I became a vegan nearly 3 years ago for health reasons (see My Reflux Story for details). I was a strict vegan for the first two years and then added occasional fish and whey back into my diet because my naturopathic physician was concerned about my protein intake. Since I have been keeping a food diary during my weight loss program she is no longer concerned about my protein intake and I am working to become a strict vegan again.

I thought that once I became a vegan that weight gain would be a non-issue; How wrong I was. Though I am an avid hiker, backpacker, cyclist and snowshoer the pounds kept adding on! I decided at 233 pounds I needed a change.

Because of my previous success with the Weight Watchers Program I decided to apply the Weight Watchers Point System to a "Mostly Vegan Diet". I had all the materials that I needed and decided that I had the strength and determination to forego the weekly Weight Watchers Meetings (which I highly recommend for the first timers). I was also pleasantly surprised to find a few vegan recipes in my Weight Watcher cookbooks and on their website. I made a electronic food diary using Microsoft Excel and added a column to monitor my protein intake as well as Food Points and Activity Points. Because of the activities that I do I drink a Hemp Protein or Whey Protein shake each day, but higher protein foods could be easily substituted. You will see that I exceeded my average daily points allowance for every week and still reached my goal in a timely manner.

The challenge for being successful at this was calculating the points for each recipe. I would take the ingredients list and break it down using the nutritional information from the cans, boxes and bottles; Adding or subtracting serving sizes to match the quantities used. I website that I found invaluable for information was Calorieking.com. You can search on any food item and come up with nutritional information. They also have their own software program for healthy living and weight loss that seems pretty good; I have contemplated buying it. The free trial download works well and I found it very interesting.

If you would like to contact me for more information email john@vtrushfan.com