Easy Vegetarian Meals In Phuket

Hello everyone.
It is Tim here from Phuket, Thailand, with another weight loss video update.

How are we all today? We're feeling fantastic. We just had our breakfast. It is about 9:30am in the morning, or thereabouts. Maybe getting closer to ten o'clock. The weather is fine today. Actually the sun is shining, so it is going to be a very nice day.

But, getting back on track, talking about eating. I ate very well yesterday. All healthy vegetarian recipes and vegetarian meals. For those of you who don't know, since finishing my juice fast, 56 days of a juice fast, and I lost about 22 kilos, which is around about 51 pounds, since then, I have decided - because I didn't have any meat or dairy for that period of time, that I would actually go off them. And go the full hog and go to a total vegan diet plan lifestyle. Now, vegan, for those of you who don't know, is a vegetarian lifestyle. So, no meat products. But it is taking the next step - there are no animal products at all. So no eggs, meat obviously, no dairy. And instead of doing that basically it's vegetables and fruits, and also things like nuts which are essential, or, have essential vitamins and minerals. Nuts, legumes, seeds and so on.

And I have got some goodies I want to show you now actually, which I will I do. I actually took a picture of what I ate for breakfast, and lunch and evening meals. I want you to have a look at those now. We'll start off by having a look at the breakfast. Now you can see that even though it was a bit bit bizarre for me, having a lot of vegetables for breakfast. I had some rice there on the plate. There's some corn there. There's also some various vegetables. There's tomato, it's a tomato dish. There's also red curry. Beautiful! Absolutely very nice. And a few other vegetables as well. Broccoli as well I believe.

I'm doing this today. Even though I'm putting these pictures on the screen, I'm actually doing this from memory. So hopefully I am getting it all.

And then after that, again this is for breakfast, I also had some fruit. You can see various fruits now on the screen. And they were really quite nice as well. Very tasty and very filling. And very very healthy of course. And just some water to wash it all down.

Then at lunch time you can see that I found a place in, Junshalun - I think that's how you pronounce it. And they actually made for me a nice juice. And the juice was carrot, orange, and I can't remember the other ingredient now. Tomato I think it was. Very nice. And also with that I also had like a stir fry vegetable. Stir fry which you can see there, and also some rice.

Rice is very, very cheap here. It's about 1/10th the price of that stirfry. From memory the stirfry was about 200 bhat. Now to work it out to Australian dollars, or US dollars, given that they are very close, divide that by about 30. So we paid 200 bhat, I think it was thereabouts for the stirfry. Divide by 30. It's about $6.50 or something for that stirfry. But the actual rice was 20 bhat. So, I mean, that's less than a dollar. So, very cheap. And I think the drink was about 160 bhat, about $5. So a very cheap and inexpensive meal.

And for evening meal we went to - there was actually a BBQ night on at the hotel. And Louise had BBQ - she is laughing in the background. They made a nice BBQ mix. You had to choose what meat you wanted, and they cooked it and brought it to you on the table. And I threw them into a bit of a fit, the chef actually, because of course I'm not eating meat. No meat. Oh! No meat! Seafood? He was wondering whether I had seafood. Of course, no animal products, vegan, so fish is out as well. And so he had to go and get the head chef, and he followed me around. Because this is like the buffet. I mean I was quite happy because there was lots of various vegetables. You can see what I'm eating anyway, on screen. You can see there was a good selection there, corn, broccoli, almond butter which was very nice (almond butter being natural, so I was quite happy to try that. Not traditional dairy). The food was quite nice, but they wanted to cook me something else. And they followed me around and basically went through every dish to make sure I had enough. And they were quite happy to, you know, they were going to cook me something.

And that is something I want to say about the lifestyle of the Thai people here. Lots of selling, as you walk down the street there are lots of people trying to sell you something. They actually say, we're not selling you something. Here, take this brochure. But it's actually trying to get you into a timeshare apartments or something like that. But of course the presentation is free. So you know they are selling something, and after the first couple we - you just put up your hand and say no.

Another good sales technique they use is try and shake your hand. Because by putting your hand out it's human nature, you want to shake that hand. Because it's good manners to do that. And of course that's the way they rope you into taking, to try and sell you something basically. So of course my tactic there is not to shake their hand. Just to keep my hands down. I did feel a little bit mean, and Louise felt a little bit mean as well because these people are obviously trying to make a living. But we're here for a holiday, we're not here to be "sold to" I guess.

But there were lots other little stalls and so forth which were really good. But the food here was absolutely phenomenal. Really, really nice food. And the other thing was there was these little roadside portable food booths, you would probably call them. They were little carts that they push, and they have got two wheels, and fruits and so forth. And they will make you a little meal. So I am going to try one of those today or tomorrow I think. And they look absolutely superb. So that's apart from going to restaurants and all those other places. There are just so many little places where you can actually eat.

And people look so happy here. Even the taxis. There are taxis in every street and they are always trying to get you to use their taxi. And when you say, No, we're just walking, or something, they're always smiling and happy. I have to say the Thai people are very happy and friendly people and they have made us feel quite welcome.

But yeah, getting back to the vegan lifestyle. Even having breakfast today I was speaking to Louise and it is just a spinout now that I am eating vegetables, and really enjoying the taste of vegetables. Let alone having them for breakfast! I mean, I can eat them at breakfast and thoroughly enjoy them! It was a beautiful meal. All the meals I have been having, including breakfast, have been absolutely, really nice.

And my sister has actually started a juice fast, Michelle. Well done. And actually Jenny my other sister has started a juice fast. Michelle is on Day 3 and she has been messaging on Facebook an update, and she says, I have lost weight. No surprises there guys, if you are starting the juice fast, you will lose weight. And it was interesting because the comment was, I'm not going to be giving up meat. I love meat too much. I couldn't give that up. It's very, very standard to be thinking that early on.

I was much the same. I was thinking I'm not going to give up dairy and meat. Give up icecream?! Give up chocolate?! I don't think so! There's no way I can give it up. So I was looking for a way around it. A way to - this is when I started the juice fast - my way was, I am going to finish the juice fast, lose the weight, and then go back to this type of living.

But what happens, along your journey (depending on how long you're doing the juice fast for) your body starts changing. And consequently now I have got no interest in those foods. About the biggest thing I actually had was there was some, a few pieces of banana in syrup. And I tasted it and I thought, wow, how sweet is that! And I didn't want any more.

The other thing I think I had this morning was broccoli and cheese. I actually put some on my plate before realising what it was. Because again, cheese being the dairy. So I decided not to eat it. Well, I had the two pieces that I had on there. But again, the point I am making here is you are really conscious of what you are eating. And you are not wanting to try all those other yucky foods. Yucky in the sense of all the harm I have caused my body over the years.

So, I'm certainly not saying anyone else needs to be like that. But what I'm finding from the juice fast, and I think you'll find the same, is that once you have done it for a while, you don't want to go back to your old habits. So, getting back to my sister Michelle - I haven't said this to her yet, because I have got to go and message her later - but she will find if she does stick to the juice fast long enough, she won't want meat anymore!

Or it's likely she won't want meat anymore, or any of these other things that aren't actually good for the body. She may, of course there's a chance that she may. And Louise is laughing in the background. I'm waffling on, aren't I!

Ah, she's blowing me a kiss. So that's nice, isn't it. Anyway the point is your eating habits are changing. Now, whether it is meat, or whatever it is, they have changed dramatically for me. Look, I was the biggest sweet tooth in the world. Or close to it!

The reason I had stacked on all this weight, was because of icecream, chocolate, ... if you look at my Day 1 video I go through all the reasons why. I'm not eating that stuff anymore and I'm not missing it at all. And I'm just loving the vegetables and the fruits, and getting all the sweetness and nutrition. And I just notice with every mouthful that I'm having, that it is all healthy food.

So I am feeling fabulous guys. I just want to pump you up if you are at a difficult place now, and you are wondering whether it is worthwhile persevering. I just want to show you that it's testimony to the fact that it is what it says - it is absolutely worth it, and the benefits are going to be there for a lifetime, just with your eating habits, and the way you are feeling.

Just briefly the other thing I'll mention is that I spent quite a bit of time, probably 3 hours in total, in the pool yesterday afternoon. I swam a little bit, then got out, then swam back a little bit. I would never have done that. Now, I'm not saying that I am the perfect weight yet. I still have got some weight to lose. But the point is I'm very comfortable now with my body. And I was able to, I was quite happy, and I felt quite good. Whereas in the past I would have felt awkward with a lot of people being around there. I wouldn't have been very comfortable being in the water.

So I'm sure if you're overweight now you feel, or you probably know what I'm talking about. You've probably been there as well. That feeling that people are looking at you, even though they probably are not, in most cases. But you get that very self conscious feeling. And that has largely gone away for me now. Yes, I've still got some weight to lose. But that weight will come off slowly over time now. So I'm not too fussed about it now. Because I know that eating right, eating vegetables and fruits, and exercising, the weight is just going to come off. There's no doubt about that.

So I will be at my goal weight, which is just under 80 kilos, about 170 pounds, or thereabouts, probably in a few months time just with the whole food diet I'm eating now. Which is fantastic!

So, hang in there. That's the point I want to make if you're watching this and need some motivation. I am hoping this is giving you some motivation today that you can succeed with this. All you need to do is persevere and keep at it. The only way you're going to fail is if you give up. And just think of the benefits. I know it's easy sometimes to think of what you'll get if you give up the smoothie diet. In other words, go back to your old eating. Because you've, over time, thought that was the right thing to eat.

But think of the benefit. Think of the new you, in terms of the weight. How much more confidence you will have. How much healthier you'll be. How much happier you will be, once you have got down to your weight. And just try and do it a day at a time. No need to think 56 days. (Depending on how long your juice fasting is). Do it a day at a time. Every day is going to be its own little reward for you, your own little success. And just chain those successes together over time. And before you know it, 56 days are up, or you are at the end of your juice fast, or your new eating lifestyle has become the norm.

So, that's all I can say for now. I am going to leave you for now and go back to enjoying the Phuket sun. And I will be back tomorrow with another video

Until then, enjoy yourself. Thanks for watching. And I will talk to you then. Bye for now.

You can watch a high definition version of this Vegetarian Meals video here if you wish.