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Sunday, January 03, 2010

What? Me Vegan?

It's not a New Year's Resolution, exactly. I'm not in control of the timing, I'm just taking advantage of yet another free diet program on the internet. Remember the Go Red for Women? 12 weeks over the summer. So now it's a 21-Day Vegan Kick-off, and it started January 1st. (But you can jump in anytime, right here!

Yes, another diet. Or, as I prefer, another strategy to improve my eating habits for a long, healthful life (at or near my perfect weight for me, of course). Since I don't eat much meat anyway, and the more I know about factory farming, the less I want to eat anything that's not chocolate. This is a way to make sure I'm getting the nutrition I need when I'm not getting any animal protein. So far, it's not much of a stretch for me.

Okay, so it helps that my closest friend in this little town is vegan. Her whole family is vegan. So we often exchange recipes anyway. Not that strange. And my family is not going to be giving up anything. I still cook them their steakums and pizza (with real cheese) and eggs. I still butter their toast with real butter. I've been cooking restaurant style for a few years now, since nobody ever wants to eat the same thing, and never at the same time. I doubt anybody will even notice. (so far I'm not telling, just to see, shhhhh!)

Will it last? Will I get the rest of the crew on board? Who knows. Will I find my ideal weight and easily maintain it? Hmmmm .... I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve on that front.

Number One: Keeping the Y membership. 6 days a week, changing it up every now and then. And adding in Yoga, trying to get some in most every day.

And then there's the book. A Christmas gift from my dear husband, who supports me in my efforts to maintain a healthy weight. Yes Really! He's in better shape than most men who are not professional athletes, so we just want to give our boys a couple of good role models. So there it is: Crack the Fat Loss Code, by Wendy Chant. Reading it is challenging ... not because it's all technical and detailed and stuff. No, just the opposite. It reads like one looooooong internet marketing letter ... with a few bits and pieces of real information thrown in to make me think it's worthwhile to finish. And believe me, if it ends up to be total fluff, Ms. Chant is going to hear from me!

But so far, she seems to have a plan for "outsmarting your metabolism", and she just dumbed it down for your average yo-yo dieting idiot. Because, for some reason, smart people don't read? Or smart people don't read diet books? I read lots of diet books, and cook books, and nutrition books, and mix it all up and do my own thing anyway. And I maintain a size (ranges from moderately tight to not really tight at all, but pretty much all within one size). So I can get through this one. There's plenty of Dr. Seuss around here to keep my brain working at full creative capacity.

By the way, that Go Red for Women? Really works. When I finally went for labs this past fall, my Dr's response to the results: Ridiculously Healthy. All I have to do is keep it up ... for the rest of my life.

1 comment:

Emily on the Southern Prairie said...

Let us know how this goes!