Vegan Weight Loss Before and After

I was always one of those kids who ordered pasta off of the kids menu at restaurants. For my birthday - pasta, my wedding - pasta, literally any celebratory meal - pasta. So naturally, when I went vegetarian then vegan, pasta remained one of my favorite foods. Pasta was there for me in college where I had no money, no time, and no cooking skills. Pasta was there for me when I started my first job and still had no money, no time, and maybe a few more cooking skills. Pasta can be a bit of a gateway drug (stick with me). Pasta can come with cheese, oil, garlic bread, butter. And double carbs with pasta was an always for me: Pasta with garlic bread, pasta with chickpeas, and so on. It is SO easy to fall into that pasta-eating-vegan trap.

I graduated college a relatively healthy vegetarian. I was around 135 lbs, not ecstatic about how I looked, but also not ashamed. I kept eating the same things, and more, but I stopped moving. Transitioning from student life where I didn't have a car and walked several miles a day to the desk job life revealed to me just how terrible my diet really was. I gained weight fast. Add on top of that baking every single Friday for almost a year to try and gain friends at my new office and I really started packing on the pounds. About three years ago I made the switch to veganism, and with that I switched everything to whole wheat. By cutting out dairy and crap carbs out of my diet, I went from over 145 lbs (that was the last I weighed myself, do you ever find that you never weigh yourself when you know you'll hate the results? I was afraid of a scale for 6 months) to 130 lbs.

I feel like I need to elaborate on this.

I DID NOT EXERCISE.

Switching to a vegan diet, and diet changes only I lost this weight. Once I reached that weight, I felt I had way more energy to start exercising. I started going to the gym every day and started to see more changes - not in the weight, but in my body composition. I am now at the point where I am exercising for the fun of it, for self-confidence, and the empowerment of it, rather than to lose weight. I honestly believe that if you are desperately trying to lose weight, exercise should come as Step 2, and Step 1 should ALWAYS be diet. (more on this in future posts!)

But let's get back to Pasta for second. Zoom forward to present day and I am looking to get myself in rockin' bikini body shape, looking to really up my performance in the gym, and start recomposing my body from 30% body fat to a lot lower than that. I am IN this process - so I don't have before and afters for you on this (but hopefully will soon!!!!). But what I can tell you is I decided to take a plunge and try something new. If I don't make any changes I shouldn't expect to see any changes. So I decided to try this whole high protein/lower carb vegan diet version. PASTA - PASTA, OH POOR PASTA. Switching from practically an 80/10/10 diet to more like 40/30/30 was not easy. I am still waiting to see how the results pan out and will update you guys once I do reach my 8 weeks - but so far, I'll whisper it - I think it might be working. So I've had to get creative - which is why I am taking you guys on this crazy journey of self-experimentation! So to get my pasta fix - I've come up with an...errr...Italian Bowl?

Tempeh "Meat Sauce"

serves 4

1/2 onion - diced

1 carrot - grated

3 garlic cloves - minced

2 Tbsp Italian seasoning

3 large tomatoes - chopped

1 can tomato paste

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 Blocks Tempeh - crumbled/grated

Heat a large pan over medium high heat until water sizzles on surface. Turn down heat to medium and saute onion, carrot, and garlic until softened, adding water to prevent sticking. Stir in Italian seasoning, tomatoes, tomato paste and stir to combine. Cook mixture on medium/medium low heat for 10 minutes. Add in crumbled tempeh, nutritional yeast, and balsamic vinegar. Cook on low for at least 20 minutes - the longer you cook it the better it tastes, adding water to thin it out as needed. Add salt and pepper, nutritional yeast, and an extra drizzle of balsamic vinegar to suit your tastes!

You can serve this with pasta, but a low-carb option would be to serve this with baked cauliflower and spinach. Trust me it is just as filling!

Please share your creations on instagram if you try this recipe out and tag @emily_palamara. We love seeing your spins on our recipes!