Pseudo Sweetness

Hola Blogerinos!

Yesterday I had a scare. As you may know, I use soft paws on my kitty, Clarabelle, because we chose not to declaw her. Well, yesterday I was knocked off of my proud high horse.

I noticed she had shed one of the soft paws, because I saw a red nail cap on the floor. Soft Paw (are supposed) to work like this: trim kitty’s nails, glue on soft paw, let kitty shed soft paw, repeat. That worked fine and dandy until Sunday night.

I saw she had shed a cap, so I went to go replaced it, and found that one of her nails didn’t shed properly and it had curled around and down back into her paw pad. I was horrified, and about called the emergency vet, until Shane calmed me down. Clarabelle didn’t really exhibit any signs of pain, so I called first this morning and got her in:

The doctor simply clipped all of her toenails (front and back – and really short – I was scared it was too short) and gave her some topical antibiotic for the bad toe and we were on our way. Oh, and he also recommended we discontinue Soft Paw use, which I already had planned. She doesn’t really scratch anything besides the rugs, and those are replaceable, so I think this is doable for sure.

Thankfully, the trip was much cheaper and much less painful than I expected. We now have a happy and healing kitty 🙂 Well, happy for Clarabelle lol

I was able to go back to work since it didn’t take as long as I anticipated either, and then dropped by the gym to get in a 30 minute run, and then some leg, glutes, and ab work. Feeling fabulous and famished, I came straight home to make a recipe from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan for din.

Cocoa-Coco Chili

I wasn’t sure what to think before I started making it. Chocolate and coconut in chili? Hmmm… However, it did come out of this holy grail of a book, so I knew I was in good hands;)

But I started chopping the veggies and making it anyway.

and sauteeing them:

Everyone in the hot tub:

While everyone was sweatin’ it out, I was either going to eat my hand or grab a snack. Since I’m typing this post, you can assume I chose the latter:

I followed the directions exactly besides adding some Meatless Gourmet to mine and ground beef to the husband’s portion. I forgot to take a picture of the meatless gourmet (actually, I thought I did, but it’s not on my camera.)

It turned out phenomenally!!

The taste combination worked perfectly together, and I couldn’t even really detect the meatless gourmet (looks like ground beef) in the chili. It was sweet, savory, and warmed me up on this cold, rainy, icky day. Today looks to be the same way, so I’m glad I saved some for lunch leftovers:)

Pseudo Sweetness

In personal training class the other night, we started talking about diet soda, which led to talking about artificial sweeteners and how they, well, aren’t so good for the bod. My instructor had a couple articles on the topic, and I thought it was great information to share with you all.

One of the articles, from the journal, Behavioral Neuroscience, says artificial sweeteners may be hazardous to one’s weight loss attempts. Researches had given saccharin to rats, and found that those rats who consumed it gained more weight and fat than the rats who were just fed glucose. The researchers concluded “using artificial sweeteners in rats resulted in increased caloric intake, increased body weight and increased adiposity, as well as diminished calorie consumption.”

Basically, regardless of the decreased calories, the artificial sweeteners still caused weight gain. The article says the reason for this is the sweetener interferes with fundamental homeostatic, physiological processes. Pretty crazy, huh?

The second article was from  IDEA Fitness Journal, Volume 5, Number 8, and while artificial sweeteners are helpful for diabetics, we must be picky with how we use them them. Just because these substances lower the overall calories from a food otherwise using sugar, definitely doesn’t mean increased nutritious benefits. The FDA, however sees them as “generally recognized as safe.” Ok, FDA… This article focuses on moderation while using these products.

Just thought you’d enjoy those little tidbits! I know I have a couple friends who are obsessed with the stuff and put it in and on everything, and I’m always a little leery of it.

Vegan for a Day!

I decided I’m going to join several bloggers out there who are going vegan for a day!Vegan 4 a Day is part of a Vegan 4 a Week challenge, and the Vegan 4 a Day is supposed to be this Thursday, however I’m going out for lunch, and have a busy day that day, so I’m doing it today! I’ll just have to not eat any yogurt, which will be hard for me.

I already had to dump out my coffee with half and half, and although dumping out animal products seems not very productive either, for the sake of the challenge, I did just that, and replaced it with this one made with almond milk instead:

With a vegan breakfast?

   Check! This badass breakfast cookie contains: oats, golden raisins, carob chips, hemp powder, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin puree, pecans, and a squirt of agave. And it’s glorious.

I’ll recap tomorrow of how the day went, and any problems I encountered! Do you want to go vegan for a day with me?

 

Do you use artificial sweeteners? I use stevia in my coffee, and I’m even still a little leery of that, just because it hasn’t been out for very long!