keep calm and get healthy

Sorry again for the lack of update. I get busy and sometimes I forget about this. Things are still going very well! I am now down 26 lbs & Chuck has lost 55 lbs, for a combined total of 81 lbs lost! Some people tell us we are losing too much too fast and that we have a high chance of gaining it back. Guess what? You're wrong. You see, we are losing the weight because we changed our lifestyle. We made healthy eating a part of our life and it's here to stay. If we were to go eat a bunch of bad foods after reaching our goal weights of course we will gain it back. Again, this is not a diet. I can't even describe how good I feel and how happy I am. When we had a gym membership it felt like it took 3 weeks just to lose 1 lb. So, I think it goes without saying that I am very pleased with my results so far. My blood pressure used to be a sign of pre hypertension, now it is down to a normal level. My chronic headaches? Gone. Achy joints? Gone.  Muscle cramps? Gone. My tiredness? Gone. Grumpiness? Gone (Chuck might disagree, hehe). I know this is just the start of being on the path to better health. It's funny because most people think you need to not eat to be skinny and be healthy, but I'm doing just the opposite. I'm just eating the right food. Eat to live, don't live to eat.

I knew that making the choice to go vegan would bring on a lot of questions and comments from other people. For the most part we have a lot of support and I am thankful for that. Those of you who don't seem to understand or who want to ignore things that I post about what's in the food you eat, then so be it. It's your choice and I'm not trying to change other people's eating habits. I do find myself being more aware of what other people are eating, but I think that's a normal thing when you change what you're eating. I am just raising awareness about things that I think everyone should be concerned about. If you are someone who is interested in making the change, do not hesitate to ask me questions if you have any. I will do my best to address your questions and help you out as much as I can!

One thing people ask me a lot about is if I'm tempted to eat meat. The answer is an honest no. To me it just seems so boring now compared to what I'm eating. And soda? What's that again? Joking. Really, though, I don't even know if I remember what it tastes like and I don't need to know. It literally is just empty calories and it makes you so bloated. I used to be one of those people who found water so boring, but I promise you that if you get over that you will see some awesome changes in your body and if you drink tap water (use a filter), you'll save money as well.

It seems that a lot of people think that once you go vegan you are left with limited food choices and honestly I think it's the opposite. As a couple who relied on going out to eat at least 3 times a week, we got pretty bored with our choices. When we got our first cookbook (thanks mom!) we were very surprised with all of the great looking food and all of the choices we had. The extra money in the bank is nice, too.

P.S. I also take vitamin B12, calcium, niacin, women's one a day multivitamin and a Vitamin B complex.

March is national nutrition month. Here's some articles you should read!

Red meat linked to higher risk of premature death
  
'Pink slime' is good for America's schoolchildren, manufacturers claim 

 Hot dogs cause butt cancer

High soy diet reduces risk of prostate cancer


For informed eaters, healthy nutrition tastes great


Obese men at greater risk for infertility


Everything you need to know about Soy.


6 lamest excuses for not losing weight

Day 52!

Sorry for slacking on the blog updates. I guess I just haven't had much to say lately. The weight loss is still steady, about 1 lost a week :). I have been fluctuating the past week and half. One day I'm up .4lbs, the next day I'm down .4lbs. When I weighed myself yesterday I was at 21.6lbs lost. Chuck has lost 46lbs so far. So many people have been asking what we are doing to lose weight and when we tell them the reaction is basically 'I don't think I could do that' and sometimes 'Ewwww' when I tell them that we use soy and tofu. I'd much rather eat the soy and tofu than the crap I was eating before. If you've always turned your nose up to a vegan diet, but you've never actually tried the food I say don't knock it til you try it!

Things that we frequently buy:
Bananas
Asparagus
Green beans
Red potatoes
Organic salad mix (we buy spring mix and herb mix)
Balsamic Vinegar dressing
Soy and almond milk
Almonds
Walnuts
Raisins
Craisins
Dehydrated banana chips, pinepple, etc.
Buddy fruits (fruit snacks)
Hummus
Triscuits
Oranges
Apples
Strawberries
100% juice
Shallots
Onion
Tomatoes
Peppers
Tofu
Seitan
Daiya shredded cheese
Organic Buckwheat pancake mix
Organic cereal

Day 32!

Well, it's been over a month now since we started this :). Thank you everyone for your support so far, you have been great. A special thanks to Chuck for agreeing to do what we thought was a crazy idea at first. Now it's just a normal part of our life. People are still wondering if I have cravings for anything unhealthy. The truth is I really don't! I think I finally found my willpower and self control. Before when Chuck & I tried to lose weight I failed because of lack of self control. Now I don't think twice about going for the healthier option when shopping or in the kitchen. Crash diets don't work, you don't need weight loss supplements and you don't need to spend all of your time in the gym to see results. You're going to see awesome results just by changing what you consume.  I've lost 18lbs so far with no exercise and Chuck has lost 38lbs. I'm not saying you that don't need to exercise, because you do. Just don't make 100% of your weight loss routine. I've read that weight loss is 80% what you eat and 20% working out. You can't go do a lot of cardio/strength training and then go eat at McDonald's. To reach and sustain your goal weight, you need to discipline yourself when it comes to food. Otherwise, once the weight comes off and you stop working out you're going to pack on the pounds again with your bad eating.








Starting today Chuck & I have added in exercise.We bought a Kinect for our Xbox 360 and I did Zumba today for an hour earlier and then another half hour about 20 minutes or so ago. We also have The Biggest Loser game on the way to us and Chuck will be doing that with me. Aside from that, Chuck is doing the 100 pushup challenge & I am doing the 200 situp(but I'm doing crunches, instead) challenge. For our initial test, Chuck completed 9 consecutive push ups and I completed 30 consecutive crunches. So, he is in column 2 and I am in column 3. Today started Week 1 Day 1 for & Chuck's max amount of pushups, after doing the reps, were 9 and my max amount of crunches were 27. See below for our Day 1 workout to see what I'm talking about. This is a 6 week program and day 1 is monday, day 2 is wednesday and day 3 is friday. The purpose of these challenges is to be able to do 100 pushups/200 crunches consecutively by the end of it. There is also a squat challenge, which I plan to do after this one :).

week 1: pick the appropriate column depending on your initial test results

Day 1 rest 60 seconds between each SET (longer if required)
	up to 5 push ups	6 - 10 push ups	11 - 20 push ups
set 1	2	6	10
set 2	3	6	12
set 3	2	4	7
set 4	2	4	7
set 5	max (at least 3)	max (at least 5)	max (at least 9)

Day 1 rest 60 seconds between each SET (longer if required)
	up to 10 sit-ups	11 - 20 sit-ups	21 - 30 sit-ups
set 1	3	9	15
set 2	4	9	18
set 3	3	6	10
set 4	3	6	10
set 5	max (at least 5)	max (at least 8)	max (at least 14)

Day 26. Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello, everyone. Today is day 26! I can't believe it's already been over 3 weeks, it really does not feel like it at all. Yesterday my total weight loss was 16.2lbs. So close to a 20lb weight loss, yay! Chuck's total weight loss as of yesterday is 35lbs. This has been so stupidly easy. I could have done this before at any point in my life, but I guess the motivation just was not there and I thought of stupid excuses. I have no excuses now and it is paying off big time. I never had any issues with low self esteem before, but I do feel better about myself :). Do you have any idea how badly I want to go shopping for new clothes? But, I can't do that because it would be a waste of money. My clothes are definitely fitting loser though. I tried on a pair of jeans 2 sizes smaller than what I wear now and they were thisclose to fitting me. We are going to be buying a Kinect with our tax return money, along with some fitness/dance games :). I wonder how much of a difference it will make? I'm looking forward to it. Well, til next time!

Day 18

Hello :). Today is day 18 & so far I have lost 15lbs and Chuck has lost 30lbs! Check out the recipes tab to see some of the food we have been eating. Again, this has been on eating healthier alone. I read somewhere that you lose about 9lbs every 11 days by changing your eating habits. So, please stop telling me that we are losing weight too fast. It's not like we are on a crash diet, taking diet pills or exercising constantly. All we have done is change what has been going into our mouth and obviously our weight loss is reflecting the positive changes we have made. Maybe you should try to make the changes we have and you can see for yourself what difference it really makes. I always wondered what it would be like to stop eating like crap and now I know :). It is a good feeling to wake up every day with a choice and know that I am making the best choice. I have had people tell me that they just can not see themselves not eating meat, drinking soda, eating out, etc. I thought the same thing once and I had all the excuses. Once you stop making excuses, you will start to see progress.

Hey everyone :). I hope that this blog finds you in good health. Chuck & I are doing awesome! We have both had a lot of weight loss since we started making healthier choices. I've lost 10.6lbs and he has lost about 20lbs. The weight is just dropping off :). I fit into a size L scrub pants (I usually wear XL) that I had in my closet for awhile. I'm really happy that we have been making these changes, aside from losing weight we both just feel better all around. Some people probably think this is just a phase we are going through, but really it's not. We made a choice to live in good health and eating like crap is not the way to do that. I have no cravings for soda, candy, fast food or junk food. I like the food we are eating now a lot better than the food we were eating. It tastes better, looks better and is better for us. My mom got us a vegan cookbook & we made apple pie out of it and it was really good. I'm looking forward to making more things out of it. Well, just wanted to do a quick update. Check the recipes tab!

Making good progress.

Hello to anyone that might be reading this. Hopefully I will be getting some followers/feedback here soon. Anyway, things have been going good! I'm down 7lbs thus far and Chuck has lost 8lbs. That's a lot of weight in just a short amount of time. I know it's all water weight but it's still satisfying to see the number go down :).

In the past I've tried exercising, which was giving me results, but the gym is expensive and going to work and then working out at the gym was like suicide. I didn't have the energy, and honestly, I don't like the gym atmosphere. The one thing that I never really changed, even while exercising, was the way that I was eating. I guess that me being uneducated I thought that as long as I put in the time at the gym, I could eat however I wanted. I do take responsibility, but I also think that the media could take some of the blame as well. Turn on your tv and I'm sure that you'll see at least one infomercial about diet pills or a workout machine and you'll also see a BK, mcdonalds, pizza, candy, soda ad. It's like we are subconsciously told that it's okay to eat all that junk as long as we buy the newest diet pill and buy a workout machine that probably won't see the light of day very long. We haven't been exercising so far, other than being on our feet 8 hours a day working as CNA's and walking around college.

We've been drinking at least a gallon of water a day and that in itself has made us feel so much better. For work we've been packing our own food. We take fresh fruit with us & we bought a nice organic spring mix to use for salads and we toss in things like cranberries, chopped bell pepper, green onion, mushrooms, etc. and for dressing we use balsamic vinaigrette. For meals at home, we have discovered veggie burgers, chicken patties, hot dogs and bologna. We use Arnold whole wheat bread/buns. Here they are inexpensive and they have no HFCS and no milk ingredient and they have a good flavor. For a butter substitute we use Earth Balance, it's healthy and decently priced. We have also made our own chili using 2 cans of chili beans, 1 can of rinsed black beans (we used reduced sodium ones), half of a yellow bell pepper, 1 cup frozen whole kernel corn, can of fire roasted organic tomatoes, 1lb of meatless ground found at wal-mart by the tofu, handful of chopped green onion. Spices used: crushed red pepper, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper, chili powder. It was tasty and it had a nice kick to it.

This is just the beginning of things, but I know the one thing I've learned through this so far is that food should be a creation. It shouldn't be a packaged tv dinner you pick up from the freezer section or in a fast food drive thru. The food is much more enjoyable if you spend time planning out the meal, buying what you need to make it and then preparing it. I've also realized how much my body depended on caffeine & I never want to go back to that. I have been getting a few headaches, but they are tolerable now. When I get up for the day I take a women's multivitamin, niacin, b12 and vitamin c with a bottle of water and an apple or banana.

I'm very excited about for what is to come. I really want to get a cookbook, some recipe cards, a juicer, a food processor and some other items that will help us get the most out of this.

-Amber

Milk & cancer

Do you drink milk, eat cheese or other dairy products? Watch this video!

First post.

Well, I am staring this blog to track my progress (along with my husband's) following a plant-based "diet". I really don't want to call it a diet, because only 2 days into it I consider it a lifestyle change. My husband, Chuck, and I watched a documentary on Netflix called Forks Over Knives. It really was an eye opener about how bad the food we ate in the past really is. We have committed to no more soda, no more fast food, no more junk food and little meat and dairy. Sometime soon we are going to make write out a menu, but the past couple of days we have done good with just going to the store and finding something to make a meal. We had some veggie burgers with veggie cheese and whole wheat buns. They were surprisingly very good and so were the veggie hot dogs that we had. We plan on making chili with meatless ground, I'm really looking forward to that later today. My husband was a bit skeptical of all of this at first, but he's said a couple of times already that he thinks we can really do this. I never had any doubts in the first place. In the past I wasn't 100% into changing my eating habits, but now I am. I don't want any more mechanically separated meat, high fructose corn syrup, candy, soda, etc. That stuff made me feel like absolute crap and fatigued. I've been drinking a lot of water and 100% juice and I feel so much better already. And, according to the scale I'm losing a good amount of water weight already. I wish I would have started this sooner, but there's no looking back now.

-Amber