Vegan weight loss thread

[DepuisToujours]

Hello!

Is there a weight loss thread for vegans / plant based / nearly vegans etc, on the go already please? If not, would anyone be interested in joining me on here?

I am in need of some healthier eating habits and a bit more exercise etc. I'm not doing a crash diet or anything extreme, but I'm trying to eat more healthily and no snacks in the week, except fresh fruit and veg if I'm desperate.

I'd love some company, if anyone would like to join me.

Has anyone tried WW while vegan btw? I joined a couple of weeks ago and haven't actually used it since . I got a good deal, so can keep it for a few months at not much £££, but just need to actually log all my food. I also have to weigh in and I don't have bathroom scales that work! Never been an issue, as I can usually guess when I'm gaining or losing but if I'm doing WW I might have to?

Depuis hello!! I'm often on this site! I've lost 3 stone (before I was vegan) It's quite easy when you're vegan, it got easier when i cut right back on sugar\sweeteners (I did it at the beginning of lockdown for my teeth's sake! ) I also lost weight which I wasn't intending to!

I ate nice sweet fruit like dates to deal with the sugar cravings!! I made almond and date cakes!

I have never counted cals or weighed food (I know it suits some people) but I have maintained for years without it! Paul Mackenna mindfulness helped first of all.

Ah hi @ppeatfruit! Nice to "see" you .

Thanks for those tips. Sugar is my downfall. And nice, crusty, white bread with oil and vinegar. There are so many delicious sweet vegan things. I do love dates and other dried fruit though, so that's a good alternative for me. I have a couple of vegan sweet things in for the weekend, but maybe I will make a concerted effort to cut out refined sugar after that 💪.

Do it slowly if you have it in lots of things, i got a headache after cutting down on daily caffeine ,I used to have with a little sugar. It's best to do at the weekend when you can rest up a bit (unless you've got tinies of course!).

That and white bread really knocks me out if I have it now! Kamut and spelt makes lovely bread/toast without the ill effects!

Thanks ppeat .

Yes, caffeine is my next thing to tackle. One thing at a time though. Sugar first I think. We don't have desserts all that often, but cake at the weekend, sometimes some chocolate in the week, but a square at a time rather than an entire bar iyswim. When I'm exhausted, I'll have a strong coffee with sugar and a tonne of soy milk in it. So, actually, maybe I'm having more than I thought! I'll focus on getting rid of sugar next week, then move on to white bread and caffeine. Thanks for that- I feel like I have a plan now.

I adore vego bars (and the spread... that stuff is dangerously addictive!). Luckily it's all a bit expensive to justify on the daily!

Today's food plan:

B: porridge with flax, oat milk, pb
L: Sweet potato satay curry from the freezer (from Joe Wicks, Veggie Lean in 15, really tasty and easy)
D: Chips served with some sort of freezer food... maybe Sainsbury's shroomdogs or hot and spicy goujons. And obligatory mushy peas! Not very healthy but a traditional Friday night treat in the Croc household.
S: So far, dates and an apple and lots of tea with oat milk.

Never tried WW, but I had really good success using the My Fitness Pal app a few years ago. I lost 3 stone fairly easily with it, and kept it off until pregnancy. Counting calories and weighing food worked extremely well for me as I'm always looking for a loophole and calorie counting just doesn't have one! It's definitely not for everyone, though.

Thanks croc! Yes, omg I am the queen of diet loopholes . Pasta is FREE you say SW? Why thank you! I'll take half a bag .

I've found a WW plan where lots of vegan friendly things are free, but not things like white rice and pasta like SW used to be. I think that makes sense as there isn't much nutritional value in white carbs, but quite a few calories if you're greedy, like I am. So sweet potatoes, pulses, brown rice, LM plain sausages etc, tofu, plain quorn is all free. The only thing you need points for are oils, avocados, nuts, seeds and treats. Might give it a go on Monday... I have also spotted an option for just healthy habits without a weigh in, so I'll do that. I get a bit weird if I'm always weighing myself tbh. Would definitely fit with the no sugar, less bread plan too.

Oh and plant milk has to be pointed too.

Yes, that would be me if I did slimming world! I would eat bags of pasta just because I could. To be fair, I think I'd be the same on WW and just live off mounds of sweet potato mash and Lindas. A big improvement health wise on Slimming World though as that sounds pretty good for you! I must admit when I calorie count then the weight comes off but I make awful choices (slice of toast with peanut butter or bar of chocolate for breakfast? They're the same calories so I'll have the chocolate!). Sounds like you might have a better attitude to healthy eating than me

Haha thanks croc, I WISH I had healthy eating habits, but I'm all too fond of the treats. I may find that after a week or so I'm overeating on WW too, so will have to keep an eye on portions. A big plate of sweet potato mash, LMs and bisto gravy would be more or less free I think and probably not something I should be eating every day...sounds amazing though 😂🤦‍♀️.

I guess convenience foods (other than the sausages and quorn, and quorn needs flavouring, so not a super fast instant meal...) are out, so that will help. Even the bags of pre cooked rice are out, as there is added oil. So even just stalling me a bit before I snarf down all the bread and because everything takes a bit of time to cook. It'll be trial and error I suppose. Hate having to lose weight! Boo.

This is the book that I love. It's not all vegan which I normally find annoying but we've got some real meal staples from this book. See photos.

The problem I find with Bosh is that it's quite unhealthy and also not always balanced. So for example their curry which is gorgeous from the Bish Bash Bosh book has no protein in it so I add a ton of chickpeas. Not a big problem but I expect a vegan cookbook to already address the fact that I'm going to need protein otherwise I'll be hangry at the end of it.

Good luck with your WW eating, @DepuisToujours - really hope it works for you! Getting rid of convenience foods is one of the reasons I found it easy to lose weight when I first switched from veggie to vegan - no more biscuits in the staff room, no more meal deals from the supermarket and no more takeaways!

(Keep meaning to ask, off topic: did you choose your username because of the Cabrel song? Big Cabrel fan here!)

@footprintsintheslow those dinners look really good!! Particularly the one on the right, yum! You're right about BOSH. Everything I've ever cooked from their first book has been delicious but it's definitely more treaty than healthy. Wonder what their healthy cookbook is like??

@Crocodilian I've got healthy Bosh I'll have a look and see as I don't use it much

@footprintsintheslow oh thank you! That would be great, as I've been wondering about getting it but I've not seen it in a shop yet for a flick through!

There's a secret to cooking 'whole' rice which stays in your gut longer, has more protein than the white stuff too. It has to be cooked for a longer time and or soaked first. Another secret is to use short grain whole (pudding) rice, It's delicious with slightly sweetened plant milk, mixed spice and nutmeg etc. for pudding and is fine savoury too.

Ref. 'protein' there's more protein in soya products than steak, also green leaves have protein too. .Chickpeas blow me out IMO and E there's soooo much blimmin' houmous in the shops that they must own fields of it!!!!!, I eat white and black beans instead.

Hello ladies I hope you are doing well. I had a weekend away, I live in Scotland and in a non lock down area. My eating was stupendously bad including the discovery of ms salted caramel chocolates. Back to it tomorrow I've actually weighed out 40g oats for my overnight oats. I had a hideous photo of me taken at the weekend all belly and boobs. Monday is a new day good luck everyone xx

Ooops Coconut I also went off piste this weekend , I blame dh for buying irrestible foods from a traiture and patisserie .

More hints for weight loss - eat fruit on an empty stomach BEFORE a meal. I always have it for breakfast, I make a filling seasonal smoothie (room temp.) with ground linseeds for health.

Can I join?
Been vegan 29 years and am fatter than ever! I have no self-control!

I just started a 5 day plan where fresh meals are delivered to me. Breakfast was yum. It'll be easy as I won't have to cook but as soon as Saturday comes I'll probably fall off.

That's 20 years not 29.

Hi all!

Yes, my weekend was not great... bit of a final blow out before starting my WW today!

I tried my LM chicken bucket and wasn't in love with it. Divine intervention perhaps, someone trying to tell me to stay away from the junk food . The aforementioned Bosh lemon drizzle cake is still in my cupboard. I'll save it for weekend I think, but need to check the date on it.

Anyway, so far just a cup of tea today so far. I am doing the WW purple plan, so lots of free foods. I'll go and make some porridge in a minute. I'll make it with water and add a splash of soy milk at the end I think.

Good luck everyone!

Hello Depuis Ref. porrridge, I love it, made and whisked slowly, esp. with molasses on it, (not too much of course) a great and actually healthy way to cut down on normal sugar. It has magnesium so helps with weight loss.

YY ppeat! It's the slow stirring/whisking that makes it imo. I've had that, sadly no molasses, so just put a v small amount of brown sugar on it. Also some fruit, which is pretty much all free, so that's useful, as I eat quite a lot of it as snacks.

There's nothing wrong with oil though, esp olive and linseed oil, not all of them are particularly good of course , there's so much sunflower and rapeseed oil in the plant milks .

Depuis I eat for health and weight , I always use olive oil (never 'spreads' apart from pnut butter and tahini. and marmite type spreads) I also practice mindfulness; sitting down at meal times, eating SLOWLY really enjoying, chewing the food it makes you stop rushing and not tasting the food.

Yes, I agree ppeat. I don't 100% agree with the WW very low fat approach. I think we definitely need some fat. But, you do get some points to play with, so I think the key is using those points for fats and not junk. Half an avocado is something ridiculous though in points, as is coconut oil. Think I'll take the whole thing with a pinch of salt (figuratively speaking ).

I meant to ask you btw, are you in France? I did some of my university studies in France. Just a year there. It was wonderful. I'd move back if we could!