Discussion Board

Greetings from Texas, y'all. I'm a thirty-something, Christian counselor. I have a 2-year old boy, and a soon-to-be 1-year old girl.

I'm finished with breastfeeding and think that they are very healthy (dd has never been sick, and ds has only been sick once!), while I have coworkers whose kids have double ear infections all the time.

I became a vegetarian in October after I stopped breastfeeding, and I've been transitioning to becoming a vegan the last two months. A few years ago, I stumbled upon McDougall because of the success I'd heard Bill Clinton had. However, I felt it was too restrictive for me and that I could never give up some of my beloved foods like half-and-half or cheesy lasagne.

But, here I am and I'm ready to work hard. My goal is to lose 1 pound every week for a total weight loss of 52 pounds. Right now I weigh 162, and I'm 5'2'', putting me into the obese category. After a lot of prayer, I feel as if God allowed me to keep stumbling upon McDougall's plan over and over again. Originally, my goal was to simply go on the Daniel Fast (which is a vegan fast). But having gone on the Daniel Fast, I felt led to change my eating habits permanently.

Now, let me be honest with you, I'm not going to be perfect. I don't have heart problems, but I did have preaclampsia during pregnancy and had to have bedrest. So, hypertension has been a concern of mine. Since going on this diet, I've felt as if my blood pressure has really gone down and I've lost an inch or so in my waist. So because I'm not perfect, I will struggle with some things. For example, coffee, avocadoes, and struggling to find time to exercise. I'm never going to give up coffee, but I'm going to make a huge effort to exercise each day. And avocadoes? Well, I'm probably going to eat them too and maybe even the occasional peanut butter toast.

Nevertheless, I'm moving toward the goal of losing this weight and going to a completely vegan diet. I want to lose this weight in order to have more energy and health so that I can live for Christ. I have one of the best jobs in the world working as a Christian counselor, and I can't believe that I get paid for helping to encourage people in their faith! And while I work from home part-time, I get to spend time with my children. But when I'm at work, I'm glad that my husband can stay at home to take care of my children.

I guess what I'm saying is that I have a lot to live for. My mom has diabetes, my dad is a pastor and he had a severe stroke in his 50's, and my mother-in-law just had surgery (today!) to clean out her carotid artery (And she did well, but I feel so sad that I don't think she'll change her heavily fatty-meat and processed white bread diet). I've been searching for a few years to discover the best way for me to eat, and no doubt I've discovered it!

Please help encourage and pray for me! I only have one life, and I really do want it to count! As I've said already, I have my vices. At the same time, I eagerly accept this new lifestyle. Just today, I turned down cake from my sweet coworker who was celebrating his birthday. And if I can do that, I can do anything!

Thanks so much for reading my journal, and God bless you on your journey as well!

Welcome Kimberlee,You have a great attitude.You will be amazed by following the regular plan or the maximun weight loss (mwl)you will probably lose more that 1 lb. a week. Again welcome.We are a great bunch here. RAS

Big Welcome and HUGS!!!

Hello, and let me second the welcome wagon too.
It is a grand life, tis!! As a vegan. I have my vices too, and I fight it all the time, like vegan candy, or junkies! then I pay for it with the tummy aches etc. Hey I found this site to, after reading about Clinton, and that sort of started my searching and reading, and this board is just so encouraging to me.
good luck to you and it is great that you breast feed your babies so long. I did as well, and while other moms in our military housing area talked about ear infections, I did not have that at least to worry about.

Glad to have you here

Your plan sounds completely doable, I have been averaging a pound a week since going vegan. It was more, but the Holiday's got to me. I didn't think I'd ever give up coffee either, but I have been off it 3 months now and have found an herbal coffee that works for me. Still the rare avocado is going to happen and I will feel not an ounce of guilt about it.

Welcome and best of luck - lots of good information here -- you might consider the January weigh in, or whatever comes next, when your ready. It's great fun to see the weekly weight loss tallies that Debbie tabulates and posts for all of us. This way we get to see our group progress and share our ups and downs too!

~~ Michelle

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Sometimes it can be intimidating on boards when you post things about your diet and you're not perfect. But so far, it seems to be a friendly and encouraging discussion board.

Michelle, I few years ago I found teechino, an herbal coffee-like drinkk. And I think it was pretty good, but I didn't continue drinking it. Good for you if you're able to stick with your herbal coffee. I think I'll try to join the weigh in group.

My diet today:

Breakfast:
1 slice Ezekiel bread
1/4 avocado
coffee with non-fat coconut creamer

Lunch:
3 corn tortillas
Sauteed spinach, mushrooms,black beans, and salsa

Snack:
Spinach smoothie (so good my 2-year old drinks it)

2 cups spinach, banana, brown rice protein, water, almond milk
(I started this about a week ago and it's awesome! I blend the spinach with water first)

Dinner:
Whole wheat rotini with oil-free marinara

Snack:
air-popped popcorn with nutritional yeast (favorite snack)

My main goals for the next few days are to drink more water and to get in some walking. But since I'm off of work tomorrow, I feel like I'll get back into exercising since getting home from Christmas vacation.

Blessings!

Here's how I did this weekend:

Friday:

Breakfast: oatmeal with an all-fruit preserve spread
Lunch: 3 corn tortillas with refried beans, mushrooms, and spinach
Dinner: vegetable curry with brown rice
Dessert: chocolate tofu pie (my only dessert this week)
Snack: air-popped popcorn with nutritional yeast

Saturday:

Breakfast: fat-free pancakes, brown rice syrup
Lunch: 3 corn tortillas with refried beans, mushrooms, and spinach
Dinner: Salad, baked potato with black beans
Snack air-popped popcorn with nutritional yeast

Sunday:

Breakfast: whole-wheat bagel with all-fruit spread
lunch: mashed potatoes made with almond milk, oven roasted vegetables
Dinner: whole-wheat pasta, marinara sauce, vegetables
Snack: baked tortilla chips with refried beans, banana "ice cream" made with real bananas and almond milk


I think it was good considering I really wanted to eat a donut this morning, but I didn't. And yesterday it was my daughter's 1st b-day and I really wanted to eat cake, but didn't. I made a chocolate, tofu pie on Friday which tasted pretty good and DH loved it!

Also, I finally exercised today, which was a huge accomplishment!

My two goals for this week are:
1. Exercise 5 x's
2. No flour

I know that cutting flour out of my diet will be tough, but since I've basically cut out sugar (except 1 lowfat vegan dessert a week), I know that this is really the area that I struggle with the most and it's going to be tough. And I'll weigh myself on Friday to see how much I've lost.

Welcome to the board, sister in Christ! I understand what you are saying about the flour products. I'd love to eat to eat them all day, but they slow down my weight loss. Try gradually weaning yourself off of the flour products as you add more green and yellow veggies to your plan. That may help!

You have a very realistic goal that I'm sure you'll reach before you hit 52 weeks.

I feel like I've gotten a slower start so far this year than I expected, but it's still a pretty good start. I've only lost a few pounds, yet I feel like I'm succeeding because I'm making it a lifestyle change. My husband says that he's proud of me and has even been eating many of my vegan meals. He loves bean enchiladas that I made a few weeks ago, as well as a tofu lasagna that I made just last night. I don't know that he'll stop eating dairy and meat for good, but I think that he's much more supportive of my lifestyle change than I've ever thought. Just a week ago he told my mother-in-law about this lifestyle change.

Now that more people know about me, I feel like it definitely gives me more motivation to do better. Even though it's more about being healthy on the inside than just losing weight, I do want and need to lose weight.

With that being said, I know that I have a lot to do. I need to be more consistent in exercising. I also need to stop snacking more often and be more conscientious about my portions. The biggest factor right now that I think continues to hinder me is my flour and sugar intake. I know that a teaspoon of sugar in oatmeal isn't the worst thing, but I think for me it doesn't really stop there. And I do like whole wheat pasta and tend to eat quite a lot of it even though I usually only eat it about once a week. And don't even get me started about bread, I love it.

So, the next week I'm taking sugar and flour out of my diet and I'm trying to stick more closely to MWL. Which means, i need to stop avocadoes, peanut butter, and olives. I tend to feed those a lot to my 1-year old and 2-year old because I think my younger ones need fat. But I certainly don't need fat!

This week, I'm starting off at 161.8, and I hope that by next week, I'll weigh less! It's that simple...but it's also hard too!

At church today, I was really inspired by our mission's pastor who spoke about Jim Elliot, a missionary who died in the 1950's who was savagely killed by the tribe of Auca indians whom he tried to reach out in love. Interestingly enough, I've heard his story many times and met his wife, Elisabeth Elliot. But I've never heard that he had a gone on him and could've killed the savage indians as they attacked him. He told the other missionaries that he'd never use his gun against the indians because although Jim said he was prepared to meet his maker, but the Indians weren't prepared.

I thought that was a very profound thought.

Now how does that relate to MacDougal diet and where I'm at now? I'm glad you asked! It has everything to do with it!

How can I be the mother and wife that God wants me to be with these extra 52 pounds that I'm carrying around?

How can I have the energy that I need to have if I want to do the things that God wants me to do?

Oh, God can work through me in spite of my struggles. He does all the time! And He accepts me and loves me no matter what. But, why don't I surrender my addictions and struggles with food to him?

If I do want to be like Jim Elliot and be willing to sacrifice my life to God, isn't it worth it to sacrifice my favorite mocha? Or, my italian sausage lasagna?

Also, is my bread my god? Or, is God my bread?

My prayer for this week is that I will make the right choice and make God my love, instead of food my love.

Won't you join me?

sounds like your on the right path.....good luck!

Last week, I decided to take out all flour and all sugar. I started out at 161.4. This morning, I weighed myself and I weighed 159. So, I'd say it was a more successful week as I lost around 2 pounds.

It was really, really hard to go without either. Strangely, I felt like I was deeply, deeply depressed this week. As if I wanted to just go back to bed and cry all day. I'm not sure why the lack of sugar and flour did this to me, except that I know I do have a problem with addicted to them and that they must be pretty toxic to me!

Now no more me telling myself, "Oh, this is a dairy-free, low-fat cupcake...it won't hurt me." I think that I've deceived myself into thinking that I can indulge in some things occasionally and it'll be okay. But now no more soy mochas or low-fat vegan cupcakes for me. I'd say a once a month treat, but that's it. As I look at my calendar, I think that Valentine's Day will be my only sweet indulgence this month, after that, and nothing until next month.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to eat small meals about 5 to 6 times a day to see if that helps with not overeating.

I went without any sugar or sweetener in my coffee, but I I may do raw honey in my coffee and keep it limited to as little as possible.

Another thing that I'll be doing is trying to keep my house sugar free for the most part. This means not baking a lot of the cookies I used to bake, or the vegan cupcakes my family likes. But I somehow got to figure out some snacks or sweets that they like that have as little sugar or flour in them as possible.

I'm praying for a good week this next week. It would definitely be great to lose another two pounds. To help me lose more weight, I'm going to try to do my best to walk 4 miles a day.

This week, my favorite verse that I read was Psalm 69:29:

“I am suffering and in pain. Rescue me, O God, by your saving power.”

I thought that this was a really good verse for me because I felt so, so depressed from not having any sugar or flour and really needed to spend more time with God. But I feel better now and I'm hoping my exercising and eating no flour and only raw honey occasionally will help.

Blessings!

Good verse. I just barely saw your journal. I have read the biography of Nate Saint and it was wonderful. I don't know if you have read "The end of the Spear" but it is a great book. It was written by Nate Saint's son. It was wonderful to see God's miracles. I too was going to try to lose weight through the Daniel Fast, but I prayed about it and God led me to this website. It has taked me a while, but I have lost over 55 lbs. and have 10 more to go. So I know that you can do it. Your menus look great.
Kathy

Kimberlee, how did you do this week? Happy Valentine's Day! :-P

Okay, I'm getting back on track with everything this week. I have continued on vegan, basically low-fat. But, I've gotten off with doing MWL.

Yesterday, I started off at 158.6. I've decided to go back to regular MWL to lose weight instead of going back and forth between this and other diet plans. So here's what I ate:

Breakfast: steelcut oats, raspberries, honey, teecino
Lunch: salad with black beans, corn, bean sprouts, boiled potatoes, and veggie burger
Snack: black bean and brown rice
Dinner: two corn tortillas, black refried beans, lettuce tomatoes
Snack: banana ice cream

This morning, I weighed in at 156.2! Obviously, I lost a lot of water weight yesterday, but I'm still feeling good and I'm feeling more on track.

Hopefully, I'll continue to cut out all of the little extras that seem to be getting into my diet that tend to wreck havoc: Starbucks, wheat pasta, breads, desserts, avocadoes, and peanut butter.

And I hope to keep up with my journal each day as well.

-Kim

Good to see you back. Looks like you are doing great. Congrats on the weight loss.
Kathy