Tofu Scramble With Cheezy Sauce

For dinner last night I made a tofu scramble with a whole lot of veggies.  Michelle suggested we make a cheezy sauce from the Veganomicon (one of our favorite cook books) to put over the top.  It was delicious.

This high protein meal included tofu, carrots, broccoli, peas, russet potatoes, a green pepper, and diced onions.  I started with frying the potatoes, carrots and onions in about a tablespoon of olive oil until the potatoes were tender.  Then I threw in all of the other veggies and crumbled a block of tofu into the pan and cooked everything until it’s heated through.

You’ll have to buy the Veganomicon for the whole cheezy sauce recipe. It involved some vegetable broth, flour (we used rice flour), a tiny bit of oil, garlic, nutritional yeast, tarragon, yellow mustard, and some turmeric.  It is really good and thickens up like a nacho cheese.

Here is the end result:

It was so good, I added a little ketchup to mine which really add to the flavor in my opinion.  Michelle lucked out and got to take the leftovers to work today.

A Changing of Perspective

My perspective on working out has been changing quite a bit as of late.  I have officially had 10 personal training sessions.  With only 2 more sessions left I am kinda sad that I will not be working out with Beth one on one anymore.  I am optimistic that I will be able to continue working out at least 3 days a week and I might even do one of her boot camps that she offers.  What Beth has taught me over these past 5 weeks will stay with me forever.

At the beginning of this whole getting healthy journey of mine (back in August of 2009) I was pretty convinced that I should be going to the gym and just doing as much cardio as possible.  Everything I read said that I should be counting my calories coming in, then burn as many calories as possible at the gym to create a calorie deficit and subsequently loose weight.  While I did this for a couple of weeks and it seemed effective I quickly grew tired of it.

I was too focused on loosing the weight, on changing my external appearance and I eventually stopped making progress and started gaining weight back.  Since the beginning of January I have been going doing full body workouts with every visit to the gym.  My workouts have been dominated by body weight and free weight resistance exercises with a typical warm up of running on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes.  The goal here is to build muscle, strengthen my core, and get my body moving.

The changes I have seen in my body since January 3rd (my first workout of the new year) have been so inspiring and motivating.  I have begun to see definition where there wasn’t any before and the weight is coming off again!  One of the advantages of working out like this is that as I build more muscle my body will automatically burn more calories throughout the day.  The more muscle mass that I have the higher my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which is the amount of daily energy expended while at rest.  How cool is that.  Essentially the more muscle I have the more calories I burn while sitting on my but watching a movie.  Plus, after a full body resistance workout (which is what I have been doing) your BMR is elevated for the following couple of hours compared to a cardio workout where it is only elevated for the next 45 minutes or so.

All of this means that if I continue to do these types of workout and continue to build muscle that my body will continue to burn calories at a higher rate.  If I can just control what I am eating and focus on healthful whole foods most of the time the weight will keep coming off and I will continue on the path of being a healthy vegan.

Coconut Crusted Tofu

I had a moment of inspiration last night.  After peering into our fridge last night I discovered some Tofu and I decided to us it.  Now, I have the tendency to season with the same herbs and spices so that everything sort of tastes the same, well not last night.  I made Coconut Crusted Tofu and it was amazing.

You wanna know how I made it don’t ya?  Well it is surprisingly easy and pretty darn healthy.

The ingredients you will need:

• 1 block of extra firm or super firm tofu
• some non-dairy milk or creamer
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place a cooling rack inside of a cookie sheet (you can see it in the photo above) and spray with some cooking oil.

Drain the tofu as much as possible, if you like you can freeze the tofu and then drain it, this gives it a nice texture and make it easier to drain.  Cut the tofu into strips.  Pour the milk or creamer in a shallow bowl (I used coconut milk creamer and it worked great).  Mix the breadcrumbs and shredded coconut and place into a different shallow bowl.

Now place as many of the tofu strips into the milk or creamer as possible, just let them hang out in there.  Take one out and dredge it in the breadcrumbs and coconut.  Make sure the tofu gets nice and covered.  Place the tofu onto the cooling rack which should be sitting nicely inside your cookie sheet.  Repeat until you have run out of tofu.  If you are starting to run out of milk or the breadcrumbs & coconut mixture you can always add a little more to the bowl.  After placing all of the tofu on the cooling rack I sprinkled some salt and pepper on top which really brought out some of the flavors.

Cook at 400 for about 35 - 40 minutes, flipping half way through.  Take them out when the tofu appears to be crispy and slightly brown.

It was awesome, we had it over quinoa with two sides; raw massaged kale and some roasted beets, turnips, sweet potatoes, and apples from Boston Organics.

Weigh In, 1/21/2011

I got on the scale this morning and it said 249, I have lost a little over 1 pound in the past week.  This was a bit surprising, I didn’t think I did that well this week.  It’s hard looking back to the first time I dropped below 250 and how exciting it was, I didn’t think I would be here again.  But, I am moving forward, I’m gonna keep loosing and continue to be positive.

What I have done for the last three weeks in a row, is go to the gym for three days.  That’s right, I have been to the gym at least nine times in the last three weeks.  Some people say that you have to do something for three weeks in order to create a habit.  Hopefully I can stick with this habit and keep up the good work.

One of the things that has been keeping me going is that I can feel and see my body changing.  I can see slightly more definition in my arms and shoulders, this is a great incentive to continue working out.

I will be going to the gym tonight with Michelle for an excellent full body workout and am looking forward to more weight loss next Friday!

Weigh In, 1/14/2011

I guess it’s time I fess up and explain why I have not been putting any weigh ins on the site in a while.  After making a conscious decision to take a break over the Holidays I got home from vacation and I weighed 258, I was ashamed.

I let myself go and I shouldn’t have.  Every new day is an opportunity for becoming healthier and I made a lot of poor decisions concerning food over the week and a half that I was back in Maryland visiting family.  Initially I was hoping that it was water weight or something like that and that I would be back to under 250 in a week or so, then I would put a weigh in up on A Healthy Vegan.  A week went by and I did loose some weight, I went down to 252.4, a pretty big drop in a week.  I have no doubt that this weight loss is do to my personal training (Thanks Michelle!).

Then we arrive at today, my “official” weigh in day.  I stepped on the scale, sucked in and I had lost a little under 2 pounds since the last Friday.  The scale said 250.2, I am disappointed but at least I am still loosing.

I will check in with you next week, I promise.

Boston Organics Dogma Box

I posted this photo a couple of days ago letting everyone know that we got our first box of organic produce from Boston Organics and boy are we happy with it so far.  Let me tell you a little about the type of box that we are recieving, it’s called the Dogma Box.

According to Boston Organic’s website the Dogma Box “includes produce sourced as close to Boston as possible.  This is our only box that includes produce restricted geographically!  We source produce close to home and move furhter out until we can provide at least 8 unique items.”  Buying local and seasonal vegetables is an excellent way to reduce your toll on the environment.  One of the reasons that we like to shop at Whole Foods is that they label where all of their produce is from and we can then decide to purchase those items that have traveled the smallest distance.  The further a product travels to the grocery store the more gas and oil has been used to get to my plate.  Part of being Vegan for me is reducing my impact on the environment and buying local helps me do that.  In addition to all of this produce being local it is also all certified organic.

Currently here in the Boston area we are in the depths of winter so being able to get this organic seasonal produce is pretty amazing.  We have been very interested in joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to get fruit and veggies during the spring and summer from a local farm. Unfortunately CSAs typically have a very large upfront cost, one that we always planned to save up for during the year, but never actually did.  Boston Organics has solved that problem for us, the Dogma Box is $29 per week and we pay on a weekly basis.  Plus, we are still supporting local farmers.  Currently we have the box scheduled to come to my office every other week, if we end up eating all of the veggies in a week we’ll switch it to every week.

This week’s box had a bounty of delicious winter produce:

• 1 Huge Butternut Squash from MA
• 1 lbs of Carrots from MA
• 1 lbs of Red Beets from MA
• 1 lbs of Watermelon Radishes from MA
• 1 lbs Purple Top/Scarlet Turnips from MA
• Some Sprouts from MA
• 1 lbs of Red Onions from NY
• 1.5 lbs of Sweet Potatoes from NH
• 2 lbs of Apples from VT

I used some of the red onions and carrots in last nights dinner, I had 2 apples with lunch today and I am excited to figure out how to use the rest of it.  Tonight I am gonna try to make a Butternut Squash Risotto.

One of the exiting things about this particular box from Boston Organics is that it will always be changing a little bit and we will get to taste the seasons as the come and go.  According to their website “in the summer time you’ll get a bountiful harvest of everything from lettuce to swiss chard, sweet corn to salad tomatoes.  As autumn takes hold the box contents start to include more root vegetables, winter squash and apples, and over the winter you’ll see storage crops like carrots, potatoes or onions.  Once spring has sprung, the growing season gets going again and the local box greens up with lots of early season produce.”  It is going to be a lot of fun to experiment with all of the different veggies we get.

Excitement!

I am so excited about some things going on in my life right now and I would like to share them with you.

After having officially finished three personal training with nine more to go I am so happy with it.  I am proud of myself for keeping up with it and I am so thankful Michelle decided to give this gift to me.  Obviously I can’t expect my body to look different after only one week of working out hard.  But I can feel a difference in my body and that is great motivation to keep going.

For 2011 I have made the decision to really focus on the kinds of foods I consuming.  Too often I choose the easy way out of preparing a meal by going out to eat or having a frozen vegan pizza.  While it is possible to have healthy meals out I have the ability to create wonderfully healthy meals at home for much less money.  Timing has always been the issue for me, “if I only had enough time” I keep telling myself, well enough of that.  One of the things we are doing to help us eat more veggies and whole foods is getting local organic fruit and veggies delivered to my office every other Tuesday.  A local company called Boston Organics will be delivering them and I will take them home and I will have to cook them or they will go bad, so it is sort of a way of forcing me into cooking more at home.  My first box should be delivered today and I am super excited.  I will let you know tomorrow what was delivered.

The last thing that I am excited about is something Michelle and I are doing in February.  In the most recent edition of VegNews, a vegan magazine, there is an interview with Kris Carr.  Kris made a documentary a couple of years ago called Crazy Sexy Cancer, has released several books and currently runs the website CrazySexyLife.com.  She is an amazing individual who has learned first hand about the healing power of foods and nutrition.  Anyway, because of that interview we checked out her website and it turns out she is hosting a retreat in Stockbridge, MA which happens to be about two hours from us. It’s called Crazy Sexy Life: An Adventure in Health, Spiritual Wealth, and Happiness.  We will be learning about nutrition, meditation, how to lower stress, and we will be eating some amazing wholesome vegan food while we are there.  It is a whole weekend!  We really can’t wait.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading.

Personal Training Revisited

This is what I looked like after my second personal training session.  I was sore all over and wanted nothing more than to just lay in one position for the rest of the night.  Even though I was exhausted I was really proud of myself.

Heading to the gym last night I was a bit concerned because there was still a lot of soreness from my previous workout.  It didn’t matter though, I even got to the gym early and worked out on the elliptical for half an hour before my actual session.  To be honest I was kinda hoping that this 30 minute warm up would mean we could move right into the resistance training, not so much.  We started on the treadmill, switching between jogging and walking, I kept pushing myself and was jogging much faster than I thought I would be able to, we did that for 10 minutes to get really warmed up.

I enjoy resistance workouts more than cardio, it’s just more interesting.  Yesterday we were doing 3 sets of 15 reps on various different machines to get a full body workout.  It always seems that the weight I start with is lighter than it should be, but by that last rep on the last set it becomes clear that it is usually just right.  On a couple of the exercises I pushed myself a little further and did an extra rep or two.  I am trying to prove to myself and my new trainer that I really want this, that it is finally time.  In addition Beth seems to think I have excellent form when working out, which makes me very happy.  I have always heard that it is more important to have good form than to do a lot of heave weight.

Today I am much less sore than I was after my first session so I guess my body is getting used to the idea of a Tom that works out.  My third day to the gym this week will be Friday and then I am meeting with Beth again on Sunday morning at 7:00AM (I can’t believe it either).

Weigh In, 12/3/2010

Thanksgiving did a number on me.  For quite a few weeks now my weight has remained pretty stable around 243 and I was content with that for a couple of reasons.  Today though I weighed in at 248.4, I am not content with this.  248 is dangerously close (I know 243 kinda is too) to my first big goal of 250.

Over the years I have become quite an expert at being able to ignore certain problems; like my weight, eating habits or lack of exercise.  Since hitting 250 and congratulating myself I have sort of been ignoring the fact that I still need to loose a serious amount of weight.  I feel kind of like a broken record writing this lately, blah, blah, blah I am slacking off; blah, blah, blah I can’t get motivated.  In a way this here blog has kind of backfired a little bit.  I created it, in part, to have some accountability with friends and family and now I don’t write when I think it will be boring to read.  But, this will change.

I have started doing some small things to get back on track with my weight loss and fitness.  First of all I have been walking to the T stop from work everyday (unless it is rainy).  The walk is a little over a mile and according to an application on my phone a leisurely walk burns almost 150 calories, which I know is not a lot but it adds up write?  In addition I have gotten back onto green smoothies for lunch and breakfast.

My big problem lately is hunger.  I get home from work and I am so hungry that I go on these binges and it seems as though I can’t stop myself.  Sometimes I will do awesome at work, drink lots of water have my smoothie for lunch and then I get home and it all goes out the window.  This has been the hardest thing for me to tackle of late.

I am planning on getting my butt to the gym this weekend and I have found that the more I work out the more I am willing to make better food choices so hopefully that will help.

Weigh In, 11/19/2010

This morning I weighed in at 243.8 not much change from a couple of weeks ago.  I may be a little too optimistic for my own good but I’m kinda happy that I have stayed at 243 for some time now.

Unfortunately staying at 243 is not my current goal though that would be nice.  My goal for now is to weigh 199 pounds and if I am going to get there I need to get to work, I need to find motivation, I need to pay more attention.  I also need to forgive myself and be able to move on from my mistakes.

It seems like every week I plan to start fresh on Monday and then Monday comes along and it life gets in the way.  This needs to become a priority in my life, it needs to become part of my life.  It’s on my mind everyday, I just haven’t been putting it into practice.

There’s always tomorrow.

Cardiac Screening

Yesterday my work offered free screenings to check cardiac health so I signed up.  They took my blood pressure, pricked my finger, tested my blood glucose, HDL, and total cholesterol.  I already knew my BMI was too high but that came in at 35.9, pretty squarely in the obese category, according to the person helping me I need to get to 169 pounds to be normal, seems pretty daunting.

Unfortunately they couldn’t test my LDL which is the bad cholesterol, I’ll be making an appointment with my doctor to do that.  My total cholesterol was 148mg/dL which is in the desirable category (anything below 200 is desirable).  My HDL, the good stuff, was 59mg/dL which is 1 point away from the good category which is anything above 60.  Finally my Blood Glucose was 84mg/dL which is in the normal category.  

My blood pressure was kind of surprising to me.  She took it once with a fancy machine and it came up as 154/80 which puts me in Stage 1 Hypertension.  She seemed a bit surprised by it for some reason and decided to check it again manually, it wasn’t much better, 146/86.  Sometimes I get bored in the pharmacy and I use the machine there and it’s always a little high, say the pre-hypertension range and I just assumed that once I lost more weight it would go down.  So that kind of scared me a little bit.  

At the end she put all of these numbers into some formula and came up with the fact that my risk of getting cardiovascular disease in the next ten years if I keep doing what I am doing is 1.6%

What to do now, well I want to raise my HDL and get my LDL checked out and of course lower my Blood Pressure and BMI.  Luckily it seems I should be able to feed 3 birds with one stone.  According to the paperwork the lady gave me I will be able to lower my BMI and Blood Pressure in addition to raising my HDL by exercising more.

I have been really slacking of lately.  I just can’t seem to get motivated, but I will keep trying.  I will get back into the gym and get these numbers fixed, or at least more correct than they are now.