I am going to start next week also. I need to find some dinner recipes that don't take forever to make. I think fatfreevegan.com has an extensive ETL section. Actually, my program will be a combo ETL and McDougall. I think a couple starches per day will make me feel more full. Let's do this!
Just wondering if anyone is still doing ETL? I am sitting on the fence about starting this program....and don't know why. Maybe I'm scared of all the work that seems to go into the meals. Or maybe I am scared of my family and the meat they love and also, of course I am worried I will blow it. However, after reading how some of you are tweaking the diet makes me feel a bit better. I must go into this thinking of this as a life style and not a diet. The weight has to come off. I feel emotional so run down and my body is tired........I will try ETL!
Thanks! Would love to hear how you are all doing and if the weight is coming off! Are you sleeping better? More energy? How was getting off coffee? This will be hard I love 1 cup in the morning!
I am currently doing ETL. It's been 2 weeks and I am down 5 lbs. I am happy with that rate of weight loss, so if I can keep losing I will be thrilled.
I am adjusting it a bit. We are not doing grains or startchy veg every day. I have not been dillegent about limiting the avocado to 2 oz and nuts to 1 oz, and I am not getting a ton of greens (i think it says to try to eat 1 lb?)- but other than that, we really like this way of eating.
I still drink coffee too. It doesn't have calories, so I don't see how it would impact weight loss. I don't know if you have read the book, but the first 6 weeks are sort of a detox and after that he says coffee is fine, but try not to have more than 1 cup per day, also wine but not more than 1 glass per day (maybe it was two?). I've had wine maybe 2 times per week and am still losing.
A typical day for me looks like this:
6:30 AM - Coffee or tea with unsweetened almond milk and stevia
9 AM - breakfast of fruit. A banana, cantelope, peaches, plums, etc
11 AM - lunch. generally a salad with red wine vinegar as dressing, or leftovers from dinner the night before. Today I had leftovers - a salad of grape tomatoes, canellini beans, avacado, onion, black olive with lemon juice / cumin / cayenne over it and then baked tofu with lemon and zatarr baked with onions.
3 or 4 pm - snack of fruit. maybe a small handful of nuts.
7:30 pm - dinner. generally some combination or grilled vegetables, beans, tofu, lentils and sauteed or steamed veggies and a raw veggie salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, beans, lemon, cumin, cayenne. We snack on baby carrots while we cook. A few times we have grilled fruit for dessert (plums, peaches, bananas).
I try to get the greens in through smoothies if I don't have a salad. unsteetened almond milk, frozen berries, spinach, banana, stevia, vanilla. you honestly cannot taste the spinach.
I wouldn't worry to much about doing it 100% as long as you are reducing oils/grains, dairy and processed foods. I was vegetarian anyway, so cutting meat out wasn't an issue for me as I didn't eat it. He actually says small portions of meat are fine a few times a week if they are small and lean.
For your family...well, this plan does require a fair amount of cooking/prepping. but if you make a giant mess of beans/veggies maybe that can be their side dish with meat and you can just make it your main meal? I have some combos I've been doing a alot if you would like suggestions....
Last edited by Wildflower; 08-29-2011 at 12:51 PM.
Hi I'm new here but have done 3 weeks of ETL and am loving it. I'm down 12 pounds in 3 weeks, 2 inches from my waist and abs and 3 from my hips/rear, and my energy levels have increased dramatically.
I never thought I'd do it because I was such a low-carb, meat eater. But I jumped in with both feet and it is going amazingly. I'm never hungry, don't crave junk food or meat or sugar.
I'm a 90%'er not a 100% follower. I didn't do the 6 weeks cold turkey everything... I kept my coffee with cream, but only one cup. But no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no sugar, and so on by the book. I may clean up my act more if my weight loss slows down, but for now I'm happy with a 90%+ approach.
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That's me. As for the family, I knew it would be easy to add a side of meat to the meals I make. Like throw ground meat in their black bean chili with rice, or chicken on their salads, and so on. But thankfully they all jumped in with me DD17 is doing the diet but also eating her teenage food too (starbucks, chocolate, etc.) and has lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. Not fair! Hubby is doing the diet, gave up beer! and coffee, and has lost 10 pounds as well.
DS7 is not as thrilled, but he is slowly coming around. When we have company, I throw some meat on the grill to add to our mostly-vegan food, and he always digs into the meat. But he's eating smoothies, raw veggies, peanut butter & honey on whole wheat, raisin bran with unsweet almond milk, and even beans and rice (he was a bean hater before this!) and bean burgers and so on. It's really cool to see him open up to the new foods slowly. I started with his favorites only though and didn't try to push food.
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The giving up coffee is somewhat for sleeping better because you lose more weight when you're not tired. But i'm sticking with an early cup and it doesn't seem to bother me.
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My meal plan is very similar to Wildflowers:
early - coffee with half & half (not on plan!)
Breakfast - walnuts (omega 3 fats) and a banana
post workout - smoothie with almond milk, banana, blueberry, spinach
lunch - huge green salad with whatever veggies I have (tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, shredded carrots, etc), plus 1/2 avocado or some olives (olives are not on plan b/c of salt), plus some black beans on top or some quinoa (protein), and some fruit on top or after.
snack - if needed, and it usually IS needed, - either a homemade trail mix (dried fruit, raw nuts), or some fruit & seeds. sometimes I'll eat a bowl of beans & rice leftovers.
dinner - so many options here. Usually I take an old family favorite and revamp it by subbing beans for meat. We eat black bean chili & rice, veggie fajitas (corn tortilla), nachos (bake corn tortillas in oven) or nacho salad, wheat pasta with sauce and veggies, whole grain pizza (veggie), and so on. Or, an easy and delish meal is just plain old black eyed peas or beans and rice or quinoa. Add a salad or raw veggies and cooked veggies and fruit, and you're good to go.
late snack - usually not needed but sometimes fruit and seeds.
I was never able to do the strict 6 week challenge, but have decided not to feel like a failure because of it. I figure I am working my toward being a vegan. I usually have 1/3c old fashioned oats cooked w/water and 1/3c soy milk and a small banana to sweeten it for breakfast, with almond butter on top, and I still have my one cup of coffe in the morning.
At lunch, I have either a large salad of greens and raw veggies w/olive oil dressing or a homemade dressing of some type of vinegar & OJ, 1/2c cooked beans, and 1/2oz nuts if the dressing is fat free, OR I have a large bowl of cooked veggies with the beans and nuts.
If I'm hungry in the afternoon, I have some greek yogurt & fruit or a Larabar.
For dinner, I make my (patient) family a vegetarian or vegan dish or try to adapt whatever I'm making for my family -- vegan chili, tacos with beans instead of meat, spaghetti sauce I can have meatless over spaghetti squash, bean burgers -- or I have some type of frozen leftovers if I make them meat. Since watching the movie "Food, Inc" meat doesn't appeal to me often anyway.
As much as I love sweets and bread, I don't think I'd ever be a 100% ETL person, but I'm trying to stick to it as much as I can.
Rachel -great news about the unsweetened almond milk. That's what I use too, but I add a packet of stevia to sweeten it back up in a calorie free way! lol.
I am down 7 lbs now and i've been sticking to the plan for a little over 2 weeks. BUT, tonight I am leaving on a business trip for a week...super worried how I am going to stick to the plan. And, I am flying internationally, so the flight is long and I will probably have to eat on the food they give me on the plane...
I guess I will just do the best I can. It will suck to not be able to follow this exactly, but I am hoping that I at least don't gain anything back. I plan to go to whole foods tonight before I leave and stock up on Lara Bars and nuts, and when I get there tomorrow I figure I will hit up a grocery for fresh fruit I can have for breakfast. I don't know if my hotel will have a fridge or not...then, I just plan to stick to salads and at the very least try to eat low-calorie even if I have to eat pasta / dairy / eggs.
Any tips, ideas? I don't eat meat anyway, so sticking to lean meats is not an option for me...
Can't you request vegan meals for the plane? We're flying to London in a few weeks, and I filled out a meal request for the flight. I'm a bit concerned about how many choices I'll have in England and Belgium, but I figure I'll muddle through. If I have to eat some meat, I don't think the world will come to an end.
Wife2abadge - I don't know about Belgium, but I live in London, and it's very unlikely that you will have to eat meat there. Vegetarianism is very common, and almost all restaurants have at least one vegetarian option on the menu, often marked with a "V" symbol. I have been vegetarian for two years now and have never had to eat meat even when out and about.
Going completely vegan should also be fairly easy within London, though outside London some of my vegan friends choose to eat dairy to give themselves a little more flexibility in choice of restaurants.
If you would like to treat yourself to a really nice dinner, I can recommend an excellent restaurant in Hammersmith (West London) called The Gate which is entirely vegetarian and has many vegan dishes - their menu is online, so you can Google them (I won't link because it will probably be removed.) You will also find a good list of places to eat on the Vegan London website (Google again.)
If you're eating breakfast in a hotel, your best vegan option will often be to ask for beans on toast and some fruit. The trickiest thing will probably be if you want to find lunch to go, but there are some takeout options on the Vegan London list, and Central London also has many small "express" supermarkets where you will be able to buy your own supplies. Look for one of the major chains such as Tesco or Sainsbury's. Most of these will sell hummus, peanut butter, fresh veg and bread. Marks and Spencer's food halls also have some vegan salads and are also quite common in Central London. Enjoy your trip!
Yes, I did request a veg meal, but when the last time I flew to London on AA this meant that I got pasta with cheese. I was pleasently suprised on United this time! Food was nuts, then a starter of chickpeas on a kale leaf plus a green salad, then some sort of indian wrap with a curry sauce and rice. I ate a bit of the rice, and the filling out of the wrap (tofu, zuchini, corn, other veg). Breakfast was a fruit plate and an applesauce. I gave the applesauce to the guy next to me as he requested one and apparently they only come with the veg meal option. Also, dinner had some sort of sugar free cookies and rye bread that I skipped over...oh, and fruit for dessert.
I was totally able to stay on plan!!!
I've never been to Belgium, but when I was in Paris I bought some delicious vegetarian salami that was imported from Belgium so perhaps they are veg friendly?. I agree with Pilgrim, everything is labeled in London as Veg on the menus, it's quite easy to stay veg here, you won't have any problems.
Pilgrim - thanks for the tip on that resturaunt. I'll also be heading to a grocery store later...my room has a mini bar fridge, but the staff member said they would clear out my mini bar items if I would rather keep food in that fridge than use it as a bar.
Hi, everyone! I haven't been around in forever, but someone recently gave me a copy of ETL, and I'm starting the 6 week thing tomorrow. I'm already vegan, so mostly I'll just be giving up grains, sugars and a lot of the margarine I put on everything. The bread will be the biggest challenge. I'm a big PB&J and bean/soyrizo quesadilla fan. I'm a little worried that I won't see the dramatic results promised because I gave up dairy, eggs and meat so long ago, but I'd like to drop about 50 pounds.
I started ETL last Thursday and I have already lost 8lbs! I have been a vegetarian since I was nine so the transition wasn't as hard as it might be for some people. I'm really enjoying eating so healthily - I feel great, so much lighter and less bloated - and I'm enjoying seeing results there in black and white. As well as the pounds, I have also lost two inches from my bust, two from my waist and one from my hips! Good luck to the rest of you still doing the program... I am so, so glad I discovered Dr. Fuhrman's book. It's so simple and yet such a revelation. After months of flailing around, wanting to lose more weight but not really knowing what to do or how to kick start it, it's like a light bulb just switched on in my head!
I've been listening to Dr. Fuhrman's Eat for Health CD's in my car and also have the companion books ... Started just a week or so ago and have already lost several pounds. This is great and I am looking forward to getting to goal and being more healthy!
I'm new here but have done 3 weeks of ETL and am loving it. I'm down 12 pounds in 3 weeks, 2 inches from my waist and abs and 3 from my hips/rear, and my energy levels have increased dramatically. 
I figure I am working my toward being a vegan. I usually have 1/3c old fashioned oats cooked w/water and 1/3c soy milk and a small banana to sweeten it for breakfast, with almond butter on top, and I still have my one cup of coffe in the morning.
