new vegan due to health concerns

[teestuc]

Hi all, I just joined the website tonight but I have been a vegan for over 4 months. I am struggling in the weight loss area as well. I was diagnosed with cancer in September 2008 which led me to doing research on natural cures/care. I have read a lot of books and I am convinced that going vegan is the best choice for my health. I have a dozen or so vegan cookbooks so I am not struggling with variety but I am not sure why I am not losing weight considering what I was putting into my body prior to being vegan! I joined a gym recently along with hiring a personal trainer but I am still not noticing a difference!!!! I work out 3x/wk strength training with my trainer and another 2x -3x/wk doing cardio on my own for about an hour. I understand that my medication could be hindering my weight loss but I am sooooo frustrated!! Any ideas out there? I have a lot of weight to lose and I am not letting myself get overwhelmed with numbers...but... hellloooo!!
This is a typical day for my diet: (To me it looks good!!!)

Breakfast:
1/2 to 1 cup of hot or cold cereal topped with 3tbsp hemp hearts, 2tbsp ground salba, 2tbsp ground flax and a handful of goji berries

Snack:
fruit - 1 to 2 servings (usually an apple-pear or a banana)

Lunch:
homemade vegie soup (no or low sodium)
Wholewheat toast or Ancient Grain crackers
Soy milk (10oz glass)

Snack:
handful of raw almonds or cashews
or handful of homemade trail mix (vegan friendly of course!)
or some raw carrots or celery

Supper:
Chickenless chicken breast or Vegie burger
wholewheat rice or a quinoa recipe
cooked vegies either boiled or stirfried
Green Tea

Evening snack:
try not to have one but if I "have" to... I will usually make some hot air popped popcorn with nonhydrogenated margarine... i try to use sparingly!

I also usually get my 8-10 glasses of water in and all my supplements. (Vitamins, minerals, wheatgrass powder, etc)

Thanks for your comments...I appreciate any feedback!

[valene]

Hi teestuc, sorry to hear bout your health problems and i hope you can make a full recovery. With regards losing weight I think you might be expecting too much too soon. Your diet looks good and as long as you keep an eye on portion sizes it should definitely lead to weight loss. The strenght training you have started may be causing you to simply replace fat with muscle and so you probably won't notice much movement on the scales for a couple of months. Stick with it though and know that you are moving in the right direction!Best of Luck.

[emm7]

really sorry to hear about your illness it must be tough to cope with emotionally as well as physically.
Hope you're enjoying your food and training!

[Cade]

Hi teesetuc,

You definitely made the right decision as far ad diet goes. However, considering your health needs, I'd reduce my stress over weight loss and try a raw diet or mostly raw diet. I hear essiac tea from Canada is supposed to be really good for cancer. Also, try cleansing your system out by having a colonic and drink raw juices such as wheat grass.

Too much exercise may do more harm than good. Keep it light and eat right. The stress is not worth it right now. Heal first then worry about your weight.

One more thing, avoid magazine catered to females. Those ridiculous models may have a negative effect on your subconscious and that can lead down a toxic path.

I'd stick to meditation, cleansing, raw ( as much as you can tolerate), and light exercises. Biking for half an hour each day is good enough. It's low impact and great for your cardiovascular system.

That's a general outline.

[dropSoul]

First blush, would recommend eating the Thrive Diet, it's mostly raw, it's also very balanced and addresses stress BIG TIME. Even if you can do it part of the way, check out Macca. Stress, even when you're doing all the right things, can just pack the fat away due to cortisol, so lowering that and eating clean, would be what I would address first. I'm really sorry you're going through this. Good thing you're staying far away from dairy/animal protein, it's cancer's best pal. Meditation and light yoga too and filling your heart with gratitude for the things that you do have, it's healing in a spiritual way and helpful for your physical body. These are my gut feelings about your situation.

Also, the earlier poster is right, when you're building muscle, the scale can stay still, but keep going. Your medication might be affecting it, you're right, but still, you're building muscle and increasing cardio vascular strength.

What I did to lose 50 lbs is this:

Every three hours eat 200-250 calories that are high in protein and low/slow in carbs. Peanut butter is my pal. Eat 5 x a day. (this calorie level is for my height and weight goals)

Exercise cardio 20 min EVERY DAY.

Strength 10-15 min a day, EVERY DAY. Heavy as I can handle without hurting myself.

Now my program is different to shed the last inches of fat and get ripped, I have a trainer now and her diet and exercise program is advanced and it's customized and I can't share it (plus it's very specific for each individual), but what I've outlined above will get you on the right track. I have a vegan trainer, google vegan personal trainer, she'd be the first link, I think. Online training. Yeah! Worth every penny!

Veganly,
Christina