Archive for December, 2009

Earlier today was pretty rough. I think after three full days, today my body realized something is up. Nothing bad happened or anything — I’ve just become acutely aware of being hungry all the time. It’s different from my normal hungry, where psychologically I can satiate myself by going “hey, there’s a sandwich around the corner.” It’s more a dull, constant tingling permeating my very being. It got better after I made dinner, but still …

That led me to ponder a possibly disastrous and ironic side-effect of this whole process that could be a possibility once Detox Week ends on Christmas Eve. What if my body adjusts itself to my new, lower caloric intake by then, slowing down my metabolism to burn through less fuel over longer time? I mean, I’m no nutritionist or physician, but I’m pretty sure something like that isn’t out of the realm of possibility, which means I could very well not only gain weight a week or two after adding breads and whatnot back into my diet, but possibly put myself on the road to weight problems. Sure, I’ll be back at the gym full-on, but what if that’s not enough?

Of course, given my 33 years of non-fat-assedness as proof to the contrary, I shouldn’t worry. But forcing my body to go from eating relatively rich foods every few hours to eating nothing but fruits and veggies with less frequency has to be doing something, right? I guess we’ll just wait and see.

Given the weekend I have ahead, in which a lot of work has to get done as well as a moderate amount of unavoidable (and needed) play, I have to wonder whether I’ll hit a breaking point and give up, or push through past the “withdrawal.” I already planned to begin incorporating whole grain rice into my meals beginning Monday, to begin easing the transition back to “normal.” Hopefully that will be good enough, and there won’t be a mad dash on a Domino’s before then.

So there’s that. In the meantime, here’s the usual daily meal log:

• Breakfast: 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 cup “Dynamo” juice blend
• Morning snack: 1 Apple Pie Larabar
• Lunch: A decently-sized salad — lettuce, tomato, carrot, celery and green bell pepper — lightly mixed with about an ounce of Bragg’s Liquid Amino and some sunflower seeds
• Afternoon snack: 1 navel orange
• Throughout day: Mixed raw nuts
• Dinner: Two small, white boiled potatoes with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower steamed in homemade vegetable broth.
• Beverages: Mostly water, as usual, save for an ounce or two each of Trader Joe’s “Green Protein,” a few ounces of Kombucha tea, and one serving of Trader Joe’s “Green Protein.”

Not much to report about yesterday — and yes, that means you won’t have to read 600 words today. I didn’t end up going out to lunch. I don’t think I would have been much fun, nor had much fun watching a bunch of people eat stuff like bread and pasta. In theory, I could have ordered a plain salad, maybe with just oil and vinegar, but … I think it was better I didn’t.

We also put up our Christmas tree last night, a ritual which would have normally been commemorated with egg nog, hot chocolate, liquor and cookies or whatever. But while the girls indulged in cocoa, I obviously abstained. The tree got put up just fine, but I really kind of feel like a dud.

Tomorrow should be interesting. At the Griffin in downtown Las Vegas, three of my old (heh, old) pals, Geoff Carter, Gregory Crosby and Dayvid Figler, are bringing back their infamous holiday-themed spoken word nonsense known as “Three Wise Guys” for one night only. All fine poets (some finer than others), Carter, Crosby and Figler performed as “Three Wise Guys” from 1995 to 1999, so this would make this the 10th anniversary of the final performance. It’s kind of a *thing* for us Vegas culturistas, especially because Carter and Crosby have lived in far-off lands (Seattle and New York, respectively) for quite a few years now. Allegedly, I’m to be emceeing this shindig, at a bar, without drinking. In the midst of Detox Week. So, that should be good, right? It all goes down at 7 p.m. if you want to come by. And you should. Hopefully I won’t feel like a dud then, too.

And that’s about that. My band may or may not be auditioning a new bass player this weekend, so you may hear about that. Or not. But you kids are here for the Detox Week madness, right? So let’s look at yesterday’s menu, shall we?

• Breakfast: 1 banana, 1 apple, 1 cup “Dynamo” juice blend
• Morning snack: 1 peanut butter cookie Larabar (nom nom nom)
• Lunch: 1 bowl homemade vegetable stew (all gone now)
• Throughout day: A few handfuls of raw sunflower meats
• Dinner: 1 can Amy’s Organic Lentil Vegetable soup (I can’t get enough!)
• Beverages: Water all day, plus about a few ounces each of Trader Joe’s “Green Protein” juice blend and Naked “Super Food” juice blend.

That was a pretty light day, looking back. I don’t expect today to be much heavier though. Tomorrow, I’m considering treating myself to a trip to Go Raw, a tasty vegan/raw cafe. Haven’t been there in a few years — it should be good.

This will be a MUCH shorter update than the previous day’s, as I’m, you know, busy and stuff. But keeping track of my progress during Detox Week (+ 3 Days) is as much incentive for posting this as is annoying you fine people.

Yesterday proved that Monday wasn’t a fluke — though I salivated at every mention of bread, cookies or any other of the forbidden foods this week, the continued consumption of only fruits and veggies went very well. My legendary appetite — and anyone following me on Twitter should know I get hungry about every five minutes — seems to be dying down, though not without a fight. But I think that’s another unexpected benefit I’ll get out of this process — maybe getting to the point I won’t have to eat quite so voraciously.

Don’t get me wrong — it’s not like I’m some 300-pound glutton. Or even a 200-pound glutton. I do have a very fast metabolism, and that is a blessed thing I don’t want to throw off too much. I’m sure it’s what’s kept me relatively thin most of my life. But I’m sure part of my constant hunger is the consumption of foods that aren’t really digesting properly, eating non-whole foods that are mostly useless calories and not rich in nutrients. I think that is a major paradigm shift to which I’ll have to adjust.

Oh, geez, I went off on a rant again, didn’t I? DAMN IT. OK, well, let me run down Tuesday’s meals, and then we’ll wrap up this thing:

• Breakfast: 1 banana, 1 cup “Dynamo” juice blend (calcium fortified)
• Morning snack: 1 Larabar, Lemon flavor (raw/vegan/organic)
• Lunch: 1 bowl of homemade vegetable stew (should I post the recipe?)
• Afternoon snack: 1 navel orange
• Throughout day: Approx. 2 handfuls various raw nuts & seeds
• Dinner: 2 medium-sized potatoes, boiled + approx. 1 cup broccoli and cauliflower
• Beverages: Again, mostly water all day, except for the aforementioned Dynamo, a shot of Kombucha tea, and about a few ounces of Naked Super Food juice blend.

Dinner last night was really good. I mean, so was the stew. But remember that homemade vegetable stock I made? I used that to steam the broccoli and cauliflower, and then used it as a butter substitute with the potatoes. AND IT WAS AMAZING. I intend to start making this simple veggie stock once a week, and keep it around for things like rice, veggies, homemade soups — I’m super excited about the possibilities. And it takes almost no effort. The vegetable stock was made, literally, with scraps left over from chopping veggies for the stew Monday night. I just threw them in about a gallon of boiling water, added some salt, pepper and spices, some fresh garlic cloves, and just let it simmer for about two hours before straining into a bowl. That’s it!

Anyway, we’re actually on Day Three now, and it should be interesting. Supposed to go out to lunch for a friend’s birthday, so we’ll see if I can actually order food within my restrictions from a restaurant. Check back later!

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, it’s Detox Week around here. As explained in ridiculous depth in this post, I’m eschewing bread, pasta, alcohol, soda, animal products and just about anything that isn’t a fruit, vegetable, legume, nut or mineral from now until Christmas Eve. It’s 11:19 p.m. on Monday night, which means I’ve officially survived Day One without getting tired, cranky or killing anyone. YAY ME!

Yum factor = 7/10.

OK, to be fair, as I’ve been a vegetarian for many years now, it’s not a total stretch for me to switch to a hardcore vegan diet. Beyond vegan, actually, because with the exception of a bowl of soup tonight, I did nothing but raw, organic food all day. But my typical daily consumption consists of multiple servings of breads, meat substitutes, processed soy products such as tofu, stuff made with eggs, and when I’m being bad — which has been too much lately — more cheese than either my doctor or my ass wants me to have. So yes, Detox Week is a challenge. But instead of feeling deprived, I feel like a whole world I forgot about has been reintroduced to me.

See, when I was a kid, I loved experimenting in the kitchen. From a really young age, I would make my own salad dressings and sauces, mixing up whatever ingredients I could find in our kitchen. And I LOVED vegetables. Why do you think I was making salad dressings? To put on salads! But I also just enjoyed crisp carrots, celery (maybe with peanut butter), cauliflower, bell peppers, even raw potatoes with a hint of salt. I attribute my strong and healthy teeth and general good health (as well as my relative thinness until recently) to my early dedication to veggies. Sure, I enjoyed tacos and pizzas and Kit-Kat bars just like every other kid in America. But I probably just balanced it better without parental enforcement.

Bitch, I made this!

But the strange thing is that over the years, even as I stopped eating meat products one by one (first beef and pork, then poultry and fish), I didn’t really increase my intake of veggies. I was — as are many vegetarian friends I know — bad vegetarian. I relied heavily on starch and fat, and I hadn’t yet discovered the awesomeness of vegetarian-friendly food cultures such as Mediterranean, Thai and Indian. Eventually, I fixed that, thanks to the influence of others. And after some bouts back and forth, I came out on the other side as a good vegetarian. I learned to make balanced dishes with fresh ingredients at home, developing a shopping regimen that pretty much continues to this day. Pretty much I say, because as mentioned yesterday, my intense work schedule and packed calendar requires me to rely more heavily on prepared meals, frozen foods and eating out more often than either my wallet or stomach care for. You know how it is — it’s so easy to presume that preparing fresh food takes too much time, or is too much of a hassle.

Well, yeah, it takes time. But it’s not a hassle. Around Casa Awesome, I do 95 percent of the cooking anyway. And it’s not just because Sara doesn’t cook (well …). It’s because I enjoy doing it. I like having an excuse to do something more than just put together a sandwich or throw some veggie nuggets into the oven. Even making a simple pasta dish this weekend, I remarked aloud how much I enjoy just being in the kitchen. And tonight I did two new things in the kitchen: I made both a vegetable stew and a vegetable stock — not difficult or groundbreaking items by any means, but for me, it was awesome to create something more than just the sum of its parts. I was absolutely giddy at the smell filling the house as the stew simmered. And I nearly took a photo of the vegetable stock after I poured it through the strainer into its glass container, I was so proud that I made it.

So Day One went well is what I’m trying to say, I guess. I’m quite looking forward to actually eating the stew tomorrow, and experimenting with the stock tomorrow night in some new dish. Because I know some of you asked or were curious, here’s the rundown (approximately) of my consumption today:

• Breakfast: Approx. 1 Fuji apple, 1 banana (both sliced)
• Morning snack: 1 Coconut Creme Larabar (raw/vegan/organic)
• Lunch: Approx. 2 carrots, 1 bell pepper, 2 stalks celery (all sliced) with maybe a teaspoon of Bragg’s Amino Acids
• Afternoon snack: 1 navel orange, sliced
• Throughout day: Approx. 2 handfuls of raw sunflower nut meats
• Dinner: 1 can Amy’s Organic Lentil Vegetable soup (sooooo good!!)
• Beverages: Just water all day, except for about a quarter serving of Kombucha tea and about a half serving of Trader Joe’s Green Protein drink

Thanks again to everyone for your comments and support, and I’ll check back tomorrow with a hopefully less wordy post. Excelsior!

Sorry for the lack of updates. If you’ve been following me on Twitter (and why wouldn’t you be?), you may have caught on that I’ll be revamping this site soon to focus a little less on this poorly-updated blog, working toward more of a portfolio/brochure site. In the meantime, though, here I am. And I’ve brought with me the cover for the first issue of the new anthology series from my lil’ comic book company, Omega Comics Presents:

Set for release in February, Omega Comics Presents features three all-new, original stories from writers and artists scattered around the globe. No, really. THE GLOBE. Including the lead story by yours truly, the first chapter of an epic, action-espionage drama called “OMEGA.” Epic, I say.

“OMEGA” is actually a story that has existed in many different forms over the last 20-plus years. Much like The Utopian, it has its roots in those homemade comics I cooked up when I was a kid. Unlike that webcomic, however, this tale is completely different, bearing resemblance only superficially in characters’ names and abilities.

I started shopping around the entire graphic novel pitch to indie publishers last year, but after I launched Pop! Goes the Icon, my workload became suddenly heavier, and it didn’t make much sense to send projects off to other companies when I was in the midst of starting my own. So “OMEGA” is rolling out in short chapters with each quarterly issue of OCP, with the goal of wrapping up the rest of the story in full, graphic novel form.

Maybe.

Anyway, there’s some really great work in this first issue by folks such as Alex De-Gruchy, Robert Durham and John Dimes, stuff that will make my puny scribblings look amateur. And even more amazing comics in the second issue! But, um, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I need you to first pre-order the first issue of OCP. It’s only $3.50, and it’ll come right to your doorstep. And the aforementioned creators get paid based on sales, so it would be really nice if not only could I afford to pay for the printing, but that I can actually pay these fine people for their hard work.

The comic will also be available in stores, though just which ones I don’t know. That’s because our comics are distributed by Haven Distributors, which specializes in fulfilling indie comic orders. So if you would like to see OCP carried at your local shop (or if you’re a retailer yourself), please be sure to let Haven know.

I’ve been wavering on the naming of this event for a few weeks. First it was RawWeek, then WholeFoods week, and now … well, we’re going with Detox Week, because even though it sounds like I’m going cold turkey from heroin addiction or something, saying “raw” or “vegan” or whatever is limiting and/or inaccurate.

What the hell am I talking about?

A few weeks ago, someone I follow on Twitter — gawd, don’t ask me who — mentioned he’d lost 20 pounds in two weeks (or a month? I don’t recall) eating only fruits and vegetables. This isn’t a revelation or anything, but it got me thinking about how I’ve let my eating and exercise habits slide due to stress, overworking and things like holidays and vacations. As most people should know, I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my adult life. I did veer into fish consumption for about 18 months, but whether or not I’ll return to that remains to be seen. A little more than a year ago, I visited a doctor to look into some abdominal pain I was having and it was discovered I had really high, bad cholesterol, as well as high triglycerides and a fatty liver. Remember, I’d been vegetarian for at least 7 years at this point.

So I had to cut out anything high in cholesterol or fat. In my case, that was mostly cheese and egg products. And I had to get back to the gym. I’ve been an on-and-off-again gym member, going through alternating periods of high attendance and non-attendance. When I was working multiple jobs and going to school, it wasn’t so much of a problem, as I was on my feet and running around a lot. But most of my work now is sedentary, and apparently the combo of eating French toast three days a week plus not going to the gym in almost a year had done me in. My doctor put me on cholesterol-reducing meds, the aforementioned no-cholesterol, low-fat diet, and an increased exercise regimen. All of which — aside from the pills, which I’ve never had to take for anything in my life — was fine by me, especially since the other discovery at the first doctor’s visit was that my weight was approaching 190 pounds — about 30 more than my highest average.

I re-upped my gym membership, started going there three days a week, began to actually read the labels of the food I was buying, and slowly but surely, the pain dissipated (no one ever did pin down what was casuing it, even after MRIs and ultrasounds — likely, it was something muscular) and the weight started coming off. After three months, my cholesterol came down from a total of 235 to 115, and after another three months, my doctor took me off the pills.

Then I got busy. Or lazy. Or cocky. I started eating the occasional grilled cheese sandwich or egg omelet as a “treat.” Or because I was drinking and needed “absorption food” (alcohol consumption is a topic for a whole other blog post). Three-days-a-week at the gym went down to two, and then one, and then as life spiraled out of control, a visit once in two weeks was an accomplishment. I haven’t weighed myself or been to the doctor since, but I’m pretty sure things aren’t looking too good. Even that slight twinge of pain comes back every so often.

So, inspired by Twitter Guy Who Lost 20 Pounds Eating Only Fruits and Vegetables, I decided I’d take 10 days to make a drastic kick-start for my body’s health happen by following a similar regimen. Wedged between a weekend full of debaucherous parties and events and Christmas Ever, Detox Week 2009 will commence the morning of Monday, Dec. 14 and run through the evening of Thursday, Dec. 24. Yes, that’s more than a week. But “Detox 10 Days 2009″ sounds stupid. I at first contemplated going fully raw, but given my workload and lack of proper tools or time, I wouldn’t be able to do that fully effectively. Then I thought, oh, just vegan, but that could include things like bread and pasta, and I wanted to stay away from that stuff. So I’m creating a custom eating regimen for myself that holds mostly true to a whole foods diet, leaning more heavily on the raw side. The basic guidelines (and these are just guidelines — the most important thing is to listen to my body):

• No processed foods
• No dairy, no bread, no pasta
• No soda or alcohol
• Obviously, no meat or animal products — including eggs and foods made with eggs
• Only eating combinations of vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes, organic and raw whenever possible

I went shopping for the first few days tonight at Sunflower Market, stocking up on a bunch of fruits and veggies, raw nuts/seeds, fermented drinks (a staple of whole foods diets), raw snacks, juices and for special occasions, a few vegetable-lentil soups. Almost everything I bought was organic, and surprisingly, did not cost more than my normal grocery list of processed meat substitutes, frozen meals and salty snacks.

I’m very excited to rediscover the joy of just eating what comes naturally and experimenting with different combinations of foods. I’m sure the first few days will be difficult, especially as I’m used to eating a lot of breads and cereals. But I think the end result will be worth it. So stay tuned as I attempt to document my progress during Detox Week 2009, and if anyone has any constructive feedback, I welcome it, though I won’t promise to actually pay attention to it.