Vegan: Week 3

Week 3: Vegan.

Definitely feels like a diet and am hungry a lot of the time now a few weeks in. Food doesn't seem to satisfy me that much, like I can eat a lot but it never seems to be enough. So while I am still losing weight (hit 96.8 at my lowest this week) and sticking to my diet whenever I finish eating I feel like I want more.

So I snack out on popcorn and nuts and all sorts of vegan friendly and relatively healthy options, but my body does seem to be telling me something, that Vegan is not what it wants.

I don't see the sense in a Vegan diet on an ongoing basis, but it is certainly effective for short term weight loss.

What will I take away from this diet? Probably if I ever want to have a crash diet where I have the sole purpose of short term weight loss then this would be an easy enough - if dull choice based - diet to stick to, even with the snacks.

I suspect that the excess snacking is driven by exercise as well, reduced caloric intake with added caloric burning (45 minutes a day on the bike) is probably creating that desire, or perhaps adding to it - not sure of the benefit/balance factor of them together - but it's still very, very interesting to watch your body go through this.

Feel fantastic though with self esteem and body image at an all time high.

Vegan: Week Two

Week Two Of Vegan.

Second week of Vegan passes and with it a couple of kilos. Slowly but definitely am losing weight again, Where I was 99-101 a couple of weeks ago, this week am 97-98 kilos.

Vegan is a hard choice, often limiting the range of food I can choose from. I note that while I am not having too much difficulty finding things to eat, it is a small list of things I choose from and get repeats pretty often.

Felafel, Lentils, Vegetables and Fruit. The other good thing is the Indian, the Mexican and the Fusion/Cafe near work all offer Vegan alternatives and dishes and I have tried most of them so far ad not yet got to the Hare Krishna place further up K Road.

Couple more weeks of this and I should have lost approximately 30 kilos since I started....

Week One: Vegan

Week One of Vegan started 5 days ago and unlike last month I really feel like I am on a diet this time.

The picture above (minus the Avocado which I don't care for) is what I am making for my dinner tonight, Quinoa Burritos!

So far the diet has consisted of lentil and felafel based meals, salads and vegetables. It's a little more limiting than previous diets and I feel like I am dieting again, which I did not on the dairy free month. For the last 4 weeks I hovered between 99 and 101 kilos off and on even with the daily exercise on the stationary bike. I was eating more food to make up for the energy expended on the bike so that kind of makes sense that I was in some kind of stasis.

I'd be surprised if a couple of kilos aren't gone in the next 3-4 weeks though.

One limiting factor is finding food from public spaces, K Road is easy enough if I want to hit a Hare Krishna or Vegetarian place (there are a couple) but when work provided lunch yesterday I did go find my own food as vegetarian pizza and sandwiches both have cheeses and butters - and I'd rather find my own food than pick others apart.

Will be interesting to see how frustrating this diet becomes, even though I suspect it is very effective.

I don't think Vegan makes any sense as a lifestyle choice, but it does obviously take stamina and willpower to stick to it.

Dairy Free: Week Four

Dairy Free: Week Four

In a few days I'll be off Dairy Free on it's own and progressing to Vegan (Fully Vegetarian + Dairy Free essentially) which should feel like a real diet - whereas Dairy Free on it's own has not really.

Had Soy Milk for the first time last night, for no other reason than wanting to try it and see if the new stuff tastes better, which it did. So at least for the remainder of this and into next month I can go back to a proper cup of tea.

Gotten a bit over Black Coffee and Green Tea.

Weight has stayed at 99/100 kilos rather steadily but my snacking at night has increased substantially without any effect on my overall weight thanks to the exercise each day (though I suspect burning all those calories is what's making me hungry).

I may have to try moving the exercise to first thing in the a.m. which is the optimum time for maximum effect, but not being a morning person coupled with being a VERY LATE night person might make for an interesting change for me. Maybe if I can get into it as a habit for a week or more then I can form an earlier to sleep habit?