In the first month of our 3 month challenge my husband and I conquered fast food and soda. We had a pretty successful month, except for the cheat of pizza. Even though it has been more than a month since I have had any soda, I still get the occasional craving. For some reason writing about it makes me crave it, weird!
 

This month we are kicking things up a notch to break more of the addictions we have to processed foods, while turning our diet around into one that truly focuses on vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. For inspiration and motivation we are reading Dr. Neal Barnard’s 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart.
 

This program is totally pushing us out of our comfort zone because it involves a vegan diet. Vegan simply means no animal products, that includes dairy, eggs, and meat. Not only that, we are keeping oils at a minimum and not eating processed foods.

Some of you may be thinking I lost my marbles, but hear me out. Sometimes getting outside of your comfort zone induces the most growth. I never considered myself to be much of a meat eater. I always felt I could take it or leave it without too much trouble. However, this is the first time I have ever tried going without.

Eating this way, even after one week, has made me realize the absurd amounts of animal product that were in my diet. Let me tell you, Coke is not the only thing I am addicted to. I’m addicted to cheese! I never totally realized how much I consumed until I tried leaving it out of everything. No cheese is by far the hardest part of this diet for me. I consider that to be a good thing. It has made me much more conscious of how much I consume, and for that I am grateful.

This program does not focus on the long term, and I think that is good. Life is about living in the now. When we live too much in the future or the past, we cause problems for ourselves. Right now I am happy to be trying something new outside of my comfort zone. I feel like I am learning a lot, and that has great value to me.

Going out to lunch and ordering a sandwich, hold the meat, and hold the cheese. I realized there is also animal product in the mayo, and on the butter to toast the bread. That is an awful lot of animal product for just one sandwich, and I am one person eating one meal. Think about the huge quantities we eat as a country!

Being conscious is of upmost importance to me. Spending this month completely conscious of my eating habits is going to help me moving forward into the future. Going from allowing processed foods into my diet to none at all, is a HUGE eye opener. I didn’t think I ate a lot of processed food, until I cut it out completely. Now I realize I was wrong. I was eating more processed food than I was aware of.

This month is about pushing us outside of our comfort zone for growth by test driving a vegan diet. Dr. Barnard’s 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart is our guidance and source of motivation for this month’s journey. Be on the lookout for more Vegan recipes and updates on how this way of eating has impacted us. Maybe I’ll even be able to convince my husband to write a guest post about his experience with the program at the end of it…wink wink, hint hint Hubby 😉
 

Watch Dr. Barnard on the Dr. Oz Show – DIET CHANGES TO LOWER DISEASE RISK, PT 2.

Have a great day, friends! ?

Have you ever tried a Vegan diet? Would you? Why or Why not? I’d love to hear your thoughts!