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LOSE WEIGHT AND GAIN ENERGY Without Resolutions or Diets by Betsy Bruns I stopped making New Year’s resolutions a while ago. Like weight-loss diets, which have a start date, an end date, and the feeling of holding your breath until the torture is over. New Year’s resolutions are rarely successful. Neither are most diets. According to some estimates, diets fail 95% of the time. Not only is long-term weight loss rarely achieved, but diets can also result in weight gain over the long run. Restrictive eating can lead to loss of lean muscle mass, the slowing of metabolism, as well as eventual disordered eating patterns that may trigger gorging and bingeing down the road. 18
| CONSCIOUS COMMUNITY MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020
Back in my younger days when I carried 40 extra pounds and peanut M&M’s were my oxygen, I went on a lot of diets. They were often preceded by a feast of Big Macs, greasy pizza and lots of chocolate. I rarely got through the first week before bailing. My bon voyage feast most likely totaled more calories than the calories I lost in the days that I white-knuckled through the diet. I was probably in the hole each time I attempted to lose weight.
compassion for abused farm animals and what they endure in our factory farming system that I lost my appetite for meat and never looked back.
On Jan. 1, 2012, I made a dietary change quite spontaneously. I decided to stop eating meat after watching a film that expanded my consciousness about the ethics of eating animals. I felt so much
What is the difference between a vegan and a whole food plant-based diet? A vegan diet means you eat no animal foods or animal by-products. Like a vegan diet, a whole-food, plant-based
That decision has taken me on the most amazing odyssey. In the years following, the expansion of my consciousness led me from a vegetarian way of eating to a vegan diet, and eventually, to a wholefood, plant-based lifestyle.
