Day One

In this blog I will be sharing my journey to health and wellness through changing to a whole foods, vegan diet (no animal products of any kind, including dairy). I gave up eating animals because my heart and spirit simply felt wrong partaking in the slavery and death of so many innocent creatures who are no less worthy of life than I am. I also believe that a plant based diet is the healthiest choice for me and the planet, and that is going to be the focus of this blog. 

Wanting desperately to lose the weight I had recently gained during some stressful years, I did what I knew from past experience--I went on a low fat/ low calorie diet. In this instance, it was through Nutrisystem, because I did not trust myself to weigh and measure my food properly. They package the food up nice and neat, and I just have to add vegetables, a little fruit, and a few extra protein sources. I had some success, but it was freaking hard! I felt hungry most of the time, and if I ate just a little bit of something that is not on the food plan, wham! Weight gain. Very frustrating. 

When I started the Nutrisystem diet, I was eating meat. I had followed a vegetarian and even a vegan diet in the past, but some health problems and other people's opinions on animal protein convinced me that maybe I needed to eat meat, poultry, and fish. The health problems did not go away, so I knew eating meat was not helping, and the guilt was getting harder to ignore. 

About a month ago, I switched to Nutrisystem's vegetarian plan. My life became riddled with packaged pastas and pizzas that were not even half as good as what I knew I could make myself. Plus, it bothered me more and more that I was eating so much refined, processed food and contributing to the waste created by all of the packaging. 

I became aware of Dr. Neal Barnard and his books on switching to a vegan diet to improve one's health a few years ago when I initially followed a vegan diet. He recommends cutting out added oils and other forms of fat while following a vegan diet, because there are simply no benefits to be had from these things, as they, too, are refined and processed. He says that there is already plenty of oil available in fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains. We don't need to add any. 

So yesterday was my first day of following his guidelines, and not only did I lose 1.4 pounds (yay!), but I was comfortably full and satisfied rather than ravenous and irritable. I also had a lot more energy than usual, and I never crashed. There were points in the day when I knew I needed to refuel my body, but it was not a scene from a horror movie where I turned into some zombie looking to devour the world. On low calorie diets, I would get lightheaded, ravenous, and downright crazy. Yesterday, it was more like a calm, "Oh, I think I am hungry." I mean, hey, I went to Whole Foods Market on a Sunday afternoon and did not want to kill anyone--that is saying a lot!

Here is what I ate:

Breakfast: Oatmeal and one meatless breakfast patty.  

I have rolled oats from Trader Joe's and basically followed the package instructions. I added 1/2 cup of oat to 1 cup of boiling unsweetened soymilk (I like 365 brand from Whole Foods Market). I turned the heat to medium and let the oats cook for about 3-4 minutes before adding 6 dried apricots that I had cut up into smaller pieces. I got this idea from Dr. Barnard's book, 21- Day Weight Loss Kickstart. I also added a pinch of nutmeg as he recommends. The meatless breakfast patty is also a 365 brand product. I planned on just eating a small portion of this oatmeal, but it was so good that I ate it all! 

Snack: Smoothie.

I have never tried tofu in a smoothie, but I wanted the protein to stave off hunger. I have a VitaMix Blender, so I can put whole leaves of kale in a smoothie and watch them turn into liquid. I like it better than juicing, because I get all of the fiber this way. Here is what I put in this smoothie: 1/5 a block of silken tofu, ~1 cup unsweetened soymilk, ~1/2 cup of orange juice (not from concentrate), ~1/4 cup frozen mango chunks, ~1/4 cup frozen berry mixture (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries), and 1-1/2 cups of fresh kale. This smoothie was not as sweet as smoothies I usually make, but I want to cut down on my sugar intake. It is important to choose silken tofu for smoothies. It is a lot softer and creams very easily. 

Lunch: Hot Veggie Wrap.

I had some yellow squash, zucchini, and red bell pepper strips already washed and cut into bite-size chunks from a previous meal and wanted to use them before they turned bad. I heated the non-stick skillet on medium-high and added the vegetables. Once they started to get moist, I sprinkled garlic powder all over them, and then tossed them around to cook them through. In the remaining minute or two, I threw in about one tablespoon of fresh chopped basil. I then placed this heaping mound of veggie goodness on a tortilla made by Food For Life--their Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas--on which I had spread an even layer of hummus. I bought a low fat hummus prepared by Whole Foods Market's deli, and the ingredients are simply chickpeas, lemon powder, sea salt, citric acid, and garlic. I could taste the lemon powder, which I was not sure I'd like, but it actually added a welcomed zing to the dish. It was a very messy wrap--the next time I make it, I will drain the veggies on a paper towel before heaping them onto the tortilla. The water from the veggies poured out with every bite. Nevertheless, it was delicious and comfortably filling. 

Snack: 2 small Mandarin oranges.

Not much preparation here. Just peeled the little goobers and ate them. Yummy! A healthy sweet snack. 

Dinner: Cabbage Roll (and a slice of Ezekiel bread with peanut butter, because I started making dinner too late!) 

I have never, ever made cabbage rolls, and the last time I had one it had meat in it. The idea that they could be vegan-ized just sort of came to me the other day, and I had the time to give it a shot. For the filling, I used brown rice, asparagus spears cut into small rounds, chopped zucchini, chopped red bell peppers, chopped onions, chopped carrots, garlic, Spice Island's poultry seasoning, paprika, garlic powder, turmeric, cayenne powder, a can of diced roasted tomatoes, black beans, and salt. I was planning to use lentils, but as I mentioned above, I got started late in the day, and this meal turned out to be a more time consuming meal than I had planned for.

Since I did not give much forethought to a sauce, I had to use a can of roasted tomatoes with chipotle peppers I had on hand, and so the black beans kind of become the better choice after all. I cooked the rice separately, using vegetable broth instead of water. In a non-stick skillet, I cooked the vegetables, and I also added some vegetable broth to that to keep them from sticking or getting too dry. Once the vegetables were cooked through, I added the beans and then wrapped them in the cabbage leaves. Luckily I Googled that part, because I learned that one must place the entire head of cabbage into a pot of boiling water to soften the leaves and keep them from ripping apart when peeled from the head. That was an adventure, I must say.

Oh, and I must not forget the little 1 serving size carton of Silk brand chocolate soymilk I had after lunch. I have a giant sweet tooth, so when I saw this at the store, I had to pick up a four pack. I wanted a full carton, but they only carried the single serving size. That's probably a good thing, because I might have had a lot more if I had the ability to pour my own size.  

And that's it. I did not weigh or measure (except in relation to creating tasty food recipes), I did not starve or deprive myself, and I felt great and never got to the point of ravenous hunger. I am still reading through two of Dr. Barnard's books--21- Day Weight Loss Kickstart and Breaking the Food Seduction. I will be getting more recipe ideas from his other book, The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook. 

Now on to day 2....