I stopped eating sugar and processed foods - and lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks
While I was a normal size, I knew I was starting to gain some weight from my lazy behavior and terrible, truly awful diet.
I, my friends, was your classic "unhealthy vegan."
Registered dietitian Whitney Stuart of Whitness Nutrition told me this isn't that unusual. She has vegan clients come in and act surprised when she says they don't eat enough vegetables.
"But I'm vegan!" they tell her. Well, you still have to eat vegetables, and whole grains, and fruits, if you want to benefit from your vegan diet.
I was not. And it was showing. My terrible diet coupled with my desk job left me bloated. I had time for exercise over my breaks or on the weekends, but wasn't actually doing it. I knew that a first step to changing my energy levels would be my diet, so I decided to switch to a whole-food, plant-based diet, which has been touted as one of the healthiest out there.
A whole-food, plant-based diet doesn't mean vegan, Stuart told me. It just means you should think about plants first in every meal, and make them at least half of your plate. Meat, dairy, eggs, and fish should be secondary to plants. I was content to sticking with my veganism, I just had to fine-tune it to actually benefit from it.
I never meant to lose weight, but I found I went from my post-college weight back down to my college weight (a weight I had been at most of my adult life, and considered comfortable for me.) At the end of six weeks, I'd dropped 10 pounds, and I have no intentions of going back to my old, processed and sugar filled diet.