Food Report, Day 1

Time to report my meals again each night for accountability.  I go out of town again in 13 days, so I'm committing to  report my food for 12 days.  Goal: Lots of veggies each day, no desserts, no flour, no eating after dinner with the exception of fruit and veggies.

Breakfast--Oatmeal with apples, spinach, walnuts, chia seeds, maple syrup

Lunch--Tortilla soup minus the tortillas, brown rice, two clementines

Snack--Apple and peanut butter

Dinner--Air-fried potatoes, quinoa, sautéed veggies, chickpeas

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 42nd birthday and I'm feeling great!

I didn't post last week because our family went out of town last Friday to visit relatives for the weekend.  When we returned, we had house guests, and then my hubby and I went out of town again two days ago and we are still gone.  I have been doing some intense online training for my piano teaching, but I decided I should take a break and give a report on my health efforts.

As I said in my opening line, I'm feeling great.  Have I lost weight?  Maybe a tiny bit, but that's not what I'm excited about.  These past couple of weeks have taught me that the number on the scale doesn't affect how I feel as much as my food choices affect how I feel.  If I feel that I am in control of my food rather than my food controlling me, I feel an inner peace and contentment.  Now, if the scale had gone up, I'm not sure I would have felt so content, but even with it not going down as much as I need it to to be on target for my "healthy wage," I'm just so thrilled that I have been able to navigate many of my trigger situations withou bingeing or bailing out on my efforts.

Travel and vacations have alway been a trigger for me to overeat and especially to eat the wrong foods.  On our 5 to 6 hour drive to PA last weekend, I did have some moments when I came close to giving up.  I ate before we left, I had carrots and apples to munch on, but it's just not the same when everyone around you is eating Cheetos and peanut m&m's. I didn't know those foods had a smell, but they do, and when you are a car for an extended period of time with them, you start to question the importance of your commitment NOT to eat that stuff.  By the time we stopped for dinner, I was hanging on by a thread.  My family wanted to eat at Steak & Shake.  I knew from experience there weren't any satisfying choices for me there, not to mention that watching my family eat burgers, fries, and milkshakes was not going to help me at all.  I chose to drive to Subway and eat by myself instead. As I did, I thought about the social complications of eating WFPB.  It can be isolating in some ways, but I tried not to linger on that thought because it doesn't serve me.  I tried to enjoy the peace and quiet of eating by myself (which after a long car ride with four boys was actually quite nice) and I kept reminding myself that the sacrifice was worth it.

Things got more challenging at my brother's house.  Between me being a vegetarian who wasn't eating sugar, and my kids being picky, my sister-in-law didn't know what to cook and she felt bad.  Maybe frustrated too?  I had brought my own food (which was awkward in ways), and I told her to make whatever she normally made and my kids would eat the parts they liked, but it was just a bit uncomfortable and that is hard for me.  I used to be the person you could count on to gobble up your made-with-love-home-cooked food and gush over how wonderful it was.  That is how I like to be as a guest and it's hard to not be that person anymore.  I just had to try to be a gracious guest in other ways, while rejecting her homemade cinnamon rolls and chicken pot pie!  Once again, the social aspect of this lifestyle change is no small matter.  It's something I have to come to terms with. I have to accept that I'm going to be different than the way I used to be, that it's okay, that it's worth it.  I have to accept that vacation and travel is going to be different.  It's not going to be about visiting the unique ice cream parlors, trying new restaurants, eating fun snacks, etc.  It's different.

So once I navigated that trip, I had to navigate having guests at my home and trying to make meals that would work for everyone.  Because our guests were sight-seeing, I really only had to do one big dinner.  We had a baked potato bar, salad, and chill.  There were rolls, toppings, and desserts that they could eat that I didn't, but there was still enough food for me to be satisfied.

Now I'm on a trip with hubby.  We are staying in a condo and cooking most of our meals here and they are healthy.  There is a small part of me that says, "that's no fun," but there is another part of me that is grateful to save money by cooking ourselves and grateful to only have to cook for two!  We are keeping it pretty simple anyway.  Last night we went out to dinner for my birthday and I gave myself permission ahead of time to overeat and have dessert for that one meal.  Dessert once a week is built into my food plan, so I can eat it without the guilt and that is really nice.  I enjoyed eating an abundance of food last night, but it was also a good reminder that although overeating feels pleasurable when you are doing it, it doesn't feel so great afterward when you are stuffed and lethargic.  Good reminder!  Having not felt that way for a couple of weeks, I really noticed the difference.

My focus the past two weeks has been to eat high-nutrition and enough calories at each meal to feel satisfied so I'm not fighting the urge to snack or eat the wrong foods.  It is really working.  I haven't struggled with cravings and I have been able to not eat after dinner and be okay.  Reminding myself that's the urge to eat at night is a "conditioned response" that I can train away is also helping. That is something that was discussed in the link I posted last week.  All in all, I feel really happy to be in control of my food choices and to be following my personal food plan.

That's all for now.  Time to get back to my Simply Piano training.

Daily Report Day 4

Still going strong.  I ate dinner earlier than usual and didn't have time to finish it before I ran to a meeting.  I was definitely more hungry tonight as a result, but I ate my fruit and survived. :)  It doesn't help that it's 1:30 a.m. ( a long time past dinner).  I was busy researching some stuff for my piano teaching, but I didn't want to miss my nightly report before I head to bed.

Food for today:
Breakfast: Quinoa, Tofu, stir-fry veggie bowl, grapes
Lunch: Vegetable Indian Curry with rice, apple
Dinner: Pei Wei Terriayki bowl with Tofu and vegetables
Snack: Grapes, Banana

Daily Report Day 3

Hooray for another day I can feel good about!  Today was my weigh-in day and I was surprised to see I actually weighed a tiny bit less than last week.  It was only a few ounces, but with all that bingeing last weekend, I was happy.  I am hoping for even better things next Wednesday after a week of faithfully following my program.

Food for today:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with apples, walnuts, chia seeds, maple syrup

Lunch: Autumn Harvest salad kit, Quinoa, Tofu, and stir-fry veggie bowl, grapes

Snack: Apple

Dinner: Autumn Harvest salad kit, chickpea kale soup, hummus veggie quesadilla (no cheese), grapes

Daily Report

 I followed my program today and I'm feeling happy.  Not eating after dinner definitely takes some getting used to.  I am hungry, but I don't have cravings, and that makes all the difference.  I definitely feel the desire to eat, but it's habit as much as anything, and I just have to find my new normal of not eating at night and being slightly hungry.  I won't die. LOL!  I've had adequate nutrition for the day and I just have to remember that.

Breakfast: Left-over vegan potato salad, baked beans, and grapes
Snack: Popcorn
Lunch: Two bowls of Autumn Harvest salad (Kit frim BJ's) with chopped apples, Chickpea Kale soup
Dinner at Panera Bread with friends: 1/2 Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich, Autumn Squash soup, Apple

Nightly Report

Day one down and I kept all of my commitments.  It sounds so simple, but there was plenty of temptation.  My family tried to go miniature golfing, but the place was closed, so hubby drove the kids to Wendy's for food instead...I stayed in the car.  Once we got home, they ate cake and ice cream while we watched a movie.  Hubby also bought a giant loaf of french bread to go with the healthy soup I made for dinner.  I really wanted some of that bread, but it's not on my plan and I didn't eat it. I kept reminding myself that the first day is always the hardest.

I watched a fascinating video today while cooking my soup that explains scientifically why we do some of the things we do when it comes to binge-eating and night-stuffing.  It's not because we are dumb, unintelligent people who can't get our act together.  There are massive forces working against us in our genes and biochemistry.  Understanding what's going on can help us beat those forces.  I would explain more, but I must get to bed.  I highly recommend the video which can be found HERE.

I took photos of my food today, but I'm having problems loading them.  This is what I ate:

--Oatmeal with apples, spinach, walnuts, chia seeds, and maple syrup.
--Potato salad made with homemade, oil-free, vegan salad dressing.  Baby carrots.  Garden Salad.
--Smoothie with banana, spinach, berries, almond milk, PB powder, and cocoa.
--Chickpea Kale Soup, baked potato, garden salad.

Recommitting after Relapse

I'm back!  My first video in months and I had technical difficulties that cut it off.  An alarm went off on my phone and I thought it was still filming, but it turns out it wasn't.  I'm just going to leave it as it is and write about the things I was in the middle of saying, but didn't end up catching on film.

A short recap of the video:

I have not abandoned my WFPB lifestyle endeavor, but I have had many ups and downs in that endeavor over the past few months and particularly the past few days.  I made a "healthy wage" at the beginning of September where I bet I could lose 50 pounds in 10 months.  I pay money every month until then.  If I reach my goal, I get my money back PLUS I get a big prize.  I was hoping that wage would massively motivate me, but it only worked for about a week! I have been binge-eating at night the past few days, always with the intention to "start over and be perfect" the next day. Well...the addiction is real.  The struggle is real.  It's hard to keep believing in myself when I get into this cycle, but the only thing I can do is KEEP TRYING!   I am determined to turn things around TODAY so this video is my recommitment to my own personal food plan.  I will be reporting every day this week, and I'm also committing to post on my blog at least once a week, although it won't necessarily be with a video.

Now for what I was in the middle of saying when my camera shut off.  I was talking about Heather from "The Butterfly Effect Plant-Based Weight Loss" YouTube channel.  This is a woman who has lost almost 300 POUNDS.  She is 9 pounds away from her goal weight and a 300-pound loss.  Wow! Can you imagine?!  As I was walking on the treadmill this morning, I watched the first video she made, and then I watched the video she made about a year ago after she had lost almost 200 pounds and went through a relapse, and then I watched her most recent video.  I could really relate to her feelings of despair, embarrassment, discouragement, and fear when she talked about her relapse and the large quantity of weight she gained back during it.  BUT, she didn't let that relapse go on forever.  It didn't defeat her for good.  She spoke honestly about what happened, recommitted, asked her community for help, and tried again.  Now she is 148 pounds, 9 pounds away from her goal.  Wow! This inspired me.  Last night, I was feeling a lot of despair and disappointment in myself and feeling that it was hopeless to try to change, but it's not.  I knew that even before watching Heather's videos. I had already recommitted and made a new plan for myself, but Heather's story just confirmed and strengthened my resolve to keep trying and not give up.  THIS IS LIFE.  We keep trying to improve ourselves, we fall, we get back up, and we try again and again and again.  I am going to be making a video down the road that shows that this relapse (or maybe I should say series of relapses) did not stop me from reaching my goal.  I can't wait for that video!

A few links related to things I mentioned in my video:

Evening Visualization MP3 from John Gabriel.

Learn more about making a Healthy Wage.  I'm still not sure this was the smartest thing I did, but it's too late to go back now!