Eat to Live Days 23-25

Hello all! I don't work on Fridays right now, so Thursdays are my favourite day of the week. :)

I'm also having a good day food-wise. I just ate an incredibly delicious dinner:

The last of my mom's chili (from the freezer) and a baked potato. But what's that on my baked potato? It looks like butter... but no - it's Better Butter!!!

When my aunt found out I was following a plant-based diet for a few weeks, she very kindly sent me some recipes (at times in her life, she's been a vegan). I heard stories that when her daughters were growing up, they would beg for Better Butter! I was anxious to try it for myself.

Cornmeal, nutritional yeast, and unsweetened coconut.

First I brought 1/4 cup of cornmeal and 1 cup of water to a boil. Then I lowered the heat and stirred until it thickened a bit.

Into the blender it went, along with 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut, and 1/2 cup water. (The recipe called for salt, too, but I omitted it.)

Then I chilled it for awhile, and it was ready for my baked potato! I quite liked it. It mostly tasted like coconut, but it totally had a buttery consistency and overall... essence.

Believe it or not, that's not the only exciting thing I made today. I also made an attempt at peanut butter! And it was SUCCESSFUL!

Just raw peanuts in the Magic Bullet, baby. Mmmmmmmmm.

But I needed a vehicle for my peanut butter. I also needed to do something with the kale I bought a couple of days ago. Can you guess what I made?

Kale chips, of course! I've only made kale chips once before, and I didn't love them (I think I was expecting them to be as good as potato chips). I was determined to try again. I mixed about 2 tablespoons of my homemade peanut butter with two big bowls of kale. I put the kale on parchment paper in the oven at 170 degrees (the lowest setting) with the door open, and left it until the kale was totally dried out (about an hour and a half).

I really enjoyed this (in fact, I'm eating some as I type this post). All in all, a wonderful day in my kitchen. PLUS my most recent pair of jeans (bought in January to replace jeans I'd "outgrown") are not as painfully tight as they were a few weeks ago! :D

Just over two weeks left in this adventure. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to the end...

Have a good night!

Eat to Live Days 21-22

Three weeks (and one day) down! Can you believe that I'm more than HALFWAY through this thing?! I can't! But I'm happy about it, that's for sure.

I had a couple of cooking failures, and I'm feeling sleepy, so I'll skip the food pictures for today and cut to the chase: my weigh-in results!

Starting Weight: 262.7 pounds
Week 1 Weight: 255.9 pounds
Week 2 Weight: 251.0 pounds
Current Weight: 246.8 pounds

Eek! I lost 4.2 pounds, bringing my grand total to 15.9 pounds in 3 weeks! Um, that's pretty insane.

Lately, I haven't been as strict about certain things. I want to make sure I'm eating enough, and I don't always have time to make huge salads with multiple cups of beans... so some days (like today) I'll have two or three servings of starches/grains, instead of the one serving I'm supposed to have. I've probably also had more sodium than I'm supposed to - sometimes I use low-sodium vegetable broth, for example. The sodium content isn't high, but there is some in there all the same.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what to do at the end of the 6 weeks. I really just want to get to a place where I can lose weight (and eventually maintain) without going crazy... without having to measure or count everything, and without having a minor panic attack every time I have to eat outside of my house.

At any rate, I've got 3 more weeks to figure it out... night all!

Eat to Live Days 16-20

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I can't believe I've almost finished THREE weeks on the Eat to Live program!

I had kind of a hectic week (hence the lack of posts), and was seriously tempted to give in and just order a pizza. But, thankfully, I didn't!

My eats this week included some cream of broccoli soup (recipe courtesy of Meghan Telpner's blog):

I also attempted to make some tahini dressing from the Refresh cookbook, which I had over some greens.

I found it a bit too garlicky, unfortunately.

One of my favourite meals of the week:

You just can't go wrong with a toasted tomato and avocado sandwich!

I also ate out a couple of times this week. I ended up at Milestone's on Friday. I ordered a salad that came with red onions, glazed pecans, strawberries, and goat cheese. I got it without the goat cheese and pecans (which I assumed had sugar and/or oil).

I didn't eat any of the dressing, either. The salad was pretty good, but a bit too oniony.

I went to the movies today (to see Magic Mike), and I was actually able to find something Eat to Live-friendly! And really, if I can find food that works at the MOVIES, then I can find food that works ANYWHERE, am I right? I ordered a greek salad without olives, feta cheese, or dressing (so, not really a greek salad at all). In the condiments area, I put on some vinegar and chili flakes.

It was decent! I was quite pleased with myself for choosing a super healthy option while surrounded by the smell of popcorn (which I love).

Before seeing Magic Mike, I dusted off my old Booty Camp DVD and brought it to my friend's house for a workout! We managed to do the Booty Booster, the Ab-Salute! Core workout, and the Seaside Serenity Stretch. It was tough! My muscles felt like jelly afterwards. But it's great to be exercising again. :)

Toodles!

Eat to Live Day 15

It's late, so I'm going to make it snappy.

I was excited to step on the scale this morning to see my Week 2 results. I wasn't disappointed:

Starting Weight: 262.7 pounds
Week 1 Weight: 255.9 pounds
Current Weight: 251.0 pounds

I lost 4.9 pounds since last week, and I've lost 11.7 pounds in total! Not too shabby! :D

I was in a big hurry this morning, so I took my breakfast green smoothie to go:

I brought a delicious lunch to work--leftover chili pinto beans on brown rice, along with my homemade salsa from yesterday:

I also had a juicy nectarine and some strawberries for dessert.

I threw dinner together quickly, but it worked out well. I tried to include LOTS of veggies, and I think I was successful!

I made a salad using the leftover dressing I had from my Whole Foods salad on Saturday, along with some raw green pepper, carrots, and baked zucchini. I also ate some leftover chili with the last two No-Meat Balls from last week. Very filling!

Of course, I couldn't eat dinner without dessert...

Have a good night, all!

Eat to Live Days 13-14

I've made it through two weeks of the Eat to Live program! (More or less - sometimes I overdo it on the grains, nuts, salt, and avocado.) Only four more weeks go to.

I feel like I spent my entire weekend grocery shopping, food planning, and cooking. Maybe because I did...

On Saturday, I decided to make good use of my TTC metropass and go to a few health food stores. I started out at Whole Foods, where I had big plans to treat myself to an expensive salad from their salad bar. I was pleased to find that they offer many salads and dressings that are oil-free! Perfect!

I don't even know what all I piled on there! There were lots of greens, some grains, and an oil-free avocado dressing. I only managed to eat half for lunch, and saved the rest for dinner. After my stop at Whole Foods, I headed over to my old neighbourhood in the east end. I went to Strictly Bulk at Pape and Danforth to pick up some pinto beans, raw cashews, raw peanuts, and almond milk. Then, since I was in the area, I wandered over to The Big Carrot.

After going to three different stores, you'd think I would be done with grocery shopping. Not the case! I still needed a tonne of produce, so I went to the regular grocery store Saturday evening. Then it was time to start cooking!

I made black bean burgers for dinner on Saturday, with the plan to bring one to the barbecue I had to attend today. However, they didn't turn out that great (I wasn't really following a recipe).

I was feeling very anxious about going to this barbecue--I felt awkward about bringing my own food, and I wasn't sure how to explain it to people. I even had a dream last night where I ate a hamburger (and subsequently felt guilty about it)!

Today, I started cooking as soon as I woke up. I really wanted to tackle this recipe for taco salad. I cooked pinto beans with lots of spices and I also made my own salsa!!! I was so impressed with myself. Turns out, it's not even difficult!

I piled loads of pinto beans, salsa, and avocado on some romaine lettuce for lunch.

It was delicious!! I also cooked up a big batch of brown rice to eat throughout the week.

But I still had the matter of the family barbecue to deal with. I had emailed my aunt in advance to let her know that I was avoiding fat and oil due to my gallbladder issues, and that I would be bringing my own food to eat. I decided to abandon the mediocre black bean burgers I made last night, and made a burrito using the pinto beans and salsa I had for lunch.

I'm pleased to say the barbecue was a success! No one questioned me eating my own food, and my aunt even had a plain salad ready for me to eat. Also, my bean burrito was so delicious I didn't miss the burgers and hot dogs that everyone else was eating!

I was shocked to realize that I didn't feel deprived--even when everyone else was eating cookies and ice cream for dessert (I had a banana). On a normal day, at this kind of event, I would have been tortured by the cookies and ice cream. I would agonize over the plate of cookies, wondering how many Weight Watchers Points each one was, and if people would think I was eating too much if I took another one (and another one, and another one...). Tonight, I was just able to enjoy the conversation and not think about food at all. I'd already made the decision about what I was eating, and I could actually focus on other things. It was great! So, in sum, I worried for nothing (as usual).

Stay tuned for tomorrow's weigh-in!

Eat to Live Days 9-12

Hey bloggies! Did you miss me?

I don't know why, but this week flew by and I didn't manage to squeeze in any blog posts! But you'll be happy to know I'm still sticking to the Eat to Live plan. :)

On Wednesday and Thursday, my willpower was fading. I felt hungry and sick of salads. I didn't have time to prepare any delicious meals, and I started wondering if I could sustain this for much longer.

I came home from work on Thursday to the smell of some delicious vegetarian, oil-free chili. It turns out my mother knew just what I needed (don't they always?) - a hearty meal! I had the brilliant idea to eat my chili over a baked potato (with broccoli on the side).

SO delicious and satisfying. My willpower was back!

While my mom was cooking the chili, she ALSO prepared some "No-Meat Balls" from the Eat to Live book. I had some for dinner tonight with cauliflower and brown rice.

I REALLY enjoyed this meal. The brown rice turned out perfectly (I followed these directions), and the No-Meat Balls (which I think consisted of some brown rice, lentils, and lots of herbs and spices) were really tasty.

Today was an awesome day, not only because of the No-Meat Balls, but because I got to hang out with this lovely lady. Andrea biked over to my condo to lounge by the pool and get pedicures. Does it get any better than that??

I'm on the left!

Can you believe this was my very first pedicure? I could get used to this!

Happy Friday!

Eat to Live Day 8

This morning, I stepped on the scale to see the results after one week of (mostly) following Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live program.

Starting Weight: 262.7 pounds
Current Weight: 255.9 pounds

I am down 6.8 pounds! Yay! Let me point out that this week I did NOT track or measure my food (for the most part - some foods are limited) and I was NOT starving all week. I was usually quite full after meals and I ate tonnes of food. I haven't had many cravings, but that might just be because I'm still in super-motivated mode. :)

In other news... I did the first run of Couch to 5K today! Lately it seems that a lot of my friends have the running bug and are signing up for 5Ks, so I thought I should stop thinking about getting back to running and just DO IT. Let me tell you, it was tough! I was sooooo hot and exhausted afterwards. And this was just Day 1 - the next step after "couch"! Despite being worn out, I felt really really good.

Breakfast and lunch today were pretty boring. For breakfast, I had a green smoothie (surprise, surprise). For lunch, I had salad and leftover scrambled tofu.

I had black beans cooking in the slow cooker all day, but come dinnertime, they still weren't cooked. So I had to use canned beans to make some black bean burgers for dinner.

I ate mine on an Ezekiel tortilla with avocado, tomato, and spring mix. Yummy!

I also threw together some cauliflower soup. It consisted of vegetable broth, cauliflower, onion, chives, roasted garlic, and cashews (for creaminess) all blended together.

Not the most attractive soup!

I still have room for improvement in terms of cooking delicious, oil-free meals, but they have at least been highly edible! Overall, I haven't felt deprived. Of course, it's easy when I'm at home and in control of my environment. The real temptations and challenges will come when I have to deal with less than ideal circumstances...

Anyway, I am writing this post from my bed (ooh la la!), so I'd better actually get some sleep! It's back to work tomorrow for me. Good night, all!