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!

Week 37

I'm so annoyed.  I have been in the kitchen for 3+ hours making my darn healthy food and I didn't plan on it taking that long and now I have 7 minutes before I have to pick the kids up from the bus, my house is a mess, and all the other projects I was going to do when I finished cooking are left undone.  One of the projects on my list was to make a video for this blog again.  As the time ticked away, I realized a video wasn't going to happen, but I would at least write and give an update on the last month (or two?) since I last wrote.  Well now...I don't even have time for that.  I've mentally composed so many blog posts and video logs while driving the car, taking showers, and so forth.  I just can't seem to actually get it done because I'm so busy with my piano teaching, my stamping business, mothering, COOKING, and so forth.  I'm really feeling the pain and inconvenience of choosing a plant-based lifestyle and I'm TRYING to hang on to the positive aspects.  I've been watching some inspirational vidoes the past couple of days and I start out every day feeling jazzed about health and fitness.  Then, as the hours tick away, and the checklists don't get completed, and unexpected things happen, I feel my excitement leave me and by the time dinner is done, I want to veg on the couch and eat away my stress and frustration.  This is NOT AT ALL what I wanted to post about (my planned post was much more positive), but this is my reality at the moment and I had to rant to someone!  Time to go to the bus.  Hopefully a more positive post is coming soon!