Happy Heart Healthy New Year!

January - a time of resolutions, diets, fads, commitment, failure. Many people have or will (including me) committed to resolutions to get fit, lose weight, only to lose steam by February and slowly give up. Radical change is hard, very hard. Willpower does not exist. Either you get over the addiction to whatever foods you are addicted to by stop putting them in your mouth or you won't. Either you will commit to your health and accept that you need to break the emotional ties you have built up with your food "friends" or you won't. If you are massively overweight (like me), you can't have your cake and eat it too. It won't work.

You can, however, ease into a plant strong regimen. But at some point, sooner rather than later, you will have to quit cold turkey certain food items.

Suggestions for you:
1. go vegetarian - heavy on the vegetables and whole grains, light on the cheese, dairy, and snacks.
2. If you are a sort-of vegetarian like I was (avoid meat), commit to 100% vegan for a few weeks. See if you don't notice a difference. 2 or 3 weeks in your life will not kill you, will not be a burden compared to the years you have indulged yourself.
3. If you are a vegan-ish eater, but still can't lose weight and are F-A-T (and I don't mean, oh I need to lose 10 pounds), then you probably need to drop the sugar, drop the processed foods (anything in a box - even all veggie), and drop the vegan cheese, vegan-aise, vegan yogurt, vegan ice cream - the fat and the sugar are killing any attempts to permanently drop the weight.

I indulged over the holidays - which for me meant eating a lot of seafood while in Seattle. Oh yum! Eating nuts and those Japanese wasabi snack mixes - because they were there! I even indulged in a chocolate bar - a 60% cocoa with caramel delicious heaven :D

But since I've been back home, I have gotten back onto my plant strong regimen.
Yesterday I had Mills whole wheat angel hair pasta and homemade sauce - Muir Glenn organic tomato sauce (no oil), organic diced tomatoes, shredded carrots, italian seasoning.
Tonight is Pacific Natural Organic Mushroom Broth with leeks, mushrooms, and fresh peas. I had a wonderful lunch at my neighborhood Cafe -- Bimimbap - a Korean dish with rice, spinach, tofu, lettuce, carrots, and other good stuff.

Since I've been home, I've had soy "ice cream" and some natural potato-veggie "chips." I'm easing back into normalcy and will cut out all unhealthy foods by tomorrow.

I do it because I am committed to my health and I like losing weight. Cheating is only killing me. I really don't have a death wish. The emotional satisfaction I get out of certain foods is omnipresent, but I can work on that. The chemical addictions I have reawakened can be tamed.

If you really understand what you are up against, you will be successful. If you just kid yourself, you will not succeed.

next up, physical activity. Have I said that before? hmmmm.

Onward!