All posts in category Diet

WIAW: Whole Foods Plant Based Diet

I stated on Monday that I was going back to a plant-based diet and I am now on day 4 and going strong.  I am already feeling lighter with more energy, and lets just say that last night was a whopper, yet I am not feeling tired at all (we’ll see how I feel come this afternoon!).  On a side note, I can’t wait until we get our third room finished for our new daughter.  She is the NOISIEST sleeper ever!  She grunts and makes all sorts of weird noises and when I get up to check on her she is totally asleep!  The first 3 months are the hardest, right?

Anyway, onto my Tuesday eats!  Thank you to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting this blogger get together every Wednesday!

Breakfast was eaten before I could snap a picture, but it was Oatmeal with ground flax-seed, vanilla soy milk, and frozen berries.  Not anything too exciting.

Lunch was leftovers from the night before and they were delicious:

IMG_0443Homemade veggie burgers dipped in BBQ sauce and a salad with mixed greens, cucumbers, avocado, and spicy hummus.  The recipe I used for the veggie burgers came from Oh She Glows and it is her Spicy BBQ Chickpea Burgers

I love the crunch that the sunflower seeds added, although, these would have been better on a bun (I forgot to get some from the store).  But I mus say they held together really well and it was a lot better than buying sketchy frozen veggie patties from the store with an ingredient list a mile long!

In the afternoon I saw that I had a banana and a zucchini that was on their last legs so I decided to make Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from Happy Herbivore. I love this recipe because my daughter calls them “cupcakes” and she will polish off 2 before I can blink my eyes.  She has no idea that is she is getting some fruits and veggies in each muffin.  My second pregnancy caused my first daughter to become a picky eater.  Too much eating out will do that to someone, so now I’m trying to get her back on the healthy eating band wagon a little at a time.

IMG_0445I added in some mixed fresh berries and it was a filling snack that held me over til dinner.

Dinner was something unexpected.  This week I meal planned and told myself that no matter what, I was going to stick to it.  Well, last night I realized that I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients I needed for at least two of the meals I was planning so I went in search of a recipe for something that I had the ingredients on hand for.

After a quick check of my Google Reader I found a recipe that looked easy and delicious: Coconut Ginger Curry Rice Bowl From PB Fingers.  Who doesn’t love a one pot meal?  The only problem is that I had run out of brown rice and had to sub with white.  The great thing was that it was done and on the table in less than 30 minutes.

IMG_0447I wish that I had fresh broccoli instead of frozen, but it works in a pinch.  I will be having leftovers of this for lunch.

After getting back on the plant-based bandwagon I am feeling great.  My cravings are going away and the scale even gave me some motivation this morning by showing me a lighter number.  My only concern is that I feel like my breast milk supply has gone down a bit.  I can’t tell if I am just being paranoid or if my little babe is eating more than normal.  I’m monitoring it for the next few days and it is probably in my head.  Other than that I’m feeling great, and only T-4 days until I can start exercising again (hopefully I will get the clear at my 6 week postpartum appointment next Monday).

Have a happy Wednesday!

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by Shrinking Carrie on May 15, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Breast Feeding, Challenges, Commitment, Diet, Energy, Goals, Good Food, Health, Health Benefits, Link Love, Making It Happen, Meal Planning, Plant Based Diet, Postpartum, Recipes, Weight Watchers, WIAW

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 15, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/05/15/wiaw-whole-foods-plant-based-diet/

Happy Mother’s Day to Me!

After having an absolutely horrendous week of eating whatever I could think of I decided to give myself a Mother’s Day present:  I’m going back to eating a plant-based diet.

The life of a mom with a newborn is taxing and I can feel it wearing on me daily.  The nights are a little rough and the days can get long and demanding.  With 2 kids and a husband I often feel like I get pulled in three directions constantly.  What better gift to give myself than the gift of health?

I had a wonderful talk with my husband about a week ago and it involved excuses.  I was going on about how when I get to six weeks postpartum it will get easier because I can exercise.  He totally called me out on my crap and said “you always say it will be easier when…”  fill in the blank.  I know that I have thought about these excuses before and light bulbs constantly go off in my head and I have plenty of AHA moments.  The problem is keeping myself motivated.

Do or do not, there is no try.

I thought I would take a little advice from Yoda and not put the word TRY into this post.  I almost wrote that I was going to TRY and get back to a plant-based lifestyle, but then I got taken back to my retail management days and I would get so annoyed when people said they would TRY to do the thing I was asking them to do.  It basically meant that they had an easy out clause with the word TRY.

This week will be all about getting myself back on track with eating (it is 70% of weight loss).  I’ve given myself permission to eat as much as I want to this week, but the only stipulations are that it has to have vitamins and nutrients of some sort, not be to grain heavy, and cannot come from an animal.  I’ve meal planned and I told the hub’s I don’t care if it doesn’t sound good the night I’m suppose to make it, that’s what we are eating.  He is surprisingly on board (I will mention that after this last pregnancy he is the heaviest he has ever been, and is motivated to lose some pounds).

I’m hoping that I will see great results like the last time I practiced this diet.  I lost weight, started sleeping better, was in a better mood, and I just felt great!  I’ve already had a great first day (which was Sunday, Mother’s Day mind you) and I am excited to get through this first week.

And because a post is always better with a picture, here are my two girls hanging out in our 80 degree house in their diapers (Air conditioner gets serviced on the 16th and it can’t happen soon enough!):

944667_4808877061090_1537861817_nHappy Monday!

2 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on May 13, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Challenges, Commitment, Daily Struggles, Diet, Goals, Health, Making It Happen, Meal Planning, Mindless Eating, Motivation, New Mind-set, Nutrition, Plant Based Diet, Postpartum

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 13, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/05/13/happy-mothers-day-to-me/

WIAW: What Nursing Mom’s Eat

One of the major things I notice when I start nursing is that it seems like I am STARVING all.  the.  time.  It doesn’t help that my little one is kind of a little piggie and I feel like she is taking most of my calories.

So like I said last week, I joined Weight Watchers Online  and my daily allotted points are 55.  It seems crazy high to me, but I will try it out for a few weeks and see what kind of results I get.  My real strategy is to eat as many 0 point foods as possible throughout the day and hopefully that will make all the difference!

Thanks to Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for helping me to stay accountable for my eats every Tuesday.  Dustin says that I need to document my weekend eats and that I always eat perfect on Tuesdays because I will have to blog about it.  Maybe next week.

I am happy to say that I stuck very closely to my plan yesterday and I didn’t end up being hungry at all throughout the day.  Small victories people.

Breakfast:

  • IMG_04222 eggs, plus 2 egg whites
  • 1/4 an Avocado
  • Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat Bread
  • 1 Tbs. Justin’s Almond Butter
  • Blackberries and Strawberries

Here is what my WW tracker looked like:

Picture 1Lunch:

IMG_0424

  • Low Carb Whole Wheat Tortilla
  • Grain Mustard
  • 6 oz. Peppered Deli Turkey
  • 1/2 Avocado
  • Brocco Sprouts
  • Baby Carrots
  • Cantaloupe

I really didn’t think that my lunch was going to last me all day and so I added in a Chobani Pineapple Greek yogurt for a little sustaining power, and it seemed to do the trick.  Here is how lunch tracked:

Picture 2Dinner:

IMG_0426The blurry pic is because it was STEAMING hot.  This Red Curry soup has been a stand by in my kitchen the last few weeks.  It is incredibly easy to make and you can always use different ingredients of whatever you have on hand.

  • Red Curry Paste
  • Chicken Broth
  • Coconut Milk
  • Carrots
  • Onions
  • Red Pepper
  • Red Potato
  • 6 oz. Chicken
  • 1 Cup Brown Rice

This meal was a little high in points, but I think it’s because I over estimated to make sure I wasn’t cheating myself.  Here is how it turned out:

Picture 3

Even after over estimating I still have 7 points left at the end of the day.  I think they will be spent on a Chobani with berries.  That leaves me with 3 points left.  Not bad.

Eaten anything memorable lately?

6 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on May 1, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Breast Feeding, Challenges, Daily Stats, Diet, Good Food, Link Love, Meal Planning, Nutrition, Weight Watchers, WIAW

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 1, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/05/01/wiaw-what-nursing-moms-eat/

My Two Goals for 2013

I totally ditched resolutions this year.  Being pregnant, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to make huge strides this year like in the years past.  I can’t really “work out harder” or “lose 60 pounds” (although, I would love to be one of those women who says that breast-feeding helped them lose all the baby weight, but if past experience has taught me anything it is likely not in the books).  Instead of making a lengthy list of resolutions I decided that I would work on two different goals this year, and they both require only the first 3 months of the year.  Who knows maybe I’ll get ambitious in April and make some more hard-core goals, but until then I’m focusing on what is in my control as of now.

1.  Stay as close as possible to my current weight while maintaining a healthy pregnancy.  When I was pregnant with my first, my midwife (who I have changed since) told me that if I wanted to I could actually lose weight while I was pregnant and still have a healthy baby.  When you are 250+ pounds you have all you need to keep that baby growing for 40 weeks.  I gained 20 pounds with Hanna and I tipped the scales at 296 pounds.  I was miserable.

Currently I weigh 271 pounds which is 19 pounds up from my lowest weight of 152 pounds.  I must admit that I am pretty pleased with the fact that I have seemed to keep my weight in check even though I feel like my eating has been out of control at times.  It was probably all of that walking I did in the first 4 months I was pregnant.  And if I want to get technical (and lets face it, it will make me feel better) I didn’t get pregnant until after the fourth of July and I started my pregnancy at about 260 pounds so I could say I have only gained 11 pounds since I got pregnant (wow, I feel so much better now).

With the temperatures being in the negatives in the mornings and not getting above 25 degrees during the day, I consider it child abuse to take my child out in a stroller for 45 minutes everyday.  That, and my entire street is covered in a sheet of ice that would have me practicing ice skating the second I stepped onto its glassy surface.

This takes me to the gym.  Normally,  (and by normally I mean when I lived 5 minutes away from my gym which had child care) I have no problem going to the gym.  Last year at this time I was going with no problems 6 days a week and working out for an hour a day.  Since moving, someone has been trying to test my gym going abilities by opening the gym at 8:00 (WTH?), and closing at 9:00.  This wouldn’t be a problem if my husband wasn’t out the door at eight and since his job has no set hours (oh wait, 24/7, on call always) I never can plan the times that I can get there.  This forces me to stand by the door in my gym clothes so I can pounce at the chance to get in a 30 minute walk or 40 minutes on the elliptical, if I have the energy still.

Excuses, excuses.

I’ll be honest and say the best way possible I can keep this goal is to completely cut out sugar and decrease my carb intake.  Here is the carb count for a diabetic:

Breakfast: 30 grams
Lunch/Dinner: 45 grams
Snacks: 15 grams

For fibrous foods with over 3 grams of fiber you can subtract out the amount of fiber from the carbs.  Example:  An English Muffin that has 27 grams of carbohydrates and 6 grams of fiber would count as a total of 21 grams of carbohydrates.

Even still, that is not a lot of options.  Especially for someone who is trying to keep her meat and dairy intake on the low side.

Still this may sound like lot of complaining, but it could be the sugar detox talking and I’m sure by next week I will be okey dokey.  To sum up:

Exercise even if it is a pain to find the time, and cut out all processed sugars.  Totally doable.

2. Have a healthy labor and a healthy baby.  I know I only have so much control over this, but mind over matter, right?  With Hanna I ended up having to have a C-section, and this go around I am trying for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).  This means that I cannot be induced and have to go into labor naturally.  I will do what I need to do to get the baby out safely, and keep myself safe so we’ll see how this works out, it may be Caesarean city for this girl, but I gotta try!

Did you make resolutions?  How are they coming along?

2 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on January 8, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Challenges, Commitment, Diet, Gestational Diabetes, Goals, Making It Happen, Pregnancy

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on January 8, 2013

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2013/01/08/my-two-goals-for-2013/

Somethings Working…

Nothing starts my weekend off the right way better than a good weigh in:

Starting Weight: 282.8 Pounds

Last Week’s Weight: 256.8 (which I just realized looking back at last week’s post I recorded 264.8 which was a few pounds off, and thank goodness that wasn’t true!)

This Week’s Weight: 252.2

Total Week’s Loss: -4.6 Pounds!

Total Loss: 30. 4 Pounds

What worked this week:

  • Continued with my 90 day no caffeine rule (I have since turned it into a no carbonation at all rule).  I don’t think I realized how badly an effect caffeine and soda (even diet soda) were having on my body.  I’m not going to lie, I truly believe I have been seeing such great losses these last couple of weeks because I have 100% cut it out.
  • I continued to eat a 90% Plant based diet.  And I have a secret arsenal that I will blog about later that has helped me kick chicken stock (something I’ve been having a hard time letting go of).
  • I have been doing some form of exercise everyday even if it is cleaning (which I did for 5 hours on Monday, and that burned some major calories).
  • My hub’s was eating healthy as well.  It is so much easier to eat healthy when your significant other is on the bandwagon with you!  I cannot stress this enough and besides the whole caffeine thing having my hub’s really trying at being healthy helped me out enormously!
  • I tried some new recipes.  Healthy eating is always more fun when you are trying different things.  I even measured out a vegetable dip that I made today and I will share the recipe with you all next week.  Getting creative in the kitchen is so much fun, and cathartic if you ask me.

What a great way to start off a weekend!  The hub’s and I are going to the big city to do food shopping tonight and I mentioned going out to dinner.  He told me he does not want to sabotage his weigh in on Monday, and I could not have been more pleased with that response.

Have a great weekend everyone!

8 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on July 20, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Caffeine, Diet, Dustin, Weigh in

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on July 20, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/07/20/somethings-working/

He’s All Mine (Muwahahaha)

Imagine me rubbing my hands evilly while reading that title.

Let it be known that nagging works.

People may hate it when the nagging begins, but it proves they will do almost anything to get it to stop.

Take my own life’s experience.  Nag your husband long enough to get on the healthy bandwagon and it is inevitable that he will eventually get sick of your nagging and cave.  Especially when you tell him that it would help you out on your own weight loss journey (not that I haven’t used this argument before, but apparently something I said stuck.  Now only if I could remember what it was?).

This week Dustin is mine.  He’s actually legally mine by marriage, but this time I have complete control over everything that goes into his body.  Food wise anyway.

We’ve decided to try a little experiment to see how my diet affects his diet.  He will be eating (mostly) the same kind of things I eat, and he will be going to the gym a minimum of 5 times this week.

He weighed in this morning at 226.  We had a weekend of semi-indulgence (we weren’t as bad as we normally are on the weekends) so I’m sure some of his weight loss is water weight.  But the whole point is that I’m hoping he will be able to feel a difference, and in turn it will help him and also help me.  We have already fully admitted that we are enablers and this week we will be playing different roles in each others food lives.  I’m pretty excited!  And I’m not letting the fact that he’s giving me a pouty face while eating raw carrots at lunch, dampen my spirit.

When I ask him what he’s going to have for breakfast he says “I don’t know?  What do YOU want me to eat for breakfast?”.   I then made him a chocolate, banana, peanut butter protein shake (under 400 calories).  I was trying to ease him in with something delicious, and to please his pallet I made it sans kale.

But there will be kale this week.  Oh so much kale.

Watch out Dustin.  You may like a healthy lifestyle yet.

5 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on July 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Awesomeness, Challenges, Diet, Dustin

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on July 16, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/07/16/hes-all-mine-muwahahaha/

Will I Ever Learn?

Sweat it Out:
50 minute hilly walk burning 500 calories
triceps/biceps/shoulders/lats weights

Every time I say “this is the last time ever”, I mean it.  And then a new day comes along and my resolve goes out the window.  Motivation is fleeting and so is trusting yourself when you say with matter-of-fact “this really is the last time!”.

The past 3 days I have been on a bit of a detox.  From what?  Oh, I’m sure if you’ve been reading my blog for some time you will already know that I have an addictive personality, and that caffeine is one of my BIGGEST vices.

Some of you may be thinking “caffeine is not that big of a deal, you could be addicted to something much worse than harmless old caffeine”.  I try to tell myself this too.  The only thing is that I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me that caffeine is slowly going to killing me.  Dramatic much?

The thing is, being the independent person that I was brought up to be, I hate the fact that if I go half a day without a drop of caffeine I get headaches.  If I go a full day of having no caffeine I start to get body aches.  I don’t think those are signs that caffeine is good for your body.

I went cold turkey like this last year and it worked for quite some time.  Then they came up with Dr. Pepper 10.  Damn you soda makers!  The hub’s and I had a love affair with this drink for quite sometime and after I got up to 3 cans a day (that was nothing compared to how I use to drink Diet Coke back in the day) I knew I was falling back into old patterns.

These 3 cans wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t gone back to an even worse habit of starting my day off with 2 Excedrine every morning.

So now I have been taking Excedrine daily, and then sprinkling in extra Diet DP 10′s throughout the day.  I’m a mess.  I wish I could say that it was helping me lose weight, but I didn’t see a drop in the scale one bit even though I felt like these things were curbing my appetite.

So what have I done?

Quit Cold Turkey.

This concerns the hub’s.  I told him if I don’t do it all at once I will never get off the stuff and I will feel awful forever (once again, so dramatic!).  The past 3 days I have had a constant headache, irritability, and I am so tired I fight every time Hanna goes down for a nap to not put myself down for one as well.

The only thing I can think of to help myself stay off the juice is by rewarding myself with something after a period of time with none of the junk that I get myself roped back into every few months.

I’m proposing a 90 day caffeine cleanse, and vow to have no form of caffeine enter into my body.  I’m trying to talk my hub’s into letting me get the Jillian Michaels 90-day Body Revolution if I complete the cleanse (get it, 90 days of “soberness”, and then 90 days of body revolution), but he is leery of how much money I will be spending on my prize.  Don’t worry guys, I’ll wear him down.

Or I may just buy this shirt for my reward.

7 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on July 11, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Addiction, Caffeine, Challenges, Commitment, Daily Struggles, Diet, Energy

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on July 11, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/07/11/will-i-ever-learn/

Shhh…. Don’t Tell Him That It’s Healthy

I’m Back!  I had SO much fun being at girls camp last week, but to say I’m happy to be home and trying to get back into my routine would be an understatement.

One thing that I am trying to do this week is DETOX.  I failed to mention last week that the theme of our camp was “Candy Land”.  There was candy everywhere!  Anyone who knows me knows that I have a MAJOR sweet tooth.  Chocolate and ice cream are two of my biggest problem foods. When I got home on Saturday I felt sluggish, dirty, and tired, and I’m sure the crappy eating was one of the bigger issues for having those feelings.

On Sunday I sat down and made a diet detox plan for the week and I am forcing myself to stick with it so that I will feel better.  Even after only two days of getting some real greens in me and no sugar I feel about 80% better.

I also splurged this week and had Kombucha make a come back!

My body is in some serious need of getting the bad out and the good in.

I also made a Sam’s Club run this week and stocked up on fresh fruit.  I may have gone a little crazy and I now cant fit anything in my fridge, it is PACKED.

This morning while reading blogs I came across a recipe from my favorite Vegan website Oh She Glows I may be a little obsessed with her recipes.  It was for a jam, and coincidentally I had just ran out of jam, and had all of the ingredients on hand, shocker.

Try this recipe now: Magical Blueberry Vanilla Chia Seed Jam

IMG_1224

Photo Credit is of course to Angela over at Oh She Glows since she is a FAR better photographer than I, and I don’t want to disrespect her recipe!

The hub’s loves jams and jellies so when I told him that I found an easy jam recipe he was in full support of me using some of our overly stocked fruit to make this Magical Blueberry Vanilla Chia Seed Jam.  The even better thing is that it is actually a HEALTHY jam.  Why I never thought of Chia seeds for a jam recipe is beyond me.  I have been learning so much about plant-based cooking that one day I might just venture out and start trying to create some of my own recipes.  But until then Oh She Glows is my top go to for delicious & quick vegan meals.

But don’t tell my husband that it’s healthy, k?

4 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on June 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Blogs to Read, Candy, Challenges, Diet, Energy, Kombucha, Link Love, Meal Planning, Plant Based Diet, Vegan

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on June 26, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/06/26/shhh-dont-tell-him-that-its-healthy/

Running Day 1

I use the term “running” very loosely considering it was more like a very slow jog.  Back in the day (early 20′s), I could run 5 miles a day at 6 mph.  My cool down was a brisk walk at 4 mph.

Yesterday I was “running” at 4.2 mph.  Oh how the mighty have fallen.  I know that seems kind of downer, but trust me, yesterday was pretty monumental for me.  I actually STARTED my workout with a runner’s high, and it was a great warm-up for the 25 minutes on the elliptical I did after.  It left me a pretty sweaty mess:

And that folks is an award-winning zit right there.

What I Felt Like During the run

To my lungs the run felt effortless.  In fact, I was barely breathing when I was done with the 6 minute intervals of walking and running.  I was kind of surprised.  On the second minute of running I decided to kick it up a notch and upped it to 4.5.  My lungs felt fine and I still was not getting my heart rate up very much, but then my left knee started to get a dull pinch in it so I put it back down to a 4.  The pain was in my left knee, which is strange because usually there is a small pain in my right leg (the leg I fell on, and injured myself with when I was 21).

The only thing I can say is that I am still very overweight and for right now listening to my body is best.  If I have to keep the pace lower so that my aches and pains subside I will do just that.  The weight will start to come off, and my lungs and body will sync up perfectly, I have no doubt.  I will not quit this running program just because I can’t go as fast as I want to go.  It will come with time.

On the Diet Front

For the first time in a week and a half I have seen a loss on the scale.  I changed a few things in my diet and I think it has made a difference.  I’ve added some more protein and I think it has been the missing puzzle piece.  I’ve started eating chicken and eggs again (mostly egg whites).  It seems like it’s the only way I can get my protein high enough without going over on my  carbs and calories.

I truly believe that there is no one way for people to eat.  I think that many people thrive in different kind of diets, and you have to pick the one for you.  Even on the weeks that I was eating perfectly I was not seeing losses, and felt like I was depriving myself of foods that could help me in my weight loss, and now I can say that I have honestly done something long enough to see how it affects my body, and adding meat back into my diet has not affected my energy levels at all.  Which is great!

So there you have it.  My first day running, although a little frustrating, was a success!  The thing that keeps me going is knowing that I will improve.  I have nowhere to go but up!

 

6 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on May 15, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Challenges, Commitment, Diet, Energy, Making It Happen, Running, Workout

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on May 15, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/05/15/running-day-1/

Wanna be a “Skinny Bitch”?

Shocking title?  I know.  It is the exact same thing I thought when I went into Borders 5 years ago and purchased the book titled “Skinny Bitch”.  Do you thrive on tough love?  Do you like being called a Fat Cow?  Then this is the book for you!

I don’t know about you, but I tend to keep a healthier diet when I am reading books that promote a healthy lifestyle. I actually first read this book back when I first purchased it in 2007 and I had no idea what I was in for.  I will admit that the title totally got me (and the writers fully admit that is the reason why they titled the book the way it is).  So when I was looking for good books to read recently, I decided that I would read this book again and brush up on the lifestyle that I was too scared of back then.

The first chapters title is “Give it Up”, and then proceeds to list items in your diet that you should give up, and reasons why you should give them up.  Basically everything that was in my diet at the time. Dairy, meat, caffeine, candy, and anything else you can think of that makes your taste buds have a party in your mouth (at the time).  I was thinking that the diet they were promoting would be more South Beach, or Mediterranean, since those were the “hot” diets at the time.  I thought to myself, “I’ll get this book and just keep reading the same old, same old”, but I found very different information than what I was use to.

This book is written by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, both former models, and Kim holds a Master’s Degree in Holistic Nutrition.  I will say that they are straight forward with their tactics on how to get fit and healthy.  This works well for me, or at least I take it well, I should say.  I remember it was around 6 years ago when I went to an Endocrinologist because I wasn’t getting a period regularly.  The blunt Doctor told me I was too fat and that I needed to lose weight.  At the moment I was offended and kind of wanted to cry until I told myself “she’s right, and just because she didn’t use the best tactic doesn’t make it any less true, and she wasn’t saying it to be mean”.

Anyway, I like the book’s straightforwardness.  It also has an entire chapter dedicated to poop (my favorite subject), and how a plant-based diet helps you to move things along.

It gives you information on government agencies and the role they play with our food, and without getting too controversial, I will just say that the chapter is titled Have No Faith: Governmental Agencies Don’t Give a Shit About Your Health, and I have to admit, the proof is in the Pink Slime (if you have never heard of Pink Slime, click to link to a shocking demonstration of how 70% of America’s meat is containing this HORRIBLE concoction of meat and chemicals) .   I like the tagline in this chapter that states “Trust No One”.  It empowers you to get to know your food and the ingredients.

The one thing I found hard with this book is that I felt overwhelmed.  There were so many things that you feel like you have to cut out of your diet at once it seemed impossible and frustrating before you even started the method.  My advice for people who want to do a major overhaul in their diet is to make one small change at a time.  A big step for me this year has been the Vegan kick-start that I did in January, and now in April, but I also realize that my hub’s will never be a health guru and that I am going to have to compromise on a few things (like not completely cutting out meat products).  So on the weeks that I have not been doing the kick-start we have meat products at dinner every other night.  This is a big step considering we are used to eating meat multiple times a day.  Eventually I hope to get it down to 2-3 times a week, but like I said, small changes at a time.

Bottom line for this book:  It was entertaining, gave good information, and was definitely food for thought. I still think that meat in moderation is okay for you, but I do think that you need to research where you are getting your meat, and purchase the highest quality you can find.  An example that I just can’t get out of my head is the fact that my Grandma is 92 years old, in great health, and has eaten meat and dairy her entire life, in moderation.

Do I recommend this book?  Absolutely!  If for anything it will definitely make you laugh!

4 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on April 10, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, Book Review, Books, Diet, Nutrition, Plant Based Diet, Poop, Vegan

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on April 10, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/04/10/wanna-be-a-skinny-bitch/

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