Day 44

The good news is that I am down 12.1 pounds in 44 days. The even better news is that I feel great and am seeing the weight loss as a side effect of great health.

Once again, I have failed at my daily post commitment. I am still doing really great. Here is a recap.

Last weekend, I volunteered for a charity bike ride and was put to work in the kitchen. I stuck to my plan 100% and wasn't even tempted. I brought my own food and was surprised at how many folks commented on how good it looked. I met a guy that is doing a similar diet, so I shared my steamed sweet potato and kale with him. He was grateful! My job was to saute veggies for the pasta sauce and was told to use the 'fake margarine' but I decided to use water instead. I figured that there was already enough oil. It was my secret contribution to the health of the riders.

On Sunday night, my g/f and I were both really tired from volunteering all weekend, so we went to the Weary Traveler for dinner. I have been craving meat for the past two weeks and so decided I would have carne asada that comes with organic, local beef, pico de gallo, pickled veggies and guacamole. I thought my body responded well, but on Monday night I had a horrible displasia / fibromyalgia flare up. This may have been due to being on feet so much, but I hiked a 6 mile mountain in South Dakota and felt great. I really think this may have been the meat and will need to experiment further.

I actually don't really even like meat very much. Over the past 5 years I have rarely eaten meat and have gone through periods of being vegan off and on. Even when I do eat meat, it is usually only once per month or so. Giving up dairy is not hard at all and I feel much better, but I still would like to be able to eat meat on occasion provided that it won't cause a flare up each time.

I went to a community dinner function on Monday and helped in the kitchen as well. The theme was all vegan and the food looked great, but I only ate some of the bean salad b/c the other food had rice, seitan, oil, and or sugar and those are foods I am avoiding. The bean salad had black beans, mango, papaya, avocado, red onion, sweet potato, and a "green" dressing of cilantro and a mango flavored vinegar. It was really, really good. I will try to get the recipe to post it.

Yesterday, I was home all day in a lot of pain due to my flare up. Breakfast was a smoothie with 2 oranges, a bunch of kale, vitamins, water, 1/2 cup of almond milk, and a banana.

Lunch was left over bean salad and a bit of left over tofu with Bragg's, Mrs. Dash and sesame seeds.

Dinner was super yummy and was an ear of steamed sweet corn, 1/2 green pepper, steamed green beans, oil free hummus (bountiful bean), and little tomatoes from my friends at Young Earth Farm.

Breakfast today was 2 oranges, 3 tiny apples from the farmer's market, and 1.5 oz of sunflower seeds. Lunch is salt-free veggie soup from Health Valley, green pepper, a cucumber, tomatoes, and hummus.