Trepidation began to seep into my brain this morning as I felt LG responding to Daisy's subtle yet urgent petition for a romp-and-squat in the yard. I finally roused myself and - I was going to say "jumped" - eased out of bed, heading to the bathroom. "It's weigh-in day." The voice inside my head stated the offensively obvious. After last week's seemingly miraculous 5 1/2 pound drop, I was primarily hoping I hadn't gained it ALL back. If you've read the blog entries this week, you know we've been eating - how might I put this...heartily? I'd been having second bowlfuls of our dinners and still haven't added exercise into my "diet" regimen. I took a deep breath and headed into one of the spare bedrooms where I secrete the offensively accurate-to-the-tenth digital scales. I think I heard them snort derisively as I opened the door.
"Oh, what the hell..." I pushed the activation button with my toe, stepped on and closed my eyes while the evil device roamed up and down, finally locking in the number if felt like producing for me. I opened my eyes and peered at the scale's straight-lined digits.
OK, I haven't yet confessed my original starting weight. Back when I was running marathons (Freudian finger-oops. I corrected my original spelling, "marathins")...anyway, my very lean running weight ranged from high 160's to lower 170's. For a few years after I had to quit running, I did some regular weight workouts and gained a few pounds of lean body mass. So, I figure I'd like to end up around 175-180 to feel like my "old" (as in "previous" not "aged") self. My initial, pre-Engine 2 Diet weight displayed as 199.6 pounds. Last week, the scale said 194.0. This morning the scales said I'd dropped another 3 full pounds...191.0! That's a total of 8.6 pounds in two weeks. I'm stoked...and relieved!
So, to the issue of vegan nourishment. Yet another colorful and filling meal last night - brown rice spaghetti with our marinara sauce and lightly steamed veggies. You'll see that the pasta, which goes into the boiling pot as brown sticks, cooks into a very traditional semolina-like color. It's the best unprocessed flour pasta we've found.
The glorious little bowlful at the lower right is LG's mixture of garbanzo beans, avocado, lemon juice, almonds, Bragg's nutritional yeast, fresh cilantro, garlic and our home made curry powder, all whipped up with a little water in the food processor. It's called "Yumm Sauce" and you can find the recipe at Peasandthankyou.com. Really good on the veggies. We chose not to use the recommended addition of 1/4 cup of oil and used the avocado instead (hence the lovely green tint.) For our friends and relatives who ask us about the time required to prepare our vegan meals, I just have to say, "probably less time than preparing the same meal with hamburger or sausage and oil." And don't forget that the cleanup for all this stuff is basically a quick swish with a soapy sponge and a rinse. We'll be having spaghetti for lunch today...yay!
According to vegan arcane legends, there are other, "more important" changes occurring in my body that have nothing to do with the amount of fat between and among my skin, internal organs and muscle fibers. Apparently my cholesterol level is going down, my blood sugar is at a point of previously unknown stability, blah, blah, blah. All that's fine, but like many of my gender, I'm as deep as a cookie sheet, and I want to be lean. LG keeps reminding me about those more important objectives with this program. But I forget quickly. The great thing is at this point - I'm accomplishing all those things (including the fat reduction) with little discomfort or trouble.
Thumbs up Honey! I'm so proud of you!
ReplyDeleteI have just started to read your blog. We have had vegetarians in our family but have never gone down the vegan path. As a baker who uses butter, milk and eggs on a regular basis...I don't see myself going there. But I care about my nutrition and love to eat, so your posts will be fun to follow.
ReplyDeleteInspirational, Mac!
ReplyDelete