Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

Many people are struggling with their weight, as I once was. I recently did a video to help Million Dollar Vegan with their recent campaign. A few comments I've read on some of the videos were about moderation. Nothing drives me more crazy than this idea that someone can eat something unhealthy part of the time without sacrificing health. Here's why I don’t like the everything in moderation talk.

Would You Want To Be Moderately Healthy?

When I finally lost the weight and it stuck, it was because I did it for my health. All other attempts to lose weight before this failed because it was only about the numbers on the scale. When I put the health first, the weight came off.

Look at this picture. I'm embarrassed of it. I don't know when it was taken but it had to be over six years ago, as I reached my lowest weight in Dec. of 2012. I almost didn't want to share this photo as I can't believe how I ate back then.

I thought of this photo because when I was at the gym today, the channel happened to be set to the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating contest. This is especially troublesome for me to watch. I know I overindulged in the past and never felt good about it. I never ate 75 hot dogs but still it was a repulsive amount of food.

Today, I had a physical, the first one since going completely plant based over 16 months ago. I did have lab work 3 months after being plant based last year, but this was the first examination since then.

I always had anxiety about going to the doctors. But there was no need for anxiety today and in the back of my mind, I really was confident. I knew I was feeling great with so much energy, plus I workout 5 days a week.

I had four different Christmas parties that I needed to attend. There are so many gatherings with family and friends, and food is everywhere! It's very tempting to slip into unhealthy eating if you are unprepared.

When I first went plant based (and vegan) last year, I had a lot of anxiety over gatherings, when there would be food around. It's tough wondering if others will accept your new way of eating and worrying about what choices of foods there would be.

My dad and step mom came to visit this past week. I had expected ted them to criticize the way I eat, as they did not understand it last year. In fact, my step mom called the diet "borderline anorexic", which made no sense at all.

But this year, aside from the few comments that they could never eat the way I do, there was no criticism. They instead commented on how healthy I looked. I think the 20 pounds of muscle helped too, from the last time they saw me.