I'm down to 158.4 today!
I started out at 179 in November, so to be almost 21 pounds down is awesome. It definitely took much longer than when I was concerned with crash dieting, but I have tried new WOEs and new workout plans and all kinds of things trying to find my way, and I have still been making progress even though I have not been perfect. It seems like a pound a week works for me, and maybe that should be my aim, but we will see.

Speaking of changing WOEs, I am thinking I will start increasing my activity soon because I really miss the benefits and my eating has been in better control than it's been for a quite a while. Increasing my activity means I will need more calories than what my usual meals provide (which I learned on Sunday!), so I may be switching to a raw until dinner WOE once that happens. I know there are ways to get enough calories eating raw to offset exercise, but I think that will be too expensive for me at this point in time. I can get a 5 lb bag of organic calorie-dense rice that will last at least a month for the same price as 3-4 avocados that would only last a couple of days. So I am thinking of just having a small cooked vegan meal at the end of the day after working out. And since I know it only takes a short period of time for raw eating to positively impact my period, I will likely lower my activity and eat a completely raw diet the week before it comes. I am hoping this will work out! It definitely seems more affordable and more sustainable. I will cross that bridge when I get to it, though.

Down to 157.4 today!
Now that I am truly in the 150s, I am going to stop weighing so frequently. I do NOT want to see those fluctuations and let it impact my mood.
I am really missing exercise! I am really trying to hold out until the end of the month because I really need to focus on my eating without dealing with the pressure of also feeling like I have to be killing it in the gym, but I would kill for more activity. I am going to try to just take a leisurely long walk after work today to see if I can get away with being more active without needing to eat a lot more calories.

Mini Whole Foods Haul - $52.91
3 bags of kale chips
1 bag of dehydrated berries and seeds
1 pint of strawberries
4 champagne mangoes
1.4 lb peaches
1 banana
1 pineapple
1 bag of sour warm gummy candy (for the fiance)
1 family-sized box of spring mix
1 cucumber
1 raw fruit and nut bar

This is more along the lines of what a typical shopping day is like with the exception of some convenience foods that I would usually make myself. This will be a busy week, though, so I figured it's okay to splurge some. No fancy recipes this week beyond making another batch of sweet onion dressing. I am keeping it simple with green smoothies for breakfast, fruit and kale chips for snacks, and big salads for dinner. I want to get through all of the leftover groceries I have in my fridge.

Nope. I definitely am hungrier when I move more. This SHOULD be a big "duh" moment, but I really thought I would have to work out with a lot of intensity to trigger noticeable hunger. Definitely not the case. I went for the walk and was hungry. I ate an Amy's vegan gluten-free burrito.
I am not ready to give up eating a high raw diet, but I am also really aching to exercise. Not quite sure what the remedy would be just yet. Possibly only eating the small cooked meal on workout days might be my best bet, but that would be somewhat annoying because I don't like to use the microwave and would need to prepare a meal while starving. Man... this eating thing can be so annoying!

New plan Whole Foods haul (all organic, vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO, and frozen)- $58.58
1 box of black bean pupusas (2 servings)
1 box of veggie korma
1 margherita pizza (3 servings)
1 supreme pizza (3 servings)
1 bean and rice burrito
1 teriyaki wrap
1 box of macaroni and cheeze
1 box of pad thai
1 box of chana masala
1 box of veggie lasagna
1 box of tamales (2 servings)
1 box of aloo mattar

Since I suffer from BED, buying pre-portioned foods seems like the best option to transition onto this new plan easily. I love cooking, but I find it hard to cook the right portions as the only vegan in the house unless I am making something easily portioned like spaghetti. I prefer to not have leftovers since I am also firmly against using the microwave. Having single portioned food that I can put in the toaster or regular oven will eliminate that. I am going to look into making my own freezer meals, but that will probably happen next month when things slow down.

4/20
Exercise minutes | calories burned (per Fitbit): 30 | 190
Breakfast: Nibbled on one serving of vegan sour gummy worms while grocery shopping (this was before I made the plan... oops!)
Lunch: Strawberries and peaches
Dinner: Pad thai
Snack: A medjool date

4/21
Weight: 157.2 (from now on, I will weigh on Sundays and Wednesdays)
Steps | exercise minutes | calories burned: 12,931+ (rest will just be around the house) | 61 | 331
Breakfast: Orange, peach, and strawberries
Lunch: Green smoothie
Dinner: Lentil patties on top of romaine with baked fries and a raw cookie dough ball

I had dinner at a popular organic vegan restaurant here, and it was absolutely amazing! My new goal is to hit 30 vegan spots before turning 30 as a vegan 30x30 challenge. It will help get me out exploring more, which I absolutely loved doing today. I always forget how much I love this city, and I don't want not getting to fully enjoy it to be a regret when I move like every other place I've lived. It's nice to pull myself away from working or being lazy around the house. I know I do much better being outside (I LOVE the outdoors), and this gives me more motivation! I walked the 2 miles to the restaurant, ate, and then walked about 1 mile to the waterfront to read. I walked the rest of the way back after reading, and I am now settling in for what will likely be an early night.
I am SO proud of myself for eating something absolutely delicious and not binging. I ate a few bites past that feeling of comfort, but I didn't even finish my food, which is absolutely unheard of for me! I truly enjoyed the meal and feeling like I was eating like a "normal person." My goal next time is to stop as soon as I get that feeling. I also want to continue this trend of walking to new places. There's a restaurant near my job that I will walk to for my next outing.

I haven't been checking in because I've been so busy! Everything was going perfectly fine until last night. I binged
I'm looking to restart today, but I wasn't very hungry this morning and forgot to bring my lunch. I will probably pick up a salad, but I'm not sure where I can get fruit that I like quickly. The grocery stores near by are soooooo slow.

TMI: I am also experiencing more constipation, which is super annoying. I am used to the waste being stuck somewhere along my digestive track, resulting in not going for a few days at a time. Now I can feel all the movement, but the waste is getting stuck at the end and won't come out! It's such a miserable feeling because it's just there and won't move! UGH. I may end up going to a doctor. I had an incomplete elimination this morning, but I need all this junk cleared out!

I had a lot of success with OMAD when I was working on reducing binges, so I am taking that up again. Intermittent fasting just works really well for me with controlling my appetite. I am thinking I will have my meal between 12:30 and 2:00 each day since that is when I tend to get hungry. If I eat enough then, I am not hungry at all for the rest of the day.

So the new new plan starting today (ugh, this is so annoying, but I know I need to count it as a learning experience):
Eat a 50/50 raw/cooked meal once a day on workout days (ie. huge salad with lots of raw veggies with rice and beans on the side)
Eat 100% raw on rest days according to hunger (it's too hard for me to get enough raw calories in one meal)

Steps | exercise minutes | calories burned: 10,028 | 30 | 110
Meal: Moe's salad with black beans, rice, and extra romaine, tomato salsa, and guac + a handful of chips
Not the best choice food-wise, but relatively good in a last-minute bind since I forgot my lunch.

Lesson learned from yesterday: I need to have a meal post-exercise. I was starving after my short workout yesterday and ended up eating A LOT again because of it. So I either need to start working out in the morning again, or I will need to make dinner my mealtime. I haven't yet decided which I will implement, though it will most likely be the latter.

I binged again today OMAD is not working like how it did in the past.

OMAD doesn't seem to work as well when half of my meal is raw since it's still not enough calories. As a result, I started off my day with a bulletproof coffee made with vegan butter and a scoop of vegan protein powder. I am still very full from this morning and pretty sure I can make it a few more hours before I will get hungry. I forgot how effective BP coffee is! I will probably have my salad, exercise, and then eat the cooked portion of my food.
If this works out, I will likely keep this up for a while to see if I can make it work for the remainder of my weight loss journey. If so, I will likely create a new thread since my proportion of cooked to raw food will not constitute a real raw vegan diet. I definitely do plan to go completely raw the week of my period, however, just to reap those benefits. I'm hoping this is the key to getting enough calories (and protein!) to support increased exercise without feeling deprived. I don't want to continue sacrificing being active.

Yesterday went well with my new bulletproof coffee plan. I ended up getting hungry before I could exercise, so I needed to eat a small snack post-workout in addition to the salad and meal I brought to work. I am down almost 3 pounds today post-binge, so that seems like it was okay. I am going to keep going with this and see how it works out.

Yesterday's stats:
Day 1: 4/26
Weight: 162.4 (up 4.6 lbs from 4/23 after 3 days of binging) - now 159.8 on 4/27
Steps: 7160
Exercise minutes | calories burned: 25 | 150
Intake
~10:30 AM - Vegan BP coffee with vegan butter (will be replacing with organic coconut manna after my next grocery store trip) and one scoop of Vega protein powder (will be replacing with Plantfusion powder for better flavor and texture)
~4:00 PM - Spring mix salad with raw onion dressing
~ 6:00 PM - Gluten-free vegan pasta with tomato sauce, small spinach salad, 8 vegan gummy worms
~7:40 PM - Workout
~ 9:00 PM - 1 vegan gluten-free black bean and corn pupusa and a small piece of gluten-free vegan blondie

I am walking in a 5K today around 7:00 PM, so I will likely need another post-workout snack tonight. I am definitely planning to work out in the evenings from now on, so this schedule/pattern seems like it would be okay. I have lots of raw snacks, so I am going to make sure my pre-meal and post-workout snacks/mini-meals are raw from now on (ie. pre-dinner salad and post-workout kale chips or vice versa). I think that will be the perfect way to maintain a good raw and cooked food balance. It isn't a high raw diet by any means, but I think any way that I can fit in raw food is only going to benefit me more.

Day 2: 4/27
Weight: 159.8 (next WI will be Sunday)
Steps: 15,187
Exercise minutes | calories burned: 66 | 424
Intake
10:00 AM: Vegan BP Coffee
2:30 PM: Small spinach salad
5:00 PM: Vegan pad see ew
9:00 PM: Snack bag of Lay's original (should've been something raw, but this is what was given to me after the 5K, and I tore into it on the metro ride home)

Feeling really good after the 5K - I wish I could afford to enter one every week.
I'll be out of town on Saturday and Sunday, so I need to figure out a good plan for those days. I have a Starbucks card that I need to use, so I will likely try to get some coffee with lots of coconut milk to replace the BP coffee. I likely won't be working out, so coffee and one large meal should hopefully work well enough.

Day 3: 4/28
Weight: 158.6 (I couldn't resist - next WI will be on Monday when I am back in town)
Steps: 11,367
Exercise minutes | calories burned: 63 | 329
Intake
10:00 AM: Iced vegan BP coffee made with hemp milk (left out protein powder and butter - will definitely add more protein next time)
12:30 PM: Spring mix salad
2:30 PM: Kale chips
5:00 PM: 1/2 of a vegan gluten-free supreme pizza and 3 vegan gluten-free cookies