Day 36

Had a beautiful day today working on board Blue Dolphin :) lovely whales lazily cruising around the boat and coming right up close - I love being able to go down the back steps to be as close as I can. The freshwater pump died about 30 mins into the day which meant we had no running water in the kitchen or bathroom during the whole trip! But rather than being a drama it really just meant I couldn't do any washing up until we got back to shore, so I got to spend more time up on deck which was great! Literally sat around sunbaking and chatting with passengers - sometimes can't quite believe I get paid to do this :) I always have at least one person a day telling me how lucky I am to have landed such a dream job, and on days like today I really feel the win. Knackered but it's so worth it. 

Food-wise I had oats for brekky, bean salad and a bread roll :( for lunch, fruit and nuts for snacking and the below for dins. And cornflake cakes for pudding, obvs. 

Quinoa 'burger' with rice and steamed veggies

I've actually gone and bought kale for a new recipe and am quite keen to see what all the fuss is about, so might make a curried kale and chickpea dish tomorrow if I can be bothered after work. Also need to squeeze in the gym... Can't wait to go out on Saturday - we're going for dinner (it'll be the third time I've been out for food since the end of June) and then out drinking! Can't waaaait. 

Day 35: a summary so far

Day 35 of being vegan. No meat, eggs or dairy for 35 days.

Day 17 of no sugary teas - I'm not actually missing them all that much to be honest. Can't believe it's been two and a half weeks since ditching this element of my diet...shows how fast the time is passing. I'll be home 11 weeks today! Can tell it's going to go by in a flash :( 

And...day 5 of no bread. You gotta start somewhere.

I'm actually really proud of how healthy my diet is compared to before. I've had barely any processed food (no ready meals), 1 pizza since arriving and have cut right down on sugar, alcohol and unhealthy fats. I've replaced pizza, wine and cheesy pasta with all this lot:

Complex carbs: oats, brown rice, wholegrain wraps, quinoa & starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes, and when I was eating bread before it was generally wholegrain (rye in the last week). I've only had 3 bowls of pasta since arriving which is good going!

Veggies: heaps, with dinner or in salads. Loving spinach and zucchini right now, they're so versatile and spinach is great for iron. I also buy broccolini, beans, frozen veg, tinned sweetcorn, leeks, pumpkin and whatever else I need for dinner recipes.

Fruit: blueberries and strawberries mainly, and a banana if I'm working. Sometimes mandarins, the occasional slice of occasional watermelon at work and mango in either salad or as dessert (it's quite sugary though so I'm eating in moderation). The one fruit I know is quite fatty BUT super healthy is avocado, and I adamantly refuse to give them up.

Legumes: black beans, lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas, peas...the beans come canned and ready to use after a quick rinse which is so convenient! Plus they're low fat and high protein - win.

Fats: olive oil, avocado and nuts (a few too many nuts probably!).

Drinks: mostly water, peppermint tea and unsweetened black tea. And soy milk on my oats/cereal. I've had 1 diet coke since I arrived - trying to avoid sodas, diet or not. And I've only been out boozing once! Hopefully that will be twice once this weekend swings around :)

Junk: cornflakes? Not too sure about this one. They're not awful for you; they have a low fat content and 8g of sugar per 100g so it could be a lot worse. Anyway, they're one of the things I'm not willing to give up right now! I'm also snacking mostly on plain chips (crisps) and dark chocolate after dinner - I've learnt I can't live without tasty snacks! The dark chocolate is naturally sweetened so has a low sugar content but is still fairly high in fat, and obviously the chips aren't great but you can't deprive yourself of everything...I'd go crazy. 

Love how the junk paragraph is the longest!

Today is also day 28 of gym membership, which I've been taking full advantage of. So, even though I'm not losing as much weight as I'd like, I know I'm being healthy, getting fitter and taking much better care of my body. Speaking of which:

Brekky - cornflakes

Lunch - leftovers. Half a small bowl of bean salad, half a small bowl of quinoa salad 

Snacks - a few gingernut biscuits, cashews and a baby cornflake cake (seriously like 2 bites)

Dinner - leftovers. The last of the quinoa salad, a few strawberries, some cashews and a baby cornflake cake! Got in too late from the gym to cook and make a racket when people were in bed

Activity - leg raises, leg presses, some arm machine (not quite sure what the exercise is called but it works your triceps) and then a shitty sesh on the treadmill - got a stitch so had to stop running and do some uphill walking/zero gradient power walking instead. Boooo. 

Day 34: salads and body fat percentages

Did quite well today; had salad for lunch and dinner and barely snacked at all over my afternoon shift. I hit the gym in the morning to get my body fat percentage tested which I was really nervous about - but it actually went incredibly well. Here are the results:

Body fat percentage: 20.6%. I can't get over this - apparently female athletes have a body fat % of 14-20%, then anything between 21-24% is fit, between 25-30 is acceptable and 31+ is obese. Find it hard to believe I'm 0.6% off being considered an athlete to be honest, seems a little unrealistic...

Visceral fat: 1.0 lvl. Visceral fat is abdominal fat surrounding the vital organs in this area, and anything between 1-12 is considered healthy. 

Lean muscle mass: 41.9kg, or 75% of my total body mass

Metabolic age: 12! Get in! As I explained at the gym this is excellent news because I sat in bed eating biscuits the night before. Gives me an excuse to do that more often :D

BMR: 1338 calories - the amount I would burn each day if I just sat in bed doing nothing

Water: 58.6%. The range for a healthy female is 45-60%

So all in all, things are looking pretty good in terms of health and body fat - although my weight has actually gone UP which is annoying. Having said that, muscle weighs more than fat and I've been gymming it for a month now...so could be that? Otherwise this diet is just doing nothing in terms of weight. At least I can take comfort in the fact that it's undoubtedly making me healthier...still though, would be nice if the scales took that into account!

I'm getting a program drawn up this Friday to include strength training: apparently the most effective tool when it comes to body sculpting and ultimate fat loss. I had a bit of an explore over on the other side of the gym; the 'dark side' where a) I've never set foot in before and b) everything looks like an implement of torture. I tried giving one a go but just ended up sitting on it for 5 minutes while I tried to make sense of the instructions - eventually had to get someone from reception to give me a quick tutorial! I then had to resort to sneaking looks at an old lady on the machines to figure out how to use them...highly embarrassing and just one of the reasons why I'm a bit suspicious about my 'athletic' body fat status! Not only that but I had to lower the shoulder press weights from 4kg to 3, to 2 and finally to 1 to get like three minutes out of it - I have NO arm strength at all! I did already know that though; my arms feel like they're about to fall off after cleaning approximately two windows on the boat.

Anyway! Once I've got the program drawn up I'll have just over a month to go hard before the holiday season kicks in and I head off to Cairns/Port Douglas and Bali :D

The cherry on top was a nice new dinner recipe:

Quinoa salad w/creamy avocado dressing

-Cook quinoa either in a rice cooker or on the stove, roughly 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water, although I generally find I need 3-4 to get just the right consistency of fluff.

-In a large bowl, combine black beans, halved small tomatoes, diced capsicum (pepper), half a diced avocado, diced cucumber, a tin of sweetcorn, half a diced red onion, some fresh coriander, a few squeezes of lime juice & salt and pepper. Stir in the quinoa when it's cooked.

-While the quinoa is cooking, make the dressing. In a food processor, combine the other half of the avocado, silken tofu (the recipe says 1/4 cup but I improvised), a garlic clove/powder, chopped fresh coriander, a small amount of chopped green onion (not too much otherwise it overpowers the dressing), 1 tbsp lime juice, 3-4 tbsp water, a small amount of cumin (recipe suggests 1/4 teaspoon) and salt & pepper to taste. Blend until smooth, then pour onto the salad and give it a good stir.

-Ta da! It's really tasty and super healthy!

Activity - cycle to gym and back, 6km on treadmill, 20 min leg presses and raises

Day 33

New dinner recipe! Pea & zucchini fritters with a tomato-based sauce to serve:

These are insanely easy to make. In a large ish bowl, mix together 1 cup plain flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, some salt, mixed herbs, peas (defrosted) and grated zucchini (raw). Add 100ml water and stir to make a paste. Scoop heaped tablespoons of the mixture into a hot frying pan and flatten to speed up the cooking process. Flip as they cook until golden brown. Serve with a tomato based sauce - you can make your own but I cheated and opened a jar of pasta sauce I had lying around in the cupboard.

I only managed 2 because I'd been grazing all day...was absolutely ravenous for some reason, do not know what's wrong with me. Cracked the biscuits out to satisfy a hunger that just wouldn't go away no matter how much healthy food I stuffed myself with. I'm getting my body fat % tested at the gym tomorrow, maybe that will give me the kick up the arse that I clearly need! On the plus side I saw my first humpback calf today, it was so new and diddy, maybe not even a month old :) 

Day 32

Day 2 of no bread. Success!

Brekky - mango & blueberry salad, small bowl of cornflakes

Lunch - bean salad and a cornflake cake :)

Chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans, tomatoes and sweetcorn. Really delicious!

Cornflake crunchy cakes! Mix some margarine and a few tablespoons of golden syrup into melted dark chocolate then add the cornflakes. Scoop into little muffin cases and refrigerate until solidified. EAT!

Dinner - wholegrain veggie wraps and a cornflake cake for pudding

Roasted pumpkin, sweet potato, tomato and zucchini with some steamed green beans. Served with avocado and bbq sauce

Activity - cycle to gym and back, yoga sesh and 5km PB at 26:31 woohoo!

Day 31: a meatless, muffinless milestone

I worked an 11 hour day today so am totally knackered! Had really good whales though, one spy hopped all around the boat for ages and came so close! It's the closest I've ever been to a whale, I was right on the back step of the boat and must have been about 2 metres away!! So cool! Didn't take any pics; I wanted to enjoy the moment and lap up every second. 

On another bright note, I avoided bread all day! Oats for brekky; bean salad, fruits, some crackers and a cereal bar during the day and a chickpea burger with sweet potato 'fries' and fried onion, mushrooms & tomatoes for dinner. I did crack the nut ban though (no pun intended) and help myself to some roasted cashews after dinner...seems I can't give something up without falling back into past bad habits. Ah well. 

I'm going to Bali either in September or October so once I've booked flights that will be my motivation to really go for it - cutting all the crap out and ramping up my efforts at the gym, maybe introduce some proper strength training as yoga probably isn't enough on its own. I've learnt in the past couple of weeks that vegan definitely doesn't equal healthy! Not by a long shot. You can still eat bread, pasta, plain crisps, pretzels, some biscuits, dark chocolate, golden & maple syrup, nuts, BBQ sauce, ketchup...etc. 

Bali in a couple of months! I'm also planning on going to Noosa at the beginning of October and hopefully Byron Bay or Port Douglas just before I fly home :) better start saving...

Day 30

Brekky - small bowls of oats & blueberries, a banana

Pre-work - bread roll and 3 mini cookies

Work snacks - an orange, a few tomatoes & strawberries

Dinner - gluten free pasta & steamed greens (spinach, leek, snow peas, beans, sweetcorn). Handful of crisps for afters! And a few squares of dark chocolate - science says it's good for you! 

Easy yet nutritious 

Activity - cycle to gym and back, 6km run, cycle to work and back. So it turns out the magical magpie deterrent doesn't deter magpies...I got chased by THREE during the 10 min cycle to the gym this morning! I did feel more comfortable knowing they wouldn't swoop down as close to my face though :) so that's something...

My appetite is ridiculous at the moment, I'm always ravenous and just want to eat everything! Wondering whether it's all the running or I'm just having a hungry week. My next challenge is cutting out bread as that's definitely my biggest dietary downfall. It's going to be so hard, worse than no sugary teas :( especially because it'll require advance prep when it comes to work lunches, something I'm quite frankly too lazy for! Then it's crisps and dark chocolate but I don't know whether I can bear to wave those goodbye too - I've already given up everything I love :( just going to focus on bread for now. It's gotta go!