Monday, February 04, 2008

Weigh In Day and the Superbowl

Last night was the Superbowl and I planned to go off of E2L in the evening. I endulged in my favorite of chips and salsa, but had lots of raw veggies in bean dip, too. I made my kids Vegan Twinkies and had one myself, but without the cream filling. Yummy!

I was a little bit nervous to get on the scale this morning after eating all of that food. My starting weight was 184.4 and when I got on the scale this morning, I weighed 181.6. I should have been happy, right? I mean, I was down 2.8 lbs. since last Monday. Well, I had cheated this week by weighing myself a couple of other times and on Wednesday, I was 180 even. :( So, I was SURE I was going to be under 180 today.

I've learned my lesson. I'll only weigh myself on weigh in day and that's it!

So, for the record, I'm down by 2.8 lbs. Not too bad. I have 41.6 lbs. to lose if I want to reach my goal by my 40th birthday. I keep telling myself, "40 lbs. by my 40th!"

I have until July 9th. It's definitely doable
.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Mild Bean Chutney

Tonight, we made Dr. Fuhrman's Mild Bean Chutney. It was VERY good! I was surprised because I thought it was going to be bland. I haven't been adding any salt to anything and things have seemed pretty bland. Maybe I'm getting used to it!

I made some organic pinto beans from dry beans the other day and they tasted salty to me, even though I hadn't added any.

Ok, for the chutney...

Mild Bean Chutney from Dr. Fuhrman's Disease-Proof Your Child.

Serves 4-6 (we doubled it)

1 c. diced tomatoes
1 c. shredded green cabbage
1 c. shredded carrots
1 c. diced green peppers
1/2 lemon
1/2 c. diced red onions (we omitted this because we don't like raw onions)
1 c. frozen corn, defrosted
1 c. chickpeas (I used Great Northerns)
1 c. frozen green peas, defrosted
1 tsp. cumin
1 T. wine vinegar or raisin vinegar (In keeping with tradition, I forgot this ingredient....I think I have a problem!)
1 tsp. Mrs. Dash
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 c. red kidney beans
1 c. black beans

Add the tomatoes to a small covered pot and steam the shredded cabbage, carrots, and green peppers for only 5 minutes on the lowest flame possible in the pot. (Mine was a little over-steamed, but it still tasted good.) Stir in juice of 1/2 lemon and the diced red onions, corn, peas, spices, and beans. (See? It said nothing about the vinegar, so that's probably why I forgot it!)

Serve cold on top of shredded lettuce.

Delicious and very filling! My 15 yr. old son had a huge plateful and went back for seconds. Try it, you'll like it!



Goodwiches

Last night, we had what Marilyn Diamond calls a "Goodwich." Basically, they are a tortilla wrap, filled with whatever your heart desires (healthy, of course!).

I made up a week's worth of menus and it completely disappeared! I searched the whole house and car and could not find it anywhere. I even dug through the garbage bags out in the garage! Blech....lots of fruit and vegetable peelings to dig through. I really need to find a good indoor container to put compost in.

Anyways, because I couldn't find my menu, I had no idea what was supposed to be for dinner. The bummer part is that I just went grocery shopping based on my menus! I do remember a few of the meals, but not everything. Sigh...

So, I dug out my trusty old cookbook (The American Vegetarian Cookbook.) and searched for something that would be fairly quick and easy.


The Goodwiches popped out in front of me. Basically, you take a whole wheat tortilla (if I had Ezekiel, I would have used those instead) or whatever kind of tortilla you like, and stuff it with lots of fresh or steamed vegetables or your favorite salad, beans and whatever else you want.


We used:

Shredded organic carrots
Shredded organic purple cabbage
Steamed broccoli, chopped
Shredded Romaine lettuce
Organic Pinto beans
Julienned organic pickles (yes, I know there's lots of salt in them, but I just love pickles!)
Broccoli sprouts
Sauteed green peppers
Spicy Szechuan sauce
Mustard
BBQ sauce


I think that's all we used. Other options could be:


Chopped cauliflower
Shredded zucchini
Shredded yellow squash
Steamed squash
Rice
Snow peas
Sugar snap peas
Shredded beets
Shredded apples
Shredded green cabbage
Shredded chinese cabbage
Chopped onions
Sauteed onions in BBQ sauce
Sauteed or fresh peppers
Your favorite salad
Your favorite stir-fry


Condiments:


Spicy mustard
BBQ sauce
Squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice
Your favorite salad dressing
Nuts


They sky is the limit! You could have a different Goodwich each day of the week and not grow tired of them!


I personally had mine stuffed with everything except for the pinto beans. I ate those on the side and the condiment I used for my wrap was spicy Szechuan sauce (by San J). It was stuffed full and delicious!







Friday, February 01, 2008

Exercise

In addition to starting to finally eat right, I've been exercising every day, too. I love the Slim in 6 series at http://www.beachbody.com/. This has worked for me in the past, so I decided to do it again.

I had been using their Turbo Jam program, but I don't like those as well.

What I like about Slim in 6, is that there are 3 different tapes. The first one is a starter tape and you do it for the first week. The second one is done for 2 wks. and the 3rd is done for the rest of the 6 wk. period (I think that's how it goes!).

I had never been a video person until I started using these videos. Now, I prefer to work out at home because I don't have to get the little ones all dressed and ready to go. Besides, Oscar (10 mos.) has stranger anxiety right now and cries for most of the time he's in the childcare at the gym. So, I pay the older boys to watch him while I work out first thing in the morning. It works great!

I also own their Power 90 videos and those are great as well. I prefer to do Slim in 6 for 6 wks. to jumpstart my weight loss and then either go through Slim in 6 one more time and then Power 90 or I'll do Slim in 6 for the 6 wks. and then Power 90 right afterwards. Either way works very well.

So far, I've been going for 5 days and will finish my first week's video tomorrow and have Sunday off.