Hi! I’m Laura. I’m a heavily caffeinated, introverted, plant-powered (vegan) runner, and I’ve been maintaining a 125 pound weight loss since May 2009.  I went from 240 pounds to 115. I’ve actually gotten as low as 110, but that was not a healthy weight for me. My happy weight ranges from 114 – 119 pounds.

How did I do it? There were no magic pills, no special potions. I joined Weight Watchers and learned how/what to eat, what appropriate portion sizes were, and I tracked (and still track) every single thing that goes into my mouth. I don’t follow the “points” system. I track nutritional values at SparkPeople.com – a healthy lifestyle community that’s FREE. My name over there is HALFFAST.

While I was losing the weight I really didn’t exercise all that much. I did occasionally ‘Sweat to the Oldies 2’ by Richard Simmons, and did a little Tae-Bo (Billy Blanks). But mainly I just concentrated on following the healthy guidelines put forth by Weight Watchers, and the weight really just flew off!

The running started in the Fall of 2009 when I discovered the Couch to 5k program (CoolRunning.com) through one of my teams at SparkPeople. By the time I completed Week 5, Day 3 I was addicted! Since then, I’ve only “raced” a few times – one 5k, one 10-miler, 3 half marathons, one marathon, and a 12-hour endurance challenge (I ran 35.19 miles in 7-something hours) where I took 3rd place Master’s division! I definitely prefer the longer distances if I’m going to “race,” but I’d much rather just run on my own. I have pretty extreme social anxiety so I don’t do well with crowds of people.

 

The other life-changing experience I had was in May 2010, after watching the documentary Food, Inc. It was like a switch got flipped and I suddenly realized exactly where my food was coming from.  I immediately gave up meat, eggs, and (about 99%) dairy.

Just as an aside, I did not become vegan for my health/weight loss. I was already a year at goal weight before making this change. I became vegan for the animals. I tend to use the label plant-powered instead of vegan because I’m not perfect (i.e., coffee creamer. Hence the 99% dairy), and because I do also try to follow a whole foods, plant based diet. I (mostly) follow the dietary principles and guidelines of Drs. McDougall and Barnard.

My blog is basically just a food/running journal, with the antics of my little pitty mix (labra-bull) Lucy, thrown in here and there. Thanks for stopping by!