Category Archives: vegan

Mango!

Since I started eating the high carb, low fat, raw vegan diet, I’ve listened to other raw foodies on YouTube extolling the virtues and deliciosity of mangoes. I didn’t think I’d ever eaten one and, honetlly, I wasn’t sure how.

mango

I saw the red kind of mango at Aldi several months ago and the glambaby and I were going to try it. I’m so glad I tried it first or she would’ve probably thought I was trying to poison her. It wasn’t good. I’m not sure if it was unripe or what. I sincerely had no knowledge about mangoes.

On our first trip to Costco here, I saw the mangoes and mentioned to David that I rally wanted to try one but didn’t have any idea of how to know if they were ripe or not. A lady who was selecting some for herself turned around and gave me a mini mango class. It was so sweet of her but I wasn’t ready to buy a warehouse store quantity of something I wasn’t sure about so I didn’t get any mangoes that day.

cut_mango

 A few days later we were at a grocery store where I got one yellow mango to try using the instructions the lady at Costco gave me. And guess what? It was good! I liked it. 

I need to figure out how to get into them better.  I didn’t know what kind of a seed situation was inside. The first half was a mess and I basically sucked the flesh off the skin. But the second half I was able to cut into chunks that came off easily when I ate them. 

So, yum! I’ll definitely get some more mangoes. 🙂

Uncharted Territory. Literally.

I’m very competitive and for the past year or so, I’ve had an UP band. The UP band recorded my sleep, exercise, calories, weight, etc. 

upsteps

In addition to the UP band, I also recorded all of my walks with the Runkeeper app. I liked to see if I could walk farther or faster than the last time, constantly competing with myself. 

flyin

I also would weigh myself. Every day. The scale was sort of my ruler. Let me give you some background.

I am really tall, 5’11”, and I have a large frame. When I went through puberty and got bigger than all of the rest of the girls in my class, I became very self conscious. I was, by no means, fat. But I felt fat because I was just so much bigger than my classmates. 

When I was in fifth or sixth grade, my mom started going to Weight Watchers and lost a lot of weight. Once she reached her goal weight, she became a lecturer for Weight Watchers, inspiring others to join her in weight loss. When I told her that I felt like I was too heavy, she began feeding me in the Weight Watchers style, even sending me “diet ” lunches to school. Again, I wasn’t overweight. But I felt like I was.

In high school, in an attempt to drop a few pounds I started taking Ayds diet candy. Does that even sound good? It wasn’t. I had a job and I bought them myself but I hid them in my drawer because I was afraid my mom wouldn’t approve. Did I lose weight? No. Was I fat? No. Not even as a sophomore in high school was I fat. 

But I thought I was. 

After high school, I joined the Marine Corps. I was over weight (by USMC standards) by about five pounds which they told me I must lose before I went to boot camp. My recruiters told me to take laxatives and water pills. That combined with the running they had me do, helped me to lose the weight and be off to boot camp.

Of course, once in boot camp, because of the way I lost the weight, it came back and I was put on weight control. I had to eat the “diet” foods (lemon jello? really?) and show my tray to my drill instructor before I could sit down and eat the food on it. 

Thus began a cycle of weight loss via laxatives, water pills and exercise followed by weight gain, then weight control and finally an eating disorder. When I was 22, I was diagnosed with bulimarexia. I struggled with disordered eating my entire adult life until 1999 when I finally pushed myself over the edge and shut my metabolism down. 

I had decided to do a body building show for my 39th birthday. This might have been all well and good if I didn’t decide to do a pageant the week before. Anyone with half a brain knows that those are two very different looks. But I wanted to do it all. 

 I didn’t do well in either. 4th runner up at the pageant, last at the body building show. After that, my body just started shutting down. But I didn’t know it. I knew I was incredibly tired and I started gaining weight pretty rapidly. So, despite how awful I felt, I started running five miles a day. That didn’t last too long though because within a couple of weeks I was down and out. In bed. It hurt to lay there. I wasn’t sure what I had done to myself but I used every single moment I could bear it to research the internet to find some answers. 

I finally figured it out but it took me five doctors to get one doctor who would agree to do a free T-3 test. The cost of the test? $45. After the tens of thousands of dollars they spent finding nothing wrong with me, I was right and the free T-3 test showed that I had shut my metabolism down. 

I will forever be grateful to Dr. Wall for listening to me and doing the test. He said he’d do it, since I was insistent but that he was going to do other tests as well. I also had to start taking vitamins intravenously because it was the fastest way to get nutrition to my cells.

I had nearly died.

The shut down of my metabolism caused me to gain 100 pounds over three months, weight that hung around for quite a while. I was now, finally, fat. Weighing in at 270 pounds, I was fat and my joints ached, but I was alive. 

It was around three years later before I was able to start losing weight again. Even though it came off very slowly I was happy. It made me believe that I was healing, that my metabolism was back no matter how slow it was. 

Throughout all of this there was my scale. I felt like it was one of the last vestiges of the disordered eating. I just couldn’t let it go. But I had an unreasonable relationship with Mr. Scale.  If I lost weight on a day, I was happy. If I gained weight, I wasn’t. It directed my life for many long years.

When I was packing to move to San Jose, I debated with myself about leaving the scale in Tulsa. I wasn’t sure I could do it. It felt like I would be leaving a child behind. But in the end, I did. I left Mr. Scale right where he was and drove away.

We got to Arizona before I panicked over what I had done. I quickly texted two of my friends who were quick to assure me I had done the right thing. I calmed down. 

Today as I was walking I had a thought: I’m free. Yes, I’m free. 

For the first time in years, I have no idea what I weigh because I have no scale. I never replaced the UP band so I have no idea how many hours I’m sleeping or how many steps I’m taking in a day. I stopped recording my walks on the Runkeeper app because I walk extensively downtown and there are stop lights that must be obeyed. 

And guess what? I’m fine. 

I feel amazing when I walk like I always do when I eat a raw vegan diet. I’m walking a lot because I walk to the grocery store, or any number of places downtown. We are the last apartment before the stairway and I found out that the stairway lets me out right by my parking place. I use the stairs every time I go down or up unless I have the dog or I’m carrying something heavy. There’s a gym here where I ride the Lifecycle every morning in preparation for getting my real bike. How long do I ride? No idea. Somewhere around 35 to 45 minutes I speculate. But, really? It just doesn’t matter.

I’m more active than I’ve been in a long time and I have no idea of the numbers. It’s definitely uncharted territory and it will remain so. 🙂

 

Raw Vegan Avocado Pasta

I’ve been sitting here the last couple of days marveling at this person I’ve become. It’s Christmas time after all and I’m not planning tons of uber sweet treats for us all to eat. No, instead, things like this happen. The other day I clicked into Pinterest to look at something Nikki wanted to do for the glambaby’s birthday and I saw this:

I clicked through to see the ingredients and immediately became obsessed with eating this salad. Now, I’d heard about hemp seeds before but had never eaten them so I’m not sure why I felt I needed to eat this, I just did. As soon as I could get away, I ran to Akins and bought hemp seeds and hemp oil and came home and made the salad. I wasn’t disappointed. One of the best things I’ve eaten since I started my raw journey.

I find myself finding other recipes that aren’t necessarily raw and trying to figure out how to make them raw and that’s what I did today. I came across this recipe for Avocado Pasta. I loved the idea but there were so many things I don’t eat in the recipe. Still, it leant itself nicely to being modified and I came up with this for lunch today. Oh yum! Seriously one of the best things I’ve eaten. If I had more zucchini, I’d have made myself another huge bowl. 

raw_avocado_pasta

I will definitely eat this again and again and again. The only thing I’ll do differently is add more ground black pepper which I adore. Yum!

Last year at Christmas, I think there were more desserts than people here to eat them. This year, my biggest Christmas dinner dilemma is what to do with all of my bananas so we can all sit at the dining table. What a change! 🙂

bananas

Raw Vegan Avocado Pasta
Delicious zoodles with a creamy avocado sauce.
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Ingredients
  1. 4 small or 2 large zucchini
  2. 1 ripe avocado
  3. 1/4 tsp basil
  4. 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  5. 1 tbs lemon juice
  6. 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
  7. Ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Spiralize zucchini into zoodles. Cuz tomatoes in half.
  2. To make the avocado sauce, place avocado, spices, and lemon juice in blender or food processor. Blend. Add water to make a smooth sauce.
  3. Pour over zoodles and tomatoes, toss until evenly coated. Add ground pepper to taste.
Notes
  1. You can use fresh herbs and spices, in fact they're probably preferable but I was in a hurry. Yum yum! 🙂
Adapted from DamnDelicious.net
Adapted from DamnDelicious.net
Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/

Raw Pumpkin Spice Smoothie

I’m not one of those girls who’s all gaga over pumpkin spice everything. I like the taste but hadn’t had it this year. This morning, I found myself with a banana crisis on my hands. Usually I have the same smoothie for breakfast: bananas, strawberries and spinach. I love it so much I usually have it for lunch! 🙂

raw_pumpkin_smoothie

But I used my last “dead” banana yesterday at lunch time. I have frozen bananas and bananas that aren’t quite ripe yet. So last night I had to figure out what I was going to have for breakfast so I’d be prepared. I had used some of the pumpkin I had in the freezer to make Raw Pumpkin Hummus (amazing!) and thought that pumpkin could be a possibility.

I was nervous to eat a pumpkin raw. Why? I couldn’t tell you. Everthing I’ve tasted raw so far has been delicious. I was so drawn by the hummus recipe that I finally decided to try it. When I got the pumpkin all pureed, I tasted it and was surprised. It was sweet! And yummy. 🙂  I then proceeded to Middle Easternize it. 😉 

So this morning, I decided to make a Raw Pumpkin Spice Smoothie. I used dates, frozen bananas, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Then , after I took a pretty photo of it, I added a half a bag of spinach because I have just got to have it!  The spinach didn’t take away from the deliciosity of the smoothie, it just took away its pumpkiny color. Here I am making up all sorts of words in one paragraph. 😉

raw_pumpkin_smoothie_spinach

So here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it. It is a big YUM! I think quite highly of raw pumpkin now, if you hadn’t guessed. 

 

Raw Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
A raw pumpkin spice offering.
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Ingredients
  1. 10 dates
  2. 2 frozen bananas
  3. 1 cup raw pumpkin
  4. 1 cup water
  5. 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  6. 4 1/2 oz spinach, if desired
Instructions
  1. Add dates, water, bananas into Vitamix. Blend well. Then add pumpkin and spice and blend until combined. If you'd like to add spinach, add enough water to mix it in, approximately 2 cups.
Notes
  1. The spinach doesn't take away from the pumpkin-y taste!
Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/

Raw Sweet Potato, Carrot & Spinach Soup

I’ve been having a heck of a time getting warm today even though it’s supposed to be a record breaking warm day. I decided to have soup for lunch and boy was it GOOD! 🙂

raw_sweet_potato_carrot_spinach_soup

I bought some sweet potatoes the other day and wanted to use them but, like a lot of days, I sometimes feel sweeted out from all of the fruit I eat and most of the recipes season with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. I wanted something spicy!

I chopped up a large carrot and blended it with a cup of water. I then cut up two sweet potatoes and chunked them and tossed them in. The mixture was pretty thick so I added another cup of water. Then I found some little orange peppers that I forgot I had and tossed in a couple of those and some onion. I then added some of the home made taco seasoning that is always in the cupboard and cilantro. Oh how I love cilantro! 

I blended it all in the Vitamix until it was warm. Then I poured about 2/3 of the soup into my bowl and added a big handful of spinach to the remaining soup in the blender and blended it. I tried to swirl the two colors of soup but I think I had too much green to make it pretty but, oh well, it was delicious and that’s better than pretty, right? 

Raw Sweet Potato, Carrot & Spinach Soup
Serves 1
Delicious, spicy raw soup!
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Prep Time
10 min
Total Time
10 min
Prep Time
10 min
Total Time
10 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 large carrot
  2. 2 cups water
  3. 2 sweet potatoes
  4. 2 mini orange peppers
  5. 1 cup spinach
  6. chopped onion to taste
  7. 2 tsp home made taco seasoning*
  8. cilantro to taste
Instructions
  1. Place 2 cups of water in Vitamix and add carrot. Blend.
  2. Add chopped sweet potato and peppers. Blend until smooth.
  3. Add onion, taco seasoning and cilantro. Blend until warm.
  4. Pour 2/3 of soup into bowl. Add spinach to the remaining soup and blend until smooth. Pour in the middle of first soup and swirl. Garnish with more cilantro and cracked black pepper. Yum!
Adapted from Raw Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup with Spinach
Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/
 *I use the taco seasoning recipe found here.

 

Butternut Squash Soup!

Welcome fall! It’s soup time. 🙂

The other day, I finally got my Vitamix. I was SO excited. That first night I just started throwing some stuff in: tomatoes, zucchini, red pepper, and I don’t know what else and it was good! I was amazed at how the Vitamix actually made the soup hot without cooking it and it really filled me up.

Today we were out shopping and I saw a butternut squash. I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever eaten butternut squash before but I don’t think I have. I wanted to make soup out of it.  My first challenge was: how do I peel this thing?

Julienne Peeler

A week or so ago, I got a great julienne peeler that I hadn’t had a chance to use yet so I thought I’d try it. It worked great! Chopping the squash after that was a breeze. 

I loaded the cut up squash into the Vitamix and blended it. Then I added onion, apples, ginger, allspice and cinnamon and blended it all on high for five minutes.

I ended up with this amazing, photogenic soup!

raw_vegan_butternut_squash_soup

This was delicious and I will definitely make it again. I think the next time I’ll try some different spices. The ones I used this time were great and lent themselves to the sweetness of the squash and apples but I think maybe something spicier might be nice, too! 🙂

 

Hug A Vegan Day

This morning I was listening to KRMG when the morning host, Dan Potter, mentioned that it was National Hug A Vegan Day. But then he snarked on, that you should be careful because they’re frail. And they smell funny.

KRMG Tulsa

Say what?

Admittedly, I have only been a vegan since September 1, but in the past 25 days I have seen such amazing changes in my health. And I was already a healthy person! Prior to this month, David and I had been eating a paleo diet since November of 2010. But, for me, it was unsustainable because I have a huge sweet tooth and the cookies eventually called. I also loved beer and gin and felt deprived if I couldn’t have a cocktail. 

In the past 25 days, I have had NO sugar. And guess what? It’s. Been. EASY! I’ve also had no desire to have a cocktail, I sleep better, my joints don’t hurt and I’ve been absolutely flying when I walk in the a.m. I don’t even feel like I’m walking anymore, but gliding. 

13:20 min/miles walking!

13:20 min/miles walking!

More than being just a vegan, I’ve been a high raw vegan and have had cooked food only a handful of times. The raw meals have been awesome and delicious. I’ve lost 24 pounds and I’ve never been hungry because I’m eating close to 3000 calories a day. 

I think people can get a lot out of a vegan lifestyle and I’m not saying it works for everyone but it has for me. 

Oklahoma is the 7th most obese state in the nation. Instead of gross generalizations, I believe Mr. Potter could’ve used his platform to suggest to listeners that after they hug a vegan today, maybe they can ask him about his lifestyle and the health benefits of it.

Oklahoma is the 7th most obese state in the nation

Meanwhile, I’d pit my fitness against just about anyone’s any day of the week. And I’m far from frail. So, please, if you notice me becoming frail or smelling funny, I hope you’ll tell me. In the meantime, bring on the hugs! 🙂