179 Days To Reset My Life

The title is pretty interesting huh? Curious what it's about me wanting to really take control of my weight issues that I have. I have 179 days until my 24th birthday, when I was younger I had imagine myself being at a health weight by then and not being overweight. 

I have always been overweight except for a few years where I was at a healthy weight and I liked being at a healthy weight. I want to go back to my healthy weight , I want to be proud of myself and not unhappy with the way I look.So I look at the next 179 days as a chance to reset my life and to learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

As of today I am typing this because I am going to be writing about this journey , I will still my vegan reviews of places and food. However I am going to blog about my journey during these next 179 days, it's something that is dear to me. I am doing these journey without a trainer or a weight loss program, this will be something I will be figuring out on my own.

Some thing's that will assist in me with this journey are my food scale that I recently had gotten, my dumbbells 3lbs & 5lbs, my Wii Fit Plus & Just Dance 3 game. Also the apartment I live in has a swimming pool plus a workout room with cable. I know that with the things listed above will help me during the next 179 days, now on to the important details where I am at right now.

My current weight is at 251.6 pounds as of right now, I used my mom's scale to get that number. I know I need a scale myself to keep track of my weight loss. My ultimate goal is to get down to 165-175 range I would be happy and pleased.

Review of Marini's Empanada House

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I found a wonderful empanda house right down from my house , it's wonderful. I can walk right  to the place with in a few minutes and get delicious food. I love that it's a family owned business which means that they only operate two locations but serve wonderful food. They are so friendly and excellent  and it makes me feel good that I am supporting a local company.

Inside of a cherry empanada.

They allow you to customize your food however you want it, in fact they have a vegetarian section of their menu , you can make it vegan by omitting the cheese from it when you order the empanada. And the dessert emphana's wow it's like dessert heaven, i was so excited about how many choices their were to choose from. I really like that they have such great selection and of course the food is super good, I want to try the curly fries if possible and maybe a empanada that isn't just the avocado.

Inside of avocado Empanada.

The dessert empanada are sweet however they are prefect amount of sweetness and fried dough. Which I shouldn't be eating that many of them very often, they are very sweet. The price of the place is about average price ($3.00-$7.00) for food because your paying for quality ingredients instant of crap. I am trying more and more to find places that are family owned or local like I used to in Oregon.

Have you ever had a empanada before, leave a comment if you had. I have the information on this restaurant on my vegan friendly tab;Check it out.

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

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I'll be back on Monday so everyone can have a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. So like the title says goodbye 2011 and hello 2012. This upcoming year is going to be great for new year since I found out that it's the year of the dragon. Yay!! 

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I haven't really set any goals for myself yet , except that I am hoping to maintain blogging at least 5 times a week and get my butt into college.

What' your goals for this upcoming year? Leave a message I'll reply back to you.

Random Finds and Great Time

Homemade sugar cookie.

 I have really bad allergies right now so I am very out of it. I hope everyone had a great weekend, I know I sure did. I got to see some family that I haven't seen in years and it was nice to see that my aunt was excited to see me. 

I don't really have much time to write up a post but I am going to leave you with some pictures from the past few days. Plus I have some thinking to do since I was offered to go to LA for a couple months so I have a lot to think about.

My mom uses this for smoothie's recipe coming soon.

A one pot chili with avocado (homemade).

Texas Ruby Red Grape Fruit.

Leave a comment below for what you did this weekend ?

What I am Reading

Sorry about the lack of post's , I have been staying away from anything that would keep me from studying. I am reading a few books in fact one of them is to improve my ACT score. I am getting ready to go back to college , so depending on my original score. I may have to take the test again so I am studying, so here's what I have been reading.

My new found pumpkin addiction

I know this post is a little late , but I guess for some reason it just never posted.

I love all things that are pumpkin flavored, I guess it's my one food addiction I have besides of chocolate. For the holidays I was very excited to see that Whole Foods had a vegan pumpkin pie for thanksgiving. Yes you heard me vegan pumpkin pie; in fact they had a few options for the pumpkin pie.

This is the personal size of pumpkin pie.

They had half a pie , whole pie and personal size of pumpkin pie available at Whole Foods. I checked I found these pie's at three different Whole Foods in the Katy/Houston area. So I got a personal pumpkin pie for my dinner since I had a upset stomach. Plus we also got a whole pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving to take to my family's.

About 8 oz personal pumpkin pie.

Needless to say I know I have addiction to pumpkin pie , and I need learn to make it myself. These pumpkin pie's may only be a seasonal thing not sure yet.

Have you ever had pumpkin pie from Whole Foods?
Leave a comment below.

Tamale's a Texas girl's favorite thing

I would have to say that my mission of being vegan in Houston, Texas has been adventure for me. When I moved to Texas I figured that I wouldn't have any luck and that is slightly correct to a certain point. My mind was changed after I went to several Whole Foods in the Houston area and I found vegan tamale's, I was excited with joy.

I was so happy I bought them at a heft price of 6.00 for 3 tamales , needless to say they were eaten the next day. So they did hold up very in the refrigerator overnight , which I was happy to see; they heated up very well. Expect the tamale's started to fall apart as soon as they were warmed up, the slights bit of heat.

The tamale's were the best one's I have eaten since I have gone vegan, I will be glad to eat them again. They were cheesy but their was no faux cheese in them at all; there was squash inside of them with a few other items too. Very filling at the same time, which I understand why they only sold them in three.

Now the tamale's may only be based on certain locations depending on where you live; the reason I say this is because I have two Whole Foods close to where I live. The one that is in Sugar land has the tamale's but the one near Houston doesn't. If you come across tamale's at Whole Food's which are vegan , get them you will not regret it at all. 

Have you ever had a vegan tamale before? Or a tamale at all?

Long Holiday

Thanksgiving is such a nice holiday to see family and spend time with them but it is also a very long holiday. If you include black Friday as part of that. I spend most of my Friday recovering from the long trip to my family's house near Huntsville , Texas. It was a great day , however I didn't capture my plate of food that I bought with me.

I bought butternut squash dusted with cinnamon , green beans, brussels sprouts and rosemary rolls which was all from whole foods; and of course vegan pumpkin pie.I think I have found my new lover for pumpkin pie, because sadly the pumpkin pie gelato now has milk in it. I was sad to hear that but oh well , whole foods makes a killer pumpkin pie.

Needless to say my family was slightly interested in how I eat , except for one family member whom was general interested at the same time. I kept my cool with all the questions about why I was vegan and what I eat. I mean I haven't seen my family in 4 years so I could understand, because the last time they saw me I was vegetarian.

Enough about me rambling about Thanksgiving and stuff. Some exciting news, I am going to be reviewing Larabar and Amy's courteous of both of theses companies. I should be posting a review of Amy's frozen items sometime this upcoming week. Along with those reviews I will be posting a review of the pumpkin pie above that I had for Thanksgiving, plus two restaurant reviews from the Houston area.

Does anyone know how to transfer pictures from iPhone to computer to use on a blog?

Please leave me a comment below if you know anything on how to do that.

Happy Tofurky Day

Happy Tofurky Day to all. I will be on hiatus until the holiday is over which means I'll be back on Friday. If I get free time before Tofurky Day then I will post.

Have a good Tofurky Day!!!

I will leave you with a wonderful picture.

Wonderful Picture of Snow from Oregon taken by R.Bork

When not to argue with a meat eater

Today while I was out with my family, we went grocery shopping and we're going to pick up a pancake mix; for a breakfast this week. My family stated that I would have to eat eggs in order for them to make the pancakes because that is the only way you can make pancakes. Right then at the exact moment I bit down my tongue knowing that it was one of those moments in life that test you about your beliefs and way of life.

I decide that this was not the argument that would be worth the hard time and mental thinking to get my point across. However I guess that it was one of those days that I had to get my point across about vegans being able to eat the same things as meat eaters. This wasn't my first run in with this argument I have avoid it once before , because I don't like to push my thoughts on to other about my beliefs nor prove myself either. 

This argument  started about with how I like baking, and my family  chimed in will you can't bake without eggs. Oh boy that was when I was like man the ship for all weapons it's time to go to war. I was locked and load . 

See I used my knowledge to make sure that I could backup my argument , but about the baking apart that was the beginning. The argument ended today in the store over the pancake mix, after I stood their looking at my family while they were shopping for pancake mix. I just said look I am not going to argue about this anymore, if you don't believe then don't but their are facts backup me showing that it is possible for vegan's to make pancake mix with ANY eggs,honey, or milk.

I have a feeling that this argument may come back, but what I really learned is that if you believe in something . Sometime it is important to argue your point and sometime it is not. Which leads me to the title of this post when not to argue with a meat eater. I choose it simply because I live in the land of meat and potatoes ; I have to learn when to choose my battles.

Have you ever had an experience like this or anything similar?

Please comment below.

Who's a which witch?

I love sandwich's of all types and I love most sandwich shops too. However my favorite shop since I got to Texas is Which Witch, personal  this is the best sandwich shop hands down. The location I go to ; the employees are so friendly and nice.

It's nice to go Which Witch because of the employee's and of course the sandwiches; enough of me rambling. I got a Tomato & Avocado sandwich from them tonight, it was my first real meal since I got sick. 

Which Witch is not vegan shop they make all types of sandwiches but however they have a special set of sandwiches that are vegetarian. 

Note all the vegetarian sandwiches can be made vegan if you don't select anything animal related. Above picture shows how you order your sandwich . 

You select which type you want , then you select what type of bread. It goes on how much you can customize your sandwich to the way you want.

As you can see I ordered a Tomato & Avocado on wheat toasted with salsa, red onions, lettuce, cucumbers,black olives, mushrooms,oregano, pepper and of course garlic.

I took a picture of the sandwich for you guys before I bit into it, Which Witch is my favorite go to sandwich place but they are higher than Subway.

What's your favorite go to sandwich shop? Have you ever been to Which Witch? 

If so whats your favorite sandwich?