Hi There!

My name is Penelope.

Ha! I should totally go as Penelope for halloween. At any rate I thought you might like to know a little bit about me, why I have this page and what I hope to do with it. I’ll start by telling you a little bit about me.

I am 37 yrs old, I have three children and I am a stay at home mom. I am also overweight, but not as overweight as I used to be.  We live with my boyfriend, Geek.

I met Geek about 5 years ago. At that time he was training for his third marathon. I was told that he had lost over 70lbs.  I, very eager to lose weight asked how he did it and I was told that he switched to a vegan diet and started running. I figured that surely running was a huge contributor to his weight loss, until I saw him eat. Boy could he pack away the food. I had tried just about every other diet and decided I might as well give it a go myself. I’m pretty heavy though and I suffer from funky joints so I decided to walk instead of run. I lost 30 lb. I don’t remember how long it took. I think it was in just a little over two months. I didn’t count calories or carbs. I just ate Vegan. I tried to walk two miles a day and I didn’t do it very fast. At one point I decided to try and run and I ended up injuring myself.

All was well until I took a two week trip. I foolishly decided before the trip that I would give up my vegan diet and return to it once I got back. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Once I returned I encountered a series of stressful events and tried to sooth my emotional discomfort with food. While I didn’t gain it all back I did gain back a significant portion of it. So here I am, starting over.

I am not vegan. What I do is STRIVE to eat a vegan diet for weight loss and health reasons. I am human, and just like someone who sometimes eats a few too many points, or a low carber that sneaks a cookie I am sure that I will sometimes have something that is not vegan. Also, because I am not eating this way for ethical reason I don’t worry so much if the ingredient list warns that it was manufactured in a plant that processes dairy.

I felt awesome while I was eating vegan. I didn’t have to count anything. I didn’t have to give up healthy high carb foods. As a matter of fact, when I did low carb I felt awful about what I was eating. I was constipated too. While eating vegan, every time I sat down to eat something I felt good about what I was putting in to my body. I was thinking more clearly, my skin cleared up and my post nasal drip went away. So did my horrendous reflux problem. It came back with a vengeance when I started eating by my old habits though. So much so that I was put on medication for it. 🙁

When I started to eat vegan I was very interested in finding a site dedicated to people who were eating vegan for weight-loss purposes. I couldn’t find one but I absolutely feel that there is a need for one. This is my attempt at making that happen. I hope to have valuable and interesting information on the vegan diet as well as a decent collection of recipes.

About the recipes. If I have modified a recipe to be vegan I will post it. If I have found it on the internet I will post a link to it. If it is out of one of my many vegan cookbooks I will also post a link to the book, unless I can find the recipe online.

I hope that we get some real vegans that stop by. I value all of the help and information I can get. Also, what better way to win people over to a vegan lifestyle than to positively encourage them to succeed in trying it? So that is where I am coming from and the direction I would like to go.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Updated: October 2011.

May 16th 2012:

Unfortunately I am unable to eat Vegan at this time. My Dr has put me on a very restrictive diet. No grains what so ever, no beans, no starchy vegetables, no tropical fruits. Absolutely no Gluten, which means I can kiss Seitan good-bye too. I’m hoping that this is a temporary arrangement. I guess we’ll see how things go.  Geek, the wonderful and supportive man that he is has agreed to do this with me.

I’ve done a lower carbohydrate diet before but I really didn’t like how it made me feel. This time, I’m trying to make better choices.  I’m aiming to make as much of the food that I eat meet the guidelines given to me by my Dr, and still be vegan. Obviously I can’t do that with protein as a girl can only eat so many nuts, besides… he’s limiting those as well.  But I am aiming to get my fats and veggies from vegan sources.

I firmly believe that a vegan diet is a healthy diet. It is a great way to lose weight and the food is pretty darn tasty. I hope to be able to get back to it soon.