More meal planning!

So I asked Cathleen over at vegan-nutritionista.com about gaining weight and being vegan. She basically said to stick with heart-healthy fats such as: olive oil, coconut oil and safflower oils. She also recommended nut spreads like almond butter, cashew butter, and soybean butter and to add flax seeds to my diet. I definitely wanna try that. I already cook with olive oil and Earth Balance, which is soy, palm, and olive oil-based.

On my quest to gain weight I googled some other information and this pretty much sums up what I found:

• more starches: potatoes, pasta, rice, bread
• 3 meals a day plus 3 healthy snacks
• more protein: chicken, tofu, peanut butter, legumes, eggs, hummus
• choose drinks with higher calories
• add good sources of fat, as noted above
• fruit: bananas, pineapple, mango, dried fruits, avocado
• calorie-dense foods: oatmeal, granola, bean and barley soups, peas, carrots
  
• exercise to ensure the added weight does not turn into flab

So......I think I could do some of this. Since I work at Smoothie King, I could also drink a Strawberry Hulk, which is about 1000 calories. The original recipe calls for butter pecan icecream, but since I'm intolerant I substitute with vanilla yogurt and it comes out just fine. That is one of my FAVORITE smoothies. I don't know if it's gonna work, but maybe I can add the weight-gain powder to some of my other favorite smoothies so I won't have to get the same thing all the time. Either way, I'm glad I have something to help supplement my weight gaining goal of 120 lbs. I don't care how long it takes to get there, as long as I do.

So lately for breakfast I have been eating 2 eggs and/or an "everything" bagel with Earth Balance. Usually I will drink either water or rice milk with it. Lately I've been having trouble with lunch LOL which is so ironic because I used to skip breakfast. It's really hard to eat 3 meals a day but I guess I have to make some way around the schedule. Like tomorrow I have class from 12:30 to 1:25 and then work from 3 to 10. So I figure I will have breakfast before I go to class tomorrow at around 11 and then have some type of meal at 2 or 2:30 before I leave for work. For my break I might go to Just Fresh and get either the Avocado Turkey Burger or the Veggie Burger. If I'm not in the mood for something hot, then I'll get the Very Veggie sandwich from the deli. Dinner? I have no idea because I'm not sure if/what my mom is cooking so I don't know if I need to make anything. If so, then I will probably make a sandwich or something.

Oh yes, exercise. I need to push myself very hard in this area because I really don't like to do it. But once I get into it, then I start enjoying it. I don't have weights or anything so I don't know how I'm going to do strength training unless I just do pushups and crunches in my room. Not really my ideal thing, but I suppose it's better than nothing.

By the way, is turkey considered red meat?

Exercise, Food and Etc

Okay, so I know that in order to fully reach my on-going health goals exercise is a MUST. Honestly, I hate exercising. It's not so much that I am too lazy to do it, it's just that I really feel overwhelmed when it comes to that. I've been looking at various places for gym memberships but the sites don't have the most important information on there: THE PRICE. That just totally turns me off because I don't want you to call me and try to con me into joining your gym. All I want is the information right in front of me so I can make my own decision.

Another reason why I'm afraid of exercise is because I don't want to lose weight. I am tired of being 105lbs. I'm 5'3 and I know I'm not that underweight, but I still am and I don't like it. I don't think I consume enough carbs and protein to give me some weight and yet not become fat. So if anyone knows any tips so that I can gain/maintain a healthy weight, I am SO there and yes I KNOW I have to do some type of exercise.

So I was looking online and I found a few kool websites with information regarding lactose intolerance and certain cheeses. Basically what they were saying is that I may be able to consume aged cheeses such as parmesan, romano, and cheddar because the lactose is gradually turned into lactic acid, which they say has no effect on people who are intolerant. Apparently I can eat feta and other goat cheeses too because they have a different form of lactose and protein that doesn't irritate those who are lactose intolerant.

I had spaghetti again for dinner but it was plain this time. I was in a lazy mood. However, I did make some celery-carrot-spinach juice, sweetened with one apple and one pear. It was really good. I think I will stop being afraid to make nasty juice and incorporate more veggies and leave out the fruit sometimes. Not that the fruit is bad, I just want to experiment with more veggie juices.

I added a bunch more books that I want to read. They are mostly vegan/vegetarian (as are the blogs I read), but I haven't quite made the committment to do that yet. At this point I don't think I'm going to be vegan; it's more like I'm deciding between a vegetarian or a flexitarian, but I'm open to all the healthy meal options.

OH YEAH. I remember what I wanted to talk about. So I started training at my new job, Smoothie King. It's not just a smoothie bar, but a nutrition center. They use all natural products, including turbinado instead of processed white sugar, and honey as sweeteners. And if you don't want the sugar at all, you can "Make it Skinny," which also takes off 100 calories. It seems like a lot, but I think most of the smoothies are designed to be meal replacements. Check out the website, they pretty much have a smoothie for everyone and I am so excited to be working there and I can't wait till we open on Sunday. We get one free smoothie per shift, so I will most definitely be doing reviews.