Another entry from the Vegan Weight Loss Challenge.
Essay #3 by Sabrina
The Transition.
Before.
After.
I need to start out by saying that is has been almost a year since I decided I wanted to nearly eliminate all animal products from my life. I was dealing with chronic adult on-set acne which could only be controlled with antibiotics. If you’ve ever used antibiotics long-term you know what kind of havoc it wreaks on your system. It’s not something anyone should be using for anything more than acute bacterial infections. I was fed up allopathic remedies that were only bandaging my problem. I started researching natural remedies for acne and came across many suggestions saying to eliminate meat and dairy. At first, it was a daunting proposition, but the more I read, the more it made sense to me. Soon, I heard about The China Study and reading that sealed the deal. I knew it was the solution I had literally been praying for. However, I was pregnant and even thinking about the rice milk in the fridge made me ill. I just couldn’t make the transition while pregnant (which is why I am so impressed with you doing it while pregnant). However, once my baby was born, I was ready to dig in, sort of. I just wasn’t prepared enough. I didn’t have enough food in the house to keep me full as a sleep-deprived, breast-feeding mother so I just did the best I could while going the newborn stage. That’s when I found this blog and while nursing, I would devour all the posts. I am pretty sure I’ve read every single one. It has given me a lot of strength and made me feel like this is not only possible, but so worthwhile. I was very excited when you posed this challenge because I was doing better and better with transitioning and having a little extra push in the right direction is what I’ve needed. I’ve always like whole grains, fruits, veggies and many healthy foods. My mom always made sure we ate a lot of that growing up. I just also like so many other things that aren’t healthy, so it’s the elimination of these things that has been the most challenging.
My height is 5’9 and when I started this challenge I had plateaued on the weight loss I was receiving from breast-feeding. I knew I had to do more. I was at 170 lbs. My ultimate goal is to reach 145 lbs, what I weighed when I got married almost 6 years ago. However, for this challenge, my goal was to lose 15 lbs. I got close at 13 lbs. I am now at 157 and it feels so good. I never lost the last 10 lbs from my first pregnancy, that I had started at 150 lbs, so it had been a long time since I’d seen that 5 on the scale. I wish I had taken my measurements because I feel like I have seen a lot of progress there. I have noticeably lost weight in my face (very evident in my before and after pictures) and clothes that hadn’t fit in quite some time are fitting quite comfortably, even loosely.
More than the weight loss though, I have learned a lot of things from this challenge. The first thing, which I mentioned in my final update, is that I have the hardest time sticking to my new lifestyle (the word diet just sounds so temporary and this is a permanent change) when I am traveling, having people staying at our house or sleep-deprived. I am often in one of those situations, nearly all the time actually. I have learned that careful planning is the only way I will avoid “cheating”, especially when traveling. Too often we were driving long distances and I was tired of the few acceptable snacks I’d packed and wanted something more substantial than a salad at any place we decided to stop to eat. I often gave in at times like that. I need to pack a larger variety of things. Also, because my son is not one to like a regular sleep routine, despite my many efforts to establish one, I often get less than optimal sleep. I have noticed an increase in energy even though I don’t get the sleep I need, but I also give into temptation much easier that way. I learned I need to have quick, accessible snacks to grab when I am starting to feel tired, cranky and hungry because otherwise I will be hunting down my husband’s candy stash. Probably one of the most important lessons I have learned is that your palate really does adjust. I often wake up and want to eat a salad or stir fry or some left over veggies for breakfast, rather than something like sugar cereal. I also no longer miss cheese, which was probably the hardest thing, aside from milk chocolate, to give up. Those things just sound so rich and frankly, kind of gross, most of the time.
I gave into temptation far more times than I had planned to and sometimes I still wish there were another way to incorporate some of my old foods without such detrimental effects. However, those are fleeting moments and they come fewer and farther between than they used to. I used to look into our pantry and just be upset because I was so hungry and I couldn’t find anything that both sounded good and met my criteria. Now, I can find a number of things that sound good, especially because I keep a lot of produce around and I am usually fine with that as a snack. Also, as a follow-up about my acne, my face has cleared up almost completely and all I do is wash it morning and night with a mud soap. If I indulge in eating something I am not supposed to (most especially dairy ice cream) I almost immediately see the effects of that decision on my face. It’s just another sign to me that my body does not like animal protein and I am making the correct choice to not consume it.
My next steps are to continue finding recipes that my family and I love. I have found quite a few that work now and am always excited when I can take a family favorite and veganize it successfully. I would also like to foray more into the lesser known grains, veggies and fruit there out there. I know there are plenty of hidden treasures to discover.
It has been really good for me to have some concrete goals. I will be running the Deseret News marathon this July, and my plan is to have achieved my weight loss goals by that time. I really think it’s possible and it makes me excited to think about the healthy habits I am building along the way.
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