My Journey

Welcome everyone! This is the first official blog for Tofu ‘n’ Collards. I am so excited to get this entire site running! The purpose of this blog is to take you all along my journey as I succeed with my weight loss. In the above photos, the first 2 were taken April 21, 2008 and I weighed 277.8 pounds. The one picture with my daughter was taken December 17, 2009 and I weighed 283.2!!! INSANE!!! I don’t even know how I let myself go like this! So January 6, 2010 I made a commitment to change my eating habits. Below are pictures as of what my progress is today. Be sure to stop by every Friday to check up on my weekly results…Maybe I’ll inspire some of you

It’s been so long…Soooooo sorry :(

It has been insanely busy since I’ve posted last. We’ve been getting ready for all the students moving into our complex for the upcoming school year, on top of our other jobs. Things have died down and fall semester starts up on Monday the 23rd, so I don’t need to worry about anything for now…doesn’t mean I’m less busy, just means I can get back into my schedule

I am officially out of the 240′s and have broken this dreadful summer plateau!!! when I saw that this morning It felt SO good. My current weight is 239.8

I had a lot of time to think about what was going on with my body and finally found an answer. I was eating too many refined, packaged, fake meat substitutes. Even though I was eating nothing but vegan foods, it can only do so much for me and will only give me results for a time and then I’d plateau. So I took my vegan lifestyle to another level. I started to research and stumbled upon this RAVE diet and lifestyle. It is an acronym standing for the following: No refined foods, No Animal products, No vegetable oils, and No Exceptions. I’ve been doing really well on it. I’ve been sauteeing with vegetable broth, and using apple sauce as an oil substitute i in my baked goods. I also haven’t had very much sugar…not even the raw stuff. Instead I sweeten things with stevia, agave, or maple syrup. I have been doing this for about 3 weeks now and lost 10 lbs. the first week (lost the weight I gained while family was in town for a month) and has been steady since then. I am SUPER excited to get back into the game and to get over this stump in this part of my journey

Anyway, it’s good to be back and having results again

The best get over your craving snack

So like any normal person I have a sweet tooth and at times (although it has gotten better) I just need a bite of something that will satisfy my craving. I think I have found the solution for me at least They’re called Date Donut Holes or sometimes you’ll see them at the health food store as Date Rolls. They are SOOOOOOOO good!!! I adapted Ani Phyo’s recipe found at We Like It Raw. I basically followed the recipe, but left out the pineapple only because we didn’t have any on hand…and I was running late to work. They’re definitely addicting but they are nutrient dense and are quite satisfying to the appetite. So I had 4 for breakfast yesterday and then 2 more later on as my snack. It definitely got rid of my cravings last night

Change is good :)

I’m just going to do a brief post. Since last week I have lost 4 lbs. and 2.75 inches all over I have tons more energy too! I am starting to see the changes on my body…especially my arms(thank goodness)! I never thought those would start going to down so quickly. I guess all that weight gain at first paid off in the end

I’ve been keeping busy

So, like I said in my last post I started the Body For Life program about a week ago. So far so good I am finally over the soarness in my body. You know the one tht you get once you start a new work out regimen? That’s the one But I feel so much better than I have, because I am consistent in all that I do in this program. I can already see some changes physically now that I’ve been doing it for about a week.

My body is changing and gaining more muscle which is good, but it stinks because I’ve gained weight because of the strength training. but it’s okay, because muscle weighs more than fat and in order to burn the fat you need to have the lean muscle to burn the fat off.  I’ve been weighing myself  more than normal, because I’ve had my doubts, but i know that it’s working because after gaining weight from being soar, and muscles being ripped apart from it not being used to strength training, I lost 2.5 the last 2 days! So I think that my body has calmed down

Here’s my workout from the last few days…

and here’s my food intake…

Don’t Worry…I’m still here :)

I’m tired…Night night

Breakfast

• Banana   91 Calories

Lunch

• Salad     210 Calories
• Flat bread   140 Calories

Snack

• Granola Bar    170 Calories

Dinner

• Chik Nuggets    238 Calories
• Cucumber Salad   40 Calories

Desert

• Fruit Salad    164 Calories
• Popcorn    45 Calories

Total Calories = 1098 Calories

Thank Goodness for Hulu :)

Hulu has been a serious lifesaver for me. With all the late night rehearsals last semester, concerts, operas, homework, recitals and plays it’s really hard was really hard to keep up on my shows last semester. Ah, but you say “just record it on Tivo”…well we’re too cheap to have any luxury right now with both of us still in school and living in Cedar City where unemployment was a problem before the economy crisis. I can watch and catch up on any show anytime with Hulu! If I wanted to catch up on an entire season of Lost I could It’s GENIUS!!!

Being Hulu savvy (until today) I had no idea that you can watch movies too!!! So I start browsing and I see movies like the Aviator and Veggie Tales. Although these were very tempting to watch(yes, Veggie Tales too!!) I just wasn’t feelin it for those types of movies tonight. I wanted something more real and documentaryish. So I came across The Future of Food; and all I have to say is that it’s really sad what our country has come to. Even with FOOD! It all comes down to one thing and it’s CONTROL. Anyway, you wanna know what I’m talking about just watch the movie. It’s about about an hour and thirty minutes. You don’t even have to watch the whole thing, but it was hard for me not to. It’s just really sick and sad what’s going on.

Breakfast:

• Brown Rice Breakfast     250 Calories

Lunch:

• Veggie Dog (no bun…wasn’t really hungry)     50 Calories

Dinner:

Pastry Pub Veggie Sub     700 Calories

Total Calories = 1000 Calories

http://www.hulu.com/watch/67878/the-future-of-food

I needed to hear this one

Hey everyone! I thought that this was a very inspirational and to the point video when achieving not only weight loss goals but any lifetime goals yo may have. She talks about mind set, which is something I totally need to hear right now. I really have been having some doubts and thinking that this goal is not even possible, and I know that it is not true, but don’t you ever feel like you’ve hit a brick wall sometimes and no matter what you do nothing will happen? Just a bit of a warning…her language may be a little offensive to some of you, just so ya know.

Breakfast:

• Grapes 53 Calories

Lunch:

• Quiznos Veggie Sandwich(large) 1040 Calories

Dinner:

• Soyrizo & Tofu 190 Calories

Total Calories = 1283 Calories

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I needed a change/Mac & “Cheeze”

I guess you all have been wondering where the heck I’ve been these last few days. It all started on Friday(my weigh day). I weighed myself feeling really good about how the week went. I had really stuck to my plan and not really had gone over on calories or anything. So rather than having the happy result of some weight loss, I stepped off of the scale in utter frustration Friday morning. This would make it the 2nd week in a row with no type of loss whatsoever. I weighed-in at 243.8 AGAIN!!! So you could only imagine that I wanted to just take that scale and throw it at the wall :/ I started to get down on myself asking myself stupid questions like “what’s wrong with my body, what am I doing wrong…” etc; and the truth is I had been working way too hard. So I started to do some researching and as a result I found a few inspiring articles on how to overcome the frustrating plateau during weight loss. I also discovered that this was my 2nd plateau and that there was a pattern. The pattern being that I would lose about 20 lbs. and then have very little or no change at all in my weight loss after that. The first time this happened I realized that I needed to be more consistent with my working out and so I changed it. As I read more and more articles as in the one from Diet Blog, they all basically said the same thing and that is:

1. Take a break from the “diet”
2. Zig-zag my calorie intake. So instead of intaking 1400 everyday, try switching it up to where one day I intake 1400 and the next day 1200. It keeps the body guessing.
3. Strength training’ it strengthens bone tissue
4. Change my exercise routine; it changes the way my body’s working
5. Alter Macro-nutrient intake
6. Change meal frequency

Do you notice a pattern? The key word is CHANGE! This is exactly what I have been doing this last weekend and why you haven’t heard from me. I took a break from the calorie counting and basically ate whatever I wanted these last few days and I LOST WEIGHT!! It totally worked. I am now back down to 241.4 lbs.

As apart of this change, I decided to restart my diet today and as a result I have a new weigh-in day, Tuesdays.

Which brings me to the next topic…that’s right, it’s time for Taste Test Tuesday! As you noticed  above, the yummy Mac & “Cheeze” photo. The picture doesn’t do it any justice. I snagged the recipe from the Epicurean Vegan. This is seriously the best non-dairy version of Mac & Cheese I have EVER had. It was so savory and creamy, AND YUMMY!!! I couldn’t believe how close in taste it was to the real deal. The cheese made from a cashew-based sauce. You really couldn’t tell the difference in any way. It tastes just as good or even better the next day. We had left overs for about 3 days, which is good because, that all Acacia wanted She ate that like there was no tomorrow. So this is definitely a thumbs up. Try it, you will not regret it

Breakfast:

• Greens Smoothie    110 Calories

Lunch:

• Mexican Salad    330 calories

Snack:

• Granola Bar    170 Calories
• Snap Peas    70 Calories

Dinner:

• Roasted Peppers & Portobello Sandwich   466 Calories

Total Calories = 1146 Calories

I Love My Bike

Yesterday I promised myself that I would start biking to and from work everyday; and I must say that although it was kinda strenuous going up that hill towards campus, it was quite refreshing. The day was perfect! It wasn’t too hot and there was a slight breeze in the air, jammin’ out to O Mio Babbino Caro…with the exception of almost getting hit  at the crosswalk and trying to hike up the stairs with a bike….I should have taken an alternate route to work…Oh well. It was very rewarding and I burned about 150 calories! It’s a  heck of a lot faster than walking to work

Breakfast:

• Greens Smoothie    110 Calories

Lunch:

• Quinoa Sushi Roll   217 Calories
• Strawberries 27 Calories

Dinner:

• Mac & “Cheeze”    609 Calories

Total Calories = 963 Calories