Week 2 Of Our Whole Food, Plant-Based, 45 Day SOS-Free Diet (No Sugar, Oil or Salt)
Week 2 Of Our Whole Food, Plant-Based, 45 Day SOS-Free Diet (No Sugar, Oil or Salt)
It feels like spring is in the air, even though there is still plenty of snow on the ground here in the high mountains of Colorado.
Our garden has been invaded by wild turkeys.
They are very big birds, the size of a medium size dog, and they are hungry for food.
They gather under our bird feeders, and they eat every seed that the birds spread on the ground.
We started feeding them a mixed suet and seed cake that we had bought to feed the birds during wintertime.
The turkeys were intimidated by me at first, waddling off as I approached the area of the garden where the bird feeders are located.
But soon they started running towards me, gobbling down the suet that I spread for them.
One cheeky turkey even came and knocked on our front glass door with its beak, on a day that I did not go out to feed them.
I did not know two things about turkeys.
One is that they can fly pretty high into the trees, and the other is that turkeys have “Breast Beards.”
These breast beards looks like hair (not feathers), and they protrude from the chests of both males and females, growing longer with age.
I enjoy seeing these wild turkeys, but do not enjoy the large excrements that they drop all over our front deck.
Our diet is going well.
This SOS free, whole food, plant based diet is not a quick weight loss program.
Most people report a loss of 1/2 a pound per week.
It requires a change in lifestyle, to become a permanent way of living and eating, in order to heal and keep the weight off.
I am starting to adjust to eating no salt.
The salads we eat daily taste very good to me with no salt or oil, and I am slowly adjusting to eating cooked vegetables with no added salt.
It was never hard for me to avoid sugar and oil.
In most cases I find that they are not even needed.
When I eat lots of fruit, I get plenty of natural sugar, and in my opinion, no dessert tastes as good as a ripe pomegranate in season, or a delicious juicy peach in season, or a sun-kissed mango or berries, etc.
The habit of cooking with oil can easily be changed, and I rarely miss the taste of oil.
It is still a nagging question for me, about how we will maintain this diet with our traveling lifestyle.
We love to travel and to walk long pilgrimages, which require dining out all the time.
It is almost impossible to control what restaurants put into their dishes, and that means that we will not be able to keep the diet while traveling.
Around our home, we do not really have any delicious vegan restaurants to tempt us to dine out, and if we plan ahead, we can always pack a lunch with us when we go skiing or hiking.
Both Jules and I do NOT want to change our lifestyle of roaming the world on foot, in order to keep a strict diet.
I guess we will have to do our best to make wise choices while away, understanding that there will always be exceptions and circumstances when we will not be able to keep to our diet, and that we will reset our diet when we return home.
Day 8
Breakfast: fresh fruit smoothie.
Lunch: A puréed bean soup with vegetables, herbs and peas, and patties made from shredded sweet potatoes, onion and potatoes, grilled with no oil or salt in the convection oven.
Dinner: A big salad of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, avocado, sprouts, oranges, mushrooms, carrots, radishes, and the juice of a lemon.
Baked falafel patties with no oil, mixed with mashed potatoes.
Dessert: ice cream that I made from only frozen fruit, no sugar or any additives.
This ice cream is really a sorbet of frozen fruit.
Comments on day 8- Today I did some cooking, because tomorrow we plan to go skiing and I wanted to take with us a lunch that complies with our diet.
We have in the house lots of things that we are not supposed to eat on this diet because they have salt or oil, but they are good plant based foods that I do not want to throw away.
One of those things that we have in the pantry is a few packages of falafel mix.
The ingredients are only Fava and chickpea beans, spices and salt.
In order to dilute the salt, we made mashed potatoes and added them to the falafel mix.
I made the patties and baked them in the convection oven on a parchment paper with no oil.
They were very yummy and will be a good lunch to pack tomorrow for skiing.
The dessert was just frozen fruit that I took out of the freezer, waited for fifteen minutes and then ran through the Yonanas (http://yonanas.com) Machine, which makes creamy ice creams from frozen fruit.
I love it.
The soup that I made today was made with a little miso paste, which does have salt.
I intended to make it without, but after cooking the beans, spices and vegetables, it tasted terrible.
I was thinking that I have two options, either to throw it out and make something else, or to purée it with a bit of miso paste and see how it tastes.
After puréeing it and adding the miso, it tasted really good, so I served it with green peas and chopped parsley.
Today I did not lose weight but stayed the same.
I did not feel cold nor hungry all day, which means that I might be overeating and need to reduce my portions, in order to be hungry by mealtime.
Day 9
Breakfast: no food, just some green tea.
Lunch: two whole wheat wraps with my baked falafel potato patties with a small amount of mustard, sprouts, and a dried prune and fig.
Dinner: a big salad of greens, cucumbers, yellow and red peppers, radishes, mushrooms, blood oranges, and a dressing made with mango, pineapple and lemon. No salt, oil or sugar.
Comments on day 9 - This morning I did not lose any weight, but Jules lost a pound.
We went skiing in Vail.
We skipped breakfast and I packed for each of us, two whole wheat wraps filled with potato falafel baked patties made with no oil.
I put in the wraps a small amount of salt free mustard and sprouts.
We ate them in the ski lounge, sitting in front of the slopes in mid Vail, sipping green tea and enjoying the day.
It was a lovely day of skiing.
The weather was warm and sunny, and the day felt very relaxed.
It was great to be outdoors skiing, and to be active again.
As I was skiing, I was practicing gratitude, thinking of all the things that I was grateful for.
One of the things that came to my mind, was deep gratitude to my ex-husband Gus, who taught me how to ski and helped me fall in love with the sport of skiing.
It felt so nice to think of him with deep gratitude, and it made me happy.
At the beginning of the day, my knee hurt a little bit, but after skiing a few runs, it felt much better.
Yesterday, the weight loss summit webinar concluded.
I was able to pick up some ideas for recipes to make during our diet.
On the way back from skiing, I bought some ingredients to make the SOS free sauces much tastier.
This week I will try some of these new recipes, although a small voice inside me says: “just add a little salt.”
Day 10
Breakfast: no food, just some green tea.
Lunch: baked Jerusalem artichokes with my baked falafel potato patties and some lettuce. No oil, sugar or salt.
Dinner: a big salad of greens, cucumbers, yellow and orange peppers, radishes, mushrooms and blood oranges.
I topped the salad with mashed baked sweet potato mixed with roasted garlic, and a salad dressing made from mango, pineapple and lemon. No salt, oil or sugar.
Dessert: frozen cherries and frozen passion fruit. No sugar.
Comments on day 10 -
Today we also went skiing. It was a lovely sunny day, but the wind was quite strong.
We could not get reservations to sit indoors in any of the ski lodges on the mountains, so we sat at one of the picnic tables outdoors in the sun to have our lunch.
But it was very windy and we felt a bit cold, so we wrapped up the lunch quickly.
This is the fourth day of no weight loss for me.
Jules did well. He has lost 3 pounds in ten days, and I have lost 2.5.
Meanwhile, both of us are feeling wonderful on this diet.
I feel more calm, healthy and with lots of energy.
I am not hungry all day long, and I am not even a little sleepy, even late in the evening.
But when I lay my head on the pillow at midnight, I sleep very well until morning, so no complaints there.
Having lots of energy reminds me of the saying in the Course In Miracles, that you are not really capable of being tired, but you are VERY capable of wearying yourself.
It goes on to explain that the body is an unlimited field of energy and possibilities, but we are misusing it by making ourselves tired, by our limited or wrong thinking, by our worries, concerns, judgments and emotions we express and experience each day.
Day 11
Breakfast: a glass of warm water with lemon, Indian Amla, Korean five berry powder and psyllium husk.
Lunch: a stew of Jerusalem artichokes, tomatoes, garlic, onion, mushrooms, pinto beans, corn, spinach and bok choy, served over mashed sweet potatoes.
Dinner: a big salad of lettuce, cucumbers, tomato, yellow peppers, radishes, blood oranges, mushrooms and blueberries with lemon juice.
A plate of air fried potato slices, cooked in our air frier with no oil, served with a little mustard.
Vegetable and bean soup.
Dessert: a bowl of fruit which included banana, raspberries, blueberries and a few raisins.
Comments on day 11 - Today both of us did not lose any weight, but we feel so much stronger and better, that it does not bother us.
Maybe our bodies need to restructure and heal, before dropping more weight.
I decided to change from a glass of fruit smoothie in the morning, to a glass of lemon water, because we are eating enough fruit on this diet.
Before we started on this diet, I wanted to be sure that we were getting the benefits of fruit daily, but now it is not necessary.
When we finish our supply of Indian Amla power and the Korean five flavor berry powder, I will not reorder them again.
Even though they have strong antioxidant effects and are great blood cleansers and cell supporters, on this diet of Whole Foods, fruit and vegetables, we do not really need any extra powders.
Day 12
Breakfast: nothing, only green tea.
Lunch: a stew of beans, onions, eggplants, mushrooms, Jerusalem artichokes, corn, seaweed, Brussel sprouts, tomatoes and spices. No oil no salt.
Dinner: a big salad of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, pepper, oranges and radishes, with lemon juice.
Air fried purple and orange sweet potato slices.
Dessert: a small apple and pear, sliced.
Comments on day 12 - this morning the scale showed that I gained a pound, but I know that it might just be water retention. There is no way that I actually gained any weight with this eating routine.
Some people who lost weight on this diet said it is a gradual process of shedding the weight consistently but slowly.
Chef AJ, who presented the weight loss summit, said that she lost 50 pounds in two years and has never regained it.
That is roughly a loss of 1/2 pound per week.
I did not gain all this weight overnight, or in one single month, so it is logical to expect that the weight loss will also be gradual.
Maybe my body needs to stabilize at this weight, before dropping more fat.
The best news is that my knee feels wonderful and I am optimistic that it will heal completely on this wholesome diet and with the Grace of God who created us all whole and holy.
In the evening, we participated in a Zoom lecture by Dr. William Bengston, who presented us with clear evidence of healing, simply by doing a hands-on intentional healing technique, on cancerous mice.
He used no medicine, no operation, no radiation, yet the
huge cancer tumors healed completely in ALL the mice they experimented with.
Dr. Bengston also experimented with remote healing intention, by “charging” his intentions into water bottles or a piece of cotton, and then sending them to another lab to use to experiment on cancerous mice, and even to sick people with an array of symptoms.
It also worked without fail.
Dr. Bengston has published two books of his findings, including how to do the hands-on healing, as his belief is that it can be done by anyone, not just by “gifted” people.
Today I was not hungry at all.
In fact, during only one day this week did I feel hungry and eat larger quantities.
Day 13
Breakfast: nothing, only green tea.
Lunch: a packed lunch of collard greens leaves filled with mashed sweet potatoes and peas.
Two dried dates and a fig.
Dinner: a big salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, oranges, apples and lemon juice, and sweet potato air fried chips.
Comments on day 13 - Today the scale showed that I was lower by a pound and a half, which means that my theory about not gaining any weight yesterday was right.
Today we did some cross country skiing in Vail, which was lots and lots of fun.
I packed a lunch for us and we drove to the nordic center in east Vail.
We took off our skis and ate our lunch while sitting by the river in the sun.
We also drank some hot green tea which I had packed in a thermos.
Then we put the skis on and continued on the cross country paths.
On our way back from skiing, we stopped at Costco to look at the organic fresh produce that they sell.
We usually shop in Whole Foods, Natural Grocers or our local supermarket, but on this diet we consume large quantities of fruit and vegetables.
Costco was a huge surprise.
The shopping cart that they give you is almost double the size of a normal supermarket cart.
It is a workout just to push the full cart down the aisles.
They had a very large selection of fresh organic produce.
The prices are amazing and the packages are huge.
We bought so much food, that we could not fit it all in our fridge, and had to put some in bowls on our dining table.
Day 14
Breakfast: Lemon water with psyllium husk and Amla.
Lunch: Root vegetable soup with pumpkin, carrots, celery, parsnip, rutabaga, leek and mushrooms, served over couscous.
Dinner: Vegetable Couscous and a salad of greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, apple and orange, with lemon juice.
Dessert: a bowl of red grapes and strawberries.
Comments on day 14 - Today we stayed home and I painted in the studio.
We had some wild deer visiting our garden, looking for food.
I noticed that my thigh muscles were a bit achy, and I felt tired from the cross country skiing.
Like any new sport that you learn, it takes some time to strengthen the muscles.
Conclusions on week 2- this week both Jules and I lost only one more pound each, (In 2 weeks, I have lost 3.5 pounds and Jules has lost 3.8 pounds), despite being very active.
We went skiing three times this week.
Two days we skied downhill, and one day we did cross country skiing.
I LOVED learning how to cross country ski.
Jules has been asking me to try it for 16 years, since we moved to Colorado, but I always resisted, thinking it would not be as much fun as downhill skiing.
But boy, I was wrong.
I really loved it.
It felt like brisk walking, but more strenuous, which was awesome for me.
It is also not as hard to learn as downhill skiing, and it will offer us another outdoor activity that we can do in the winter.
We had lovely sunny days on all our ski days, and lots of fun, but it is true that exercise is not the most important factor in weight loss.
Many people have lost weight just by changing to naturally low calorie food by eating lots and lots of vegetables and fruit.
I believe that we have to be active and to exercise for our health and well being, and for better mental health and mood, but you cannot exercise away a bad diet.
A wholesome plant based diet, combined with an active lifestyle and enjoyable exercise, is sure to be a long term solution.
Another benefit of the plant based diet that I did not expect, is feeling very calm and serene.
In the past two weeks, I felt extraordinarily calm and happy.
Paramahansa Yogananda does teach that you can only progress on the spiritual path, when your eating, thinking and living habits are in alignment with Enlightenment and Nirvana.
That includes of course, eating a healthy plant based diet.
I love the diet (except for the lack of salt), and I can see myself eating it long term.
Sending you love and healing,
Tali
