Today is National Spaghetti Day!  As someone with Italian blood in him, I’m delighted that one of our most sacred meals has its own special day!

The Beginning

Spaghetti has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember.  When I was a kid, spaghetti would often be the go to meal for lunch or dinner.

I’m decent at making spaghetti and sauce myself, but it definitely tastes better when my mom or Nana make it.  They have perfected the craft, and it’s a much more pleasant consumption experience.

My favorite types of spaghetti and pastas are thin spaghetti and penne.  While I think all of it would taste the same without the flavorful seasoned sauce, for some reason, thin spaghetti and penne are really the only two I will eat.  They just hit differently.

Carbs & Protein

While spaghetti is still one of my favorite meals, I have started to eat it less over the past few years.  As many spaghetti consumers may know, being full of carbs, it expands in the stomach.  When I gain weight, the majority of it goes right to my stomach and hips, and unfortunately, spaghetti is a big cause of that as it is a very heavy food.

Since I started personal training last summer, which you can read about here, I’ve been trying to consume less carbs and more protein.  I’ll never permanently cut out carbs, but I definitely can’t eat them as much as I want or used to if I am to lose the pandemic pounds in my stomach and hips that I had started gaining in Fall 2020.  I am trying to reduce the frequency at which I consume spaghetti to at least once every month, and at most, twice a month.

I have been vegan for almost 8 years, and about 2 or 3 years into my vegan journey, I started adding vegan meatballs into my sauce for protein so that my meal wouldn’t only consist of carbs. I’ve also recently discovered a high protein pasta which tastes really good.  Maybe a year or two after adding the meatballs, I began incorporating either one of two vegetables into my sauce.  Those vegetables would be my top two favorites: spinach and broccoli.  The addition of the meatballs and vegetables (and mandatory seasonings of course!) have made my meals even more scrumptious than they already were!

Cook Up Some Spaghetti!

So to all my spaghetti enthusiasts, make sure for lunch or dinner today, you whip up a nice, delicious pot of pasta of your choice, and enjoy your afternoon or evening meal!  And I also wish you all a happy, successful 2023.

-Therell

Today is National Pie Day, not to be confused with National Pi Day (3.14) on March 14, but the delicious dessert that I’m sure many of us enjoy.

I don’t remember when I first had pie, but I’ve been vegan for many years, so any pie I do eat has to be, well, vegan.  That just means that ingredients such as milk, butter, and eggs which are used to make non vegan pies are replaced with vegan substitutes.

I would say that pie is probably my favorite dessert.  So much so that for one year on my birthday, I chose to have pie instead of cake.

My favorite type of pie is apple pie.  Apple pie hits perfectly, satisfying my taste buds tremendously.  If I allowed myself to, I could probably eat a whole apple pie in one sitting.  That of course would not be a healthy thing to do, so when I do have pie, which is at most twice a year, I take one piece at a time so that it lasts longer.

My least favorite type of pie would have to be pumpkin pie.  That may be controversial, I’m not sure, but it just doesn’t hit the same as apple pie.  I had pumpkin pie a few weeks ago, and I struggled to finish it.  I ate every last bite though so that the money spent purchasing it was not wasted.

What is your favorite type of pie?  If you haven’t yet today, treat yourself to your favorite type for dessert!

– Therell

This morning I had very little motivation. This resulted in me only having a muffin for breakfast. This afternoon, I went to brunch with a friend and then when I got home, I worked and worked and worked. I got very caught up in it and I lost track of time. I knew I needed to eat, but my kitten was in my lap and I just didn’t have the will to make myself food. Finally, at 7pm, I found the will to finally make myself something to eat. Below is the pizza I made for dinner 🙂

@turningpointct.org I’ve barely eaten today, but I finally had the will to make this pizza for myself at 7pm…sometimes it’s the little victories!! #food #mentalhealth #smallvictories ♬ Smile All Day – Bounty feat. Spencer Ludwig