Giving up animal products is the easy part

Switching to plant based food is tough at times.   Giving up meat and animal products is the easy part...there are tons of unhealthy vegan processed or junk foods out there.   For all purposes potato chips are vegan...tortilla chips.    Chips and guacamole are a vegan food...but it is not a healthy food.   There are many overweight vegans out there..giving up meat and animal products will not necessarily make you thin.   The switch to fruits and vegetables and unprocessed food is what helps...no margarine on that whole wheat bread... And not too much bread, as in many ways it is a processed food. 

  If you spend your days eating broccoli, cauliflower, peas, spinach, and beans..and eating your fruits and vegetables in their natural forms..your body will feel better.. This is what is key to whole foods, plant based living.  Giving up the ease of processed food is definitely the tough part.  I find bulk cooking spaghetti squash helps ... As I can add veggies and beans to it later for a quick lunch.

Green beans are one of my favorite snacks.. I love the bags that steam in the microwave.  

Whole food plant based living

This post is something I want to share with everyone.

One of the many emails I get contained a link to a web site that I feel blessed to know about.

It is http://www.nutritionfacts.org 

The site contains a lot of information about food and it's positive and negative affects on humans. Dr. Greger is all about the science and if new science proves the old science wrong.. He will try to let you know. There are no hidden agendas on this site, just healthy living for all.

His book is fantastic but if you cannot afford it a lot of the information is on the web site in video and articles for all. He has a free email list that gives you a weekly article or video on nutrition. It is a great way to start.

What a gift for all humans.

 

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!