So most of this week was spent in San Antonio with my husband. I knew it was going to be a challenge to find whole food plant based options for every meal, but to my delight we found a GREAT salad place. Salata had a few different locations and we went there twice for lunch. We tried to go a third time on our way out of town on Sunday, but they were closed.

I did eat meat a couple times but overall I was able to keep my meat/dairy consumption close to the 10% calories level recommended by Dr. Fuhrman in Eat to Live.

Alcohol is not exactly healthy whole food plant based…

The alcohol on the other hand….was flowing. I love a good margarita and BOY does San Antonio have great margaritas! I did remember to ask for no salt on the rim a few times. That’s a habit I’m going to have to practice so I don’t have too much salt when I’m out. I haven’t been drinking much since January – the only time I’ve had some wine was during our Super Bowl party, so the good thing is I didn’t drink as much as I normally would have because my tolerance was obviously down.

More and more restaurants are offering vegan or vegetarian options

I was also very excited to find that Yard House, has a HUGE vegan/vegetarian menu offering. At the least the one by the riverwalk in San Antonio did. So we ended up eating there twice. Although NOT all options were nutritarian – added oils, salt, and sugar – at least they were vegetarian/vegan options.

By the end of the trip I was pretty proud of myself. A year previous on the same trip I would have had eggs & turkey sausage for breakfast, chicken or cheese laden lunch, and steak for dinner. Never would I have had a salad or vegan/vegetarian options for any meal on this trip. So…progress not perfection.

The China Study – Whole Food Plant Based Diet Research

While on this trip, I got to do a lot of reading while my husband was in meetings. I had long heard about the China Study by Colin T. Campbell and many doctors including, Dr. Fuhrman, have referenced it, but I had never myself read it. The title just seemed too scientific and I thought maybe it would be a hard read. Boy was I wrong!

The China Study is actually VERY easy to read and written from Dr. Campbell’s personal perspective and the challenges he has come up against. Dr. Campbell is a wonderful teacher and gives great analogies to make it easy to understand the more scientific concepts. He also includes a lot of his personal life & experiences. I had no idea that he actually grew up on a dairy farm and lived most of his early years consuming a very high meat and dairy diet. His research took him in another direction as he started to discover the beloved American high animal protein diet is actually harmful. Fascinating! I highly recommend it!

Check out my Nutritarian Onion Mushroom Black Bean Burger Recipe

At the end of this week I decided to try my hand at making my own black bean burger recipe. I wanted to it LOOK like a real burger so my oldest would eat it (to hide the vegetables) but be really nutritious! I ended up creating my Onion Mushroom Black Bean Burgers! So good! It is also made with kale and black rice – which has higher antioxidant concentration that blueberries! My oldest said there were too many onions, so maybe next time I’ll do a batch without as many onions for him. I, on the other hand LOVE the onions!

If you have been following along, you know that last week was 6 days long and this week shows 8 days because I wanted to have a clear distinction between home and being on vacation. If you want to start from the beginning click here to start from week 1 on my Eat to Live Journey!

Nutritarian Diet Food Journal Week 7

Day 42: 152.5 pounds to start

Left for San Antonio

• Breakfast – Fruit & Greens Smoothie; coffee w/unsweetened almond milk
• Lunch – stopped at a restaurant on the way – Meg’s in Temple. Had the avocado toast (which has Everything Bagel seasoning on it!), skillet potatoes, & fruit cup.
• Dinner – Had dinner at Mi Tierra’s in San Antonio. While delicious for a meat eater, there are NOT a lot of options for a mostly vegan. I snacked on some tortilla chips & guacamole, had a cup of tortilla soup and ate around the chicken, and had a Taco Salad (took off the cheese & sour cream) w/ guac as dressing. 2 Jumbo Margaritas :-)…..

Day 43:

• Breakfast – wasn’t hungry for breakfast and so just had some coffee in the room.
• Lunch – Salata for lunch! YAY mega salad bar! Check out the picture below! It had kale, romaine, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, black olives, bell peppers, carrots, peas, chick peas, falafel, mushrooms, quinoa, and fat free sun-dried tomato dressing. So happy!
• Dinner – This was Valentine’s day and we had reservations at Ruth’s Chris (my hubby’s choice?). I had decided I would have a small amount of meat at this dinner and went with the Coconut Tilapia. Also had steamed broccoli, southwest corn, and little sweet potato casserole and creamed spinach. I had 1 1/2 glasses of wine. Was only planning on 1, but the waiter brought us a complimentary glass since our meal was taking so long….

My delicious salad from Salata!!! Whole food plant based can be so beautiful!

Day 44:

• Breakfast – Not hungry from the large dinner the night before. Just had coffee.
• Lunch – Went back to Salata for lunch! I wish there was one closer to our house at home…. I had spring mix, romaine, kale, spinach, cabbage, peas, chickpeas, broccoli, pineapple, strawberries, carrots, mushrooms, sprouts, quinoa, avocado, jalapeños, walnuts, fat free sun-dried tomato dressing and 1/2 a cup of the white bean soup. Couldn’t eat the whole soup after I read online how much sodium was in it!
• Dinner – Yard House! I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up the menu and saw a whole section for Gardein meals! We had the Buffalo Cauliflower for appetizer (although it was battered and fried…) and vegan burger with tomato soup instead of fries. 3 watermelon margaritas….they were so good….

Day 45:

• Breakfast – Grabbed a banana from downstairs & had a coffee
• Lunch – La Panaderia (sp?) was like a bakery but had a great Avocado Bowl/Salad. Holy avocado batman. It was so much I couldn’t even finish it! Had lettuce, black beans, avocado and multigrain bread.
• Snack – Mixed fruit cup
• Dinner – Back to Yard House! Had the same as before – Buffalo Cauliflower (I need to figure out how to make this without the batter and frying), 1/2 Vegan Burger and cup of tomato soup instead of fries. 1 1/2 Watermelon Margaritas. I remembered to tell them no salt this time.

Day 46:

Headed back home!

• Breakfast – Snooze Restaurant – Sweet Potato Hash, 2 eggs, & coffee.
• Lunch/Dinner – Home Sweet Home! 2 left over Tempeh Enchiladas and 1 Black Bean Fudgy Brownie

Day 47:

• Breakfast – Avocado Toast (Ezekiel Bread), raspberries, Fruit & Greens Smoothie, Coffee w/unsweetened almond milk
• Lunch – Whole grain tortilla wrap with oil-free hummus, spinach, roasted peppers, shredded carrots, and broccoli. Man I LOVE this hummus recipe!
• Dinner – Taco Bean Soup & Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake

Day 48:

• Breakfast – Avocado Toast (Ezekiel Bread), raspberries, cantaloupe, & coffee w/unsweetened almond milk
• Lunch – Whole grain tortilla taco! I had so many veggies I couldn’t roll it so I ate it like a large soft taco. Kale, spring mix, spinach, broccoli, oil-free hummus, roasted peppers, shredded carrots, green onions, Everything Bagel Seasoning, balsamic vinegar.
• Dinner – Taco Bean Soup, sweet peas, dry roasted edamame

Day 49:

• Breakfast – Fasting for breakfast due to having blood work today – I want to check my numbers! Had a black coffee.
• Lunch – Checked out the Kroger Salad Bar with my hubby today for lunch! Wow its pretty great! Spinach, spring mix, kale, romaine, cabbage, broccoli, chick peas, corn, strawberries, mango, cucumber, carrots, Kalamata olives, sunflower seeds, red wine vinegar, everything bagel seasoning.
• Dinner – Onion Mushroom Black Bean Burger on whole grain bun, avocado, spinach, mustard, Daiya Provolone Vegan Cheese, 1/2 piece Carrot Cake

My weight loss on the nutritarian diet this week:

• Starting weight this week – 152.5 lbs
• Ending weight this week – 152.5 lbs
• Weight loss this week – 0 lbs
• Total weight loss so far – 11.5 lbs

Well, I ended this week the same weight as before I left for our trip. Which considering the amount of salt, added oils, and alcohol I consumed this is great! I did workout a lot more this week so I think that helped to curb any weight gain.

This week I got my blood tested for cholesterol, hormones, vitamins and other things so I hope to have that back in a few days. I want to compare my numbers from a few years ago when I was eating the Standard American Diet to see how it has improved after eating a mostly whole food plant based diet. When the nurse checked my blood pressure it was 98/58 and she asked me if I was feeling light headed! HAHA! Nope, feeling great! I guess they don’t see low blood pressure often….