News from my waistline

I hate to admit it, but I've been slowly gaining weight, especially since my sister passed away at the end of June last year. We went to Hawaii in April for our son's wedding and when I saw the pictures I easily saw that I was the largest woman there.  It broke my heart.  I knew that I'd been gaining but I didn't come to terms with how bad I was looking until I saw the pictures.  It was just a little bit here and there, but it was getting difficult to button my pants and my knees, back, feet, and ankles were screaming at me! I just got off the scale, I have now lost about 8 pounds in 15 days. It's no gimmick.

 I'd done weight watchers many times before, but I would always feel sick while I was doing it.  .  They really push processed foods on people, selling their own brand of bars, smoothies, and snack foods, as well as pushing their yogurt and such found at the grocery store.  I'd read "The China Study" and seen the fantastic documentary "Forks over Knives" so I knew how harmful dairy foods are, and that there is more calcium in plant milks, something that Weight Watchers fails to mention.  The science is there to link animal foods to disease, heart disease, stroke, cancer, alzheimers, diabetes, the list goes on.  So I had to rethink what I was doing as far as food was concerned.  I knew I was snacking a lot, and grazing on a lot of breads and things like that because I wasn't eating animals (but I WAS eating seafood which is horrible for you...it's higher in Cholesterol than meat!) but I didn't have a direction in terms of what to do about gaining weight or reversing the trend.

You know I'm very committed to the vegan lifestyle, and I found that I was using too much of the meat substitutes that were mostly made up from oil. I was also eating a lot (A LOT!) of carbs, and not being careful about things that had egg or milk in them like I should. I kept getting vertigo and would be able to look back and see why (maybe butter on the veggies or something like that). I was talking about looking for a book I'd heard about called the Engine 2 diet.  Hubby said he wanted to look over the Engine 2 diet http://www.engine2diet.com/  as well so I bought the book one day at whole foods. It gave me a very easy to do and consise clean up of my diet.

So far it's been great. I have lost a little bit daily, and my mood swings are gone, I feel good, and the only issue that I have is if I don't drink enough water while I'm flying to keep me hydrated which is certainly not the fault of the diet. This is basically an easy one, it's just vegan, but tells you how to get the amount of fat (oil) and salt and sugar out of your diet...very well put especially for the men in the audience. Their website (link above) is fantastic and you can food journal there and ask for help from the community if you'd like. The science and studies behind their diet are included, so you can do more research if you'd like. The science and studies are linked to their website, and they follow the same recommendations as all of the University studies that have been coming out. 

Best of all, I am NEVER hungry! I'm hoping to be able to get back into my reenacting clothing by the time our Conference on the Ladies and Gentlemen of the 1860's comes around in March of next year again.  Hubby keeps asking me if I miss anything (he's doing the diet as well) and I honestly can't think of anything that I miss.  Even eating at resteraunts is very doable, the waitstaff has been great about making meals for me that are all plant based.  I don't know if hubby will continue to improve his health, but his blood pressure is already down to within normal limits from being high enough in the past that his doctor wanted to put him on meds.  I can't wait to see how much his cholesterol numbers have improved!  I've seen my hematocrit go way up...that's a measure of the red blood cells in your blood, or anemia.  It's perfect now.  I feel great...and I don't ever want to go back to feeling like crap after eating again.