Weight Loss Reassessment

So if you aren't new here, you've followed J and me through three detoxes and 25 pounds of weight loss. But man - it is hard! As soon as we finish one detox we fall of the meal-planning wagon and wade back into the world of take-out. We get lazy. But honestly, it's understandable. We live in a complicated world full of work stress, family stress, over-stimulation from technology, snow storms, money shortages, illness, and more. I cut myself a break because, you know what? I'm only human. And all I can do is try, try, try again!

I keep hitting this fun point in my weight loss journey where I hover at ten pounds over the weight I was when I graduated from college. And I keep telling myself, "It's only ten friggin pounds!" Why is it so hard? It's not even my goal weight - I'd like to lose another 25 - but for now, it's the impending doom that awaits me every time I step onto the scale.

I have some new motivators in place. Number one - I wasn't sick at all during our detox. Since we've slowly but surely fallen off our bandwagon of healthy eating, I ended up getting sick and missing an entire week of work last week. I've been feeling sluggish again and moody and have been having frequent stomach aches. Ding! Ding! Ding! My body's telling me it's not working! Number two - My best friend is getting married in May and I'm one of his grooms"men." He and his fiancé requested that the women wear black dresses and I'm determined to get something sort of fabulous from ModCloth. Their wedding is going to be something of a college reunion for me and I want to look awesome, dammit! Number three - On top of this, my own spectacular-vegan-wedding extravaganza (more to come on planning a vegan wedding!) is going to be in October of 2014. As I start to look at dresses, I start to panic. I am not one of those women who wants to starve herself in an effort to look like someone I'm not, but I would like to look healthy, happy, and at my best.

So what's next? I have realized that for J and I to lose the weight, we need a plan. Just saying, "I'm going to eat healthy!" does not cut it for us. We need a menu that we have intentionally crafted and a plan. It takes time and planning, but I just have to keep on reminding myself that I am worth the time and planning. My health and happiness are worth that time.

Anti-Inflamatory Diet

I recently started going to a new doctor because I've just been so fed up with the practice I've been going to for the last three years. They've switched my GP on me 4 times now and they're front desk staff is horribly rude.

So this new place, Wildwood Medicine, has a much more holistic view of things - which falls right in line with my mode of thinking. I've been complaining of several things for several years now and I'm just tired of not feeling healthy! So my new GP (who is a nurse practitioner) told me to try out an anti-inflammatory diet for a month or so. Inflammation can be the cause of many discomforts and for someone like me who's prone to chronic infections, has hypothyroidism, and three herniated disks - I'm sure there's a lot of inflammation going on in me!

Now, being vegan, I'm almost on this diet already so this shouldn't be too rough! In addition to cutting out animal products, it's recommended that I cut all refined sugar (not easy for a baker!), margarine, white bread (never touch the stuff anyway), bagels, white rice, processed foods, potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. The last four on that list will be the most difficult, and of course cutting sugar is never easy. She'd also like me to test out excluding gluten.

I'm planning to start on Monday and have been tooling around the Internet to find some recipes and hope to try some out this week so that I can get the hang of this and then hopefully I'll have some of my own recipes to post!

Vegan Laptop Lunchtime!

Spinach and Kale salad with chickpeas, kidney beans, carrots, yellow bell pepper, broccoli, red onion, and chia seeds and a dressing made from raw garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper; carrot sticks; homemade hummus topped with a little olive oil and chickpeas; sea salt pita chips.

I've been really sick for the last maybe 8-9 days with an infection I've been getting for the past 9 years. Some doctors say it's staph, some say shingles, some say it's a mold allergy - who knows?! All I know is that I'm uncomfortable and unhappy, dang it! So today's lunch is the "Immune System Booster" lunch. Kale, broccoli, spinach and raw garlic are HUGE immunity helpers and I'm trying to get down 1-2 raw garlic cloves a day. Of course this means I smell like I'm warding off the vampire apocalypse as I leak garlic from every pore. Hopefully no one around me notices/cares....although - why should I care anyway? If it's helping me get better, then, "More Garlic!" I say!