Testimonial II

Another testimonial email. This one is from Linsey in Washington DC.

So, it's been a struggle, I'm not going to lie.  And, I am not as vigilant as you, but I made major changes for me and I am proud of that.  I got on the scale this morning and I've lost 10 pounds.  Of course, I had an easy 5 of empty DisneyWorld and Holiday goodies to lose, so it's really more like 5.  But, since my goal is 30, I'm a third of the way there.  WOO HOO!  And, I feel good.  I really do feel good.  I've finally worked out my childcare issues (I hope) so I can now start exercising with regularity too.  I'm hoping to turn some of this excess fat I'm carrying around in to muscle.  I'm also hoping to be fit enough to actually race in the race for the cure this year, instead of to just leisurely stroll with the masses.

Thanks for posting/sending all your positive thoughts and encouragement and recipes.  The recipes are key because the food preparation part is the biggest deterrent for me.  I'm so tired, the last thing I want to think about is making a "diet" friendly meal most nights.  However, I'm not as tired and that's fabulous.  School is actually making this easier too, because I've decided if I don't have it with me, I will not eat it.  So, I'm not snacking on crap and I'm saving money too!

You're a rock star and you have made a huge difference in my life.  Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you!

--
Linsey 

10 lbs is just amazing! It sure encourages you to stick with it! Sounds like it hasn't been too difficult. And she is already noticing other positive changes like more energy. Pretty soon she may notice softer skin, the ability to focus her brain power (important when doing graduate studies while raising kids, I've done that too), needing less sleep, easier periods. Those were only some of the benefits I noticed. Next she will start craving salads.

Linsey - I am really proud of you! Thanks for sharing your success. I know many people who are trying this and any encouragement helps a lot. Your "fresh convert" enthusiasm is quite contagious.

YOU, Linsey, are the rock star! 

Hand In Hand

Did the title of this post make you think romantic thoughts? Valentine's day is about 2 weeks away so I'm not at all surprised if your thoughts turn to amore.

This post is about pain. My pain. I have a stabbing throbbing piercing sharp pain in my right heel that has stopped me from exercising the last week or so and after some frustrating reflection I've decided that its much much easier to eat a healthy diet when you exercise. Diet and exercise go hand in hand. My theory is that the good endorphins you get from exercise make it easier to choose chard over chocolate, and then the chard creates peace in your body thus encouraging more exercise - it is a wonderful cyclical relationship.

I ignored the pain for a week because sometimes when I ignore a problem it fixes itself or goes away. But this didn't go away so I made an appointment with our friendly podiatrist - a real nice guy - and hopefully he will give me a magic pill that will have me up and running soon. Literally running.

Not my picture but pretty close to how it looked.

Back to romance. Last night I was in charge of the chocolate fountain for refreshments at a church meeting. The recipe for a chocolate fountain is 10 cups chocolate chips and 2 cups oil, melted together. The chips were swimming in the oil. That's how they get the chocolate to flow like a water fountain - tons of oil. I filled my plate up with bananas, strawberries, and grapes and fought the urge to announce how gross the chocolate was because I didn't want to be a killjoy, and all those ladies were loving the chocolate fountain, and I love those ladies.

Happy Pre-Valentine's Day.

8 Is Great!

Roland gave me this pin a year ago. I treasure it.

I got 558 hits yesterday.

If you add 558 together you get 18 which was how old I was when I went to college. If you add 18 together you get 9 which is 1 less than 10 which is what 208 added together equals. 208 was the goal for yesterday. I got 558 hits yesterday which was 350 hits more than I needed to get to my goal. 350 added together is 8. 18 (the sum of 558) minus 10 (the sum of 208) is 8. Amazing hu?

:)

I made this on Monday for dinner and plan on serving the leftovers for dinner tonight. It is delicious! These pictures are before baking - I tossed some chopped cashews on top to make it pretty! So good. Eat as much as you want.

Here is the recipe.

208

208 is the area code of one of my favorite places on planet earth. It's also how much I weighed after losing 30 lbs eating this healthy vegan diet. And it's how many more hits I need to reach 15,000 visitors! See that little yellow number on the left side of this post? Right now, at 8:40 AM Mountain Standard Time it reads 14,792.

I hope I break 15,000 today!

Testimonial

I got this email yesterday from my darling friend:

Hi Robin! 

I just had to write and say:  um...not eating sugar is the best thing that ever happened to me.  I have lost 11.5 lbs in 3 weeks. (Ryan said last Saturday "Where was this no-sugar diet 5 years ago?  We could've had a lot less tears if you'd figured this out then.")   I feel great.  It's not even that hard.  Like, not eating sugar is hard 30 minutes a day, and the rest of the 23 1/2 hours I feel awesome because 1)I am not cycling through sugar highs and lows 2) I'm feeling full because I don't waste calories on a nutritionally purposeless food 3) I've got self-control.  I've cut back on dairy a little, and upped my veg/fruit servings to 9 per day (Thanks to green smoothies which I'm addicted to).  So what do you think?  Is it just all about the sugar?

Thanks for starting a revolution in your little blog world...

--Jessica

See? It really does work. And like Jessica said: "It's not even that hard".

What I ate for Breakfast today:

• Green Smoothie (duh)
• Oatmeal with blueberries 
• 1 bowl of this soup
• 1 toasted pita (dipped into the soup)
• 1 banana with p-nut butter 

and finally, I was satisfied. I was hungry this morning! Really hungry!

Speaking at CCL

I was invited to speak at the Center for Creative Leadership last Friday along with Sharon about "Eating to Lose Weight". Sharon holds a PhD in nutrition and presented the science behind a vegan diet. She has an impressive presentation filled with the latest nutrition research - stuff that really makes you happy you are eating a vegan diet. And she throws in fun stuff too, like:

After she wowed the crowd with her amazing expertise I spoke about my experience losing weight by eating a vegan diet. Not the Cheetos Oreos vegan (those are technically vegan) but the healthy vegan diet. After our presentations we had a tasting table filled with wonderful healthy food. I brought Snow Day Chili, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad, and green smoothies of course!

Grapefruit Avocado Salad

• 1 T Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 t fresh ground pepper
• 2 T dried cranberries
• 4 small avocados - peeled, sliced, and pitted
• 3 large pink grapefruits - peeled and sliced - make sure all white pith is removed

Mix mustard, lemon juice and pepper until blended. Toss with avocados and grapefruit.

Grapefruit season is just getting going and this salad is refreshing and pretty to look at!

No Jiggles

The shoes Roland gave me for Christmas. They are running shoes but I wear them to my training class too.

Can't move - too tired.

My "ultimate training" teacher at the YMCA is so good that people arrive 25 minutes early to get into her 9:00 class. I go to the 8:00 class that isn't nearly as crowded. Oh, she kicks our butts. Nothing on her body jiggles. Not even her boobs jiggle. Some of the exercises we do are impossible to do. I try to do them but sometimes I lose my balance and fall a little. I think I am the fattest person in there and that is after losing 50 lbs! But everyone is nice to me. They don't care what I look like because they are there for themselves - not to critique others.

It isn't an easy thing to do at first but then when I get going I actually like it! Amazing.

What type of exercise works for you?

Newbies

I know of at least 4 people who are jumping on the nutritarian band wagon right now! Yay! I wish they could all just move in with me for a week so I could help them kick it off right. That's how my mom got started, she went to the cabin with me for a week of my diet and she was hooked.

So here are a few encouraging words for Kristen, Angie, Lindsey, and Kelsy -

You can do this!

Also:

Be nice to yourself the first few days - withdrawal can be tough. It helped me to always have fruit on hand and when I started feeling overwhelmed by it all, or tired from withdrawal, or discouraged, I would eat an orange. Oranges are truly amazing. One day I ate 4 oranges. And bananas are like candy bars. It takes about 2 weeks to really feel a difference and at the end of 6 weeks you will be hooked! Just shoot for a pound of raw veggies, a pound of cooked veggies, at least 4 pieces of fruit and a cup of beans per day and you will be amazed at the change in your body.

Read Eat to Live and the China Study. And check out vegan books from the library - they are full of good food ideas (you probably will need to reduce the fat though). 

Keep me updated on your success/struggles!

One Day

It took one day to break the sugar craving. I was surprised. I figured I would craving sugar for at least 3 days. As you remember, I started occasionally eating little bits and pieces of sugar right around Halloween and by Christmas sugar was once again part of my daily diet. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to break the habit. But I woke up on Sunday and decided that would be the first day of no sugar. By Monday morning the craving was gone!

Guess what else is gone? The post nasal drip that has been bugging me since Halloween. Strange hu?

I'm feeling great and very pleased with myself for not wanting sugary treats when they are offered to me. No more sugar bondage for me.
 It's wonderful to have freedom from sugar.

I am traveling this weekend and so happy to not have to deal with cravings while on the road!

If I can do this - you can too.

Beans, Beans! The Magical Fruit!

The more you eat 'em the more you toot!

So true. Try Beano.

Beans are saving me this winter. My appetite is bigger than it was in the summer probably because my body is trying to stay warm. Yesterday I ate a bowl of hummus  on cucumbers for a mid morning snack. It was a pretty good sized bowl and it filled me up and kept me happy for 5 hours!

My favorite way to eat beans is in hummus but I also like them in salads, in soups, and black beans fresh out of the pressure cooker as a side dish. When I eat them with hummus I like to divide a whole wheat pita into 2 thin pieces (sometimes you need to toast it a minute so it will separate easily) and then toast those pieces until they are crispy and use them as crackers for the hummus.  Search for a good quality pita with as few ingredients as possible and store them in the fridge. The homemade pita chips and hummus are filling and make a very satisfying snack. Sometimes I will have that everyday!

How do you eat your magical fruit?

5 Week Flashback

Only 5 weeks left until we celebrate our 1 year anniversary. I'm thinking a great way to celebrate would be to take my readers on a cruise to GREECE! Who's in? :) Now we just need to find a sponsor.

Looking back to last March when we had been eating nutritarian for 5 weeks, I found that my clothes were getting loose. In fact Roland's pants fell right off him when he was walking up the stairs! I was amazed to find that the summer clothes no longer fit - they were way too big on me. It really surprised me that I didn't miss junk food at all, rarely craved food, and I was getting skinny! It seemed miraculous.

At the 5 week mark we were starting to say that we could possibly eat this way forever! Now, with only 5 weeks to go until one year I can confidently say that we can eat this way forever - in fact, I want to eat this way forever!

What I Ate

I just sent my 3rd child back to college this morning. He told me that one of the things he will miss the most is the green smoothies I've been making him everyday.

He lives in the dorms and eats in the cafeteria. Upon realizing that the only fresh greens available was iceberg lettuce, he requested that they serve fresh spinach and now they do! He said he has a large plate of spinach with each meal and his friends think he is weird.

I know I've said this many times, but oh, how I wish I had found this way of eating when my kids were babies. I know it would have made a big difference in their health and in my attitude.

What I Ate Yesterday (someone needs to hide the pecans):
Breakfast:

• small handful of raw pecans
• big green smoothie
• banana
• orange

Lunch:

• huge dark green salad (and black beans, mushrooms, sliced baked potato, apples, dried cranberries, and balsamic vinegar)
• soft pita bread

Snack:

• medium handful of raw pecans
• medium glass of green smoothie

Dinner:

• Amy's Lentil Soup 
• avocado
• orange
• Sweet and Spicy Tea
• MORE pecans

I'm hiding the pecans now.

6 Weeks Countdown!

12/28/2010 Monarch, Colorado
We've been eating right for 46 weeks (only 6 weeks to go until ONE YEAR!) and we can now do fun stuff with our kids! 

There was no way I was skiing last year. 

Yay for feeling AWESOME!

When I first started blogging about this I was told that one of my posts hurt someone's feelings. In the post I reported that a meal, in someone else's home, made me feel ill and I was amazed that such a small thing as food choice (not so small after all right?) could have such a huge impact on my wellbeing. The person who prepared that meal read the post and felt hurt.

I felt horrible about it. Here I am trying to make the world a better place and I hurt someone's feelings? Whaa! I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Food is a very sensitive issue and I didn't want my enthusiasm for new found health to offend those I hold dear. I decided that I had to speak out and hope that I helped more people than I hurt. So I kept the blog going. And now here we are only 6 weeks away from ONE YEAR of healthy lifestyle!

Join me as I count down the last 6 weeks to One Year of Success!

P.S. The person whose feelings were hurt still loves me and I love her so we are fine.

Tasting Normal

I am glad to be back on the vagon (vegan wagon).

Last summer I went to a big craft show with a neat group of ladies on my street - commonly referred to as neighbors, I have nice neighbors - it was one of those craft shows where people buy tickets in advance and line up early to get in. Even so, it can't hold a candle to Boise's Art In The Park. But I digress. There were lots of food samples at the show, gift foods, fancy foods, stuff you would serve at a party. There was one booth that was selling dried soups and I sampled them and spit the soup out it was so horrible. It tasted like chemicals and plastic. All around me women were buying it (buy 3 get one Free!), snatching it up like it was fresh picked, warm from the sun, garden grown tomatoes! I was amazed! Had my taste changed so much that I was no longer normal?

Yes. Yes it had. I was no longer normal.

Food.

Not Food.

Over the Christmas season my taste started to get more normal and it didn't take much, just a nibble here, a small serving there, and suddenly store bought chocolate ice cream topping didn't taste horrible.  It tasted odd, off and un-food like but not spit-it-out-horrible.

I also noticed that my smoothies weren't tasting as wonderful. The processed sugar I was eating made it impossible for me to appreciate the natural sugar in the smoothies.

When you eat real food you crave real food and it becomes your normal. Then you will be appalled by processed food.

And it feels good.

New Year's Resolution Idea

I have to laugh at my last post made in ernest hope that I would really do that! I made it through the Holidays without much damage - in fact I still haven't gained weight in spite of eating too much sugar and fat. But I wasn't tempted one bit by cheese, butter or meat. I feel a little repelled by those foods. If only I could feel repelled by sugar! That would be awesome.

If you are new to the idea of a plant based idea click over to my friend Celia's web site - she has some good advice for you. If you are worried about diving in all the way may I suggest you just start incorporating green smoothies into your daily diet? I have a recipe posted here and my sister has one posted here. They have made huge difference in my life and my husband swears by them.

If you haven't set a New Year's Resolution I think you should resolve to have a big (at least 12 oz I usually have 24 oz) green smoothie everyday! And then sit back and see how awesome 2011 will be!