59 Months A Vegan! Holiday Weight Gain and Loss #vegansolution #wholefoodsplantbasednooil #Ican'tbelieveIatethatmuch

Quinoa, Wild Rice, Mushrooms, Spinach, Chickpeas and too much Salt

    Holiday time is perpetually problematic when it comes to keeping weight off. Temptations are impossible to avoid. Everywhere you look there is some childhood favorite food, sweet treat, buttery delight or massive pile of salty goodness cooked up by your loving relatives who want nothing more than to see you chow down until you become a participant in the family food coma.

Brown Rice,Flowering Broccoli, Tomato, Nutritional Yeast and
Too Much Salt

Even though I stayed completely plant based, I did dip my hand into the potato chip bowl more than a little. Compounding the problem, we had 3 separate Thanksgiving feasts in 3 days. Wednesday was Friendsgiving where everyone my nephew ever met gathered at his house to celebrate before the big family gathering on Thursday. Thursday was Thanksgiving with the traditional family gathering including 35 close relatives and an additional sprinkling of 5 extra friends who are invited every year along with their delicious goodies. Friday was Family Gathering Revisited with the other side who all wanted to meet for dinner at a restaurant. We had 3 great times with lots of love to pass around. Only thing is I managed to gain 6 lbs in 3 days. Really....6 lbs!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Lentils and
too much Salt

    You can't out exercise a bad diet, but you certainly can overdo it on a good one! Having lived through previous holidays, I put into place my counter measures ahead of time to keep me on track. For example: 

1)  I cooked up a storm at home of salad, rice, quinoa and roasted sweet potatoes to share and to make sure I would have plenty of food for myself at the same time. 

2)  I pre-ate before each event to satiate my appetite ahead of time.

3)  I filled my plate two thirds full of salad and one third full of roasted veggies.
4)  I drank a great deal of water
.....and it didn't work.  I still gained 6 lbs.


Here's where I think I went wrong:
Everything I ate was salted more than I'm used to.  Even though I did my own cooking, I seasoned everything to satisfy the palates of my salt loving friends and relatives.
Compounding that with the shear volume of food available and all the water I consumed resulted in a perfect storm for weight gain. My bloated,  swollen fingers were an excellent indicator of all the water I was retaining as I was OD'd on Sodium.

Black Beans, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, Parsley and Brown Rice
With No Salt

Now....here's what I did to lose the water weight:
After the leftovers were gone, I made a bunch of food with little or no Sodium.
I increased my water intake to flush out the salt.
I upped my fiber intake above and beyond the usual 40 to 50 grams a day and got up to 75 grams a day mostly with whole grains and beans. Fiber binds water and sucks it right out of you.
I ate a lot of fresh fruit. Berries are 92% water and 8% berries. So whole grains, beans, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, fresh veggies, more fresh veggies and lots of water with little or no salt and the water weight was gone in 3 days all without me going hungry even a little bit.


Bring on the next Holiday.

1 Cup of Oatmeal, 2 cups Water, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries,
Banana, Cinnamon and Turmeric with Zero Salt

Chanukah starts next week. OMG!!! Potato Latkes!!!!
Nobody's perfect, but when you screw up its good to know you can find your way back without any pain.

Have a FABULOUS holiday season....
without too much seasoning.

Celebrate yourself!!!!