I Said “No” to Cheese!

I thought this day would never come. I have been so addicted to cheese my whole life! I grew up in a Quebecois family, so those lovely Quebec cheese curds that make a world of difference in a true Quebec poutine? Ate them out of the bag as a snack! In fact, my dad, once my parents divorced, would take out the block of cheese, break off a piece for each of us, and that’s what we would eat.

I was vegetarian for almost 10 years. I thought a few times about trying veganism. But I never could do it, simply because I was so addicted to cheese. I could give up yogurt, milk, even ice cream! But I could not give up cheese. I swear it was running through my veins. The only cheese I probably never was interested in was the varieties of blue cheeses. I can never seem to justify eating something that is mouldy. Yuck.

After doing some research this year, it all made sense! Cheese literally can be an addiction. Other dairy products fail in comparison to how densely packed cheese is with different parts of nutrition. I believe it was casein that was pointed out specifically. Because of the concentration, it literally leaves us wanting more. It’s not just the flavour, there is an actual addictive side to the chemical mix of our bodies and the ingredients of cheese. How interesting is that! I literally was addicted to cheese!

Even with my first few days of going vegan, I fell with cheese. Like I said, everything else is avoidable, but cheese. When I had my burrito for supper last night, it would have been so easy to just throw on the cheese. It was readily shredded and available. But I said NO! Wow… I can’t even tell you how empowering that felt. And then my husband and I went to the theatre for the first time in forever last night. I LOVE peanut butter Reese’s and even the new peanut butter M&Ms, but I said NO. I can’t believe it. Who am I? Who is this woman that could never give up this stuff before. I like her! She’s empowered!

I’m feeling awesome. And even this morning, when I just wanted to grab some salt and vinegar cracker chips because they were easy to grab, I said NO and went to work. I’m now drinking my orange juice (another 2.63L) and I know I’m feeling a ton better than I would have otherwise.

I love this lifestyle. I’ve finally got it! Not that I don’t think there won’t be struggles (I haven’t tried going to a function or travelling while being 100% yet), but I’m up and ready. My foot has been stomped. I’ve beat the greatest temptation of all! I’m so excited!

The Surefire Way to Fail

As always, when you’re trying to do something new, you will almost always figure out the ways NOT to do it before you find what is successful. Taking a look at famous people of our times, many of them failed even up to hundreds of times before becoming as successful as they are. So you can be sure that I’ve now figured out a failing method on my journey to veganism.

Yesterday, I wrote a post about making my mind up 100%. That was true. But what I didn’t know was that some of the fruit I had planned on eating had gone bad. So it came to the point I ate that pizza well before 4.

The surefire way to fail on the vegan road is to run out of fruit. If it’s not there, you can’t eat it. And if you can’t eat it when you’re hungry, you’re going to reach for things you probably shouldn’t.

Lesson learned: plan the fruit you are going to eat and make sure to have it on hand!

Day 11 – Weight Check-In

I haven’t mentioned anything about weight so far because I wanted to see what would happen. After all, I’m used to counting calories, believing in a “Calories-in, calories-out” deficit system which I have not been doing at all. I’ve simply been trying to eat raw until 4, and everything vegan. I eat until I’m full, and that’s about it.

Well, I’m happy to announce that I’m officially 11 pounds under my heaviest (a couple months ago), I don’t have 5 pound variations from day-to-day, and I feel so much better! How exciting is it that I don’t have to feel like I’m starving, and yet I’m losing weight! I have more energy (compared to calorie restricting), and I just all around feel better. It’s amazing. I really don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner.

Upon waking, I had a long drink of water. It’s time to get the body hydrated.

For breakfast, I had a deliciously juicy organic cantaloupe. It was SO good! I also had an organic honeydew that was the juiciest, sweetest honeydew melon I have ever had. Thank you Organic Box!

For lunch yesterday, I had another fresh beet, carrot and apple juice with a veggie wrap. My fail was that I ate a doughnut right before, and regretted eating it while I ate it. I also ate a little too close to my workout and thus felt too full while exercising, but stills was able to punch out a good workout. I did lunges, toe-touch jacks (a new favourite), side planks, push-ups and overhead squats. It was an excellent circuit and built up a good sweat. And where would I be without doing my chiropractor’s exercises. She has bumped me up to another level which are essentially harder versions of the ones I have been doing, so I’m working on conquering those.

After I finished my workout, I laid down to take a nap, after drinking some water of course. I slept for quite awhile. After sundown, my husband and I talked for a very long time, too long in fact. We got ourselves to the point of starving. It’s a known fact when you feel like you’re starving, you make bad choices. And that’s exactly what we did. We ordered in.

I didn’t do as well as last time. In fact, I did awful. I had veggie pizza (with cheese), I had jalapeño poppers and brownies. I felt so unbelievably greasy and yucky. I can’t believe I did this! Ugh.. Need to never do this again!