyong Mini Steaks.

Small bite size pieces of soy patties marinated with a sweet and spicy sauce. Add to stir fries or simply add pineapple and serve on a bed of rice.

Whenever I find a packet of food that is vegan I instantly want to try it. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. I found this out with Lamyong Mushroom Chunks, which admittedly I didn’t taste, just opened the bag, thought they smelt like dog food and chucked the pack away!
I bought this pack along with Lamyong Mini Steak from my favourite online store Vegan Online.
Due to my unwillingness to try the mushroom chunks I was really hesitant to try the mini steaks, which is why I had the pack in my pantry for about 3 or so months.

A Couple of nights ago we realised there wasn’t much in the fridge or pantry, but I did have a pack of the mini steaks, reluctantly we decided to give them a go, here's what happened:

SJ’s Lamyong Mini Steaks

I sautéed some onion and broccoli in a medium sized fry pan.
Then added some:
Sweet and sour sauce
lime juice
mirin seasoning
rice wine vinegar
1 ½ pineapple rings, cut into small pieces
and the pack of mini steaks

I cooked it gently for about 5 minutes or so, until the steaks were heated through, then thickened the sauce with some corn flour mixed with water. Cooked it for another minute or two and served it with some steamed white Basmati rice.

And guess what? It wasn’t too bad at all! A quick and easy no fuss meal with plenty of flavour :)

Why Am I Vegan? Part 2 (Thyroid Update).

So I have previously put up a post kind of explaining why I am vegan.
What started off as an ethical issue about the plight of bobby calves and the cruelty involved in the dairy industry soon became a health issue. I researched becoming vegan before I took the plunge and found out that there is a lot of iodine in dairy products, which is bad for me because I was Hyperthyroid (thyroid gland was over-active and produced too much iodine and poisoned my body).
On MANY occasions I asked general practitioners, dieticians, and endocrinologists if there was ANYTHING I could do in my diet to help my thyroid. All everyone told me was "Keep away from iodine which is found in iodised salt and seafood, other than that there is nothing you can do." Which turns out is BULLSHIT!!!
THERE IS A TON OF IODINE IN DAIRY!!!! Something I had to find out on my own about 5 years AFTER diagnosis!

Well, since I I became vegan (and quit smoking and stopped drinking Coke) I have only improved both my physical and emotional well being. I have lost a guilt that I had for a very long time, but was never able to figure out what this guilt actually was.
I have now lost 13kg.
But the most impressive, amazing, exciting part of it all is that I have lost my Hyperthyroidism!!
This of course was my overall (short-term) vegan goal, proving that I could cure myself of a disease that not only makes me very heat intolerant, an insomniac, depressed, anxious, hyperactive, soooo hungry, gives me heart palpations, forces me to be on 2 different kinds of medications, but also stops me from falling pregnant, goal number 2!
Very quickly after becoming vegan I felt there was no need for me to take my medication any more, so I weaned off, maybe a little quicker than I should have, but I had done it once before, so felt confident in what I was doing. Very quickly I started feeling better and non-symptomatic so I was extremely happy, yet nervous. I was nervous that it would only be a matter of time before I entered a state of total thyrotoxicosis.

I went to my endocrinologist a couple of weeks ago and not only did she agree with me that cutting out dairy was a good thing to do as she knew it wasn't good for somebody like me (another doc, some "wonderful" fertility specialist told me I had to go on the Atkins diet, fuck that!), but she RAN SOME TESTS!! A completely amazing and novel idea, I thought!
You see I have had MANY blood tests over the last 5 years, but it turns out, according to my medical history, that it has been a VERY long time since I have actually been attended too in a thorough manner.

Well when the results came back she informed me that not only am I not sick any more, but that I am in REMISSION! Far better than I expected, I knew I wasn't sick, but I didn't realise how not sick I actually was/am. I was blown away and so incredibly happy! Knowing that I had done the right thing, all by myself was amazing! I am still waiting for a couple of other bloods to come back to find out why I haven't fallen pregnant after NINETEEN months of trying, another thing no doctor seemed to give a rats arse about "Your young, don't worry about it....."  FFS how long did they want to let me go before taking a little bit of fucking blood to see if I actually even fucking ovulate?!! (a story for another time).

So in summary, I am happy, healthy, lighter, and getting lighter all the time, thrilled that I have found a doctor that actually seems to give a fucking shit about my health, and I've done it all by myself after getting sick of nobody caring (or at least that's how it seemed).
Oh, and I use WAY too many exclamation marks!!!

BUT PLEASE DO NOT JUST STOP ANY MEDICAL TREATMENT AND TRY A "NATURAL" TREATMENT FOR ANY HEALTH PROBLEM WITHOUT PRIOR CONSULTING MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS, AND DOING A LOT OF RESEARCH FIRST!
They might rip us off, give us the shits and leave us feeling bewildered and confused by not answering our questions or just see a disease and not a person from time to time, but they are the ones who went to med school, not us!

~SJ xo

Banana Bread.

This afternoon I have made another loaf of Isa Chandra's Banana Bread. SOOO GOOD!!!
I wanted to share the recipe with you, but with the changes I make to it, which are noted in purple. I make my changes to make it healthier and contain more fibre, I promise that it does not change the flavour at all though!
I like to pop a slice or two in the toaster for breakfast, or just slice and butter some to pop in my lunch box for morning tea.
I also love to pop a slice in the toaster and have it with a nice cup of tea for breakfast.

Wherever possible I use organic ingredients.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (I usually use muscavado, rapadura, or coconut palm sugar)
• 1/2 cups white sugar (I use raw sugar)
• 1/2 cup margarine, at room temp
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
• 2 cups (plain) flour (I use wholemeal) You could also use gluten-free all purpose flour to have a great GF treat!
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (I changed this to 3/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg)
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Spray a 8×4 bread pan with non stick cooking spray, or lightly coat with margarine.
2. Sift together flour (I don't do this as I use wholemeal flour), baking soda, salt and spices.
3. [In a separate bowl] Cream together the margarine and sugars. Add bananas, soy milk and vanilla.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well. Pour batter into pan (I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon sugar on top today as well, YUM! However, as this is quite sweet you may want to just sprinkle some extra cinnamon, 86 the sugar). Bake for an hour to an hour and ten minutes. (60-70 minutes).

40 Hour Famine 2011

One thing I love about my veganism is that it is a choice. I have chosen which foods I will and won't eat, I have that luxury, many don't!
We all know what a horrible problem world hunger is, we can't turn on the news without seeing images of Africa's food crisis, and that's just Africa, poverty is EVERYWHERE!!! The images I see from my beautiful, warm house whilst I'm eating dinner sadden me deeply so I want to make a contribution to help people far less fortunate than I.
So when I found out that one of my beautiful friends is doing the 40 Hour Famine (held from 8pm Friday August 19th - 12pm Sunday August 21st) this year, but she is giving up her phone instead of food, which is a MASSIVE deal for her, it got me thinking. What could I give up?
I knew I couldn't give up food because my job is very physical and I work on Saturdays.
So I got onto the 40 Hour Famine website to check out the rules. It turns out I can go without food because I don't have to do it the same time as everybody else, I can postpone it for 24 hours.
So that means that from 8pm Saturday August 20th until 12pm Monday August 22nd I will be fasting. However I will not just be going on a food fast, I will also go without my iPhone, landline phone and my computers!

So NO FOOD, iPHONE, LANDLINE PHONE, DESKTOP OR LAPTOP COMPUTERS =
NO Twitter
NO Facebook
NO Blogging
NO iPod or iTunes
NO Texting
NO Phone calls
NO Games
NO Google
NO Cooking (Hubby will have to fend for himself!)
NO Food, except for barley sugar every few hours and ONLY WATER to drink.

I plan to journal on paper and then transfer to my blog later, I will read my book, do some houseork and only listen to the radio when I want to listen to music!

To sponsor me please view my Online Profile where you can make a donation using your credit card. It dosen't cost much to help fight hunger, everylittle bit helps.

Thank you.
xo

How I Do Love Isa!

Any vegan would know who Isa Chandra is. She is a culinary vegan Goddess!!
Isa has a great website, and is the author of many fantastic books, one of which I gave to my sister-in-law last Christmas, before I know who Isa was.

The reason why I love her so much is that all her food is easy to make, you just need some cooking know-how and a good palate. As yet I have not purchased any of her books but I very much want her entire collection.

Tonight's dinner was Isa's Cashew Vegetable Korma, which was the first time I had ever made a curry from scratch. and it was DE-LISH!!

I have also made her Banana Bread, which is quite sweet, but I just adore it, especially with chocolate soy milk for morning tea. YUM!!

 

And of course the one recipe of Isa's that EVERY vegan knows is her Chickpea Cutlets. I love to serve these with mashed potato, steamed veggies and a mushroom/onion gravy. Also really good on a sandwich with BBQ sauce for lunch.