Day 9

191! 9 pounds in 9 days! Amazing how this works. No exercise whatsoever, just eating very healthy. 

Thanksgiving is getting closer and closer and I would like to lose as much weight as I can even if it's just as a buffer... Because I want to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving, And sometimes when you refuse to eat your family's food, someone gets offended. We don't want to that. 

That all being said I'm going to try to be good on Thanksgiving and not over-eat. 

Weight : 191

Pounds lost: 9

Days remaining: 81

Pounds remaining: 26

Days 6-8

Whooo! Busy week as always. Owning your own business means you never really get a break. This makes it hard to take care of oneself honestly. I feel like my life is always moving, never slowing down to stop and enjoy the little things. I hope things can change next year. 

It's late but I will update with my weight in the morning. Had some great meals in the last few days- had a few cheats as well. :/. Life moves fast and part of me says "enjoy it now, eat whatever!" While the other side says "be smart. Eat for your health and you'll be glad you did later on." I'm a young guy but I am very careful with my life. I don't party and only drink occasionally, my biggest obstacle is always stress. I really need to get that under control! 

No more personal rants for now. Will update again soon. 

Day 5

Another pound down today. On Monday nights I teach an audio engineering class.    Sometimes it's hard not to eat poorly on Mondays because my class is from 6 to 10 PM, And that means I'm usually hungry after 10. But I don't like eating after 8pm. It keeps me awake and it doesn't give my body enough time to really process it, So I feel like it's just sitting in my stomach while I sleep. 

So on Mondays that means I usually have either a single large lunch, or a brunch type meal and a mid sized dinner at 430 ish. Really tricky to time it all correctly Where I don't feel bloated in my class but I don't feel hungry afterward. 

We have some breaks during class, so I could bring a snack...

Anyway. Lot of things to do today. Wish I had more time to ramble.

Day: 5

Pounds lost: 7lbs

Days to go: 85

Pounds to go: 28lbs

Day 4

Not much to say about today. It snowed here in town and it's been pretty lazy. 

Luckily I was pretty tame at the party last night and didn't overeat. It's pretty easy to do that when there is a lot of food available. I've made it habit of checking my weight every day; It seems to help you realize the effect of your eating on your weight, And it also helps to constantly remind you of your goal. This really helped me before and it's helping me now. The only catch is you have to check it at the same time every day - Or at least the same part of your day. I check it every morning right after I wake up And go to the bathroom. I'm wearing the same basic clothing, It's roughly the same time, And I can put the scale right by the bed. Easy.

I also use an app called TactioHealth To keep track of my progress. The app is sort of buggy sometimes, But it really helps you to see your progress and keep it in check with you at all times. The goal is to constantly be reminded! On your phone, every time you eat, when you wake up, when you go to sleep. Sooner than later it will become habitual.

Remember - veganism is not a diet--it's really a lifestyle. For the most part diets don't work; they put your mind in a weird state. They make you feel guilty and they make you feel not good enough. I have experienced  this more times than I am proud to share... I've tried just about every diet under the sun.

That's why this blog is subtitled "an experiment in nutrition " - Because it's not a vegan diet, Even though I am "dieting" for 90 days. 

One great thing about a plant based diet is that it is so impossibly hard to NOT get healthy doing this right. It's really simple - If it came from an animal in any way, don't eat it. Minimize processed foods, minimize oil, remove sweets at all costs. 

Because the food you are eating or so low calorie, You rarely have to worry about eating too much, And you really have to worry about whether or not it is working - If you have not been a part of this lifestyle and now you suddenly are, the results are obvious and immediate. 

Let me be clear that I hate exercising. I wanted a lifestyle that allowed me to eat good food and be healthy without a lot of exercise. Sounds like a pipe dream right? The vegan/plant-based lifestyle has allowed me to do this. 

Didn't lose any weight yesterday but at least I didn't gain! 

Day: 4

Weight: 194lbs

Lost today: 0

Total lost: 6lbs

Pounds to go: 29lbs

Days to go: 86

At this rate I will reach my goal in:

31 Days

(This probably won't happen, but hey, that would be great if it did!)

Day 3

Was able to take a half day off today and go have brunch with my wife. There's a local place here in Tulsa called First Watch that is like...if IHOP weren't so trashy. They have GREAT food, very "farm to table" type ingredients, lots of options for someone watching their weight. I had oatmeal with pecans, craisins, almonds, and bananas, with an english muffin and some skillet potatoes. Very delicious. As far as vegan details: I'm pretty sure the oatmeal was vegan, but the potatoes were a little greasy and english muffin seemed to have some butter on it when I got it. Came with brown sugar, which is vegan, but it's SUGAR. Pretty hard to resist putting brown sugar in oatmeal, and putting jelly on an english muffin. Craisins and Jelly are all decently processed foods with a good amount of sugar, but it was a very small amount. Had some orange juice, black coffee, and water.

Vegan Rating:  B+
Delicious Rating: A+




In my last blog post I talked about "Skinny Soup" as well as my Super Breakfast Bowl thing. That's what I ate yesterday - and guess what? Lost THREE pounds. In one day. I'm telling you this food is magic. I didn't feel hungry or left wanting more - I'm a 6' tall 194lb guy. I would tell you if I was feeling hungry.

Like I said before, from all of my experience losing weight, it's logarithmic. Like this:

Initially it's a big jolt in weight loss, but as you get closer and closer to your goal, it gets harder and harder to lose weight. I was an accounting major in college, and in general, I'm a huge nerd, so using data I've collected from the very first time I went vegan, I made this chart. Go figure! It looks almost just like the example above:



It took me only 90 days to lose 40lbs. After that, it took me almost 7 months to lose 15lbs (170 was the lowest I ever entered, and it was very brief - just one day! Usually I say that the lowest I ever got was 172 because I stayed there for a little while). So now that I'm going from 200 to 165 in 90 days, the challenge is much more difficult than it appears on the surface. 165 is a huge goal for me, I can see it within my grasp! My clothes are fitting sort of tight right now, and that's no good.

In college, I weighed 265lbs. I lost about 35lbs from just eating better and trying not to snack or eat junk food. The problem was, I was doing all kinds of weird diets and I just didn't feel good. I looked better, but I felt weak, depleted. It took me almost a year to lose 35lbs, and if you look at pictures of me, I almost look pale. I was eating low quantities of calorie dense food - the exact OPPOSITE of what the vegan diet is. It was one of those "high protein" diets where you eat a lot of meat, beans, nuts, etc., but you watch your portions and work out. That just didn't work for me. I wasn't getting NUTRITION. I was just getting fewer calories of the wrong foods.

When I lost all of that weight from 265 all the way down to 180, around which I circled for the better part of two years, I literally had to buy an entire new wardrobe. I lost two shirt sizes, three pant sizes, two ring sizes...I even lost a SHOE SIZE?! You don't realize that even your feet have fat cells surrounding them.

The vegan diet works astonishingly well for me. I can eat a lot, but it's a lot of the right stuff. PREPARE FOR NERDY FACTS. At my old rate, using the equation for the trendline, my weight loss was a function of:

y = -10.9ln(x) + 232.26


This means that, based on the original data, from a starting weight of 200lbs, in 90 days I would be at 175. So the rate this time is a little more strenuous, which means I will need to be extra careful, and make sure to get exercise, and also make sure not to overeat on Thanksgiving and Christmas.


Update: Tonight my sister-in-law got engaged, so there was a huge party. I tried to be good - but there wasn't a lot of vegan options at the party. The last thing you want to do at a party for an engagement is be like "eh, I can't eat anything here, do you have anything else?" Luckily, there were some standbys - mixed vegetables, corn, carrots, rolls, and salad. I did sneak in some cheesy potatoes though. VEGAN FAIL.

No worries, sometimes this stuff happens. Food is very important in American culture, and VERY important in the South. Almost every occasion involves food, and you don't want to offend people by saying you can't eat what they made. I come from a family of "you'll eat what you're given, mister." and a sulking reply "yes ma'am." Try harder tomorrow, that's all I can do.

All in a day's work - update:


Weight Lost: 6lbs
Weight to Go: 29lbs
Percent Lost: 17%
Days remaining: 87

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. 

Day 1

Three of the best tips ever given regarding weight loss are as follows:

1. Drink a lot of water.

2. Get plenty of rest. 

3. Eat if you're hungry, and stop eating when you're satisfied. 

These very simple tips are much harder to follow than most people realize. Some research suggests that drinking and 8 ounce glass of water as soon as you wake up (before any food) Can increase your metabolism by 20%, And will help regulate your digestion. Research has also shown that people that get eight hours of sleep every night are healthier overall, and less depressed. And eating only when you're hungry is something that is extremely difficult to do for many people - If it's dinner time we feel like we need to eat! If we are watching a movie we feel like we need to snack! Often times it just takes sitting in front of the TV that makesus hungry. But we really have to ask ourselves - What is my stomach telling me? Am I actually hungry?Is my  stomach experiencing kurtosis (The technical term for what we call hunger pangs)? 

Research will tell you that kurtosis is a good thing - It's your body telling you "okay I need to eat!" The whole idea of three meals of Meatand two  veggies with a balanced breakfast Is a total myth. We need to eat when we are hungry - Whether that is two times a day or 10. With how high-calorie American meals are these days, We really could get by on one or two meals. 

When doing the vegan diet you could easily do three or four meals. The food is a fraction of the calories, fat, sugar, salt, and it's twice the fiber. 

I like to start my day with something simple. Oatmeal with banana slices and blueberries, with some raw oats sprinkled on top. Little boost of sweetness and fiber to start the day right, and taste great.

And hey, I'm already at 198lbs. My weight fluctuates a lot, easily pounds per day. Kinda weird sometimes. From here on out I am going to weigh myself at the same time every day - 9am. I work for myself so I usually start my day at 10 and work til 6 (ideally) but very often I will start at nine and end at seven if I have a lot to accomplish. Owning your own business means you always have a lot to do. Fortunately for me it means I have a lot more freedom to deal with my diet. My heart goes out to those who work "for the man" that don't have as much freedom for a healthy breakfast and lunch. 

Til tomorrow 

Goal progress:

2lbs lost

33lbs to lose 

90 Days Vegan, the Reprise!

I originally started this blog back in 2012. It started as an experiment in nutrition, seeing if I could cut out all processed and refined foods for 30 days. After some initial research, I decided to go "30 Days vegan" - you can see this happen in my early blog posts. The original goal was to lose weight before my wedding - which I completed! I lost 50 pounds in just two months, putting me at 180lbs on my wedding day. My weight has remained fairly stable since then, losing some, gaining some. My last blog posts (quite a while ago) show that I had started toward this new goal, but only got to about 175lbs. I pretty much circled between 175-190 for the two years after my initial vegan challenge.

Since that time, my diet has also fluctuated between vegan, vegetarian, and pescetarian.  Never have I seen the same results in nutrition and weight loss that I have when I was eating vegan and eating very minimal amounts of processed foods (even canned vegetables and cereal count as processed - makes it difficult!)  When I did that, I lost weight quick, felt great, slept great, had improved attitude, and improved everything. An old friend of mine inspired me to start this blog up again, so thanks to you, C.

Right now, I'm about 200lbs, and I vowed to myself to never get over 200lbs again! So, here I am, back to write about my journey to my new goal, 165lbs. This would put me at a 23 on the BMI scale, right in the middle of the "normal zone" between 18-25. 165lbs is also significant, because the heaviest I have been was my freshman year in college, at 265. So weighing 165 will allow me to say "I lost 100lbs," which is just cool to brag about. haha.

Day 1 starts tomorrow, November 13th 2014. I've got 35lbs to lose - it will be much harder this time around. As you may know, weight loss is nonlinear - it's inversely expoential. The more you lose, the harder it is to lose (and the longer it takes). Similarly, the closer you get to your body's "ideal weight," the harder it is to lose. I originally started weighing around 240lbs, and it was very easy to get down to 220, but getting down to 180 was a little harder. Now that I weigh 200 and am trying to get down to 165, it's going to be quite a challenge.

Not sure if anyone is reading this - but it's good to get these thoughts out in the open to keep myself accountable and give myself a distraction from food...


GOAL:

35lbs in 90 days
2.75lbs per week

And the hardest part of all - there are two major holidays between now and my goal (Feb 12th, 2015) - Thanksgiving and Christmas. This will give me a chance to share some vegan versions of classic holiday dishes - like my Grandma's famous stuffing, made 100% vegan! And guess what - I made it last year and my family couldn't even tell. Also, my wife's vegan green bean casserole, and our vegan shepherd's pie.

I've learned a lot since going vegan two and a half years ago - I realize now that I can eat a lot more than just salads.

Month 4: Days 21 - 30, Month 5: Days 1-3

I've been lazy and haven't been posting. Sorry to anyone that cares...

I currently weigh 178lbs, and that makes me happy! I'm on the slow road to 165lbs, and still feeling good. I'm being very cautious not to get too excited - why? Well, as you start losing weight it can become addicting, so you can do silly things like "well, today I'm only going to eat fruits and veggies" and then at the end of the day you realized you were so busy you hardly ate anything, and then you just leave it and lose an unnecessary pound or two of water weight. You've GOT to keep eating throughout the day! It helps you lose weight much faster anyway, because your body is continually in the mode of digestion. If you drink water and eat when you wake up, around lunch time, a small snack in the afternoon, and have an early dinner around 6 or 7, and then have nothing but water and juice after 8, you'll be in good shape. Literally!

So far I've lost an average of about 3 pounds per week, but that's just from the shock of getting back on the diet strictly after the honeymoon. I've got 60 days until my target, September 1st, and I just have to lose 13lbs! Totally doable. So far I've lost nearly 50 pounds on the vegan diet, and nearly 80 pounds in the last two years of dieting. I'm now at a 32 waist, whereas a 38 was my only option a few years ago. I wear medium shirts, which used to be XL, and I used to have trouble sleeping, feeling full, and having energy throughout the day. Not anymore!

My hope is to lose some more weight, and do some cardio and training to get rid of some belly / love handle fat. Like most guys that were once very overweight, I also gotta do some chest training to minimize any manboob-ish formations.

One thing that is exciting is that I finally am in the "normal" range for my BMI numbers! This has not happened in I don't even know how long. My BMI is currently 24.8 kg/m sq. My freshman year in college weighing 256 and being 5'10, my BMI was 36.7, which in case you didn't know, is in the "Severely Obese" category. Now it's sitting at the top of the "Healthy" range of 18-25. When I weigh 165, it will be at 23.0!

I still haven't quit smoking, but I'm on the road to doing that as well. It's very strange how my story is so similar to everyone else out there. You think "ah, I won't get addicted to it." And then you do. Go figure. Jeez. I feel so stupid for getting into it in the first place. Trying to quit though. I know I have to!

Exciting times, these are.

Month 4: day 15 - 21

Still going strong! I'm back down to 180 and Just 15 pounds to go. I downloaded this cool app called TargetWeight Pro that helps you keep track of almost everything in your day to day health: blood pressure, pulse, cholesterol, weigh and BMI, etc but it also shows you visual representation of where you are in relation to normal ie healthy numbers. This is nice because not everyone knows that healthy BMI ranges from 18 to 25 and they may be surprise to see themselves in the obese category!

It also let's you set a goal date and loss amount and shows a graph of your progress. After each weigh in it tells you your loss average and keeps you informed about how fast you'll reach your target at this rate. A very cool and FREE app.

Been watching my habits as usual. It's so easy to Just grab something snacky and eat it on the way to work. The problem is that so few things in that category are actually even decent for you. It's almost impossible to even get fruit or moderately healthy snacks at the gas station. Sad really.

More to come!

Month 4: Days 11-14

So I was talking to a friend the other day who has recently started to take a look at what he's eating. We were talking about portion control, veganism, all sorts of different things, and somehow the topic came up and I listed these things as the biggest factors that helped me in my "diet." Now personally, I don't think "diets" work. I think lifestyle changes do. I chose to be a vegan, and it's changed my life for the better. I don't think "eating less" is necessarily a big enough change to be considered a lifestyle change, however, it's a GREAT thing to do. ANYWAY. Here they are in order:


1. Get enough sleep. This will affect everything about your life: your energy, your weight loss, your mood, your metabolism, your stress, your recovery from workouts. All of these things are affected by sleep. Get enough of it. 6 hours is not enough, more like 8 or 9. Go to bed early and wake up early. It's tough, but it's the most important part of dieting.

2. Drink water. A close second - drinking primarily water and a whole lot of it will help you in ANY type of diet or lifestyle. Drinking a glass of water in the morning when you wake up will jump-start your metabolism by 20% almost immediately.

3. Eat less, but more often. No matter what diet you're doing, this is good for you on so many levels. I suggest 4 meals a day - most Americans only have two real meals a day. Eat breakfast every day. This is the absolute most important meal of the day, so eat whole grains like granola, barley cereal, oats / oatmeal, and also eat lots of fruits. Don't load up on toast, meat and dairy, and especially not sugar.

4. Cut out sugars, salts, and oils. For some reason people still think that just because you pick out healthy produce, it's okay to still put a bunch of crappy stuff on top of it. We often cook in olive oil. Did you know Olive Oil is 120 calories per TABLESPOON? Did you know that all cooking oils and sprays are basically 100% fat? (to find the fat percentage, divide the calories by calories from fat - 100 calories, 50 calories from fat = 50% fat).

5. Discover your love for vegetables, fruits, and legumes! You will find things that you like, it just takes time. Trust me on that! These things are fantastic for you and will help you lose weight, especially raw fruits and veggies.

6. Be Aware of your Progress Constantly! Weigh yourself every day at the same time(s). Keep yourself in check and make small goals. Don't just sit there and be like "I'm going to lost 50 pounds!" You'll get discouraged every day that you're not there. Start with 5 pounds at a time, using each weight marker as a goal. 180, 175, 170...etc. Try hard to make your goals with yourself, and do whatever it takes. Buy one outfit a few sizes down. One pair of jeans and a shirt. Work hard to fit into that. Once you fit into it perfectly (as in, it's comfortable on your body) then GET RID OF YOUR OTHER CLOTHES! Don't let yourself be tempted. I got rid of hundreds of dollars of clothes to Salvation Army, and yes, had to buy new ones. But, it's worth it!

7. Don't give up! You will lose weight. You will lose inches. Be confident and surround yourself with people that care. Be patient. Read. Learn. Experiment. Cook.  Educate yourself!

Month 4: Days 6-10

So I'm finally back from my honeymoon and glad to say I only gained 5 pounds in the two weeks of the trip! Haha. I was expecting a lot more since I took a break from the vegan thing some days so I could have some amazing seafood in Seattle. But alas I've been back a whole day and a half and I'm circling around 183 lbs.

I've been debating a lot about the 155 goal I set before. I don't know if that's really going to look right on a guy with wide shoulders like myself. I don't know. I looked up some NBA point guards around 5'11 and most of them weigh like 170. Now these guys are in good shape...Skinny yet very muscular. It seems like that's more logical than being a tiny bean stalk, which is not my body type at all! Regardless, I'm going to continue on the path and once I hit 165 I'll reevaluate if I need to lose more fat or just start working out more. That's still 20 pounds from now so a lot can change! I'm excited.

Two of my friends Just decided to switch to a vegan lifestyle recently and that makes me very happy. It takes a lot of courage to do such a thing but it also takes a lot of willpower and motivation. Food is an addiction and I'm very certain that, as with any addiction, the hardest part is admitting you have a real problem. Overweight people don't deny their weight, but often they choose to ignore it, like it's not a problem, though they know in their heart they aren't happy with the way they look and most likely never have been. Trust me I know exactly what's up with that situation. My skinny wife has never experienced that, and we were joking about it the other day and it came up about how she doesn't understand what it's like to be overweight for most of your memorable life. It's hell! I know! This is exactly why I went on this "diet" in the first place. There comes a time when you just throw up your hands and say that's it I'm finally going to do something about this...

So to anyone reading and any of my friends that have changed their lifestyles, I commend you for taking an active role in your own health.

Month 4: days 1-5 (91-95)

So I've been enjoying life at sea for a few days now... But all the complimentary food has got me overeating. Gotta watch it, it's said that the AVERAGE cruise passenger gains 7-14 pounds per week! Crazy! It took me about a month to lose my last ten pounds and I know it could come back in a matter of days. Sure it's my vacation, maybe I should indulge a little, right? Maybe not I say. I've got a goal and a commitment to myself that I won't break.

I'm going to set some mini goals or milestones. My 155 goal is too far from here for it to seem doable so saying 175 by July 1st and 165 by August 1st helps it seem a little less challenging.

Weight loss is nonlinear. As you get closer and closer to your ideal weight it becomes harder and harder to lose the weight. When you first start out its easy to lose 10 or 15 pounds in an early week or two. That's good. Its behavior shock for your body. It gives you confidence and willpower. As you try so hard to lose just a pound or two per week towards the end, it gives you discipline. It makes you focus hard on what you're eating, when you're working out, and if you're pushing yourself to the limit.

Month 3: Days 26 - 31

This last week I got married to my lovely fiance, now whom I am proud to call my wife. I know it seems superficial of me to remember my weight on the day of our wedding, but it was 180lbs. I've been on my honeymoon for the last few days, and I've been enjoying it. Been breaking the vegan diet slightly so I can enjoy some great seafood in Seattle. WOW it's the best I've ever had. Been to SF Bay area, been to New England, and in my opinion Seattle is my favorite. Pike's Place is awesome with all of its shops, fresh produce and fish, flowers, dealers, etc. The atmosphere here is gorgeous and inviting, it's friendly and yet bustling. It's like a friendly New York with less crime and more environmental awareness...

I already reached my original goal of 185, and I've been slowly climbing down the weight ladder. I've been really debating what my new weight goal should be. According to three different medical websites, my BMI is 26, which is still one point over the highest I should be in the "healthy" BMI range. My wife's BMI is of course in the LOW range because she's skinny and can eat whatever she wants...makes me jealous.

My freshman year in college I weighed 256, which I just realized that made my BMI about 37...wow! Weird to see that on paper. That means that I was considered medically obese for my height. It was very upsetting to me even though I haven't weighed that much in over two years. Still, I feel like more people should see what they weigh in relation to their height so that they can realize where they stand in the scale of "low" to "high", "underweight" to "obese" etc. Check out this simple calculator:

http://www.everydayhealth.com/toolkit/weightcalculator/index.aspx


According to many different sources, a BMI ranging between 18 - 25 is normal, and 19 - 24 is considered "healthy." I decided what makes sense is to just select the middleground here and get right in the center of "healthy." By these figures, that'd mean a BMI of about 21.5 - let's just round to 22 for ease. Using this same website, I tried out some different figures and found that around 155lbs for a guy of my height (5'11) was a totally healthy, middle of the road figure for weight and BMI.

Now at first my natural inclination is to say "wow that's still 30 more pounds...isn't that too much?" but then I started to realize that this isn't necessarily factoring in appearance choice (i.e., men are usually "more attractive" when they are muscular builds, and sometimes weigh more than recommended) and same with women, who are generally "preferred" to look a little bit skinnier than their medically recommended weight. Many times these calculations do not factor in age, and since I'm in my early twenties, I feel like I'm not really in the "Test zone" for most of these medical figures. So I did some more research and found this other website...

http://www.icb2001.com/What_You_Should_Weigh.asp

This website you enter in your wrist circumference along with your height and your weight and it tells you what your frame size is. I don't know how exactly accurate this is, but it told me I should weight between 132 and 179...so...the average between the two is 155. Considering that's what my other figures showed up to be, the vote seems unanimous so far: I'm still slightly overweight, and I could stand to lose up to about 30 more pounds. Crazy!

So, my new weight goal is 155. That would put me right in the middle of the healthy zone. I know it seems like a huge milestone away because I've lost over 40 pounds on this diet so far and now I'm saying to myself "hey self, lose another 30," BUT I know from my belly and my arms that I could stand to lose some more weight, and one of the hardest things to admit to oneself is that when you have extra weight, you have it EVERYWHERE, not just your belly. So if you lose 30 pounds, you lose it equally all across your body, which may only translate to 10 pounds out of your belly and 20 from all other parts including your neck, back, arms, butt, and legs. 30 pounds really starts to not look like that much when you consider THOSE things!

155 here I come!

Month 3: Days 17 - 21

I swear to date I have told about 50 people about forks over knives. Everyone keeps asking me how I am losing all this weight and how I'm looking so good. It's simple, I tell them, all you have to do is adopt a plant-based diet and focus on whole foods and minimize sugars and oils and you can lose lots of weight and get yourself healthy.

I really don't want to gain a lot of weight on my honeymoon, though I feel like it will be very easy to do so... I really want to enjoy myself and try all that Seattle and Alaska have to offer but I also don't want to splurge. I guess in the end that just means that I have more self-control now because about a year ago I would've never said anything like this. It's funny I can't believe that I just said it myself.

My weight is circling around the hundred and eighty one pounds right now. I makes me feel very good because that means I've lost about 47 pounds on this diet so far. I know that most my updates recently have just been the same thing over and over, so today I figured I would do something a little different.

What I'm going to do is challenge you to ask yourself the following questions:

First, what is it that I am putting into my body every single day? Is there anything that I eat every single day? What about food groups that I eat every single day?

Do I eat enough vegetables? Do I eat enough fruits? How often do I use olive oil or vegetable oil or canola oil?

how often do I eat white bread or dyed sugars?

When was the last time I cooked something made from organic plant based food that I liked? Has there ever been a time like this?

What do my parents look like? Do I look like them? What medical issues are in my family? What should I focus on?

Do I understand how to read food labels? Do I know what saturated fats are and do I know how to find the percentage of Fat that a food product is?

Do I know what ingredients cause what reactions in my body? Do I know what ingredients cause me to retain fat and what ingredients caused me to help myself lose fat?

What are the health benefits of meat? Dairy? Are there any? How much protein do we actually need?

Month 3: Days 12 - 16

Today I'm tipping the scales at 184.2! That means I only have four more pounds to my previous goal weight. However I've decided to set a new goal weight of 177, which would mark an even 50 pounds lost being a vegan. It's very exciting- all of this. I'm very confident that I can lose the other 4 pounds in the next 11 days if I work out hard and stay strict on my diet. I certainly feel a lot better and I feel more confident about the way that I look, which is very hard for me to admit because I don't think I ever have before. I'm starting to really experience what many people experience when they look at themselves and wish that they were fit like all the people on P90 X. It's not even that those looking at those people think that they are fat or anything, it's just that they wish that they were very fit and muscular, which I'm really starting to understand and see the potential for now that I'm skinnier.

Once I reach my goal weight of 177 ish I will post three photos, the first of me on a day close to when I started my diet (March 1) when I weighed 227. The second will be me now weighing 177 so you can witness the total loss of 50 pounds in 3 months. Obviously it will be a real photo unedited so you can really see the effectiveness of a vegan diet without doctoring up the photos like they do on television. Then I will post a photo of myself just two years ago when I weighed 257 and I really decided at that point to get my health straight. From that day two years ago to today I will have lost 80 pounds. That is absolutely ridiculous to me!!! Cannot believe that I had just 80 pounds of extra weight sitting on me that I did not need. I am so excited to weigh 177 pounds. That's just seven more pounds from now!

I know it seems like I say it a lot but I can't explain how much better I feel, how much better I'm sleeping, and how much happier I am overall because everyone can tell and so can I! It seems like at least every day I have someone coming up to me saying"Kendal, bro you are looking so skinny!"

More soon

Month 3: Days 10 & 11

So today was the big day that I've been waiting for for quite a while... the day of my final tux fitting. Well in a word, it was great. The woman who is fitting me said I had lost a little over an inch in my neck and 4 inches in my chest, and even though the tuxedo pants range across three sizes, I may have jumped to the lower size bracket. For now at least we decided to keep the pants the same because she said it would be better to have a larger pair of pants that you tightened than a looser pair of pants that you had to loosen. Honestly I don't know if that's true but she said if don't like the way it fits I can just send it back within a couple of days because after all I'm the groom and they can get it rush shipped just for me, which I thought was really nice.

Aside from that, today was a very stressful day. There's lots of wedding drama that goes on, and I don't understand. I'm so thankful that my family has been very supportive and my friends have not said anything other than gracious things, and it upsets me that my fiancé has not been as lucky in that regard.

This month is extremely busy for me at the studio, first of all because I got my wisdom teeth out like I said, so I'm really backed up. Also, I have a lot of projects going on at one time and I'm trying to get them all at least somewhat finished if not completely finished before the wedding. So to put simply I'm trying to do four weeks of work in two and a half. I'm working the 4 or 5 local artists, one out of town artist, and one out-of-state artist, and scheduling and coordinating all of them gets very difficult. Like I told my students in the past, it's much more difficult to learn and do the business side of running a studio than it is the actual skill...

I currently weigh about 188. 39 pounds lost! My next goal on this path is to get down 180 by the wedding. I've still got 15 days, and while it won't be easy, and while I probably will have to work out and eat very very healthy, I'm pretty confident I can do it. Luckily I've got a ton of yard work to do in the next few weeks to prepare for the wedding, so I will be getting plenty of exercise. Not only that, but I'll be running on the studio like crazy. I was standing in the mirror this morning and I looked at myself and said "you know, I feel like I look a lot better, but now I still look like a lot of those 'average Joes' that submit their pictures to P90X." The people that aren't obese or fat, but aren't toned or ripped. So I guess that's my next challenge - get toned and or ripped, haha.

Like most people, I hate working out. I don't mind eating healthy, in fact I really enjoy it. However, working out is something that is not fun, not enjoyable, painful, and at that, takes a lot of time to actually get better. Another difficult thing is that a common misconception of working out is that you can spot target. When you work out, you can only spot tone. You can't just work out your arms until you have these huge muscly arms and then your stomach is still fat. I feel like I need to lose a little more weight via diet and cardio before strength training workouts will really be super effective. That is unfortunate because I hate cardio more than anything. haha.

Month 3: Day 8 (ish) and 9

It's the last day before my tux fitting. Today and yesterday have been filled with lots of delicious foods. I've been really getting into adding rice to my diet in interesting ways. It really goes great with so many things - and there are also just so many kinds of rices to choose from. Just rice and beans and corn tastes so good, and it's possibly the cheapest meal next to Ramen noodles. I got 1/2 can black beans, 1/2 can corn, and a cup of brown and wild rices from a bulk package, and made myself a seriously tasty and filling lunch all for what came out to be about $1.75.

With the whole wisdom teeth thing I've had to put a lot of my love for fruits on hold because hurts to eat them - apples, strawberries, berries, they've all been a little too tough to chew...bananas and small berries are fine, pineapple and oranges are fine, but I miss green apples. I was getting in the habit of eating about an apple a day, every day. Since, as you know, an apple a day keeps the doctor away...

My dad has been getting into the whole plant based diet and even bought his own copy of "Forks Over Knives." He's been reading books and really taking a look at what he eats, and I'm so, so, so glad. I read recently that Paula Dean was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. Forks Over Knives team contacted her and basically is trying to set up a partnership where she will try the plant based whole foods diet, and if it cures her diabetes, she can be a huge health advocate for plant based, whole food living. I mean, it's only expected - Paula Dean cooks with more butter, oil, and meat in one show than most people can afford to buy in a month. It's so so true that it DOES matter what you eat. It's not just about eating less of everything. You can't simply count calories. There are skinny people that have heart attacks. This would be a perfect opportunity for a national fanbase to see that -- it's very sad and I hope that Paula seriously considers working with Forks Over Knives.

Tux fitting is tomorrow at 1pm! I'm excited to see how many inches I've lost and what my new sizes are compared to my fitting in March.

Month 3: Days 7 & 8 (ish)

191, here I am. Things are looking up and I've still got three days left before the fitting. I've been trying to work out and eat light and healthy the last few days. Since I had my wisdom teeth out I've already been eating really light because of a) the pills for pain and swelling sort of upset my stomach and make it hard to really eat anything heavy or rich, and b) I can only eat soft foods anyway. So, there has been a lot of soup and smoothies going on, which are very low calorie without using dairy or meat products.

I've really been enjoying smoothies a lot because it's a nice way to combine lots of different fruits, getting lots of vitamins, and condensing them down to something a little more handy for the day. I can combine two apples, half a pineapple, a banana, and some strawberries all in the blender and make a smoothie for lunch that fits in a 1 liter mug. Otherwise, I'd have to bring all of those things together and spend 30 minutes eating it. Not that I can't spare 30 minutes, but on a day like today, I'm substitute teaching up at a vocational school in town, and it's just easier to munch all day rather than eat at the lunch break. You're walking around helping the students out with their projects, and you're on your feet for 6 hours - it gets tiring.

When I get my tux fitting I'm going to see if they had my very first measurements, which I got in March or February before I was really doing the vegan thing really seriously. Regardless, I'm excited to at least see how far I've come since the last measuring. As far as I can remember, I've lost about 18 pounds since then, which is significant! I'll be circling around 190  by Thursday and that makes me very proud. I'm really going to try to get down to 180 by my wedding, which is in EIGHTEEN DAYS. It's crazy! I feel like I just proposed the other day but it's been 8 or 9 months.

More soon!

Month 3: Days 1-6

I am now tipping the scales at a lean mean 192, making my total loss around 35 or 36 pounds. My final tuxedo fitting is in four days...the 10th. Not a ton more I can do in the next four days other than just keep doing what I'm doing and hope that I drop another pound.

It has all been very encouraging from people that know and love me that say I look skinny and I look healthy and I look great etc. The support and understanding of my friends, fiancé, and family has been outrageous and awesome. I really thought that me being a vegan would interfere a lot more with my normal life but it turns out that everyone is so happy for me and everyone sees the results and sees how much better I feel and how much healthier I look that they don't really ever make any negative comments. I guess the only hard thing is that it's a little hard to go out and meet with the guys since we usually want to go grab a couple of drinks but not many bars have a vegan friendly menu. Still I've made it work and it's all good!

I had to get my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday. I'm not going to say that it was an enjoyable experience but it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. However one of the coolest things happened to me while I was there about to get my surgery. The nurse was talking about how great it would be that I could eat ice cream and yogurt and soft foods like chicken noodle soup... she was very sweet but I laughed and said "that's funny because I can't eat any of those since I'm a vegan..."

Then to my surprise she looked at me and said you don't say your surgeon is a vegan... that's right Dr. Seagraves has been a be in for five or six months now. So Dr. Seagraves comes in the room and we start talking for a short bit. He was saying that he was proud of me for taking an active interest in my health and he asked me what made me change to the vegan lifestyle. I said you going to think I'm crazy but it was actually a documentary... and he smiled and pointed at me and said "Forks over knives?" we continued to laugh and smile when I realized that what he was saying was that FOK is what convinced him to become a vegan is well. Of all the surgeons in my entire city-- of all the operating times that I could have chosen--I happen to get a converted Forks over Knives vegan surgeon!!! It made my entire week.

My lovely fiancé's been very supportive of me this whole week and taking care of me when all I could do is sit around and lay and be in pain. Fortunately my pain was very minimal and my swelling was almost nonexistent. The hardest thing has been getting enough fiber, sleep, and not smoking cigarettes. Compared all of those things the toll this has had on my body is pretty minimal. I'm back to work tomorrow. and slowly working my strength up to eating more solid foods. Luckily since I've been on this vegan diet the food that I ate during my wisdom teeth days was not odd to me at all; things like smoothies, coconut milk, lots of fruit, hummus, and really soft things like oatmeal have slowly been seen in my diet much more often anyway. I feel bad for those that eat diets primarily of meat, bread, and starches because they would be miserable this entire time. I know that this diet came to my life at the perfect time.


posted from my iPhone