Up to date weight loss and exercise commitment

Today is the beginning of week 4 for me and my health journey.  Steve and I began Eat to Live on July 1 (it is now July 22), and we have stuck to the program like glue!  I am happy to report that I am feeling more and more energetic, more happy, have a clearer mind, and just an overall sense of well being.  I do not feel cheated on what I get to eat, I feel liberated.  My cravings for sweets are gone.  I fulfill that desire now with fresh fruit.  We try to weigh every day, but count our weigh in on Sunday as the official.  I am happy to report that my weight loss from July 1 is a solid 18 pounds!  We have committed ourselves to 6 weeks of this program, yet I can see us carrying this further and further. Steve has lost 15 total.  I would encourage everyone to read the book "Eat to Live" and follow its principles. 

I have committed myself to begin my exercise regimen this week as well.  I am pleased to report my progress.  I worked out on the elliptical machine at the Health and Wellness Center (no arms yet.. just my legs) on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.  Each time, I went for a total of 20 minutes, on the lowest resistance setting.  Furthermore, I went to the water aerobics morning class on Wednesday and Thursday.  I rested on Saturday and walked one mile down our road and West Lake this morning.  Ahhhhhh it is a challenge for me FOR SURE, but I feel so great after it's all over!  I am committing to 6 days again this coming week.  Thank you for following my blog.  It's feeds my enthusiasm for this. 

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Well, it looks like my bell pepper plants have resurrected themselves and are going for round 2!!  We have sooo many, I was not sure of what to do with them.  I remember my friend and co-worker Veronica talking about making stuffed bell peppers.  I haven't had these since I was very small.  My mom made them once or twice.  And so...I began on a search for stuffed bell peppers that would fit my Fuhrman diet.  I found a few online, and tweaked them, and came up with this: 

1/2 lb dried red kidney beans
1 cup brown rice
6 medium green peppers
3 Tbsp. vegetable broth

4 cloves garlic (minced)
1 medium onion (diced)
2 large celery (diced)

3 large carrots (diced)

1 large tomatoes (peeled & seeded)
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 Tlbs. fresh parsley, chopped
freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Directions:

Rinse beans. Add 3-4 cups water and soak overnight. Drain beans,  cover with water and simmer until tender (30-40 minutes). Drain beans, set aside.

Bring 2 1/2 cups water to boil. Add 1 cup rice. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes (or until all liquid is absorbed).

Put 3 tablespoons vegetable broth in frying pan and add the minced garlic. Sauté for 3 minutes, stirring so the garlic doesn't burn. Add onion, celery, and carrots (and additional vegetable broth if needed for moisture) and sauté for an additional 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and mix with the rice.

Add the seasonings (all the dried seasonings, pepper, and fresh parsley). Mix well. Mix in the beans.

Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the seeds. Stand the peppers in shallow baking dish. Fill peppers with bean and rice mixture.

Dice tomato. Place the diced tomatoes over top of each pepper and top off each with a sprinkle of fresh parsley. 

Cover dish and roast in 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until peppers are tender.

Yield: Serves 6

And here are some pictures:

 

Beans, beans, beans!!

Oh my goodness! I just made THE.BEST.BEAN.SOUP.EVER!!!  And I'm so proud of myself, I made it all up. I could not wait to blog about this, even though it's late and past my bedtime!

I started off yesterday with some dried beans like in the picture above.  You can buy these already mixed like this in the dried beans section (next to rice, I believe).  They are packaged like that with a recipe and spices for soup.  I threw away the spices and opted for fresh veggies instead.  Let me (hopefully) come up with a recipe:

• 2 cups dry bean mixture
• 1 quart Swanson's low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1/2 onion (chopped)
• 2 green bell peppers (chopped)
• 1 red bell pepper (chopped)
• 2 stalks celery (chopped)
• 3 carrots (peeled and chopped)
• 1 quart tomatoes (drained)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/8 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper 

Soak the beans in water overnight.  Drain and rinse.  Place the beans and vegetable stock in large pot.  Bring to a boil.  Add chopped veggies, garlic, tomatoes and spices.  Simmer on low for about 1 1/2 hours.

DELICIOUS!!

 This would be great paired with some brown rice! 

Garden Veggies... YUM!

Today, I went out to water my garden.  It is nearing the end of the harvest for us because the temperatures are too high, and the bugs are getting so bad.  We have had rain so bad for the past week or more, that I haven't had to water it in so long.  I guess we haven't picked much either because of the rain.  I was pleasantly surprised with what I brought in today.  Now... what to do with all of the peppers.  Well, in the first place, I needed to make my salad.  Imagine my excitement to be able to use veggies that had just BARELY been picked :)

You can just see the water oozing out of these.  They were SO CRISP and FRESH!  Delicious.  I made a delicious salad. 

I added some fruit, and my lunch was complete!  So satisfying!  Now.... what to do with those peppers!  I will blog about those tomorrow ;)

Collard Greens

I've always had a hard time with collard greens.  Sadly, Dr. Fuhrman counts them as nutrient dense, so I realize this is something that I must learn to like/love.  Today I remembered back in the day when I was little, we had a garden full of swiss chard. My mom would wilt the swiss chard (probably through the steaming method) and add vinegar, salt, and pepper.  I loved that.  I thought about recreating that with the collard greens.  We had a big bag in the fridge that I had bought earlier at HEB that needed to be used up.  This bag contained already washed, and chopped collard greens.  I looked on the bag and it seemed to have a great recipe.  We had a jar of tomatoes, that somehow didn't seal when we were canning, that needed to be used.  This was the outcome.  And, they were actually pretty good.  This is the recipe:

1/2 pound chopped collard greens
2 Tlbs. Italian seasoning
1 15 oz. can tomatoes

Simple!  You put the collard greens in a good sized pot and cover them with water.  Bring the water to boil, then turn down the heat to simmer for 10 minutes.  After the 10 minutes are up, drain 1/2 the water.  Add the seasoning and the tomatoes (you can add the juice from the jar if you want). We simmered for 10 minutes more on low.  They were actually quite tasty. 

Our dinner consisted of 1/2 cup brown rice, 1 small sweet potato (my FAVORITE part of the meal), a small portion of navy beans (I had cooked these earlier), 1/4 avocado sliced, about 2 Tlbs. salsa.  We also had a bowl full of cherries, and a glass of water.  PERFECT!

Weight loss :)

How I love eating lunch!  Every day I find what kind of pretty fruit I can have.  Then I make a HUGE salad (hopefully with garden vegetables).  I also make my own salad dressing.  Today did not let me down.  I have been exercising consistently every day this week.  I am finding myself more and more hungry!  But also, the food tastes more and more distinct.  It's just an overall GREAT experience.  I suppose I need to talk about weight loss.  I began this journey on July 1, 2012.  Today is July 18, 2012.  I weighed in for a total loss of 14.8 pounds since the beginning!  YAY!  It seems to be just falling off.  This is getting FUN! 

Eat to Live!!!

This is the book that I live by!  It has changed my life, and changed my eating habits.  I believe in everything that he says.  It has given me so much energy.  I have had no cravings what so ever.  I am just enjoying all of the glorious food that Heavenly Father made for us... in it's natural state.  To make it simple, here are the "rules" for this eating plan.  Dr. Fuhrman says to give it 6 weeks, and then add in lean meats and 1 tablespoon of olive oil about 3 times a week after the 6 weeks are up.

THE SIX-WEEK PLAN
Unlimited (Eat as much as you want):

• All raw vegetables (goal: 1 lb. daily)
• Cooked green and non-green nutrient-rich vegetables (goal: 1 lb. daily; non-green nutrient-rich vegetables are eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower)
• Beans, legumes, bean sprouts, and tofu (goal: 1 cup daily)
• Fresh fruits (at least 4 daily)

Limited:

• Cooked starchy vegetables or whole grains: butternut and acorn squash, corn, white potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes, bread, cereal (not more than one serving, or 1 cup, per day), and
• Raw nuts and seeds (1 oz. max per day), and
• Avocado (2 oz. max per day), and
• Dried fruit (2 tbsp max per day), and
• Ground flax seeds (1 tbsp max per day)

Off Limits:

• Processed Sugar
• Dairy products
• Animal products
• Between-meal snacks
• Fruit juice
• Oils

Quinoa Bean Salad

This is the quinoa bean salad.  Picture props go out to my wonderful and talented sister-in-law Esther Battisti.  She is participating on this journey with me and is a SUPER talented photographer.  She's an awesome mom as well to two beautiful daughters :) By the way,  I had a lot of fun making this. It was super yummy too!  It tastes almost like pasta salad.  Enjoy!

Quinoa Bean Salad Serves: 6  Preparation Time: 25 minutes Ingredients: 2 cups cooked quinoa 1 1/2 cups cooked white beans or 1 (15 ounce) can no salt added or low sodium white beans, drained 1 cup grated carrots 1 cup currants 1/2 cup raw walnuts, chopped 2 plum tomatoes, chopped 1 small red onion, thinly sliced 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped 1/2 orange or yellow bell pepper, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon chili powder 2 teaspoons Bragg Liquid Aminos or low sodium soy sauce

Instructions: Cook quinoa according to package directions. Place all other ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Add cooked quinoa and toss. This is even better when refrigerated overnight to blend flavors.

My FAVORITE vegan dinner!

 This is my favorite dinner!  Simplicity is where it is at!  We steam up various fresh vegetables (tonight it was broccoli and brusell sprouts).  Then we have 1/2 cup baked sweet potato, 1/2 cup brown rice, a cup of black beans, 1/4 avocado, some fresh fruit (tonight it was fresh peaches and cherries), and some garden tomatoes.  WOW!  PERFECT! Steve had the brilliant idea of spicing it up with chili powder, garlic powder and some garden salsa.  That is the picture that you see below.  Talk about AMAZING.  I could eat that again and again and again. 

Collard Greens with black-eyed peas

This was a dinner I made a few nights ago and it was quite delicious.  I had been waiting to make this dish because I couldn't find currants anywhere.  I even scoured our local health food store Basic Foods.  But, to no avail.  I finally bought some from www.nuts.com They were a little pricey, but this place knows what they are doing.  WONDERFUL service!  By the way, you can use raisins instead of currants, but I'm a real stickler for the proper ingredients.  My sister-in-law Esther made this with raisins and said it was great.  Here is the recipe: 

Collard Greens with Black-eyed Peas and Currants Serves: 6  Preparation Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: 1 large onion, sliced 1 cup low sodium or no-salt-added vegetable broth 1/2 pound chopped, washed collard greens 1/4 cup currants or raisins 1 1/2 cups cooked black eyed peas  1/8 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
Instructions: Heat 2-3 tablespoons of the vegetable broth in a large skillet, add onion slices and saute until tender. Add collards, remaining vegetable broth and currants, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 5 minutes or until collards are tender. Stir in black eyed peas and hot pepper flakes and heat through. Any white bean may be substituted for black eyed peas. YUM YUMMMMMM

Exercise......Here we GO!!

Well, I made the plunge.  16 days into the new lifestyle change, and I'm beginning my exercise regimen.  I have been dreading this part, although I don't know why.  I have always loved exercising.  I became a member of the Health and Wellness Center last July and began with water aerobics.  Oh, I LOVED that class.  It was just hard finding the right time to fit with the class.  So, I quit going after the new year came (2012).  I decided that I've been into this health kick long enough, that it HAD to include exercise.  Back in the day, I was a BIG time exerciser and did all sorts of exercising.  Slowly, as the weight packed on, it became harder and harder to do the things I used to do.  So, I quit.  I TOTALLY forgot the endorphin rush that comes with exercising.  All I remembered was the pain.  Plus, I'm a bit older now and the body just feels things a bit harder than it used to.  Amber has been begging me and begging me to get started... to do something...anything.  I would always find an excuse.  It's even hard for me to walk to my mailbox and back (granted... the mailbox is a good 1/10 of a mile out there... but still!).  So, today is the day.  I promised Amber, and myself, that I would somehow exercise.  I had to get Dallin to tutorials in Beaumont at 10:00 and the water aerobic class is over at 9:00 so that wouldn't work.  I decided that since I was in Beaumont already, I would work out on the elliptical machine at the Wellness Center.  Okay, I haven't done those is FOREVER.  Amber said.... 20 minutes or it doesn't count.  So I decided to give it a shot.  Oh my goodness, I thought I was going to die!  The first few minutes I kept thinking... maybe I will only go 5 minutes today. I  began breathing HARD and sweating.  But, I decided to keep on keepin on.  I actually MADE it the whole 20 minutes.  And you know what?  It felt absolutely marvelous.  Endorphin rush and all!  I think I can keep this up.  I am going to try and go on a walk with Steve tonight (if it ever stops raining!) and maybe this time we will walk all the way down WestLake and back.    Oh, and here is picture of my lunch.  I am REALLY enjoying all of the fresh fruits and vegetables!  WOW!! 

Salad Dressing

Today I'm going to talk about my salad dressing.  Every day for the past 15 days, I've been having a salad like this for lunch with a bowl of fruit.  The little bowl on the left contains my salad dressing.  Now on the Fuhrman plan, you can't have any oil, so it's kind of a trick to get your dressing to your liking.  This is what was on my salad dressing today and it was DELICIOUS!!

• salt (I'm trying to cut this out but for today, Steve had made this for me)
• fresh ground pepper
• garlic powder
• basil
• oregano
• thyme powder
• majoram
• crushed red pepper flakes
• white wine vinegar

It helps a lot that the the tomatoes and cucumbers are from my garden!  I also love to put some chopped up green onion on my salad.  The lettuce is the Spring Lettuce Mix from Sam's.  We go through about 2 of these huge cartons a week.  The fruit today was fresh cut pineapple (so cheap from Sam's) and fresh blueberries.  Isn't Summer time lovely??

Dr. Fuhrman's Famous Anti-Cancer Soup

This is what I've been working on ALL DAY LONG!  All of these things went into the soup that we are planning on eating tonight.  I pulled out my juicer that I bought some time ago, but never used.  I put it to good use today.  Here is the recipe:

• 1/2 cup dried split peas
• 1/2 cup dried beans (you can use any variety)
• 4 cups water
• 4 medium onions, chopped
• 6-8 medium zucchini, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 leek stalks, coarsely chopped
• 2 bunches kale, collard greens, or other greens, tough stems and center ribs removed and leaves chopped
• 5 pound carrots, juiced (5-6 cups)
• 2 bunches celery, juiced (2 cups)
• 2 Tablespoons Dr, Fuhrman's VegiZest of Mrs. Dash
• 1 cup raw cashews
• 8 ounces fresh mushrooms (shiitake, cremini, and /or oyster), chopped

     Place the split peas, beans, and water in a very large pot over low heat.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.  Add the onions, zucchini, leeks, and kale to the pot.  Add the carrot juice, celery juice and VegiZest.  Simmer until the onions, zucchini, and leeks are soft (about 40 minutes).

     Remove 2 cups of the soup liquid, being careful to leave the beans and at least half of the kale, in the pot. Using a high-powered blender or food processor, blend the soup liquid with the cashews.  Return the creamy mixture to the pot.  Add the mushrooms and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the beans are soft.  

Note: Freshly juiced organic carrots and celery will maximize the flavor of this soup.  

So this is going to be ready shortly.  I will try to take pictures and post and let you know how it is!  Oh this serves 10 people!  

A HUGE salad!!

This is my typical lunch. I have been having this every day for lunch since July 1, 2012.  What makes it soooo wonderful, are the fresh-from-my-garden cucumbers and tomatoes.  I LOVE green onion slices on my salad as well.  I will sprinkle some Mrs. Dash (or Bragg, or other no-salt seasoning).  Then give it a generous spray down with Bragg liquid aminos.  SOOOOO YUMMY!!  My fruit salad consists of fresh pineapple, mango, kiwi, blueberries, cherries, and honeydew melons.  I've been pretty picky about my produce since starting this plan.  I buy huge quantities at Sam's Club and ohhh..... it's SOOOOOO GOOD!!!  Hopefully for tonight, we will have Dr. Fuhrman's famous anti-cancer soup.  I'm gearing up to make that right now.

Black Beans!!!

Black beans are one of our favorite things to eat.  I am going to make a short post explaining how we prepare them.  I begin by soaking one package of dry black beans the night before.  Then in the morning, I take out the crockpot.  I rinse the beans, and then put them in the crockpot with more water (probably about an inch higher than the beans.. you might need to add more water as the day goes).  I coarsely chop up one onion and add that.  Then I peel two large cloves of garlic, and throw those in.  Then I put TONS of garlic powder in with the mix.  I'm trying to stay away from salt, and salt is important for black beans.  If I have liquid Bragg, then I will add about 2 teaspoons of that.  If not, then I shake salt into the beans until they taste okay.  I put the crockpot on high.  It usually takes about 4-6 hours.  To store them, I cool them down, and drain the water and put them in plastic containers in the fridge.  YUMMY!

The WONDERFUL Green Smoothie

This is our AMAZING green smoothie that we have enjoyed every morning since July 1, 2012.  Let me begin by saying we bought the BEST blender that we could find, and we paid a pretty price for it.  We have tried blenders in the past, and they have never quite done the trick, or died before a month was past.  Steve did tremendous research.  His sisters Priscilla and Rebecca had told us about this, and Jeff (Rebecca's husband) swears by his green smoothie every day.  We recently came back from a GLORIOUS trip to California where we stayed with Steve's sister Elizabeth and her darling family.  We experienced the Blendtec firsthand, and was sold.  This was kind of a key to us beginning our journey... the BLENDTEC blender.  IT IS AMAZING!!  With that being said... here is our recipe for this smoothie (keep in mind... it probably has too much fruit and we are getting ready to tweak it soon.  We just had to have the sweetness for the beginning)  I buy the BIG frozen bags of of strawberries, blueberries, and mango/pineapple mixture, and of course... spinach.  So the FIRST thing I do when I wake up, is take out the strawberries, mango/pineapple, and blueberries.  I measure them, and set them out to thaw.  Then I proceed to take my shower, and get my self ready.

I add the ingredients in this order:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 3/4 cup pomegranate juice
• 5 ounces spinach
• 1 cup blueberries
• 2 cups strawberries
• 2 cups mango/pineapple
• 1 banana
• 2 Tlbs. flax seed

I start the blender on slow speed, and then speed it up over time.  This is enough for 2 people.  This will last us all the way until lunch.  ENJOY!! 

Kick off to a new me!

The Incredible Shrinking Me! 

This is a blog meant to inspire myself when on this journey.  You see, I am an overweight mother of 5, a happy wife, and a 7th grade teacher of English.  Through the years, unfortunately, through our passion for life and food, my husband and I have become somewhat overweight.  Me... a LOT... him... somewhat.  We LOVE the kitchen and creating food for our loved ones.  Steve, my husband, has become somewhat obsessed with making the best of the best food imaginable.  In his endeavor, he (and I) have put on quite a few pounds.  Recently our daughter Amber came up with a plan.  She encouraged us to check into "Eat to Live" by Dr. Fuhrman.  I was a bit skeptical.  She even devised a plan, a lottery of sorts, to keep us on track.  We would begin this new lifestyle on July 1, 2012 and continue for 6 weeks.  At the end of 6 weeks, we would determine who the winner was, and disperse the funds.  Amber knew she had to end a week earlier, so she began a week earlier.  Well, Amber... the twig of a girl that she is, found out that this was not exactly meant for her body type.  She quickly bowed out.  Steve and I on the other hand, determined to stick it out.  I was still a little uneasy about the whole thing, but figured I would go along with it for fun.  July 1 came and we began.  We went to Sam's and bought all sorts of YUMMY and DELICIOUS produce, and made sure we had a stock of beans and brown rice.  Well, a spontaneous trip to Utah took Steve away, and the younger two boys (Dallin and Samuel) went off to EFY in San Antonio.  That left me alone in the house for 4 days!  No one would even know if I was cheating or not!  I began texting my pictures of what I ate to Amber.  She in turn would encourage me.  It just became a fun game for me (even without the initial lottery we had planned).  I would get a rush, just sending those pictures to Amber and seeing her response.  My goodness!  I did not expect to start feeling so terrific so soon!  This diet, or health plan if you will, was just infectious.  I began posting pictures on facebook, and BAM!  I got tremendous response.  Amber insisted that I start blogging about my journey, and posting pictures and recipes.  I am BRAND NEW to blogging, and I don't know my way around just yet.  I won't bore everyone with the fine details just yet.  I will add them as I go.  But for now, WELCOME to my wonderful health journey.  This is day 13 for me.  My diet is completely vegan, and I am completely satisfied.  I can't believe I am saying this, because my biggest weakness has been my sweet tooth.  With all of the fruit that I eat, I don't miss sweets one bit!  Okay, for tonight, I will post a picture of my husband and I at a Valentine's lunch.  Also I will post tonight's dinner.  I promise to post recipes as we make them.  I will learn more about blogging and make this more interesting as the time comes along as well.  Here goes nothing!