Settling In to a New Lifestyle

This is me on Sunday,  March 4, 2018.  I still weigh 137 lbs.

Last month when I posted I was going through a real, serious mourning process.  I wasn't prepared for it but now that I've come through it I understand it better.  Choosing to live a vegan lifestyle sets me apart from everyone I know in my day to day life.  I'm already a quiet, introverted person.  Eating differently from literally everyone I know has not helped that.  If anything I'd say that it's a good thing that I tend to be so quiet because many times I've caught myself just before I pointed out how unhealthy something is that someone is about to eat.  Of course I know that it's none of my business what anyone else eats.  What I've chosen to do to save my health is a personal decision.  It's not something that can be pushed on to anyone.  But for me I think I was feeling very isolated and the realization that I've chosen this for the rest of my life sent me into a period of mourning my old life.  I don't want to go back but I had to say goodbye.

I've done that now and I feel more resolved than ever about the life ahead of me.  I still want to loose another ten pounds and I'm confident that I will.  It's a process and the process continues.  The longer I eat a vegan diet the more I fall in love with it.  The variety and combinations of dishes is endless.  What's so great about eating a whole foods plant based diet is that it all goes together perfectly.  I try now to focus on foods, not recipes.  I just buy lots of whole plant foods and put them together.

So what do I eat?  Things like this:

 15 Bean mix with rice

 Salad with black beans, corn and salsa as the dressing

 Oat, banana, date muffins that are fat and sugar free

 Wild rice with different beans each day

 Steamed veggies, cabbage mix and potatoes

 Cabbage soup

 Spring mix with wild rice and steamed veggies

 Vegetable soup with carrots, potatoes, beans, peas, winter squash, tomatoes, corn

 wild rice with steamed veggies and "cheese" sauce

Kale, bean chili with wild rice and "cheese" sauce

I also still eat loads of fresh fruit.  One of my favorite snack foods now is a bowl of chick peas.  Salads are still a weekly staple.  I load at least 5 cups of greens into a plastic container with a combination of vegetables, a starch like couscous, some beans and a fat free dressing like salsa or homemade hummus.

So my journey continues.  Now that I've made my peace with the choices I've made about how I want to live and eat I'm happier and more focused on continuing to make the the life that I have better and better.