Dead week

Tuesday, March 8

I overate for dinner: had a lot of lentil puree, among other stuff like squash and mushrooms. It made me feel sleepy the whole night, gain 1 kg compared to last night, and fart a lot. My stomach was obviously very flexible – it suddenly became HUGE. However, I still felt better this time than last time when I had the two big full plates of Thai vegetable curry. I concluded that too much starch/protein is better than too much fat.

I canceled the bet with Lisa, because I decided to fast for the next day to recover my stomach, and this violates the eat-every-meal rule of the bet. I was sure I would win the bet, but I hated the restrictions that the bet set on me. I wanted freedom, so I canceled the bet.


Wednesday, March 9

I was woken up by alarm that morning – the first time for a while. It showed that I needed more sleep due to overeating. I fasted for one day, and it was easier than the first time I fasted (although the first time was easy too). This time I was not as thirsty and hungry as last time. It was probably because 1) from morning to 3pm I was totally focusing on the humbio final paper due that afternoon, 2) last time I starting fasting from lunch, but this time I started fasting from dinner, so maybe it was less intense of a fast this time, or 3) the second time is just easier than the first time.

I was also more energetic: I didn't feel sleepy in the 3:15-4:30pm class at all! I broke the fast with two apples at probably around 5:15pm. At around 6:10pm I had some green salad and broccoli. At around 7pm I had three slices of watermelon. Wow that’s a lot of break-fast compared to just two apples last time!


Thursday, March 10

It was awful that I overate again. I had slightly less than normal amount for dinner, then I when into the Flomo kitchen to talk to the staff there for a while. After a short while, I felt like some bread, so I went downstairs to get some. I saw one girl pass by, eating Oroweat 100% whole wheat English muffin. I was curious so I checked the muffin out. It looked healthy, so I had one slice (half of one English muffin). It was soooo delicious, and it was instantly ranked as my favorite bread. To compare with the normal Oroweat 100% whole wheat bread, I ate a piece of the normal bread too (the crust part that I love). The normal one still tasted good, but the English muffin tasted softer and a little bit oilier, like cakes. So I had another English muffin (composed of two slices). Then I regretted, because I overate again. But this time it was much better than the previous two overeating that made me feel imperative to fast.


Friday, March 11

Although I felt ok when I went to bed last night, I felt very full this morning. But I still had one apple around 9am. At around 10am I had the big mushroom burger from Axe & Palm (I took it back home the previous day). I didn’t have time for lunch because I had a final paper due at 1:15pm. After submitting the paper, I ate 1.5 English muffin and a piece of leftover mushroom on the lawn. I had a small dinner. My stomach does not feel great that day. Overeat-fast-overeat in three days hurt my stomach, and my diet today was also irregular. I should protect my stomach more. Take good care of it.

When I was talking to my parents at night, my parents forced/begged me to eat meat. I was sad and extremely frustrated that I needed to give up my belief just to make my parents happy, so I wrote a long email to them, hoping that they understand why I chose to become a vegan. As a result, I went to bed at around 2am. It was the first time that I went to bed after midnight since the Viennese Ball on February 11.


Saturday, March 12

I naturally woke up at around 7am. I intentionally canceled my alarm last night, expecting to sleep more this morning. But I woke up early by myself as usual, although not as early as 5:40am. Not getting enough sleep, my complexion did not look good today.

During lunch, I had a talk with the manager friend at Wilbur Dining. She told me about how she loved her children by letting them make their own decisions. She’s a wise woman who practices meditation. She said this was a good chance for me to educate my parents, so I decided not to compromise my belief for my parents. They need to understand what I think, who I truly am, what’s most important to me, and what makes me happy. So at round 4pm I started to write a letter to them. I sent the email out at around 11pm and went to bed at around 11:40pm.

I didn’t feel energetic today, although definitely didn’t feel sleepy either, until after I sent out the email to my parents. I yawned after shower. Wow I suddenly realized that I hadn’t yawned for a looong time!

My stomach still felt weird sometimes, but much better than yesterday. Today I practiced good diet and my stomach is recovering.

This morning I discovered that “Food for Life Wheat & Gluten Free Brown Rice Bread” is also soft and oily, so Food for Life’s Brown Rice Bread trumped Oroweat English Muffin as my favorite bread.


Sunday, March 13, 2011

Today I got up at 7am again. It’s interesting that that’s roughly 1.5 hours later than 5:40am. I just learned the 90-minute sleep cycle last week and it looks like it applies here! I used to believe in a smaller sleep cycle of 40 minutes (my dad told me this and it works).

Lisa just got up around 10am. I always know I went to bed at around the same time but got up way earlier than her every day. However, today is the first time I consciously calculated: 10-7 = 3 hours! Before going vegetarian, we used to have the same demand for sleep. Am I really saving 3 hours every day nowadays? I’ll try keeping track of our sleep time next week.

Wait … that why! I just realized that because of the day-light saving time, we just lost an hour today. So if today were still yesterday, Lisa got up around 9am and I slept only 2 hours less than her. (The time I got up, 7am, was shown on my alarm, which did not automatically adjust for day-light saving time)

This morning, I had one slice of Udi’s Gluten Free Whole Grain Bread, one slice of Food for Life Brown Rice Bread, one slice of Ezekiel, and one slice of Udi’s again. They are all very good, with totally different tastes. I almost wanted to rank Udi’s Gluten Free Whole Grain as my new favorite, but I just discovered that it has egg whites in it. Egg’s only a minor ingredient here, so I think it’s ok to eat Udi’s once in a while, but I don’t want to make it my favorite. I compared nutrition facts and figured that the best is still definitely Ezekiel. Food for Life Brown Rice, Udi’s and Oroweat Whole Grain all leg behind. I think I won’t rank among breads, but I do think bread has become one of my favorite foods. I’ll use Ezekiel as my staple, and eat other breads once in a while.

Lunch I had half a plate of green salad and half a plate of squash and roots. I didn’t think that was too much squash and roots, but apparently that was. My stomach didn’t feel good after the lunch, although overall I didn’t eat that much. I recalled that actually I never felt very comfortable after eating a lot of squash or roots. Probably they are just difficult for my stomach to digest, so in the future I should only take very small amount of such food each time. I finished lunch at 12:45pm and had pineapple at around 2:50pm. My stomach was noticeably uncomfortable at around 3:50pm, so I went to bed at around 4pm.

Dinner I had green salad, boy choy, broccoli, and three slices of breads: Ezekiel, Oroweat whole wheat, and Oroweat whole wheat English muffin. Oroweat English muffin didn’t taste THAT great to me anymore. I actually enjoyed the Oroweat whole wheat the most today. It’s weird that, for dinner again, I felt full after meal even I don’t think that I had that much. There are a few possible reasons for that: 1) I took a 1.5 hour nap right before dinner, so I didn’t feel like eating before dinner. 2) I suspect that boy choy in the US contains too much fiber or is too huge and thus it fills me up easily. 3) I guess that I should not eat both Ezekiel and normal bread at the same time, because Ezekiel is a complete protein and leaner on carb. Mixing Ezekiel and normal bread is a bit like a starch-protein combination. 4) Three slices of bread is just about right for breakfast, but for dinner, since you also consume so much fiber from other sources, three slices of bread may be too much? About two hours after dinner I also farted a little bit. I guess farting is directly correlated with how stuffed you are after each meal. You may also fart if you violate food combination, e.g. having starch and protein at the same meal, but I’m not sure on this point.