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.

New Year, New Goals

It's been almost a month since I posted last.  This is me this morning, 12/30/17.

The last month has been long and hard.  I know I've put back on a few pounds but it's not as bad as it could have been.  Going vegan was the best thing I ever did.  Now, when I'm tempted to overeat, and I have over the last month, I pick something like oatmeal, or potatoes or dried fruit.  I definitely ate too much over this holiday season, but I overate on things that are really healthy.  You can still gain weight eating a healthy diet and I did put some weight back on.  But not much.  I'm still wearing my size eight pants, although they are a little tight at the moment.  My point is that, had I been binging on donuts instead of oatmeal and potatoes I believe my weight would have gone way back up. 

So, on the eve of a new year I've been making plans for the next year.  I want to make my good habits more permanent.  I still have some weight to loose.  I still want to get down into the 120's.  I know I can get there if I stick to a vegan, whole foods diet that is as free as possible from salt, oil and sugar.

To this end, for the coming week I will be eating vegetable soup for breakfast, salads for lunch and fruit for dinner.  It's a tried and true formula for me.  If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I have been making some changes to my fitness program.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday I will continue with my routine of the 3 mile walk/jog in the mornings, and in the evenings 30 minutes of step and 30 minutes of strength building.

Tuesday and Thursday will be P90X Stretch, and  hour long long, intense stretching video in the mornings and in the evenings, 30 minutes of step and building up to 30 minutes of what I call fun exercises: jump rope, hoola hoop, jumping jacks, jumping up onto my step.  Lots of jumping.  It builds core strength and balance and is good for the whole body.

So basically, I go forward into this new year sticking to what I know works and adding some new things for variety and continue growth.

I also wanted to touch base about the "How Not To Die Cookbook".  It's great and I highly recommend it.  Every recipe I've tried was good.  I would specifically recommend both the kale soup and the collard green soup.  I made both and love both:

 Above is the collage green/black eyed pea soup.  I had it for dinner every day for a week.  It's hearty and filling but low in calories. 

Pictured above is the kale/sweet potato soup.  I thought the collard soup was the best soup I'd ever had until I made this one.  The kale is superb and pared so well with the sweet potato.

November Weight Loss Update

Two things happened in the last week.  My boss's boss said to me that there seemed to be a lot less of me around the office, lol.  I said yes, almost 50 lbs. less.  He was shocked and asked me how I did it.  I didn't want to be too specific because I don't tend to get positive reactions when I say the word vegan, so I just said it was a combination of diet and exercise.

Secondly, I went to the funeral of a beloved uncle that I haven't seen in almost 20 years.  I haven't seen most of the people who were there.  At least ten people came up to me and told me that I looked fabulous; like I hadn't aged at all since they last saw me.  This time it was me that was shocked.  I just smiled, blushed and said thank you.

So, even though I'm still not where I want to be ultimately, my hard work is paying off.  I feel better than ever and apparently I look pretty good for an old gal of 53. 

There hasn't been any change in my weight.  I would really like to loose at least five lbs. before the end of the year.  At this point I think I'll either have to add exercise or subtract calories.  I'm already exercising about an hour in the early mornings and again in the afternoons.  What I haven't been doing is exercising on the weekends.  So I got up at 5 am this Saturday and walked two miles.  I'll do that again tomorrow, Sunday. 

As for diet, I'm going to tighten that up too.  I've been eating starch in the evenings instead of my usual fruit.  It's definitely more filling, but I'm going to go back to just fruit.  Fruit is much lower in calories per pound than starch.  That means I'll go back to being hungry when I go to bed, but it also means I'll probably start loosing weight again.  It's a trade off that I'm willing to make to get back on the weight loss train.  I was hoping to avoid any more food cutbacks but I have a goal and I want to get there, No Matter What.  That's the mantra that got me almost 50 lbs lighter and I want it to carry me further.

The Simple Life - Make Me Skinny Chopped Salad

I recently learned about this salad from one of my favorite youtubers; The Butterfly Effect.  She is a spectacular lady who has lost 300 lbs.  She eats salads similar to this every day.

This salad has everything in it that you need in a day of eating.  I divide this into two meals.  It's filling enough that I could eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner, but I just eat a little fruit in the evening and fast through until the next morning.  So this salad gives me two very large meals that contain everything I need.  It's also delicious!  It ticks all my boxes; crunchy, sweet, spicy and hearty.  Here's what's in it:

 I use two things for dressing; hummus and salsa.  I like to make my hummus from scratch so that it's completely fat free.  I put one pound garbanzo beans into my medium sized crock pot and eight cups of water.  Cook them on high for about 4 hours.  Scoop out a cup and put it in a food processor until smooth.  I have a Ninja Fit that I love and use every week.  Add some lemon juice and garlic and blend again until smooth.  I buy my salsa because it's easy to get fat free.  I use a cup of it on the salad.

 You need some starches.  This week I chose a brown rice/wild rice mix.  To that I added two cans of sliced mushrooms.

 I cooked some dry lentils.  This is two cups of lentils cooked in eight cups of water.  I added two onion dry soup mixes.  Once the lentils and rice was cooked I combined them and put a cup of the mixture in my salad.

 The foundation of the salad is one pound of greens.  Today I'm using baby spinach and kale with half a head of lettuce.  I chop this up very well.  Chopping the salad greens make it easier to eat and mix with the other ingredients.

 I put two cups of shredded carrots into my Ninja and processed them down to the minced state.  On top of that I added my cup of homemade hummus.

 Next I add one cup of salsa and 1/4 chopped onion.  I use a medium spicy salsa because it adds some zip to the overall taste of the salad.

 I slice up 1/2 a can of beets and add that.

 This is 1/2 can of chopped hearts of palm.

 This is 1 tablespoon flax seeds.  From now on I will ground them before adding.  I just became aware that is the best way to get the nutrition from them.

 I chopped up three servings of dried pineapple.  It adds sweetness to the salad.  You can add fresh fruit too; go with your favorite.  Next I put on one cup of the bean/rice mixture.  It's creamy and hearty and brings up the salad to a whole other level of goodness.

 Then I just toss everything together until it's all combined.  I divided this into two large servings for my lunch and dinner.

The Simple Life - A New Month A New Challenge

 This is me this morning, October 15, 2017 at 142 lbs., and the one on the right is me at the beginning of January of this year, at 181 lbs.  It's where this journey began.  I hate that right photo and I hate having to look at it.  But right now I need it.

Anything worth having is worth working for.  Loosing weight in my 50's is challenging on all levels.  It's not impossible but it's very difficult.  Last week I celebrated reaching my goal of loosing 40 pounds this year.  A week later I've gained back a pound and I'm strategizing about how I will not only not gain back any more weight but how I will loose another 20 pounds.

I've decided that I need to make my weekends more like my week.  I've spent this year going hard for five days and then relaxing for two.  I don't have any exercise plan for the weekends and I don't stick to any eating schedule or plan.  I'm still vegan Saturday and Sunday, but I tend to snack alot.

So, starting with this weekend I've tried to stick to no snacking.  I made a big salad yesterday and that's what I had for lunch and dinner.  I had some of the soup I ate all week left so I ate that Saturday and today for breakfast.  When I felt like I was going to snack I ate only fruit.  I paid off because this morning I was almost back down that pound I gained last week.

It's no fun having to be strict every day with no break but if that's what it takes then so be it.  I began this journey with "No Matter What" as my mantra and I just need to push forward and continue to embrace that theme.  No Matter What.  It's the only way I'll get where I want to be and stay there. 

Here's what I ate this last week:

 Breakfast this last week was soup.  It was delicious and I posted the recipes in recent posts.  Unfortunately, I loved it so much that I think I overate.  These soups are very thick and rich and I shouldn't have eaten more than 4 cups. 

 Monday - Wednesday I had salad.  This is really the perfect lunch because I can pack in the greens for very few calories.

Upon arrival at home after work I had pears with a dollop of vegan mayo and some shredded vegan cheese.  I should have just eaten the fruit and not added anything.  I'm gong back to that.  Fruit is very low in calories but when you start adding things the calories can shoot up quickly.

I ran out of salad fixins so for Thursday and Friday I took a combo of mixed veggies, rice and vegetable broth.  Very good and very light in calories.  I liked it so much that I'm taking this for my lunches next week.

The Simple Life - Reaching My Goal for the Year; Now What?

This is me this morning, October 8, 2017 and that's me about 10 years ago on the right.

On Friday I reached my 40 pound loss goal for this year.  At the beginning of the year I promised myself that I would would loose 40 pounds this year No Matter What.  After 25 years of yoyoing, and for the last ten years loosing the battle, my health was at great risk.  I literally spent the entire year of 2016 in and out of the doctor's office about my health.  My blood pressure was dangerously high to the point that I was having to go for checkups constantly.  At one point I saw a nutritionist; what a waste of time that was.  By the end of the year my weight was up to 185.  At that point my doctor told me that if I didn't start doing something to improve my blood pressure I would have to start on meds. 

That's when I made the decision.  At the beginning of January 2017 the journey that led to this day began.  I'm there.  Now what?  Actually I'm not there.  I'm almost there.  According to my doctor, I need to get down into the 120's to be at a weight that is in the healthy range for my size.  So I've got 20 more pounds to go. 

So now the rest of my journey begins.  I won't make it into the 120's by the end of this year.  I'm purposely trying to loose my weight slowly in the hopes that it will help me keep it off. 

So, that's where I am.  Now it's a matter of staying the course.  I believe I can do it.  It's not fun and it's not easy but I feel better and I like the way I'm looking as my body shrinks.  It's a good feeling being smaller.  I feel better about myself.  It's a good place to be.  Stay the course.

The Simple Life - September 2017 Weight Loss Update

This is me today, Sunday, October 1st. I weight 143.  That's 2 pounds from my 141 lb. goal.


I haven't posted about my weight loss during September because I only lost 2 pounds for the whole month and I lost those two pounds in one week.  September was the hardest month since I began this journey in January.  I struggles and fought.  I was hungry most days and still I only lost 2 pounds.  I've been depressed and afraid that I might actually start gaining all the weight back.  At the beginning of the month we had a two day visit with relatives and I ate some stuff that I shouldn't have; namely butter.  For some reason that really turned on my appetite and I spent the month battling not to overeat. 

I'm not reevaluating my weekend "cheat days".  I never eat anything that's not vegan but I just eat way too much.  I know the cause is boredom so I need to come up with a strategy that will allow me some leway to enjoy the weekends but not put my weight loss in jeopardy.

To that end, I'm doing an extra batch of soup this weekend, that I will freeze.  That way, when the weekend arrives I'll have plenty of lower calorie soup ready to eat.  Hopefully that will help with my boredom eating.

I'm also making some changes in my exercise.  I've been having pain in my knees so I'm taking some of the weight out of my weighted vest this weekend.  I was up to 11 pounds in that vest and I guess that's too much for my old knees.  Since I know the pain is a signal that something is wrong, I'm backing off.  I actually didn't wear the vest much last week because I was whether or not I should just discontinue its use all together.  I'm not ready to give up on it.  I'll lessen the weight and see how that works.  If the knee pain persists I'll act accordingly since I want to be able to walk later in life.  The benefits have to outweigh any the negatives for me to continue to use it.  I think it's a great tool, but I may just need to lighten it in order to keep using it.

My evening exercise continues to get better.  As my strength grows I add movements that require more muscle.  I'm doing more situps than I thought ever possible.  My hip and thigh areas have really slimmed down.  As I build strength I enjoy this part of my workout more and more. 

I really want to get down into the 120's and now that I'm in the low 140's I'm looking at my eating plan and thinking about what I can do to continue to loose weight and keep it off.  Right my only changes will be to my weekend eating.  No more processed soy products on the weekends.  That stuff tastes great, but it's high in fat and calories that I don't need.  I'm also going to really try to stop eating at 5 pm on the weekends.  Yesterday that was a bust so I'll try today.  The weekends are tough because I'm mostly just at home, which puts me way too close to the kitchen.  My strategy is to fill the kitchen with low calorie foods that I I will be drawn to on the weekends.  I'm still working on this.

Overall I'm thrilled.  I'm smaller and healthier.  I look forward to my yearly checkup after the new year.  I'll have a full blood workup done to make sure I'm getting everything that I need.  And for the meantime, I stay the course.