Tagged: Vegan

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.

Engine 2 Diet

The wife and I put a dent in the savings account with our trip to Whole Foods today. Wowza. We stocked up on the must-haves for the Engine 2 Diet, which we’re starting Monday morning. More on the Engine 2 Diet can be found here: Engine 2 Diet, and here: Engine 2 Academy.

The Engine 2 Diet isn’t so much a “diet” in the traditional sense but more a new way of looking at nutrition (and fitness). The program’s claim is this: Lose weight, lower cholesterol, significantly reduce the risk of disease, and become physically fit—in just 4 weeks. Tall order, no? Yes, but if you read the book you’ll see how it can be done.

One of the great aspects of the book and the aforementioned websites is the practical nature of the instructions and the tools they both provide. My wife and I both just want to be healthier, and hopefully this will take us at least part way to that end. My primary goal is to get my cholesterol down – it’s quite high – and hopefully I’ll be able to lose a few pounds while I’m at it. I’ll try to post updates are frequently as I can. Wish us luck!