[Gemara D'Jessica]

What’s more important?: Fulfilling your craving or getting to your goal weight? That’s what I have been asking myself every day - sometimes several times a day - for the past four weeks. I started a diet with several members of my family and I am finally losing some of the weight I gained with Kovi. In 4 weeks I have lost over 6 pounds. 

I feel like I can do it. I can really get to my goal weight this time around. The main thing that I think has helped me has been repetition. I have the same thing for breakfast and lunch nearly every day. For breakfast it’s oatmeal (flavored in different ways so I don’t get bored) and for lunch it’s canned tuna or salmon with a cut up bell pepper and whole grain crackers plus a fruit smoothie (frozen fruit + coconut water). It fills me up and the smoothie helps to quiet down my sweet tooth from convincing me to eat other sweet and much less healthy things. 

I’ve noticed that since going vegetarian I have inadvertently cut out a lot of dairy from my diet. I have cheese maybe once every two weeks. Yogurt one to two times a month. And I’ve stopped drinking cow’s milk (except the occasional glass at my parents when I haven’t had a chance to eat breakfast before leaving the house). I read recently - can’t remember where, so no source for this, unfortunately - that cow’s milk can actually hinder weight loss. I’ve tried several non-dairy milks (rice, soy, coconut and almond) and I chose to go with almond as my milk replacement. I prefer the taste, it has a good amount of calcium and it has a low glycemic index. I don’t know that my cutting down on dairy has helped with my weight loss for sure, but it seems like it has. 

I’m feeling really positive and I think that now is my time. Hopefully in a year from now - maybe sooner? - I’ll be writing my post about how I made it to my goal weight. Until then, I will continue to push myself to make the healthiest decisions for myself.