A brief status update!

[Guest guest]

Well, I'm getting a late start to my meals today. Got up running late for a

meeting, then the meeting ran over and here I am, a little after noon, and

I'm only just getting my first meal of the day a solid hour late. Not a

happy thing but sometimes it happens I suppose. Got a LONG day ahead of me

though, so I'm sure I'll make up for it.

For my first run of the day, I decided to satisfy a craving -- minestrone

soup. When I made up my minestrone last weekend, I froze a few bowls for

later. These are in 3 cup containers. The soup has carrots, chickpeas,

onion, celery, garlic, tomatoes, and whole grain organic rotelli pasta. It

is absolutely to die for.

Additionally, it is totally vegetarian and P2 friendly.

For those interested, since getting my sodium back under control and

bringing my fat way down from the overly high levels I was at before, I've

dropped a solid 7 pounds this week. Most of that is undoubtedly water

retention weight, but it's the water weight that causes me the most grief.

My meals this week have consisted of a variety of foods.

1) Soups -- I've been hitting the freezer hard and reheating my home made

soups for breakfast and/or lunch.

2) Sandwiches -- With my soups, I've enjoyed a couple of peanut butter

sandwiches. For a quick meal, I've splurged on Dr Praeger's Bombay Veggie

Burgers. These have some corn products in them so they would not be

considered P2 friendly. They're very healthy, not having additives,

preservatives or fillers, so I made the personal choice to include them.

3) Salads -- My oh my, the salads. I've been throwing together all sorts of

goodies to get these salads going.

4) Tuna Casserole -- Early in the week, I made up a home-made tuna casserole

that include whole grain pasta, a home made cheese sauce (2nd try -- much

better than the first), and egg. This is a remake of an old comfort food

for me. It came out pretty good and yielded leftovers for the next day.

5) Fruit -- LOTS of fruit. I've been eating pears and apples daily, usually

2-3 servings in any given day. I'm finding these do quite well as a sort of

in-between meals thing

I've had some other things as well, but it escapes me at the moment.

This evening, for dinner, I think I'll make up some home made spaghetti

sauce and enjoy a little pasta. Kroger had feta on sale and I love the

taste of feta over my pasta sauce so that will be a nice topper on the day.

My goal for this week is to get back down to where I was before I started

taking on all the excess water. In other words, I want to reach my old

plateau weight again. If I can do this, then next week's goal will be to

break the plateau.

What I'm doing is following a primarily vegetarian diet that is low in fat,

low in sodium, and emphasizes whole foods. From a nutritional standpoint,

this is the healthiest diet one can follow. I'm using the principles of the

SBD as a foundation for my meals by eating whole grains, lots of veggies,

fruit, and staying away from foods/ingredients that are known bad guys.

MOST things I am eating are P2 friendly, a few are P1 friendly.

Moving back to a vegetarian diet has been difficult. It's been some time

since I ate a strict vegetarian diet and my body is much different today

than it was back then (health issues, meds, etc). As such, I'm easing into

it by eliminating things more slowly. I've been doing this for a few weeks

now -- it's starting to pay off. Over the coming weeks, I'll be moving

closer to a wholly plant based diet by eliminating the last of the meat I

eat (in this case, fish). A simple goal -- to eat no meat whatsoever this

week. I'm leaving dairy in for the time being, as well as eggs, because

both help with the transition.

I'll do another status update next weekend, let y'all know how it goes.