Hey you!

Welcome to the second installation of my Weekly Music Muse. If you’re not familiar with what this segment of my blog is about, feel free to click here. This link will direct you to the introduction blog post of My Weekly Music Muse and brief you about, well, everything! Week 2 is titled “Britfluence” and will feature an assortment of British songs from a variety of musicians. Now, if you’re thinking, “oh great, another blog post dedicated to Beatles songs!” then i’m afraid my friend, you have come to the wrong place. My collection of hand picked songs comes from a diverse crowd of British musicians one hundred percent 21Century influenced. Enjoy the selection and feel free to suggest me any other british artists worth sharing in future Weekly Music Muse posts down below in the comments. Thanks for stopping by!

* If you suggested any songs to me on last weeks Music Muse, don’t worry, i haven’t forgotten about you! I still have your request tabbed and will feature your song choice in future posts. Keep those suggestions coming!

So these guys are actually from Ireland. Opps, my bad!

so tomorrow is Wednesday. I was really hoping tomorrow would be a day filled with enthusiastic “hoorays!” compliments to my week long binge of meat, dairy and anything that might come from an animal. However, it greatly saddens me to inform you that i have let you, my readers and myself down [commence sad, sympathetic music].  My vegan challenge lasted a measly 4 days but for someone who eats meat almost everyday, that was a big accomplishment! Looking back, i think it would have been better to not have jumped into this challenge so quickly. Planning out my meals was by far the most excruciating part of the challenge including finding “snacks” to contain my constant mid-day hunger pains.

Having a friend to do the challenge with me was very helpful, but even she could not stop the peer pressure i felt from all my other friends who were not part of the challenge. It was like a nightmare on elms street! Everyone chomping down on all the foods i had to abandon…self control, that’s what it comes down to really. You just have to roll with the punches (or avoid them as best as possible). While many vegan goers out there state that converting to veganism actually made them more happy and cheerful, i for once felt very irritated, hungry and annoyed. Again, this supports my stupidity in jumping into the challenge headfirst.

Although my week long vegan challenge wasn’t a complete success, i didn’t leave the games empty handed. For one thing, i really got to understand the importance of food and healthy eating. It was difficult, but very educational. Changing your dietary habits is never easy (especially when you relinquish yourself from everything you thought to be delicious and tasty!) but it can sure as hell teach you a lot about yourself. My short lived vegan journey taught me the importance of reading ingredients and  understanding fats and nutrition’s in my everyday foods. I got some awesome support from my fellow vegan Worpress bloggers out their (for which i am extremely grateful) and although their helpful suggestions of vegan meals to try out seemed limitless, i still felt the lack of dairy and poultry an impending issue in my diet. Nevertheless, i think i will surely use their recipe suggestions later in the future

Turing vegan for 4 days proved to be quite the dare. As a teenager always snacking on food, my intentions when first going on this challenge where “hmm, this shouldn’t be that bad,” to “holy crap i NEED food! I’m dying!!!” I should have known better. However, reading the ingredints on sodas and junk foods really helped me understand the artifical mystery foods i was consuming. I’m happy to say, i haven’t drank soda or ate any sort of processed junk food in more than a week! I hope i can keep the track record going…

For now, all i can really do is watch what i put into my mouth and control what i eat. Being able to recognize the good and bad in my foods is the first step to healthy eating. It may not be the “vegan way” but its a start. Maybe in the future, i’ll try to take on this challenge again and have a better success rate then i did my first time around. Until then, i think i will grub on some In-n-Out or maybe a yummy egg salad sandwich…

yours truly,

The Paintress

today has been my first day of being a full on vegan. How exciting! Actually, it wasn’t as difficult as i thought it would be. However, i did run into numerous complications today. Let me vent to you all about them…

1. some of my friends were questioning by new found interest in being a vegan proclaiming it could be very unhealthy and that i was taking extreme measures in loosing weight. To this i replied, “shut up and let me eat my celery sticks!” Also, i clarified with my concerned girl friends about how i was being vegan simply to have a new approach on my food intake, NOT because i was desperate in loosing weight. It’s an important factor to consider but its not the only one

2. Girls were selling Girl Scout cookies at this time of year! Oh the many delicious sweets i could buy for $4. But i resisted my temptation (also, i didn’t have $4 on me.

3. Post- valentine’s day candies are still a popular snack food among high school students and where ever  i went, i found people munching on sugary sweets. The horror the horror!

But i have plenty of good news as well! My friend and i are being vegan together, which makes going through this challenge a bit more easy. Today, she made both of us some chinese noodles (kinda like chow mein) but with vegan noodles! So no rules were broken. For breakfast i had edamame beans and strawberries and after school i ate some seaweed. I also discovered that Trader Joe’s is THE hot spot for organic, vegan munchies and stocked up on all sorts of goodies (organic tortilla chips, organic bread, organic grape jam, seaweed, fruits/veggies, etc.) For dinner i’ll probably whip me up some organic soup. The first day wasn’t all too bad and although i came across numerous challenges, i think i did pretty well in following the rules and to that i say, BRING IT ON!!!

yours truly,

The Paintress

PS: Thanks to some of you WordPress bloggers out there who gave me awesome words of encouragement and helpful tips on being a vegan. Really appreciate all the support from everyone! Thank You!!!

Also, i stumbled upon this and thought it was pretty cool!

today served as my practice day for what is to come being a vegan and all. So far it’s been difficult, and choosing to go vegan right before Valentines Day was a really stupid decision. I was doing really well today until one of my friends from school just handed me a cookie and i, without thinking twice replied, “oh, thanks so much!” and took a giant bite. I felt so guilty when i was chewing her delicious cookie! I broke the rules and i did it with out even thinking twice about my actions. However, something good did come out of being my vegan practice day: i gained a supporter of the vegan challenge and now, a friend and i are going vegan for 7 days TOGETHER! We will be swapping lunch ideas and helping each other out. Tomorrow, the official VEGAN CHALLENGE begins. This means no room for excuses and silly “oops, i wasn’t supposed to eat that” mistakes. Gotta get my head in the game for the next 7 days and sacrifice everything i know to be yummy, delicious and unhealthy. It all starts with determination, motivation and the kick ass theme song from Rocky! Wish me luck!!!

yours truly,

The Paintress

So if you haven’t read the previous post below, then you might not get the purpose as to why i’m challenging myself to be vegan all of a sudden. But just for your convenience, here is that reason in a nutshell: lately i’m not happy with the way im feeling inside and by the looks of my growing muffin top, i don’t seem to be doing my hot bombshell body any justice. I really want to cleans myself of all the crappy food i have been eating and start fresh…with veggies and fruits. DONE!

What does it mean to be vegan? 

Well for one thing,i won’t be eating anything that has a beating heart (animals, or any of their precious goods they provide for us humans). Meaning i will be restricted of milk, cheese, honey, eggs, meat, anything else that i can’t think of  at this very moment.This also means i can’t have anything artificial like junk food or soda.

What can you eat?

Well by the looks of it, carbs, veggies, fruits and water. So basically, i will be starving.

Fact: To be a devoted vegan, one must also shy away from clothing, fabrics, or items made of animals. This is serious business here folks! Fortunately, i will only be controlling what gets put inside my body rather than what i wear on the outside.

* Check out this website for more information regarding what it means to be vegan and how you can get started.

MY CHALLENGE: I will only obey to the vegan rules of diet and food as stated above for a total of ONE WEEK. If i can handle it for 7 whole days (starting tomorrow) then i will continue being a vegan. If i can’t, well then, roast me a a pig asap! I can already tell this is going to be a bumpy ride considering i have a class party tomorrow including a birthday dinner on saturday. What have i gotten myself into!?

* I’ll keep ya’ll informed on my status, including the workout plan i have going for me on top of the vegan diet. Wish me luck!

I’m going to be completely honest with you here: over the past few months i have gained a considerable amount of weight. Sitting at my computer, barely exercising and eating like a crazed woman, it saddens me to inform you that i have truly “let myself go”. But it has been the last couple weeks that i have felt the worst, when all the stress and realization of me gaining all my unnecessary weight (including the recent health scare i just went through)  jolted me awake. I have felt rather, how should i phrase this, icky. I have felt dirty, unwashed, disgusting, revolting gross and sweaty and smelly and (ok TMI!). But you seem to get the idea. Maybe it’s that time of year again when i need my healthy dose of CHANGE. I need to shed away all the leftover bits and pieces, relinquish from the past and start fresh. It’s my version of an early “spring cleaning”.

Trying to uphold my goal of keeping a healthy eating habit is more difficult then earning a 2400 on the SAT. Wherever i go, junk food and boredom await me. When i get bored, i eat. When i see junk food, it immediately becomes my new best friend. It’s really quiet strange: food is the supplement that all humans must devour , yet it is the very thing that can threaten our lives. (A very philosophical moment indeed). Anyways, my point is, the food i have been eating lately just makes me feel worse and i think it’s finally getting to me! Just today, i had a slice of Costco’s cheese pizza and almost hurled the thing across the room. It was dripping with oil and i couldn’t bare to think that somehow i had been forcing that “pizza slice” into my mouth all these years! And so my fellow bloggers, i have decided to do the unthinkable: I have decided to go on a VEGAN DIET.

Now you might be asking: Why vegan, why not vegetarian? To which i would reply, “What a great questions!” Actually i have no idea as to why i’m challenging myself so much but i consider myself to be a rather spontaneous person and therefore have dubbed myself a vegan explorer. I think if i just tell myself that its ok to have a little fatty food, i would simply be making excuses. I need to teach myself that there are no loop holes when it comes to loosing weight and eating healthy. So there you go folks! I have just instigated myself a “Get fit or die trying” challenge in which i am now officially a VEGAN! (i’ll probably regret this in the morning). Wish me luck!

– The Paintress

PS: Wait, there’s more! I will go further into detail as to what it means to be a vegan including the game plan for my vegan challenge. Stay tuned for another blog post with all the meaty, oh, i mean, fresh new ideas.