It's Time To Take Back Your Life

Tag: weight loss

Struggling with My Diet

It is April now, and I have been on my whole food plant-based diet for a about four months now. I did have some meals that I flexed out, but it has remained about 96% plant-based. My weight has recently plateaued with a 36 pound weight loss, and I am struggling to move the needle.

Don’t get me wrong, I am very excited that I have lost the weight I have, but I am struggling with my “personality tendancies”. I have a tendancy of “rise and repeat”, so I am not varying my diet as much as I should be.

I do not know a lot of recipes for plant-based dinners that are quick and easy. I have cookbooks and the recipes are only a search away, but I tend to run out of steam in the very early evening. Most of that is contributed to my pain in my feet, hip and back. What is that from? I think it is a result from years of inflammation that has resulted into several chronic diagnoses.

What have I been eating? Well, for Breakfast, I have oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, flax and cinnamon. Lunch can be a salad or protein shake, with a EarthChip Organic Vegan Protein, banana, greens, applesauce and plant-based milk. Dinner is generally a pot of homemade soup or chili with with plenty of beans and veggies, or if I am in a pinch, I make a quick bean burger, loaded with Dijon Mustard and veggies. My snacks can be hummus and chips, or hotsauce and chips. I have stopped alcohol now about 7 months now, and to tell you the truth, I miss the habit of the wine and cheese while I was cooking dinner, but I don’t miss the increased blood pressure or the poor sleep that always followed.

I have ordered some Anthony’s Textured Vegetable Protein, which is gluten free, and non-gmo. I have also ordered some Butler Soy Curls. I hope both of these will give me some new options to increase my protein intake and give me some quick and easy meal ideas like tacos and burritos, with veggies, and hotsauce. I think the soy curls might be excellent for my own fajitas, with bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, squash, and hotsauce.

One pot dinners are really my goto now. I eat to fuel my body and not feed my face. I do not need a full three course meal. The one struggle I am really having a difficult time with is yogurt. I love yogurt each night as a sweet snack with granola or fruit. I try not to eat too much fruit at night though. I have noticed that it increases the pain of my inflammation the following day.

This week I have increased my walking to at least 30 minutes a day if it is not storming. This is spring and I am in Texas. I have gotten some cabbage, both green and purple, and I am going to nail down a recipe to substitute for my chicken salad. That is always a quick and easy sandwich if I am ever caught at night, either not feeling well or simply too tired to cook. Also, I need to prep salads and have them ready to go in containers so I can pull, dump and add dressing, and I have a healthy meal. Things like this will ensure, you do not hit the local drive-thru or order a pizza.

I do need to find some recipes for soy blocks. One that I can crumble into a stir-fry or scramble. Theses will add good options as well. I have not gotten into the soy meats yet. I drink a ton of soy milk, but not meat as of yet.

I have some vegan cookbooks, but I will say that the meals are more complex than I would like. I also have Plant-Based on a Budget Quick & Easy, by Toni Okamoto along with her other book, Plant-Based on a Budget. She has some good idea recipes, but in my opinion, she uses too much oil in all her recipes. So, I constantly have to substitute vegetable broth, apple sauce or other things . The jury is still out on the healthy benefits for someone that has to stay away from nuts and oils. She uses a great many of both in her recipes.

My advice to you, is to think about your favorite meals you loved and consumed prior to your diet restrictions. Now, try and nail down a recipe that tastes exactly like it. Get creative and think outside your box. I didn’t think this was possible until one day. I made a recipe of a cold slaw salad and when I closed my eyes, it tasted exactly like my southern potato salad recipe I used to make to accompany my sloppy joes and barbecue ribs. This is a win/win. Anytime I can incorporate cruciferous veggies into my diet, is a good thing being a cancer survivor.

As I told you before, change will not come overnight, and I am your living proof. You must grow your own recipe book with things you like. I tried keeping all the recipes in all the books and marking the pages, but I could never find the recipe I was looking for, when I needed it.

I hope this helps and gives you some encouragement to move forward in your journey to a healthier life. Only you can do this, it is not going to be done for you. But, I can tell you, the benefits far outweigh the effort!

Alicia

Disclaimer

The following above article may contain affiliate partner links.  I could earn a small commission, at no cost to you, for any qualifying purchases.  

This blog is for entertainment and informational purposes only.  The information contained within this blog is not intended to diagnose or cure any medical condition.  I am not a physician, licensed dietician or physical therapist.  

This blog is the result of my personal experiences and what I chose to do for a healthier lifestyle.  As always, before you begin a diet, exercise program or add supplements, please consult your healthcare professional.

Which diet is right for you?

In case you haven’t looked lately, there are so many diets out there, it makes your head spin. When trying to get healthy and start a diet, confusion abounds. It’s like being at an intersection where all the lights are flashing red, and eight other roads feed in. You don’t know which way to go, or who was there first. Total chaos can can paralyze the process of forward movement.

This is how the average person feels about trying to choose a diet these days. Which way do you go? After all, we have so many choices. Here are just a few of them:

  • Vegatarian
  • Vegan
  • Carnivore
  • Paleo
  • Whole 30
  • Whole Food Plant-Based
  • Flexatarian
  • Keto
  • The Mediterranean Diet
  • Intermittent Fasting (not so much a diet, but an additional culture to assist in weightless and your health journey).

In my opinion, the vegetarian diet is one of the most dangerous diets out there. I am not talking danger, in the sense that it is going to kill you. I am talking about being in that gray area, where you think it is ok to consume packaged foods because they have the word “vegan” on them. When in actuality, they are just the same processed forms of junk, you have been eating.

When you read the ingredients list, you will find things like sugar, salt, palm or canola oils and MSG. These are ingredients that you don’t want. So, you become a fat overweight junk food vegan. This is not any healthier than your current state. You are still stuck in the “grab and go” of convenience, instead of getting fresh fruits and veggies.

So, in my opinion, you should avoid this trap altogether. You can opt for a whole food plant-based diet, but that the convenience out of it. Opt for real potatoes, instead of the boxed ones.

You can keep a “Whole 30” concept of if it doesn’t come from the ground, the sea, a tree or a vine, it doesn’t go in your mouth. Packaged protein bars, and pre-packaged juices and smoothies shouldn’t be on your list. They sound so healthy but realize that it is nothing more than “creative marketing from all the giant food companies.” Highly caffeinated beverages, like the canned power drinks that are loaded with caffeine, and we all know which ones those are, should even make it into your cart!

Types of diets

I will touch on a few of these different diets, but won’t go into great detail here. Feel free to do your own research.

There is the Carnivore Diet, where all you consume is meat, cheese, milk, animal fats and eggs. No fruits, veggies or grains, and no carbs. So, you miss out on all those antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods. This is healthy, Really?

How healthy do you really think a carnivore diet is, and that includes Keto. After all, we know that meat and diary does not provide all our essential vitamins and minerals, we need for healthy bodies. When our bodies don’t get those vital nutrients, disease ensues.

The Keto Diet, is a cousin to the Carnivore Diet, but it will allow up to 5-20% carbs to be added. This diet plan was created in the 1920’s, and used to treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children.

In this clinical setting, there was great progress with the children and the number of seizures they experienced while on this meal plan. So, it served a medical purpose in those days, and has become insanely popular in the last five years. You cannot go into the store and walk the aisles, without seeing some “keto approved” packaged food each step you take. Marketing at it’s finest!

I tried the Keto Diet for about 3 months and had a good deal of weight loss success. However, I was concerned with the affects it had on my cardiovascular system. When I got my bloodwork back, my cholesterol, and triglycerides were off the charts, so I stopped.

The Paleo Diet, falls into the Carnivore category as well. The argument is, “this is how our ancestors ate”; therefore, we should all eat this way. They were hunters/gatherers after all, and this is how our bodies were created.

They killed and dragged their dinner back to the cave. First, our bodies have evolved over time, adjusting to what we have put in it. Second, I did read an article some years back, that said the hunter/gatherers, also ate berries and some grasses, if animals were scarce. So, there is that.

The Mediterranean Diet, is a regional diet from the area of Greece, Italy, Turkey, Spain and other countries in that region. They are said to have the highest life expectancy of all populations.

They eat lower quantities of red meat, because it is an island-like terrain, and red meat is not as available, and is expensive. So, they tend to eat more fish, veggies, fruits, olive oil, butter, cheese and wine. You will not see a mother giving her child a glass of milk, past a certain age in his/her life. Actually, I don’t know if any population around the world, that continues drinking milk into their adult years, but the United States. This is courtesy of the millions of dollars that the diary industry has infused into our government agencies. Again, marketing at its finest.

One must take into account that in the Mediterranean region, they also walk or ride a bike everywhere. So, it gives way to that saying of, “calories in, minus calories out.” They have a high fat intake, and drink alcohol, but they are constantly burning calories each day. This comes (not because they go to a gym and work out) out of necessity to get where they are going. This is a big difference from that of the United States. We sit at computers, drive everywhere we go and play video games, watch tv or scroll through social media for hours. There is an opposing correlation, when we compare the two lifestyles.

Just a side note on fish. I often wonder how safe the fish population has become with all the nuclear wastes, ships, planes and chemicals, that are dumped in our oceans daily. It is estimated that 14M tons of plastic bottles end up in our oceans each year. Just image how many plastic bottles you would have to have for one ton of weight, Now, multiple that times 14 every single year. Mind-blowing. This is a good time to encourage you to please recycle if you use bottled drinking water.

Let’s talk about those hormonal disruptors when you consume fish or seafood. Environment affects humans and we develop things such as cancer, and autoimmune diseases when we are exposed to toxins. Creatures of the oceans are the same. When they live in highly toxic waters with poisons and endocrine disruptors, they develop disease as well, and then we consume them.

This is where we get so many cases of increased mercury poisoning. Someone will eat a large amount of fish, as their primary protein. Their bodies and tissues become toxic. Mercury is a dangerous metal when ingested. Just food for thought.

The Vegan Diet, is a whole food plant-based diet on steroids. It is extreme and generally centers around abuse of animals in the processing industries and their treatment.

Buyer beware, it is not just the diet, but about the culture that surrounds it. If you call yourself a vegan, it will involve all aspects of your life. So, you cannot call yourself a vegan, if you follow the diet plan, but then go sit down on your leather sofa, to watch a movie. How about hopping in your car that has leather seats? You are not a vegan. Maybe your favorite running shoes have a bit of leather? Then, you are not a vegan.

If you are calling yourself a vegan, then you are a whole food plant-based eater, that is taking a stand on the abuse and mistreatment of all the animals and how they are processed and killed for our consumption. You cannot use or have anything associated with an animal in any way. Piano keys made of ivory? Then, you cannot call yourself a vegan. Those Italian leather shoes, leather jacket or briefcase/backpack? Well, I think you get the point. So, just start by saying that you are following a WFPB diet. If you choose to take a stand for the mistreatment of animals, then you can move in that direction and call yourself a vegan.

In this blog, I will use vegan, vegetarian and plant-based. You will see me swap vegan and plant-based interchangeably. There are cultural differences, but for the purpose of this blog, they will be used to depict the style of eating and they will be one in the same.

The Flexitarian Diet, is really the best of both worlds, for someone that cannot fully give up meat and diary. If you want to make a real impact, then you can do this and follow the Mediterranean way of eating, but I would decrease the meat and fish, and increase the organic tofu, organic soy and beans.

You can choose to eat WFPB for say four days of the week, and on the weekends, or times you might have dinner out, or be traveling, you can opt to flex out, and eat a very clean lean meat.

This doesn’t mean that you get to order that 12 oz Ribeye, but maybe opt for a leaner cut, like a top sirloin, with steamed veggies or a baked potato on the side, and a salad with a balsamic dressing. Forgo the huge side of ranch or blue cheese dressing. Also, be careful with all the white bread, like breadsticks or rolls, that are made with highly processed bleached flour, alcohol and sodas.

When someone goes to a WFPB diet, he/she might find themselves in difficult situations, where you have to go out for work/party. Instead of trying to explain to everyone your dietetic needs, it is easier to have the option to flex out. The trick is, after the “flex event” is over, get back on your plant-based horse! Don’t let this can, be kicked down the road for weeks at a time.

With any diet, I would urge you to keep a food journal for the first month or two. It will assist you in learning foods that you might be sensitive too. If you don’t like writing and you are more of an app person, Cronometer and MyPlate are good apps to go to.

What is a healthy diet anyway?

If you look close enough at the published research, you just get an additional layer of confusion, added to your already scrambled brain. You have experts (doctors, and research scientist) that are in the top of their fields, publishing findings in major respected medical journals, that can prove or disprove, any conclusion/hypothesis they are seeking.

What you don’t know is that they are affiliated with and taking lots of money from the lobbyists from the meat, dairy, egg and grain industries. So, who can you trust? After all, it’s all about the money. The science, the marketing, the buying of research. It all gets muddy.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer, but I did find an investigative nutritional journalist, that seems to dig in and ferret out all the individuals not being so forthcoming about their affiliations with big Pharma and big industries. I have seen her on PCRM.org . It is eye-opening. I have lost her name in the hundreds of videos I have saved and I will try and update this, when I find it.

Keep it simple

My advice to you would be, sit down and list any medical issues you currently have or have a family history, before you make your choice on diet. Ask yourself, are you diabetic or pre-diabetic? Do you have high blood pressure and are on medication? Do you have a strong history of stroke or heart disease in the family? Is heart disease or cancer a concern? What did you last lab results say? Do you have high cholesterol, triglycerides or a diagnosed autoimmune disease like arthritis? Are you overweight? List all your concerns.

Then, list any known food allergies you might have. Maybe you need to avoid gluten. We are all different. So, whatever diet you choose, you will have to alter it a bit to fit your specific needs. No diet is a one-size fits all approach. However, you will have a macro view of where you need to start.

Next, list your goals and the trick is to make them attainable. Do not make a goal of losing 100 pounds in a year. Some might be able to do this, but you want to keep it healthy. Think about the things you want to do, like exercise, yoga, meditation and gardening. Whatever it might be. List those as well. Now, you have plan. People that embark on a journey without a plan, fail. You want to succeed, so have a plan!

Knowledge is power

If you are like me, you are not a doctor, registered dietician or research nutritional scientist. I have to read and get my information from the internet, books and publications. I would suggest that you need to learn some basics about nutrition before you start. If you are new to the world of nutrition, it can all be so confusing. In this confusion, you might start chasing your tail with supplements to cover what you suspect might be a deficiency. Don’t fill bad, we have all done it!

I would caution you against taking a lot of supplements. Unless you have been diagnosed in the past with deficiencies, the goal of this diet, is that you “eat the rainbow” of fruits and veggies and vary what you eat and nature will give you all you need.

If you choose to do a plant based diet, a small supplementation once or twice a week or so, might be adequate. Vitamin B12 is a concern, but not as big as you fear. According to Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D., and adult only needs 2.4 mcg a day. When we take supplements, most or 5000 mcgs and we take them like candy. This can eventually cause its own problems. I supplement with B-12 due to a deficiency, but since going plant-based, I need far less these days. Mind blowing.

Vitamin D is another vitamin I take due to a confirmed deficiency. You will need to have your physician run these specific tests before supplementing. Vitamin D is necessary for over 300+ cellular processes in the body, but our culture has become deficient. You get Vitamin D by the synthesis of sunlight on your skin. Vitamin D, although classified as a vitamin, acts like a hormone in our bodies, and taking too much can also be dangerous.

So, dig in and research. Learn about your newly chosen diet, and all the ins and outs. Start with baby steps and make small changes, or go all in. There is no “one way”. The goal is to increase the amount of good nutrients you give your body, and decrease the fat, sodium, and processed chemicals.

Learn about macronutrients which are called (protein, carbs and fats). Just think of this as a “high-level” view. Then, you have the micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Think of this, as you looking under a microscope and drilling down and individual “cells” of nutrition. I would subscribe to a few YouTube channels of your choosing that offer good advice.

Remember, you can lose weight on any diet, and just because there are over a million “influencers” out on the web, Facebook, Tik Tok, and YouTube, telling you they have the short-cut to weight loss, doesn’t mean you have to take the bait. This is a tortoise and the hare scenario, so be the tortoise. Slow and steady wins every time.

Remember, not all diets are healthy. The one that comes to mine is Atkins. You will find pros and cons for all diets out there, just be diligent. Get informed! Do your homework. This isn’t going to be handed to you. The trick is to determine which diet will provide you with the best outcome, and move your body to a healthier state, and you closer to your goals.

Good luck in your new journey, and may the force be with you!

Alicia

Disclaimer

The following article might contains affiliate partner links.  I could earn a small commission, at no cost to you, for any qualifying purchases.  

This blog is for entertainment and informational purposes only.  The information contained within this blog is not intended to diagnose or cure any medical condition.  I am not a physician, licensed dietician or physical therapist.  This blog is the result of my personal experiences and what I chose to do for a healthier lifestyle.  As always, before you begin a diet, exercise program or add supplements, please consult your healthcare professional.

A day in the life of you

What is your why? Let’s take a look. Grab a journal and let’s get started. I am going to ask you to take a serious inventory of what you eat on a daily/weekly basis. Write everything down. Don’t worry, this is only an initial exercise for the first week. You will not have to log your intake past this point unless you want to. The one thing is you will need to be is totally honest with yourself or this will not work. I want every stick of gum logged.

I am going to write a scenario and I want you to see if you recognize any of these hamster wheel behaviors.

The routine

You wake after a not so good night’s sleep. You’re already tired. You put on the coffee while you take a shower. You have a cup of coffee while getting ready for work. You head out the door and swing into either you neighborhood Starbucks or fast-food drive-thru. You grab a Frappuccino and a morning combo meal. As you are sitting in traffic you consume both.

When you get to the office you have another coffee/soda before you head to a meeting. Everything is gone off the rails at work, and now you and your team are in crisis mode. Your stress level just increased even more. You head to the vending machine for a RedBull/Soda. You are hungry, so you grab a candy bar or chips too.

At lunch, you drive thru another fast-food line and get another combo meal with a soda or head to a restaurant. You down that and get on with your day.

Around 3:00 pm, you feel like your tank is running on empty, so you grab another soda/coffee/RedBull, and some more goodies from the vending machine.

You’re heading home from work and traffic is terrible. While you are sitting in traffic, you think to yourself, “There has to be more to life than this.” Once you get home, you are so tired, you just want to order DoorDash or a Pizza and call it a night.

You get in bed on your cell phones or tablets. You can’t sleep well for thinking about life’s little problems, like living paycheck to paycheck (or hand to mouth). You are worried about how you are going to pay for those mounting student loans, medical debt or credit cards. Each of those are big green monsters living under your bed. You get up sometime during the night and grab whatever you can find and begin stress eating. Maybe it’s cookies and milk, chips or something else. By the time you stop, half the bag is gone.

You go back to bed and finally fall asleep around 2 or 3 am. When your alarm goes off, you wake so tired and unrested, you head for the coffee pot, get in the shower and rinse and repeat the day. This is your life. This is a hamster wheel that I cannot seem to get off. This is a freight train that is about to hit a wall going 80 mph. How do I stop the madness? Does any of this resonate with you?

The outcome

Now, let’s say you logged your food and beverage intake for the entire week. Looking back on what you logged, what nutrients do you think you actually ingested? Nutrients that fuel your body so it can repair itself, and provide you with the daily requirements to make sure everything is working properly? Most likely, not many. In fact, wouldn’t you say that you did more harm than good with the high-fat, highly processed, sugary and sodium bombs you consumed that were layer is caffeine? Ask yourself, how is your body supposed to recover from that, day after day, year after year. At some point, it just cannot.

You body screams for help and breaks down. This is when diseased starts to occur. Things like high blood-pressure, diabetes, depression, GI issues, sleep apnea, heart, vascular, cancer and autoimmune. They mount one after one and you cannot see to get off the disease freight train.

You have now added more medication, procedures and diagnosis’ to your life. This means more missed work time, and expensive dangerous medications the doctor tells you that you will take for the rest of your life.

Remember those CDC stats I mentioned? Almost 75% of Americans are obese or overweight. As well as 50% of Americans have been diagnosed with high blood pressure and are on medication. There are now twelve year old children are being diagnosed and put on medication for high blood pressure. What do you think their future holds? After all, we most likely began our journey in our thirty’s or forty’s and they are starting at pre-teen ages! If case you missed the stats, here is a link..

CDC Stats Link Home

Welcome to your WHY! Why, you should want to change these habits and create a better plan for what you give your body. Our body is like a temple, and this is how we treat it. We only get one, and it’s not too late to change your course. I don’t care how old you are. Change starts with you and only you. Let’s turn this train around!

Commit to the change and let’s get started.

Alicia

Which diet is right for you

Diets can be confusing, so which one do you pick? Which diet is right for you, and which diet should you focus on to help you reach your wellness goals? This is the million dollar question.

Types of popular diets

If you have tried to diet in the past, then you know how confusing it can be to choose a diet that you can stick to. In my opinion, the diets that have standed the test of time, usually fall in one the three categories, The Mediterranean, Keto or Whole Food Plant Based. These or some rendition of these, have held the most success. Those are the heavy hitters that most are using today.

There are other honorable mentions like Whole 30, Noom, Weight Watchers, South Beach, and Atkins. It has always concerned me with the “pay to play” diets like Weight Watchers and Noom. However, I know a great deal of people that have successfully lost weight on those diets.

The big three

  • The Mediterranean Diet – This is a diet that is region specific to the Mediterranean area. It consists of fresh fruits, vegetables, seafood, dairy and whole grains. You are allowed small amounts of wine/alcohol on this diet. It is probably one of the easiest diets to turn into a lifestyle change. It is about healthy eating and reducing most processed foods.
  • The Keto Diet – This diet has been around for years and was originally used in the treatment with children with uncontrollable epilepsy. In recent years, this diet has become a major player in the game of creative marketing. This diet focuses on high fat, moderate protein and low carbohydrate intake. No alcohol is allowed since alcohol is high in carbs. The whole premise of this diet is to throw your body into a state of ketosis, where you cells are breaking down fat to burn instead of carbs.
  • The Whole Food Plant Based Diet (or WFPB)– This diet has really caught attention the past decade, due to the state of health this country. This diet emphasizes only plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, while eliminating all meat, dairy, seafood and highly processed foods and snacks. Some extreme versions even remove oils and avocados. You can have small amounts of wine/alcohol on this diet if you choose, but it is not suggested during your first weeks of the program.

My personal successes

I can personally speak for a clean Keto, which I lost 35 pounds in ninety days with no exercise. I was concerned with the hit my lipid profile took, and what it was doing to my cardiovascular system, so I stopped.

I then recently found the WFPB diet. At the time, I really didn’t think I could do it. I was always a meat and potatoes girl, and hit dairy really hard. I was always down for full butter, sour cream, milk, cream and I never met a cheese I didn’t like. When I began my personally journey within the last eight months, I lost another 35 pounds. That is huge for a woman over 50, again without any exercise.

I urge you to do the research

When I began having health issues again, I consumed all the information I could on YouTube and Pubmed, I could find. I found studies of the OG of vegan such as Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and his reversal of a fully blocked artery with only a WFPB diet, no surgery. Dr. Campbell and The China Study, Dr. Michael Greger and more recent, Dr. Neal Bernard.

My personal story

My life depended on me being successful on this diet, literally. So, I purged my entire kitchen in one day, and gave boxes of food and meat away. Rearranged everything in my pantry. Loaded up on containers and meal preps with lids. Then I went to the store.

I cut out wine, diary, sugar, meat, fish, bread, sodas and anything processed, and I did it overnight. I hit it hard, and it hit me back. I felt like I had the flu for three days. The withdrawals were big, but my “why” was bigger!

My why

I had just been by my cardiologist, when I was going through my breast cancer treatment, the chemo and radiation damaged my heart and I was now in the beginning stages of heart failure. All I could think about was me making it through Stage III, Triple Negative Breast Cancer only to come out the other end with heart failure. I was too young for this. Life was being cruel.

I was given four very new and very expensive medications. I took one home and just stared at it. I began reading the side effects and researching the drug. To say, I am not a fan of medication, is putting it mildly. Probably because I have always had to take so much through my lifetime. So, I decided that food was going to be my medicine (or at least my first line of defense). I was holding on the medications, until I knew I had not other option.

I am in no way telling you to forgo a medical treatment. You should speak with your healthcare provider. This was a personal decision that I was making for myself.

Prior to my diagnosis of heart failure, I was having to return to the chemo center for Iron Therapy Infusions. I had eight weeks of the infusions to help bring up my red blood cell count. It didn’t bring my numbers up as much as I hoped it would. I thought I was going to have to be very careful going on an all plant-based diet. I believed my iron, pallets, red blood cells and B-12 were all going to tank, more so than they already were.

Much to my surprise, after 90 days on the diet, all of my blood work came back better that it had been in decades. I was elated and baffled at the same time. I didn’t understand this. Plants don’t have B-12 or heme-iron. How could this even be possible?

Shortly after this, life happened again, and I lost my job. I was thrown for a loop and I spiraled downward. I began reaching for those familiar comfort foods. I started drinking wine, eating cheese, meat and dairy and the weight came back on, as fast as it had gone. So, now here I am, back at my starting point. I am going to have to commit and go full steam ahead back into the WFPB diet. Only this time, I cannot flex out for any reason.

Which diet is right for you?

So, which diet is right for you? Only you can answer that, but before you do, please take this to heart. Before going on any diet or exercise program, you will need to talk to your healthcare provider and get approval for any diet or exercise program. If you get the green light, then it would be best to get some baseline blood work drawn at this time. This will give you an indication of your current state of health, and give you a benchmark for your goals going forward. After all, food is medicine and nutrition is health!

Congrats! You have now taken your first step in your journey to achieve better health and a better life!

Alicia

Old habits die hard

When starting a diet or exercise program, old habits can die hard. I can only speak for myself, but I find that my old habits get in the way of my success. They are probably the biggest nemesis for me not reaching my goals.

Whether driving through Starbucks, your favorite fast food, or staying in your routine of eating _______________ (fill in the blank) before bed, old habits die hard. I call it “habit creep“.

Breaking the routine

When we are most vulnerable and needing that sugar, caffeine or processed food fix, they are there to secretly cheer us on. Habits make those cravings unsurmountable. I think the secret is trying to do something new in your schedule. You must break the routine, to break the habit. For me, it is diary, particularly cheese.

For each of us, this trigger or craving is different. We all lead different lives with various responsibilities. However, if you normally push away from your meal, and sit on the couch and watch television, try doing something new.

If this is where you eat ice cream, maybe you can do laundry, spend time with the kids, or go for a walk. The secret is break the cycle that you know and have come entrenched in. That is all it is, a cycle of doing the same thing over and over. We can set our clocks by it.

Things to do as you learn to break the bad habits

When the cravings start, you can do a number of things. I guess it might depend on the habit. If you are trying to stop smoking, I am not too sure sitting down and journaling would stay off the cravings. I think you might have to exercise to get beyond that one. I have been told that chewing gum or straws help.

It could be a hobby that you choose to partake in such as journaling, writing, gardening, woodworking, getting ahead of emails for work, walking, biking, playing cards, light cleaning, or reading a book. Maybe you could go for a run or work out. You get the drift.

You must do anything but allow yourself that indulgent pleasure of extra calories, unwanted fats, processed foods, nicotine or drugs. You just need to take yourself out of the geographical location that makes you want that ice cream, drink, cookies or nicotine. Whatever your vice might be, change your location and mix things up.

If you do nothing else, do this one thing

I will tell you if you don’t do anything else on this journey (eg. lose weight, increase exercise, eat healthier), you need to stop smoking! Smoking is a leading killer and affects so many people’s health. All the top killing diseases are attributed to smoking, eg…heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Also, those of you that chew tobacco or vape, you are not any better off, so don’t think you get a pass. First, we do not know the long-term affects of vaping. Second, for those that chew tobacco products, ask anyone that has throat cancer and is on hospice, if they could do it all over again, would they? I bet the answer would be, “yes”.

Habits die hard, but they are not impossible to beat!

Alicia

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog. My name is Alicia. After successfully losing 35 pounds on a whole food plant based diet, I decided to “flex” out of my diet for my birthday. My sister wanted to cook for me. It is just easier sometimes to flex for a night or weekend, instead of trying to levy a restrictive diet on someone who doesn’t understand. So, I flexed.

Then the unthinkable happened. A little thing called life, reared it ugly head and I lost my job. The stress sent me straight to my comfort foods of diary, processed foods, cheese and wine. The weight has returned and I feel horrible.

I know what caused it, but I could not seem to stop. Why, because it is a habit. Like when you have had a stressful day at work and you come home and have that one drink just to take the edge off. Pretty soon, that one drink has turned into two, and maybe three. It gets so entrenched in your habits, the drink is in hand shortly after you enter the door. Habits, they can be difficult to break.

Maybe you go through your favorite coffee establishment or fast food each morning. A combo meal at lunch, or happy hour with friends. It’s all the same. It could be a huge bowl of ice cream or six energy drinks/coffee in a day. The effects these have to our health is outrageous.

I decided to create this blog, because I do so much better when I hold myself accountable. Putting my story out there, for even the possibility of one person seeing it, gives me that added drive I need to succeed.

This blog is a work-in-progress, and hopefully will be taking shape in the near future with content that can help you reach any goals you might have.

Thank you for stopping by, and please come back for updated content.

Alicia