Woman in Real Life

I'm not a fan of fad diets at all. I believe in a healthy, whole foods diet and moderate exercise for more sustainable wellness. Recently, though, I picked this book off my shelf (I have a lot of books that I haven't read): The Lean: A Revolutionary (and Simple!) 30-Day Plan for Healthy, Lasting Weight Loss. It's by Kathy Freston, author of Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World and Quantum Wellness: A Practical Guide to Health and Happiness.

I decided to browse through The Lean and I am actually finding it really inspiring. The book calls upon you to make one change each day (maintaining the previous days' changes too) for 30 days. It's a plant-based routine that asks you to cut out dairy, meat and eggs. Seeing as I'm already vegan I was able to easily skip past a lot of the suggestions. The remaining changes are really not a "diet" per se. It's more a sustainable way of eating healthy that so far has me starting the day with a high-fibre breakfast (like the breakfast quinoa, above, made from a recipe in the back of The Lean), eating at least one apple each day, having a handful of nuts for a morning snack, adding two tablespoons of ground flax to my food and drinking lots of water.

Basically it's about getting plenty of fibre and crowding the less healthy choices out with better choices. I'll tell you more about it as I go on, or you can also follow along in my Instagram stories. In case you're wondering, the reason I'm doing it is to tackle my "muffin top," which I earned from having my second child over 13 years ago. But I want to be clear that this is my choice and if you are content with your muffin top, more power to you!



Now here are some food highlights from the past couple of weeks. Without any leftovers to heat up for lunch one day, I constructed a sandwich with a toasted bagel, avocado slices, tomato, lettuce, red onion and hummus. I washed it down with carrot/celery/orange juice.

We're still doing lots of simple bowls for dinner around here. This one was roasted cauliflower and mushrooms, fried tofu and buckwheat noodles with peanut sauce.


My husband made burritos one day and I decided to have mine as a deconstructed burrito bowl. There was Mexican rice, refried beans, mashed sweet potato, tofu, mushrooms and guacamole. Plus homemade fries on the side.


Another of my high-fibre breakfasts - this one was steel cut oats topped with walnuts, strawberries, raspberries and banana slices. Oh, and with a little maple syrup for sweetness. Plus non-dairy milk.


For lunch that same day I had a mixed greens salad topped with strawberries, cucumber, walnuts and dried cranberries. I had something else after too but I can't even remember what it was.


For dinner that day, I roasted up a pile of broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and carrots. I served the veggies with tofu cubes, rice and a dollop of hummus. Simple to make but healthy and delicious.

What about you? Have you ever tried any diets? Do you get a lot of whole foods or rely on quick meals and snacks on the run?