Week 4, A Measly 1 1/2 Pounds

As the weeks progress, 1 1/2 pounds per week will no doubt seem fine. However, Michelle and I chart our own progress on our home scale that is perfectly accurate (we tested it with 10 pound weights). WW's scale determined that I lost 1.4 and Michelle lost 1.6. We both tracked our weight throughout the week to be closer to a 2.5 loss. WW scale is wrong. I'd heard they had a similar problem in the past from another attendee. They have 2 scales and apparently the first scale weighs a person at about 2 more pounds than the second scale. Obviously we'll be using the second scale henceforth.

Being vegan is a mixed bag for me to date. I did end up catching a cold and felt sick through the weekend. In addition, while I have a lot less mucus and sinus stuffiness, I've been sneezing up a storm. Every titchy little thing aggravates my sinuses. The dusty dogs running in from outdoors are a major trigger. So is any household dust, the cats, strong perfumes, pollen, even the facial tissue fibers...I do hope this overreactiveness tapers off in the next month. I refuse to go back on medications. Maybe eliminating wheat is the next step? Eliminating soy? I hate to contemplate the additional dietary restrictions. Bleh. I may turn to eating certain lean meats. The only upside is that it's the least stuffy headed cold I've ever had.

Overall, both Michelle's and my energy levels are way up. A couple of weeks have passed without either of us feeling the need to collapse like flour sacks on the sofa when we get home at night. The weekday evening activities we enjoyed when we first moved into our new house back in early 2008 -- walking the dogs, puttering in the yard, the occasional happy hour with friends, skating or biking a few blocks, shopping/running errands -- are becoming totally doable again. Maybe not so much Michelle, but I spent the past couple of years declining to an abyssmally fatigued state where doing anything, even dishes, in the evening felt like a lead-limbed chore. And I was only good for 1 major activity each weekend because I'd need to spend the remainder of the weekend first resting up and then recovering. My aches and pains are definitely clearing away little by little. The most beautiful feeling is that physical exertion no longer leaves me aching and spent for the ensuing week. I feel just fine the next day.

Able to climb to the top of the haystack again!

The skateboarding is going great. My balance is good and I'm developing courage to travel at faster speeds. By fast I mean like 10 to 12 mph, not bombing 30 down a hill.

Weight Watchers Thieves

I'm kinda pissed at WW right now. Their practices seem questionable, heavy-handed and a little bit like extortion. First of all, weekly attendence is mandatory. It doesn't matter whether a person has some reason to miss the meeting. That person owes the weekly fee anyway.

For members that do not choose the monthly subscription, the weekly fee is $12. The workers/salespeople badger a person before the start of every meeting to subscribe if they haven't, touting all the fantastic benefits like web access, e-tools, and a monthly fee of $39.99, so you save a couple of bucks if you skip a week.

Michelle and I resisted a couple of weeks' pressure to subscribe, but then a pass for one free month arrived in the mail. The sales lady at our meeting hall ensured us we would not be billed until October. Two days later, two charges of $39.99 each were extracted from my checking account.

I e-mailed WW (no phone numbers listed anywhere on their website) to see if they could reverse the charges. Instead of a response to my concerns, I received back some generic canned response that my online account was up and running. As I was annoyed at the total lack of personal service, I replied back that I wanted a resolution to my problem, and restated the issue. Then I said if they were unable to resolve the issue to my satisfaction, just cancel the accounts and refund the money.

And that's what they did. Kind of. Without another word. They cancelled my account, but left Michelle's active. No clue if a refund is pending. I sent an extremely grouchy note after that letting them know I am disgusted with their customer service and that I would like some kind of explanation -- will they be cancelling both accounts? Is a refund forthcoming?

At this point, I don't plan to give WW another penny ever. In addition, I plan to spread the word far and wide that they are thieves.

Monday Week 3 = Grumpy, Very Grumpy

Sunday my allergies that showed such dramatic improvement during weeks one and two were back in full force. Could be the red wine, the sugar from the brownie, or it could be that my home is a fur factory of pets. Whatever the cause I spent all of Sunday and now into Monday sneezing, headachy, with stuffy sinuses. I do wonder if I have a mild cold. And then I feel complanatory that I may have a cold, thinking, "Well, I hadn't been sick for a year before I became a vegan." So, I guess we'll see how the next couple of days unfold.

Saturday's Weight Watchers meeting went fine. Up until I sat down for the meeting and listened to everyone else's stories about their weekly challenges I had been feeling gloomy about losing less than 3 pounds. I thought sure week 2 would be a solid 4 pound week. That serves to reinforce the importance of sticking around for the meetings. All it took was 1/2 an hour to completely alter my negative attitude and get the upcoming week off to a motivated start. The group leader, Sam, is charming and funny (and also, if you ask me, a smidge heavy for a WW leader), and the 10:00 am meeting attendees are a talkative, forthright bunch. Many of them share stories of riding the weight loss rollercoaster and finding themselves back at Weight Watchers after losing a hundred or more pounds, then gaining back 50, 60 or even all of the pounds lost. That's depressing in a way, the endless...well, failures. It's also inspiring in a way just because that sends 2 important messages: 1) get back on track before you throw away all your progress; 2) don't make this about the sacrifices you are making now. Instead make this about the lifestyle you intend to achieve.

Even after only 10 pounds riding the longboard is getting easier. My breathing is better. After a mile and a half I no longer finish off red-faced and exhausted. My legs still tire too easily, which causes my slide stops to get sloppier and sloppier as the ride progresses. I'm on track though, and riding that board feels so great it's the best fuel to keep my motivational fires lit.

Second Week Reflections

Second week weigh in!! I lost 2.2. pounds.  Even though that is completely on target for me, I felt disappointed.  I want big losses each way.  So far it's looking like my body is wanting to cling to its fat stores more than Lora's, and I wish it could take a lesson from her.

I feel really proud of our eating.   We ate whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruit.   We ate around 7-10 servings of fruits and veggies a day, and sometimes three types each of legumes and grains.  All week we only had one serving of a flour product - on Friday we had whole wheat pasta.

Blogger and/or the iPad sucks because it won't let me post pictures directly from the Apple products. I would really like to post pictures of each days food, so I'll have to figure out how to handle that.

Another thing that took a long time was the food prep.   We get home around 6:30pm, and by the time I've made and eaten dinner, and prepared the next day's lunch and snacks, it's 9pm. Makes for a late night, but it's a good kind of late.

Today we had:

• A banana and almonds after weigh in
• A few bites of leftover fava and eggplant pasta when we got home
• A Fresco Bean Burrito from Taco Bell to which I added avocado
• Mushroom, Lentil and Pomegranate Soup from my  "Vegetarian North African Cookbook"
• Two glasses of red wine
• A half a vegan brownie and a small glass of amaretto

The brownie will be the first refined sugar we've had for two weeks.

I'll try to be better about posting pictures of dinners this week.

In the meantime, here's a pic of one night's dinner - Lettuce Cups from the Week One Book made with veggie ground beef, shiitakes, bell peppers, bok choy, ginger, garlic, onions, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and brown rice with sesame seeds.

This week's goals:

Walk at lunch three days
Walk in the evenings three days
Have no more than 1 tsp oil a day (McDougall recommends none!)

Former Vegans with Sensible Perspectives

Michelle is immediately committed to eschewing all forms of animal products for life. The commitment does not come so easily to me. I do want choose well not only to support my own good health, but to support a sustainable, cruelty free environment. After reading the same books Michelle posted about below, and watching influential documentaries like Food Inc, it abhors me to live in a country so full of mindless gluttony where people are deliberately proud of their ignorance.  Willfully avoiding change in the face of powerful, persuasive information is not even an option, but neither is rushing headlong into a self-righteous feel-good fest. 

It makes good common sense that eating a mostly plant-based diet consisting of fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole foods, like a lot of whole grains, beans, and nuts is the best, healthiest way to eat. It's pretty obvious that subsisting on fatty, processed foods is terrible for people's health. 

However, there are some former vegans with common sense perspectives and good rationale for incorporating limited animal based products into their diets. 

This is one article worth reading:

Strict Vegan Diets May Be Dangerous

The author, Chet Day, was a vegan until he started experiencing health problems and in his research discovered that after a few years many former vegans add back a little cheese or meat to balance their health. He proposes that there are essential nutrients in animal foods, and that long-term vegans are so successful because they are not strict adherents to a vegan diet. 

That may or may not be true, but is it justifiable to incorporate animal products into a balanced diet? Mr. Day consumes no more than 5 to 10% in his own diet. He seeks out organic, humanely raised, pasture fed cow cheese and yogurt. He avoids milk and all supermarket dairy. His wife eats grass fed beef. Are these humane responsible choices even though in some cases animals died to provide the food?

To me, Day's approach that when the intake is limited, the food is selected responsibly, and eaten for the purpose of acquiring essential nutrients for good health, it is justifiable.

I am in the early stages of exploring a vegan way of life, and have barely stepped onto the path of healthy living with the weight loss I am working toward. My first satisfying lesson is that good food is more abundant and inexpensive than I expected. My second valuable lesson is that learning how to cook the food is vital, because it tastes fabulous and is incredibly fulfilling. 

As I learn more I expect my perspectives and decisions to shift regarding veganixm and animal products. One thing does seem abundantly clear -- the current American way of life sustains neither a healthy planet or healthy bodies. The more people learn about organic food, shopping local, cooking well at home, finding out where their food comes from, and choosing to act responsibly the better off we'll all be. 

Allergies and Omitting Dairy from the Diet

This is purely a personal experience. I make no scientific claims, or any claims at all that what helped me will help other allergy sufferers. I want to share this because it is a significant physical change that has occured in the 9 days since I began Weight Watchers and veganism. My sinus troubles have improved dramatically. If it helped me it may help you and therefore you may find it worth trying.

The first few days without dairy my throat felt sore and I felt a bit foggy and like I was about to get a cold. My sinuses started feeling dryer and the mucus that had constantly drained down the back of my throat was thinning just a bit. Somewhere around day five, as I was working at my desk, I noticed I was actually breathing through my nose instead of my mouth. That happened several more times during day six. By day seven it was apparent that my allergy symptoms had diminished significantly outside of direct exposure to allergens. These are symptoms, mind you, that plagued me ferociously for YEARS. I could not keep my allergies at bay without daily medication. And even then, I could rarely take in sufficient breath through my nose.

I didn't expect the change to be so clear and noticeable. Now instead of allergy and sinus problems being constant and chronic, I am able to tell if some specific thing is an irritant. My sinuses have gotten stuffy after each time I've had a glass of wine or beer. Wrestling with or petting my dogs when they come in from outside all dusty is a major irritant that lasts for about an hour after exposure. What was once a terrible way of life has become limited and quantifiable in just a week. Weird. Unexpected. But cool and amazing.

I was a vegetarian for a few months before I went vegan. No symptom changes prior to eliminating dairy. Keep in mind I also cut out about 98% of processed foods, including processed flour, and nearly 100% of refined sugar. Eliminating those things from my diet may be contributing to allergy relief as well. The take home point, really, is that it was possible for me to control allergy symptoms via dietary adjustments. If you're feeling at the end of your rope like I was you may want to try something similar.

Week One -- Olive Garden Sucks for Vegans

Week one was by all accounts quite successful. I lost 7-point-something pounds. However, it really isn't all that impressive once you're aware I was overindulging on bizarre drinks (Romulan ale) and appetizers (Vegas Fries, so good) at Tex Wasabi the night before. I rolled out of bed my first Saturday morning of Weight Watchers feeling bloated and tired. The major accomplishment was dragging my sorry behind to the meeting.

That was Labor Day weekend, and Michelle and I had a birthday party, a Greek Festival and one other dining out occasion to attend. Great weekend to start. Old Grandad elected to celebrate his 84th birthday at the Olive Garden. Michelle usually picks restaurants for her birthday her family considers freakish and bizarre, like Indian food. So, I guess we all feel obliged to politely go wherever the birthday person chooses, even if we think it's third-rate Italian like OG. Michelle and I both ordered whole wheat pasta (fetuccini noodles) with a simple pomodoro sauce. That was pretty much the only available menu item for a dieting vegan. The pasta was dreadfully overcooked. It was mushy. And there were all sorts of other noodles kind of intermingled. How did they get there? It looked like they ran out of pomodoro when they got to my dish because there was a regular tomato sauce on one half, and then some other tomato substance that may have been bruschetta topping dumped on the other half. They barely scrounged up enough sauce and pasta to cover the bottom of the dish. It was pitiful.  The night before at my own house I whipped up a lovely sauce with ALL fresh ingredients -- tomato, egg plan, zucchini, garlic, basil, onion -- that made the OG fare seem even more egregiously lacking. It was beautiful and flavorful and cost only about $2.00 per person instead of a criminal $12.00.

At the Greek Festival we both had some sugary Greek donut holes, loukoumades. We were able to limit ourselves to 5 or 6 each. Not too bad. Michelle assured me vegetarians and vegans eventually got chips on their shoulder due to the total lack of decent food selections pretty much anywhere. The Greek Festival was one of those places where I felt darned annoyed. Could be what we get for going on the last day in the afternoon, but the dolmades ran out just as the trio of vegetarians (Riley is not vegan) were approaching. That left, as food choices, one measly crappy dish of green beans and carrots. I crossly put my plate down and elected to have nothing but Diet Coke and loukoumades rather than pay $3.50 for a little spoonful of veg.

So far eating out has been the most difficult part of maintaining this diet. The choices are incredibly limited. People who eat animal products definitely rule the roost while vegans must be almost nonexistent to merit choices of like one or fewer menu items.

Somehow between all my complaining and adjusting to having a new sort of fringe status as an eater, I managed to stick with the WW plan. Thanks to the "core" foods I felt satisfied and only had a couple of really hungry moments. During the work week we brought lunch from home every day, and thanks to Michelle we had abundant food, full of whole grains and beans, and sufficient snacks, like fruit, applesauce and chopped veg.

Mexican Mixed Grill

Dinner tonight was sort of a Mexican themed grilled plate.  We had tofu marinated in lime chipotle barbecue sauce with apple cider vinegar, oregano, chili powder, garlic, and agave syrup.  The tofu marinated all day and then we grilled it up with nopales, bell pepper and red onion.   We served it on a bed on quinoa with Lora's awesome salsa on the top.  It was delicious. We also had a Blackberry Wheat beer.

Because we're on underground Core (is that UnderCore?), who's counting, but our day's point total was 21, which is awesomely less than either of us is allotted.

We had steel cut oats with figs and walnuts for breakfast. Lunch was a tasty salad with romaine, carrots, avocado, marinated black eyed peas, tomatoes, olives, couscous, and a bit of tleftover Greek potato garlic spread from the other night, with some grapes for dessert.

I also cooked chickpeas and made hummous for tomorrow.   I made part of our breakfast and lunch and got as ready for tomorrow as possible tonight.

It's been a good day.

Michelle's Story

I remember the month I became a vegan because of the vivid memory of standing in line for "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and wondering what on earth I'd be able to eat inside the theatre.  That was 2002.   Earlier in the year I'd had my cholesterol tested and it was 204.   While researching ways to lower it, I found out how bad animal foods were for your health.   In the process I learned how they were also very, very bad for the planet, and a lifetime of unimaginable torture for the animals.   I went veg slowly - at first, I ate organic dairy and meat.   I thought if I just ate happy animals it would be okay.   But I couldn't justify the slaughterhouse to myself or my son, and the more I learned, the more I felt sickened by being any part of the farm animal industry.   It seemed to me the most base, cruel, arrogant selfishness to consider that my passing appetites were more important than a creature's life, its simple freedoms, its children, its fresh air and sunshine and full stretch of its wings.

I read voraciously, including "Slaughterhouse" and "The Food Revolution."    I told people what I learned, because who wouldn't want to know this stuff???  Nobody, pretty much.   No one wants to know or think about it.  They'd rather not know than possibly change a thing about themselves.   It's hard for me to fully respect people who say that.  I just don't get it.

By the end of 2002 I was fully vegan, and my cholesterol dropped to 146.   I ate good vegan food and vegan junk food.   I ate both.   My weight went down and it went up.  Sometime around 2006 I started eating a little bit of cheese again.   In 2007, Lora and I were together and loved walking to midtown eateries for Sunday morning breakfast.   After a few months I was sick of pancakes, and ate eggs.  So for the past three years I've been vegetarian, not vegan.   I've loved the cheese but I've struggled with my conscience.   When Lora went vegetarian in June I was tickled pink, red, all the shades of the rainbow.   When we decided to go vegan this month my spirit felt so good, but I secretly felt worried about missing cheese.  Maybe not so secretly.

So now we are on Weight Watchers and the first week went great. I lost 6 pounds.   I'm determined to do better as a vegan this time.   For one, I'm going to be kinder to myself.  I'm not going to eat animal foods, and I will check ingredients, as I've done since 2002, but I'm not going to make myself nuts about it. If I'm at a restaurant I'll do the best I can.  I'm going to make good choices, but if the veggie burger has a bit of egg, I'm going to recognize that I'm not eating a whole egg or a chicken, and am on the path.   Thinking it's all one way or the other is too hard.  Second, I'm not going to be a junk food vegan.   I love to cook.  It's my favorite thing.  This gives me a good focus which is exciting.   Now that Lora and I are supporting each other I'm really excited for us to eat pure whole plant foods prepared a million and one ways. And the Boy is a good sport for the most part.

Once there's a bit less of me, I want to climb Kilimanjaro.  I want to go to Greece and round the Mediterranean.  I want to start doing yoga again.  I want to keep up with the Boy and the pesky dogs.  I want to bend in the middle a bit more easily.  I want to hike the John Muir Trail.  I want to go backpacking.  I want have energy, lots of it.  I want to see the world with Lora.   I want to look good and be glossy glowing with health. I know we'll make it this time.

Lora's Story

Each of us begin our journeys of self discovery at the times and places in our lives when it feels right. We all take the first steps for different reasons. As I began my first step of this journey I started reading about other people's methods and means of achieving optimum health and a more satisfying lifestyle.

My own questions and the questions I know people like me will have as they contemplate their own lives is the main reason I'm doing this blog. This is two people's chronicles of what happens when they finally get fed up (literally) with feeling fat, out of shape, lethargic, and in my case, riddled with allergies, full of aches and pains, and feeling constantly fatigued. Something's gotta give. It's either resign oneself to the downward spiral of taking pills and medications to alleviate symptoms or to make significant lifestyle changes.  I chose the latter because the idea of never ever feeling better without the temporary mask of medication was too depressing to bear.

One of the reasons I found myself an unfit couch potato in the first place is that I possibly spent too much time on the internet reading about other people's adventures and watching movies that carried my mind far far away from focusing on my own intertia and lack of motivation to change. However, as I undergo positive changes, and what I hope is personal growth, it helps me tremendously to read about similar experiences. How does one feel after the first week of being vegan? The first week of Weight Watchers? And the second and third weeks and so on? How much does a person miss consuming animal products? What are some withdrawal symptoms in giving up dairy? Could vegans actually be totally full of crap? What are varying perspectives on the vegan lifestyle?

There were some catalysts to my joining Weight Watchers and then choosing a vegan path. WW was an easy choice. Michelle and I both had a lot of success on the WW Core Plan about 5 years ago, but somehow found ourselves back to gaining weight without ever reaching our goal weights. We are now on the Momentum Plan. The Core Plan no longer exists so we are doing our own sort of underground core plan. It's fairly intuitive eating. Eat whole grains, vegetables and fruits in abundance, and stay away from processed crap, fat and sugar. Most people have a basic understanding that this is the proper way to eat, but going to a meeting each week and being held accountable helps a lot.

As for going vegan, well...I wish I could say it was all about care of living creatures and leading a kinder existence. That's part of it, but the main reason is utterly selfish. I've been plagued by miserable allergies, asthma and severe sinus problems for most of my adult life. I've always been a "mouth breather." I heard giving up dairy could clear up some of my allergy and sinus symptoms. I'd been hooked on Q-Var, Claritin and Benedryl for years. Couldn't get by without it and still I was slowly running out of relief even on medication.

And then, perhaps this time around I have a certain drive I haven't felt before. I have often dreamed of hiking on great backpacking trips, of riding my bicycle for miles down beautiful trails, and, oddly I think for a woman my age (42), riding a longboard. I saw some You Tube footage of a 72 year old man riding a longboard. He was a lifelong cyclist and took great care of himself. My mental picture of myself at 42 looked more like my own mother and her mother before her -- a fat, shapeless blob of laziness and dependency on others. Aaaagh! Am I at the point in my life when I have fewer days ahead than behind? Possibly, and I have the power to make them better years.

I got this sweet longboard, the Loaded Dervish, and could make about 3 blocks before my lungs were burning and my legs felt like rubbery jello. But this is the most awesome board I have ever ridden and I deserve to have great rides on this longboard. Before starting my lifestyle changes in full, I had been taking my board to work with me where I would get dropped off in the morning then ride this at least part of the 20 blocks across downtown Sacramento to meet my ride. Sometimes it takes a passion like this to really fuel change, and though it may seem odd to many people, this is mine.