I’m sure most of us have been on the quest for a healthier donut, but I am looking for a healthier vegan donut.  When a girl needs a donut, she needs a donut, so off to the kitchen for some experimenting.  Last week you may recall that I tried out a plant-based chocolate donut recipe.  Due to the fact that I don’t have a donut pan, I made a donut muffin hybrid.  Since last week I have researched that “duffin” is actually trademarked, so I now have two tasks in front of me today:  make an original flavored cake donut (I’m not the biggest chocolate fan) and give it a clever name.

One of of two isn’t bad, so here you go – I present the Original Donut Disc and it was delicious!  Recipe below:

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup cashew milk (you can use any nut based milk)

1 TSP Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 cup Unsweetened Applesauce

1 TSP Vanilla Extract

1 TSP Coconut Oil (could totally be eliminated – I just wanted to try it)

1 TSP Lemon Juice

3 TBSP Maple Syrup

1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1 TSP Cinnamon

1/2 TSP Baking Soda

1/2 TSP Baking Powder

1/2 TSP Salt

Mix wet and dry separately and then combine wet into dry.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Once cool, glaze with a prepared icing of 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 TBSP maple syrup, 1 TBSP cashew milk and 1 TSP vanilla.

PS – accepting ideas for a better name than Donut Disc!

The goal of this blog is not to convince you to be a vegan, but to have an open, transparent discussion about the journey of health.  With that said, I wanted to share some of the wins of eating a plant based diet.

Plant-based eating is a healthier version of vegan eating.  Vegan-ism is simply not eating any animal products (honey optional).  Plant based eating is plants only (grains and legumes included) and low to no oil.  For example – Oreos (the epitome of genetically engineered food) are vegan, we call this “accidental vegan food”, however they are not considered plant based, because, well they are created in a lab.  Sorry if any of you thought they were growing on trees. 🙂

My goal is to eat plant-based, but I will occasionally cheat with vegan junk food.  If you are wondering if I have ever eaten anything in last 13 months that was not vegan, the answer is no.  My splurges are always vegan, just not always the healthiest choice.

You already know why I started eating this way, so I’ll share with you some of the benefits I have experienced over the last year.

Weight Loss:  Be honest, this is what you are most interested in, right?  Well, it has been an intentionally slow journey, however I have lost 12 pounds since I started eating this way.  I could definitely have sped this process up through more exercise and tracking calories in/out.  I lost this 12 lbs simply through eating anything and everything I wanted to under the vegan umbrella.  A dedicated whole food plant based (WFPB) diet will yield faster results.  The perk to eating vegan (even vegan junk food) seems to be that it is very hard to gain weight.  I love that part!  If you are interested in a WFPB weight loss meal plan, please go see my friend at http://www.happyherbivore.com.  She has an awesome program!

Less Sick Days:  Cancer aside, I used to take anywhere from 12 to 15 sick days a year before I changed my eating habits.  Getting into retail saved me because I could take a sick day and make it up later in the week.  Prior to eating vegan, I had a stomach ache every day.  EVERY DAY!  Sometimes they were manageable, sometimes not.  I went through days and sleepless nights of nausea and pain.  Again, this is outside of the cancer journey.  Giving up dairy changed my life.

Energy:  It brings tears to my eyes to think about how I used to manage my social calendar.  I knew that if I worked a full day, at my best, I could do something for an hour or two after work and then I was done.  The next day I would pay for emptying my energy bank and could only just work.  It was rare for me to ever have plans two days in a row as I just could not manage.  Now, I do not even think about putting limits on what I can accomplish (note: knowing yourself and establishing boundaries is always a good thing, but if there is a solution that is even better!)

Appreciating my body:  (It’s a Journey disclaimer – still in progress)  God tells us that we are wonderfully made (Ps 139:14), but full disclosure, most days I felt like my body was betraying me.  It was a fight between what my mind wanted to accomplish and what my body would allow.  Fear and sickness won out daily.  Today, I am grateful for every bit of me, the scars, the story, the background and that I can overcome the obstacles.  I can do all those things I said I could not do before.  Before marrying better food choices with spiritual healing I did not have the strength; I believe I do now!

No More Meds, Please:  While the thought of having energy makes me tear up, this topic can get me into a full blown ugly cry.  I used to live on a very broken cycle of infections, antibiotics and side effects.  Getting sicker from the very things that were expected to make me well.  In the last year I have gotten off all prescription meds and manage any small health crises through food and naturopathic options first.  I will admit that I occasionally partake in a random claritin or zyrtec due to some seasonal allergies that I am still working on clearing up through food.  Healing through food does take patience.  An avocado is not as quick as tylenol.  After a lifetime of throat, ear, bladder and intestinal infections, I have only had one sinus infection in the last 13 months.

When I finished treatment in February of 2013, I was taking at least 5 prescriptions a day, mostly to manage the intense pain and anxiety that accompanies the cancer journey.  Today I take zero.  That feels like freedom to me!

The Data:  A perk of seeing an oncologist regularly is that I get to keep close tabs on how my body is functioning. The lab work results fill me with joy.  Better blood counts than I ever had (Yes, I even have perfect iron levels – plants have protein!), vitamin/nutrient levels that confirm my eating choices.  I do have an ongoing electrolyte issue due to kidney damage from chemo, but I am diligent about treating it holistically.

Food Choices!:    I grew up loving processed foods and could never imagine a day without Mac n Cheese the color of electric orange, but I now find myself craving things I was scared to try:  eggplant, quinoa, brussel sprouts, kale…  I never ate a grape until a couple years ago and now I am convinced they are God’s version of skittles.  I was really missing out on a variety of food.

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As we all strive to live our best lives, I hope this post motivates you to think about something you would like to accomplish and start working on a plan to get there.  Let’s get healthy!

For years I have viewed exercise solely as a means to be skinny, and any time it failed to yield this result I would quit.  In addition, my past history of illness and random medical problems created a lifelong fear of exercising, or I should say several fears of increased heart rate, palpitations, and sweating.  Then there were the added fears of exercising outdoors; what if I get hit by car, break my leg (that happened anyway and I wasn’t even exercising – what a waste!!!),  or faint, and there is no one around to help.  While these fears may seem irrational they were so real to me.  To make matters more difficult, there were social anxiety issues too; not looking good enough while exercising, not exercising hard enough or the “right way”, and gasp sweating in public!  What’s a girl to do?

No doubt that all of the above contributed to my overweight, fearful and sick existence.  When I was going through cancer treatment I gained an additional 35 lbs. on top of this already unhealthy frame.  As I would read about the impact of weight and lack of exercise on cancer recurrence, I came to a subconscious decision:  which fear would win out?  A fear of exercise or a fear of cancer recurrence.  As I have said, and will continue to say over and over in this blog, it is a journey.  Slowly, as I changed my eating lifestyle, I began to change my activity levels and I still have a long way to go.

Frequently, I find myself getting frustrated with exercising.  It is hard for all of us, but the emotional road blocks that are in my way can feel massive, but I just have to remember to just keep swimming, just keep swimming (side note:  I don’t actually swim; I am afraid of water.  Surprised?  😉

Part of my frustration with exercising is the result I expect.  Am I the only one that works out for 30 minutes on the elliptical and jumps on the scale to see if I lost those two pounds?

I have to remember two things:  Patience (that’s a hard one) and the real goal.  I want to be HEALTHY.  No cancer, no heart problems, and to enjoy being active.  It’s not just about weight loss.  I have to admit, I was in a FitBit challenge this week and with the amount of effort I put in I expected the scale to tell me I hit supermodel status this morning.  Not quite yet, but what the scale cannot tell me is that I will enjoy our outdoor activities tonight even more.  I won’t be exhausted from walking from the parking lot to the stadium, or having to stop as I walk up the steps.  I will think a tiny but less about cancer as I did one more thing each day this week to try to fend off recurrence.  That’s a lot of rewards for five days of exercise.

What are your goals this week?