Hi all,

I am embarking on a get healthy & loose weight lifestyle change, but want someone to keep me company along the way :)

I want to get back to a vegan life, I currently eat chocolate & cakes, (although I drink soya & rice milks), eggs, and fish (prawns, mackeral & salmon). Plus the lbs are slowly creeping on and I must start some kind of exercise regime... I'm getting married in May 2013 and want to look fabulous in my dress. (already know all the veggie options will be vegan as my mum & aunt are animal free).

So, I'm hoping there're others out there looking for a weightloss buddy too, and we can help each other out. Someone in the UK would be best, because of time differences etc, but I'm more than happy to make friends across the water!

Looking forward to finding new friends,

Katy x

Hi. I am trying to lose weight, too. About two weeks ago, I started working out every day for about an hour. This has made me feel so good, I can't even tell you. I also changed the way I ate. I was vegan before, but I got up every day and had the same thing for breakfast. Now I'm varying it and eating mostly whole foods. I have discovered how wonderful brown rice is! I am cooking more and just feel overall much better. I hope these changes help me lose weight. I am on Weight Watchers which helps me keep track of my food, and I'm working out with a personal trainer.

I live in the states by the way, Chattanooga, TN.

Hi - This is wonderful timing because I just literally signed a contract with myself (posted in my kitchen) last week to exercise at least an hour a day with any combination of swimming, walking, dancing - whatever.  I've been Vegan for almost 9 months - huge life change in every possible way and beyond anything I ever imagined.  Best decision ever.

I have already lost 4 lbs. and am eating even healthier - trying to stay away from processed food as much as possible and be as pure as I can, cooking almost every meal.  It's working well.  I already feel stronger and was feeling pretty good, but the exercise part is key to long-term health and well-being.  It would be nice to keep in touch and support each other and hear about progress and/or setbacks (since they happen too at times).  Good luck to both of you!

Barbara and Monkey Socks,

I just got home after an incrediblly difficult workout at the gym. But I did it. And I feel great, though very tired. Now if I can just get it together enough to make supper!

Let's keep in touch here.

Ok, so you're already both doing better than me...! I've been all talk and no action, trying to decide how I'm going to go about this really. I have cut my daily soya hazelnut latte from a large to a medium, and from next week will change to a small, then aiming to stop having them altogether... I've tried many times in the past by just stopping them completely, and never last more than a week. I'm hoping a slow phase out will bring better results! Also, everytime I don't have one, the £3 goes into the 'save for the wedding' jar, so there's incentive there.

And I really need to start excerising...

I think if you just try to take it one thing at a time and not put too much pressure on yourself, it helps.  And I'm not always holding to the hour a day yet - that is my goal and when I reach it fully, I'll continue with it until I can make a tougher goal.  Right now, my body is very tired so on certain days I workout for an hour and on some, 30 minutes.  I try to do something each day for 30 minutes at least.  And I took the night off last night.  But I'm seeing results because it is much more than I was doing before and I feel better.  Hang in there!  Plan to do just one thing - one good meal, one workout - whatever.

Hi Ladies,

I'm not in the UK, but in Canada.  However, may I join in?  I have 20 pounds to lose.  When I went vegan a little over a year ago, I did it for many reasons...health, compassion... but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was hoping it would be the magic bullet to finally end my struggle with these 20 pounds that have plagued me on and off and on again for the past 15 years.  It wasn't.  Anyway, as of today, I've started to journal my food intake.  My portions have gotten WAY out of control lately.  And the late night snacking has got to go.  Also, I've been training (half-heartedly) for a half marathon in October.  The distances are getting longer now, so if I don't stop eating junk, and start putting in the running effort 5 days a week, I'm not going to make it.  Anyway, that's my story.  Hope we can cheer each other on. 

All the best.  Kim.

PS, Monkeysocks, do you have a dress yet?  Very exciting!

Hey ladies!

I'm in the US, I have A LOT of weight to lose, and I feel like eating a plant-based diet and exercising is the way to go! We can all cheer each other on, and track our loss together :) 

Also, congratulations Monkeysocks!!

I'm going out of town for a few days, but Monkeysocks, if you want to have something truly disturbing jolt your sensibilities (which is what made me become Vegan overnight), I would watch the documentary EARTHLINGS.  It literally made me unable to think of eating anything but a plant-based diet.  It hurt profoundly to see what the global food industry does to animals as well as pharmaceutical companies - and how we all contribute to the horror by buying those products (although no longer since becoming Vegans).  I don't know if you want to do shock therapy, but if you do, consider it.  If not, as I suggested earlier, trying to change or get rid of or modify one thing at a time food-wise is a beginning.  If you get rid of 1 thing per day, that would be 7 things by the end of the week, etc.  As to exercise - consider starting gradually.  Maybe a 10 minute walk.  Or 15.  Something easily doable and non-pressuring.  There are ZUMBA dance DVDs out there which are lots of fun and you can do at home.  Anyway, enough from me.  Ladies - have a great weekend!

Hi everyone, thank you for the congrats, and of course people from all over the globe are welcome! Darren & I got engaged in November, he did it all wrong and we ended up just kinda agreeing we'd get married (he wanted to propose at new year but couldn't remember what ring I'd liked when we looked). We were going for May 2014, but I managed to persuade him to bring it forward

I've looked at dresses, and have decided I want a halterneck once, which means I need toned arms so my bingo wings aren't waving at everybody! We're having a very low key civil ceremony in a hotel in the Lake District, with a buffet & drinks after, so I'm not having what I call a 'frothy' dress, just something simple & elegant.

I'm about 12st 9lb at the mo, 5ft 6, and a size 12/14. I have huge hips courtesy of my paternal nan, they're a whole 10 inches larger than my waist... I did weightWatchers in 2004/2005 and lost just over 4st, went from 14st 13.5lb to 10st 10lb. I was a meat eater then but went vegan straight after I reached goal & maintained for a year. I don't know what happened after that! I became vegetarian when I met my fiancé in 2008 (a meat eater), and then added fish recently when I started getting really bad IBS... But it seems harder going back to vegan now, I thought it would be easy because I already know all the horribleness that goes on in the industry

Hi Monkeysocks.  How many pounds is a stone?  I've been an on-again, off-again Weight Watchers member too.  I'm thinking about journaling points, because it is a sensible plan.  Its really just everything in moderation.  My husband and two kids are meat eaters too, and yes it is harder.  However, now I've found several vegan meals that my husband likes, so I only make meat for him 3-4 times a week.  I've been vegan for a little over a year, although I do sometimes slip up on non-vegan baked goods or candy. 

Anyway, I had a much better day yesterday.  My supper portion of homemade vegan pizza was still a bit too big, but I didn't eat any junk food, and I did drag myself out for my 5K run after the kids went to bed even though what I really wanted to do was sit on the couch with a cocktail.  So, small victories.  Hope all you ladies have an amazing day.  Kim.

Hey, Ladies. I worked out too hard on Wednesday and my blood sugar bottomed out. I needed the proper nutrition and I just didn't eat enough. I felt really bad, even the next morning. So I took yesterday off to recover. And you know what? I find myself wanting to take today off, too. That's the problem with skipping a day. It's all about mindset. But I do have good news. I weighed in for Weight Watchers this morning and I had lost 3 pounds. I was very excited about this. Either the exercise, or the diet changes, or both have kicked in and I'm finally losing. So I'm motivated to keep going.

Monkeysocks, I was a veggie years ago, then became a meat eater again. Then I started doing "cruelty-free" meats and dairy, then I became a vegan. I haven't missed meat at all. Sometimes it's hard not to have a candy, so I just go on and have it. It doesn't break the bank. And when I went to Rome in May, I was a veggie just for those two weeks and let me tell you, I couldn't wait to get home and be a vegan again! I just didn't like the way I felt. I absolutely LOVE my vegan diet, even when it's not healthy. I became vegan for ethical reasons and I, too, was expecting to lose weight on the diet. But no cigar. Anyhow, if you're trying to get back on the vegan wagon, I would do a lot of reading to get inspried. Try Peter Singers' What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. That is a really good one. Or Foer's Eating Animals. Also very good. And of course, I always find inspiration in The Kind Diet.

Way to go on the loss Rebecca!  Keep up the good work!  Kim.

Hi ladies! I'm from Canada too Kim, hello fellow maple leaf :)

Congrats on your engagement Monkeysocks! Don't be too hard on yourself - maintaining a vegan or vegetarian diet in can be really hard, especially depending where you are & what your city's / country's / family's attitudes are. I find a lot of inspiration in flipping through beautiful cookbooks - the kind with loads of pictures & ingrediants that aren't impossible to find haha

I've been a pescatarian since I was 13 (I'm 21 now) and over the past year I've slowly been cutting dairy out of my diet, I do plan on being a full, true vegan someday, but I want to take my time & make sure that I'm being as healthy as possible!

When I first went to college at 18 I gained about 30 pounds - lifestyle changes (I was partying a lot that first year) and honestly insecurity with how I looked and who I was and wanting to hide. Weight makes such a good hide-away doesn't it? The past year I've grown a lot as a person and have lost 20 pounds, but I've had a hard time really dedicating myself to losing this last 10.

Let's do this! I'm going to do a detox, a really gentle one where you can still eat food hurrah! It's called the Wild Rose Detox (Kim it's a Canadian-made program if you're interested, it's pretty cool!) hoping that will give me lots of energy and help kick-start some new habits!

I really recommend the book "The Best Life" by Bob Greene, it's about the psychology of over-eating & weight gain, and has really helpful guidelines for setting goals and starting an exercise plans. It was huge for me, go read it!

So I was able to motivate myself to workout the last couple of days. My energy is back and I feel good.

Today we are going to the market to get lots of veggies for the coming week. I am making white bean chili with artichoke hearts. This is from a mix I bought, all whole, dried beans with a spice packet. Should be good. And I'll be making up a big batch of brown rice and other veggies for the next few days. I look forward to eating better this week than last week. The biggest trouble I'm having with the whole foods thing is cooking. For instance, this morning--I didn't want to eat, much less cook, so I just had a smoothie, which is a good choice I guess, but I still wish I had had the wherewithal to make a hot breakfast.

Everyone try to get on here and update often. I think that this is a good way to keep ourselves accountable. Plus, it's good to have a community for support.