Day 18 - Time to hit the gym.

Today I decided to head to a nearby gym and start working out.  One of the side effects of long-term Prednisone use is muscle weakness, and man do I notice that.  It's going to take more than just long walks for me to get myself in shape, so I headed to a tiny little gym near here and got signed up.  I really, really like doing the weight machines and I love elliptical trainers, because there is less knee strain.  I started today with 30 minutes on the elliptical and then did a full round of weights.  I am a little sore and tired but happy to be starting.

Some new foods I decided to try today include hot buckwheat cereal (kinda like oatmeal) and some veg lentil soup.  Buckwheat is interesting because it is not a true grain; it's actually a sort of flower, similar to rhubarb.  I bought some Bob's Red Mill organic buckwheat and made it in the micro before adding chopped walnuts, fresh blueberries, and a dash of maple syrup.  The nice thing about buckwheat is that it has tons of lysine, which is an important amino acid, and a good amount of protein as well.  As it is not a grain, like wheat, it is good for people with celiac disease.   And it tastes delicious!

The acorn squash soup was a huge hit.  My husband took it to work today and ate it both for his snack and his meal.  Motivated by my recent success, I decided to try a lentil soup today.  I have a friend whose parents were active into their late seventies, and one of their staple lunches was a homemade lentil soup.  I am a fan of anything that involves beans, and wanted to make something different to all the mexican-style bean dishes I'd been making lately, and so I decided upon this simple recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot sliced
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• dash salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation:

In a large pot, sautee the onions and carrot in the vegetable oil for 3-5 minutes until onions turn clear. Add the vegetable broth, lentils, pepper, thyme, bay leaves and salt.
Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until lentils are soft, about 45 minutes. Remove bay leaves and stir in lemon juice before serving. Makes 4 servings of lentil soup.

I like this because it's fast, easy, and incredibly healthy.  I can throw this into a pot in less than ten minutes and walk away, knowing we'll have a fantastic soup simmering away while I do other things.

Day 17 - Because I really can count.

Today I watched Food, Inc. again, steeling myself to make better choices for those in my family still eating meat.  I then went to the market and bought some organic chicken thighs for my husband and daughter to eat.  I can't bring myself to purchase ground beef anymore, and now that my daughter is willing to eat TVP I see no reason to. 

Today I baked some whole wheat gingerbread using a mix made by Hodgson's Mill.  My daughter absolutely adores gingerbread and I have been on the prowl for a good recipe.  Usually, I am not a fan of mixes when baking, but this one listed some ingredients I can live with:  Whole grain whole wheat flour; molasses (soy lethicin); brown sugar; baking soda; ginger; cinnamon; salt; cloves.  I added rice milk (instead of dairy milk), applesauce (instead of butter) and Ener-G egg replacer (instead of, you guessed it, eggs!) to make a very low fat, cholesterol free treat for her.  

I am also preparing an Acorn Squash soup, vegan style.  I found a pair of beautiful organic squashes a few weeks ago and wasn't sure just what I wanted to do with them.  After deciding upon a soup, I did a search for recipes, only to find most had chicken broth, evaporated milk, butter, or other ingredients I am avoiding.  After a bit more refined searching I lit upon this recipe:


Acorn Squash Soup, Vegan Style
    1 onion
    1 acorn squash (about 1 lb)
    half package sliced portabella mushrooms
    1 container vegtable stock
    salt and pepper to taste
    1/2 teaspoon onion powder
    1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
    1 teaspoon of basil
    1/2 teaspoon chili powder (optional)


1. Place vegetable broth in pot along with spices.
2. Peel and cut up squash and toss in along with mushrooms into pot.
3. Dice up onion and add to pot.
4. Boil everything for about 45 minutes till squash is tender.
5. Let cool for 20 minutes will be very hot.
6. Put in blender until everything is liquid.
7. Place back in pot and add salt and pepper.
8. Serve.

Now, the thing about acorn squash is, it's hard.  Really hard.  Like, stone hard.  Meanwhile, the recipe wants it diced.  Enter the hero of our story, the internet!  After googling "acorn squash too hard"  (I am not making that up) I learned that when the end result is a soup, you can bake the whole squash in the oven (being sure to poke it with holes so it doesn't explode in there and make a godawful mess.) 

Right now, I have a very small piece of gingerbread and a very large glass of water in front of me as I type this and wait for my rock, I mean squash, to bake up.  Everything else is waiting in the pot, sliced and diced and combined, all ready to go. 

Damned uncooperative tuber.

Day 15/16

My husband and I have been enjoying the bean enchiladas like mad.  I made a fresh pot of the beans yesterday and we scarfed most of them down for lunch before doing our Christmas decorations and tree.  Our house is so festive!

Today I made Blue Apple-Nut Oatmeal, which really is blue!

1 2/3 cup water
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 T. currants

Simmer the above until creamy, then add:
1 banana, sliced
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen, I used fresh)

Heat that for about five minutes, then add:
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
2 T. chopped walnuts.

This was a delicious dish.  The fruit made every bite sweet!


The other dish I am trying today is Crock-Pot Chili!  This one is easy and packed with veggies.

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 organic bell pepper, chopped (I had red so I used that)
1 organic zucchini, chopped
8oz mushrooms, sliced  (Since I ran out, I used canned)
1 cup frozen corn
1 28oz can organic fire-roasted tomatoes (substituted for diced)
2 T chili powder
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 cup water

Throw it all in the slow-cooker and cook on low for 7 hours.  If you cave and must eat it sooner, don't worry!  There's no undercooked meat to fret about, so dig in whenever the urge strikes!

All recipes from Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furman

Day 14 - Wow!

For the past two weeks, I have been entirely, completely vegetarian.  No meat, dairy, eggs, or fish.  Virtually no oil or processed foods.  Nothing to drink but water, juice, and decaf green tea.  No Diet Coke.  No coffee.  No caffeine.  No alcohol - not even my husband's beer.

I almost can't believe it, because it's been so effortless.  Doing the juice fast for ten days completely reset my cravings and my desires for all the foods that were contributing to my health problems.  Having the right foods available and having new ways to prepare them has made a huge difference in the transition to a whole food, plant-based diet.

I would urge anyone to give this a try if you have any health issues whatsover...or even if you don't, and you want to prevent them in the future.

Day 12/13 - Seize the day.

Yesterday was a difficult day emotionally for reasons that had nothing whatsoever to do with food.  I did my morning juice, veggies and beans at lunch and more veggies with a Boca for dinner.  Fine day, food wise.  It was mainly other parts that sucked.

Today is a new day, and after some early morning moping around I decided to buck up and get proactive about trying some new recipes from 'Eat to Live' by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  Dr. Fuhrman's premise is summarized in his 'food equation' which is:  Health = Nutrient/Calories.  Your health is predicted by your nutrient intake divided by your intake of calories.  Foods that have a high proportion of nutrients and low calories are generally the best choices, i.e. raw and cooked veggies, raw fruits with a bit of dried/juices for flavorings, whole grains, nuts, and seeds, and soy or nut milks.  Most of his recipes feature only those items, plus unusual and interesting vinegars in homemade dressings.

Today I decided to get cooking and made a few of the recipes from his book:  Bean Enchiladas, and Creamy Blueberry dressing.  Neither one has any meat, dairy, or oils and both were simple to prepare and tasted delicious!  I had the bean dish for lunch and will have a giant salad of spinach, romaine, cucumber, pear, walnut and blueberry with the Creamy Blueberry dressing for dinner.  For dessert we found some Ranier cherries (my favorite!) at the market this week.

The Creamy Blueberry Dressing is interesting.  Mine included a cup of fresh blueberries, a quarter cup of pomegranate juice, an eighth cup of raw cashews, and one and one half tablespoons of blueberry-pomegranate infused red wine vinegar.  Blended up in a powerful blender, this dressing becomes a gorgeous purple color and tastes fantastic.  It has the mouth-feel of an oil-based dressing without the rather empty oil calories (remember, H = N/C), instead relying on nutrient dense nuts to give the dressing body and creaminess. (For the locals, I found the vinegar at Shop-Rite, of all places!)

Give the dressing a go if you like, say, raspberry vinaigrettes!

Day 11 - Listening to your Body

I am now firmly convinced I made the right decision.  I ate some black beans and rice with some veggies yesterday around midday.  That afternoon I did 30 minutes on my Nordic Track that felt almost effortless, and then did a 30 minute brisk walk in the evening.  I slept well and woke up without any muscle aches or anything; previously, I would have been stiff or sore from the ski machine.  I am pretty sure the recovery is so quick and painless because I have been eating clean and drinking at least a liter of water per day, along with juices.  The changes that have taken place in the past week and half are just astounding to me; I feel like I did before I had my daughter, for the most part.

The discomfort I had yesterday is gone, and things are completely back to...no, better than, normal...or what had been 'normal' for me for several years.  I am enjoying what I do eat (today I had some grilled vegetables, rice and beans again) and not missing what I do not.

Busy day today; my husband's beer is being judged tonight so I am having dinner at the pub.  Well, actually, I am -not- having dinner at the pub at all, since everything there is contains ingredients I am avoiding.  I will drink some seltzer and enjoy the company, and have some juice for dinner when I get home, since I already ate my main meal earlier.

Day Ten - Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Today I felt great, until after my second juice.  Then I began having some intestinal discomfort that was not like what I experienced eariler in the fast; in fact, it felt icky enough to make me worry that perhaps I should stop with the juice-only business.  That, coupled with some other things (you don't want to hear about) has led me to believe my body doesn't want just juice anymore, and that it is time for me to incorporate a meal into my day.  This is going to sound really weird, but this isn't my choice, it's my body's choice.  I feel like I could easily keep going on juice from a mental standpoint and part of me misses it already; the simplicity, the lack of thinking about 'what's for dinner', how clean and perfect things feel.  My body, however, feels otherwise and has made that abundantly clear, and so I am going to start slowly adding some whole, plant-based foods into my diet and see how things go.

This morning I had a mixed juice with my daughter that was so much sweeter than I could have expected.  For lunch I had cucumber-celery-apple, which I drank too fast and did not especially like as it was...too cucumbery.  I plan to keep up at least two juices per day and see if the added meal makes it easier for my body to tolerate in the longer term.  My daughter and I will still be doing our morning juice; I wouldn't give that up for anything. 

One thing I will not be doing is re-incorporating any meat, dairy, eggs, or processed foods into my diet.  I don't have any desire for them and I don't feel they agree with me very well.  What I am desiring very much is beans, which have always been a favorite food of mine.  I am looking forward to healthy bean dishes and soups, and have already started accumulating recipes.

One important thing I am focusing on is something Joe Cross says in his documentary, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead."  And that is, "If you can't do as long as you planned and you manage to do three, seven, ten days, good on you.  That's a success."  I feel that as long as I build on the groundwork of health I have built up inside me, I'll be able to continue feeling as fantastic as I have.  I think we as a society have a hard time believe that if we aren't perfect, or things don't go as perfectly as we'd planned, then the entire business was for naught, useless.  I have never felt further from that; I feel so successful in what I have achieved, in the way I have reset my food preferences, and how I cleaned out so much junk from my body. 

I plan to keep posting about the juicing and the other foods I am making and eating with my family, because I think having a written history will allow me to pinpoint successes and remember what worked and what did not work as well.  I also think my family is a good example of how these kinds of foods can be incorporated into a lifestyle, even by people who ate a lot of SAD (Standard American Diet) foods for a very long time.  If I can make these things, and have my husband and child not only eat them but enjoy them, anyone can.  And that is the direction Alphabet Juice is going to go.  I hope you will come with me!