For most of my married life I have struggled with my weight. I, like many, have been on every conceivable and popular diet fad going. Diet heads don’t need a list to remind them. Twice in my lifetime I have lost over 80lbs only to regain at least half of that weight again. The most recent started in March 2009 and within a year I had lost 92lbs and, I felt, I was in the best shape of my life … running 10-15 miles a week and biking another 50-60 miles a week. Dang, I looked good. But, just like that, on Christmas eve 2010 I had a heart attack and had two stents put in. Boom, after that I was scared to death to even try to get my heart rate up … and with that I regained 30lbs.

I struggled all through 2011 losing the same 10-15 lbs over and over again. I did achieve a clean bill of health through my cardiologist … who basically told me I had zero lasting damage to my heart … but I was still struggling with the weight. At that point, I had pretty much cut out a lot of red meat from my diet and shyed away from major empty carbs thinking that eating a lot of chicken and vegetables was going to do it for me. All the time this was going on I watched friend after friend doing some radical things to combat their weight … gastric by-pass, lap band, drops, injections, pills, diet supplements, weight watchers, diets, diets, diets. I knew the radical approach of re-routing or squeezing off your plumbing was not for me. I knew a lot of people who became really, really sick a year or two after these procedures … so, no thanks.

I like many watched the documentary “Forks over Knives” for free, on my Netflix. I felt good about trying a plant strong lifestyle … cause God knows my choices for food were not too hot. Lori and I agreed to give this a shot … only for the purpose of feeling better and staying off threats of major illness in our lives. Losing weight would be nice … but I knew if I could get to the point that I felt better … it would be easier for me to exercise.

A friend shared about the recipes and additional documentary found on the Engine 2 Diet. We watched that. Went on a shopping scout tour and decided to slide into this lifestyle. Sliding in means … we will take it one meal at a time one day at a time. Meaning … we didn’t have enough money to throw everything away in our fridge and cupboard and spend $500 to buy all new food. So, yesterday was day one. I was a workout day for me so, lunch was not really going to be a problem. Here is what I ate yesterday –

Monday – February 20, 2012

I threw in a handful for froze blueberries, strawberries and peaches … along with a splash of Coconut Milk to my Ninja. Blended it up, stuck in a straw and headed to McKinney for my work commute. It took the place of stopping at QT for a Biscuit and Vitamin Water.

Mid morning I had two little “cutie” oranges and another glass of water.

Lunch I had a smoothie from Planet Smoothie … all fruit, no diary. Very filling.

I had a late meeting at church and when I got home Lori and I were going to sample her first dinner on the plan. Black bean burgers with french fries. I was hesitant that it would taste like cardboard … but to both of our surprises … it was awesome. The new potatoes were marinated in vegetable broth and seasoned with paprika. The black bean burgers were on a whole wheat bun, with avocados, lettuce, tomatoes and onions.

It was my turn in the kitchen for dessert … I ninjaed about 5 frozen bananas with a splash of vanilla for the “banana ice cream” concoction. It was good … we really didn’t need that many bananas .. cause after about 5 bites of that … you are pretty stuffed.

It’s pretty funny how all of this planned out and the time of year it is. Today is “Fat Tuesday” and tomorrow starts Lent. Looks like our 28 day Engine 2 Diet Challenge will be stretched out to a 40 day meatless Lent fast.

I will keep you up to date.

wg