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Like many couples our circle of friends can be bundled into groups. Our three largest are all activity based. The bicycle club (where we met), the ski/outdoor club we joined ten years ago and a Lazy Daze RV group (also joined about ten years ago).
Of the three you would probably guess that the bicycle and ski/outdoor group would have the biggest affect on our overall health and you’d be absolutely correct; until this year. Sure the RV group as a whole are much more sedentary than the other two but, if not for a few friends in this group we would not have celebrated on November 1st our half year of a plant strong, vegan lifestyle.
Our friends, Paul & Kay, have been vegan for a couple years now and we started noticing their eating choices and asking a few questions. Then Tessa, another Laze Daze owner/friend announced that her entire family had been vegan for some time now and loving it! We became even more curious. So Marti emailed Tessa to ask some questions and learn more about what being a plant based eater really meant.
Tessa supplied us with a list of DVD’s to watch and books to read. We were hooked! We made up our minds to go all in around mid April. Well, it didn’t quite happen then. We had a trip to the Midwest planned and a fridge and pantry to clear out and restock. So May 1st became a more realistic starting date. Besides, I’ve always found the May Day tradition of putting a flower basket on someone’s front porch, ringing the doorbell then running and hiding, just so dang adorable even though I’ve never done it myself.
Slowly easing into a vegan diet or just trying it a few days a week seemed like a plan doomed to failure. So no ‘baby steps’ for us. I even juice fasted the first 7 days to kick start my system. We weighed ourselves every day but only recorded the average weekly weight. It just seems to make more sense and more accurate that hopping on the scale once a week.
Shopping became a new adventure and Marti loved getting some new vegan cookbooks! Lucky for us Seattle has plenty of great grocery stores where we can find any ingredient we need. Breakfast routinely became a Rip’s Big Bowl from the Engine 2 Diet book by Rip Esselstyn. One quarter cup of four different whole grain cereals, fruit, nuts and wheat germ with non dairy milk or yogurt. Salads, soups, stews, mashed yams or sweet potatoes became regular meals. Brown rice with steamed veggies and peanut sauce to top it off is a favorite too.
All in all we are pleased with our decision to start eating plant based and thank our friends who led the way and continually support us. We’ve lost weight, lowered our cholesterol levels, feel more energetic and have no plans to return to our former way of eating. Thanks Tessa, Kay and Paul!
Charlie's Average weekly Weight
---Pre-Vegan---
Week---Weight---Change in lbs
3/4-3/10----212.2
3/11-3/17-----211.4. -0.8
3/18-3/24----210.8. -0.6
3/25-3/31----209.6. -0.8
4/1-4/7-------208.7. -0.9
4/8-4/14-----208.6. -0.9
4/15-4/21----206.8. -0.8
4/22-4/28---205.3. -0.5
4/29-5/1--207.5. +2.2
---Start---Vegan----
5/1-5/5---------202. -5.5
5/6-5/12-------198.4. -3.8
5/13-5/19-----197.1. -1.3
5/20-5/26----195.7. -1.4
5/27-6/2---192.7. -3.0
6/3-6/9----189.2. -3.5
6/10-6/16---186.8. -2.4
6/17-6/23---185. -1.8
6/24-6/30--182.6 -2.4
7/1---7/7----- 180.6. -2.0
7/8--7/14----179.6 -1.0
7/15-7/21-----178.6 -1.0
7/22-7/28---178.3. -0.3
7/29-8/4-----177.2. -1. 1
8/5--8/11------176.7 -0.5
8/12-8/18-----174.6 -2.1
8/19-8/25----175.1. +0.5
8/26-9/1------174.8 -0.3
9/2-9/8-------175.6 +0.8
9/9-9/15------175.1. -0.5
9/16-9/22----176.4 +1.3
9/23-9/29---177.5 +1.1
9/30-10/6----175.7 -1.8
10/7-10/13-----175.7 0.0
10/14-10/20---175.8 +0.1
10/21-10/27----177.1 +1.3
10/28-11/3---- 176.3 -0.8
Monday November 5th 174
Charlie and Marti
Seattle WA
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