2014 Food Plans

I love food. I enjoy cooking but most of all I love to eat. For the past 10 years I’ve battled constantly with my weight. For about 2 years I did the Atkins diet and lost 90 pounds. I kept the weight off for two years then after some hard times I ended up gaining about 40 of those lost pounds back. Since 2011 I’ve tried just about every fad diet and every “lifestyle” change out there and I’m over it. This year I’m taking a different approach.

I just finished a five day detox,  this one wasn’t my favorite ( I’ve done 5 in the past 3 years) but  it did remind me how much I love fruit and that Juicing is really great. In all my diet testing, I learned  that bread and sugar make me feel good when I eat them but afterwards my body feels like crap for a couple of days and I don’t have much energy.  I also discovered that I can give up milk but not cheese so I want to incorporate all this factors into what I eat. My approach will be hard to label, its a little bit paleo, a little bit Atkins and a little bit vegan.

Vegan?!! I know it’s random and weird especially since I’m embracing my love for cheese and all things pork! I can’t explain it. But I am intrigued by all the things people can make without our basic baking items, like egg (LOVE THEM TOO!!!) and really putting aside the tofu and the seitan, Vegan food is really pretty.

The other day this lady I follow on Instagram @veganista_q8 posted a picture of a No Bake Triple Berry Cheesecake and it was so beautiful I really want to try it. Accounts like hers and many others on Pinterest and Instagram just have me excited about all the stuff you can do in a non-conventional way. The plus side to this is that most of this recipes are also gluten free which means they use ingredients like Almond or coconut flour and chia seeds!! All stuff that’s really healthy and low carb. I am obviously going to make changes to this recipes to make it more appealing or even easier for me but I really want to try a lot of the Vegan recipes I’ve seen on the web.

2014 is the year of embrace. I embrace, my size 10, my love of butter & cheese, my need for a burger with a bun (every once in a while), my love of pork, my love of happy hour and last but not least my recent obsession with all things Vegan. So this year I’ll try to keep my love of fruits and vegetables alive while I try to bake some low carb bread, try to perfect my pulled pork recipe and make a BBQ sauce that’s awesome but sugar free! My sister wants to start using a sugar alcohol called Xylitol  but I want to make a good recipe without it!

All I want is to try and find a healthy balance between the good for you and the just plain good while trying not to gain any weight before my trip to San Francisco where I’ll eat and drink whatever I want!!!