My Weight Loss Challenge – Confession to make

On my last post I told you that I was starting a 30 day weight  loss challenge and that for 30 days I was not going to eat outside my normal eating time, and that I was going to stick to all whole food plant based diet.
Well I have to confess that my challenge was not very successful. I am not looking for excuses, but I had too many changes in my life. I moved back temporarily to South Africa (that is another story for another day)/ Lots of work to do. I also visited my mum in Argentina. My father had passed away and I had not been .And I am just adjusting to live in a country which I thought I would never live in again.

But the good news is that I did not abandon my way of leaving at all. I still continue eating a starch based diet, but sometimes I ate things that were not very compliant with this lifestyle. Chocolates ate my weak point and when I get angry or anxious I go back to chocolates without thinking. But I am working on my anger and anxiety moods with tapping exercises.

I still did not have meat at all, except for once when I was invited to a friend’s house and she cooked this meal with tuna,. I had to eat it. That is something I Need to work on.

Years ago when I decided I was on a specific diet, I did not eat anything out of my diet, even if the President of the United States invited me for supper (not that this ever happened). But these days I feel really bad if I refused to eat something that someone prepared especially for me.

When visiting my mum, I ate mostly simple foods, like potatoes, and rice and vegetables, but on occasion I would be tempted by some ice cream, just one or two teaspoons of the delicious Argentine ice cream. Truth to be told, it did not seem as delicious as I remembered. But growing up these creamy ice cream was my favorite meal.

During this last visit to my mum, I was also good and did not get tempted to eat the typical alfajor (alfajor is a sweet made out of chocolate and caramel. very popular in Argentina and you can find it all over the shops). But my children had lots of them. I let them have it, because it was impossible to fight my mother on this. She would buy chocolates every day for my kids and herself. So my kids had a chocolate feast over there.

I returned to South Africa before Christmas. For Christmas we went to the beach, so I did not feel like preparing complicated meals as I was not cooking in my kitchen.
I had a very simple meal for Christmas lunch. My family wanted to have pizzas and they did not want my pizzas, so they had normal SAD pizzas. I, on the other hand, had two baked potatoes with lots of yummy vegetables on top.

The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!Forks Over Knives – The Cookbook: Over 300 Recipes for Plant-Based Eating All Through the YearThe China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term HealthForks Over Knives

After lunch we went to the beach and then we visited some relatives. They knew I was eating no animal products so they had prepared some salads for me. I had to eat them, even though they had oil. I Only ate a small portion, like a tablespoon of them together with some lovely steamed corn.

I spent a month with my mum, She has those gym scales my dad bought years ago. My dad used to weigh himself, first thing in the morning, every day. I weighed myself every day, and you will not believe it, but the scale never moved down. I was so frustrated. Some days the scale went up and then down to where it was previously, but never broke the 64kg (141 pounds)barrier.

After we came back from the beach, I weighed myself and I was down to 62kg(136 pounds) . I am using a different scale so not sure if it is a real reflection of my weight or not. But anyway I am happy that I am losing weight. I am sorry it did not happen as soon as I wanted to, but I think I am now more focused to lose my weight.

I know I have not been strict. Really two kilos in three months is nothing and you can say I did not try hard. And probably I have not tried hard.

My weight seems to get stuck at certain points. Like I will lose 3 kilos(6.6 pounds) and then get stuck for months on that. Then I lose another three and get stuck again. So although, I would love to achieve my goal quickly, I know that I will definitely achieve it.

I still have sweet cravings, and I am trying to get distracted when it does happen. I could always prepare a banana ice cream, but when I get those cravings I am almost ready to go to bed, and feel lazy to get the blender out. Another point is that I m not following the Maximum Weight Loss program because I still eat flour and pasta.

But I will start 2015 in track to lose all my weight. I will keep you updated , but probably when I had lost another few kilos, hopefully in the next two months.