A Touch of Sadness

Women who are trying to conceive have you ever experienced IPS? It’s the freakin worst. IPS is imaginary pregnancy symptoms. My brain knows full well that I currently don’t ovulate as far as I know and that the chance of me being pregnant is extremely slim. But it doesn’t stop your body from tricking you into thinking maybe just maybe this time you might be. This time it was less “symptoms” I experienced and more signs. I’ve been having a lot of pregnancy dreams. Dreams about me being pregnant and friends being pregnant so I was waking up already thinking about pregnancy for a few days. When I took a walk and saw a church sign saying “summer blessings” a baby was the first thing that popped up. When driving on the road I had never seen so many pregnancy billboards. Donating blood one of the questions asks if you are pregnant. The signs start to build and I think well what does this mean maybe I am!? And once that seed of a chance takes root it grows fast. The other thing that makes me think maybe just maybe I am is because I was hoping to have a period around now and it hasn’t come. If you know about PCOS you know that a common symptom is irregular periods. However since going plant based the length between my periods has been getting progressively shorter. But of course now it’s taking longer than I had hoped which just fueled my wishful thinking. It all came to a head the other day when I got a call from the blood bank. My heart beat ratcheted up because why would they be calling? Was there something in my blood they had tested that wouldn’t allow them to keep it? Did they find out I was pregnant or something and were calling to tell me?? But alas no they were just calling to thank me. All that build up of signs and symptoms burst right then and I came back to reality. It made me very sad for a moment. The frustrating thing about it all is that while we want a baby at any point I’m actually more focused on weight loss and my own healthy body before pursuing conception/adoption relentlessly. I just got myself all worked up even though I knew damn well what is what. 

But this surge of hope has renewed my determination to eat whole foods plant based no oil. I’m also tracking my food right now to see where I’ve been making mistakes like too much avocado and nuts and beans all in the same day. Not working right now has really helped me up my WFPB game. I’ve batched cooked so many sauces, wheatballs, and taco “meat” that I feel ready for busy days when they happen. 

I had this beautiful vegan salad at Panera on a lunch date with my mom and sister and niece.

We still haven’t gotten sick of this oil free/nut free cheeze sauce. We try it with different kinds of pasta and veggies and each time it’s a crowd pleaser.

I used my copper crisping tray for the first time with some diced potatoes. They definitely had more crunch than before and I’ve also been using my convection function more too for extra crispness.

A brown rice bowl with veggies and a spicy peanut sauce.

I love how easy mashed potatoes are with my instant pot! I’ve started to find a lot of recipes that make cooking a breeze.

My beautiful veggie platter lunch.

I needed a recipe to use up some of the leftovers in the fridge. I found this WFPB soup recipe that was perfect for all my leftovers! Full of veggies beans and brown rice this was hearty and delicious! It was also made in the made in the instant pot 🙂