Venturing into Veganism

Today was a good day! After waking up, we had a healthy breakfast of yogurt (sadly, none of the high-fat stuff I have previously advocated) and blackberries, plus a glass of V8 and our handful of vitamins. After a trip to the dog park, we did our fifth 30 Day Shred workout and noticed increased endurance from our first day. While some of the strength moves are still very difficult, the cardio sections barely make us break a sweat and the abs exercises feel productive but not excruciating. Since we didn't work out yesterday (our shopping trip brought us home by 11 PM and we were exhausted), after I got home from work tonight, we did the workout again. It was definitely challenging to do the workout twice in one day, but still doable. I have already been able to consistently increase the number of push-ups I can do with every workout.

After our second session, I made a dinner of Pseudo Caesar Salad from the book Vegan Planet, by Robin Robertson. It was delicious, tasting like Caesar salad without the high-calorie dressing and it was devoid of animal products. I've included the recipe and a picture below, in case you'd like to try it out. With a little help from my mom and some Internet research, I was able to find miso paste at Fairway Market and the recipe came off without a hitch. All would have gone well today, except for the sad, sad fact that I work at a bakery that is famous for their huge, delicious cookies. Between my snacking at work, and the cookie I brought home for Alix, it was our one big slip-up. But improvement is the name of the game - not to mention, thank God I only work at Levain two days a week. We're still not feeling any weight-loss, which is frustrating, but we are feeling stronger from the workouts. I guess we'll have to give the weight more time to come off since we've just recently started eating throughout the day (normal people do that, right?).

Anyway, here's the recipe for the delicious salad. Any encouragement, advice, and support is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Yummmm

Pseudo Caesar Salad
Croutons (or French bread with crusts removed, cut into 1-inch cubes and toasted at 325 for 25 minutes)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T tahini paste
1 T mellow white miso paste (I used "mild" paste because I decided "mild" was more important than "white" and there wasn't an option for both)
2 T lemon juice
1 tsp tamari or other soy sauce
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
1/3 c olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 head romaine lettuce

In a food processor, combine the garlic, tahini, miso, lemon juice, tamari, Worcestshire, and olive oil until blended. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Wash and tear the romaine, then toss with the croutons and dressing. Serve immediately.