Weight: 3/4 kg down (3.5 down, 5.5 to go)
Originally, I’d intended this post to be titled “It’s not Just about the Diet”.
But, actually, it is. Six weeks in, this diet is still very/overly challenging & time-consuming. I’m spending an inordinate amount of time on diet-related activities: thinking about, preparing, and engaging in meals, exercise, and some degree of mindfulness. My life will regain more balance…but not, it seems, just yet.
So I’ll reserve that title for a future post. This week’s will instead focus on my delight at finding a number of online sources of inspiration/consolation.
There are so many blogs about diet, veganism, weight loss, wellness, balance, etc. etc.
The best have great recipes, beautiful photos, and good writing. Here are a couple I actually subscribed to:
Want more? There’s a well-organized list of popular health & cooking blogs here.
I was struck by the About pages of many of these sites. Most of the owners are women who are young and beautiful. Clearly, following their advice is bound to make us readers young and beautiful, too. (So, then, if you’re a man, you may not want to read them.)
Not convinced? Me neither. So one disappointment is that reading these blogs may not make me young & beautiful. Another is that I can’t actually use most of the recipes.
I used to think that a vegetarian diet was too limiting. But once I started on a vegan diet, vegetarianism suddenly seemed very liberal. And now, compared with the Flay-y program, veganism is downright hedonistic.
With vegetarianism, got rid of meat, poultry, and fish. With veganism also scotched any animal-related products like eggs and dairy. But with Flax-y, the limitations are even more draconian; no: nightshades, gluten, soy products, fruit (except apples), nuts (except small amounts of almonds), salt, sweets (except 2 tsp. royal jelly per day). Other no-nos that severely limit my choices: canned food, GMO produce.
I’d never before realized just how many of my vegan recipes are based on canned tomatoes…
So, yeah, I like looking at the pretty pictures on the vegan blogs–but can’t actually prepare most of the recipes. At least not now.
Initially, I’d committed to this program for 3 months (till January). I’m half way through now, and can conceivably continue till I reach my target weight — which at this rate may be by mid-February. But after that, all bets are off.
Mindful Eating 