Congratulations ant !! I am really impressed
Really great effort all year very hard to keep up
When i behaved as i should, eating clean, it was and is very easy to maintain.
I can eat in abundance whenever i am hungry and the weight will fly off of me, with the exercise too of course. But I lost the first 4 stone by diet alone, which handily meant i was light enough to do more aggressive exercise and from a place of much better comfort, both on my cardio system and on joints. I do not think dairy and meat worked for me to be honest, it always wasn't digested properly (i compare to what i eat now, which is digested superbly), even when i was 18 years old and slim and relatively fit, i was still getting regular indigestion and finding cardio always tougher than it probably should have been.
I had to find this diet or I would still be in the same anxious roundabout entrapment of yo-yoing weight loss and weight gain that i would imagine a lot of you on thread here are suffering from. The incessant need to count calories, making sure you are regimented in your plan just so you can actually lose weight. It all seems unnatural to me. You should eat when you are hungry and eat until pleasantly full.
With what I am doing I eat until full over and over again during the day with all the carbs I want. Mainly brown rice and potatoes, both of which can be scented beautifully. Then I can add in my vegetables essenced with an array of different sauces to my own choosing. Can also have wholewheat noodles in a lovely sauce, with veg. Same with wholewheat pasta. Also throw in food from the legumes family, like lentils, mung beans, kidney beans etc. It is lovely.
If any of you get to a wits end with the frustration of a tough diet, check out these books
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Starch-Solution-Regain-Health/dp/1623360277http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prevent-Reverse-Heart-Disease-Nutrition-Based/dp/1583333002/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420329006&sr=1-1&keywords=esselstynThey argue very well about the benefits of the diet and I was well convinced after reading the latter of those links. I have not got around to reading The Starch Solution yet, mainly because both books advise on the same diet of Vegan, no oil, no nuts.
The Esselstyn book there is only 100 pages long of theory anyway, so is an easy read. The rest is made up of meal plans.
The food is really filling, never had any hunger twangs to deal with. I am having my muscle maintained or increasing, while the fat is dripping. Also your taste buds change to really appreciate the fruits and foods you are eating, untainted by stuff that hyper stimulates, that are found in western world foods, so i don't miss the previous lust i used to have for meat feast pizzas. Ha.
It will be a shame if none of you even consider it for yourselves, but I will understand why, as I too before the start of January 2014 would have turned my nose up at anyone suggesting I not eat meat and dairy, but I would love it if you could inform yourself on it anyway regardless of what you do. Especially because I know just how tough it is to lug around too much weight, and I was really terribly morbidly obese.
You can also get off tablets of Hypertension with a Doctor's consent, and eradicate type 2 diabetes with this diet, also in cases reversing heart disease or the general clogging of your blood vessels, by having your body naturally remove the build up of fatty plaque in your vessels. The argument being that without dietary cholesterol in your diet, you give your body the chance to heal itself.
The fat on this diet is in the plants and grains, and it is enough to sustain you well. Along with protein that is found in all the foods too and especially the beans, lentils etc. But you only need around 10% protein anyway.
But I must stop now, I have babbled for too long and am fully aware i am probably coming across as a preachy so and so. I guess I just have an absolute love for this diet because it has changed my life, so apologies for over the top nature here
If you can't be arsed to read more up on it and prefer to watch a video, this documentary is really quite good. Think this link will take you to it, and you will hear from the pros on it, rather than me, a layman. It's called Forks Over Knives...
http://beautifulvegans.com/forks.html
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