Calories, eh?

Hello!

It's day too on the healthy eating journey and I am feeling pretty good! The one thing that has surprised me is that I don't eat as many calories as I think do... I have been using the MyFitnessPal app on my phone, and I don't get it 100%. I feel like it shows that I am burning way to many calories on the elliptical, but it doesn't show any calories being burned for strength exercises. Huh? And I never understand if I am supposed to replace the calories I am  burning, or just eat the recommended 1500, because if I ate the ones I'm replacing won't I not lose weight? You can totally tell I'm a newbie here. 

Meals

Breakfast - Half a cinnamon raisin bagel with some margarine

Lunch - Left over simple summer corn soup, a cup of fresh strawberries and about  half a cup raw blue berries

Dinner - A wrap using gardein lime chicken, a tortilla, spinach, cucumber, tomato, hot sauce, and garlic pickle

Post Gym Smoothie - Handfull of spinach, frozen banana, 1 tbsp chia, 1 tbsp flax, 1 tsp spirulina, 1 1/2 cups chocolate almond milk

Other Snacks - Three dates, a cup of miso soup.

Total Calories 1,260, minus my exercise. Apparently that is too low!

Water - I drank three 27 ounce bottles of water (my own steel one), one 8 ounce mug of green tea, and I am about to drink 1 litre of peppermint tea.

Gym

Elliptical - 33 minutes

Toe taps - 3/15 each leg

Flutter kicks - 30 seconds x 3

Plank - total 1 minute 30 seconds

Bicycle Crunchs - 30 seconds x 3

Russian Twists - 30 seconds x 3

Mazafati dates I bought today, so good!

Spinach, chocolate, banana smoothie!

I just know I am going to hurt tomorrow! But it will be back arm day, so I think I will be ok. 


What did I listen to while working out today? Tove Lo's album Queen of Clouds

Day 1 Check In

Alright! Well, I guess today was the official first day of me trying to live a healthier life style. Even though I am doing all those things I said I wanted to do, I can't help but feel lazy because I am unemployed and even though I did go to the gym and work out for an hour, and ate healthy all day and drank tonnes of water...the rest of the time I was lying around. I lay in the sunshine for a while, I watched a couple episodes of friends... and then I just sit around and wait for my boyfriend to come home haha. Also, even if I want to work out for a few hours a day, to try and take up more time and get more fit, I'm not at a place where I am even physically fit enough to really do that. 



I need to start coming up with some hobbies haha. I love to read so I should start doing more of that and I have always wanted to get better at art so I should also try that as well. I've been browsing pinterest to try and find new recipes, exercises and fun things which has been good to. For today, I've decided to post a few pictures of me right now, as well as my measurements.

These shots are from today, after the gym. Probably not the most flattering time to take selfies, but hey you can see this is the real me. As you can see from the collage below my skin is not having the greatest time right now. I attribute this to stress as well as drinking too much alcohol and pop...and the fact that I am totally a picker, I can't help it!. I am really hoping with drinking 3-5 litres of water per day that this improves. I met my goal today water wise. I have drank almost 2 1/2 litres of water and 1 litre of green tea so far and I still have 1 litre of peppermint tea to go before bed! I was surprised that I didn't even feel like I had to force myself to drink that much. Between the gym and lying in the sun I wanted to drink lots of water!

I also took my measurements today which was depressing. I've never actually taken measurements of myself so I don't really have anything to base it on, I just hope to see these numbers shrink. I also don't have a scale to weigh myself and there isn't one in our apartment buildings gym so I really only have these numbers to base my progress on.

Measurements

Wrists: 7.25 inBicep: 14 inBust: 44.25 inUnder Bust: 40 inStomach and Hips: 43.25 inButt: 50 inThighs: 29.5 inCalf: 18 inAnkle: 10 in

I also went to the gym today and worked out for half an hour on the elliptical, and then did leg day! I'm thinking of getting a fit bit so I can more accurately check how many calories I'm burning because these machines don't even have a heart rate monitor on them so I think they aren't very accurate. Savannah, you're unemployed and broke, remember? Oh right, never mind.

Exercise

• 33 minutes on the elliptical, 4452 "strides"
• 3/15 side leg lifts, each leg
• 3/15 front leg lifts, each leg
• 3/15 lying butt lifts
• 3/15 lying toe taps, each leg
• 10 minutes of stretching

This totaled a bit over an hour of exercise and my legs were burning at the end, but I was very happy that I got through it. I am thinking of adding some yoga to my mornings as well to take up some more time in my day but also as a form of exercise that is highly beneficial but also won't tire me out too much for my gym session.

I did well on the eating thing today I think. I am going to re-download the myfitness pal application on my phone so that I can better keep track of my calories and exercise. The most frustrating part about those apps though is trying to calculate for your own dishes, like soup or dal. How can I accurately guess exactly how much of each thing was in one serving? Oh well, at least this will help be a guideline for how much I should be eating every day.

Meals

Breakfast - Left over dal makhani with rice, weird brekky, I know.

Lunch - A large spinach salad with cucumber, pepper, tomato, carrot and avocado with a balsamic vinaigrette. And a quarter of a small water melon.

Post Gym Snack - 1 cup of cashew milk with turmeric, a cup of blue berries and a handful of raw almonds

Dinner - Simple Summer Corn Soup from Minimalist Baker's website slightly modified, and half of a whole wheat bagel.

Snack - The boyfriend wants popcorn later which will have a bit of margarine and nutritional yeast.

Simple Summer Corn Soup

Cashew milk with turmeric and black pepper

Not so bad right? You know, I don't even know if anyone is reading these, but that's ok. If it keeps me on track, if it makes me feel better to share then I am going to keep on posting.

Cinnamon

xx

insta: @cinnamonheartvegan

twitter: @cinnamonheartv

A new healthier me starts today.

Hi everyone!

If you're here you probably already know that I have a blog called Cinnamon Heart Vegan. I haven't been the best at posting here on the blog but that is about to change. I am currently un-employed, and might be for the whole summer. Fingers crossed that I get an internship starting in September, but until then I have decided I don't just want to sit here and finish every season of Friends on netflix (let's face it, I'll do that too), I also want to try and get healthier.

I am 23 years old, I have been vegan for 2 years, vegetarian since I was 12. I live with my boyfriend of almost 3 years, who is a lacto-vegetarian and has a ridiculous metabolism so he eats whatever he wants, which makes me eats crap but I gain weight and he stays skinny. But who said life is fair? I have seen people who go vegan and magically lose a whole bunch of weight, or who cut gluten out and magically go down 10 sizes, but that's not me. For me it is going to take more work.

18 year old me

I have never, ever, been skinny, and to be honest I don't think I ever will be completely skinny. But I do want to be healthy, and losing weight will be one of the ways for me to be healthier. All through middle school and high school I stayed at a pretty steady 175ish pounds, which isn't great, but looking back at my photos from then I wish I was still that thin. I thought that I was fat back then but I realize now that I wasn't. I now sit more around 220 pounds and I'm not happy about it. A lot of my clothes don't fit anymore and every time I try on an old pair of pants, or an old blazer and it doesn't fit anymore it's another blow to my confidence. 

I know that getting healthy isn't going to be easy, and it's not going to be quick. Three things I know I need to do are: I need to stop eating so much processed foods, I need to drink more water, and I need to exercise more. When you just look at those three things it doesn't sound so complicated right? Complicated no, but it will require dedication and hard work. 

So I hope that this blog will do a few different things. I hope that it keeps me accountable and on track. I hope that it helps me find people going through similar situations and share my story, and I hope that helps me l                                     like my own body again.

The current me!

So my goals are:

• Drink 3-5 litres of water a day
• Exercise 5 times a week for at least an hour
• Cut out as much processed foods as possible
• Drink less alcoholic/sugary beverages
• Eat less take out food
• Blog regularly
• Be happy!

The current me!

Cinnamon

xx

insta @cinnamonheartvegan

twitter @cinnamonheartv

Vegan Break Up Food

So, I was watching the New Girl recently and Jess was doing her breakup thing, crying and watching dirty dancing on repeat, and I realized that I never had a break up binge! Not that they are necessarily a healthy thing, but I never watched romantic movies and ate ice cream and cried, haha. I'm not really into watching sappy movies these days but decided that I would eat vegan junk food in the name of a blog post!

A vegan ice cream staple is Coconut Bliss. The sweetest part about it is that it is vegan and organic! Also, gluten, sugar and soy free. Oh, and it's super tasty! I got the chocolate hazelnut fudge and it is delightful. Super decadent and creamy with swirls of fudge and pieces of hazelnut. Definitely a real treat. You can eat it while imagining your future spouse will be as sweet and ethical.




While I was walking the aisle looking for more snacks I came across vegan gluten free cookies I had never seen before! Lucys Cookies. I had two options, chocolate or maple. I am a sucker for maple anything so I grabbed those ones and they are pretty tasty! But they were even better when I made them into ice cream sandwiches!


I also grabbed a few treats that are not advertised as vegan but just so happen to be and are delicious! Lays classic are my favourite chips, you just can't mess up something as simple crispy light potato chips. They are fried in sunflower oil so they are vegan! One of my favourites is also twizzlers. I really enjoy real licorice but twizzlers are just so tasty. A movie theatre staple for sure. I love it when things are accidentally vegan!

Uncomplicated and classic, just how I like my men!

Here are a few other snacks I like that are bad for you but good for animals:


-Oreos
-Skittles
-Doritos Sweet Chili Heat
-Sunchips (original)
-Dandies Marshmallows

There are lots more accidentally vegan foods listed here.


So there you go, you are now prepared for a vegan breakup binge, or just treat yourself to some tasty cruelty free snacks!

Keep it spicy,

Cinnamon
xx

Eggplant and Tomato Spaghetti

Alright, this one is actually about food. I had an eggplant sitting out and getting a bit spotty, so I of course went to pinterest to find a new recipe. I came across this vegan spicy eggplant pasta recipe. I modified it because I only had one eggplant, and I also only had whole wheat pasta, and fresh on the vine tomatoes. Below is the modified recipe.

1 Medium Eggplant
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil, divided
1 small/medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tsp crushed red pepper (or more to make it spicy)
1/2 tsp of dry basil
1/2+ tsp salt
1/2 pound of the pasta of your choice




Slice eggplant crosswise into 1 inch slices, salt them on both sides and let them sit for 30 mins (I actually only did 10 mins)

Chop up onions, garlic, and tomatoes while the eggplants are busy getting salty and preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Use 1 T of the olive oil and coat the eggplant slices, salt and pepper them thoroughly and pop in the oven to roast for about 20-30 minutes.

While the eggplant is roasting, heat the other T of olive oil in a medium sauce pan and cook onions and garlic until soft/slightly golden, add oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, and salt, and tomatoes. Gently simmer.

Bring pot of water to a boil and cook pasta of choice until el dente.

When the eggplant is nice and cooked take it out of the oven, and chop it into aprox. 1 inch cubes (I peeled it because the skin was spotty) and throw them in with the tomatoes and onions. Simmer together until pasta is done, or longer if you want.

Drain pasta and combine with the sauce. Serve, top with more pepper flakes and eat.

I will note, I think that if I made this again I would add more chili, maybe... just more spice in general. Since I've eaten so much Indian food all my food needs to be super flavourful and spicy all the time haha. I also think that it would be really tasty over quinoa instead.

I am about to start a new instagram and post my food pics there, so please go give me a follow @cinnamonheartvegan. You can also find me on twitter @cinnamonheartv.

I also wanted to note, I have zero cooking training and all my pictures are taken with my Samsung S3. So yeah, it's a novice blog :P

Keep it spicy,

Cinnamon
xx