I'm 8 weeks into plant based eating and 4 weeks into running! I can see and feel the difference, I'm down 20lbs so far, weighing in at 188lbs, (18lbs away from the weight I was when I started dating my Husband but after I reach 170, I've got 20 more pounds to go!) I feel so much better, I'm sleeping better, I have more energy, my stomach is flatter, not flat but flatter. My legs are thinning out and I can feel the muscle a little bit easier when flexing. I don't have as much pudge in the way! ;) ok, not that my pudge was THAT bad, but it's totally different when you're the one carrying it around. And my asthma hasn't been too bad this time around, not like the many times I've tried to get back into running in the past and never got very far or stayed with it for very long because my asthma was acting up. It's so much more encouraging and enjoyable to go out and exercise when I'm making progress each time I do.
I'm able to jog for 1+ miles at one time, then I switch back and forth between walking and jogging but never walking more than 1/4 mile or jogging less than 1/4 mile at a time in between (I have a handy app on my phone that tracks me on my runs). I'll reach that 5k in no time! I honestly think that without a plant based, whole foods lifestyle that I wouldn't be able to do so well in running. I'm trying to get out 4-5 days a week. Mon, Weds, Fri, I try to get out in the morning while the Hubs is getting ready for work. I'm more diligent about getting out early when I know it's going to rain (or is raining). otherwise I get a bit more sleep and put the kiddos in the jogging stroller after breakfast and head out. (yeah, ....I still don't have the jogging stroller rain cover made, but we won't talk about that!) and I go early Saturday morning before the kids are up. I also try to squeeze in a walk/jog on Tues or Thurs but that doesn't always happen.
I'm eating a wide variety of fruits and veggies, I cannot get enough MANGOS! They are just so delicious! I'll start cutting one up and before I can even get any of it on my plate I've eaten almost the entire thing. They kids are lucky if they even get some. I went to Costco last night and they had 9 of them to a box. Yeah, um, 2 are already gone! along with some strawberries and cherries I bought while there. I need to get better about eating my leafy greens though, it's not that I don't like them but salads get boring after awhile! I really like almond milk and soy milk to, never thought I'd be one to drink non dairy milk!
I bought 4 plant based cook books and just received "My beef with meat" in the mail yesterday. I'm looking forward to reading it (and many more books from the plant based experts). It also has recipes in the back of the book along with the "Engine 2 diet" book I bought and read. I really enjoy cooking plant based. I never thought I could be even a vegetarian, never the less, a Vegan, having these recipes makes it so much easier to eat right and prepare tasty food! I like looking at a recipe and thinking I just need to do this, this and this and it's plant based! I still make non-plant based foods for my family and others. I still enjoy cake decorating but it's a bit more challenging when I don't know if something tastes good. Good thing for a wonderful Hubby who enjoys being my cooking and baking guinea pig!
As usual I talk/type too much! TTFN!
Friday, May 17, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
3 weeks into plant based
Today marks 3 weeks of eating a plant based diet. I've done very well. weight loss slowed down but still lost some. Down 11lbs and the scale is reading 197! YEA!!!
I received my plant based cook book and have tried a few recipes out of it and found some online that are very tasty. I ordered two more books that should be here in May, excited to get more recipes. I've made vegan ranch, vegan creamy Italian dressing (both with tofu), eggplant "meat"balls, "cheese" sauce, spelt blueberry pancakes, made some delicious cookies chocolate chips (cause a girl needs chocolate) and many other tasty plant based whole foods. I even experimented making a vegan recipe into a plant based whole foods recipe, didn't taste great, didn't taste bad either but I'll try again to see if I can get it to taste better before posting the recipe here.
Richard wanted to get take out from our favorite Thai restaurant I know they put fish oil and sugar in the curry I always get and it's served with white rice but I decided to throw caution to the wind and get it anyway. I ordered it with tofu instead of chicken like I use to and it was soooooo good! They put all sorts of veggies in it and the tofu is firm and soaks up the flavor of the curry. However! I woke up the next morning with a stuffy nose and gunk in my throat, which I hadn't had since I started this diet. I told Richard I will NOT be eating the leftovers (and I didn't, I let him eat them). I learned my lesson! I will not be going off the plant based whole foods diet again! I will be experimenting with making my own curry though!;)
Going to get the jogging stroller cover finished (yep still haven't done it!) and get back into running. I found out this weekend that they Young Women at church are doing a 5K this coming July and I want to be able to run it. Let's hope my asthma cooperates!
I received my plant based cook book and have tried a few recipes out of it and found some online that are very tasty. I ordered two more books that should be here in May, excited to get more recipes. I've made vegan ranch, vegan creamy Italian dressing (both with tofu), eggplant "meat"balls, "cheese" sauce, spelt blueberry pancakes, made some delicious cookies chocolate chips (cause a girl needs chocolate) and many other tasty plant based whole foods. I even experimented making a vegan recipe into a plant based whole foods recipe, didn't taste great, didn't taste bad either but I'll try again to see if I can get it to taste better before posting the recipe here.
Richard wanted to get take out from our favorite Thai restaurant I know they put fish oil and sugar in the curry I always get and it's served with white rice but I decided to throw caution to the wind and get it anyway. I ordered it with tofu instead of chicken like I use to and it was soooooo good! They put all sorts of veggies in it and the tofu is firm and soaks up the flavor of the curry. However! I woke up the next morning with a stuffy nose and gunk in my throat, which I hadn't had since I started this diet. I told Richard I will NOT be eating the leftovers (and I didn't, I let him eat them). I learned my lesson! I will not be going off the plant based whole foods diet again! I will be experimenting with making my own curry though!;)
Going to get the jogging stroller cover finished (yep still haven't done it!) and get back into running. I found out this weekend that they Young Women at church are doing a 5K this coming July and I want to be able to run it. Let's hope my asthma cooperates!
Monday, April 1, 2013
New lifestyle -Plant based, Whole Foods
Wow! it's been just over a year since my last update and to be completely honest, I was lazy over the last year! I gained what few pounds I lost and My weight remained around 208-210. I didn't do well on dieting at all. I ate out/fast food way too often and always felt disgusted with myself afterwards. however I will say I did eat a decent amount of fruits and veggies and I didn't drink too much soda. Haven't been a huge soda drinker since I was a jogger at the age of 18 though. I was walking a lot at the beginning of this year until my rain cover for the jogging stroller broke. I bought materials to make a new one and have it all cut out I just haven't sewn it together. Lazy? too much other crap to do? I dunno! last thing I want to do when I get a moment to myself is pull out the sewing machine!
Fast forward to Saturday, March 23rd 2013, my oldest daughter's 4th birthday and party. After the attendees had left and the house mostly clean and my girls and husband off to bed I tuned into Netflix. I watched 2 documentaries, "Hungry for change" and "Food matters". "Hungry for change" is about all the crap the food companies put in our food to keep us coming back for more and it's making a good portion of us fat! (a lot of stuff we already know but still informative) "Food matters" is about how the food we eat can help or hurt us. They both really made me start to think! Then the next night I watched "Forks over Knives"! ....Wow! I'm not sure where to begin to describe this documentary but it is life changing! In a nut shell. Eating meat and animal products (dairy), sugars, white flours, oils, heavily processed foods with crap ingredients are actually damaging our bodies! (think clogged arteries, type two diabetes, high cholesterol, the list goes on!) AND! Can FEED cancer cells! Holy cow! a bit scary to say the least!
BUT! by eating the right foods, plant based and whole foods can actually help your body to heal itself! (Incredible!) and decreases your chance of getting cancer tremendously! As plant based and whole foods DO NOT feed cancer cells. I decided that night, I would be eating a plant based, whole foods diet. And if you're wondering, I'm the only one in my house eating this way. I've done really well on it. It's been challenging and fun to make plant based foods and most of the stuff is quite tasty and I haven't missed the other foods too much. I'm excited for my "Forks over Knives" cookbook to get here to help me be more creative with my food. My Husband said He'd even eat meatless every now and then but still wants meat on most nights of the week and he won't give up dairy. which is fine. (If you're curious, he has not watched any of the documentaries I have). And if the kids decide when they're older they want to switch to eating plant based I will be ecstatic!
We switched to whole grains a while ago, so that made part of this transition to plant based a little easier. I learned a mantra from one of the documentaries to help myself say no to eating foods not on the plant based lifestyle and that is "I can have it but I don't want it". That saying has been repeated over and over in my head and has served me well in making the right choices. If you just tell yourself I can't have it, you feel like you're not in control and you're more likely to splurge on it later but if you tell yourself you can have it but you choose not to, you are in control and less likely to eat it! works like a charm for me. My S-I-L told me one her trainer taught her (she does body sculpting competitions and is in great shape, eats healthy but not plant based) "once on your lips, forever on your hips" ha ha! too funny and all too true!
Sorry this is long but onto the info some of you are probably wondering!? Have you lost weight? Yes! in a matter of 8 days (currently typing this at the start of day 8) I have lost 7 pounds! without doing any exercising! I was at 208 I am currently 201 and watching the scale drop so quickly is great motivation to stick with this diet. Of course knowing what I know now, I don't ever see myself switching back to an omnivore diet. Now to throw some exercise in there!
I'm hoping to get back into jogging soon, I'm thinking I'll do walking for now and once more pounds are lost I will try to get back into jogging. Some of the foods I'm eating actually help asthma, so we'll see how it goes once I'm there. When I was younger and jogging I always wanted to do a 5K I know it's not a long distance but it's something I always wanted to do. I'd still like to achieve that goal in the next couple years. Wish me luck!;)
Fast forward to Saturday, March 23rd 2013, my oldest daughter's 4th birthday and party. After the attendees had left and the house mostly clean and my girls and husband off to bed I tuned into Netflix. I watched 2 documentaries, "Hungry for change" and "Food matters". "Hungry for change" is about all the crap the food companies put in our food to keep us coming back for more and it's making a good portion of us fat! (a lot of stuff we already know but still informative) "Food matters" is about how the food we eat can help or hurt us. They both really made me start to think! Then the next night I watched "Forks over Knives"! ....Wow! I'm not sure where to begin to describe this documentary but it is life changing! In a nut shell. Eating meat and animal products (dairy), sugars, white flours, oils, heavily processed foods with crap ingredients are actually damaging our bodies! (think clogged arteries, type two diabetes, high cholesterol, the list goes on!) AND! Can FEED cancer cells! Holy cow! a bit scary to say the least!
BUT! by eating the right foods, plant based and whole foods can actually help your body to heal itself! (Incredible!) and decreases your chance of getting cancer tremendously! As plant based and whole foods DO NOT feed cancer cells. I decided that night, I would be eating a plant based, whole foods diet. And if you're wondering, I'm the only one in my house eating this way. I've done really well on it. It's been challenging and fun to make plant based foods and most of the stuff is quite tasty and I haven't missed the other foods too much. I'm excited for my "Forks over Knives" cookbook to get here to help me be more creative with my food. My Husband said He'd even eat meatless every now and then but still wants meat on most nights of the week and he won't give up dairy. which is fine. (If you're curious, he has not watched any of the documentaries I have). And if the kids decide when they're older they want to switch to eating plant based I will be ecstatic!
We switched to whole grains a while ago, so that made part of this transition to plant based a little easier. I learned a mantra from one of the documentaries to help myself say no to eating foods not on the plant based lifestyle and that is "I can have it but I don't want it". That saying has been repeated over and over in my head and has served me well in making the right choices. If you just tell yourself I can't have it, you feel like you're not in control and you're more likely to splurge on it later but if you tell yourself you can have it but you choose not to, you are in control and less likely to eat it! works like a charm for me. My S-I-L told me one her trainer taught her (she does body sculpting competitions and is in great shape, eats healthy but not plant based) "once on your lips, forever on your hips" ha ha! too funny and all too true!
Sorry this is long but onto the info some of you are probably wondering!? Have you lost weight? Yes! in a matter of 8 days (currently typing this at the start of day 8) I have lost 7 pounds! without doing any exercising! I was at 208 I am currently 201 and watching the scale drop so quickly is great motivation to stick with this diet. Of course knowing what I know now, I don't ever see myself switching back to an omnivore diet. Now to throw some exercise in there!
I'm hoping to get back into jogging soon, I'm thinking I'll do walking for now and once more pounds are lost I will try to get back into jogging. Some of the foods I'm eating actually help asthma, so we'll see how it goes once I'm there. When I was younger and jogging I always wanted to do a 5K I know it's not a long distance but it's something I always wanted to do. I'd still like to achieve that goal in the next couple years. Wish me luck!;)
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Week 13
It's been a few weeks since my last post but life has been crazy the last few weeks. I was doing really good (and currently am), up until Libby was put in the hospital overnight at the start of week 11 and that week was all about her and getting her better. I hadn't worked out Mon.-Fri. that week and decided by Sat. that she was doing much better and I really needed to exercise, so last minute I scheduled an indoor cycling class. I was actually down to 202 that week! Amazing what stress and tiny hospital food portions gets you! Unfortunately coming back home to eat what portion sizes are the my normal, I'm back up to 205. Which I'm happy about the 5 pound weight loss (I started out at 210) but annoyed that that's all I've managed to lose so far. That is, until I saw this pic!
Really puts it into perspective! Doesn't it?
Week 12 I did 3 days of Jillian Michaels "No more trouble zones", which is really kicking my butt! and I'm loving the results I'm seeing with it! (my husband does too!) ;) My legs are starting to look amazing! and I can see the rest of my body changing. There may not be much weight loss but my body is certainly starting to look better! and of course week 12 I also went to my Indoor cycling class.
For the record: My husband is absolutely wonderful and loves me & my body no matter my size! He's truly amazing and I'm so lucky to have him! I was having a conversation with him a few weeks ago. He was telling me, how proud he is of me for being so determined to exercise no matter what the weather. I replied, "I know you love me no matter what my size or weight, which makes me love you more, but I need to do this for me!" He responded with "ditto!" He's been hitting the gym at work 2-3 day a week. If I let the weather stop me, I'd never get out and exercise. I can use excuses all day. It's too cold! It's too hot! It's raining! etc., etc. No more excuses!
I decided since I love the results of the workout video, I'm going to do that 3 days a week and jog or walk 2 days and keep doing the indoor cycling 1 day a week, that way I have 3 days of strength training and 3 of cardio. I plan on doing jogging only but for now will just walk. I had an appointment to see a Dr. about my asthma to see what else I can take/use to prevent the exercise induced asthma but it happened to be one of the days Libby was in the hospital and I have yet to reschedule. Yep, no excuse for it, I just haven't.
So far this week I've worked out eachday (I will get to it today, when Libby goes down for a nap). :) The last few weeks I've been bad about veggie intake but was still eating lots of fruit. I'm still eating/making lots of fruit salads and today for lunch I was good (with the exception of a brownie) :) and made a green salad.. I need to get back on track with veggie intake I'm still working on dairy. One of these day I'll have it down. I have faith in myself! I obviously have days/weeks where I do better then the others but I'm out there trying and that's what matter's most! anytime I fail, I know I can just pick up where I left off. I can't let my set backs keep me from doing what I know needs to be done and what I know I can do!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
week 9
I wasn't able to jog everyday last week, due to asthma, I did go walking two days instead and I just forced myself to jog the third day. I did go "jogging" yesterday and walked five, jogged five, and repeat, for a total of 35 minutes. I'm hoping to increase the jog time each week. 2-3 weeks (or so) ago I managed to go 10 minutes straight before turning to walking but shortly after my asthma kicked in more forcibly and I could barely go 5 minutes before needing to stop and walk. I really need to make an appointmentt with my Dr. to see what I can do to help with my asthma!
I've decided I need to work out more than 3 days per week and went for a walk tonight, Brady joined me on his bike. I like that the boys are wanting to get out and exercise in addition to riding their bikes to school each day! I'd like to continue jogging, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm thinking of doing indoor cycling classes (or spinning, whichever you'd like to call it) bright and early Saturday mornings. I discovered a place in Salem that is strictly for indoor cycling and would like to take advantage of their one free class to see if it's something I'd like to continue doing! anyone want to join me???:)
I was recently looking at the labels of some of my fat free dressings and noticed a couple of them have high fructose corn syrup. We've been trying to do away with any products that have that in it. I really should have checked the ingredients before purchasing but didn't even think of it. We've already swapped out some products that do have it for others that do not. Once those are used up I won't be buying them again! I hate to throw them out, as I hate to waste money! My husband has been trying to get me on the "NO HFCS" bandwagon for awhile, I'd oblige him by not buying certain items and after reading about it for myself, I'm all for it! We do most of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's so most of our food is natural or organic or at the very least, less processed and better ingredients! From a recent article on "Yahoo", sounds like we have more "ingredients", if you can call them that, to cut out of our diets.
I took my little fruit salad joke seriously and started making fruit salads to eat with a meal each day. I'm still eating veggie salads most days but I'm thinking I need to find more ways to be creative with my veggies, like a veggie stir fry or ???, if anyone has any tips, I'd be happy to hear them!? Now that I'm getting better about my fruit and veggie intake, I need work on dairy. occasionally I've tossed yogurt on my fruit salad but I really need to get more dairy/calcium in each day. I often think of "Bob" from "What about Bob?", by taking all these "baby steps" to reach my goals! ....That's a great movie! anywho.........
Weight loss to date, I managed to get down to 205, BUT, it managed to find it's way back (must've been the chocolate cake I made for V-Day!?) ;) O'well, I just keep reminding myself about that article I read about postpartum mom's and how it'll take me awhile to see results! and hopefully in a few months (preferable weeks) I'll have some weight loss to report!
Update: I called "Joy Ride" (the indoor cycling place) today and signed up for their free introductory class tomorrow. If I like it, I'll be doing it most Saturdays!
I've decided I need to work out more than 3 days per week and went for a walk tonight, Brady joined me on his bike. I like that the boys are wanting to get out and exercise in addition to riding their bikes to school each day! I'd like to continue jogging, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm thinking of doing indoor cycling classes (or spinning, whichever you'd like to call it) bright and early Saturday mornings. I discovered a place in Salem that is strictly for indoor cycling and would like to take advantage of their one free class to see if it's something I'd like to continue doing! anyone want to join me???:)
I was recently looking at the labels of some of my fat free dressings and noticed a couple of them have high fructose corn syrup. We've been trying to do away with any products that have that in it. I really should have checked the ingredients before purchasing but didn't even think of it. We've already swapped out some products that do have it for others that do not. Once those are used up I won't be buying them again! I hate to throw them out, as I hate to waste money! My husband has been trying to get me on the "NO HFCS" bandwagon for awhile, I'd oblige him by not buying certain items and after reading about it for myself, I'm all for it! We do most of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's so most of our food is natural or organic or at the very least, less processed and better ingredients! From a recent article on "Yahoo", sounds like we have more "ingredients", if you can call them that, to cut out of our diets.
I took my little fruit salad joke seriously and started making fruit salads to eat with a meal each day. I'm still eating veggie salads most days but I'm thinking I need to find more ways to be creative with my veggies, like a veggie stir fry or ???, if anyone has any tips, I'd be happy to hear them!? Now that I'm getting better about my fruit and veggie intake, I need work on dairy. occasionally I've tossed yogurt on my fruit salad but I really need to get more dairy/calcium in each day. I often think of "Bob" from "What about Bob?", by taking all these "baby steps" to reach my goals! ....That's a great movie! anywho.........
Weight loss to date, I managed to get down to 205, BUT, it managed to find it's way back (must've been the chocolate cake I made for V-Day!?) ;) O'well, I just keep reminding myself about that article I read about postpartum mom's and how it'll take me awhile to see results! and hopefully in a few months (preferable weeks) I'll have some weight loss to report!
Update: I called "Joy Ride" (the indoor cycling place) today and signed up for their free introductory class tomorrow. If I like it, I'll be doing it most Saturdays!
Monday, February 6, 2012
week 7
I read an article several years ago, when I was 18 and started jogging, the first time, that most people who start an exercise routine, will not make it up to, or past 6 weeks. Well today is the start of week 7 for me! I've also heard it takes 6 weeks to make a habit. Regardless of whether or not there's any truth to those two statements, I'm still proud of myself for getting out there and exercising. I've even lost the 2 pounds I'd gained when I first started exercising, I'm hoping the weight loss trend continues.
I've been eating a lot of salad lately, with fat free dressing. I gotta say fat free dressing isn't bad tasting! and it has far fewer calories than regular or light dressing. With all the salad intake, I'm getting my daily veggie servings in, still working on the fruit though. I prefer veggies over fruit and really like salad so it makes it easy to eat. ....maybe I should start making fruit salads. ;) occasionally I'll make all fruit smoothies but not often enough. I've been eating smaller portions of other foods too, I'm getting the hang of this "dieting" thing .....again!
My asthma has been acting up the last 3 times I've gone jogging so I haven't been able to jog as long as I'd like but I'll take the time my body allows itself to jog. I'm walking the rest of the way, so I'm still going (roughly) 2 1/4 miles. I think I'll try taking an anti-histamine to see if that helps, my nose has been running those last few times so I know my allergies are acting up and contributing to the asthma.
I've been kicking myself lately for ever stopping jogging. I worked so hard to lose weight, and eat right all those years ago and I just quit doing all of it. If only I knew then what I know now!? I loved going out a jogging too, I felt great while doing it and loved the time I had to myself and to think. It was always such a sense of accomplishment each time I went jogging or looked in the mirror, put on a smaller pant size and stepped on the scale to see what all my hard work was doing for me and had gotten me. For some reason, it's so much harder the 2nd time around! Or maybe it just seemed easier then because I was younger?
I've been annoyed by my lack of weight loss as well, but after reading an article recently that said it can take 6-12 months for postpartum women to lose the baby weight, I feel a little better about not losing anything yet. But at the same time, I just really want to start seeing that number on the scale getting smaller! OK, whine fest over, back to being proud of my recent accomplishments! :)
I've been eating a lot of salad lately, with fat free dressing. I gotta say fat free dressing isn't bad tasting! and it has far fewer calories than regular or light dressing. With all the salad intake, I'm getting my daily veggie servings in, still working on the fruit though. I prefer veggies over fruit and really like salad so it makes it easy to eat. ....maybe I should start making fruit salads. ;) occasionally I'll make all fruit smoothies but not often enough. I've been eating smaller portions of other foods too, I'm getting the hang of this "dieting" thing .....again!
My asthma has been acting up the last 3 times I've gone jogging so I haven't been able to jog as long as I'd like but I'll take the time my body allows itself to jog. I'm walking the rest of the way, so I'm still going (roughly) 2 1/4 miles. I think I'll try taking an anti-histamine to see if that helps, my nose has been running those last few times so I know my allergies are acting up and contributing to the asthma.
I've been kicking myself lately for ever stopping jogging. I worked so hard to lose weight, and eat right all those years ago and I just quit doing all of it. If only I knew then what I know now!? I loved going out a jogging too, I felt great while doing it and loved the time I had to myself and to think. It was always such a sense of accomplishment each time I went jogging or looked in the mirror, put on a smaller pant size and stepped on the scale to see what all my hard work was doing for me and had gotten me. For some reason, it's so much harder the 2nd time around! Or maybe it just seemed easier then because I was younger?
I've been annoyed by my lack of weight loss as well, but after reading an article recently that said it can take 6-12 months for postpartum women to lose the baby weight, I feel a little better about not losing anything yet. But at the same time, I just really want to start seeing that number on the scale getting smaller! OK, whine fest over, back to being proud of my recent accomplishments! :)
Friday, January 27, 2012
getting better
I made it about 3/4 of a mile before I had to switch to the walk/jog method, took me 10 minutes to get the 3/4 of a mile, but hey I'll take it! Plus I've never been a very fast jogger! I was able to jog a total of 19 minutes and walked just under 11. getting better each week!
Still doing somewhat, ok, on the daily fruit and veggie intake, some days are better than others. I still need to work on portion sizes. I don't know why it's so much harder now, then when I was younger!? And still no weight loss but o'well, feels good just getting out there and exercising!
Still doing somewhat, ok, on the daily fruit and veggie intake, some days are better than others. I still need to work on portion sizes. I don't know why it's so much harder now, then when I was younger!? And still no weight loss but o'well, feels good just getting out there and exercising!
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