Oooohhhh!!! I love a….forgive the pun here…a good *meaty* post!! ROTFLMAO!
Im about to get TMI up in here so please fast forward if you are squeamish!
Femmeadian- Thank you SO SO much for mentioning the cycle aspect. It has me thinking of hormones and such and wondering if maybe I'm not being paranoid or overly observant when I say that I truly thought I was on the path to PCOS just based on the beard I've been trying to grow the past couple of years! Seriously, black hairs sprouting up on my chin all over the place!! I know that as women age this is sometimes just a thing that happens but in the last 10 weeks, I have noticed that I am not plucking 1/10th of the hair I used to pluck.
Also, the last 2 months cycles have been a breeze compared to what I used to go through. Much less cramping, much lighter flow, better sleep, not as moody, etc. I have been wondering if it was just a minor depression due to losing our Gracie (where I just felt numb and therefore everything seemed not to be as intense as before) but I am seriously thinking it's the meatless living.
The meatless stuff has definitely meant more veggie roughage in my diet and they are now calling me the "super pooper" at work because I'm in there twice a day!! ROTF!
And TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH on expanding the food horizons!! I have discovered that I like a great many things that I refused to try before i.e. quinoa and feta cheese to be 2 of the biggest. It has helped break the monotony of drive-thru bullshit (which I also haven't had in over 10 weeks!) and has given me a LOT of new enthusiasm to cook for us and stop buying processed bullshit.
Jack isn't going to go completely vegetarian but I do have to give her props and say she is almost there and hasn't minded the burritos made with beans or eggs instead of our usual chicken. She's been a super trooper!!
We even made a date one Saturday several weeks ago and stood in the middle of the kitchen getting rid of crap food. Anything that was stale, half-eaten, packed with sugar, nothing but junk, or triggery was tossed. I did take a huge bag of food that was still sealed to a lady I work with and made a "snack basket" for the office with packages of Oreos, chips, candy, and Pop Tarts that we were no longer going to be eaten. They LOVED it and it alleviated my guilt about tossing edible food away.
I'm going to take your advice and get on Pinterest for veggie-friendly recipes. I've pinned a few but I thought looking for websites solely devoted to vegan cooking would be easier (it wasn't!!) so back to Pinterest I go. I did find some pretty yummy looking recipes and even tried the balsamic-glaed brussels sprouts and they were fucking *delicious*.
I ended up eating shrimp today at lunch due to a weird and not-often-felt craving but ended up leaving about half of them on the plate. Gnoshed down on some string beans and rice and a delicious salad with that yummy ginger dressing you can find at many hibachi places
