Diet Tweaks

Last night, I complained to my friend Katherine Nilbrink that the scales haven't budged for me even though I have been eating clean and exercising regularly. Katherine is the right person to help me through this dilemma. She is a plant-based nutrition coach and instructor for eCornell University and the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. She suggested a couple tweaks that I'm going to try.

First the adds (for added nutrition): One is to eat at least a cup of beans or lentils every day and the other is to add whole grains. I'm not big on eating beans. I like the flavor OK, but I don't like the way it bloats my stomach and gives me gas. I know you can soak and rinse them, which I have done before but two things happen, one is it takes away some of the flavor and the other is it still has the bloating effect. I don't eat much grains either. Sometimes I have a bowl of oatmeal with walnuts and raisins for breakfast which leads me to the subtractions: Nuts, Nut Butters (like peanut butter which I love to eat with carrots and celery) and Vegan Shakeology (which is probably going to be the most difficult of the three to give up). I have been drinking Shakeology for over a year and while I haven't lost much weight, something very important has happened. I have stopped craving junk food. I would say that the plant-based diet did that and I am sure it helped considerably, but I know Vegan Shakeology played a vital role in helping me overcome food addiction because when I would go without drinking it for a couple days the cravings would come back! Plus, I knew if I drank Shakeology, that I would be getting my B12 and whatever vitamins I may be missing in my diet. But, something isn't working right in my diet so I am going to make these tweaks and see what happens. Losing only 1 lb in five weeks tells me something needs adjusted. I'm not expecting the weight to melt off 10 lbs a week, but I do expect to shed 1-2 lbs a week. That should be happening and I am determined to get to the root of it in a healthy manner.

The other tweak I am making is going back to using MyFitnessPal. I have been off and on with it, but when I spoke to Katherine, the first thing she asked me about was my food diary. What have I been eating? When I entered the things I had ate for the day into MyFitnessPal, I saw that it only added up to about 800 calories. I know without being told that eating less than 1200 calories a day can take a body into starvation mode and not release fat. I don't want to be in starvation mode and I don't want to be in diet mode either, which in our podcast interview Katherine said focusing on tracking calories can do. Until I can accurately gauge the amount of food I need to eat to nourish my body, it's what I need to do.

Those are the tweaks I am making as I continue my journey to health. What tweaks are you doing? What is working for you?


Kathy


Not a vegan or vegetarian? Check out this diet tweak that helped a doctor out of her wheelchair and overcome MS! Even if you do eat plant-based, she shares helpful information about plants that is good to know.