Day 2

One of the hardest things about being a vegan or vegetarian is eating out at restaurants. It's REALLY HARD to find stuff that's vegan. Most vegans that I know compromise on some things - for example, they'll eat the bread, but they'll ignore that there was probably butter on the outside of the bread to make it golden brown. Truly, the only way to ensure that something is 100% vegan is to make it yourself.

Last night my wife and I went out for mexican food. Now, mexican food is decently easy to eat vegan. Chips and salsa? No problem! Queso is out (bummer), but guacamole is definitely in! Avocados are great and I eat them a lot. Very healthy for you. Fun fact about avocados - they are proven to be beneficial to ovary health in women. This is interesting because not only are avocados shaped somewhat like a uterus, but they have a pit in the middle, and take exactly 9 months to grow. Crazy right? ANYWAY.

In addition to my salsa and guac, I had a taco salad that we ordered with no cheese, no sour cream, and no meat. So it's basically beans, rice, lettuce, tomatoes, guac, pico, and tortillia strips all put into a big tortilla shell. Sort of like a big "bean dip" at that point. Very cheap - $10 to share between me and my wife. It's plenty of food. We even had some leftovers. They didnt charge us anything (or take off anything) to do all of those substitutions, which was nice. Most places are very aware of it, even if they don't openly say it on the menu. They are familiar with vegetarians and vegans - they're not stupid! So ask!

Easy(ish) places to eat as a vegetarian / vegan:

Indian Food
Mediterranean (Greek) Food
Chinese Food
Thai Food
Vietnamese Food
Sushi / Japanese Food
Mexican Food
Whole Foods / health food stores with restaurants

Guess what - AMERICAN FOOD isn't on the list! Go figure. Most American places serve steaks, sandwiches, burgers and fries, fish, etc. and while you might be able to get a decent salad, it will likely come with some creamy americanized dressing like Ranch or Thousand Island. In the salad world, vinegars and juices are your best friend as a vegan. Balsamic Vinegar, Apple Cider Vinegar, Regular white vinegar, orange juice, lemon juice, apple juice, pineapple juice, etc. Mixing some type of vinegar with some type of fruit/citrus juice can be very acidic, so you may need to dilute it a little, or put a little bit of oil in there, but not too much - it's very high calorie! Good for you, but very high calorie. One tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. What once was a 400 calorie salad now becomes 1200 really quick!

Here's a bit of interesting trivia I bet you didn't know - America is the 8th most obese country in the world. I bet you thought it was higher, didn't you? Actually Mexico, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are all more obese! I bet you never would guess that 43% of all Kuwait citizens are obese. That's 2 out of 5 people. America is not far behind at 1/3, but still...makes me feel a little better knowing that we've been higher on the list in the past. Now here's the sad part - the reason these countries are fatter than us? American companies. McDonalds, Coke, Pepsi, Burger King, etc are all companies that have gone global with their fatty products. 

I'm going to start my day right by having a high fiber breakfast. When I originally lost a bunch of weight, that was the KEY to my success. I would very rarely eat lunch, but instead, I would have a substantial breakfast with high fiber and I would have one or two small snacks throughout the day. Simple snacks - fruit, nuts, juice, maybe some crackers. It's a simple solution - if eating three meals a day causes you to eat too many calories, then don't eat three meals a day. For me, I work a LOT, and often I don't even have time for much of a lunch away. It's usually so quick I just end up eating junky food. So this way, it forces me to get up earlier, make a super healthy breakfast that's easily about 800 calories, and then let it keep my energy up all day until a light snack at noonish, then dinner around 7. I try not to eat too late - that's another thing I cut out when I lost all that weight. Snacking and dessert - two hidden killers of weight loss. Did you know one small pack of M&M's has 240 calories? That's about 15% of my required calories for the whole day!

For breakfast, I made my version of "Rip's Big Bowl" from the Forks Over Knives cookbook. Basically this contains:

Raw Oats
Granola
Blueberries
Walnuts
Grape Nuts Cereal
Bananas
Almond Milk

This meal is fairly high calorie, but LOADED with nutrients, LOADED with fiber, and is a great boost of energy when you need it most. For dinner, we had vegetable soup, made from a very simple vegetable broth and you guessed it...vegetables! Corn, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, celery, carrots, and onions. Very simply seasoned, hardly any salt needed. Highly nutritious, extremely low calorie, very good for you. My dad used to call this "Skinny Soup."

Progress!

Weight on Day 2: 197lbs

Weight Lost: 3 lbs

Pounds Left to go: 32lbs
Days Left to go: 88

It's pretty amazing - 3lbs lost in just two days of removing meat, dairy, eggs, soda, oil, and sweets.  I forget how effective this really is.