My U8 girls' team

I really love my AYSO U8 girls' team as well. The girls have a lot of heart. They all listen to me, and we have a lot of skilled players on this team. Most of the girls are really sweet outside of soccer (and even during practice), but on the field they are really aggressive and competitive!! As this season is winding down, I know I'm going to miss this team too.

My U10 boys' team

My AYSO U10 boys' team is doing really well this season. There's so much talent on this team and there is a core of 4 boys that get along so well, hang out with each other after their games and practices, and really bring so much to the team in terms of skill and attitude.

Yesterday we played short with only 5 boys (a sixth joined us in the second half) and the boys scored so many goals that we had to let up and allow the opposing team to score a point.

Our regular season is almost over and we'll have a few tournaments to play. I'm bummed that the season is almost over, as this has by far been my favorite boys' team to coach.

Organic food

I've read a lot of information about pesticide residue, and organic food safety, but organic food is really expensive if and when you can find it at the grocery store. Costco has an awesome selection of organic foods, and they appear to be really popular as they were sold out of organic chicken thighs this weekend. Still, in my last two shopping trips I bought a lot of organic foods - from fresh fruit like apples, to canned stuff like tomatoes, vegetarian chili and lentils, brown rice, pasta, olive oil and lemon juice. The other thing I love about Costco is that they source a lot of local produce, so I can buy stuff like local tomatoes, cucumbers, bananas, etc. I wish everything they had was local!

I really hope Costco continues this trend.

Vegan day 3

I woke up this morning and weighed myself, and after a week of good eating and two days of vegan eating I lost 0.7 pounds. Fortunately in the past week I got in about 2 hours worth of walking and a few hours of running around with the kids on the soccer field. Overall last week was a good one for eating well and fitness.

I made fried rice for the kids for breakfast, but I left out meat and oyster sauce so I could have some, then added it after. I had some super spicy kim chee over the fried rice, and had a Morningstar Farm veggie patty (I am addicted to those).



For lunch, I made scratch made pizzas for the family but for mine, I skipped the cheese.



For dinner I had Amy's lentil soup again, and a cup of blueberries. I had to try to take an artsy iPhone pic because the food is kinda boring.



I did it! I survived 3 days of vegan eating. I feel really good. I think I will try to incorporate at least 5 vegan meals a week from now on. Breakfasts are kind of easy because I already eat very close to vegan with the exception of egg substitute and margarine (which I do miss). The only hard part is that I need to cook for the family, and it's hard to make 2 different meals, and I think I'd get tired of the ready made stuff that I've been eating the past three days.

Vegan day 2

I felt pretty good after my first day yesterday, so I decided to start up with the same breakfast. I added some wakame chazuke into my oatmeal. Wakame chazuke is usually added to rice and tea to make a salty broth, but adding it to oatmeal is kind of similar. It makes the oatmeal taste Japanese and more interesting than plain oatmeal.


For lunch I had Amy's organic vegetarian chili and rice, with some sliced oranges that I got from the soccer field.


In the afternoon I had an all-fruit Jamba Juice peach perfection, and some leftover white rice from the soccer snacks from my second game. For dinner I had two Don Lee Farms veggie patties and some takuan (pickled radish). I was still hungry afterward but fortunately we went to a party where there were lots of vegetable sides (mushrooms, grilled peppers, etc.) and I was satisfied!


I think I got in maybe 4 servings of fruits and vegetables, which is not bad, but I think I'll need to snack on more fruits for day 3. We'll see how that goes.

My foray into veganism, day 1

Inspired by Oprah Winfrey's staff's recent 1 week experiment with veganism, along with my recent viewing of Food Inc., I decided to attempt three days of vegan eating. This will be difficult for several reasons. Obviously, the first is that I love eating fish and dairy (see previous posts)! The second is that I have to also accommodate my family, who are not and will not be vegans. Finally, since I am on Weight Watchers and have so far lost 20 pounds, I need to make sure I find enough foods to fill out my allowance of points.

Since I typically don't eat meat for breakfast, my breakfast this morning was pretty typical, though I had to cut a few items out. Every day, I eat plain oatmeal with a little bit of olive oil butter, a piece of double fiber whole wheat toast with olive oil butter, two veggie sausages, and some egg substitute scramble. Since vegan restricts both dairy and eggs, I took out the olive oil butter (which is made with cream) and the egg substitute. Oh, and I also had a handful of almonds.


For lunch, I usually eat a lot of fruits in addition to some kind of protein. Today for lunch I had Amy's organic lentil soup, organic tortilla chips, organic salsa, and some strawberries and blueberries.


I had a FiberPlus Antioxidants bar for an afternoon snack, then for dinner I had a Morningstar Farms veggie patty, some zucchini with Italian dressing, and a cup of unsweetened apple sauce.


I also walked down to school to pick up my kids, and I cleaned the tiles in the back. But despite (or perhaps because of) eating no meat or dairy today, I feel really good! Day 1 was a success!!