Vegan MoFo Day 4: Reading & Shopping & Preparing, Oh My

A little bit of extra excitement this morning when I spied my blog on the official 2011 Vegan MoFo blogroll!

You might be wondering why yesterday- Monday- wasn't Cleanse Day 1.  Actually, there are a few excuses reasons:

1) Amazon inexplicably took forever to ship my book.  Apparently the holdup was the bargain book that I ironically bought only to attain super-saver shipping status.  Foiled again by frugality!  Don't worry; I've powered through it cover to cover already and will re-read to refresh as I go.

2) I was really busy over the weekend.  I wanted to be prepared when I began, and I knew I wouldn't be able to sufficiently shop, organize, and psyche myself up for a Monday start.  Now I'm ready as I'll ever be.

3) VM says it's a good idea to embark upon a "diet" on a Tuesday (yes, today!).  I'm not completely sure why, but I'm going with it.

4) I'm quite the procrastinator.

Crazy Sexy Diet contains tons of information and I am definitely impressed.  Even though my intention was to begin by focusing solely on the cleanse in Chapter 10, it's clear that much of the nutritional information included in the rest of the text is necessary to have in your subconscious arsenal (or bookmarked on your counter) in order to succeed.  Check me out; I'm learning and stuff!  I look forward to re-reading the more detailed/scientific chapters whilst cleansing; I anticipate it will give me something to do other than daydream about Lula's (Note to self: un-like them on Facebook so I don't have to read their daily flavors).  But my first instinct is that I can definitely do this.

So, I shopped...in a totally different way.  What a change.  One day my shopping list consisted of Vegenaise, Tofutti cream cheese, and almond bites.  Really.

actual A. Bean shopping list

The next, things like almond butter, romaine, and- shudder- apples. 

Ok, I also ate.  Last day before the cleanse!  There was a bagel.  Some with cream cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.

And some with fresh jalapenos from my own topsy turvy garden!

These suckers were spicy.  About an hour and 25 hand-washes later I rubbed my eye and was out of commission for ten minutes.

Salt & vinegar potato chips (sue me!)

Leftover stuffed cabbage.

 

And peanut butter cups too (what !?).  Note: store your vegan cups at room temperature to prevent your PB from becoming powdery.

I may not be showing much pre-cleanse restraint, but I have been studiously preparing for the change in lifestyle.  However, I would like to point out that the universe doesn't seem to be on my side here.  While diligently shopping for healthy convenience items like these swanky green bags,

I was visually accosted by this adorable manipulative, insulting, prohibitive item.  What is with all of the cupcake propaganda!?

Oh, oops ;-)

Remember! Tomorrow isn't Wednesday, it's Cleanseday (recap).  Yep, while you're reading this I will have already began the 21-day cleanse and will report back if that I've survived.

Fingers crossed.