Weight Loss Update and What I'm Eating

The above photo was taken this morning, 12/3/17.

I was off work the whole week of Thanksgiving.  I rested and relaxed.  I didn't exercise and I pretty much ate what I wanted that was vegan.  I also cooked a big, non vegan meal for my family for Thanksgiving and I ate all the vegetable dishes.

I gained one pound during that week.  So I'm at 139 right now.  I am now wearing a size 8 in ladies sizes.  I still want to get down into the 120's before I transition to maintenance.

To that end, I spent the week working out hard and eating a compliant, vegan diet.  I didn't loose any weight.  So Here's my strategy for the coming week:

I'm switching from oatmeal to vegetable soup for breakfast.  I dearly love oatmeal and I believe it's so good for us, but it just doesn't keep me satisfied until lunch.  My homemade, all fresh soup is very filling because of the liquid and hearty so I don't get hungry until lunch, which is about 6 hours after my breakfast.  I'm going in the opposite direct for lunch; something less heavy.  I fill a six cup container with lettuce.  My toppings this week are three bean salad, sliced beets, bell pepper and two tablespoons of chow chow.  I'm not using any dressing because I used the three bean liquid and that with the chow chow should be enough.  This is a lot of food but because lettuce has so few calories its not a calorie dense meal.  For dinner I will continue to eat fruit only.  Typically I'll eat a banana or apple before my evening workout and something like grapes afterwards. 

This strategy of eating more calorie dense meals at the beginning of the day and going lighter for lunch and dinner has worked for me thus far and I hope it will continue to do so.

Here's some of the good things I've been eating:

 I heard about this Vegan Egg product some time ago but I couldn't get it locally.  Finally, it showed up at my local Publix grocery store.  It is amazing!  It taste good and looks good.  To be fair, I only eat it mixed with grits because that's how I used to eat eggs.  For me this is a treat.  I only eat it on the weekends because it's not a whole food. 

 Above is my bowl of grits with "bacon" bits and the vegan egg on top.  It scrambles just like eggs and is great for people like me who love this combo.

 This last week I put pumpkin purree into my oatmeal and pumpkin spice oatmeal.  In the above photo I have sprinkles ground flax seeds over the oatmeal.  So good!

My weekend meal was this dry bean soup mix with onion, potato and diced tomatoes served over rice.  I sprinkle some tumeric over the top.