Timetobeme's Blog

I made the focus of this blog plant based eating for a bit. It was a way to get myself motivated onto eating better.

However, this has been a challenge for me with life so up and down right now that in honestly I have to post that I am not completely plant based at this point. I am working towards it, completely dairy free, not including eggs, just milk based dairy , but also gluten free, both because I have to. I do not feel good if I eat dairy or gluten. This has only gotten even worse and after weeks of serious sinus issues due to dairy I have taken it out of my diet , nothing is worth eating that makes me feel so horrible. Same with gluten, wheat in particular, body aches and fatique when I eat it . Just not worth it.

My challenge in going completely plant based is many things. Eating a certain way my entire life, and trying to learn an entire new way to eat and cook, is a challenge . I love the idea of plant based, and I work toward that every day and have many days I am completely plant based. But whether I will ever be completely, one hundred percent plant based , I am still not sure.

I am in a place where I am trying to figure out what is the healthiest way for me to eat.This sounds like a simple question, with a simple answer. But, the answer you get, is based on who you ask. It always seems to be all or nothing. The biggest eating plans out there today are Vegan, or plant based , and low carb, keto, paleo, carnivore plans. Not much is said about the Mediterranean diet these days, and it used to be the one most recommended.

If you talk to a vegan or plant based person, or in my case, read what is out there by all the doctors and watch the videos, you are told, oil free vegan is the only way to health. Period. No nuts, no avocado, no oil, nothing if you want to lose weight and get healthy. That is what causes me to fall off of that plan. Giving up dairy salad dressings is hard enough, as those have always been my preference, and I have no choice but to eliminate those, but to eat salad with no oil either, no avocado, no fats at all, if you want to lose weight and be healthy, is just overwelming to me . I am a good cook when I have everything available to me. Meat, dairy, oils, but take all of that away, and my love of cooking just goes away. Beans, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, veggies. No joy in my cooking at all. I get frustrated and even a bit angry.

Sauteing in water, or broth, just not the same. I have tried all the frying pans they say work, NOPE. I end up not wanting to eat. Beans tear me up, so I have to watch how much of them I eat, and it seems the lower on grains I go, the better I feel. When I stop eating grains, say on a low carb diet, all my arthritis in my hands goes away, my joints feel great and I have more energy and I am more clear headed. On a plant based diet I am tired, very achey and my arthritis might get better but I just do not feel much energy and I lose my love of eating completely. But in fairness, on a low carb diet I lose my love of eating as well. I do better on low carb than I do plant based however. Even though both extremes are not good for me.

My husband noted that I do not do well when I am completely limited on what I can eat. When I am down to a limited amount of things I can eat I get depressed and even a bit angry about it. I end up completely off plan , which ever plan it is, and never really get any true weight loss or benefits from that plan.

I want to find a healthy way to eat that is sustainable. I do not mind eating plant based, I even like the meat and cheese substitutes. I cannot however do the complete oil and fat free. I can eat less of it, but the more I restrict the faster I end up off my plan, whatever it is. The issue is most of the plant based meats are gluten based and therefore off my list, and the ones that are soy based are stuffed full of fat. The vegan cheeses are not too bad, but like real cheese, full of fat. They are my only option now. I cannot eat cheese anymore. The sinus pain was causing every tooth in my mouth to hurt, went off dairy, gone. Went off gluten as well and feel so much better.

The thing is, I want to be healthy, I want to lose my stomach fat as it is the key to healing my health issues. Once my stomach fat is gone, according to my endrocrinologist, so will be my pre diabetes, pre hypertension, and low thyroid issues that have not needed meds , in fact no meds on any of these, but it will not stay that way if I do not get the weight off.

Total restriction is not working.

So, to keep myself accountable here , I am eating some lean meats. Mostly dinners. No animal products for breakfast, other than rare occasions, and lunch is sometimes plant based, sometimes with a bit of meat. I have not really figured out what I want to do, but I want something I can stick to, eat healthier, and lose the weight and feel better with more energy.

I have always eaten protein when I did not feel good. If I felt low energy or fuzzy brained, I would eat some meat and feel better. As long as I can remember that is how I have been. So, not sure what that means for me going full time plant based. I am not ruling it out, but right now, with our life a bit crazy, I am going to keep that bit of meat in my diet.

We are hoping to get through my husbands spinal surgery and the holidays eating as healthy as we can and still have some fun. No dairy, no wheat or gluten, but otherwise as low fat and healthy as we can manage and still enjoy our food . At the start of the year as he gets ready to go back to work, we want to see about getting more plant based. We will probably always eat a bit of meat here and there. We have tried to be completely vegan more than once, and for us, it is just not sustainable. I am not saying never, I would love to be completely plant based, but will never call myself vegan, I love to work with leather in my jewelry from time to time , my husband has to wear leather boots to work ,he works with chemicals and that thick leather has protected his feet more than once, and has many old leather belts that he loves and will never give up, and we use honey. So, that will keep us from ever calling ourselves vegan. That is fine. I do not need any title to describe my eating. We just want to be healthy.

However I do not want to be misleading anyone who follows this blog because I used vegan in a title. I took it out of all my posts and titles and will only use the term plant based when it applies.

This is something I have been trying to figure out most of my adult life. I am tired of fighting with food to get healthy. I have to figure out a way to eat, enjoy food, and lose weight, and get healthy. I do believe plant based is the healthiest way to eat, but that does me no good if I cannot stick to it. It also does not explain why I feel better on low carb, than I do on a plant based diet, but I do not want to go back on a low carb, or keto plan.

If anything, semi paleo, okay, not really paleo at all, but closer to that than low carb or completely plant based is what we are doing. Beans and legumes, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, veggies and fruits and some lean meats and fish. Some eggs for baking with my gluten free flours. I am using small amounts of unrefined, cold pressed oils, avocado, olive and coconut. Small amounts of lean turkey, chicken and the leanest ground beef available.

Anyway, do not want to mislead anyone and I want to be accountable. I know I need to figure it out, so that is what I will be working on. I want to get both my husband and I the healthiest we can be, lose our weight, but make it sustainable and enjoyable .

So, that will be part of my journey here, but only part. I have so many things I want to work on, and hope to share them all here !!!

Thanks for stopping by !!!