On Sunday September 30, 2012, I announced my intention to eat Vegan for 30 days. It lasted for over 18 months. I felt amazing. I was healthy, fit and energized. Then change happened. A change in jobs brought a significant amount of stress to my life, I discovered vegan baking, became slack with my diet and let myself gain weight. My Endocrinologist looked my straight in the eyes and said "Lose it. I don't know what happened, but get back to where you were."

Did I??

No.

I decided that vegan wasn't convenient enough. I was tired of friends making a fuss over having us over to dinner or dining out. I was tired of not being able to throw a piece of chicken on the grill, toss a salad and call it a dinner. So I went back to counting carbs. And gained 6 more pounds. That's over 10 pounds from my healthiest about 2 years ago.  Clothes don't fit. My energy is low. I look about 8 years older. Rut-roh.

It's not as if I counted carbs carefully and the weight still came on. I had lost control of my eating and was letting stress dictate virtually everything I ate. And I ate virtually everything. My teaching schedule this past fall semester, which was all early classes, made my 6:30 yoga a thing of the past. Yoga went from a 4-5 times-a-week practice to twice a week if I was lucky, but typically 1 class a week, some walking and nothing else.

Can you say SLUG?

December marks the year end and also my annual physical. Annual physical means lab work. Now, I knew things would not be pretty. But they were down right ugly.

Cholesterol - through the roof. 80 points higher than last year.
Blood sugar - higher than its ever been. Way higher.  And I'm on Metformin.
A1C - worse number I've had since seeing an Endocrinologist
Vitamin D - 26: lowest its ever been (and I have a difficult time keeping it up).

My doc, Heather Schwemm at Intermed, is a love, but also a no-nonsense gal. She put her hands on my knees, leaned over to toward my face and said "This has to change, now." Give yourself the holidays, she said, but come Jan1, "I want you vegan again. "  Then she made some suggestions: Throw in some eggs if you want to, especially egg whites. If you want some fat free greek yogurt, fine. But no other dairy, nothing white, i.e. refined sugar, AT ALL and no meat, period. "When you go out, eat fish. That should keep your social life in tact."

So here I am.  Kim, the nutritionist I have worked with for a few years suggested I go back to blogging about this, so here I am. Keeping me honest. Asking your help to keep me grounded and on track.  I've already released the meat, thanks to having my vegetarian son, Seth, home for Christmas. Dairy will be more difficult, but I'll do it.

Count down. 4 days.