Weight Loss Update

We have all been there, and I love me some meat, but it has to stop! 

There is so much activity going on in my little world on the homestead. My dreams have come true... on Monday, Ginger helped me move three of her horses onto the field next to my house. Giselle, Raven and Ellie are very busy eating grass not more then 15' from me at this very moment.

I will talk about all that later though. I was looking through some old posts, and realized that at a certain point I started to juice to eat well. I wrote about how I doubted myself in keeping to the "diet".

Well, I just wanted to brag that YES, I still do green juice at least three times a week, and I still make my homemade granola and eat it for breakfast with my yogurt, and I still eat three small meals a day.

However, I did break a few times with some old habits. When the warm weather hit us I instantly wanted a cold beer. Seeing as I have spent two summers pregnant I missed the freedom of letting loose and that tingly feeling of relaxation.... with a beer.

 I demanded that the hubster go out and get me some.... and then old habits came knocking at my door, and soon I was drinking three beers a night. Not bad but not good either, seeing as I used to polish off a whole bottle of Pinot Grigio a night. On top of the beer drinking... I added another dirty habit. Eating a ton of meat.

With summer, comes grilling. We bought a grill and I was out grilling our dinner every night. Cheeseburgers, Chicken, Grilled Veggies, Pork Chops, and Hot dogs. Everyday of the week. I was in heaven... till I started to feel like total shit.

It started a week ago... I was cranky, emotional, and my stomach hurt. I also had occasional small nagging headaches and was very tired all the time. It was too much to handle. I also noticed that I had a small black hair on my cheek. It always grows back when I pluck it... but I noticed that since I went Vegetarian it stopped growing. The minute I went back to meat, it grew back in a week. What does this tell you? I'm not lying.  The only thing that changed was my diet.

I got on the scale and noticed that I had gained four pounds. That was enough to convince me that these small luxuries I had added were doing me no good. I missed my energy, and sanity.

I went back to being a vegetarian. This whole week I have avoided the meat, and have been juicing when I start to lose my energy. I got on the scale this morning and have lost 3 pounds in a week. I love my body. Not many woman can say that.... but my body is like a Honda. It takes a beating but if you treat it well it will run forever. Put a little octane booster in it, and it runs like a porshe.

Anyway, I know many women right now are battling their weight. They go on extreme diets, and cleanses. They fight with themselves over food. I believe the key to weight loss is to catch yourself before  things get out of control. Be aware of what your body is telling you. I could have easily let my drinking get out of control along with my burger fetish, but because I am in tune with my body and listen to it, I made changes; and my body quickly responded to it.

This is the key to being healthy. Be mindful of what you are eating, thoughtful about how your feeling, and aware of the consequences of filling your mouth with glutenous items. Drink and eat only what the earth has made for you. Water, Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts and Grains. Try to avoid machine processed foods.

Also, Don't go on a diet. Just eat real food in small portions, not that crap from a bag or meal in a can.

Here is my meal plan for today:

Breakfast:
1 cup Green Juice
1 cup Homemade Granola
3 Tablespoons of Greek Vanilla Yogurt
1 cup of Coffee
1 Banana

Lunch:
Sandwich of some sort in a wrap with spinach, cheese, avocado, tomato,
or
Veggie Burger in a wrap with some mustard, pickle, spinach, cheese.
Quart of Water
1 cup of Green Juice

Snack:
Pecans
Apple
Small handful of Dried Cranberries
Walnuts

Dinner:
Salad with Olive oil Vinaigrette
Vegetable Lasagna Pasta: Wacky Vegetable Mac, Cut up Asparagus, Peppers, half cup of  grated Mozzarella Cheese, Half cup of Tomato Sauce, and Dash of Bread Crumbs. All melted together into a gooey delicious mess.
1 cup Green Juice
Quart of Water


Dessert: Frozen Banana Puree, or 2- 5 Dark Chocolate Chip Morsels.

Anyway, as you can see, I'm not holding back from eating. I eat a ton, and it has taste.
I also have to think back to when I had a job and sat on my ass for the better part of the day in air conditioning while listening to soothing music. Now I sit down for maybe about an hour a day, and the other part is spent chasing kids, changing diapers, feeding chickens, gardening, cleaning, washing, vacuuming, trudging up and down the stairs to get stuff, riding, and teaching.

I'm very active.... doing useful things...
I don't lift weights, or run on a tread mill.... to me those things are silly and useless.

 Although... one day I'm sure I will be running from zombies, so maybe I should be able to run a good mile at a full sprint while hurdling hedges and climbing walls....with two kids in tow. Nah... even then I would just stick my family on horseback and we could just gallop away to freedom.

I may be the most efficient person in the world.

And by the way. Not to brag, but this morning I weighed 113 pounds, and I am 5'5".
 My goal is 110. Which is what I weighed 5 years ago when I met the hubster. When I became pregnant with Watts I weighed 116 lbs. When I was fully pregnant with Watts and James I was 155 lbs. I never had a weight problem to begin with... but getting back to 110 is proving to be a challenge and I kinda do it because I'm bored and like a challenge....

Its all bad.

I havent had a single second to write my blog today. I normally write this in the morning, but I willingly gave my computer over to the hubster so he could do our tax's. He kept asking me where stuff was filed, and if it wasnt there, it was my fault. I love that game. He is currently yelling at me because I told him that the movie that he was enjoying is total crap. (Train spotting with Ewan McGregor). I have heard good things about it... but I'm not much of a fan of negative movies. It started with him injecting this girl with heroin and in the background is a baby. I don't like that one bit. It makes me want to rip my hair out. He turned it off. I think he does that to make me feel bad. He is a people pleaser. I am not... so I don't care that he is no longer enjoying the movie. I didnt tell him to turn it off, that was of his own free will. So now he is watching "Workaholics" which is a much better show. I quietly think it's funny. We are all much happier now. I just saved us both from a bad night.
Anyway, I think the hubster is addicted to watching anything that makes me feel terrible. If I stick around while he watches TV I have terrible dreams and sleep walk. One time I found myself hovering over James just making sure he was alive. It turned out that he was.

 It's the same with his music selection. It's better since I met him, but at first it was all very angry, lots of yelling. Meanwhile, I'm listening to Bob Marley and hugging trees and talking to my animal friends. I think Ace Ventura is my alter ego even though I despise Jim Carey. He is not funny, funny looking yes... but not funny. I think talking about movies is boring.  I shall stop now.

Anyway, I made veggie pizza the other night using my home made dough. It smelled amazing. I'm a pizza eater.. I have eaten some amazing pizza, this was not one of them. This healthy eating is starting to get to me. I am not enjoying my health bread. I have never liked whole wheat bread.

We made eggplant parm sandos tonight but didn't have rolls, so we used the rest of that pizza dough. It made for a nice roll. It was still too healthy for my taste though. It tasted like the health bread at Subway. I like to splurge on Saturdays with a cheese steak or a pizza or a hoagie. This will be the second weekend that I have gone without a treat. I'm feeling a little moody. It's like going without cake on your birthday. The only upside is that I am losing half a pound a day now. I am now the same weight I was before I got pregnant with my first kid. I havent had any white sugar since January 14th. I havent had a drink of alcohol since around the same time. I would kill for a beer.... The Hubster wont get me any, and I refuse to go to the beer store. I feel like a hick buying it. I like to pour my beer into a glass and sip it slowly like wine... mmm.... its like coffee in the morning , only it's night time. Anyway, instead I have this in my fridge. No beer, but we have cabbage! I love purple cabbage. Did you know that purple vegetables are packed with all sorts of good stuff?

Every Saturday we go to produce junction and get this for the week. This all costs around $30. 

We got this bread from ALDI, it was one of the worst things I have ever put in my mouth (number one on the list is Mango Chutney). I told my mom and dad that it was awesome... just to see their reactions. My mom needed to swish her mouth out after, havent seen her run that fast in a while... My dad on the other hand ate almost half of it saying it was great with cheese. He says the pumpernickle is way better. I will no longer trust his opinion on anything when it comes to taste testing.

Here is my whole wheat dough. Smells great, but tastes like the health bread from Subway.

spinach, kale, basil, broccoli, tomato, red pepper, onion, sauce and cheese.  Before going in the oven.

After. The crust was bleh, and the cheese sucked because I ran out of mozzerella and had to grate up some swiss, which tasted like feet. Overall I would give this pizza a 3 out of 10. You know it's bad when your two year old spits it out.

So this is what I'm eating... and what I really want right now is some crap ( that will make me double over in pain and give me the farts for a few hours) just so my brain can shut off for a second and bask in pleasure. But then I know I will feel terrible... not worth it.

The whole point of this healthy eating was that it was not a diet. I'm going to bed hungry, and feeling angry that my food tastes boring. It doesnt have to be that way. I think it's the lack of meat. I need to find some better vegetarian dishes. 

Forks Over Knives and granola and soup.

I watch documentaries with my husband almost every night on Netflix. I have a particular interest in anything from shows on Food, Farming, Animals, and Adventures. This one is about eating habits, food, and health.  Forks over Knives is one of my favorite. It has completely changed the way we eat. My husband has lost 13 lbs in the last month and I have lost 5 lbs. It has a great website with amazing recipes. I grabbed a synopsis of this from their website.   http://www.forksoverknives.com/ Check it out!
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Ok.... so I just got totally called out by my dad about how boring my blog was this morning. He couldn't believe I would just copy and paste something from a website. Have you been reading people... I'm lazy. This is what I'm about. I'm trying to be a Martha Stewart but like... a lazy Martha Stewart that doesn't get put in jail for insider trading.

Anyway, the reason why I was a little quick to post this morning was because I was very busy trying to get my kids to take a nap. My two year old has just discovered that if he crawls out of bed at 1 am my husband will come running to his every beck and call and pamper his little two year old butt. He does this every hour until I show up... and then he goes "uh oh" and scampers back to his bed not to be heard from again.

That's cause I'm da president of this house. So being the president and all takes a lot of work. That is why I was able to get both boys to sleep, AND make "Casssoulet" which is fancy for white been soup AND make a batch of granola AND also get some bread going. AND I got pictures to prove it.

Once your done looking at my food porn feel free to look at my copy and paste job that my dad said was boring. I would like to note that it is because of Forks over Knives that I have the energy and will power to do all this crap. AND I don't have a bunch of intern slaves doing all my prep work like Martha Stewart. So sit back and enjoy my work of the morning. Feel free to comment about how I am amazing. AND if you dont think I'm amazing. Shut it. No-one wants to hear about it.
-Da President.

Jbone say's "You aint doing crap today mom , cause I'm going to party all day" I replied, "you just wait my young one... you wait and see what this girl got up her sleeve" and then we danced. 

Meanwhile Ron did not help.

he said "how do I eat these fish mom?" and then he took a nap on my open lap top

meanwhile I was setting out the ingredients for the Cassoulet.  8 ounce veg broth, 1 onion diced, 4 garlic cloves, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 2 Tbsp thyme, 2 Tbsp. parsly, 1 tomato, 2 tbsp tomato paste, and 1 can white beans. I didnt quite have all those ingredients, so I made due with what you see. 

and then I cut it all up. I'm missing the carrots and garlic, cut that stuff too.  Oh and heres a great tip. To get the paper skin off the garlic put the whole clove in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. The paper skin stuff slides right off. TRy it I aint lying. Your welcome for that one. It's my favorite tip. 

then I washed the beans.

then I put it all in a pot

but first I cooked the onion and garlic till it was translucent in a little bit of the broth. No oil... just broth. Remember Oil is not good for you. I try really hard not to ever use it. 

and then a half hour later, I ate it. 

I was suprised at how good it tasted with no salt or pepper but I still added a tiny bit to add more flavor. I wish I hadn't put the parsly in. I picked that out.  It tasted very much like minestrone soup from the Olive Garden, only it didn't suck. I knew that it didn't suck because my two year old ate half of it, and he doesn't like any of the ingredients in this soup. So explain that one. 

So then the monsters were asleep, and was like, I'm bored. I'm going to make granola.  So I set out all the ingredients.
3 cups old fashioned oats, a hand full of chopped pecans, chopped walnuts, cashews, mixed nuts, muesli, almonds, and then I sprinkled the whole top with cinnamon, and drizzled honey till everything was covered. (Put enough honey so that the oats get very lightly coated.) 

I mixed it till everything was lightly coated. 

I then took parchment paper and laid it out and put it in the oven at 425 for ten minutes, I took it out stirred it up and put it back in for another ten minutes. BOOM. 

and then I added cranberries and raisons and I was DONE, so then I made some bread but you already saw how I do that.

I then put it in fancy jars. Ha ha fooled ya.... This is a classico spaghetti jar. I love them. 

But I didn't have enough so I used other jars I had recycled, cause I'm a tree hugger.

AND that was my day so far, and it it's only 2:33. I'm impressed. Are you? No? Well then go watch Martha.

Now read this boring part below. I didnt write it, but I certainly believe in it.
Hope this makes ya happy Dad. xo

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What has happened to us? Despite the most advanced medical technology in the world, we are sicker than ever by nearly every measure.

Two out of every three of us are overweight. Cases of diabetes are exploding, especially amongst our younger population. About half of us are taking at least one prescription drug. Major medical operations have become routine, helping to drive health care costs to astronomical levels. Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the country’s three leading causes of death, even though billions are spent each year to “battle” these very conditions. Millions suffer from a host of other degenerative diseases.

Could it be there’s a single solution to all of these problems? A solution so comprehensive, but so straightforward, that it’s mind-boggling that more of us haven’t taken it seriously?

FORKS OVER KNIVES examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering yet under-appreciated researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.

Dr. Campbell, a nutritional scientist at Cornell University, was concerned in the late 1960’s with producing “high quality” animal protein to bring to the poor and malnourished areas of the third world. While in the Philippines, he made a life-changing discovery: the country’s wealthier children, who were consuming relatively high amounts of animal-based foods, were much more likely to get liver cancer. Dr. Esselstyn, a top surgeon and head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, found that many of the diseases he routinely treated were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed.

These discoveries inspired Campbell and Esselstyn, who didn’t know each other yet, to conduct several groundbreaking studies. One of them took place in China and is still among the most comprehensive health-related investigations ever undertaken. Their research led them to a startling conclusion: degenerative diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented—and in many cases reversed—by adopting a whole-foods, plant-based diet. Despite the profound implications of their findings, their work has remained relatively unknown to the public.

The filmmakers travel with Drs. Campbell and Esselstyn on their separate but similar paths, from their childhood farms where they both produced “nature’s perfect food”; to China and Cleveland, where they explored ideas that challenged the established thinking and shook their own core beliefs.

The idea of food as medicine is put to the test. Throughout the film, cameras follow “reality patients” who have chronic conditions from heart disease to diabetes. Doctors teach these patients how to adopt a whole-foods plant-based diet as the primary approach to treat their ailments—while the challenges and triumphs of their journeys are revealed.

FORKS OVER KNIVES utilizes state of the art 3-D graphics and rare archival footage. The film features leading experts on health, examines the question “why we don’t know”, and tackles the issue of diet and disease in a way that will have people talking for years.

FORKS OVER KNIVES was filmed all over the United States, and in Canada and China.