Waiting

I wrote a post a while back about some things I've learned about waiting. I saw this and wanted to keep it to remind me that this waiting for the best is all about the hard work and prayer that makes it happen.

Sunday check-in

So, for the week, I'm down 2.4 pounds. I'm really happy with that considering how much I strayed from the plan.  It just shows how well this works for me!

I also figured out that I'm only 10 pounds away from getting out of the Obese category with my weight. That is really exciting!! I think it's a far reach, but I would love to meet that goal by our next weigh in on October.  10 pounds gone in 11 days? Yeah, that's a little crazy. But, you never know. ;)

I'm newly motivated to hit the exercise hard with regularity.  If I can see the pounds come off being my normal lazy self, then I should see some great improvement by adding in some exercise. The weeks ahead look to be less busy so that leaves me time and room to put my health at the front page for a bit.

I'm also seeing that despite the pounds coming off, I'm not losing inches like I want.  Up top, I'm getting smaller, for sure. My hips and belly are still in the way, though, and I'm not going down in sizes like it seems I should with the weight loss. Focusing on T-Tapp will be a big help to see the inches come off. I want to see myself comfortably in the next size down by weigh-in next month. I'm going to work hard toward that goal. What's the use of losing 30-ish pounds if you're still able to wear the same (even if baggy) clothes you wore 30 pounds earlier??

We had a great hike with the family today.  I wore the baby and we hiked for a total of 2.5 hours. Gorgeous day for it, too!

I'm resting today due to several of the little girls having colds. I'm finally feeling like I've recovered from our busy weeks earlier this month, gotten over the head-cold pressure I was feeling earlier in the week, and I'm ready to take on life again.  Really ready. :)

Another great Kitchen Day

I went into the day dreading the amount of work that was ahead of me. Yet, once I got going, I was full of energy and conquered The List.

 

The Creamy Zucchini soup we had for lunch was great! Next time I double the recipe.

 

I used canned pumpkin in place of applesauce for my baked oatmeal. Hopefully, everyone will like the change instead of being upset that I messed with their favorite breakfast.

 

Today a good friend dropped off a 1/2 bushel bag filled with kale from her garden.  They've had such an abundant harvest, they are ready to share.  I am SO excited!! We're definitely going to be making kale chips now!

Even with all that work I did today, (started about 8am and didn't stop until we ate dinner at about 7pm)  I feel great.  Maybe it was the lovely cup of coffee I enjoyed today. First cup we've brewed at home in months! It was delicious but maybe the caffeine has me a little over energized.

More likely, I'm just feeling great about how much I got done.  That always gives me a boost of confidence and motivation.

Tomorrow we rest.  So glad to have a fridge full of food prepped so I can enjoy some time with the Lord and family.

 

Wowzers!!

After all that poor eating, I'm DOWN another pound! 

Yesterday was a great day with great choices.  I met a friend in the afternoon and we did a short hike with the children. Then we headed over to the apple orchard for some fun time.  While our friends munched on ice cream, we sampled apples and cider and then the girls munched on their Kashi cereal while I sipped my herbal tea.

Then we zoomed home so I could fix dinner. We had friends over for a meal and they eat ETL!!! It was WONDERFUL cooking for people that know and WANT to eat this way. No explaining, no defending, no need to feel *weird*.

I made a giant stir-fry with veggies from the garden, fridge, and cabinet.  Green beans, cabbage, peppers, onions, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, bean sprouts, Asian corn, and water chestnuts.  I mixed it with a sauce made of pineapple juice, ginger, red pepper flakes, a tiny bit of bragg's aminos, water, and arrowroot powder. 

On the table we also had brown rice, pineapple, and a melon salad.

Then came dessert. :)

My husband brought home a bag of freshly picked apples from my mother-in-law.  I just knew something creative could be done with those.  I peeked around at baked apple recipes on allrecipes.com and then went to work nutritizing one.

So, we cored the apples then sliced them in half.  Mixed some frozen blueberries with cinnamon and vanilla.  Fill the middle of the apples with the berry mixture. Bake at 350 for about 40-50 minutes.  They were amazing!!!! Everyone loved them.  The berries made this beautiful syrup that would be lovely over pancakes. :)

The best part, though, was having time to talk with someone using ETL and seeing her life change and feel better. We talked about how we see our physical bodies improving.  We shared ideas for recipes. We made a plan to get together to build our meal binders.  It is just so great to have a friend I can see face to face that embraces this lifestyle and *gets it*. 

Blech!

So, setting new goals wasn't a great motivator, I guess.

We headed out tonight for a dinner date. We were excited to find a local burrito place that has a vegan menu. Yay!

So, I carefully ordered my vegan bean and mushroom burrito. Yum.

Then we splurged and got the special order nachos. I wanted to try the vegan chili that topped it.

It was COVERED in cheese.  And, me, the queen of "stick to the plan" did my best to dig through the cheese to find the chili so I could enjoy it.

The cheese and chili were one.

And, instead of just setting it aside, I dug in and ate until I made my belly felt sick.  I haven't felt so full in I don't know how long.

What a mistake.  Not worth the indulgence, that's for sure. An hour later, after a walk around town, I felt sick to my stomach.  Several hours later, after shopping and coming home, I'm still sick.

Tomorrow, we juice fast and I just got hold of a detox bath protocol I'm going to try out too.

I guess I need to learn my lesson somehow, right? Cheese! When will I learn??? ;)

New Goals

I've reset my weight loss goals.  In reading Dr. Furhman's book, he gives a formula for ideal weight.

    Women: Approximately 95 pounds for the first 5 feet of height.  Add four pounds for every inch thereafter. 

I realize that this can't be an unbending rule across the board for everyone. Our bodies are all made differently.  However, I've decided that aiming for this lower goal than my previous one will allow me to see how my body feels at a lower weight.

Prior to this I was using the goal weight as given by the wii fit game.  I have no idea how scientific that is.  I feel a little better aiming for what Dr. Furhman suggests given his extensive research and study. 

Truly, I've never been at a "small" weight at any age or size.  Even when I was at my smallest size, I was still unhealthy and "chubby".  Aiming for this weight, size, and level of health is pretty exciting for me.

Still, I have a LONG way to go.  It was a little painful to increase the length of my weight loss by nearly 20 pounds.  Yet, what better way can I spend my time than working on building my physical body for strength, health, and energy to serve the Lord each day?

A few pics

These are some pics of food adventures over the last couple of weeks.

Must-Go Soup from this weekend. I chopped up all the vegetable trimmings from this week and threw them in a pot with the bits of barley and lentils that were in the pantry. Seasoned it up and it was delicious!

My revised breakfast bowl I eat each morning for breakfast. I dropped the nuts/nut butter and have been adding more kale as I go.  So much so that it's now been renamed.  The Breakfast Salad. Finely diced kale, diced green apple, 1-2 cups frozen berries and 1 tbs ground flax seed. My favorite meal of the day.

Salad bar for lunch.  This is a great way for the children to enjoy a salad for lunch. They love building their own salad. Looks so pretty, too!

The start of a delicious spaghetti sauce. Yum.

Harvest time! Benjamin has some great tomatoes and peppers coming out of the garden right now.

We have two refrigerators. I love having two fridges for a big family.  They've now been converted to a Vegetable Fridge and a Fruit Fridge. My shelves have never been so colorful!

Baking day! I've started to serve Continental Breakfast each weekday morning. The children have a baked good, fruit, nuts, and G-Bomb beans. It makes for a quick meal and clean up.  Each Saturday a couple of helpers and I work on preparing all the baked goods for the week.  We've got everything from Baked Oatmeal to Banana Muffins to Granola Bars. The children have never liked breakfast so much!

I've been trying to make a yummy dessert each Saturday during Baking Day.  This is a Fruit Cobbler.  It was an okay treat. The topping was a little dough-y.  I didn't get pics, but last weeks Chunky Monkey Cookies and Raw Brownies were much better.

Still Going

I'm not sure why I haven't gotten much blogging done. Life has been insanely busy, leaving me scrambling to keep up with food prep and basic life.  I haven't had a whole lot of time to think, never mind write without interruption.

Stepped on the scale today and I was a little surprised to see the scale down.  The last two weeks it hasn't moved hardly at all. Now, I haven't been completely faithful to the 6 week plan, but I have been more strict with myself. I thought I would have seen a bigger loss. Yet, any loss is welcome here. Last week was O week, and I think I had some issues seeing the scale move that week last month. It will be interesting to watch for that trend.

A few new things in the last couple of weeks:

1. We've found some new recipes for salad dressings that we're trying. The Southwestern Ranch is growing on me.  Without a decent dressing, it's really hard to look forward to a salad for a meal.

2.  I tried a really yummy vegetarian chili that we brought to dinner with friends. It was a hit with everyone.

3.  I watched a very thought provoking talk, The Starch Solution, on youtube from Dr. McDougall on the benefits and importance of starch.  So intriguing to learn and think on the science and history of how starch has sustained civilization and even fueled the strongest gladiators of all time.

I'm sure there are more new things I should and could be sharing.  However, life has begun here and I am determined to get into my bible before any fires begin that need putting out.

I have NOT been exercising.  Wonder what it's going to take to get me going again. I feel like I am crashed out after two weeks of solid running.  Likely, it's an excuse, but I'm giving myself some time to rest and recover from a really stressful past couple of weeks.

Meal for Friends

I tried a new soup, Sweet Corn Chowder, today.  It was wonderful!! I made extra to bring to friends and they enjoyed it as well.  That's a great feeling. 

David spent the day listening to the audio book of Eat to Live. Then we went over the 6 week plan laid out in there. He's decided to set aside the Reboot Juice fast and do the 6 week plan together with me.  I never did the full plan, so I'm excited to work on it together.  Reading it over, I realized that I've been overdoing it on nuts and underdoing it on grains.  It will be interesting to see what comes of making those changes.

So, tomorrow starts our 6 week plan. I'll work on typing up a week's worth of meals that we're eating to share on here. For now, I'm heading to bed. This week has been so full of blessings and hard work, I'm barely able to put my thoughts together right now.

Field Trip!

We headed down to Mass for a family field trip today.  I'm beat!

I ate heavy on the grains today, but I still was able to pull of an ETL day of eating.  I'm feeling right proud of myself for having put together a day's worth of meals while we were on the road.

Breakfast happened in the car so we could spend the morning packing and getting out the door early.
Orange-Berry muffins
hb eggs
bananas
walnut pieces
(fruit bowl for me and I had a muffin)

Lunch was served picnic style in the grass near the museum.
Taco salad wraps
apples
peanuts
carrot sticks

Dinner was eaten with friends at their house.
Peanut butter and all-fruit sandwiches
Cold Sloppy Corn Muffins
carrot sticks
a bit of taco salad that my friend prepared, I skipped the dressing :)

So, I had a lot of grains with the muffins, cornbread, Ezekiel bread, and rice tortilla at lunch. Still, they were nutritious grains and it made the day so much easier while we were out.

And, my "skinny skirt" that I've been wearing is getting looser.  I can even spin it. :)

First Day of Crazy

This week is going to be one for the record books, folks!

Today we had play practice and then attended a pizza party for a local homeschool group.

Tomorrow we are schooling at home all day and then David and the boys have an evening event.

Wednesday we are on a field trip all day, including a 5 hour round trip if you don't count traffic.  Driving to Mass?? yeah, we'll be stuck in traffic.

Thursday I am hosting Book Club.

Friday we have an afternoon event for the family.

Saturday, we catch up on some schooling.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Somehow in there, I'll be cooking, prepping, and feeding as many G-Bombs as I can muster.

Today's attempts:

Breakfast - Zucchini bread, pears, walnuts, and black beans (I had my breakfast bowl and a half piece of that bread so I could taste it. ;) )

Lunch - Sloppy corn muffins (sloppy lentil joe's cooked in cornbread), raw carrots and broccoli, kiwi, peanuts (I had sloppy lentil joe's in iceberg lettuce "shells".  So good..and messy!)

Dinner - Pizza potatoes (baked potatoes topped with sauce, mushrooms, broccoli, some with vegan cheese and some with parma.  I made the sauce with crushed tomatoes, onion, and garlic), salad, pineapple

WHEW!  I didn't get all the g-bombs in for each meal, but I did pretty well considering the day. 

We have banana muffins thawing on the counter tonight waiting for breakfast in the morning. The Zucchini bread was a smashing success!!

Hello New Decade!!

I did it! I cruised right through the 190's and said goodbye without a tear.  I'm SO excited. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw those pretty numbers on the screen. :D

This weekend was another marathon of cooking and shopping.

I prepped a lot of baked goods for my new Continental Breakfast idea I have for back to school.  I'm planning to have a grain, fruit, nuts, and hard boiled eggs out for the children each morning.  They can make their own in hopes that our mornings will be a little more efficient. 

I found some great recipes to try at this blog.  I made Zucchini bread, Banana muffins, and Orange-Berry muffins.  Most all of those are in the freezer.

I also made up some nutritized Sloppy Lentil Joe's.  I then made some of our applesauce cornbread. I worked on putting some of the lentil mixture in with the cornbread batter to make some sloppy corn muffins for our picnic lunch tomorrow. The first batch didn't come out just right. Then I decided that I would work on it another day since I didn't want to be up until midnight babysitting muffins.

I did, however, stay up until 9 so that I could experiment with my Baked Oatmeal recipe. I am SO glad that I did!! I think it may be the best dish I've made yet.  Everyone was loving it this morning.  I posted the recipe on my Recipes page at the top.

Speaking of that page. I deleted a few recipes that are not Nutritarian.  I also highlighted a couple of the recipes in red to remind myself that I want to work on nutritizing those.  I think they are worth saving. ;)

Today we attended a church potluck.  They grilled chicken and we all brought the sides.  I brought a pot of Indian Spiced Lentils.  Not too many people ate it, but I sure was happy to have a filling and healthy choice for my lunch.  I also brought some raw cut vegetables.  Also a good choice, as the only salads available were covered in dressing.  I will admit that that Caesar salad looked really good and it was very hard not to take a little bite while I was cutting up the chicken for my younger ones today.  But, I was so happy to eat right and know I wasn't going to regret it later. I also packed a few strawberries and walnuts for myself and David to share.  I was surprised to see fresh fruit at the dessert table, so I enjoyed a little indulgence of extra fruit with my meal.

Oh! I also scored more points with our Sunday Munch today. (haha! I just made that name up, but it's cute!)  See, we used to enjoy this yummy dish on some Sunday afternoons. I would layer a pan with cream cheese, then salsa, then shredded cheddar or mozzarella.  Bake and serve with corn chips. Everyone loved it.  Especially David.

Today I wanted to use up some bean dip I made that was in the fridge.  I got the idea to try a variation on that cheese dip. 

I layered the white bean dip in a glass pan. Then I spread a layer of freshly cooked black beans.  Then thin layer or salsa.  I topped half of the pan with vegan "cheese" and the other I sprinkled with "parma". (Parma is finely chopped walnuts mixed with nutri yeast.)  Baked it for about 20-30 minutes.  I served it with some "chips" that I made out of some corn tortillas that I cut, seasoned (with lime juice, chili powder, cumin, onion and garlic powder), and baked in the oven with the dip.  I also served some carrot sticks and bell pepper slices to eat with the dip.

It was great!  I've been mulling names around for my new dish.  Layered Bean Dip, Sunday Bean Dip, but now I'm thinking Sunday Munch Bean Dip is perfect!  I'll work on getting the recipe posted soon. :)

So happy to see the scale go down again.  Man, am I excited to keep pressing on when I see that kind of progress. :D

No Exercise = Big Loss

That's some crazy news!

I haven't exercised formally in the last five days, possibly even 7.  My broken toes and how busy we've been with life have given me great excuse to put off the workouts.

However, I was so restless yesterday, I knew I had to get in some exercise.  And a weigh-in. Gulp.

I was thrilled to see that even with an afternoon weigh-in, my weight was down a little.  After eating grain-heavy for David's bday, I was a little scared to see the scale. 

Then we went out for dinner last night.  Fried mushrooms and restaurant bread. Yeah. Double doom.

The scale was down AGAIN this morning!! In fact, since my last weigh-in, I'm down almost TWO pounds!! Now, that's an impressive loss without exercise. :D

Bonus:  I got in a BWP this morning.  Whew! My heart works a lot harder with that one than the wii fit yoga stuff. I've got an accountability friend now for T-Tapp, so I'm hoping that will motivate me to work hard at getting in a daily workout with Ms. Tapp. :) I did notice that, even while the T-Tapp Twist still brought that same cringe to my brain when I started, I didn't feel quite as *un-able* during it as usual. In fact, part way through, I felt a bit energized.  That's progress!

We're on break this week from school. I've got some sitting projects to do, some visiting, too. But, we do have some active stuff we can work on, like yard clean up and cleaning and setting up the attic space. 

So ambitious.  I honestly would love to just take a nap at some point as well.

Here's the link to our family blog where I posted pics of our Birthday Brunch Feast that we made for David.  There are links for recipes there. :)

Crazy-Busy-Crazy

That's how this weekend felt. 

Saturday was a party potluck style.  I brought Apple Baked Beans, Strawberry Spinach Salad, and Buckwheat Cornbread Muffins. It was all very good.

Today we visited a couple different churches. The church that met this evening has a meal before their time of worship.  I had enough beans leftover and the fixin's for another Spinach salad.  I only needed to mix up a new batch of dressing and we were good to go.  I also cooked up a batch of brown rice, tossed it with a bag of frozen broccoli, half a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, sautéed mushrooms, onion, and kale and we were good to go.  I like that we can bring our own food to events like this because not only do I know we have food that we enjoy eating, but we can share our new recipes with others.

Tonight we came home and mixed up some food for tomorrow's Birthday Brunch.  We're celebrating David's birthday with a feast and then a hike.

Here's the menu:

Pineapple Baked Beans
Vegan Breakfast Sausage
Mushroom Gravy and biscuits
Date-Nut Fruit Pie
Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole
Potato Crisps

Granola for the Hike

Portabella Burgers with White Bean Sauce
Salad
and some kind of vegetable that I can't remember. ;)

Tonight I put the beans on to cook overnight, granola made, and E made the biscuits. 

Tomorrow morning we're going to be hoppin' before we ever get out the door for hikin'. ;)

OH!   Today when I was getting dressed, I tried again with that white top that's been hanging in my closet.  Yeah, that one that someone gave to us a couple months ago and I couldn't even button it.  Yep, I tried it on a couple weeks ago and I was still popping the buttons.  Today it FIT! Fit, like, I didn't have to worry about popping buttons, even. 

I just really love that.