Going Vegetarian Lose Weight

I'm about to release my new book Breaking Your Fat Girl Habits. You may think - What does this skinny chick know about losing weight? See my transformation from 2005 as a restrictive Vegan working out twice a day killing myself - to current day 2015 applying half the effort! I was never overweight but should have been much more fit considering the amount of time I spent obsessing over my so called healthy habits - which were working against me....Between 2005-2006 my body completely morphed and 9 years later it hasn't changed. Aging and genetics are not the problem! Throughout the book we identify Fat Girl Habits. Often a vegetarian lifestyle without guidance can be one. While vegetarianism has benefits, it's not for everyone.

A lot of people tend to think that if they adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, they will automatically lose weight. Not so fast! You have to do it right in order to be healthy. There are a large percentage of vegetarians that eat way too many starchy carbohydrates in an attempt to cut out other foods. Just because you are eliminating meat, however, does not mean that there are no consequences to eating unlimited amounts of nuts, seeds, avocados, and other healthy oils. All the foods mentioned above are extremely healthy and necessary for vegetarians, but these are not “free foods” just because they come from the plant kingdom. I know firsthand from being a vegetarian for many years and never having the body I wanted.

I did plenty of juicing and eating lots of organic fruits and vegetables – which was good. Yet I lived on soy burgers, fake meats, and other foods that I believed were awesome meat substitutions. What I didn’t know was that they also contained MSG, gluten, and - even worse - excitotoxins that can cause a host of health problems as well as accelerate aging. Tofu and tempeh are the exceptions since they are naturally fermented and are not manmade. While these hipster vegan restaurants that I would often eat at were still healthier than a fast food joint, my dishes were a far cry from healthy.

How A Vegan Diet Helped A 47 Year Old Mom Of 3 Lose 100 Pounds

Macrobiotic restaurants also served my favorite dish called the Planet Platter – a combination of brown rice, seaweed, tofu and beans. I would eat a huge bowl and not think twice because all the ingredients were natural. In addition, I’d often top it off with a healthy cookie and a cup of vanilla soymilk. I was extremely rigid about my vegan lifestyle, yet the scale never moved in the right direction. For the record, I was working out twice a day!

It wasn’t until I got into a serious relationship with a sports-watching “meat and potatoes” guy that I started to change my ways. He was in unbelievable shape and would often order a burger, some grilled chicken or fish at every meal. When we would go out to eat I’d always piss him off because I’d just have vegetables and a potato or some rice. Since he wouldn’t compromise and come with me to a vegetarian place, we’d eat in restaurants that didn’t have any soy protein on the menu. I’d be starving from not having my beans or faux meat then end up overeating whatever starch was served…and still be unsatisfied. So I would go home and snack again while he was good for the night. He’d tease me and say that’s why I couldn’t lose weight because I was always eating. He said, “Why don’t you just eat normal? An egg for breakfast or a piece of grilled fish or chicken every now and then won’t kill you.” I still felt uncomfortable eating a burger or steak since that would be frowned upon while I was a yoga instructor.

To keep the peace and enjoy meals together, I finally agreed to compromise. I swapped out my almond butter and rice bread sandwiches in the morning for omelets or Greek yogurt. My lunches changed from veggie burgers and brown rice to grilled chicken salads. The dinners we’d have together were no longer my usual green salad and a potato but transitioned to fish with salad and vegetables. It wasn’t like I was on an Atkins™ diet. I still added starch to my meals such as a little quinoa, brown rice or sweet potato but it was a quarter of the amount I was eating previously. I was overeating those foods before because the lack of protein made me feel hungry. Even though soy protein or nut butters may be equivalent in protein grams to a fleshy protein (i.e., meat, fish, poultry, or eggs), they are incomplete proteins if not paired correctly with other proteins- (i.e., beans paired with brown rice) so they don’t keep you as full. That’s why you may find yourself overeating grains. My snacking significantly reduced and I felt so much more energetic. I realized I never actually felt well as a vegetarian until I started eating better quality proteins. We’re not talking about the nitrate-filled meats like hot dogs, bacon or lunch meats.

Becoming A Vegetarian

As I began to adopt my new lifestyle (which I wouldn’t refer to as carnivorous since it was mostly fish and poultry), the pounds melted right off. My muscles that were defined from all the yoga postures were hidden under the extra weight I was holding until then. My biggest regret was that I waited so long being resistant to making those changes.

Whether you choose to be a vegetarian or not is a personal preference. In its original form – eating mostly fruits and vegetables, naturally fermented tofu, tempeh and small portions of beans, lentils, seeds, nuts and non glutenous grains – it’s honestly more humane and better for the planet. If I wasn’t so hungry all the time following that kind of program, I’d definitely do it myself. But if you are trying to replicate the modern American diet with a soy version and not watching your carbs (since you need to compensate for the lack of protein), you may want to rethink your strategy.Learn what the 47-year-old eliminated and added to her diet to go from a size 24 to a size 6 in pants. Plus, find out the possible pros and cons of her eating approach.

Nalida Besson had never eaten a salad in her life, but Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book Eat to Live inspired her to change her perspective on food.Photos Courtesy of Nalida Besson

Ways Your Vegetarian Diet Might Be Sabotaging Your Weight Loss

Overweight her entire life, Nalida Besson, a self-described “junk food vegetarian” and sugar addict, lived on processed, packaged, and fried foods, and had never eaten a salad.

Despite suffering from painful gallstones and gallbladder attacks in recent years, she avoided her doctor for fear that something even more serious was wrong with her health. “My whole body hurt — even my skin, ” recalls Besson, who weighed 241 pounds (lb) at her heaviest. “That’s when I became afraid.”

She had made small attempts to lose weight by cutting out soda and juice, which helped her lose 25 lb; after that, her weight loss stalled. Yet in the summer of 2013 everything changed.

Day Vegetarian Diet: Pescetarian: Gupta, S. Vjay, Johnson, Gail: 9781070491202: Amazon.com: Books

“I was lying down and my son came in to talk to me, ” recalls Besson, who lives in Boston and whose three children have special needs. “I felt so sick that it seemed that I was preparing him for my death. I looked at his sweet little face, and I said to myself, ‘What if I’m not here for him and for my daughters?’ I decided enough was enough and I had to make a change. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be around for my kids.”

By Dr. Joel Fuhrman,  had been sitting on her nightstand for months. After she read the book, which promotes a vegan, nutrient-dense eating approach, she cleaned out her kitchen, tossing out all the chips, candy, candy bars, doughnuts, and cookies. She started eating more fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds, red and brown rice, and starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes.

Meal planning was a key to her success, so she batch-cooked bean and vegetable stews and packed salads in mason jars for lunch. She also found recipes from the

Weight Loss: 4.5 Stone Transformation Thanks To This Diet Plan

By December 2013, Besson decided to cut out sugar altogether because on the rare occasions when she decided to indulge, her gallbladder pain would return and she realized she couldn’t eat sugar in moderation. “If I had a little bit, then I kept wanting more, ” she says. Instead, when she wanted something sweet, she’d have a piece of fruit or make cookies with oats, bananas and nuts, for example.

Besson also started to work out at home with fitness DVDs and in her home gym using the treadmill, elliptical, and a resistance machine five to six days a week. Within two months, she lost 15 lb and her gallbladder pain significantly subsided. By 25 months, her weight had gone down 100 lb, to about 141 lb, and she had gone from a size 24 to a size 6. “Some people don’t even recognize me, ” she says.

A vegan diet is a whole-food, plant-based

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