Happy Groundhogs Day

So the little guy saw his shadow so I'm pretty sure that means the Ravens are going to win the Super Bowl!...

Taking a cue from a dear friend, my husband and I roll Christmas and Valentine's Day into one glorious evening celebrated on whatever day Groundhog's Day falls on.  It's brilliant really.  There is non of the stress of Christmas or the pressure of Valentine's Day.  We always go to our favorite restaurant which, to us, is like having dinner at a dear friend's house.

That favorite restaurant of ours is a Nepalese place is Mount Vernon in Baltimore called Kumari.  The service is extremely friendly, the food is scrumptious and the atmosphere is cozy and exotic. 

They have some wonderful art on the wall representing Nepal and Buddhist culture and for years my husband has been urging me to do a painting to give to them for their collection.

I love painting landscapes and thought that a mountain scene would go wonderfully with the other art in their collection.

The mountains are part of the Annapurna- a section of the Himalayas in Nepal.  "Annapurna" is a Sanskrit name which literally means "full of food" but is typically translated to mean "Goddess of the Harvests" and has an association with Lakshmi- the Hindu goddess of Wealth.  Of course I thought this an appropriate depiction for a restaurant and deserving of a lovely gilt frame.

This is what I came up with.  It is an oil on canvas based on an image I found on the internet.  I really loved the color harmonies and the inclusion of some buildings.  They were pretty ecstatic!  What a wonderful way to celebrate Groundhog's Day.

It has been a while!

What a roller coaster ride the past two months have been.  The social season has finally passed and life is returning to normal.

The holidays of course brought holiday indulgences and stress and another nasty cold.  When all was said and done, I woke up one morning after New Years and reluctantly got on the scale.  I knew that my pants were feeling a bit tight and when I looked in the mirror my face seemed bloated.  Yuck!  I, unfortunately, was not surprised when I saw that I was a tad over 150 lbs.  After my wedding-- when I was working out like CRAZY-- I dropped down to about 140lbs. but then I settled into being about 145 lbs.

Like many folks, my New Years Resolution was to lose weight and get in shape.  My very supportive husband also resolved to join me in re-finding our healthy lifestyle.

We've been using myfitnesspal to count calories and are on a very aggressive weight loss plan.  I've been trying to stick to between 1200 and 1300 net calories a day... which is crazy difficult!  The days that I do the best on my diet are the days that I work out and burn more calories so I have more calories to "spend".  We have also resolved to not eat out, not eat fried food and not drink alcohol.  We have a few cheat days planned so that we have something to look forward to.  I find that we are less likely to cheat on our non-cheat days if we can say to each other, "Listen... we gotta stick to this healthy stuff so Saturday night we can have a meal out!"  So far it is working really well and we are saving a lot of money by not getting carry out, going to the diner or picking up a sixer on the way home.

It's always slow-going when you are trying to lose weight-- it's much easier gained than lost-- but I am seeing some results.  In the past when I have not been so food-conscious I would see huge fluctuations on the scale day-to-day.  Now I've stabilized in the mid-140's.  My short-term goal is to lose 5 lbs. and keep it off.  I also would like to get stronger and be able to do a pull up...

Coming up this week:    A full work week at the theater, date night, then coming up with some healthy-ish snacks for a Super Bowl on Sunday!

One Week Down

I've been a pretty strict vegetarian this go around for three years and change.  Cumulatively I have been a vegetarian for almost 10 years of my life although I would say that the first time around I was more of a "carb-etarian"...  But still-- I've steered clear of gelatin and fish and various kinds of meat-based stocks.  Bacon and sausage and other things that some people consider to be processed enough to no longer be meat are no-no's, too.  I remember sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner at an ex's house and, after confirming that a certain pasta dish was vegetarian, got a mouthful of prosciutto.  "It's not meat!" his Aunt yelled after me as I excused myself to the restroom...

So long story short, I'm no stranger to dietary restrictions so when I recently became preoccupied with dabbling is veganism, I didn't think it would be the challenge that my family and friends had made it out to be.  The animal products I regularly consume are few and far between and mainly consist of organic eggs, cheese and milk-based ingredients that are found in things like box-cereal, whey protein powder and bread.

Last weekend I went down to Berlin, MD for my art exhibition at my friends' restaurant, Si'Culi.  Berlin is on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where one of the chief industries is poultry farming.  As my husband and I were driving down there he pointed out windowless chicken coups and we passed a truck full of live chickens in tiny, rusty, filthy cages with legs wedged between bars and feathers flying.  I pretty much felt like I was going to barf when I saw that-  especially after recently seeing the movie Samsara, in which there are several very graphic scenes of factory farming.

I will admit, as a vegetarian I was never super focused on the animal rights aspect of choosing a meat free lifestyle.  I have definitely, at least this time around, been more focused on the health benefits.  My husband chose to "go veg" almost 15 years ago as a preventative measure against diabetes which runs in both sides of his family.  However, after seeing that movie and then those chickens in real life I had a pretty visceral reaction to that.

This was the impetus behind finally going vegan on a trial basis for at least a month. I am hoping for even more added health benefits as well.

It is definitely a chore to read and decipher food labels.  There is a lot of research involved in figuring out what ingredients may be animal derived.  I think I have been doing a pretty good job of being creative in my meal planning so that my husband doesn't complain about eating vegan with me (except for on Mondays when it is 2-for-1 pizza night at Tutti Gusti).  He is a vegetarian, too... but he loves his cheese!

Happily, a lot of the food that we normally eat is already vegan.  This is one of my favorite already-vegan recipes: Vegetarian Pho!  I made this the other night and can't wait to make it again.