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Things are going well. The weekend before last wasn't so great, but I got right back into things, and in the process I learned that chocolate pretty much has to be off limits for me. Both days of that weekend were chocolate filled, which tells me that I can't just have a piece, at least for the foreseeable future.

Last Friday's weigh in showed no change, which I should have been happy about, considering the previous weekend. However, it was surprising how dismayed I was that I hadn't lost anything. It was like I had forgotten about the weekend, and instead focused on the exercise I did during the week. I worried that this was it, that I wouldn't lose any more. I'm happy with what I've lost so far, but I don't want that to be it! I fretted that I had reached a plateau.

Once I remembered my dietary indiscretions, I was able to be thankful that the scale hadn't moved. I also read up on others' journals, people who have experienced plateaus and continued through them. It helped me not only put things in perspective (i.e. quit your whining, woman), but to know that I would in fact survive if and when I do reach a plateau.

I bought a pedometer that I'm really happy with, and while I don't reach 10,000 steps every day, it has inspired me to take a lot of little walks whenever I have a few minutes free, even if it's just circling the block or building before going in to an appointment. One day I even did 10,000 "steps" in my home office, jogging in place and bopping around the room while watching the Primal Nutrition series on YouTube. It's nice to get reconnected with walking - for a while it seemed my outlook on exercise was Cardio or Bust.

I have reached one milestone, though: I now weigh less than my husband! Ok, it's only by about a pound, but it's still an important marker for me!

That's all for now - time to get ready for work. Love and sweet potatoes to all...

I haven't been posting much because there isn't much to report. I'm still keeping with this lifestyle and loving it, but it seems that I am officially in a plateau. I didn't lose anything over May and now the first week of June. If I'm honest with myself (and this forum definitely helps with that) I can see where I've been having coffee a little more often, which I drink with a bit of agave and hemp milk. It's not the full on hemp latte I used to make myself most days, but it's still something I've allowed to sneak in. On the positive side, I've reduced my alcohol intake a bit and have been exercising more, walking and bicycling in particular. Also, although the scale hasn't moved, I'm wearing more clothes that I haven't fit into in a few years, which feels really great and helps me not obsess over the numbers as much.

This past Sunday I hosted a Vegan Pedal Potluck with my cycling Meetup group. It was a great success. There were only 7 riders, and I was the only vegan (it was my idea) though one other person was a vegetarian, but everyone seemed to have an open mind and ate heartily. They should have eaten heartily - we rode for 50 miles with 3600 feet of hill climbing. I hope to be able to do it again at least annually. While I can't say that everything I made or that was brought was McD friendly, I still feel like it provided good exposure to a plant based diet.

Thanks to the exposure I had on this forum to DDP yoga and the video of Arthur's transformation, I picked up a set of DVDs on eBay. They should arrive this weekend, hopefully. I'm very excited to increase my strength and flexibility, and -dare I say it- lean down a bit more. My husband is looking forward to doing it as well. We used to go to yoga classes regularly and always found them to be like physical prozac; everything seemed right with the world after yoga class. I think we're even going to take the 6 photos that DDP recommends to show your current level of flexibility so you can see your progress each month. It'll be the first time I've documented anything fitness or body related with photos, so it's a bit daunting, but exciting as well.

Here's to continued progress, however slow or however small.

I've been a lurker for the past three months, but I am still here. Still eating my potatoes, oats, and broccoli. I'm up a few pounds because of too many exceptions - my mom was in town, I was out of town for two weeks for work and had little control over the food provided, my husband and I have a lot of leisure time so we're going out more, etc etc. Excuses, bah.

On the positive, I've been doing DDP Yoga consistently for the past three months. I love it. I've definitely gotten stronger. I have triceps! I'd love to say that my weight gain has been all muscle, but I know it hasn't. So I'll start up with the weekly MWL weigh-ins again - I had stopped because I was becoming a little too obsessive, but now I may have gone in the opposite direction. Time for some more accountability.

Speaking of accountability, I've been printing out blank calendars every month for my husband and I to record whatever exercise we do, the idea being that no one wants to see too many blank days. We also started doing longer walks (and part jogs) with our barefoot shoes, which has been a great thing to add into our yoga routines. The other day I ran for 1.1 miles straight for the first time in at least 8 years. I have old knee and hip injuries so this was a big deal for me.

So what are my challenges? Pausing before grabbing food and being ok with being a bit hungry. I feel like I eat really well at home, but I still worry I eat too much to lose weight. After I get into the groove for a few days I'll probably check how I'm doing in that regard. Also, slipping into the daily coffee routine. I know once I don't have it for a while it will be fine, it's just getting over that habit - not even the caffeine habit, just the ritual of it. Today is my second day without it, though, so it's going well.

I guess that's it for now. I'm off to go face the music and update my tickers.

This past weekend my husband and I did our first 10k. We were with friends who exercise a lot less than we do, so we walked the whole thing (if it had just been us we probably would have jogged for intervals). We did it in our FiveFinger shoes, though, and 6.2 miles/10k is the longest we've ever walked in them by about .3 miles. I had a blister on one toe, and my hip was achy by the end of it, but overall it was a great experience and a perfectly gorgeous day.

I decided to clean things up a bit for October. October 1st was a Monday, so it just seemed like a natural time for a reset. My birthday is later this month, and that's definitely one of the holidays/feast days we observe around here, but other than that it shouldn't be too hard to be a little more strict.

On Monday night I went to step aerobics for the first time in a while, and it went great, surprisingly so as it's been a while since I've done that level of cardio for that long. I really want to go as often as my schedule allows.

I'm so close to my weight being in the normal BMI range. That's my "short term" goal, even if it takes me until the end of the year to do it!

I love the start of the new year way more than almost any other holiday. If you approach it with the right mindset, it's so hopeful, so positive. There are no pressures to give gifts or put together elaborate feasts or get-togethers, just friends and fun (if you so choose), reflections and new goals (NOT resolutions, which sounds almost like punishments, something negative about yourself that you feel you *should* change).

Every year in the 5 years since since going vegan I've made myself a January Challenge, just to shake things up a bit. One year it was raw, one year it was 80/10/10 (which was the one year that failed; I gave up on all the fruit about halfway through the month); last year it was the McDougall MWL Plan. This year it's a month without alcohol or chocolate (yes, I know a lot of people do not consume these things as a matter of course, but they still feature regularly in my life), and as close to the MWLP as possible. I think I'm going to keep my hemp milk in my coffee, but even that is something I'd like to do less often, as I know it's a source of fat and sugar. For a while last year I was only drinking coffee on the weekends with my husband, and I can see that happening again.

I have not weighed myself in a while, and I often feel happier that way. Maybe I'll get on the scale at the end of this month, especially if I feel like my clothes are fitting differently. As it is, though, I know I am maybe 10 pounds from being a ways into the Normal BMI category. I don't put a whole lot of stock in the BMI, but it is a marker and a milestone so I'll keep it for that. So I've renamed this journal Nearly Normal, as it sums me up in several ways: my weight/BMI, my health (which is excellent except for some facial acne and IBS-C), and my character.

I'm playing with the idea of posting my food daily. I've never been good at being a regular poster, but it's something to try. Since this is my month of challenges and experimentation, why not?

So today:
B: 2 bananas
E: Walked/ran 5 miles with a stop for coffee in the middle: 16 oz soy vanilla latte
L: Romaine salad with roasted beets, an orange, and some white beans
S: large apple
D: Columbian lentil soup (someone recently posted it: http://theeverydayveggie.com/?p=1432) with steamed broccoli, ginger tea

It's good to see you posting again! Hope 2013 brings you only the best!

Thank you, Eri, and the same to you!

So far I have not been able to figure out how to change the title of my journal as it appears in the list of forum topics - only the subject of my individual entries. If anyone knows and can give me a hand, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Today:
B: Old fashioned oats with banana, vanilla, and cinnamon
S: Banana
E: 60 minutes on the elliptical
L: Romaine salad with leftover broccoli and lentil soup
S: Pear
D: Maybe roasted broccoli with sweet and red potatoes with spicy tomato sauce

No coffee today! I told myself I could have one tomorrow if I didn't have one today.

Edited to add the rest of the evening:
It was a hollow type evening. I ended up having a Teeccino with some hemp milk, a few green leaf lettuce leaves, and an additional small red potato with tomato sauce.

Thursday:
B: whole oat groats with banana, cinnamon, and vanilla
S: Banana
L: large green leaf salad with roasted beets, an orange, and white beans, a small ramekin of lentil soup, and decaf coffee with hemp milk
D: Ate out with my husband, had a mixed green salad with pear and grapefruit pieces and lotus tubers (I don't know, but they're good), a small piece of fry bread
S: hot pickle, 4 small red potatoes
E: walked to and from work, 4.4 miles total

I have to be careful of the All or Nothing mentality. I said that it was my goal to abstain from alcohol and chocolate for January, so everything else should be a bonus. Instead I find the "not good enough" thoughts creeping in, like when I ate that bit of fry bread last night, even though being out with my husband and seeing him order drinks yet not having one myself is a big deal. Or still having coffees with non dairy milk. Part of my brain says I'm not being good enough, as though it were a moral issue. So it's interesting to observe these thoughts come up, then reminding myself that every moment is an opportunity for choice. Not only the choice of what I put in my mouth, but a choice as to what I tell myself. So I'll stick to my goals for the month, try to make the best decisions possible for me at any given time, and not sweat it too badly if I'm not "perfect."

Anyways, Today:
B: whole oat groats with banana, cinnamon, and vanilla; half decaf coffee with hemp milk
L: roasted cabbage with lentil soup
S: leftover roasted cabbage, large apple
D: roasted broccoli with sweet and red potato and spicy tomato sauce; spicy pickle
E: DDP Yoga - Strength Builder

A couple positives to note: my holiday "cookie belly" seems to have gone down a bit. Probably because my GI tract has started to function again with the elimination of flour and oil products (i.e: cookies). Also, I really wanted to exercise today. I had planned on taking the day off to give my feet/knee a rest from the other stuff I've been doing this week, but doing nothing made me kind of anxious. Wanting to exercise: definitely not a bad habit to have.

Hi Shanzy!

I like the DDP Yoga DVDs a lot. I got them back around the beginning of summer and was doing them pretty regularly for a few months, then it got more spotty as I mixed in other kinds of exercise. I noticed results fairly quickly in my strength as measured by holding certain poses, doing pushups, etc. That in itself is pretty motivating, and if you get the full set of workouts there's enough variety that you don't get too sick of seeing/hearing the same thing over and over. I got mine on Ebay, so they're probably not the "official" DVDs (they didn't come with the workout schedule or any of the supplemental materials, but it did save me a bit of money at the time. Overall, I would recommend it. And it would be cool to have someone else on the board who does it as well.

Yesterday was the first time I had done any of the yoga workouts in a few weeks, and today I am feeling it. I like being sore, though - it shows me I did something!

Anyways, today the man and I were going to go for one of our coffee walks, but it was so cold and starting to rain, so we turned around and had coffee at home. So only a little more than a 1 mile walk today. Ah well, with how sore we are, I guess it's a good day for a relative rest day.

Food for today:
B: 2 bananas, half decaf coffee with hemp milk
L: Sweet Tomatoes: large salad with veggies and chickpeas with rice vinegar; baked potato with pico de gallo
S: Teeccino with hemp milk, grapefruit
D (planned): Turnip, potato, and rosemary soup (http://irreverentvegan.com/2010/01/potato-turnip-rosemary-soup/)

That's great, Shanzy! I look forward to reading about your yoga adventures, whatever form they may take!

Today was a good, productive day. It's the day before my work picks up again, so I did a bunch of cooking: veggie stock, Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (from Vegan with a Vengeance), yukon gold potatoes, rice milk, and I finally cut up a huge pumpkin that we've had for a while. I'm freezing most of it to make stews with at a later time, but I roasted a bit for dinner, too. Not only that, but I worked out not once but TWICE. I finally got around to turning on the GPS function of my phone and doing the next day of my Couch to 5k program outside as measured by distance, not by time as I use it on the treadmill. I'm feling pretty good.

Today:
B: Half serving of oat groats with a banana, decaf coffee with hemp milk
E: DDP Yoga - Fat Burner
L: Banana, green leaf salad with roasted beets, an orange, and two small red potatoes
E: Couch to 5k Week 5, Day 1 (by distance)
S: Post workout hunger! 2 more small red potatoes, mug of turnip potato soup, about 3/4 cup of chickpea gravy
D: roasted pumpkin, hot pickle

I realized today that forgoing alcohol is easier than missing out on coffee with my husband in the morning. Well, now that our schedules are about to get a lot busier we wont be home together in the mornings much, so it should help me cut it down a bit. I'm planning to brew some Teeccino in the morning to take with me. One reason I like it is because I can put a lot less 'milk' in it than I do with coffee; since we usually make stovetop espresso at home my mug is at least half full of milk.

Now I'm off to work on a cross stitch project and watch the first part of HBO's Weight of the Nation (I like listening to food/health documentaries while I work on things). I hope everyone had a great weekend!

It's been a crazy busy week, but I've been keeping track of my food on my phone:

Monday:
B: oat groats with banana, drip coffee with hemp milk
L: Green leaf salad with steamed broccoli and leftover potato turnip soup; yukon gold potato
D: roasted broccoli with chickpea gravy
S: banana

Tuesday:
B: pumpkin pie oat groats, coffee with hemp milk
L: green leaf salad with sweet and yukon gold potato with tomato sauce
S: yukon gold potato
D: 3 yukon golds with tomato/bbq sauce, banana, decaf coffee with hemp milk
S: celery, potato

Wednesday:
B: banana, coffee with hemp milk
L: broccoli with chickpea gravy
D: banana, green leaf salad with potatoes and tomato/bbq sauce

Thursday:
B: oat groats and banana, teeccino and splash of hemp
L: roasted cabbage and chickpea gravy
S: banana
D: 4 yukon golds with tomato bbq sauce
S: plain popcorn

Friday:
B: oat groats and banana, coffee and soy milk
L: (ate out) vegan biscuit and gravy with extra steamed kale
S: red bell pepper, teeccino and hemp
D: roasted pumpkin

There was a yoga session or two in there as well, but overall the week was pretty weak on exercise.

I'm still drinking more coffee than I'd like to be, but I am slowly decreasing the amount of milk (particularly the hemp milk) that I'm adding. I've stopped the latte-type drinks entirely, going for americanos or drip instead so that the drinks are mostly water. It's not the stimulant I'm after, it's just something warm to drink and helps me not feel as hungry between meals. I'm looking to drink more tea, but I miss the creamy texture of the hemp milk when I do.

I stepped on the scale the other day and was not happy. It was just the one day so I don't know if it was an elevated day or not, but regardless...I really don't feel like I eat a whole lot, and even the number of calories I take in via coffee drinks isn't that much. Maybe it just hasn't been long enough since I stopped eating treats and drinking alcohol. Gotta keep going and not let the dismay over that number derail me.