Per the direction of my personal trainer, all based on incredible research (see Forks over Knives), years of nutritional experience (theirs, not mine) and the desire to feel better, lose weight, and get off meds for diabetes and cholesterol, I figured, Why not? The holidays were not perfect - fish stew, gingerbread, wine, lot's of wine, and little exercise. I have been trying vegetarianism for a while for variety, with fish thrown in and two trials of meat to see if I felt better (no not really). So here we go....

I wanted to share my experience of learning to eat animal free - some things are easy - no red meat, poultry, fish. OK. No dairy, cheese, eggs. Tougher with soy milk tasting awful in coffee.......So Delicious coconut creamer is yummy though, and only 10 cals, with good fats. There are vegan cheeses - not all of them taste good - so I will continue to look at that. Though I do love a good blue and no vegan subs for that yet. Tried to make tofu feta - not bad, but NOT feta!

Then come the veggies, grains, beans, nuts, tofu, seitan, tempeh, and soy milk. Add in chia seeds, flax seeds, nutritional yeast (tastes a lot like parmesan cheese), and things are looking up. OK, honestly, I never heard of chia seeds, and I am still waiting for my shipment form Amazon but more on that later.

My salad last night was huge! Lettuce, peppers, cukes, carrot and sherry vinegar. Sweet potato chili (from Gurunutrition.com) was yummy! Even my hubby asked to have some. Beans, sweet potatoes, peppers, chili powder, and cumin make a satisfying lunch or dinner. My cereal and berries for breakfast - no real change there. Except now I measure everything and the milk is soy. Fruit for afternoon snack with almonds or PB. I love the cocoa dusted almonds from Emerald.  So Delicious minis satisfy the ice cream/sweets need at night. Or 5 cups of popcorn - that's a lot! I am even allowed a little wine - but I have traded that for 1T olive oil instead....did I mention we had a lot of wine over the holidays?

Day three - I am full from dinner (1 c orzo, 2 c veggies - mushrooms, leeks, onions, broccoli) and jalepeno salsa. Yum! I have enough energy for the day, and workouts have been good too - just wish I had more time this week for cardio. 

I will let you know Monday if I lost any weight - once a week weigh-ins for me. Blood sugars I will test daily in the morning, down a little this am. Could this really work? Do I sound like a health nut? Thinking chia seeds and tofu - is she crazy? Stay tuned and find out! 

Happy New Year all.....what's your resolution?