December is here!

Hi Veggies!
Once again, excited for my second blogpost! As I mentioned previously, I am focusing a lot! on exercise, fitness and the like. My birthday is at the end of the month. I have selected my birthday as a "goal" for my ideal physique. That being said...I will be sticking to a vegan 40 40 20 - 1200 calorie diet. 40% protein 40% carbohydrate 20% (good for me!) fat. In normal terms, I will be eating some more protein, and less carbohydrates. I have selected 1200 calories because this is the "recommended" caloric intake for a woman trying to lose a little weight. I picked up the bit about 40/40/20 from Shereena Johnston's Fitness page on facebook. She is a fitness bikini competitor, and a lovely source for exercise/diet concerns. Check her out!!! I will be logging all of my diet at www.myfitnesspal.com. This is a helpful tool because not only do you keep track of your diet, but you can also specify your nutrition goals. Check it out!!! I am pretty excited about this, because I couldn't find many links regarding higher protein/lower carbohydrate vegan diets on line. So perhaps, I can help others with similar goals. (I will try and post my stats to give ya'll some encouragement!)
Now I shall talk about the exercise bits. I will be attending an hour long cycle class three days this week. Monday through Saturday I will be lifting weights, one body group at a time. I may squeeze in pilates on Wednesday, we shall see. I will be working on these arms tommorow. I plan to incorporate hammer curls into my bicep routine. Hammer curls are different than your typical bicep curl because your arms are not supine (Holdin' soup), but rather rotated inward, such that the arms move like HAMMERS. Google it.
Lastly, I want to share a recipe with you. Last week, I bought some good 'ol quaker oats. The 5 minute kind. Oatmeal is a great source of complex carbohydrates, which means they do not cause an insulin spike like simple carbohydrates (example:white bread). They are coooomplex, thus they are processed slower, which is good. Anyways, I try and spice up my oats. I will cook it in almond milk/water, and add cinnamon and raisins to it. Raisins log in around 110 calories for 1/4 cup, and they are also high in sugar. They WILL NOT be appropriate for my goals at the moment.
Another oatmeal variation I like: cocoa-peanutbutter oatmeal. I cook the oatmeal according to the package. Then I add one tablespoon of cocoa, one tablespoon of peanutbutter, and one tablespoon flaxseed meal. Flaxseed meal is good, because it provides a PLANT source of omega three fatty acids, which are all the craze. (Meat eaters will boast they eat fish as a good source). It also fills you up! If you are not a baker, you may not be aware that cocoa is quite bitter, thus you may need some sort of sweetner for this conconction. I recommend Stevia, which is an ALL NATURAL zero calorie sweetner. Nothing artificial about it. Others will use agave nectar. There are many alternatives to fake sugar/white sugar. Unfortunately, all I have in my kitchen is brown sugar, and I use about a teaspoon of it. One teaspoon has 15 calories, and 4 grams of sugar. Thus you could make that call. Depends on  how much of a treat you want!!!! As for peanutbutter, I swear by all natural types made with no hydrogenated oils, it is much more creamy and peanut-ty. (Ha!) I even have my husband hooked. Although PB labels boast 0 grams trans fat, if you do not get the natural kind it lists PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED FAT under the ingredients, and it contains TRANS FAT. Which is quite bad for you, right up there with LDL fats. Just because a product boasts O gram trans fat, it may have MILLIgrams of it, so please read the ingredients folks, you don't want it at all. I'll step off my soapbox (for now). Peace & Love.