I decided that for the week, I was going to be as healthy in Sin City as possible. Vegas has a lot more restaurants than my smaller town of St. George (just 2 hours North of Vegas), so I had the opportunity to eat healthier in Vegas than at home. My plan was to see movies, be vegan, and do detox foot baths with the lady who I used to go to before I moved away from Vegas. On the agenda: health for body, mind, and soul.
I decided to make the effort to be vegan because of my efforts since the beginning of this year to heal myself with the guidance of the Medical Medium. He says (in Chapter 19 of his book) that Spirit tells him that we who need to heal ourselves should be avoiding eggs and dairy, even if organic.
During the week, I wore my Walking Bear Spirit Energy pendant by Energy Artist Julia the whole week to help keep my energy focused and positive.
DAY 1 (SUNDAY):
I left St. George and headed to Las Vegas. My first stop in Vegas was The Juice Standard to get some bottles of Bee WHealthy juice to stock the fridge with so I could start my days off with organic green juice.
After I dropped off my luggage and the juice, I was off to a late lunch. I ended up going to Pinches Tacos at the Gramercy. I ordered a bottle of water and dos (2) Tacos Vegetarianos. They were good, but way too salty. My guess is that it was the sauce on the tacos that was salty because after some of it drained off onto the plate, the tacos tasted better.
For dinner, I went to see The Bronze and got a bottle of water and a small popcorn without "butter". The movie was advertised as a comedy; it was a bit of a dark comedy. Not at all what I was expecting, but not bad.
Was fairly certain I succeeded with the vegan goal for day 1. The popcorn was vegan. But, since the tacos were actually called "vegetariano," I'm not certain I made it through the day as a vegan. Though, not sure what would have been dairy or eggs in the taco; unless it was the tortilla. On the mental/soul health side of the day, I think it went well overall; though, I was a tad disturbed by the movie having seen Big Bang's Bernadette get banged big time. C'est la vie. Moving on.
DAY 2 (MONDAY):
Started my day off with detox tea that I brought with me. While I was drinking it, I noticed that I was sitting on Star Wars sheets while drinking from a Star Trek mug. That made me smile. Not sure if mixing Sci Fi worlds should be done, but I liked it.
Use the Force, Jean-Luc!
After drinking one of the Bee WHealthy juices and taking a shower, I was off to Whole Foods for breakfast. I like that they label stuff on the food bar as vegetarian or vegan. I had a heck of a time trying to figure out why one of the pasta dishes was labeled vegetarian and the other was labeled vegan. Later in the day I realized that it's gotta be the pasta (with or without egg). I got some of the vegan pasta, along with breakfast potatoes, some added veggies, and a few grapes (which I ended up not eating because I got full). I sat inside because it was super windy that day, but I picked a table with a nice view of the outside (soul health).
After chowing down, I drove to my foot bath appointment across town. I expected the parking lot to be as packed as it was when I was last there about 8 years ago, so I gave myself extra time to find a spot to park. When I arrived, I discovered that extra time was not needed; the complex had lost about half it's tenants in the past 8 years. Since I had time, I dinked around on my phone. And then I noticed the name of the complex is Winchester Plaza. One of my favorite TV shows is Supernatural; the two main characters on the show are Sam and Dean Winchester. I found the coinkydink quite funny and took the time to stop and smell the flowers, so to speak (soul health).
I can't find Sam's & Dean's office on this map. ;-)
The QEnergy Spa foot baths are way better than the Aqua Detox foot baths that I've been getting at my chiropractor's in St. George.
So much greenish goo that it looks black.
After the foot bath, I headed over to Zaytoon (a Persian restaurant) for lunch. Persian New Year was just a couple of days ago, so I wanted to have some Persian food. Apparently so did a lot of other people. All of the approximately 8 tables inside were full. There were a couple of tables available outside, but it was still very windy out, so I opted to come back a little later.
So, I drove over to the International Marketplace. I'd never been. So much stuff! I found a few things I wanted, like Sadaf Persian tea and Greek Sour Cherry Preserves. I also found red bean mochi, but after reading the ingredients, I left it there. There were several items that I picked up, read the English ingredients list, and then put the item back on the shelf. It seems that the USA is not the only country having an issue with food containing too many chemicals.
After working up a healthy appetite at the Marketplace, I headed back over to Zaytoon to see if there was a table available yet. There were several. I sat at a table near the TV so that I could listen to the Persian music videos; I can't understand Persian well enough to know what they're singing about, but I like the music (soul health). I noticed that the table I sat at had a saying written on the wall that I liked. When you start to live life as your authentic self, you start to find messages from spirits all over the place; I don't think it was just a coincidence that I sat under this saying (soul health).
"Wisdom is knowing the right path to take.
Integrity is taking it."
I was starving and I ordered lots of food, knowing that I wouldn't be able to eat it all in one sitting. I deliberately ordered more than I could eat so that I'd have leftovers at the house. I started off with Persian tea, Salad Shirazi, and Aash-E-Reshteh. It's been years since I've eaten aash (soup) and I wasn't expecting the white, dairy looking stuff drizzled on top. I scooped a little bit of that off, but I left most of it on. Next up was the Veggie Kabob. And I ordered Zereshk Polo (rice only) to go. I ate a little bit of everything and took it all back to the house with me. Everything was delicious!
Persian tea, Salad Shirazi, Aash-E-Reshteh
Veggie Kabob with Sumac sprinkled on the rice
Zereshk Polo (rice only)
After dropping off my groceries and the leftovers at the house, I headed over to Red Rock Station's movie theater to watch Deadpool. I really liked the demented humor of the movie.
On my way to the parking garage, I swung by Starbucks and got a Venti Coconut Milk Matcha Latte without syrup.
Back at the house, I drank most of my matcha latte and ate leftover Zereshk Polo while I watched Dancing with the Stars on my phone.
So, Day 2 ended up being vegetarian rather than vegan. Oh well; I didn't do too badly on the side of physical health. I enjoyed chatting with the lady who administers the foot baths, and I enjoyed the movie, so it was good on the mental/soul health side.
DAY 3 (TUESDAY):
I stayed at the house all day. I could've gone out, but it was so windy that I decided to stay in and eat leftover Zaytoon all day.
I started my day with some of the Persian tea I'd bought on day 2. My friend or her mom has always made it before, so I had to fly by the seat of my pants with just the memories of watching them make it. My batch turned out a little bit on the strong side, but it was good. My friend told me that it's a sign that a woman is ready to get married when she can make tea. So, guess it's official that I'm ready for marriage. ;-)
I decided that, as a thank you to my friend and her family for letting me stay at their house while they were gone, I would make a Haft Seen for them for Persian New Year since they didn't have time to put one up themselves. A Persian Haft Seen has 7 items that begin with S in Farsi and each of those items represents something. So, I looked up what those 7 items were and decided to do 7 items beginning with S in English that matched up with the meanings of the Farsi items. And, my Haft Seen had a nod to Easter since they were coming home 1 day before Easter. I made 7 origami Easter baskets to place each of the 7 items in. My friend said she really liked the Haft Seen.
I spent the better part of the day researching and creating the Haft Seen. That and going up and down the stairs periodically throughout the day for exercise. Once done, I rented Mockingjay: Part 2 on VUDU and watched the movie while eating the leftover aash.
Overall, a good day. Since I ate the aash again today, I figure that it ended up being a vegetarian day. Mental and Soul health-wise, I enjoyed giving thanks.
DAY 4 (WEDNESDAY):
The day started out with a little bit of a scare. The battery on my computer ran out the night before, so I plugged it back in to charge overnight. However, in the morning, the computer would not start. Only panicked for a split second before it came to me to try plugging the computer in to another outlet; maybe the outlet it was plugged in to was one of those ones controlled by a switch. Later in the day, the computer started up, so that was it. I appreciate receiving the spirit message to try another outlet, and glad I listened.
After drinking tea and showering, I was off to my detox foot bath appointment. More goo came out. This time was equally as dark as the last. I've never seen the water this dark with the Aqua Detox.
Today's lunch adventure was at P.F. Chang's in Summerlin. I used the gift card my friend gave me for Christmas. I ordered Organic Hot Green Tea, Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps, and Vegetable Fried Rice. Again, I noticed the use of the term vegetarian vs vegan but couldn't figure out where the dairy and/or eggs were. I later noticed egg in the fried rice, but I still can't figure out why the lettuce wraps are vegetarian vs vegan. I knew that I ordered more than I could eat in one sitting. Leftovers! I ate 1 spoonful of the fried rice and all of the lettuce wraps at the restaurant. I may have eaten a tiny piece of the fortune cookie as good luck because I liked the fortune.
Dropped off the leftovers at the house and then I was off to Suncoast casino's movie theater to watch Hail, Caesar! Another movie advertised as a comedy that I didn't find funny. It seemed like it might be funny to movie industry insiders more so than the general public, maybe. I found it to be a WTH kind of movie. I put forth that there are a lot of movies that have come out in the past few years that are labeled as comedies but aren't comedies merely because they clearly don't fit in any other movie category; that Comedy has become a dumping ground for the WTH films and that we need a new category of film. It's difficult to predict if a Comedy movie will actually be funny. I find that the chances of laughing during a Comedy increase if Melissa McCarthy or Adam Sandler are in it. I digress.
Moving on from the movie, I went to dinner at Paymon's on Sahara and scarfed down THE BEST HUMMUS EVER! I love their hummus! This is the hummus by which I compare all others. I have yet to eat a better hummus. I almost made it through the entire Regular sized order, but I ended up taking a little bit home (like maybe 1/4 cup); no way I was leaving even a little bit there.
Before going back to the house, I stopped by The Juice Standard to get an Acai Crunch to eat for breakfast the next day. Sure, the granola will be mushy by then, but it will still taste good.
Day 4 was a pretty good day. Once again I ate vegetarian rather than vegan, but overall, still not too bad health-wise. Even though I didn't enjoy the movie very much, I enjoyed the day; as the Beatles advise, "Let it be." So, soul health-wise, it's all good.
DAY 5 (THURSDAY):
Started off my day with tea and Jonathan and Drew Scott. I watched them on the TV. What better way to start off the day than with a huge smile! :-)
#TeamJonathan ! :-)
Since I couldn't go tour the houses, I stayed at my friend's house the majority of the day and cleaned. Again, as a thank you for letting me stay, I thought I'd help her and her husband out with the cleaning. They are both so busy and they keep up with the day-to-day cleaning necessities, but the long-term cleaning stuff piles up (ie: dust bunnies). I found the Lysol wipes and went to town Cinderella-ing the floors. I was on my hands and knees scrubbing black marks off the floor and wiping dust off the baseboards. She said she noticed that I'd cleaned and she said thank you.
At Teavana, I bought some matcha and the proper gear to make it myself, and I had them make some matcha for me and I asked the lady to show me what she was doing so that I'd know how to do it myself. She gladly showed me how to make matcha. Thanks!
Once back at the house, I noticed that the matcha from Teavana was not nearly as green as the leftover matcha from Starbucks that I still had in the fridge. The things that make you go hmmm. The ingredients on the Starbucks website list not any coloring, but neither do they list carmel coloring in their coffee, yet it's there. I was hoping that their Matcha Latte was one of the better/safer drinks. Guess I'm done drinking Matcha Lattes from Starbucks.
DAY 6 (FRIDAY):
Happy Waffle Day!
I got up early and drove over to Blueberry Hill on Decatur to eat a waffle for Waffle Day. I could've gone anywhere for a waffle, but I went to this Blueberry Hill because several years ago when I lived in Vegas, I ate here and I met a really cute guy. Our timing was off then so we never actually got together. For one, he didn't actually live in Vegas then, he was just visiting. For another, he was married then. Now, he does live in Vegas and he's been divorced for awhile. I was kind of hoping he'd show up at Blueberry Hill for breakfast, but he did not (busy guy).
I later discovered, with the help of spirit guides I'm sure, that me going to Blueberry Hill, mentioning on social media that I went, and mentioning that I went because the place reminds me of this wonderful man was meant to serve as a message of intent to this wonderful guy that I remember him fondly. When the time is right for us, look out world! :-)
The intent of going to Blueberry Hill ended up being the best thing about going. The place has gone a bit downhill since I was last there. If it wasn't one of many restaurants, I'd say Amanda & Ty need to come over and renovate the place to help it out; however, there seemed to be plenty of people in the restaurant. I ordered the Fresh Fruit Waffle and chamomile tea. The tea was okay. The waffle itself was okay. Though it looks okay in the picture, the fruit was iffy; most of the apple had bad spots just under the skin. And, sadly, the maple syrup they have is just maple flavored corn syrup, not real maple syrup. Don't get me wrong, I totally ate it all (except for the bad fruit parts). I would've rather had real maple syrup though.
Looks like more grossness came out this last time.
Circled in red is just one of the bits of stuff that evacuated my body
Ring around the ankles
After the detox, I hung out a few minutes and gave the lady recommendations on where to eat in St. George next time she's in town. But, because I did that, I'd missed the movie time I was aiming for. So I drove back to the house to hang out for awhile until the next showing.
Eventually I headed over to the Red Rock movie theater to watch Batman V Superman. I was one of those people who was not all that happy that Ben Affleck was cast as Batman, but I wanted to see this movie. My issue with Ben as Batman was his performance in Daredevil (it wasn't great). But, I'm glad I watched this movie. Ben Affleck made a perfectly fine Batman. Props! I was actually happy to eat my words and I tweeted that I liked the movie and I thought Ben did a fine job.
SIDE NOTE: Several days later, I'm at home watching The Graham Norton Show and Ben Affleck is on. Graham brings up the fact that some fans weren't exactly happy with the casting and of course, as is the nature of talk shows, Ben comments on that. At 12:19 in the clip below is when they start talking about that.
I think I'm the one who made the "noooooooooooo" comment. *sheepish grin* Oops. If I could access my Twitter feed from about a year ago, I'd verify that. But, it totally seems familiar to me that I made that comment. Uh...so...I've been put in my place. A little bit of a harsh soul cleansing going on. My apologies to Ben. Glad he rose above the comments and persevered. I look forward to seeing Suicide Squad and The Justice League.
After eating my words on Ben's performance as Batman, I walked to the other end of the casino and ate a Gardein Spicy Thai Chicken Pizza at Yard House for dessert. Gardein Chicken is fake chicken. I figured what the heck, I've been vegetarian vs vegan most of the week, I'm eating pizza. The pizza was good, but it tasted much better after I squeezed fresh lime juice all over it. I liked the saying they had on their table ad, "It's never too late to be happy." Tell it!
After gorging myself on pizza, I walked back over to the theater to see Allegiant. Not sure why, but I thought Allegiant was the last of the Divergent series. Nope. Can't wait to see Ascendant next year!
Day 6 was a good day.
DAY 7 (SATURDAY):
My last day in Vegas. I woke up fairly early. Didn't mean to. But I stayed up anyway.
I cleaned up after myself because I didn't want to be a rude house guest; nor did I want my friend and her husband to have to spend their energies cleaning up a mess they should not have had to clean up. They'd actually left Hawaii last night, and, through a series of layovers, weren't arriving in Vegas until this morning. Leaving a mess would've just been mean.
I loaded up my car and headed over to Whole Foods, just as they were opening, for breakfast and then shopping.
Since I'd given in to the fact that this week just wanted to be vegetarian and not vegan, I went ahead and had eggs for breakfast. I again sat inside with a nice view of outside.
After I finished eating, I came back through to go shopping. I grabbed 2 bunches of orange Gerber daisies for my mom's birthday today. I also got her half a dozen macarons (3 coconut, 3 matcha).
Before heading out of town, I stopped by The Juice Standard and got 5 Bee WHealthy juices and 1 Bee Happy nut milk to take with me.
It took me about 3 hours to get home. Normally it's anywhere from 1.5 to 2 hours. Holiday traffic and pit stops.
But, I finally got home. Gave mom her birthday presents. Unloaded my car. Put away the groceries.
When it was dinner time, we were unable to leave the house to have a birthday dinner, so I went out to Bombay Cafe and brought dinner home. In keeping with the vegetarian theme of the week, I opted for Chana Masala rather than my favorite Chicken Vindaloo. Everything I've eaten at Bombay Cafe has been excellent.
CONCLUSION:
I had fun watching movies, whether I liked a specific movie or not; I enjoyed the experience.
If I'm looking at specifics, ie my goal of eating vegan for the week, then the week looks like a failure. However, I don't see it as a failure, nor did it feel like a failure. I went with the flow rather than try to walk upstream. I see that as a success.
I gotta hand it to strict vegans; eating totally vegan is not easy. You gotta know how every food is made, like have the recipe in your head. Noodles...got me on noodles. I don't mind being vegetarian because you don't have to kill an animal to eat eggs and milk (though some people could probably argue otherwise). I understand the ideals behind why some people choose to be vegan. And when I eat meat, I prefer to eat meat from humanely raised animals, but even doing that is not easy in some towns. I could make more of an effort, but that's just not a battle I choose to pick at this time; though I totally support those who are taking up that fight to have better treatment of the animals.
For now, I'm doing my utmost to keep up the good fight against undiagnosed viruses as per Medical Medium's book.
But...EGGS! I totally went overboard on eggs for Easter. ;-)
Though, I haven't eaten any eggs since Easter. It was a temporary indulgence.
Nobody's perfect...not even me. :-)
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