And the numbers are in!

OK, so I finally found my scale and weighed myself.  I changed to a vegan diet in September.  I've been trying to follow a healthy vegan eating plan, but I do eat some not so healthy food from time to time.  I haven't added exercise to my healthy living yet.  Are you ready for it?  I was really surprised when I weighed myself and discovered that I have lost 20 pounds since September!


It's coming off slowly and that is fine by me!  For me, it's better to lose the weight slowly because when I've lost weight in the past, it was quicker and came back fairly quickly.  I feel better knowing it's coming off bit by bit and that I feel the results.

I also feel better about what I'm eating. If you are thinking about adopting a vegan lifestyle, I recommend these two books as a starting place. Christina Pirello's book is what made me decide that I was going to change my eating habits. And I started with the Kickstart in September last year. It was a really great tool for me to get started on the vegan pathway. I'm not a super vegan or anything, but this has been the right choice for me.

It All Starts With the First Step: 21 Day Vegan Kickstart

Tomorrow, I am taking the first step in my journey to healthier eating. I'm starting the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart. I found information on it from Christina Pirello's site and it looked like a good way to get a start on a vegan diet.

For some reason, I don't feel afraid about making these huge changes in my eating habits. Considering I eat a lot of cheese and dairy products, especially chocolate? I expected to feel terrified. But guess what? There are a lot of vegan alternatives to the foods that I love and trying to find them and make them is kind of a challenge that I'm looking forward to.

I expect the hardest part to be planning meals in advance so that I don't have to worry about figuring out what I'm going to eat at the last minute. Well, that and finding vegan foods in my city. My regular grocery store does not stock a lot of what I am going to need, so I'm going to have to make some trips to some other stores to get me started. Hopefully since I live in a very multicultural area, I'll be able to find foods without having to trek across town 6 times or head to the big bad City to find them.

What I like about the program is that they give you recipes and shopping lists right from the start. They have inspirational videos every day as well as a celebrity leader for the day who gives you tips and even phone calls (?) to help you on your way. And hey, it's only 21 days. Surely I can handle that? I've heard that people who start on a vegan diet planning on doing it temporarily often stick with it because of how much better they feel! I'm hoping that is the case with me. I will surely let you know. In the meantime, I'm off to the bulk food store and then the grocery store with my shopping list in hand. Here goes nothing!

Still Researching Going Vegan

I finally made it to the library this week and was able to borrow a few books on Vegan eating. The ones that I really wanted were not in stock, but I found one that I liked: This Crazy Vegan Life: A Prescription for an Endangered Species. I haven't gotten very far into the book yet, but what I have read so far has made so much sense. It's helping me to change the way I think about food in general.

I've also been looking for health food stores where I live. Surprisingly, for a city of this size, I'm not having a lot of luck. I'll keep looking though. Hopefully I'll find somewhere nearby so I can start buying more healthy foods. I'm not without hope that eating better foods will also help my daughter who has special needs, but we shall see.

Made my first foray into vegan baking tonight. I found a recipe online for vegan banana muffins, but I'm not sure how vegan they are as they have sugar in them and regular flour--although I substituted for whole wheat flour and instead of the optional nuts I added chocolate chips (definitely NOT vegan), because the little one really wanted chocolate muffins, and since they are for her snacks at day camp, I figured I'd let her have her way this time. They turned out pretty well. It did feel odd making muffins without milk or eggs! In my husband's words, they "didn't taste too bad". In other words, he's not ready to dive into eating the vegan way just yet. Anyway, that's what's been going on here.