englandsword

What a great response to the Stylish Blogger Award! If you haven't looked at yesterday's post yet, check it out and discover some new bloggers. =) I had my first free acting class today at the Actors Workout Studio, and I had to show up for an interview at 9:45 and then stayed for class from 10:30-2. The class is based on the Meisner Technique and we did Repetition exercises where you look at the other actor, make a physical observation about them, and the two people repeat it over and over until eventually they talk about how they feel about the other actor. It sounds boring but some interesting things can happen -- TWO people cried. I was not one of them. Today's food was pretty boring - edamame and salad with roasted beets and another McDougall soup, this time split pea: It doesn't look like much but it's good. Yesterday I had a sweet potato that I roasted at 425 for about 45 minutes (cut off the ends, stab a few times with a knife, and put a pan below to ca...

I'm bummed I didn't have time to do Fashion Friday this week =( especially seeing as I spent hours this week looking at vegan motorcycle boots online. But I have a good reason for being otherwise engaged on Friday - I had an audition and I know it went well because I have a callback tomorrow! Yay! I had a great weekend and went to two casting director workshops yesterday. One CD called my performance "a breath of fresh air." I've also been riding my exercise bike quite a bit. I usually work out right when I get up, and this past week I've been doing Pilates. But I keep getting a burst of energy at 10 or 11 at night and feeling the need to ride the bike! I'm weird. I was checking out 24 Hour Fitness because sometimes I'd really like to go to the gym in the middle of the night, but I haven't decided if it's worth the cost to me or not when I can get a good workout at home. I bought some McDougall's soups at Ralphs the other day beca...

Yesterday for dinner I made this great salad: There was a bed of spinach, topped with sliced red bell pepper, canned pineapple, black beans, and Rawmesan. It sounds like a strange combo, but it was really delicious. I also like to put so many tasty things on my salad that I don't need to use dressing. Here's my recipe for 30-second awesome beans: 1 can black beans Garlic Barbecue sauce Rinse your beans really well in a colander, so that they're clean. Put into your Tupperware (I used a repurposed glass jar) and add in some crushed garlic and barbecue sauce. Mix it up really well. That's it! It's so delicious and really good for topping your salads and making them more filling. In addition to my salad, I had some of these: I love brussels sprouts! I didn't use any oil, and seasoned them with Chinese Five Spice powder and Garam Masala. Then I stuck them in the oven for half an hour on 450. I often do the last ten minutes on 500 but for some reason I did...

I'm back from Florida! I got to see my family, including my brother, who I hadn't seen since I moved in January. And we celebrated my grandpa's 70th birthday! There actually are some other vegans in my family - my grandpa's girlfriend's daughter and her husband and son are all vegan, and my aunt is a vegetarian. So I wasn't all alone in finding meatless dishes and we actually had some pretty good food! On day 1 we made homemade veggie burgers for lunch. Here's a picture of my plate with a homemade veggie burger, a couple chips covered in salsa, and a little homemade guac. The burgers were made out of chopped veggies, sunflower seeds, chickpea flour for thickening, and chickpeas, plus some other things. They were good! For dinner one of the vegans made a veggie casserole, which was really an assortment of chopped veggies, covered in vegan broccoli soup and baked. It was good, and I wanted to take a picture but I couldn't find my phone. My grandpa...

I'm still sick. Yes. I have eaten pretty much nothing but crackers this entire week. Today I decided I was actually going crackers and I needed to eat something of substance even if it killed me. But I'm still way too nauseous and lazy to cook, so I went to Trader Joe's for their plethora of pre-made and frozen items. Usually that's what I don't like about TJ's, but it's perfect for my current circumstance. I bought a few things including some rice noodle soup bowls and I had the garlic flavor for dinner. They come with rice noodles, a seasoning packet, a dehydrated vegetable packet, and an oil packet and you can mix it all up, add water, microwave for three minutes, and voila. Perfect for sick days. I skipped the oil packet and if you do the soup is perfect McDougall material. I don't know why, but I derive a strange joy from going out in public looking horrible. Mismatched clothes, strange shoes, and birds-nest hair. It's like wearing a...

I've always been interested -- in that strange, perverse way that only seems to affect women -- in what other people eat every day. So, I'm going to start posting my daily food diary. I'll try and take pictures, though I didn't today. Breakfast: 2 sweet potatoes Snack: Banana Lunch: Colcannon (potatoes and kale) Dinner: Salad with mango salsa, colcannon Dessert: Sweet potato Here's a good article from McDougall about weight loss. I think it includes some really good principles: http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/021100puweight.htm

So I'm trying out Mary's Mini diet -- you pick a starch, like rice or potatoes, and base every meal around it. Add a couple of fruits per day and some veggies to each meal and that's your diet for a couple of weeks. I picked sweet potatoes because they are delicious and so far it's going pretty well. I'll probably eat some normal potatoes, too, because I figure they're not too different and I still have a few in the pantry I need to use up. I don't really have any pictures because you can probably imagine what sweet potatoes and salad look like. Here are links to the two articles about Mary's Mini: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/june/marys.htm http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/july/marys2.htm So just for fun, I'll leave you with a picture of the gigantic blue church of Scientology in LA. I snapped a quick photo while I was driving by, so that's why the picture is crappy. Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Yesterday I met my stepmom's cousin and her husband and their little baby for lunch -- they live five minutes away from me! What a coincidence! We went to Aroma Cafe here in Studio City, it's a cute place with lots of outdoor seating and several vegan options. I got a great Asian noodle salad with tofu, plenty of veggies, and papaya shreds. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture! Oops. I had that for brunch and later in the afternoon, too, because it was a really big salad. I went to the library and checked out the book "The McDougall Program: Twelve Days to Dynamic Health." I wasn't expecting a lot of new information but I have to say, it's pretty interesting. He advocates a starch-based diet with plenty of green and yellow veggies and a couple servings of fruit a day. Absolutely no oils or even fatty plant foods like nuts, seeds, and avocados - at least if you are trying to lose weight. There's also a diet called "Mary's Mini,...