30 Day Vegan Challenge: Days 3-6

What a crazy weekend! This weekend, I ran two events for work off campus, spent two hours attempting to control the earwig situation in my house before it got too bad, ran to a town 30 miles away to pick up food I can't get in my tiny town, cleaned my house from top to bottom, dealt with my flowers and other plants outside (or what normal people call "gardening"), pickled a bunch of jars of pickles, got in lots of exercise, read a book, made two types of nut butter and several other dishes, and tried to give my cat a little more attention as she's been quite lonely lately.  Whew.  The issue on top of all this is that I have been sick since Friday with both Celiac and Fibro symptoms.  Yay.  I actually ended up taking off of work more than I wanted but there was no way I could have been there with the way I have been feeling and extra couch time has been necessary.




The crummy photo quality of this picture is brought to you by my phone. 
Sorry!  DSLR isn't always right by me. :)

 I was glutened in May on a field course and I have been dealing with symptoms ever since.  Unfortunately, I often have issues with my stomach muscles that stem from my fibro that makes it worse.  I have been sleeping as much as I can and getting a lot of healthy food and exercise in in an attempt to get back control over my fibro.  My exercise for days 3-6 of this challenge was:

Friday (day 3): REST!
Saturday (day 4): 5.5 miles (AM), 4.5 miles (PM) = 10 miles
Sunday (day 5): 5 miles of incline and speed intervals on the treadmill + 25 minutes of upper body free weights, abs, and lower body strengthening 
Monday (day 6):  Rest

I have been trying to make the best choices possible with eating and sticking to the vegan challenge has honestly not been a big deal.  I think I am detoxing from not eating dairy, which isn't helping my other issues, but hopefully I'll be over that hump soon!  My skin and black under eye circles have seen a massive improvement this past week!

In other news, I decided to try my hand at growing pie pumpkins this year.  You know, to feed my year-round pumpkin addiction.  I guess I really had zero idea how BIG pumpkin plants get.  I planted it by the side of my house,right by my garage and it has since taken over that entire area (including a mum, a violet plant, my hose reel, and, today, my walkway!).  I'm waiting for my HOA and/or neighbors to formally lodge a complaint about the unsightliness.  On the flip side, I have about 20-30 blossoms right now, which means tons of pumpkins for this fall!  My blender will be whirring making pumpkin puree in just a few months (if I'm not forced to remove the plant before then!).  I wanted to post a photo but my computer is pulling a 'tude and doesn't want to do it so it'll have to wait until next time!