I’ve been thinking about diet for awhile now, and you have some excellent points. I want to do some more research. Erik won’t be too upset – it just means he will have more meat to eat! Ha! Its so much easier for us to eat healthy in the summer – we do a local CSA (community supported agriculture) and get a giant bag of produce every week and eat a lot less meat. Who knows – maybe by the time winter rolls around I will have less trouble convincing him we need to try more gluten free products or eat vegan!

We’ve been using some gluten free products for awhile now (Pamela’s Pancake mix – LOVE) – but thanks so much for the website and product suggestions. I will definitely look into them.

Thanks again!

-Kathleen
If you are walking outside, a flat surface is just fine. if you walk on a treadmill, how long do you go and what is your speed? then i can help with the incline… not too high, because it can strain the knee ligaments, i’d say below 5%.
i use to do a 10% incline in my 20’s for an hour, it was insane and abusive to my knees, ugh.

the most important thing with walking is to just do it. truly one mile a day is 7 miles by the end of the week and 28 by the end of the month, it’s all accumulative in the end, so don’t over analyze too much and just walk and enjoy it!

the problem i have seen for years with people, esp women wanting to lose weight, is that we will exercise our ASSES off for HOURS, before we will ever take a look at our diet. the reality is, if you are very conscious about what you are eating and drinking, you really don’t have to beat yourself up with tons of exercise, make sense? it’s all about balance and walking and yoga are a great balance for daily exercise.

when it comes to weight loss, diet is even MORE imp than exercise. look how hard those people on the biggest loser work out and sometimes only lose 1 lb a week, it’s because they need to be more careful with their food. Getting people to change their diet can be like taking Linus’ blanket from him, very emotional and traumatic!

So, I’m thrilled you are already are into eating a plant based diet, JOY! i know you will love the recipes from the enige2diet. Skinny Bitch in the Kitch is a great vegan cookbook too.

more veggies, rice, beans, tofu, fruit…..

love kath

I can totally tell you are losing inches, which is amazing, i’m so happy you have been liberated from weight lifting, oh the joy! (don’t tell your trainer, they are threatened by yoga, but i know what you mean about lifting heavy weights and not shrinking, what a waste of time and energy, ugh.)

I really don’t think you need to run, but power walking is wonderful and will help you lose weight and elongate your quads.

I know what you mean about legs being the same, my legs were always the last place to shrink to, but i have to say through eating a vegan diet and going gluten free, they FINALLY frickin’ shrunk.

So you might try eating less or no meat, dairy and eggs and watch the gluten. ( i hope your hubby won’t hate me for this suggestion, but it works like a charm for weight loss!)

you can get gluten free breads, pastas, crackers, pizza crusts, baking flours, etc, at the health food store, all made from rice, not wheat. i truly believe the wheat and white flours make people PUFFY-EEK!

this is an awesome web site for amazing vegan recipes, have your hubby watch the Dr OZ you tubes: http://www.engine2diet.com

so thanks for the great update, i’m really proud of you, go yoga!
love Kath

Right after I completed my personal training sessions after our wedding, I did a body composition test at my gym on the tanita body composition analyzer. I just completed another one yesterday and while my weight was the same, my other measurements were much better – specifically my ARMS! I completely replaced weight lifting with yoga (2-3 times a week) and got great results!

In December, the percentage fat on my right arm was 33.4%, my left was 34.8%. Yesterday, those numbers were 32.6% and 31%! My trunk was also down from 35% to 31%. Legs were exactly the same, but I sort of expected that. To get the numbers on the scale to move down, I’m going to incorporate more cardio. Since its been so hot, I’ve been a pansy and not been outside running or walking the dogs as much.

Anyway – I just thought I’d share! Its almost comical (or ridiculous) to me how all of those heavy weightlifting sessions did nothing for my arms! Now I get to do something I actually ENJOY and see results! Thanks so much for steering me to your article and for freeing me from heavy lifting!