Holiday Challenge Progress Report - Day 2

Breakfast:
One slice of wholegrain toast with nut butter and all fruit spread (I went wheat free for about three weeks. I didn't feel any better, so I had some whole wheat bread, and I didn't feel any worse. So now I'm going back and forth on whether to go wheat free or not. All I really know for sure that it's HARD to go wheat free!)
Vitamins and Medicines and DHA
A pear
A small handful of walnuts

Lunch:
I deliver Meals on Wheels on Thursdays, which means I am not around at lunchtime. So, I ate a lara bar and a clementine before I went, and then after I got back I had a big bowl of spinach and some more of the Golden Australian Cauliflower Carrot Cream Soup.

Dinner:
Three bean salad
Chocolate cherry smoothie with flax
Exercise:
30 minutes on the treadmill, marching uphill

Verdict: Kale

Tab: $0

Bath Day for the Babies

It was bath day for the canines today. Now they're all shiny and clean and happy and they are romping throughout the house. Maisy's favorite trick is to race out of the bathroom after the bath and leap onto our bed. She even knows how to open the door to the bedroom so she can let herself in.

When she's really in trouble, she gives us the Maisy smile because she knows we can't enforce the house rules when she grins at us.

Trust me, it's really hard to punish a smiling dog.

Holiday Challenge Progress Report - Day 1

Breakfast:
Golden Australian Cauliflower Cream Soup with lentils and mushrooms
A banana
A few walnuts
A mandarin orange

Lunch:
Three bean salad
Hummus with cucumbers
Leftover steamed greens from last night
A few more walnuts

Dinner:
Green salad
Steamed spinach
Chocolate cherry smoothie with SPINACH and pomegranate juice (Yes, I did it! This is the first time I've ever put spinach in a smoothie. My hubby thinks I'm officially nuts. The smoothies without it are better... but it's still a good drink!)

Exercise:
30 minutes on the treadmill, marching uphill

Verdict: Kale!
Tab: $0

The challenge is on!

Nicole is in, so we are officially having a Christmas challenge!

This is the general idea. Each person goes about their day and records what they eat on their blog. When you don't have a perfect day, you have to pay the piper.

Your "days" can be measured according to Nicole's "Fuhrmometer". A Kale day is a perfect ETL day. A cookie day is a day filled totally with junk.

• Kale days cost nothing
• Broccoli days cost $1
• Eggplant days - $2
• Lentil days - $3
• Blueberry days - $4
• Potato days - $5
• Brown rice - $6
• Cashew - $7
• Cheese - $8
• Cookie - $9

On any given day, for each 30 minutes of exercise, you can earn back $1. (In other words, if you had a lentil day but exercised for a half hour, it would only cost you $2)

Each person would have to post on their own blog (or on this thread) what they ate. We'll just keep a tally of who has what kind of day, and then add up the totals and figure out who owes the most money.

I think the person who does the best should get to name the charity that everyone else has to donate their fines to, but we could also pair up, and then the winner of each pair could either keep the other person's fines, or send it to their favorite charity.

We're starting TODAY!

I need a challenge

I need an ETL challenge between now and the holidays. I'm going to see if I can get one of the ETLers to join me, maybe even Nicole from Full of Veggies. She has this daily rating system called the Fuhrmometer. We could use that to rate our days.

I love kale

I made braised greens for dinner again tonight. My recipe is getting more simple each time I make it. This time I just chopped up an onion, steamed it in some veggie broth, then added chopped kale and let it cook for a bit, then added chopped swiss chard. When it was done I poured a little leftover cashew caesar dressing on it. It was heavenly! I was very happy that my hubby didn't want any. That means I get it for breakfast tomorrow. YAAAY!

Let the Holidays Begin!

The holiday season has officially begun! We drove up the gorge to Mom and Dad's this weekend to have a second Thanksgiving meal. My Mom's Christmas Cactuses were in full bloom and were quite spectacular.

I'm such a spoiled duck when it comes to Thanksgiving. When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday. My mom and grandma and I would spend an entire day in the kitchen together preparing the meal for somewhere between 10 and 20 people, depending on the year. The men would all hang out in the living room eating snacks and watching football. We just don't get to do it that way anymore.

R's mom always has her big meal on Thursday, which means we wind up with my parents on the weekend. My sister winds up with her hubby's family on the big day and there's about a 50/50 chance that we'll see them on the weekend. (We didn't see them this year.)

This year, on Thursday my parents joined my dad's side of the family for a big family meal at my grandma's, and we didn't even know about it! It was a last-minute event and they didn't call us because they knew we were already committed otherwise, but I am not very happy about missing an opportunity to see some of my family members whom I haven't seen for two or three years.

Nonetheless, my mom and I got to spend Saturday puttering around her kitchen together, making all of our family's traditional Thanksgiving dishes - turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread stuffing, cornbread stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, gravy, pineapple dip, etc. etc. And it was a gooood meal! My grandma even brought her special pickled beets.

Next year I think I will try to put together a family dinner like the old days. I would like that a lot better. I should get to do that once in a while!

Funky Toadstools

Look what popped up in our yard!

Things that go bump on your side

Well, I suppose if I'm going to write about mood lights and dogs wearing cones, I may as well write about the lump.

It all began a couple of months ago when I noticed that if I slouched in my office chair and leaned on its arm, my side would hurt. I didn't think much of it. I reported it to my doc during my annual, and she said to quit slouching. Good answer!

Then a couple of weeks ago, my breast became quite sore. (This, I determined, was just another good reason to avoid underwire! )

And then last week I discovered a lump in my breast. Maybe the size of a grape. And if I poke it, it HURTS. (actually, by the time I found the lump, my whole left side hurt even when I was standing still.)

So I called my doc, who very kindly made room for me that afternoon, and then poked and prodded while talking about the virtues of goldendoodles. She figures it's fibrocystic and tells me to avoid underwires and things that make it hurt, and to come back in a month or so when things aren't so sore.

And so it did settle down a bit and now I can poke and prod the lump, which feels smaller, without gasping.

But I still have a very sore spot on my side. It's only a few inches from where the lump was, so I am guessing they are somehow related.

It's mornings like these...

This is one of those days when I am certain that my happy light can work magic. I woke up to the sound of the rain pounding on the skylights. It's still pitch black outside and it will be for at least another hour.

But here I sit with my mood light. It's bright! I have used it every day since it arrived.

I don't know if it's just coincidence, but since I began sitting with it, I am back to sleeping through the night with no trouble.

My boss at work was teasing me about using a mood light. I told him he should be happy that I purchased a $150 light with my own funds, instead of spending $150 a month of the company's money on drugs to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder. I also explained how the studies have shown that light therapy is equally as effective as prescriptions in treating SAD. So there!

Chana Dal

I made chana dal for the first time today. It was good!

First, take two cups of chana dal and soak them for a few hours. Then rinse them well.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, add the dal, then cover and simmer over low heat for a half hour or so.

Meanwhile, chop a small yellow onion and steam saute it until translucent. Add two cloves of garlic and a tablespoon each of turmeric, cumin, coriander, black mustard seeds and garam masala, and 1/2 a tsp of cayenne. Stir until fragrant, then stir into the dal and let simmer, uncovered, until it reaches the desired consistency.

We ate it over a mixture of roasted red potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes.

The End of the Stillness

Maisy is very happy to be rid of the Cone of Stillness.

Her surgery spot hasn't healed yet (this dog takes forever to heal) but she is leaving it alone and so we're letting her spend longer and longer periods of time sans cone.

Black Bean Soup

I made a Fuhrman-esque Black Bean Soup for dinner tonight.

Here's how to do it:

In the morning:
Put three cups of black beans in a crock pot with plenty of water and let them cook all day.

In the evening:

1 medium yellow onion
3 stalks of celery
2 carrots
1 red bell pepper
4 cloves of garlic
2 cups of carrot juice
2 cups of low sodium veggie broth
1 can of no salt diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of no salt tomato paste
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 tablespoon of Dr. Fuhrman's VegiZest
1 tablespoon of Dr. Fuhrman's Cocoa Powder
fresh cracked black pepper
fresh cilantro and limes

Chop the veggies and steam saute them in a little of the broth until translucent. Add the garlic and spices and stir and cook a few seconds, until fragrant. Add the rest of the broth, the carrot juice, the tomatoes and paste, and the beans from the crockpot. Let simmer 15 minutes or so, adjust the seasonings and serve with fresh cilantro and limes.

I have no idea how many servings this is... maybe 8?

Mac got a haircut

Here's Mr. Handsome with his new haircut. We are hoping that this shorter cut will mean less dirt gets dragged into the house. Mac also thinks the bandana will help him with the ladies. :-)

We have mood lighting!

Our fancy mood light showed up today. It is definitely big and bright. I was going to set it up next to the treadmill but now I'm wondering if that would be close enough. Getting walking and light time out of the way at once would be very cool.

It's all good :-)

What a great day.

First, I found out that my mood light really is going to appear on my doorstep any day now. Wahoo!

Second, Dr. Fuhrman's new radio show on Voice America started today. I didn't get to listen to it "live", but I did get an opportunity to listen tonight. It was a great program! Ruth Heidrich was his first guest. She had a great quote:

"You can choose to love what's good for you."

Third, I had a great dinner out with my mom in law at a new Hawaiian restaurant in town. I had a big plate of steamed veggies. She had a big bowl of ramen soup. We talked for an hour about investments and family gossip and all sorts of other fun things.

Lastly, I finished my meal with a fantastic chocolate cherry smoothie:
1 cup of soymilk
1/2 cup of pomegranate juice
1/2 a bag of frozen cherries
1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder

Life is good!

Four down!

Well I'm officially BACK to eating ETL style. And you know what? It works!

I have lost four of the six pounds I gained during my days of indescretion. I've also found a couple of great new soup recipes. One for cauliflower cream soup, and one for creamy tomato soup. The weather has been icky here and good soups are just the ticket.

I also decided I love Whole Foods Market. They sell braising greens, in bulk! I tried some this week and they were soooooooo good. I can't wait to go back and get more.

My Mood Light is still NOT here. It has now been 38 days since I ordered it. That seems plenty long enough to me. (Actually, it seems rediculous and I am quite irritated about it.) I may call tomorrow and cancel my order.

Mac is a druggie!

Mac ate Maisy's bottle of Rimadyl today. I think there were about six pills left. Not only did he eat the pills, he at the bottle, too...

He doesn't appear to be any worse for wear, so we're just watching him closely.

He does look a little drugged, doesn't he!

The Cone of Stillness

Miss Maisy's blue donut was not sufficient to keep her from bothering her wounds. She figured out nearly immediately that she could still itch them with a rear paw, so we put a sock on her paw. Then she figured out she could reach the sock while still wearing the donut, so she has graduated to the dreaded Cone of Stillness.

In many parts of the world, this unique torture device goes by the name "Elizabethan Collar". Not so much in our house, for it has a function far more interesting than fashion. When Maisy wears it, she is rendered utterly immobile! When we pull it over her head she freezes, and stays in the same exact position until we remove the device.

Today, in addition to the fashionable Cone, she is also sporting a sock with pink Vet Wrap and a bandage over her holes where the tumors used to be. She finds this whole arrangement quite demeaning. I hope it isn't required for long.

I hope she heals quickly.

Soy Egg Nog!

I could be the happiest person in the world right now. I love egg nog. I drink lots of it during the holidays. Except that now I'm not doing dairy products...

Today I found soy egg nog at Whole Foods Market and it is just wonderful! R doesn't like regular soy milk, but even he admitted this soy nog is top notch.

Back On the Bandwagon

Well, I'm back from San Antonio... although I did well eating at breakfast and lunch, I pretty much did what I wanted at dinner. The end result? I am now SIX POUNDS heavier than I was three weeks ago.

So I'm back on the wagon again. I'm going as perfectly ETL as I can now.

Today I had stir fried vegetables for lunch and some lettuce wraps with guacamole and a little taco meat for dinner.

Tomorrow morning will be a challenge because beakfast is at grandmas and she's making sausage! I'm bringing a big fruit salad.

Nuts, Nuts and More Nuts!

We drove out to Jossy Farms yesterday and picked up 50 pounds of fresh walnuts and 25 pounds of fresh hazlenuts, still in the shell but cracked. So now I have an excuse for watching TV in the evenings... they all need to be separated from the shells and bagged for the freezer.

How many nuts does one family need? I did a little calculating... an ounce a day for two people is a pound every eight days... 10 pounds every eighty days... or about 45 pounds in a year.

Miss Maisy - Infirmed Again

Miss Maisy had surgery today to remove two small tumors from her left front leg. We had spotted one of them a few weeks ago and were watching to see what it did. Then Maisy found it, too, and wouldn't leave it alone, so the Good Doctor recommended removal. While he was removing the first one, he found the second one and removed it, too.

Now Maisy is sporting her blue donut again, and is not too pleased about that.

The Good Doctor suggested that the tumors may be histocytomas, but we won't know until the pathology comes back.

San Antonio Adventures

I'm on day three of my San Antonio adventure, and things have taken a definite upswing.

First, I found three vegetarian restaurants to try. Last night I had a giant plate of grilled vegetables for dinner! The veggies, which included tomatoes, tomatillos, zuchinni, mushrooms, peppers, onions, broccoli and cauliflower, clearly had some olive oil and pesto on them, but it was a lot better than some of the other options on the Riverwalk, like enchiladas and fettucini alfredo.

Second, I took a cab ride to Whole Foods Market. $40 round trip for $50 worth of groceries, but I'm glad I did it. I bought fresh fruit, veggies, salad fixings and Lara Bars. I'm so happy to have food I can eat! The cab driver was very funny, telling us stories about San Antonio's past and about how the Alamo is haunted.

Tonight is a "dinner with friends" event at the conference. We decided to go back to Boudro's, which is where we ate on Saturday. (I'm just now realizing how lucky we were... we got there at the prime dinner hour, and while everyone else was waiting an hour and a half, we got seated immediately and we were served some fantastic, wonderful, amazing food by a very skilled and charming waiter.) Tonight there are about 25 people going. I can't wait to have guacamole again! It was fantastic. I will probably try the vegetable enchiladas tonight, if I can get them to hold the cheese for me.

I didn't get much sleep last night. There was an impressive thunder and lightning storm at around 3:00 a.m. that lasted for an hour. I couldn't see the lightning bolts from my room, but the whole sky would flash a brilliant white and the thunder would sound almost immediately. It was really wild for this Oregon girl!

A SAD State of Affairs

I have food issues.

Over the past week, as I have been trying to fight off a bug, the topic of nutritional healing has been a popular one in our house. I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about and talking about what I shouldn't eat... and a little bit of time on what I should eat.

The end result? Two days of SAD binging (think burgers and candy bars) and a weight gain of FOUR POUNDS!!!

And now... I'm sitting in a hotel in San Antonio for five days of training.

So I will be doing my best, but I don't have nearly as much control over my diet as I would like. I brought fruit and raw veggies and nuts on the plane with me, so for most of the day things went ok. Dinner? Not so good... it's hard when you're with other people who love food like you do and you're trying to remain sane.

Tomorrow I hope to find a grocery.

The Ideal Me

This is the ideal me:
This is the actual me, at least according to My Virtual Model.


Talk about motivation!

The after effects of brussels sprouts

I made brussels sprouts yesterday. And then I ate them all. Today, every time I even so much as thought about vegetables, my stomach would rumble. So I didn't eat very many.

It probably didn't help that we didn't have any vegetables at home. It's amazing how many vegetables you have to buy when you do ETL.

It's also amazing how much you have to cook! I'm doing two loads of dishes a day! Last night I tried to make butternut squash soup. It was so terrible that we just threw it out. All that cooking for nothing!

Food Diary, November 1

Breakfast -
Oatmeal with soy milk and goji berries
Fresh pineapple

Lunch -
One small slice of vegetarian pizza
Black bean soup with baked blue corn chips

Dinner -
Cobb salad with cashew caesar dressing
One rum ball