#i say to my frozen sausage patty going into very hot oil

[no1watchdogsfan]

one of the best things about cooking is talking to your food like its a child thats acting out

[consulting-celiac-in-the-tardis]

57 Easy Gluten Free Dinner Recipes For the Whole Family

New blog post! Nowadays, I find myself having even less time and motivation to cook than usual...which is why easy gluten free dinner recipes have definitely been my saving grace!

So in the hope of making everyone’s life a little easier right now, I thought I’d round up some of the best easy gluten free dinner recipes on the blogosphere. All of the recipes I’ve included below are not only gluten free but also easy to make and require simple ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry. Plus, there are plenty of keto, low carb, paleo and vegan options! So without further adieu, let’s dive into these 57 easy gluten free dinner recipes for family members of all ages and palates.

1. Easy Chicken Pizza (Low Carb) - Snappy Gourmet

You don't even need pizza crust or flour to make this easy gluten free dinner. Just combine chicken with your favorite pasta or tomato sauce, cheese and pizza toppings!

2. Quinoa Avocado Veggie Patty (Vegan) - Any Reason Vegans

Have quinoa in your pantry that you want to use up? Combine quinoa, avocado and a few other ingredients for a delicous vegan "burger."

3. 5-Ingredient Sweet Chicken - My Gluten-Free Kitchen

This gluten free chicken recipe has definitely earned the top slot of my to-do list!

4. Zucchini Beef Skillet (Paleo) - Eating Richly

If you're looking for a one-pot-wonder that also just happens to be healthy, paleo and delicious, this gluten free dinner checks all the boxes.

5. Sweet Potato Salmon Sliders (Paleo) - Casey the College Celiac

No bread, no problem! You can enjoy your salmon between two "slices" of roasted sweet potato instead.

6. Delicious Easy Keto Pizza - Healthy with Jamie

Making a gluten free pizza might sound time-consuming and complicated, but this keto pizza recipe only takes 15 minutes to whip up - including cooking time!

7. Sesame Noodles (Vegan, Soy Free, Nut Free) - Moon and Spoon and Yum 

Noodles have never looked so good or been so flavorful.

8. Caprese Sheet Pan Chicken Breast - Food Meanderings 

You only need five ingredients to make this Caprese-salad-inspired dinner.

9. Instant Pot Curry with Chickpeas, Tomatoes and Spinach (Vegan) - The Foodie Eats

As long as you have curry powder in your pantry, this curry is a super easy recipe to whip up with the veggies you have on hand.

10. Greek Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner (Low Carb, Keto, Paleo) - Tasty Galaxy

This Greek chicken dinner tastes like it's straight out of a restaurant, and it only takes eight very simple ingredients.

11. The Best Vegan Chili Recipe Ever (Nightshade Free Option, Soy Free) - Allergy Yummy

The ingredients you need for this vegan chili may be easily accessible and cheap, but this chili tastes high quality!

12. Singapore Chicken Satay Skewers with Peanut Sauce - Christina's Cucina 

For those nights when you only have chicken in the fridge but want something different for dinner...

13. Crustless Spinach, Onion and Sundried Tomato Quiche - Girl Gone Mom

If you have some eggs on hand, this quiche is an easy meal-prep recipe that your family can enjoy for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

14. Spanish Beans with Tomatoes (Vegan, Vegetarian) - Veggie Desserts

This vegan dinner recipe is proof that even if you have limited fresh ingredients, you can still create a winning meal.

15. Deconstructed Vegetarian Enchiladas Skillet - Mash Up Mom

All of the enchilada flavor with a fraction of the effort. Sign me up!

16. 5-Minute Crunchy Greens Quesadilla (Paleo, Vegan Options) - Casey the College Celiac

This is the perfect easy gluten free dinner to use up any leftovers you have on hand. Plus, it can easily be adapted to a paleo or vegan diet.

17. Easy Sheet Pan Sausage and Vegetables - Foodal

Seasoning turns what could be a boring dinner of potatoes, veggies and sausage into a flavorful dinner the whole family will enjoy.  Just make sure whatever sausage (or substitute protein) you use is gluten free!

18. Vegetable Soup (Vegan) - Veg Recipes of India

If you're craving a comforting soup but don't have any cans at home, you can make your own with this very easy recipe.

19. Whole30 Chicken Fajita Stuffed Peppers (Paleo) - Cook At Home Mom

To make this gluten free dinner even quicker and easier to make, you can follow the cooking hacks included in the recipe, like using frozen cauliflower rice or pre-cooked chicken.

20. Mushroom Pulao, or Instant Pot Mushroom Rice - Indian Ambrosia

Moist rice combines with tender mushrooms for a simple but scrumptious gluten free dinner.

21. Easy Vegan Tortilla Soup - Class Clay Cooking

No cream or chicken is needed for this flavorful tortilla soup.

22. Instant Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken - Nourish Plate

Lemon and garlic upgrade the traditional chicken breast into a creamy, tangy dinner.

23. Flatbread Quinoa Pizza (Vegan) - Stacey Homemaker

Who knew that you could make a gluten free pizza crust out of just quinoa, water, garlic and seasonings?!?

24. Loaded Potato Wedge Nachos (Vegan Option) - Casey the College Celiac

The only required ingredient for this gluten free dinner is a regular or sweet potato to cook up into fries. Otherwise, you can stack your nachos with whatever ingredients you have on hand or are craving!

25. Extra Crispy Air Fryer Popcorn Chicken (Allergy-free, No oil) - Strength and Sunshine

If you're craving take-out, make a healthier version of fried chicken using this simple air fryer recipe instead.

26. Super Simple, Very Green Cream Soup (Low Carb, Paleo, Vegetarian) - Refresh My Health

The hardest step of this gluten free soup recipe is blending all the veggies, so it's safe to say it's a winning recipe for busy nights.

27. Kid-Friendly Baked Ziti Casserole - Fearless Dining

Have a ton of gluten free pasta in your cupboards and don't know how to use it? This easy gluten free casserole will please the whole family!

28. Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili - Feast for a Fraction

The nice thing about this chili is that you can easily make a double batch and freeze half for even easier dinners later on!

29. Vegan Tomato Soup - Allergy Free Alaska

This soup is as comforting as it is easy to make. Plus, you likely already have all the necessary ingredients in your pantry.

30. Easy Zucchini Enchilada Skillet - Wanderlust and Wellness

This gluten free enchilada dinner is loaded with extra veggies and only takes 10 ingredients and 30 minutes to make.

31. Gluten Free Pizza Rolls - Hunny I'm Home DIY

As long as you have a gluten free pizza crust mix waiting in your pantry, you can surprise the whole family with these allergy-friendly pizza rolls.

32. The Best Twice Baked Stuffed Potatoes - Simply Full of Delight

If you have a lot of Russet potatoes you want to use up, this simple take on twice baked potatoes will take those spuds to the next level.

33. Instant Pot Lentil Stew (Vegetarian) - Fun FOOD Frolic Photo Option 

Meatless Monday has never been so tasty or delicious. Plus this recipe is super customizable for whatever you have in your pantry.

34. 4-Ingredient Roast Chicken Dinner - My Kitchen Love

This one-pot meal lets the oven do all the work and is the perfect way to cook up a whole chicken and have leftovers for days.

35. Lazy Vegan Pot Pie with Sliced Potato Crust - My Pure Plants

Pot pie might not be the first meal you think of when you hear the phrase, "Easy dinner recipes" but this one is extra easy since you use a potato instead of flour for the crust!

36. Air Fryer Chicken Fajitas - Little Sunny Kitchen

Homemade fajita seasoning and the air fryer makes these chicken fajitas extra flavorful and easy.

37. Mexican Ground Beef Skillet (Paleo, Whole 30) - Hot Pan Kitchen

This gluten free Mexican dinner only takes 25 minutes to cook, and you can eat it on its own, with veggies or even as tacos.

38. Crispy Salmon Cakes with Lemon Dill Sauce (Low Carb, Grain Free) - Flavor the Moments

I grew up eating salmon patties with my grandma, so this low carb version is definitely on the top of my to-do list.

39. Sweet Potato & Black Bean Stew (Vegan, Refined Sugar Free) - Healthy Living James

Black beans and sweet potato are a match made in culinary heaven.

40. Quick & Easy Vegan Bolognese - Delightful Adventures

For when you're craving spaghetti but also want a meatless dinner that everyone will enjoy.

41. 3-Ingredient Balsamic Jam Pork Chops (Paleo, Whole 30 Option) - Paleo Gluten Free Guy

A sweet and sour glaze takes pork chops to the next level.

42. One Pan Mexican Quinoa (Vegan) - Vegan Huggs

Quinoa and black beans give this Mexican dinner a hefty dose of plant-based protein.

43. Crockpot Chicken and Gravy - 24 Bite

No canned soup or gravy mix packages are required for this gluten free crockpot dinner.

44. Lentil Curry (Dal) with Spinach (Vegan, Vegetarian) - Go Healthy Ever After

Personally, I love a cozy bowl of dal and this vegan dal recipe is extra easy to make thanks to the instant pot or pressure cooker.

45. Supreme Pizza Casserole (Low Carb) - Peace, Love and Low Carb

Transform that leftover cauliflower in your fridge into a pizza-like dinner with help from whatever pizza toppings and sauces you have on hand.

46. One Pan Chicken and Asparagus Skillet Dinner - Creative Green Living

As long as you have chicken breast, cheese and asparagus, you can whip up this easy gluten free skillet dinner.

47. Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole (Keto) - Wholesome Yum

This gluten free casserole only calls for seven common recipes and you have two ways to choose to make it.

48. Keto Pulled Pork - Joy Filled Eats

One instant pot + five simple ingredients = one delicious, protein-packed keto dinner recipe.

49. Simple Italian Sweet Potato Pizza Crust (Vegan) - Bucket List Tummy

Do you have sweet potatoes, gluten free oats and cornstarch? Then you can have a sweet potato pizza!

50. Creamy Baked Chicken Legs (Keto Friendly) - Cooked by Julie

Shake up traditional chicken leg dinner with a creamy tomato sauce.

51. Paleo Shepard's Pie (Whole 30) - Lau's Healthy Lifestyle

This paleo dinner recipe versatile, comforting and tasty.

52. Instant Pot Salsa Chicken (Keto Friendly) - Mom Foodie

Salsa, chicken, cheese and spices + the instant pot = an easy and delicious family meal.

53. Healthy Pasta Alfredo (Keto Option) - Texanerin 

Make sure you use the gluten free flour option in this healthy alfredo recipe, and you'll have an easy use of the pasta in your pantry.

54. 3 Chicken Cutlets Recipes (Keto, Grain Free and Egg Free Options) - Healthy Taste of Life

These chicken cutlets are juicy on the inside, crunchy on the outside and definite kid-pleaser.

55. Creamy Sweet Potato Lentil Soup (Vegan) - Happy Kitchen Rocks

Sweet potato, lentils and coconut milk are the three main ingredients for this easy vegan dinner.

56. Air Fryer Salmon Patties (Low Carb, Keto, Whole 30) - Recipes From a Pantry

Thanks to the air fryer, these salmon patties are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

57. Chicken Fajita Lettuce Wraps (Paleo, Grain Free, Specific Carbohydrate Diet) - Emma Eats and Explores

Thanks to the marinade, the chicken in these fajitas are super tender and you can add whatever toppings you're craving.

I Hope You Love These Easy Gluten Free Dinner Recipes for the Whole Family

Regardless of how chaotic our life might be, we still need to eat and easy gluten free dinner recipes like these can definitely make that “chore” feel a lot less taxing. And if you have a limited amount of ingredients in your pantry, fridge and freezer, I hope these simple recipes will also inspire you to get creative with what you have. Let me know in the comments what you’ve been eating lately or which of these 57 gluten free dinner recipes you’d like to try first! And stay safe, healthy and full of delicious gluten free food! via Blogger https://ift.tt/34wqRdP

[hecallsmehischild]

On Losing Weight

Recently I was asked a question that prompted me to pull together all the information I could remember about how my husband, Sergey, and I have been eating over the last few years. We both struggle very much with food and have been trying to do better by our bodies for a long time, but are wary of all the diets and fads. This post has details about what we’ve tried to date and what has worked for us. Most of it is written by me. At the end, Sergey wrote a few paragraphs also. Very long post under the cut.

Disclaimers and a few generalities

One thing about eating and weight loss is that accountability really helps. However, I’ve found personally that even if everyone in your family means well, accountability partners should not be within the family. The main reason I've found is that there's too much baggage with any family member (with the potential exception of your marriage partner) for accountability to ever go well and function as it should. Resentment, triggers, irritation, even accidental shaming crops up because of old baggage and derails everything. You need accountability with someone who you don’t carry a lot of baggage with, because there’s often a huge emotional component to eating.

It takes a LONG time to lose large amounts of weight. You can lose five to ten pounds relatively quickly, but often your body will stabilize on the new number and then you may find it very hard to get lower for months, so continuing to try new things is helpful.

You will yo-yo between 3 and 5 pounds all the time. That is standard. So think in five pound increments in any direction, because your bodyweight is constantly in flux over a few pounds. For this reason, weighing once a week is a lot more accurate than weighing every day and will cause a lot less despair and frustration.

We are not vegetarians at all. We cannot offer any thoughts on a vegetarian diet.

Whatever you do, food-wise, has to be part of your ordinary life. Short term diets set you up to fail. Changing your lifestyle is what will produce long-lasting changes.

Also, some of the things my husband and I try, in some ways, appears to walk the line of eating disorder. I’m watching it very closely with that in mind, and I still don’t think it falls into the trap. Sergey and I do not have enough activity to burn off all the food with take in, so we’re trying things to decrease our food intake AND increase our activity, so that we reach a reasonable balance. But people who have (or are tempted by) eating disorders need to take care, and I would recommend not reading this post or else proceeding with utmost caution.

Obviously not all of the things we do are feasible for everyone, but maybe even hearing some of our ideas might spark a different way of thinking about food and being active for you.

One Meal a Day

Three meals a day makes a lot of sense if you’re doing hard labor all the time. It doesn’t make as much sense if you have a desk job or take care of a house as your main occupation. So the first thing we did a few years back is cut down to one meal a day. It could be anything at all, but it had to be just one meal. That alone dropped us both about 10 pounds down. We’d have one meal around lunch, and later in the evening we would share a large bowl of some sort of fruit (like tangerines or cherries). The aim was to eat things that were both good and filling. Variation keeps you from getting bored and abandoning the lifestyle.

Meals were often grilled salmon or home-warmed burgers (lean, when we could) or a soup from Trader Joe’s. Some of our meals now:

Two burgers with lean beef patties, pickles, and some mayo on bakery fresh onion rolls

Lox (with is VERY low cal, if expensive) on onion rolls with tomato and onion, a little oil and pepper and salt

Sharing a whole roast chicken from the store, plus a roll each

Large can of tuna mixed with a little mayo on two onion rolls

Shredded chicken and mashed potatoes from the store’s fresh packaged food section

Pot roast and mashed potatoes from the store’s fresh packaged food section

Meatballs. Just meatballs.

A spicy beans/rice/sausage/mushroom dish we brainstormed that we make in a pressure cooker

Home-made chicken mushroom fettuccine alfredo. Not super healthy, but hot and homemade. (this is a “maintenance” meal, see what I mean by that later)

A bag of chicken fried rice from Trader Joe’s

Soup from the grocery store (not the canned kind, but the fresher ones sold by the store)

Two larger sized tamales

One frozen pizza (inspect the full calorie count, you’re shooting for something between 600 and 1000 calories total, which does exist but it takes some looking and experimenting with types) whose flavor can always be spiced up with extra mushrooms or garlic powder. Not the Tostino’s or Party pizzas. I promise there are healthier, tastier, and more varied pizzas to be had in this calorie range.

Chicken breast or chicken thigh meat is sold frozen. Cook that and make that into sandwiches for very lean, filling meals. Use of various spices encouraged.

A tray of baked “catfish nuggets” which are chunks of catfish cooked in the oven

A tray of baked white meat chicken nuggets

Cocktail shrimp (thawed from frozen) with cocktail sauce

I have just broken into the frontier of omelettes, also low-cal and filling in conjunction with onion rolls.

Sergey would often go to a salad bar and load up on the salad, then also load up on the chicken noodle soup which is very filling and very low cal.

Sergey eats his meal closer to noon or one. I try to eat my meal around 3 or 4 if I can hold out, because then I’m not groaning about how hungry I am in the evening or being kept up by hunger pangs. For me, that’s the mid-point of the day and the one that helps me deal with hunger best.

Snacks and Sweets

Snacks are always tricky, and large bags of anything salty are automatic failures in this house; we are incapable of portioning them. So we stopped getting them unless we acknowledged the truth to ourselves, which is that one bag is one serving size no matter what the back says (i.e. we embraced that we’re being bad and got it anyway).

For a while Sergey and I had an occasional bowl of non-buttered popcorn with powdered salt. This worked for a bit because it was pretty filling, but Sergey found himself making multiple bowls so we had to stop because that defeated the purpose.

Some stores sell very small snacks individually portioned, like a tiny foil pack of variously flavored olives, or banana bites coated in cacao, etc. Those are great. Rice cakes can be good, though I get tired of them after a while. I like the cinnamon apple and chocolate ones best. Speaking of cinnamon apple, individual oatmeal cups are good too. I aim for around 140 cal for a snack.

Sometimes I will snack on a lean burger patty or chicken thigh-meat piece, each of which is about 70 cal.

By himself, Sergey often would (and still does) fill a large bowl full of small quartered tomatoes mixed with pepper, oil, and onion. He can put away two of these tomato salads a day as “snacks.” He says they’re very filling, good for you, and low-cal. He’s leaning more on bowls of baby carrots and sugar snap peas these days. Sometimes he will make a large bowl of Golden Apple slices to chow down on.

I keep NO ice cream in the house. I may get a larger quantity for a birthday celebratory binge, or use individual containers as a reward system, but I never “stock up” on ice cream. Birthday? Maybe 4 of the personal containers of various flavors, and that’s it for my birthday treat. Reward system? Once I get to a certain weight, I allow myself to have one small personal container of ice cream (or my other favorite, a jar of honey pecans) a week. The incentive to get to a certain weight balances out the slow-down on the weight loss the treat causes, because this can’t be all about deprivation or I couldn’t sustain it. Being able to sustain a way of eating into a lifestyle is a huge deal.

I keep dried cranberries in the cabinet. Sometimes if I’m hungry and need to hold out, I’ll grab one handful of those to eat. I keep larger quantities of oatmeal too, but I’m not sure if that’s working against me or not, because I dump high quantities of honey in to bring it up to my sweet tooth standards so it might end up being a bad thing for me. I haven’t sat down to figure that out yet.

I make a mean chunky cinnamon applesauce that is a delicious and pretty healthy snack, too, when I have the energy to make it.

I would like to make sweets all the ding dong day, but it works against us, so I have to reserve my sweets making for when there’s a large group to share them with. Otherwise we would eat all of that ourselves.

Tools that help

Making your own food at home becomes a lot more enjoyable and feasible for low-energy people like us when there are tools that cut back on the effort it takes. To that end

A good 6 qt pressure cooker does everything a crockpot does, but it has more options and is faster.

A good food processor can do almost anything, from applesauce to milling oats to slicing veggies to finely dicing the onions you don’t want to deal with, to making ice cream out of frozen bananas and cocoa powder. We have an older one and it still does wonders, even though some of the latches don’t work right.

A good indoor grill machine.

Electric mixer/beater. The effort of making cookies goes down by a third to a half the personal energy cost when you use this, plus the process goes faster and the texture is so much better.

A dishwasher. A good dishwasher means you aren’t spending a ton of energy cleaning up all the dishes you soiled just making food. Did you know there are portable dishwashers that hook up to your sink if you don’t have one in the home? I just learned this...

This one heavily depends on how much you’d use it, but it can be very inexpensive to get an electric citrus juicer. I can go through about 40 lemons for a party-sized quantity of lemonade and it wracks out my wrist to do that manually, so I got a good one for about $20.

This website is one Sergey uses to see what products are legitimately good, because Amazon is starting to have major issues with fake reviews PLUS Chinese knock-offs getting passed off as the good product. This site user-tests a ton of different brands of the same product and tells you which one they found to be best and why, then gives a few runners up in other categories like price or different type. I used this to find a good set of salt/pepper grinders, a good knife sharpener, and an individual serving coffee maker. I also found my electric mixer and citrus juicer on here.

Also, pickling things is fun and very cheap and easy.

A few radical things

This is our lifestyle, not a diet. We go crazy with our eating when we’re on a trip, but normal, everyday eating is the one-meal-a-day plan for us. Going to a friend’s place for a meal is a balancing act that we often fail (because it’s often all-you-can-eat), but we’re already brainstorming ways to compensate.

Here’s for something radical sounding, to be handled with care. While Sergey aims for around 1300 calories a day, approximately, I aim for under or close to 800. I’ve found that if I eat the same things as him, I maintain my current weight but do not lose any. It’s when I, the smaller and less active person, undershoot him, that I start gaining ground. When I reach the weight I’m aiming for, I will allow myself more leeway to get to his calorie intake level, because that’s “maintenance” level for me.

Here’s the current thing we are testing, so the results are not in yet. We’re doing this because neither of us has been able to budge our weight for a while. It’s a combination of factors so track with me. We like a place called Star Cinema Grill which is a movie theater that serves you a meal and/or drinks while you watch the movie. But even for one meal this is a very high calorie day if we go there. We swore off going for a long time, until their marketing department sent out a wave of “Two free tickets!” in the mail. Sergey figured that he would go, and then he would not eat for 48 hours to make up for it. I was a little concerned by the idea, but after thinking it over for a while (with the concern about eating disorders in mind) it didn’t actually seem that unreasonable. So I joined him in this. So now we’ve worked out that we can go to Star Cinema Grill on occasion as long as it’s followed by a 48 hour fast.

We had previously tried 48 hour fasts (which consist of, for example, eating lunch around noon on Sunday and stopping food until lunch on Tuesday, so that you sleep through much of the 48 hour period) but we first did the fast on ONLY water. By the second day we were both so lethargic and unfocused that we could hardly function. This time we allowed ourselves to have several rounds of tea or mocha throughout the day. That time, we experienced very negligible energy drops and made it through the period of no-eating with a lot less suffering.

NOW. I was reading Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, the expanded and revised edition, and at the end they included several articles they had written as bonus material. Please read this article to understand where I’m going next.

Excited, I rushed over to Sergey to make him read this bit. This is already sort of what we had been doing. Though this guy had distilled it down to sugar water, tea with a cube of sugar isn’t much different. My mocha had about three times the sugar, but was still on the very low end of calories for a day. So this idea (that sugar-water helps trick your body past hunger) was being confirmed for us by someone else. So we’ve decided to test out doing this 48-hour fast once a week, which may also allow for re-inclusion of things we tend to forgo more often (like weekly ice cream? Or a fresh batch of cookies?). Stay tuned...

Going out

We built a list of places and categories of how good or bad they are for us to go to. We divided them into Healthy and Healthy Cheat. Bad ones don’t make it on the list so we’re not tempted when we���re thinking of where to go out.

Healthy Restaurants are places where, if you’re reasonable with your choices, you can eat pretty much any one meal on their menu. (Lemon Shark is our Poke place in the area. Poke is unreasonably good and healthy and filling for you, and most will have vegetarian or cooked options on the menu if you don’t like raw fish. Jinya is a ramen place, though you have to be a little more selective about because some dishes are two meals’ worth, and Sweet Tomatoes is a salad bar also known as Souplantation in some regions)

Healthy Cheat Restaurants are places where we know we’ll probably eat more than we should, but the food is still relatively healthy. Tokyo Grill and Dimassi’s are both buffet places with relatively healthy options near us. Fukuda Sushi is our sushi go-to for now (though we’re looking to replace it as the fish quality went down).

Avoid most all-you-can-eat places like the plague, unless it’s a salad bar. Even then, if you gravitate toward the breads and creamy soups like I do, just say no.

Places we love that are also pretty bad for us on any kind of regular basis: Rudy’s BBQ, Star Cinema Grill, Wine Tasting Room (large meat and cheese platters), anywhere Italian.

Being Active

We took up Krav Maga, which had us doing off and on rigorous exercise for an hour twice a week. That went on for about a year. After I broke my toe, we switched to a home exercise regimen.

Instead of home exercise equipment, we opted for DDR pads, and have been doing hour-long DDR sessions most mornings. After an hour long workout (25 songs on easy-to-medium levels) we each do 20 crunches and then Sergey does extra burpees or push-ups. As the crunches get easier for me, I will be adding five at a time. I’m up to 30 now. Crunches were initially added to help me maintain the muscles that hold up a weak place in my spine, however now it’s also a good end-workout routine. I cannot get through all this without frequent water breaks because I drip sweat, and Sergey turns into a waterfall.

Sergey has added about 3-5 extra mini-workouts (a set of pushups or burpees) sprinkled throughout the day.

Some days we go to a park in the morning and walk for 30-50 minutes instead of DDR. It’s less strenuous, but a nice change of pace and scenery.

Some days we go kayaking in a nearby waterway, which REALLY works the arm muscles that day, but it’s a fantastic workout. We keep saying we need to go more often, but often forget.

Failing

It’s going to happen. It’s going to feel miserable. Sometimes I have found myself up at three AM, unable to sleep, making myself another whole frozen pizza or eating all the spaghetti leftovers. Sometimes I can talk myself into something slightly better, like a bowl of oatmeal, but not often. Sometimes I’ll just mix white and brown sugar, butter, and raw oatmeal and eat this lump-of-barely-cookie-dough as is. Sometimes I come home from the grocery store with an entire round loaf of bakery bread and eat it, much to Sergey’s fascination and surprise. One time I scooped one out and filled it with clam chowder and ate my own homemade bread bowl. It was great. It was also way over my limit.

Sometimes “failing” is known and expected, like around the holidays or birthdays. It’s okay to celebrate. Food is a very social and emotional experience as well as a sustenance deal. Keep picking yourself back up and trying again.

Sergey, who is SUPER good at distilling core concepts, adds his own TLDR:

On Losing Weight

Dusty and I have both struggled with overeating. For me, there have been sad times when plowing through a huge meal may have been the happiest 20 minutes of my day, and it’s no surprise that I would resist any attempts to eliminate that. However, I’ve found that losing weight and getting healthier leads to better moods and reduces the frequency and severity of impulses to binge.

Whatever you do must be incorporated into your lifestyle—if you are “going on a diet,” then you are setting yourself up to fail. If certain behaviors become part of your ordinary day, and you maintain that for months at a time, it’s much more likely that you’ll be able to keep going.

The most important change I’ve made is limiting myself to 1 meal a day. After a short adjustment period, I feel only a little bit hungrier than I did with 2 meals a day while consuming half the calories. That meal should be a reasonably-sized meal (typically 800-1200 calories for men, 600-900 for women), not an extra-large one. If I get hungry again, I only allow myself some very low-calorie snacks like carrots, sugar snap peas, or tomatoes.

The second thing I did was institute a daily exercise program. Dusty and I start each morning with an hour of DDR when we can, and I stop what I’m doing every 3-5 hours to do a set of 20 burpees. As I gain strength, I plan to increase this number. We also go for walks or go kayaking when the weather and our moods allow. What’s most important is that you do something to get your heart racing and get sweaty, and that you do it every day.

The last thing I did was institute occasional 48-hour fasts. For example, I would have lunch on Monday and not eat again until lunch on Wednesday. If I have tea with light sugar during a fast, I only feel moderately hungrier than I would otherwise. It’s much more tolerable than I thought it would be. There is considerable research suggesting that intermittent fasting is good for you, and it can be a reasonable way to offset the binge you couldn’t resist having. It’s definitely a healthier approach than purging, which hurts both your body and your soul.

[werresnutrition]

My Two-Week Vegan Test Drive

*Disclaimer: I’ve been eating honey, which is technically not vegan, throughout the two weeks.

After watching What the Health two weeks ago, I was totally totally disgusted by meat. I certainly don’t agree with everything they said, or even a lot of what they said, but I’ve always known the meat industry in this country was pretty awful, so I decided not to eat meat for a while. Then I thought why not take it a step further and go totally vegan, just for a two-week trial run and see how it goes. I kind of decided this about 11am, after I’d already had a vegan breakfast, but I didn’t take my weight or have time to get any blood work done. I emailed my amazing sister-in-law (She and my brother-in-law were totally vegan for a while and now try to eat vegan at least when they’re home and cooking for themselves.) to get some recipes and tips, and she went above and beyond what I was expecting with a ton of recipes, great advice, and some of her favorite vegan blogs to follow (I will include this information at the bottom of the blog.).

A lot of people think they’ll be “starving” if they follow a vegan diet, and I expected to be more hungry than normal, but I wasn’t at all! I was a little hungry when I got home from work, which I usually am, so I had a handful of pistachios before going to the gym, but I never felt hungry or deprived at all yesterday.

A lot of people also expect to experience more gas and bloating with all the added vegetables and beans, but I did not experience a difference during my first day. 

July 13, 2017

Day 1:

Breakfast: Plain soy yogurt with fresh blueberries, hemp hearts, and a drizzle of honey; gala apple

Lunch: Vegan bowl with quinoa flour rotini, salsa, half an avocado, half an orange bell pepper, and about ¼ cup salsa

Dinner: Vegan bowl with brown rice, black beans, garbanzo beans, broccoli, green beans, and artichoke salad with a couple of tablespoons of the oil from the salad is in

July 14, 2017

Day 2:

I weighed myself this morning at was at 120 (with clothes). Will do the same at the end of the two weeks. Blood pressure around 9am was 97/66

Breakfast: Plain soy yogurt with fresh blueberries, chia seeds, and a drizzle of honey, gala apple

**One of my clients brought in a back of salty snacks because she thought she was getting cheddar flavored, turns out it was jalapeno cheddar, so she brought them to me because she knows I love hot foods, and she hates them. I can’t eat them because of the dairy in the ingredients :( **

Lunch: Vegan bowl with brown rice, half an avocado, salsa, black beans, and half an orange bell pepper

Dinner: Cheese-less pizza! It’s not as bad as it sounds - it’s actually quite good! I ordered traditional crust with pineapple, and the waitress didn’t even look at me funny when I ordered it without cheese, which I had totally prepared myself for. I had to say no to my fiance’s birthday cake when we went back to his parents’ house to celebrate his birthday :(

July 15, 2017 (Fiance’s Birthday!!!)

Day 3:

Breakfast: Larabar after the gym

Snack: Handful of pistachios

Lunch: Benitos and salsa - not the healthiest, but nothing sounded good, and I was bummed about being vegan and not being able to eat a piece of birthday cake

Dinner: Vegan salad from Cheesecake Factory (well, about ¼ of it - it’s huge!!)

July 16, 2017

Day 4:

Breakfast: Vegan biscuits and gravy

I used my recipe for 2-ingredient biscuits, which calls for self-rising flour and heavy cream, but I subbed cashew milk. They didn’t turn out as well as when I’d used heavy cream, but they were fine with the gravy. I used my normal gravy recipe but subbed cashew milk for regular milk and used Morning Star sausage patties the I ran through the food processor to crumble them. After looking at the package, they patties were made with egg whites, so again, not 100% vegan TECHNICALLY, but for my purpose of doing it, I figured I could get away with it.

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich, handful of almonds, and a Larabar

Dinner: More Cheesecake Factory salad and some pretzels

July 17, 2017

Day 5:

Breakfast: Smoothie with half an avocado, ½ cup blueberries, ½ cup coconut milk, and half a scoop of vanilla protein powder; gala apple

Lunch: Leftover vegan biscuits and gravy and some home grown grape tomatoes :)

After work snack (about 5pm): pretzels and salsa (yeah I know it’s a weird combo) and some almonds

Dinner: Yet again more Cheesecake Factory salad; this time I added more garbanzo beans and balsamic vinegar; coconut ice cream bar for dessert

July 18, 2017

Day 6:

Breakfast: Plain soy yogurt, old fashioned oats, honey, and blueberries; gala apple

Lunch: The last of my Cheesecake Factory salad (finally!) and some pistachios

After gym snack: about a cup of almond milk with about 1/3 scoop of vanilla protein powder

Dinner: Lentil tacos made from the recipe my SIL shared with me (recipe link below)

http://www.isachandra.com/2011/05/ancho-lentil-tacos/

July 19, 2017

Day 7:

Breakfast: Avocado, blueberry, almond milk, and vanilla protein powder smoothie; gala apple

Lunch: Vegetarian burrito from Q’doba (flour tortilla, brown rice, black and pinto beans, roasted chile cord, salsa roja, guacamole, and shredded lettuce)

After work snack: Black pepper pea crisps

Dinner: Vegan broccoli “cheese” casserole (recipe link below)

http://www.connoisseurusveg.com/vegan-broccoli-cheese-casserole/

Dessert: Vegan cookie dough for one (recipe link below; you can also use agave nectar instead of maple syrup; I used almond flour instead of all purpose flour, and it tasted like and had a similar texture to those Neapolitan coconut slice candy bars - yum! I left out the chocolate chips because I didn’t have any vegan chips)

http://theliveinkitchen.com/vegan-cookie-dough-one/

July 20, 2017

Day 8:

Breakfast: The last of my vegan biscuits and gravy; gala apple

Lunch: Salad made with red leaf lettuce, Romain lettuce, green cabbage, garbanzo beans, and balsamic vinegar

Dinner: Lentil taco salad (just used leftovers from dinner on the 18th and piled some lentils on top some Romain lettuce and topped it with salsa)

July 21, 2017

Day 9:

Breakfast: Blueberries, two lemon date protein balls, and a gala apple

Lunch: Leftover broccoli casserole

After work snack: Snapea crisps, pistachios

Dinner: Half of a small vegan pizza from Papa John’s (traditional crust, no cheese) with jalapenos and extra sauce (was also excited that I got to eat the garlic sauce too - I always thought it was garlic butter, but no, not butter, just dipping sauce! Yay! It’s the small victories in life….)

July 22, 2017

Day 10:

Breakfast: Coconut cream pie Larabar after the gym

Brunch: Leftover half of my small vegan pizza from Papa John’s and a chocolate cashew milk ice cream bar

Afternoon snack: Snapea crisps

Late dinner: Bean and rice tostada from Roscoe’s tacos; a couple of handfuls of Frosted Flakes

July 23, 2017

Day 11:

Breakfast: Bowl of Frosted Flakes with almond milk

After church snack: A handful of veggie pretzels

Late lunch: Grilled Portobello cap topped with avocado, chopped red and green bell peppers, fresh basil, and salt and pepper; Bush’s Grillin’ Beans; pineapple and watermelon

Dinner: I was still fairly full from our late lunch, so I snacked on more watermelon and pineapple and some veggie pretzels

July 24, 2017

Day 12:

Breakfast: Plain coconut yogurt, old fashioned oats, and blueberries; gala apple

Lunch: Leftover Grillin’ beans and Portobello cap from yesterday’s late lunch

Dinner: Greek salad from Oaken Barrel (asked for no feta; lettuce, kalamata olives, tomatoes, cucumbers with pita and vinaigrette) and a bowl of black bean soup

July 25, 2017

Day 13:

Breakfast: Avocado, blueberry, and coconut milk smoothie

Lunch: The rest of the Grillin’ beans with red and green bell peppers, cucumbers, and cauliflower

After work snack: Pistachios

Dinner: Lentil taco (leftovers from last week - gluten-free shell, guacamole, lettuce)

July 26, 2017

Day 14:

Breakfast: Gala apple and two lemon date protein balls

Weight: 119 with clothes

Lunch: Vegetarian burrito from Q’doba (flour tortilla, brown rice, black and pinto beans, roasted chile cord, salsa roja, guacamole, and shredded lettuce)

Blood pressure: 96/41

After work snack: tablespoonful of peanut butter; snapea crisps

Dinner: Homemade vegan vegetable soup (vegetable broth, V8 spicy tomato juice, cabbage, yellow squash from my grandma’s garden, seeded jalapenos from my friend’s dad’s garden, and green beans from my garden)

First day off of vegan diet: A huge piece of cake my *future* mother-in-law made for my fiance’s birthday that I’d frozen for this very day :) I didn’t even wait for it to completely thaw, and it was DELICIOUS!

My response to What the Health‘s claim that vegan is the only way to go is this: yes, a vegan diet is healthy because mostly you can only eat plant-based whole foods. You are very limited in snacks because so many traditional snack food contains dairy and/or eggs. A lot of desserts and breakfast pastries are also a no-no on a vegan diet, so there go a ton of calories a lot of non-vegans are getting on a daily basis. Therefore a person on a non-vegan diet who then makes a lifestyle change to become a vegan is very likely to drop weight as he or she will be cutting a lot of calories because their diet will be limited. The person will also likely have better blood work results and feel much healthier 1. Because he or she will be getting more vitamins and minerals because they will likely have to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables, 2. Because that person will end up having to switch out a lot of processed foods for whole foods,  and 3. Because he or she will likely lose weight.

My final thoughts on my two-week vegan test drive are that a vegan diet is totally doable, but it definitely has its challenges, especially when out to eat or eating at a relative/friend’s house. I never felt more hungry than I normally do, and I felt the same during and after my workouts. I also never experienced a difference in bloating/gas during the vegan test drive. I did not experience a significant weight change or notice a difference in my blood pressure (I’ve been monitoring it throughout the two weeks but not always recording it).

While it is a doable diet, it needs to be done right, and those following a vegan diet, especially strictly, need to make sure they are getting all the vitamins and minerals that are essential to our health. It is very important to learn which veggies, legumes, and grains, when mixed together, provide a complete source of protein, and sometimes it may be necessary to supplement with protein and/or certain vitamins (including B12). It is AMAZING how many processed foods and snacks are made with some form of dairy. I had to say no to a lot of my favorite snacks, even chocolate, because of their ingredients.

For me personally, I can see how it would be hard to follow a strict vegan diet for an extended period of time. I struggled with cravings for ice cream and my favorite snack foods that were out of my diet because of dairy. The cravings were worst when I was hungry and/or bored, and I also think my brain was telling me I wanted these foods because I knew I couldn’t have them. My fiance is not into going vegan, and we eat with his parents (also not vegan) a few times a month, and it would just be too difficult and not worth it to me (I don’t have any religious beliefs that restrict what I can eat) to permanently become a strict vegan. That being said, I will likely maintain a mostly vegetarian diet, as I’ve never been a huge fan of meat, and after What the Health, I’m even less of a fan. I will still make some of my favorite vegan dishes just because I like them, but I won’t be strict about it. Plus I’m really excited to dig into that piece of my fiance’s birthday cake that I stuck in the freezer for myself when my two-week test drive was over!

Think positive, stay active, and smile. -A