Squishyplum

All plants. All the time.

Month: March 2016

Gramma Funk to the rescue

Woman's feet wearing pink running shoes

“I see you, baby…shakin’ that ass, shakin’ that ass.” Shakespeare it is not but Gramma Funk and Groove Armada got me out the door this afternoon. And that’s exactly what I needed.

For some reason, even though I am a freelancer who works on my own schedule, Mondays still bum me out. I don’t know if it’s a residual malaise lingering from the days I worked the Monday-Friday grind—a feeling of palpable dread used to start building while I was still lying in bed Sunday mornings—but it’s very real. And it can throw my whole week off.

I’ve been enjoying three weeks of yummy whole-food plant-based eating since I kicked off Project Squishyplum 2.0—but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. It’s imperative that I move my body on a regular basis. Nothing crazy but I’ve gotta put one foot in front of the other or partake of some Downward Dog action. If I don’t,  a melancholy starts to set in. And it’s like a snowball rolling down the hill, growing larger and larger until all I want to do is lie on the couch watching NetFlix and scarfing cupcakes. I can’t tell you how often that scenario has played out in the past. It ain’t pretty.

So I just wanted to give a shout out to Gramma Funk for reminding that I need to shake my ass.

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This is not a weight loss blog.

Woman with loose pants at the waist

I was determined from the outset that my blog would not be about weight loss. Nope, no diet talk here. You see, I am not a calorie counter. Never have been. I am not one of those women who know the number of calories in every morsel of food that passes their lips; I know some who can tell you exactly how many calories are in three bites of a McDonald’s cheeseburger, or a handful of jelly beans, or two-thirds of a bag of Doritos. Craziness.

I’ve always been a Big Picture kinda gal, more interested in the powerful impact of diet on chronic disease, like cancer and heart disease and diabetes. And how our food choices as a population are slowly killing us—which is what led me to pursue my Masters in Nutrition. But I digress.

Let calorie obsession be the domain of the myopic dieting crowd. Because with a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle, there’s no need to count calories. Instead, if I want to flex my arithmetic muscles, I can count how many pieces of fruit I enjoyed today, or how many Elaine Benes Big Salads I gobbled up this week, or the shrinking number of my pant size.

Now granted, it’s hard for a blog about WFPB eating not to be about weight loss in some way. Let’s face it: if you are overweight, which I am, you will lose weight eating this way. It’s unavoidable. And I’m not complaining. A woman who is barely 5’5″ should not weigh more than her 6’1″ partner. It disrupts the balance of the universe.

But I promise not to dwell on my weight loss. Maybe a little happy dance when I can fit into my size 12 jeans again. And an ever-so-tiny fist pump when I cross that 200lb threshold on my way back down to a healthy weight. But mostly, let’s explore all the other fabulous benefits of the WFPB lifestyle: more energy, glowing skin, better sleep, reduced joint pain, lower blood pressure, decreased risk (and in some cases, reversal) of various chronic diseases, better sex life—the list goes on ad infinitum. I say, bring it on!

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Hope Springs Eternal (Or How I Learned that Chickpeas Make Me Happy)

I started squishyplum.com back in November 2013 as a 1-year experiment eating a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) diet. I had the idea that my experience could help others who wanted to explore a healthier, more conscious way of eating. As it turned out, I did help people. But not how I intended.

As it happened, the wheels came off my experiment after a few months of my newfound WFPB lifestyle. I lapsed into eating shitty processed vegan foods, gorging on vegan cupcakes and cookies and fries—oh my! Ironically, it was my lapse into emotional stress-eating that helped others the most. They realized they were not alone in their imperfection. I struck a chord with people, mostly women, who were making an effort to improve their health, the health of their families, and the health of the planet, but who “failed” in some perceived way or another. I heard a common refrain of: “I suck”; “I can’t do this”; “What’s the point? I never stick with anything”; and my favourite, “I’m not ______ enough.” WTF people?

That initial year has come and gone. In fact, it’s 2016 now and here I am. I’ve been through a job that sucked the life out of me, the end of a relationship that broke my heart, financial stresses, a rollercoaster ride of weight gain and loss, the death of a close friend—and I’ve made it out the other side. Today, I’ve transitioned back to my freelance career which makes me so much happier. I’ve moved from a condo that never felt like home to a calming, homey, rough-around-the-edges old house. I’m working on piecing my relationship back together, slowly, cautiously, hopefully. I’ve extricated toxic people from my life. I’m taking long walks along the water and getting out the yoga mat. And I’m feeling stronger and more grounded for it. Settling back into myself.

image of pink cherry blossoms

My fabulous coach recently reminded me that I am the most important person in my life—a fact that I somehow forgot along the way. For some reason, I’d been equating putting myself first with being a selfish cow. But how wrong I was. Turns out that living your life to please other people—and always being worried about what other people think—is not actually living. So now I’m making decisions based on what makes me happy, naysayers be damned.

And what’s making me happy these days is putting whole-food plant-based foods into this body. Who knew that hummus could bring such contentment? I’m kicking off my return to blogging with a symbolic 3-month WFPB project, in honour of the reason I started this blog in the first place. Come join me on my journey. And hopefully some of my insights will help you on your journey into plant-based living.

Squishyplum: All plants. All the time. Now that’s livin’!

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