Losing Weight and Fine Tuning Your Whole Food, Plant-Based Way of Life

So you’ve been at this for a few weeks, are you losing weight?

Even though weight loss is not the primary reason for many to adopt a WFPB way of eating, it is a positive side effect for a lot of people.

You may or may not be dropping weight at this point in your transition. If that is a goal for you and you are not seeing results, take a look at what you have been eating. When Chris and I first changed to WFPB, we were very strict with our diet, sticking to the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease plan as much as possible. That meant that in addition to being WFPB and no oil, we also did not eat any nuts, coconut, avocado, or anything else that was high in fat. We did eat bread and crackers with seeds, but kept it to a minimum. We were strict to the point that if a bit of peanut butter dripped on my hand when I was making my kids a sandwich, I wouldn’t even lick it off.

If you are starting each day with avocado toast, having a lunch salad with sunflower seeds and cashew ranch dressing, and snacking on almonds throughout the day, you may not see such great results with weight loss. Try to limit or even avoid these high calorie density foods as much as possible. And of course, always try to incorporate more greens and vegetables.

Here comes the part about educating yourself: Dr. Michael Greger has a great video presentation that goes along with his new book, How Not to Diet. Access the video presentation here. It is very educational, even in the first few minutes. Chris and I saw him speak earlier this year and he is amazing. We bought his book which he signed for us and it is very informative!

You can also try to make sure that you get up and move after every meal, especially dinner. If you work full time, it may be difficult for you to have dinner early every night when you cook everything from scratch. But if you can take a short walk or do some kind of light exercise after your dinner it will help with weight loss. In 2018 when we were learning our wedding dance, we would practice every day after dinner, even if we just ran through it once or twice. We noticed that our average weight was a bit lower at that time.

How is the pandemic affecting your weight?

I am currently working from home for the most part. Since we are not able to go out of the house, either my daughter or I have been baking almost daily. I have been thinking to myself that everyone is going to come out of this thing 10 pounds heavier! However, over the past week I have talked to a few people who tell me that they are actually losing weight. I find it interesting. Could the reason be that they are cooking more and eating out less? Or maybe since they are not out and about, they are not making that daily run to Starbucks or Dunkin. A tall Vanilla Latte with skim milk at Starbucks has 152 calories and 26.8 grams of sugar, and probably not a good idea to have one every day. How have your habits changed since the pandemic?

I have been trying to maintain a routine each day to keep my sanity, and part of that routine is exercise. I am definitely not someone who jumps out of bed and is ready to hit the gym (I really wish that I was!). However, I have been forcing myself to do some form of exercise each morning. Lately, I have been doing yoga. I find that it helps to calm my mind as well as build my strength and flexibility. Staying fit is going to help your overall health which is more important today than it ever was so try to find a way to incorporate exercise into your daily routine.

If you find yourself snacking a lot while being home, try to choose some healthy snacks such as cut up veggies, fruit or popcorn (do I mention popcorn every week?). If you are baking, try to make something healthy without too much sugar like apple crisp or oatmeal cookies. And if you do make regular cookies, try cutting the amount of sugar you add. Remember: you can’t out exercise a bad diet!

Time to step up your label reading game!

You’ve mastered the “big rules”. Now it is time to start fine-tuning your new lifestyle.

I drive my sister crazy because reading labels has become sort of a weird hobby for me. She has not embraced the WFPB way of eating (not for lack of trying on my part!) and whenever she brings out a package of food, the first thing I do is flip it over to look at the nutrition label and ingredients. She rolls her eyes, and I do my best not to comment, but oh man, have you seen how much sugar is in a can of Mountain Dew? There are 46 grams. That’s almost 12 teaspoons - one teaspoon per ounce! And it contains high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Speaking of HFCS, I must add that to the list of things to avoid when checking labels. It is definitely not a whole food, and a big no-no. Did you know that HFCS is actually banned in some countries? Check the ingredients in a bottle of Heinz ketchup in the U.S. and then check it in the U.K. The latter will have sugar listed instead of HFCS. And be on the lookout for hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Do not eat them. They will cause you to gain weight along with a whole list of health related side effects. But you’re not eating oil anymore anyway, right?

You will continue to get better at reading labels. Up until this point, your focus has probably been on what you can’t have, like making sure a product does not contain meat, dairy, eggs or oil. Now I want you to step it up a little. When you are at the store, even if you are not so sure what to look for on the nutrition label, just compare it with the same item in another brand. Look at things like sugars, fat content and sodium. Choose the product with the least amount of these items and the least number of ingredients.

Look for whole grains. “Whole wheat” and “whole grain” are not the same as “wheat”. And don’t fall for fancy packaging. Just because there is a picture of a farm on the label doesn’t mean that it is healthy.

Watch out for high fat foods and try to keep your overall fat intake below 10% of your total calories. To calculate, you can look at calories from fat and divide it by the total calories. If the label does not show the calories from fat, you will have to do a little math. There are 9 calories in a gram of fat so multiply the grams of fat by 9, and that will give you your calories from fat. Then divide that number by the total calories.

Hang in there

You are rocking this thing! You have learned that not only can you survive on plants, you can thrive! Keep going even though times are tough. It’s harder to get to the grocery store for your fresh ingredients, but you can use frozen. Improvise and get creative. Just keep going.

If you need help just reach out. Post a comment below or send me a private email any time and I will get back to you with the best response I can. And if you enjoy this blog, please like and subscribe below. Thank you for your support!

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