Two weeks - plant based whole foods diet

Well it has been well over two weeks of plant based whole foods diet switch. I feel great. Do not miss meat at all. The challenge of this diet is not eating processed food. There are a lot of vegan processed foods out there... Every day I make myself eat a huge bowl of greens for dinner...if I forget I have it for breakfast. Organic Girl Super Greens are awesome and they are already washed. For lunch I use my old standby Spaghetti Squash. I mix these up by adding different things... Beans, Salsa, Tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, carrots, ..etc all kinds of veggies. Breakfast is everything from oatmeal, tofu scramble, or a portabello sandwich. Sometimes I spurge with rice, quinoa..etc.

Tips for switching to a plant based whole foods diet:

For smaller folks you still need to measure and watch portion size with beans and whole grains like quinoa, rice, ..etc.

Why would anyone quit on this diet ? Easy ITS MORE WORK! Grabbing cottage cheese or a yogurt is way easier. Take time to take care of yourself!

Cooked beans are way tastier than canned. They can be cooked easily in a crock pot.

For now grocery shopping takes a lot longer.

It ok not to be religious about the vegan part. If you happen to buy organic tomato soup and notice it has milk in it.. Go ahead and eat it. This is a lifestyle change.

Watch fat intake..hummus can have a lot of fat and calories! So do nuts.

Getting rid of GMO's and eating more organic unprocessed food is the goal.

If it's too hard try simply adding more plants to every meal.. You will end up eating less of the other stuff.

VB 6 results

While the food on VB 6 was delicious I gained 5 pounds. This caused me to decide that this eating plan was not for me, when you are short and well under the standard 150 lbs... I think you need to count calories...VB 6 made that hard to do because the recipes did not have any nutrition information.

Fast Forward several months.. Lost the weight gained on VB 6 ready to try something more conservative. I love the book by Lindsay S Nixon, The Happy Herbivore Lean and Light. This book has a plant based approach but also has nutrition information as well as is focused on lower calories...yeah. I am doing this along with logging into myfitnesspal and using my fitbit.

I will certainly use some of the ideas gained in VB 6 for vegan eating. I really believe that switching to a plant based diet and getting rid of processed foods..even vegan ones is an important life change for anyone trying to live a healthy life.

 

VB6

Have you heard of VB6 ? I do not mean Visual Basic 6. VB 6 means vegan before 6. It is an eating lifestyle, not a diet, where you eat vegan before 6 pm every day. You avoid processed foods..no junk food.. No sugar, white flour..etc..before 6 pm. Mark Bittman has two books out on it. The recipes are delicious...you will not miss meat and dairy.... Really... What is nice about VB6 is the sensible approach.. Moderation. You can switch it up and have breakfast be your after 6 meal..just skip meat and dairy with dinner.

So far I have tried Sweet Green Quinoa Salad...fantastic.

Peas and Carrots Salad, and homemade whole wheat bread... I plan on making more... They are all wonderful...filling such that you will forget about missing meat and cheese.

 

Not only is this eating change good for you but it also helps the planet!

Low Calorie chocolate muffin

This recipe is delicious!

1/4 Cup ground flax seed
2 tablespoons Cocoa
1/4 teas baking powder
3 tablespoons Spenda or Stevia
3 Tablespoons egg whites
2 tablespoons water

Mix well in coffee mug and microwave 1 minute.     Dump onto plate and enjoy.
About 120 calories.    If you omit chocolate about 100 calories.  If you want to use sugar' sugar is about 48 calories a tablespoon.... I would try it without the cocoa and with only 2 tablespoons of sugar..this would give you a plain muffin of about 95+96 191 calories still a good breakfast option!

Food Review: Veggie Egg English Muffin by Lean cuisine

The veggie egg white English Muffin by Lean Cuisine is awsome!   It tastes great and has less than 200 calories.   To cook it, I take off the cheese and microwave egg and muffin for one minute.  Put muffin in toaster for light toasting.  Put cheese on egg and microwave for 20-30'seconds.   It's a little bit more work but I get a nice slightly crunchy breakfast sandwich!

Lower Calorie Potato Chip Replacement.

I love potato chips. But they are really high calorie. Cheese-its has these great 100 calorie packs. I love the snack mix version. It tastes just as salty as chips and it comes in a nice portion control size. I save them for when I cannot fight off the potato chip urge.

Shawl without border

I am in the process of adding a knitted on border to this shawl