I'm Back

Last week I went to Duke University for a consultation with a cardiologist who specializes in adults with congenital heart disease. The results were promising and the fear that surgery lurked in my near future were laid to rest. However, in reviewing the results of my exam, I have renewed my conviction to eat a vegan diet (well, mostly vegan). I have been researching my heart disease and the vegan diet and I feel that the data is overwhelming. Healthy eating is the way to go, not only for the heart, but also for the mind. I have also got the go ahead to resume my exercise routine. My husband was thrilled when the doctor recommended wearing the garmin! So, off I go!

Are You There Vegan? It's me, Slacker.

I have not lost grasp of my goal, to be healthier for myself, my family, and for my patients. I don't want to be on medication unnecessarily and I don't want to spend thousands of dollars at a chiropractor. But I am not perfect and like most humans, I fail from time to time ( No comments, please). I have remained mostly vegetarian and even mostly vegan. I have been making better health choices and have increased my activity. What I have failed to do was pay attention to what I was eating and how much, especially between Christmas and New Years. No surprise there. Which means that if I mostly have been making vegetarian or vegan meal choices, I have had to fall back in one area or another and those areas were portion control, wine consumption, and  and the occasional Christmas treat.

You know that a patient is going to be with you for a while when the family brings in the Christmas tree and this year, as usual, we had such that patient. She is a sweet lady and so is her family. Unfortunately, her daughter can bake a killer chocolate bunt cake. It was by far the best cake that I have ever tasted. I ate three pieces of cake that day, justifying that they were small pieces.......Really? How small were they, you ask? I'm not really sure if they were that small, but that's what I told myself as I ate the third piece. I'm sure that it was a busy day and it was just easier to grab the sweets in the kitchen than to go and get something from the locker room, but after the first piece, I have no excuses.

I was doing so well in late October and November. I lost 6 lbs and was increasing my "jalking" distance and was feeling good. I enjoyed a family wedding in Florida over Thanksgiving and managed to stick to my vegan diet (except for a bite of turkey) and went for a jalk most days that we were there. Unfortunately, December did not share November's motivation. In the month of December I gained back the 6lbs, plus 1 for good measure. I had to do something because I didn't want to go down this road of failure attempts again. My goals are still the same, but obviously something was missing and that something was portion control and accountability, so on December 26th, the day after Christmas, I gave myself a present and  I joined Weight Watchers.

I joined weight watchers and believe that it will be the best thing that I have ever done for myself. I have the whole package, the meetings and the e-tools (remember my obsession with food?) and I am having so much fun. I weigh everything I eat and I plan on what I am going to eat. Weight Watchers has given me the tools that I was missing, portion control and accountability. The motivation was already there, I just needed something more. Today was my second meeting and I weighed in 5lbs less than last week, which was surprising because I din't feel that I deprived myself of anything. I just wrote it down, made healthy food choices and got moving again. This morning I went to a yoga class and this evening I went back to the Y with my son and jalked 2miles. I am feeling gooood!

Have you seen Jennifer Hudson lately?

Skinny Bitch

I lied. I said that I wasn't doing the vegan diet to lose weight, but to rebel against the American diet, and for the most part, that is true. This morning, the beginning of day 6, I stepped on the scale and, according to the scale, I have gained 1 pound! Gained a pound? I would have been excited about a loss of a pound, but to have gained a pound..... OK, I am not going to get hung up on the number. I woke up feeling great! I woke up earlier and felt very rested (despite the stiff neck, not sure what that is all about?) So, now I am going to get a cup of decaf tea with soy milk, sit my fat ass on the couch and read Skinny Bitch for an hour before tackling the laundry. Later today I am going to make some Ridiculously Easy Lentil Stew, which is a recipe from my favorite website, fatfreevegan.com. They also have an awesome recipe for Louisianan Red Beans and Rice which my family loves, or tolerates, I'm not sure which one, but they eat it and I am hoping the whole family will eat this as well!

Oh, and William, I am NOT tempted by the turkey bacon and eggs that you are making, not at all, honest.....

Share Will Power

I have figured out that the key to success with any diet or "life style change" is will power and planning. You can't  leave yourself without a plan. You need to think about what you are going to eat and when, especially if you are not going to be at home, or in my case, have a patient so critical that you can't leave their side to eat (or even pee or poop - here is where planning ahead really comes in handy!) When you are left hungry and unexpectedly in a situation or place where you can't make healthy choices, you either starve, or do what I do, eat anything that is in front of you. You aren't really thinking about whether the food you are eating is doing any good for you, or that it may even be hurting you, you just want to get the calories in quickly, no matter what those calories are. My plan for success in my journey is to plan ahead and to have options available to me, especially when I am in a tight spot. I keep a vegan granola bar in my car and try to carry a piece of fruit with me when I leave the house, just in case I am delayed getting home and need something quick to eat. I have found that, when I was sticking to weight watchers or some other diet, that having a healthy option by my side made me feel more secure, and today I was awfully glad that I had that granola bar in the car.

I went into work today to do some mandatory yearly skills check off. I only planned on being at work for 2 hours, but I threw a granola bar in my car just in case. When I stopped by to bring our secretary a sample of my polenta and zucchini marinara that I made yesterday (she is very adventuresome and was excited about giving it a try after I bragged about how tasty it was), I learned that there was a very ill patient in the cardiac cath lab who would be coming to our unit with a new heart assist device that we have never used before and that our unit was in desperate need for some experienced help. My manager asked if I could stay to work and, as much as I wanted to stay, I actually had to stop and think if I could stay. What was I thinking about? My three children coming home from school? My husband's schedule? No! I was thinking about what food options I would have if I stayed for seven unplanned hours. If I haven't told you, I am telling you now.... I am obsessed with food. I am always planning the next meal while eating the previous. "What will I eat for lunch?" I think while slurping up the last of the soy milk in my cereal bowl.

After texting my husband, I agreed to stay. I knew that I would be very busy and stopping to eat would be unlikely, but if I was hungry I had planned to just eat some peanut butter that we keep in our kitchen at work. I also remembered my trusty little granola bar in the car that, if there was any time, I could run out and get. Well, true to fashion, it was far too busy to even stop for a sip of water. The patient was so critically ill that I never even thought about food, water or elimination until the end of the shift. I began to feel the hunger, but will power and planning kept me going until I reached my car where I had my trusty little granola bar. I knew that my granola bar would keep my plummeting blood sugar at bay until I could get home to eat some real nutrition and it actually worked. I didn't ravage the refrigerator out of desperation for empty calories. I ate some reasonable vegan options and I actually managed to make it through day three of my vegan adventure unscathed.

Well, I did it! I survived my first day, and as work was CRAZY, I am proud to say that I got by on share will power. I work in an open heart unit, where we recover patients after surgery. When you receive a patient back straight from the OR, things can be harried as the patient's body recovers from being on bypass. Especially when your patient is unsteady and bleeding, as my patient was initially. There is not time to eat, drink or pee! when I had finally gotten my patient stable, another patient went into cardiac arrest. Fortunately, my patient's husband was kind enough to stay with his wife while I ran between rooms. Fortunately, my patient was too sleepy to get off the ventilator, so I had time to help my co-worker. That, of coarse, left no time to EAT. By the time the end of the shift came (7pm), I had only eaten a bowl of flaxseed cereal with lite soy milk, a banana, and my V-8 juice (at least I didn't have to hit my self in the head!). My relieving nurse was kind to have put up with me while I heated up my pumpkin soup and spit out some resemblance of a report between slurps. This kept me from munching on the candy that is usually readily available in the nurses lounge. ( Usually I would have no problem doing this, justifying the fact that any calories were good calories at a time like this!) When I got home, my husband, who would never eat the food that I intend to eat during this mid-life crisis episode, had dinner waiting. I left out the chicken and enjoyed the jasmine rice and steamed broccoli with a glass of cheap red wine and then I snuggled in bed with my 2 wonderful boys (who plan on tempting me with steak this weekend - NICE!) When I asked my eldest son, how could he eat a sweet cow with those sad eyes, he responded, "I'm only going to eat his Ass." So, I guess that we know how he feels about my vegan adventure.......

Vegan Journey Day 1

Well, I've had enough! I have seen my last fat patient. After looking down at my own stomach, realized that I was going to be that patient one day. So, yes, I will see many, many more obese patients (not coming from the McDonald's in our Hospital Lobby  -A major Heart Center in Virginia-  as that has FINALLY closed!), but I will have taken a stand for my own health and the health of my family. I will not be responsible for my own destruction. I don't want to live with a self induced condition such as Type ll Diabetes or Coronary Heart Disease, knowing that I could have done something to have reduced my risk (there is a lot to be said genetics and we can't really control that, now can we?)

And, YES, dear, exercise will be part of my mid life crisis plan. I, however, will NOT be getting up with you at ungodly hours to join you as you roll around on cold, wet, grass and carry men up a hill on your back!

I am overweight, under exercised and setting myself up for some horrible illness, so let's see if I can do something about this. I know, the cabbage soup diet didn't work and Weight Watchers comes and goes. It's too easy for me to just stop counting points when I want that ice cream. I feel different this time because I want to do everything that I can to assure (or at least improve the odds) that I will be around to see my youngest child graduate from college, or  maybe even my grandchildren.