Tagged: Preparation

Day Eight – Engine 2 Diet

One week down. Katie and I weren’t perfectly loyal to the rules and regulations of the Engine 2 Diet but we did well, especially during the week; the weekend is always harder. I didn’t weigh myself this morning but I definitely feel better and lighter, even if I haven’t lost any significant weight. I’ll check in tomorrow morning and see how I’m doing.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before but while weight loss is a goal, it’s secondary to a reduction in my cholesterol. It’s sky high and needs attention, now. Also, I don’t want to take drugs to bring it down unless I am confident it’s dangerously high due only to genetics. Based on my previous diet, that could not be confirmed.

One element still missing from the entire Engine 2 regime is the exercise portion of the plan. We’ve been walking the dog most mornings. That’s a start but it’s definitely not enough. This week we’re going to try to incorporate a more structured exercise regime into our daily routine.

Finally, some of what we were eating last week got a little monotonous. Katie whipped up some staples this past weekend for the week ahead, when we are most rushed and most likely to stray from the diet. We’re going to research more recipes and try to add some diversity to our diet. While talking about this early we noted that the diversity of what we ate before wasn’t that great, the food was just so satisfying that it didn’t matter!

Onward and upward!

Day Three – Engine 2 Diet

Resisting temptation is difficult for me; I have no will power. I stared at a friend’s French fries last night for 30 minutes trying to will them into my mouth.  I was even offered some and didn’t bite. Go me.

The first two days of eating a healthy plant-based diet were not as hard as I was thinking they’d be, mostly because we’re already vegetarian so dairy was mostly all that we needed to cut out. There was one regrettable instance involving vegan macaroni and “cheese” that didn’t turn out so well. We live and we learn.

The tricky part about this nutritional adventure isn’t so much the vegan aspect, it’s the health aspect. One major objective is to severely restrict the number of processed and refined foods one eats. Why? Because they’re bad for you! It’s whole foods or bust. So, not eating food like white bread, white rice and white flour is very hard, especially ’cause all three taste really good.

We’re moving forward in baby steps though. We’ve bought brown rice and whole grain breads. We’ve bought plenty of fruits and vegetables. One thing we haven’t done as well as we should have is prepare. The Engine 2 Diet stresses preparation as a strategy to avoid failure. This is some of the best advice in the book.

It’s been a busy week but with our newly purchased rice cooker and vegetable steamer, investing a few hours every weekend to making base foods (like brown rice) will help weekday meal preparation much easier.

Day Three, here we come.