Just had my first tai chi class. I really enjoyed it. I felt really good, relaxed, when I was done. It is going to take some work to get all the moves down, but I need to remember this is for fun and relaxation, it's not like work where I have to hurry up and learn it so I can get on to the next task.

Off to bed, I'm beat. Didn't sleep well last night. I'll catch up tomorrow.

Lia that sounds lovely! Glad you're getting some R&R.

LOL Elena, totally understand about the mirror.

Safe travels Sabine and Elena.

JCN, I love the 10 spice veggie soup. I made another batch this weekend. I need to remember to get some portioned out and frozen tonight. It makes a huge batch.

Lia, it helped me today knowing I committed to the 6 week plan with you. I had a couple fleeting thoughts of this or that, and did have two brown rice cakes, but otherwise stuck to my ETL food and feel good about it. There’s one day down lol. I need to stay away from alcohol for the 6 weeks too other than the party. I have been drinking more often on the weekends and it seems to just counteract any good I’ve done during the week.

Breakfast: smoothie with frozen spinach and berries, half a banana, a few dates, chia seeds, and a few almonds. I found that without the protein powder my smoothies were kind of boring so I added 1/3 oz of almonds. Made it really good. Nothing wrong with protein powder, but I really want to do the 6 week plan 100%.
Lunch: Big salad (spring mix, sunflower seeds, grape tomatoes, chickpeas, nooch, balsamic), strawberries, kiwi and grapes
Dinner: 10 spice veggie soup
Snack: 2 brown rice cakes

Going to get some sort of exercise tonight. Might ride the stationary bike or else I'll do some low impact aerobics, followed by practicing my tai chi.

Lia, sorry to hear that the food wasn’t all you hoped. I just happened to think, I bet you could email Angela at OSG and ask her for ideas for a vegan/vegetarian wedding. She seems so approachable and I bet she’d be happy to help. I had a total fail last night… craft beer with the neighbors. What was that about no alcohol for the 6 weeks? And I didn’t even make it a week? Doh!

Jean, too true that I need things without deadlines! I have been practicing every night for a half hour or so. It feels good to take that time for me. Your chili sounds delicious.

So we’re getting snow. Lots and lots of snow. There is about 4 inches out there now I think. Up to 8 predicted. I did bring work home with me figuring it might not be a good weekend for driving to the office. As usual, when I bring work home, I’m actively avoiding getting started. I did run to the little organic store that is right near my house this morning to pick up a few odds and ends. It was a bit dicey driving and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get back up my driveway into the garage without sliding into the sides, but I managed. Now I am staying put. I have a guy who shovels and he will be here eventually. I don’t care as long as it is by Monday morning. I was the lone shopper. I think the employees were happy to have someone come in to reward them for showing up to work.

I decided that today will be cooking day and I will do work tomorrow. I haven’t been in the mood to cook lately, which is odd for me, but all this cold and snow makes me want to have soups simmering and the oven going. We’ve been in the single digits temperature most of the past week and I feel like I’ll never be warm again. I plan to make my own green split pea soup recipe (I use the term recipe loosely, it is always slightly different), and I’m going to make this: blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/10/yellow-split-pea-soup-with-sweet.html and this blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/01/eggplant-and-chickpea-curry.html and this ohsheglows.com/2011/10/24/black-bean-and-butternut-squash-burritos/ and stuffed peppers. I’m going to wing the stuffed peppers. I have some Italian style seitan so I think I’ll sauté some onion and peppers and garlic, add the seitan and some cooked brown rice and spices and diced tomatoes, stuff the peppers and pour some pasta sauce on them, bake and see what happens. It’s kind of hard to screw up stuffed peppers though. I’m sure they will be fine. Maybe I’ll add some chopped olives or capers. I’m getting hungry! I think all of these other than the eggplant and chickpea curry should freeze well so I can portion them out and between these and the soups I made last week I should be set for a good while. I was thinking of freezing the burrito filling alone rather trying to make the actual burritos and freezing. It seems like frozen burritos you buy in the store, the wraps are always tough. So if I just warm up the filling and fill a fresh tortilla it should be better. Have any of you tried freezing assembled burritos? How did they turn out? I’ve frozen enchiladas, but they have sauce so they don’t get dry in the freezer.

Hope your weekends are off to a good start!

Hi Sharon, welcome! The 6 week plan is kind of an immersion or reboot plan. Whether you want to do the 6 week plan or not the goal is to eat "mostly" nutritarian. I am the same way with the starchy carby goodness. I could eat bread and pasta and potatoes all day long, so I have to fill up on lots of nutrient dense plant foods so I am not so tempted lol.

I'll shoot you a friend request.

All my cooking turned out well yesterday. I was so exhausted last night... on my feet chopping and stirring and roasting and baking and sauteeing for 8 solid hours. I highly recommend that roasted eggplant and chickpea curry but I would cut back quite a bit on the cilantro. It was kind of overpowering. My freezer is now very well stocked. I didn't even end up eating much yesterday with all that going on.