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.

Simple Life - Winning the Battle

Some things stayed the same and some things changed.  I'm still fasting from 5 pm - 7 am the next morning.  No that I'm in the habit of fasting every day I can't imagine not.  It gives my body time to full digest my last meal.  I don't feel so full when I go to bed and I sleep better.

I'm still doing my 3 mile walk/job every morning at 5:30 am.  It gets my metabolism going and energizes me for the day.  I has become so much of a habit that I never set an alarm and I wake up and get up early on the weekends too.  I'm a morning person and I embrace it.  The downside is that I'm ready for bed early in the evening.  That can be a bummer for my husband sometimes but I'm doing what works best for me.  On the weekends I stay up a little later to watch a movie with him. 

I'm still doing 45 minutes of step/weight bearing exercises in the afternoon, after work.  I've added weight to my workout but I keep the workout to 45 minutes.  I feel like this has become so important.  I've let myself get so soft and when you add my age to that you get a recipe for a flabby old lady.  I don't want to be that so I put all my effort in this.

I'm still eating a plant based whole foods diet.  I really don't miss dairy at all.  I will admit that when I smell fried chicken or a cheeseburger I want one.  But I want to be skinny and healthy more.  So, although the smell is still pleasant to me, I'm not going backwards.

What's new this week is that I'm paying attention to food density.  My morning meal and lunches are both made up of foods that are very low in calories; fruits and non-starchy vegetables.  I have my starch at dinner.  Here's what that looks like:

Breakfast - I had cooked, non-starchy vegetables for breakfast each day.  I don't normally reach for these foods for breakfast, but I love vegetables so I just pretended it was lunch or dinner.

Lunch - For lunch I took a container of chopped greens with a sprinkling of tomatoes or bell peppers.  My goal with lunch is to fill up on greens.  I love salads, so as long as I have a little bit of topping that I like and a dressing that I like, it's not a problem.  I use the Skinny Girl dressings because they are sugar and fat free and taste great.

Dinner - I had my starches at dinner each night.  Most nights that mean a mixture of rice, beans and a starchy vegetable like potatoes, carrots or sweet potatoes.  I did limit the amount I ate to 3 cups.  It was plenty and I never went to bed hungry.

I lost a solid pound this week so this plan definitely works.  I feel lighter, my clothes are getting loose and I feel great.  I'm not saying that this sequence of eating is for everyone, but for those like me that are trying to loose weight, it works.  Once I get down to where I want to be I'll add a little starch back to my breakfast and lunch.  Until then, I'll keep doing what works.