Q&A with Jenné: Vegan Weight Loss

A great body starts in the kitchen! If you want to lose weight, tone up, and find your ideal healthy figure then you need to make sure your food is serving you. A great way to achieve optimal health, and weight loss is on a whole food vegan diet. Vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and mushrooms are all you need to live a healthy and fit life. As you start eating healthier you naturally have more energy––even exercising becomes more enjoyable. Funny enough, the more nutrient dense your meals, the less you will want to eat. Your body will be receiving the nourishment and fuel it needs to function at a high level.

By eating a whole foods vegan diet I have seen my body change in wonderful ways. I have more definition than ever, and carry my weight in just the right places 😉 So when people ask me what I do to get my strong arms or abs, I tell them I eat a fabulously delicious and healthy vegan diet. That’s the secret! Weight loss and vegan diets can go hand-in-hand.

Here are my tips for things to keep in mind when pursuing weight loss on a vegan diet:

1. Make non-starchy vegetables the core of your diet.

Build your plate around foods like massaged kale, roasted cauliflower, sauteed collards, and steamed broccoli. I love to make big green salads with dark leafy greens, shredded cabbage, carrots, legumes, and avocado. Click on the photos in this post for recipes 🙂

2. Say no to oil.

Well, oils are fine, but if weight loss is your goal they should be avoided. Each tablespoon of an oil contains 120 calories. I don’t usually count calories, but this is notable since oils (ex. olive oil, coconut, etc) contain fewer nutrients than the whole food. Use water or broth to saute and roast veggies.  Use whole fats (avocado, nuts, seeds, tahini, olives) in salads.

3. Say no to processed vegan food.

It may taste good but processed food is loaded with sodium, sugar, and preservatives. Plus, it’s never as nutrient dense as the whole food, and will leave you under satiated. Oreo cookies are vegan, and we all know they’re no good for weight loss.

4. Ferment your food.

Or at least buy it pre-fermented at the store. Fermented vegetables like kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled veggies, miso, and tempeh are endowed with happy belly probiotics. Probiotics are the good bacteria that live in our guts and support healthy digestion, assimilation of nutrients, and immunity.

5. Chill out.

Get plenty of sleep and limit stress. When we are stressed out our bodies release more stress managing hormones, that lead to weight gain. Soooooooo take a chill pill, and find more joy in your life/kitchen.

Have you had success losing weight on a vegan diet? What worked best for you?