Video Did NOT Kill The Radio Star

There are so many reasons why I hate the radio. I'm going to tell you every single one. If you're anything like me, you love listening to music. I like many different genres and varieties (NOT country). But unfortunately, the radio gives us the complete opposite of variety. Of course, that depends on which station you listen to and how often you listen. At my work, we have a radio that plays on our phones that is set to KVIL, which is supposed to be the "variety" channel. That's a terrible name because they play the same 3 songs over and over again. Counting Stars by One Republic, Royals by Lorde, and Say Something by A Great Big World. I used to like Counting Stars, nut now that I've heard it a million+ times, I can't stand it. I would rather listen to cats fighting than any of these songs. I'm sick of all the repetition. Everyone in that studio should be arrested for false advertising and treason against music.

I heard a song the other day that I really liked. For The First Time by The Script. It really touched my heart, but it was on that stupid station. You know what that means? They're going to play it out and ruin it. That's another thing i hate about that kind of radio. They'll play some songs so much that they lose their meaning. For example, I used to think that Say Something was a really serious song. It made me depressed. After listening to it once, I was so depressed I felt like dying. I don't even know why they decided to put that on the air in the first place, but they did. Anyways, now that I've heard it so many times, it annoys me. Whenever it comes on, I feel like taking the radio and throwing it out in the street... stomping on it a few times, smashing it with a bat, give it a few punches... I've seen Office Space too many times. But seriously, that's how much I hate that song and radio station.

Let's talk about news radio. I don't think it's any better than the other stations. Sure you don't have to listen to the same songs over and over again. But I think that's better than listening to the news. Let me get one thing straight, I HATE the news. I've always hated the news. "But it keeps you up to date on what's going on in the world Rachael!" So? I don't care about what's going on. Who really cares that a girl fell from 3500 feet and lived? I could have gone my entire life with out knowing that. I don't need to know what is going on in the world. What really bothers me about the news is all of the depressing stuff they talk about, like people getting murdered and raped. It's sick. I don't need to know these things.

People should be filling their heads with good information (or good music). If you don't have motivating audios or something like that, maybe you should try making a mix CD. It's fun and you can listen to your favorite songs. For someone like me, I make lots of different CD's with different genres and styles. So whatever I'm in the mood for, I can just pick out what I want to listen to.

That's really all I have for now. What do you think about the radio? Do you actually like listening to the same songs over and over again? Cause I sure don't...

Until next time...
God Bless You and God Bless America
-Rachael

Days 4 & 5

Oh wow. Work totally wore me out yesterday. I was so tired when I got home. But enough excuses. This diet is getting challenging. I get the feeling that I'll be eating the same things over and over again. From what I can see, there isn't much of a variety when it comes to vegan food. Just about everything in the grocery store has either eggs, milk, or meat. It's hard to know what's okay and what isn't.

Day 4

For breakfast, I had the typical peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat. You know, I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to eat that kind of bread. Are there eggs in bread?

Lunch time! I had a really great salad. Iceberg and romaine lettuce with Greek vinaigrette. Barbecue kettle chips and some gluten free cookies. Nothing special other than the fact that I got to eat this at home. It was all super fresh.

Like always, there are parts of the day where I mess up really bad. I had kettle chips and ALL of the remaining gluten free cookies. I felt bad afterwards. Even though these those are supposed to be healthy, I still felt my insides screaming, "RACHAEL! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?" Now the cookies are all gone and I won't be able to make that mistake again.

Day 5

Like the day before, I had a PB&J. And like I said before, I'm running out of variety.

I wasn't able to make a lunch for today due to lack of time. Let's move on.

Dinner is always the best meal of the day (except for yesterday). I made a huge salad with iceberg and romaine lettuce, chopped onions, broccoli, carrots, and Greek vinaigrette. It was the best thing I've ever eaten. I had peaches on the side and for some reason, I made gluten free rice mac and cheese. Let me tell you something. That was the worst mac and cheese I have ever eaten. The box said to boil it for 12 minutes, and I never actually go by the box. So I boiled the noodles for 15 like I always do with regular mac and cheese. I put in the cheese powder, butter, and coconut milk. My mom had the first bite. Right there, I knew something was wrong. I took a bite and made the same face she did. They were so not cooked all the way. They tasted kind of stale. Yuck yuck. But it's okay now. All the mac and cheese is gone, so I will not be buying anymore.

Besides the lack of variety, everything is going well. I ordered a Warby Parker home try-on kit two nights ago. I hope to post a review next Friday. They have some really cute glasses on their website. They have this thing where you can order five pairs of glasses without prescription lenses so you can try them on and see what you like. And the best part is, it's free. You don't even have to pay for shipping. You get to keep them for a week then send them back when you're done. It's so cool. If you're interested, you can visit their website: www.warbyparker.com

I promise I'll do better. I'm going to a seminar today so I'm interested in seeing what I'll choose to bring for dinner.
Until next time...
God Bless You and God Bless America
-Rachael

I Almost Forgot Day 3

I do apologize for that. I got so side tracked today. Sure enough, God answered my prayers for a break from work to get myself together. So I should have some good posts coming out soon. Okay, on to My Vegan Journey.

I was good and bad today. For breakfast, I had a RVL shake. If you don't know what that is, you can click here find out more. It was really really good. My mom makes them like, all the time. I don't really know how to make it, so she did it for me. Put it in a little to-go cup and brought it to work. Super convenient. Of course, I was hungry just a short while after finishing it.

This is the bad part. For lunch, I once again, had ramen. But it was shrimp flavored this time so that's okay. But like usual, it was just a filler. I was hungry once I got home and wanted to eat everything, again. But I didn't. I did good with that. 

For dinner, and this is really bad, I had "natural" mac and cheese. It was Annie's cheesy mac. And that's cool, but it had cheese and butter in it. I substituted the dairy milk with coconut milk and it tasted pretty good. (By the way, don't ever drink coconut milk on it's own. It's the nastiest thing ever.) Even though it was a healthy meal, it wasn't vegan and I have therefore failed. No not really, I have a week grace period to let my stomach get used to this weird stuff. I'm just easing into the waters instead of doing a cannonball. 

Okay, now you people are gonna be like "WHAT?! NO SHE DIDN'T!!!" I made gluten free cookies. Chocolate chip. I super messed up. It's a good thing I baked all of the dough. They had eggs and milk in them. That's no bueno. I ate 5 or 6 right after I made them. Just wait until day 4 when you hear about what I did with the rest of them.

So I did pretty badly today, but I'm still getting used to it. If you would like to be challenged today, shoot me a message. I'd love to be your accountability partner.

Until next time...

God Bless You and God Bless America

-Rachael

(All My Vegan Journey updates are written the day after they occur. Example: Day 1 is written on day 2, Day 2 is written on day 3, and so on. Here's a picture of a precious steak, I mean cow.)

Day 2

You know, this vegan diet isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Probably because I haven't gotten into the "real" vegan food yet. I'm still not looking forward to that, but I'll endure it when that time comes.

I still didn't have breakfast. Once again, I had no idea what I could munch on. I think I'll have a smoothie or shake or something like that for the next day. That might be fun. Even though I wasn't able to have breakfast, I did have a very nice, satisfying lunch. It consisted of a peanut butter and jelly (both organic) sandwich on whole wheat bread, barbecue kettle chips, some fruit, and a nutrigrain bar. I'm pretty sure that's all vegan. I'm only eating these semi healthy things until I learn everything I can or can't eat. Like I said on Day 1 (maybe I didn't say this) I would like to live the lifestyle of a vegan. Like, a raw vegan. Fruits, veggies, natural cleaners, fitness stuff, and driving around in a Prius.

*SIDEBAR*
I test drove a Prius the other day. Man it is a nice car. It was really quiet and comfortable. I like quiet. Did you know that the standard Prius speakers are JBL's? I've had really good experiences with JBL. Not only are the speakers really great, but so is the gas mileage. 50 mpg? That's unbelievable. The strange thing is, I used to make fun of people who drove a Prius. But now that I've tried it, I'm in love. It's no Rolls-Royce (obviously, idiot), but I think it will do until I can get my dream car.
*SIDEBAR END*

For the little dinner I had, it was also very satisfying. But that might be because I've been eating this for a long time. Ramen. Okay okay, you hardcore vegans... don't hate. I know that ramen is not very healthy considering the sodium levels, but my blood sugar was low and blah blah blah. Excuses, words, and justification. Technically, ramen is a vegan food, healthy or not. So don't get on to me like, "OMG Rachael! Ramen is sooooo totally bad for you. You shouldn't eat it. DO you know how much salt there is in that stuff? You're gonna die!" Just stop. Please.

Want to go through the vegan experience with me? Subscribe to my posts or message me! I would be happy to help people stay accountable.

Until next time...
God Bless You and God Bless America
-Rachael

Day 1 of The Vegan Transformation

I started on my Vegan journey yesterday. It was an interesting experience. It started with me waking up late. Yeah I know that's bad. I got up around 8 am. That gave me 20 minutes to get ready for work, which is fine because it usually only takes me 15. But there are some days where I just zone out in the mornings. Yesterday was one of those days. I went into the kitchen to try and find something to eat. But honestly, I had no clue what I could or couldn't eat for breakfast. So I thought, well maybe I'll skip breakfast today and make a lunch. That didn't turn out so well. Not because I didn't know what to eat, but because my ride got to my house as soon as I took out the bread (whole wheat). Basically, I went hungry for most of the day.

Already my vegan experience was going poorly. But it was my own fault. When I got home, I wanted to devour EVERYTHING we had in the kitchen. Don't worry, I held myself back. I had an organic peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some baby carrots and RANCH! OH NO! I HAD RANCH! I'M GOING TO DIE. I was planning on steaming them, but I was so hungry, I couldn't wait. Later on, I was still so hungry, I found some pre-cut broccoli in the back of the fridge. It looked pretty fresh. I was about to go for the ranch again, but my mom pulled out some nasty looking dressing. It was some Greek Vinaigrette. Man it looked so gross. But after I smelled it and tasted it, it was so good. It was better than ranch. And I always thought there was nothing better than ranch. I could drink ranch like it was water. So it goes to show that not everything that looks nasty, is nasty.

There are somethings I'm not looking forward to, like hummus and tofu. But like the dressing, I'm sure it isn't as bad as it looks. My mom says hummus is just mashed beans, which sucks because the only beans I like are baked beans. WHICH, by the way, I found some vegetarian baked beans at Kroger the other day. I bought 2 cans. It's cool cause there are some things that I like that I can still eat, for now. I'm still in the transition stage (obviously, it's only been a day). Eventually, I would like to be on a completely gluten, meat, steak, bacon, chicken free diet.....oh gosh. Sorry, I miss meat already. Now I'm sad. But really, I would like to eat only fruits and vegetables. And I'm cool with that, because I actually like (most) green things. The only problem I have is protein. I hear vegans (on blogs and forums) say that they do get enough protein from nuts and whatever. But my mother says otherwise. Nuts are more of a carb or fat than they are protein. Basically, if you look on the nutrition label of any food, and there are more carbs or fats than there are protein, then that food is a carb or fat. Therefore, I'm out of luck when it comes to nuts being my protein.

I'm not going to rate how this diet is going yet because I don't really have the experience to do that. BUT if you have any comments or just want to know the reasons I chose the vegan diet (which I will probably write about later on), leave me a message or whatever.

God Bless You and God Bless America.
-Rachael