***Read about my 2019 [Nearly] Vegetable-Only Diet HERE***

*I could have entitled this post “How I lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks,” but that sounds like I’m trying to reel you in to sell you a self-published cookbook or something, so instead I gave you the honest point of the post upfront. Because that’s what people who write on the internet should do. That way, if you are interested, you can read it, and if not, you don’t need to waste your time.*

But first, our garden is producing vegetables!!!! FINALLY!

Aren’t they beautiful?

[I’ve already picked many more tomatoes but I always eat them immediately.]

Here they are on the cabbage and kale salad that I ate for lunch today:

This is just a small sign of the wonderful things to come in the next few weeks. We also have cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers, kale, green beans, broccoli and [crossing my fingers] carrots nearly ready to be harvested!

Unfortunately, the snap peas and spinach are not going to make it this year and I have no idea what’s happening with the onions [them being underground and all]…but that’s why we got the CSA.

Secondly, our CSA this week has provided some of my favorite vegetables!

Corn, zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, green beans, cucumber, eggplant, kale, MORE green onions [I am so overrun with green onions!] and, of course, more cabbage.

So, anyway, we’ve got to get busy on the vegetable front – which brings me to the point of all this…

Third and finally, I have been experimenting with a plant-based, MOSTLY vegetable diet off and on since February. This isn’t an official diet with a name or a book – I completely made it up and created my own rules based on my [slightly educated] understanding of healthy eating [and a fair share of Netflix food documentaries – cuz I’m obviously a sucker for those].

The “diet” [a word a hate using because of its negative connotation, but that I am using here to mean “the foods that I consume”] has sparked many conversations with coworkers and friends and my personal training clients because I lost a relatively significant amount of weight in a relatively short amount of time.

[As a personal trainer, I have to mention that this was baby weight – though some of it had been hanging around since Evangeline was born – and typically it is not healthy to lose more than 1 or 2 pounds per week.]

Everyone wants to know what I’ve been doing to lose weight. The answer is simple. I’ve been eating vegetables – pretty much ONLY vegetables. The other things I eat are fruit and legumes and nuts. The only grain I eat is rolled oats for breakfast each morning, sweetened with pure maple syrup. I use extra virgin olive oil for cooking and I make my own oil and vinegar dressing for my salads.

Oh, and herbs and seasonings – but those are vegetables too…right? Except maybe salt? Anyway…

And sometimes hot sauce.

I eat all of the legumes, nuts, fruit and vegetables in their most natural form – not canned, not chopped, not cooked, not prepped in anyway. I do all that myself.

I drink coffee in the morning and water the rest of the day.

That’s it.

The next question that ALWAYS follows is, “But what do you eat for meals?” because in American culture, meals are built around meat or bread or rice, so the thought of eating a meal without any of those is perplexing.

I was there too – on day one of this thing, staring at my plate of steamed broccoli for dinner. But I’ve gotten much better at it since then.

So, to help people see what I actually eat, I’m going to log my food [not track my calories, btw, because that is unnecessary when eating this way] and show everyone what a [nearly] vegetable-only diet looks like.

[I don’t eat this way all the time, either. I rotate between this and a less strict diet that includes some meat, but I am off the dairy bandwagon forever I think – especially after making my own vegan Parmesan and discovering Haagen Das’ non-dairy ice cream! Who needs dairy when the alternatives are BETTER????]

Anyway, vegetables are actually quite delicious and I feel really good when I am eating this way.

No, really.

You’ll see.

Karis