Thanks for the encouragement and support in response to my last post.  Seeing the progress really is a motivator! 

I’ve got a week and a half of holidays ahead and I’m thinking about them this morning.  I don’t want to back track.  I’m feeling two things.  One, I’d like to continue losing weight, or at a minimum stay at my current weight.  And two, I want to feel great.  I don’t want to feel that physical malaise, icks, blahs or that “ooph, I shouldn’t have eaten that” feeling.  

I’m going to have to be flexible since I will be staying with family.  But here’s my first thought.  I think I will buy enough produce when I get into town to make a massive salad to go along with each meal.  That way, I can pile on the raw foods and minimize the amount of cooked and less healthy food choices I’m eating.  Paul & I decided we are going to pack our juicer and blender too — if you can believe that.    We both love our green lemonade juices first thing in the morning.  And I definitely want to keep my green smoothies going as well.  It’s a little unorthodox to travel with a juicer and blender, sure…  But keeping the high quality nutrition coming our way feels more than worth it.

My question for you today:  Do you have any strategies you are going to be following through Christmas and New Years?  If so, share with us! 

Embrace Love, Embrace Life, Embrace Your Health!

This past week was a good one.  I’m feeling more and more of a divide from my prior eating habits and my new ones.  I haven’t completely settled into a new routine, so the time to stick to my healthy changes is every day.  I created pages that I posted in my pantry letting me know how many days to my next goal.  It’s been great having that visual reminder.

So, to the numbers…

Weight: 244 (-2 lbs)
Height: 5′8″
BMI: 37.1

Measurements

Neck: 14 (-.25″)
Bicep: 14.5
Forearm: 11
Chest: 45 (-1″)
Waist: 44
Hips: 48
Thigh: 25.5 (-.5″)
Calf: 18

I’m excited for the weight loss and even more so for the added loss in my measurements.  Paul has noticed my clothes getting baggier… all encouraging stuff.  That said, I’m a little behind on my goal of getting to 230 by Christmas.  I have lost what I have through diet only – so now is the time to kick it up with exercise as well!

My question for you today: What do you do for exercise?

Embrace Love, Embrace Life, Embrace Your Health!

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  We went to a friend’s family Thanksgiving celebration.  We were spoiled rotten with wonderful food, great company and no dishes when we got home!  It doesn’t get much better than that! 

My question for you: How was your holiday?  What are you thankful for?

Embrace Love, Embrace Life, Embrace Your Health!

• Breakfast: Juice – red leaf lettuce, green kale, cucumber, celery, apple, and lemon
• Mid-morning: Smoothie – arugula, banana, mango and pear (I won’t use arugula again, a little intense for my tastes)
• Lunch: raw borscht soup with flaxseed crackers  (good soup, but also too intense for me.  The cabbage actually hurt my throat by the time I was done.  I’d try the recipe again, but maybe with something replacing the cabbage)
• Snack: banana
• Dinner: Guacamole salad!  Delicious way to end the day — I love this salad.  (And hey, Catherine, lots of cilantro!  )

• Breakfast: Juice – red leaf lettuce, purple kale, carrot, apple and lemon
• Mid-morning: Smoothie – red leaf lettuce, banana, mango and pear
• Lunch: hearty corn salad with portobello mushrooms — AMAZING!  (recipe to be posted)
• Snack: orange
• Dinner: ate out at Taco Del Mar, had two fish tacos
• Dessert: homemade raw strawberry ice cream made with frozen strawberries, coconut meat, coconut water and agave syrup — Yumilicious!

Coming tomorrow: new post titled “Your #1 health builder and weight loss tool: Fiber!”

• Breakfast: Juice: romaine, spinach, celery, apple and orange (won’t do that again, didn’t work so great)
• Mid-morning: Smoothie with mixed greens, spinach, red pepper, red onion, tomatillos, avocado, mango and pineapple.  It totally smelled and tasted like a salsa dip, made me crave corn chips. 
• a chocolate chip cookie
• Lunch: Arroz con Pollo
• Dinner: slice of bread with peanut butter and raw honey
• orange

Day started out well.  I discovered a chocolate chip cookie in our pantry and ate that.  Then, I choose Arroz con Pollo at a Mexican restaurant because I had let myself get overly hungry.  I will say, in the past, I’ve polished off that massive plate of food.  This time, I only made it through about half.  Regardless,  I felt the impact the rest of the day — low energy, sluggish and a bit uncomfortable.  Lesson learned.

• Breakfast: Juice: romaine, mixed greens, celery, apple, and lemon
• Mid-morning: Smoothie: mixed greens and romaine, basil, red onion, lime and avocado (recipe found in Green for Life)
• Lunch: Leftover chicken, rice and pinto beans from Taco Del Mar, steamed broccoli (reheated in coconut oil) and 4 carrot sticks
• Snack: LaraBar Chocolate Coconut Chew
• Dinner: blue corn muffins, spinach with green chiles and goat cheese (both cooked), pineapple/mango salsa salad.
• Dessert: raw key lime pie mousse (recipe to follow)

I’m going to start including the day’s food – so you can get a sense of how rigorous (or not!) I am with my menus.  Today:

• Breakfast: juice made with romaine, mixed wild greens, cucumber, apples, and lemon
• mid-morning: green smoothie made with mango, pear, and romaine lettuce
• Lunch: herbed goat-cheese and broccoli lasagna with brown rice noodles
• afternoon: a glass of chocolate hempmilk and later an orange
• Dinner: a few bites of Amira’s left over salmon patty and cooked broccoli
• later: cherry, pear, wild greens, romaine, and ground chia seed smoothie

Sort of an odd mish-mash day – but there you go.

We are due for a shopping trip and I’m realizing the value of keeping food out of the house that doesn’t help you stick to your goals. We are out of a lot of my prime suspect snackable ingredients. It’s kept me out of trouble the last couple of days. One of my big snacking temptations is anything that is quick and easy to prepare.

Now if it’s vegetables or occasionally cut fruit (like last night’s yummy fruit bowl of blueberries and honeydew), that’s one thing… but have you noticed that most easily prepared foods are nearly nutritionless, processed, simple carbohydrates? Our bodies just don’t need those foods.

Okay, time for breakfast – more from me soon!

So, I was spoiled by a very good breakfast this morning. Quinoa flakes with ground chia seeds, fresh blueberries, bananas, sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of agave syrup and vanilla hempmilk. Sounds complicated as I type it out… but it was easy and yummy. Double bonus! – Amira loved hers too.

In all my reading, raw foods is something I haven’t delved into much. I’m just beginning to learn more about it’s benefits now. One of my breakfast recipes is perfect for raw diets though:

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• 4 cups rolled grains – my current blend has been 1 cup oats, 1 cup triticale, 1 cup wheat, and 1 cup rye. You can also use spelt, hulled buckwheat, hulled barley, etc. as well.
• 2 cups oat bran
• 1 cup sunflower seeds – I grind them, but you can put them in whole if desired
• 1 cup raw, unsalted nuts – I use raw almonds. I use slivered almonds and chop them up a little further.
• 1 cup lecithin granules
• 1/2 cup flax seed – I grind them, again, you could use them whole
• 1/2-3/4 cup chia seeds, ground
• 1 cup milk thistle seeds – ground
• 1-2 cups dried fruit, I’ve used goji berries (whole or ground), dried cherries, apples, apricots, raisins, etc. – You can use whatever dried fruit appeals.

Mix, then store in the refrigerator.

TO SERVE: Soak in milk* for 15-30 minutes before eating. Sprinkle with cinnamon and drizzle with maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar.

(*You can use milk, soymilk, nutmilk, or water. We use hempmilk (a mixture of chocolate and vanilla flavors.)

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Paul & I both like this breakfast – it’s filling and leaves you feeling energized through the day. I need to come up with a grain combination that is gluten/wheat-free for Amira. I’ll have to experiment with that.

All in all, good day.