Let's Talk Calorie Density

Let's talk calorie density.  But first, an explanation. I have a buddy. Her name is Jane Birch. You don't get to know my real name because I find courage to share my journey in the [illusory] veil of anonymity that is internet blogging.  Jane, on the other hand, is on her way to publishing a book on the Word of Wisdom and Whole Food, Plant Based eating with her real name and picture attached to it.

So now you know. Jane is my accountability buddy and I email her at least once a day about how well I've stayed on track. Sometimes I email her several times a day with completely unrelated details and rants and stories. She's very kind about this.  She also tends to send me slurries (is that a real word? It sounded better than flurries in my head) of emails about her awesome book. And sometimes she even takes my advice about it, which is pretty cool.

And then there are the times Jane calls me to repentance. Like when I said my goal was to do as many 100% days as I could "manage" this week.  She wrote back and told me I'm perfectly capable of managing it, I've just been choosing not to.  Ouch, right? But then she softened it with praise and compliments. If you're trying to lose weight, overcome a food addiction or reach any goal, or if you're struggling to maintain a WFPB diet, I highly recommend an accountability buddy. 

Anyway this post (my 2nd today, which is a new phenomenon) is a direct result of Jane's calling me to repentance. You're welcome.

Jane pointed out several things to me:

1. I have lost weight, not stayed the same or gone up; I should be happy about this.

2. I had my first-ever, fully conscious 100% day (I have to add the fully conscious qualifier because I did it once before consequent to falling asleep right after work).

3. Its probably for the best that I'm not experiencing great success in the weight-loss department at the moment since if I were, I wouldn't be as willing to let go of soda and nuts.

And here are my realizations:

1. I've actually lost 10 lbs in the space of 1 month. That's nothing to sneeze at.

2. I'm bummed out because my weight loss has been miniscule the past couple weeks when I've been expecting it to be much higher. A look at Jeff Novick's Calorie Density scale offers an explanation. I replaced fast food/junk food/cheese (calorie density 1000 to 2300 kcal/lb) with nuts (2800 kcal/lb)... and in the past couple weeks, not just a few nuts, but like enough nuts to fill me up and substitute for a meal. With the exception of the oil that was in the fast food (4,000 kcal/lb) and that's still in the honey roasted nuts I've been eating (4,000 kcal/lb), I went up in calorie density instead of down.

NO WONDER I haven't been losing as much/fast as I think I should be, given my starting weight. This chart is seriously awesome, folks.

If you're not familiar with Jeff's principles of calorie density, which make it possible to never, ever again have to count calories, fat grams, points, or anything else, see:

This article:
http://www.jeffnovick.com/RD/Articles/Entries/2012/5/20_A_Common_Sense_Approach_To_Sound_Nutrition.html

or purchase this incredible video:
http://www.jeffnovick.com/RD/Calorie_Density.html

or watch this short segment on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gTLpTq1nQk

Scale Frustration

First, I did have 1, 100% day last week. But only one.

Second, here are my goals for the upcoming week:

1. As many 100% days as I can manage.*

2. Naked nuts only (not something I crave)

3. Practice "eat something healthy first"

*I didn't assign a specific number because I realized that last week, after I accomplished the number (1) I felt I had permission to not aim for 100% compliance the rest of the week. Silly mental games.

And third, I just wrote this e-mail to a friend and it seemed honest and poignant enough to copy and paste here since it is feeling like a defining moment in my journey and one I'll likely want to look back on in the future and remember how far I've come:

Last week's weight loss: 1.4lbs.

This week's weight loss: 0.8lbs.

If I was doing *everything* I was supposed to be doing, I would break down and cry right now and wonder what the point is. 

But since I haven't been- doing everything I'm supposed to that is- I'm going to redouble my efforts. Goodbye soda. (Now I might actually cry). Goodbye honey roasted nuts.

I did have intentions to try a carrot salad recipe that uses cashews in the sauce this week and I also finally bought some walnuts so I can make try the infamous walnut sauce. I'm not sure if the former is a good idea though. Maybe I'll just eat the carrots plain... when I was trying to do ETL a couple years back, I found any sauce containing cashews (like cheez sauce) seriously addicting and way over-ate it. I've been meaning to try a cauliflower-based cheez sauce instead and it surely won't measure up if I start eating cashew sauces again!

 I don't want to go 100% MWL right now because I don't feel strong enough and am afraid I'd fall off the wagon from a combination of food addiction + lack of veggie love.  I know its not the end of the world to not enjoy your food for a few weeks-- so you say. It just feels like it! ;-)

 I am stubbornly feeling right now that my sacrifices-- giving up fast food, candy, chocolate, cheese, chips, breads (other than Dave's which is oil-free) etc. should be equating with a significant weekly, if not daily, weight loss.  In fact if I examine my expectations, I guess I thought I should be losing at least 3lbs. a week.  I guess it doesn't work that way when I've still been filling up on nuts, so very high on the calorie density scale.

 Alright, the only thing I can really do at this point is decide whether I'm going forward or backward. There is no standing still. And I don't want to go backward. So I take the next step in cleaning up my diet this week, and if I shake my fist at the heavens a bit along the way, well, hopefully He'll understand and help me anyway.

 Just one more whiny-ish thought: It will never be fair that men lose fat so much easier/faster than women! Never!

I feel like her right now:

 

 

First Day at 100%

Woot!  Today, Sunday October 6th 2013, was my first day eating WFPB 100%.  I consider 100% on plan right now to be in compliance with the McDougall regular (not MWL) plan.

To be sure, I was craving both honey-roasted cashews and coke today. But I persevered (mostly because its Sunday and I hadn't bought either ahead of time). 

My goals for this week are:

1. At least one day of 100% compliance (check!)
2. Try at least one new recipe (check!)
3. Be mindful about eating dinner before nuts, so that they don't substitute for dinner

For goal #1, I decided to make a recipe from Susan Voisin's blog Fat Free Vegan.  I made her Creamy Vegan Broccoli and Rice Casserole:

 

Unfortunately, it didn't taste as good as I had hoped. Lest you be turned off to Susan's awesome recipes though, I attribute this to two factors:

 

1. My taste buds have not yet changed sufficiently that I thoroughly enjoy WFPB foods.

 

2. I don't know how to spice foods for flavor, and I regularly leave spices out if I don't have them on hand or don't think I'll like them.... in this case I omitted salt, pepper and smoked paprika.

 

 

I also had a Yamburger on Dave's Goodseed Killer Bread, with lettuce, tomato, pickle & mustard. And frozen grapes...



 

 

...for breakfast and for dinner.

 

And I had dried apricots. And water. And nothing else.

 

 

So my friends, this is a momentous occasion! My first day of 100% WFPB eating. I can do this. I got this! Yeah!