Plant Based Week 1 is done

Plant Based Diet Week 1 is behind me….

Weight: 301.4

Blood Pressure: 130/95

So this week I’ve been reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s The End of Dieting (published 2014). He talks about the Standard American Diet being like an addiction (so does Dr. Neal Bernard). Dr. Fuhrman states that if you are overweight - you are a food addict. And I’ve heard that before. I am sure that I am a food addict and when depressed, stressed or upset - I medicate with horrible foods. I want to quit cold turkey (and that is what I’m trying to do this year), but as he says on page 26, “But it doesn’t work that way. It’s not about will power. There are no shortcuts. Addictions don’t respond to easy answers. You can’t “just say no””. You still have to eat each day.

One of Dr. Fuhman’s Three Habits of Health is to have a Positive Mind-set and that we need to surround ourselves with people who want to support you. My family does want to support me, but none of them really eat plant-based. Today though my daughter says they are swearing off fast food for the next month and the only fries in our house will be home-made air-fried potatoes which are plant-based and perfect. So, that is a bit more help here at home.

In addition, D. Thea Baldrick is doing this challenge with me and has written an awesome article about the science of losing weight. We text daily talking about some of the side effects of going plant-based. It is wonderful to know that I have a friend that is going on this journey with me even if we are 8 hours away from each other by car - we are not far by text. As I write about this journey this next year from the foodie’s point-of-view, she is going to write an article a week about the science involved in losing weight and even in gaining weight. And we are texting daily.

Dr. Fuhrman’s other 2 habits of health are nutrition and exercise. I need to start working in his G-Bombs. Right now I thought it was enough that I started and tried to stay plant-based. But I have to find a way to include his G-BOMBS (greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds) every single day. I’ve been trying to make sure I have my beans and onions this week. I’m going to try and add another one each week until I have a diet that includes them all. And as you will see when I review my rules - I have not exercised much (lies - I haven't exercised at all). I want to get at least 10 minutes a day this next week. It isn’t much, but it is a start - we can’t have perfection in one week. At least, I can’t do it.

This week on Tuesday I ate plant-based and on Wednesday I ate vegan. The difference is that on Wednesday I had a bit of plant-based butter on a piece of toast at the end of the day and on Tuesday I stuck to avocado only on toast and no processed foods. However, I still lost weight each day and was at 3.8 pounds for the week. And I’m not counting that little bit of plant-based “butter” as a failing at this point. I am working towards perfection and knowing that I am human and will never be perfect. For the most part I stayed plant-based. So, I’ve started well there.

I’m proud that I stayed vegan all week and have avoided the addicting cheese - I hate most dairy, but cheese is incredible. And I’m sorry, but vegan cheeses are not there yet - plus vegan substitute foods are NOT plant-based. I am going to spend the month of October finding every homemade plant-based “cheese” recipes that have been published on the web. Then I’ll report back to you if there is one that is good. I’ll link each recipe as I try them.

Looking at my list of rules to see how I’m doing:

My list of rules:

1. Plant Based mostly on McDougall but using G-Bombs and F-Goals to help maintain the correct daily nutrition

I wish I could say I was all plant based this week - I can say I was all vegan this week but I feel that fries are my emotional crutch food. On Monday, my granddaughter went into the hospital again (they are trying to figure out what is wrong) and I started back to school. I felt it was a success that my only stress/emotional eat was fries. That was truly a success for me.

2. Use my canned foods and easy recipes to make it WORK!

I made a Bruschetta Chickpea pasta that was literally a can of my bruschetta with a can of chickpeas and cooked pasta (see top picture). I also made corn and bean salsa with 2 cups of frozen corn, a can of black beans and 1 cup of my homemade salsa. My best recipe was a Bean, Corn & Brown Rice Southwest salad that used my frozen corn and salsa to make a salad that has both beans and lentils and I’m eating it for lunch every day this week!

3. Will not spend an entire day during the school year on preparation unless it is a canning day (in autumn I do sugar-free applesauce, marmalades, stock, etc)

The most I did was make a salad that will last all week.

4. Exercise twice a day (will start small and work up to 15 in am, 30 in pm) with allowed one day off a week

FAIL! FAIL! AND FAIL! I did not exercise at all this week.

5. Once a week - allowed one meal with vegan substitutes because I don’t want this to be so strict I quit.

Well, a couple of times I had vegan butter and fries - both I feel should be outlawed. But, the vegan butter ran out and I won’t buy anymore so that is good.

6. 10 meals during the year can be “specials” - off plan BUT only 10 meals. And I’ll report them to you.

None.

7. Every Tuesday I will submit my weekly article to VOCAL which should show up by Thursday.

Doing it - I hope it shows up on time this week! Last week took over 5 times before they approved it.

8. Every Friday I will submit recipes that are easy to prepare that are plant based in a second article.

I didn’t get Friday’s submitted but I was still trying to get the two articles I had submitted on Monday (the canning one) and my Tuesday start article published. So, this week I have an article on 3 uses of my homemade canned salsa that you can also do with a good store-bought salsa.

So, my first week of plant-based eating had some interesting side effects - there were headaches and a bit of gas. Both of those are subsiding already. I have had more energy, but I’m also going to bed earlier now that I’m getting back to the teaching schedule so I’ll see if the energy gets better before I attribute it to my diet. My blood pressure has been all over the place, but it is going down gradually. I do not want to go on blood pressure, diabetes or cholesterol medicine. I’m still working on getting that blood work done and I have to start exercising to even bother measuring myself again. I will keep working on it this week and will add GREENS to my G-BOMBS!