Today left me asking, “It’s only Tuesday?” I feel like I’ve done a weeks worth of work already, does that mean I can start the weekend now? Heh, wouldn’t that be nice? This is a great article on Zen Habits because it beautifully grasps the up-and-down dieting from my disordered eating days.

I see people fighting their bodies all too often dieting one week then bingeing on junk the next. This is fighting the bodies natural homeostasis in every sense, one week it is getting less than it would like and releasing stress hormones to cope and the next week the body is being overburdened with processed or overly sweet foods in order to compensate for the previous starvation again putting stress on the body as it tries to cope with the overflow of food and chemicals.

I’ve always wondered what long-term affects a constantly shifting diet have on our health and it’s interesting that this article basically states it permanently damages our metabolism. I used to have a love/hate relationship with food dreading some splurges, like eating out and family gatherings. I’d try to fast before actually indulging and I’d beat myself up with guilt after and a crash diet to make up for it. But since going on a high-raw vegan diet and sticking to mostly whole foods, I don’t feel that way about food and have become much more connected with what my body needs and not feeling bad for eating when I’m hungry as well as sticking to a regular, well-rounded eating schedule. The guilt and urgency to diet aren’t there and I don’t miss the energy crashes and mood swings that were constants in those days. Knowing what continuing down that road could permanently do to my health gives me more strength to avoid it.

Anyway, last night I had a good cardio session on the elliptical.

Typically I would burn about 260 calories in 40 minutes at level 5 while working pretty hard to keep pace. But last night I burned 273 at level 6 without even thinking about it. I got engrossed watching X-Files: I Want to Believe that I barely noticed how hard I was working. My 40 minute calorie burnage has been going up steadily since I started running regularly. Running must be that much more of a workout.

For lunch I had another monster salad with a little leftover hummus.

Spinach, red cabbage, carrots, hemp seeds and nooch – very filling.

For dinner I opted for a cooked dish using a new tempeh flavor I picked up at Whole Foods.

After going through the kitchen and garden, this is what I came up with to complete the meal.

Fresh ginger, red cabbage, a couple of oranges, a mutant lumpy yellow squash from our garden, green onions and fresh snipped broccoli – stir fry! For the sauce, I chucked the oranges and ginger into the Vita-Mix with tamari sauce.

I stir fried the tempeh in olive oil to brown a bit, then tossed in the chopped broccoli, cabbage, yellow squash and green onions. After pouring the sauce on top, I simmered for about 5 minutes and served.

First let me say that the garden veggie is my new favorite tempeh flavor, it has a lightly seasoned kick while the chopped carrots and other veggies add a nice texture to it. And the orange ginger stir fry sauce came out great, I adore tossing oranges into the Vita-Mix for sauces and dressing and it goes wonderfully with fresh ginger. Making fresh anything in the Vita-Mix is fun when plentiful fresh ingredients are on hand – perhaps a guacamole dressing tomorrow night, hmmm.