Day 29 was typical.
Breakfast: oatmeal with maple and soy milk, coffee, and a fresh fruit plate. 428 calories.
Lunch: leftover bean burrito, salad with mixed greens, walnuts, and dried cranberries. Dark chocolate. 394 calories.
Snacks: Engine 2 flatbread, seaweed snax. (I am understanding the "strangely addictive" claim now.) 200 calories.
Dinner: Leftover kidney bean curry with rice and brussels sprouts. Another chocolate square or two. 245 calories.
Total calories, 1267.
I think I have been using chocolate as a stress reliever lately!
Day 30:
Breakfast: coffee, wheatena cereal, soy milk, fresh blueberries, golden raisins, apple and pear slices. 280 calories.
Lunch: The rest of the kidney bean curry and brussels sprouts. I ate in the car. 285 calories.
Snacks: Just Tomatoes dried tomatoes, dark chocolate. Lemon sorbet with my "little sister" when we went mini golfing. 239 calories.
Dinner: spaghetti and tomato sauce, iceberg salad (no dressing), bruschetta (french bread toast with Italian seasoned fresh salsa). 466 calories.
Total calories, 1269.
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The next five days will be devoted to moving. I'm not sure whether it will be easier or harder to stick with vegan eating during the turmoil, but here at the end of day 30, I don't feel a strong urge to have a cheese pizza or a rack of ribs.
That may well happen in the coming week, but it won't be due to a backlash of craving these foods.
I'm really glad I did this vegan challenge. I think it heightened my awareness that losing weight (my original goal) isn't going to happen just by cutting out meat. That may make it easier, but there's plenty of ways to overeat calories on a vegan diet. I need to tweak my calorie target to move toward that 120 a little faster.
I see the need for exercise to contribute to weight loss too. Maybe now more so than when I was younger. I want to establish an exercise habit this summer, including a weight training component. You get strong bones by building strong muscles! And I'd like to have both.
Over the next day or so, I want to create a new eating goal for myself to continue the good habits I've started. The idea of limiting animal food servings to a certain number per week still appeals to me. It gives me some flexibility for special occasions, and the choice to have everyday foods that contain a minimal amount of the "bad stuff," like a pasta sauce that contains a small amount of parmesan, or a bread that had eggs in the recipe, or a soup that was flavored with chicken broth. All while eating "mostly" vegan.
I think two servings a week of animal foods seems like a good place to start.
My greatest diet difficulty is the tendency to indulge in too many junk foods, including my beloved chocolate. A few chips here, some crackers there, even sugar in my daily coffee or tea, it adds up. A true challenge for me would be to eliminate white flour and added sugars. Yes, even white flour bread. Even chocolate. If I could have two servings a week of animal foods, maybe I could achieve the no-flour, no-sugar diet for a few weeks. Maybe.
Well, maybe I could if I were not surrounded by other people's junk food. When I'm tired, stressed, or just feeling lazy about cooking, it's much too easy to grab that bag of pretzels or that cookie sitting out on the counter!
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It's too late to fast for a blood draw for Wednesday, so I will plan to fast tomorrow night and recheck my lipid profile on Thursday. That's motivation to eat vegan on Day 31, hah! I am hoping to see some changes in the proper direction!
Final thoughts to come .....
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