Five Years -My pants are Half the Size Without a Diet

Pants five years ago on the left, pants on the right from today.  No formal dieting! I gave up diet soda and beer (I still have dry wine and single malt scotch on Friday nights). No fast food, nothing fried except for Saturday Morning breakfast burrito extravaganza, but made at home so the potatoes are sauteed, not deep fat fried.  I follow the tips and recipes in  Rip Esselstyn's Engine 2 Diet (there are multiple books, all excellent) with whole grains instead of simple carbs, oils, and sugars on my meat free days.  I keep my meats very lean, and eat more wild caught salmon. I eat a LOT yet slowly and steadily the weight I couldn't get rid of for 20 years disappeared.

I use coconut oil and Avocado oil and avocado oil but in very limited quantities for sauteeing and stir fries or sandwiches. I eat at least 8 servings a day of veggies and non-starchy fruits and all bake my own bread with non genetically modified Einkorn flour so my bread isn't full of chemicals and additives.  I've replaced lunch meat with homemade veggie burgers and spreads (coming soon will be my recipe for mock tuna salad made out of chickpeas and veggies). And I do have dessert, the dark chocolate brownies from the E2 Plan being a house favorite even for my carnivore husband.

I work out twice a week for 90 minutes, which includes 20 minutes with a punching bag for cardio. On those days I will have a small piece of wild caught salmon that I have shipped to me from

• Wild Alaskan Company

I grew up near the mouth of the Columbia River in Washington State and grew up on fresh caught salmon.  Which is why I never bought salmon at the grocers.  Wild Alaskan Company salmon is as fresh and good as what I grew up on, and is pretty much the only animal protein I now eat.

I drink at a minimum of 3 quarts of water a day. I am never really "I'm starving" hungry, like when I lived on Slim Fast and diet frozen meals and fruit and still never lost a single pound.

Dieting sucks. Eating and living healthy does not.