Although there is scientific evidence which shows that a slightly lower body weight is associated with eating less animal products, this wasn’t why I went vegan over 4 years ago. I have more compelling reasons which I will write about some day. It did result in very modest weight loss in my case, but as was expected, it has not yet cured my chronic lifelong issue with being overweight.
I am 5′ 5″ and weigh ~150 pounds. The most I have ever weighed was 165, when I ate the standard American/Western diet. I am lucky to not have a huge weight issue, but as a someone who exercises more than most of my normal weight friends, it is frustrating that I still have a bulging mid section and feel doughy. There seems to be no obvious, dramatic or quick solution to go from a nearly normal 150 pounds to a more normal 135 pounds. I don’t drink 5 liters of Coke or eat 5 cheeseburgers per day. I don’t even like sugary drinks or sweets all that much. For someone with a pretty healthy diet at mealtimes looking to achieve modest weight loss, it is the small things that add up. A few weeks ago I simply took note of what those things are for me which are obviously not helping and started setting realistic goals around them. For example, this week I had two beers, not ten, three servings of junk, not eight. I ate apples with almond butter for a snack, not chips. I did three 10 minute strength sessions instead of two. It might not seem like much, but I am slowly losing half a pound per week (148.6 now, to be exact) without stressing or feeling deprived. Once those habits are ingrained I plan to do more, but this is better than doing nothing, or worse struggling and failing to do everything at once and giving up altogether.
I was always very self-conscious about my weight. Even as a child, I remember covering up my belly with my hands in class. My Mom enrolled me in a weight loss support group when I was a teen. I was totaling up my calories on post-it notes and was running up and down the stairways in the condominium I grew up in as hard as I could. In college, I would get up early and run with my army friend 3 times per week even all through the freezing winter air. A 5K run for me was not a big deal. A 10K run was a special treat. When the internet finally came of age I tried eDiets. I remember literally sobbing, completely stressed out one Sunday because I had a lot of other obligations and didn’t have time to go to the grocery store to pick up my week’s worth of carefully planned out, perfectly portioned meal ingredients. This happened frequently. I was so hungry and miserable on a 1200 calorie eDiet diet that my husband tried to talk me out of it the next few times I signed up. The result of all that misery was that I did finally get to 145 lbs. once, for a few months, but it was not sustainable.
Given that I started dieting in 1984 and it is now 2016, plenty of natural-born skinny people have had well-intentioned advice for me on eating healthy, assuming that the problem must be that I don’t know how to eat healthy. Secretly, or in the case of my husband not so secretly, I roll my eyes. By now I am such an expert on healthy eating that I have thoroughly debunked the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours = success formula. I could have spent 10,000 hours getting a Masters degree in Computer Science or achieving big athletic goals but instead I was logging everything I ate into a calorie calculator, planning meals and reading the classics of diet literature. Did you know that at about 4.5 grams per 30 calories, broccoli has more protein than beef?
For my sanity, I have also tried purposely not dieting. I have not noticed a difference between stressing out over food vs. being completely unconscious about what I eat. What I found out was that I weigh pretty much the same in either case! What I probably should have learned over the past 30 years is that I can not control my weight. My philosophy now is to adopt healthy habits of mind and body and spirit for their intrinsic value, and allow weight loss to be a side-effect. This is the opposite of the popular diet thinking which basically boils down to sacrifice your health for temporary weight loss, and maybe good health will be a side-effect.
My blood work is fine. Cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar are normal. Every scientific indicator of impending disease and doom is missing from my actual numbers. I had a doctor at Kaiser who was completely full with patients who said she would be happy to add me in knowing that I wouldn’t take much of her time. An independent naturopathic MD told me that she would not be concerned at all for my health if I never lost another pound. So my response to the natural-born svelte know-it-all and mostly to my own internal critic: fuck off. Losing weight for me at this stage in my life is either purely cosmetic or a way to improve my steep climbs on the bike. Those things sure would be nice, but my health does not depend upon them.
