Losing Weight On A Vegan Diet?

Today's blog post is about losing weight on a vegan diet. Many people turn to veganism for health reasons. No matter why you turned vegan, welcome and congrats!! You've made an important and fantastic change to your life. It's not always going to be easy, but you know it's the right thing to do and for that you deserve to feel proud!

Anyway, I disgress, as per usual....when you watch videos on youtube or read about these unbelievable transformations that people make after turning vegan, you're all pumped up and ready to go and, after 2 weeks of eating plants-based, you're not feeling energized, you haven't lost any weight and all of a sudden you're starting to doubt yourself. Well, I'm here to tell you DON'T!!

For many people, myself included, it doesn't happen right away - especially if you don't have a ton of weight to lose. When I turned vegan, I felt like shit at the beginning. I was tired, had massive mood swings and also ups and downs in energy. Some day I would wake up and feel like running 10k and other days I wanted to sleep 12 hours straight. Yes, I was eating enough, yes, I was getting all of my nutrients (tracked them on cronometer.com like a good little vegan) and I was eating very clean. Now some people might say you're detoxing or your metabolism is healing. I call bullshit - you don't detox for months and I don't believe in a minium 'must-eat' of calories. To me, that just promotes listening to a number instead of your body. We are all very different, some more active than others, with a very different body composition. A small woman with a sedentary lifestyle won't need that many calories. Eating towards a number without considering how much you really need or burn isn't what you should be aiming for - see it as a guideline instead.

Back to my start as a vegan. I put on a couple of pounds initially. Not a lot but I certainly didn't lose any. I believe one reason is that I allowed myself to eat anything I wanted as long as it was vegan and moderately healthy. If I wanted another burrito, I would have it. I benefitted from that in many ways:

1.) I didn't crave any non-vegan food ever - Because I was so full and hit all of my nutritional needs, I didn't have a craving for animal products. My body simply had everything it required.

2.) I stopped craving junk - This was definitely a slow process, BUT it happened. From eating chocolate and sweets every day, I now crave fruit 9 times out of 10 and if I want a muffin, I'll eat it. My tastebuds have changed over time and most things taste overly sweet to me now. 

After around 3 months, I started becoming more aware of my body and its needs. I experimented with food, found out that masses of fruits don't work for me and that I prefer lighter meals. I now recognize hunger, can easily pinpoint what satisfies me or what my body needs and, hello, I started losing weight. I didn't even realize it at first, it just happened naturally. Then it stopped for a while and now I'm slowly losing a pound here and there again. I feel much more balanced and have embraced intuitive eating. Having the connection to my body that I do now is the greatest gift veganism has given me so far. 

As always, the moral of the story comes last. Well, all I want to tell you is, not everyone miraculously loses weight and feels amazing right away on a vegan diet. For some it takes time, it takes experimenting a bit and finding out how your body ticks. Don't give up, embrace the journey and be proud of the decision you've made!!

What I Ate Today: vegan edition + recipe

Just as a foreword, I'm not a vegan, nor am I a vegetarian. I eat meat occasionally but very rarely, and I'm trying to decrease my intake of animals products more and more. My aim is to make as many of my meals vegan as I possibly can. Some substitutes are really easy to make, and I've never been a big fan of dairy or eggs anyway. Regularly, I try not only to eat one vegan meal a day, but to have a complete vegan food day. Eating vegan just makes me feel good mentally and physically. My energy levels are much higher, I don't get tired after a meal or bloated, and my headaches have become less. On top of that, it is so much easier to keep my weight in check and I find I can eat more vegan food and feel satisfied and full, than if I were to eat a regular meal. At this point I don't think I'll ever be 100% vegan, but my aim is to consume more clean, plant-based foods and make them a priority in my diet.

Breakfast: 1 spelt flour roll with hummus and veggies + 1 cup of peppermint green tea

I had a very simple breakfast today, consisting of a bread roll which I picked up from my local bakery. It was done with spelt flour (lower gluten level than wheat), carrots and sunflower seeds. I put some hummus spiced with ginger and curry on both halfs and topped one with red bell pepper (my favourite), and the other with cucumber and a little bit of black pepper. Delicious!! 

As a beverage, I had one cup of peppermint green tea by teapigs, which is quite rare for me as I don't tend to drink something hot in the morning. I also had a glass of water right after I got up today.

Lunch: Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding with coconut and almonds + 1 banana

Around 1:30 pm, I was hungry again and had lunch. I'd prepared a chia seed pudding the day before as I knew I'd be in the mood for something chocolat-y. I can't go a day without some kind of chocolate and this is one of the healthiest ways to have it. Around 30 minutes after, I also had 1 banana and 1 tall glass of water.

If you're interested in the chocolate chia pudding, here's how I made it:

2 tbs of chia seeds

3/4 tbs of cocoa powder or to taste (make sure it's the baking kind, no added sugar)

120 ml light soya milk (or your milk of choice)

1 tsp of flaxseed (optional)

sweetener to taste (I used stevia)

toppings (optional): 

4 almonds

shredded coconut

Mix your chia seeds, flaxseed, cocoa powder and sweetener together and add 120 ml of milk (you can use more or less than 120ml depending on how thick you want your pudding to be). Stir until the cocoa is disolved and the chia seeds evenly distributed. I added 2 drops of essential orange oil, but I've also done it with peppermint oil or cinnamon before. The possibilities are endless! Refrigerate overnight, or for at least 2 hours. 

(Recommended: After 1 hour, I usually give it a stir as the chia seeds like to seperate from the liquid sometimes.)

Top with your favorite toppings. Today I used shredded coconut and almonds, but any type of nut works here. I often make this as a breakfast option as I can put everything together the night before and it's ready to eat in the morning. For breakfast, I make a larger portion and use more liquid, so it's runnier and top it with fresh fruit.

Snack: 1 serving on LantChips Original

As a snack between lunch and dinner I had one serving (25g) of Lant chips. I like the original kind which is lightly salted. These chips are organic and only have 3 ingredients: potatoes, sunflower seed oil and salt. You can actually taste the potatoe and they are slightly thicker than regular chips from the supermarket. I get these from my local organic grocery store, but I've heard they are also available from IKEA.

Dinner: Falafel with salad

I wasn't too hungry because the chia seed pudding was very filling, so I fried up 5 falafel in some coconut oil and made a salad to go along with it. The salad consisted of carrots, bell pepper, cucumber, mushrooms, greens including cabbage and a dressing of lemon and olive oil.

I hope you enjoyed my first 'What I Ate Today' post. If you want more of these, let me know.