Over 5 lbs gone forever! Happy Dance!

This morning was my 3rd weigh-in on the Weight Watchers Momentum online program, and I am very pleased to report that this past week, I've lost 1.6 lbs!

So, this takes me to a total lost so far of 5.4 lbs.... gone forever :-)

By the way, I say "gone forever" because I sincerely do not intend for any of these pounds to come back. I want to shed this excess weight once and for all. I'm not dieting, it's a lifestyle improvement and I want to keep a lot of those improvements at the forefront from now on. This is the pledge I made to myself for this year: Taking better care of my health.

Speaking of pledges, my "GoVeg" pledge is still going strong - I'm still eating 100% Lacto-Ovo Vegeterian since January 1st and I know that I will make it to the end of the month.

So far, my main issue is that I am allergic to Soy and Tofu (amongst other foods), and that it's becoming a bit redundant already (after 17 days) to be eating beans, lentils, eggs/egg whites, skim milk, low-fat cheese, whole grains, and some nuts as my main sources of protein and Iron.

I find that in terms of recipes, it seems to always come back to the same few things.

Where in the past I would eat some kind of stew, or roast, or some cut of meat, that most Vegans and Vegetarians can replace with Soy and Tofu products (soy grounds, tofu dogs, etc) to, for example, shape soy meatballs for a spaghetti or a soy meatball sandwich, I have no way of making meatballs other than using squished beans and rice or adding in bread crumbs and making some kind of paste... not bad tasting, but the beans and rice is also what I eat in casseroles, in burger patties, etc... so it seems to always come back to the same 'mixture' all the time.

That's where I'm struggling at the moment, and with the huge increase in eating beans and lentils, etc.... you know that my body is playing a lot of 'music' ... to say it politely LOL.... and I'm not supposed to use products like Beano (and I've tried it a few times in the past without much success, but I'm not supposed to use it anyway because I'm asthmatic and this product should not be used by asthmatics).

So, these are some of the issues I'm dealing with at the moment.

I have a couple of vegetarians and vegan cook books, and I am still finding myself quite limited because I cannot use anything with soy or tofu. Now that I've been looking at this closer for the past few weeks, it's amazing the number of recipes that use soy and tofu... I didn't realise how much until now.

I know that I can replace some of this with seitan, but most commercial stuff has soy sauce etc in it, and at this point, I haven't had time to look for what I need to make my own, etc, and I'm not 'there' yet.

Anyway, that's my little rant for today.

I believe that at the end of this 30 day pledge, I will need to re-introduce a bit of meats into my diet, just for the sake of having a wider variety of things to eat because at this point, it feels way too restrictive for me.

I know I would not feel this way if I could eat soy and tofu products, so instead I've dramatically increased my consumption of cheeses (I try to stick to low-fat, I do not like fat-free and we only have fat-free cream cheese in Canada anyway and that is disgusting), and I have also dramatically increased my consumption of free-range eggs/egg whites, and I'm really getting sick of eating eggs too.

Whereas in the past, I was eating about around 80% of my meals with meat, and 20% vegan or vegetarian meals, I could certainly at least turn this around and do something like 30 to 50% meals with meat, and 50 to 70% vegan or vegetarian meals... that would still be a good improvment on what I was doing in the past.

I definitely recommend eating more vegan and vegetarian meals. I do feel better in many ways because of it. But with my various food allergies, I definitely feel way more restricted, so I believe, for now, that I'm going to have to ease back a bit after the pledge month is over.

My other issue is with the Weight Watchers' plan - nuts and cheeses (unless the cheese is fat free, which I don't have access too, nor have a real desire to eat) count as points, and the same goes for any commercial product (on the 'Core' WW program, most of the things that you do not make yourself from scratch end up counting as points).

So far, I have gone over my 35 flex points every week because of my heavier than normal nuts and cheese consumption, and I'm still losing, but I know that at some point, I won't anymore, and that if I want to follow the plan, I will have to cut back on nuts and cheese, hence losing two of my 'protein' and Iron (nuts) sources :(

But WW Core allows for lean meats (you do not count those points) and soy/tofu products, so if you can eat soy and tofu, it's much easier to stay on plan and not go over the points every single week... darn allergies :(

Thanks for listening to my rant.

It's time to go make a nice Bruschetta & cheese (points) grilled sandwich (using sprouted wheat bread) and a garden salad for my lunch :)