Day 4, Week 3

It has been a long long day, so will make my daily log short:

A progress pic, down 9 pounds in less than 3 weeks!

Food log:

Breakfast: watermelon

Linner: corn on the cob, baked beans, broccoli, BBQ potato chips

Dinner: beans and potatoes, watermelon

Extras: 3 beers

Exercise log: Yeah right! Maybe tomorrow :)

See some corn on the cob there?

Look at that view!

How I feel: Today was my big work BBQ that I put together and planned... And cleaned up after.  Let's just say, it was a long day.  I did still stick to my guns and did not eat any grilled meats (never again!), and even avoided the cookies that were for dessert.  I did reach for a bit of the BBQ potato chips to have with the canned baked beans, but I found that those items gave me stomach cramps and I needed a bunch of water to make me feel better.  When I got home from work, Kevin was out with his Big Brothers Big Sisters kid, so I was able to sit on the back porch and relax and meditate by myself for a while.  This is almost never the case, so part of the evening alone was much appreciated. 

How often do you get time to yourself to just BE and relax?

Homemade Tahini

& Day 3, Week 3 
*Homemade Tahini recipe below

Happy hump day to everyone!  I feel like this week has been going by rather slowly.  Probably because we have such a fun weekend coming up.  On Friday, our good friend Marley is coming into Spokane from our college town of Pullman to go out for her 21st Birthday.  Then, on Saturday, our couple friends, Ian and Danielle are having a BBQ at their new house and a party through the evening for Dannielle's Birthday.  One other thing that is quite eventful this weekend is.... Arrested Development coming out on Netflix!!!!!  Kevin and I will, probably spend any second we get watching all of the new episodes.

Tonight for dinner, I ended up going to my parent's house to catch up with my mom and help her make dinner since she has been working all week.  We ended up making a sweet Thai curry with a bunch of veggies and a spice mix I got this weekend from this great local spice store.  All I can say is, YUM!  Check out the picture in my daily log below. 

Food log:

• Breakfast: 2 bananas, 1 apple
• Lunch: mixed greens with broccoli and chive hummus, 1 apple
• Dinner: sweet Thai curry over brown rice, sugar snap peas
• Extras: my Mom's homemade guacamole with whole grain chips as an afternoon snack, (1-2) beers in the evening at trivia

Exercise log: Walk with my parent's dog around the neighborhood

 How I feel:  I weighed myself this morning to find that I was one pound down from last week. That makes 9 lbs total since I started the 6-week Eat to Live plan.  I'm happy with this progress, but I think what shows even more of my success is my appearance. I feel like I can feel the fat melting off the many places it has been hanging on to, and the muscle underneath developing and showing through with each trip to the gym.  My husband Kevin even has said that, while he always thought I was skinny (thanks dear), he is noticing that I seem "smaller", like somehow my bones are shrinking me to be leaner.  I'm hoping that is not the case, and that my fat I have been holding on to for too long is coming off.  That reminds me of this picture I saw the other day (source unknown):

So, over the next week I have two BBQ's that I am going to.  One tomorrow for work, and another for our friend Dannielle as I mentioned above.  For BBQ's my go-to food to bring is always my hummus (recipe here).  It is great because it is healthy, but on the "approachable healthy-side" for most people.  Since a large part of hummus is tahini (sesame seed butter), and buying it in the jar generally costs up the ying yang, I decided to try to make my own.  Here is how I did it:

Homemade Tahini

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups unhulled sesame seeds
• 1-3 TBSP sesame or other oil

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.  Place the sesame seeds on a cookie sheet and shake to evenly spread.  No need to stray your pan, the sesame seeds produce their own oil. (In a toaster oven, toast at 400 and do 1 cup at a time). 
2. Toast for 8-12 minutes until the some of the seeds turn a very light brown.  During toasting, make sure to take out the pan and lightly shake to move the seeds around.
3. Once toasted, immediately scoop into a food processor with a small amount of oil.  Process and scrape the sides periodically.  It will take a few minutes to go from seeds, to crumbles, to liquid-y tahini.  Be patient!
4. Store the tahini in an airtight container in the fridge and use for dressings, hummus, or spreads. Yum!

Amy's Notes:  Like I said above: be patient with the tahini!  It will come together.  I don't have too heavy duty of processor (although it is quite loud and I was worried the neighbors might come knocking to see who was running a chain saw), and mine was able to get the job done with about 8 minutes of processing.  This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of tahini, which is about how much comes in a jar at my local grocery store (for nearly $7 a jar!).  When buying the sesame seeds in the bulk section, I was able to get 2 cups of seeds for about $2.  That's over a 70% savings!  

What sorts of foods do you make at home to save money, or avoid preservatives and other additives?

Weekend and the Start of Week 3

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Mine seemed to go a bit too fast, unfortunately.  Since I missed posting my daily logs, today I will have the logs from Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and today.

Saturday: Day 6, Week 2
Food Log: 

• Breakfast: 1 apple
• Lunch: lentil chili with polenta jalepeno biscuits
• Dinner: Dr. Fuhrman's Rainbow Potato Salad, whole wheat bread with chive hummus (recipe coming soon), and corn on the cob
• Extras: 2 beers with dinner, 3 beers in the evening

Exercise log: Nada... let's call it my rest day

How I felt: On Saturday I just felt like being lazy, lazy, lazy!  All I did in the afternoon was hang out on the couch with Kevin and then make the potato salad and chive hummus for the BBQ that evening.  My friend Stephanie (check out here blog here) hosted the BBQ at her house to have friends come and help her finish a very mighty bottle of beer from Rogue brewery.  It was about three times the size of a champagne bottle, I estimate.  To avoid eating too bad of foods, I brought my own corn on the cob to put on the grill, as well as Dr. Fuhrman's Rainbow Potato Salad, and a new creation of mine: chive hummus (recipe coming soon once I polish off this first batch!).  After the BBQ Kevin and I headed up north of Spokane to our friends' new house to play some games.  Overall, I think I did better eating this Saturday than I did the last, although there were plenty of temptations.

Sunday: Day 7, Week 2

Food Log: 

• Breakfast: none, we slept in
• Lunch: peanut noodles and veggies
• Dinner: Dr. Fuhrman's Rainbow Potato Salad, 2 slices Dave's Killer Bread with chive hummus
• Extras: watermelon, 1 Dr. Fuhrman brownie

Exercise log: Does housework count?

How I felt:  On Sunday I felt like in the evening, I just ate to eat.  I even had so much watermelon in the evening to feel painfully full.  At least it was watermelon that got me to that point and not something that doesn't mostly consists of water.  All the same, I know I shouldn't eat past the point of being content.  Gotta work on that!

Monday: Day 1, Week 3

Food Log:

• Breakfast: watermelon
• Lunch: Dr. Fuhrman's Rainbow Potato Salad, kale salad massaged with avocado and lemon juice, and 1 apple
• Dinner: brown rice with Indian red lentils, kale, and onion
• Extras: watermelon for dessert

Indian red lentils with kale and onion over brown rice

Exercise log: Work softball game

How I felt:  I felt happy with my food choices for the day.  My "exercise" wasn't too extraneous, but our team did end up winning.  Because we had our softball game in the evening, I didn't get around to making and eating dinner until nearly 9:30.  From a girl who grew up in a house that served dinner at 5 P.M. sharp, this threw off my grove a little.  I ended up not being able to go to sleep until nearly midnight and felt a bit sluggish the next day for that.  I guess we learn from our mistakes.

Tuesday: Day 2, Week 3

Food Log:

• Breakfast: watermelon, 1 banana
• Lunch: brown rice with Indian red lentils, kale, and onion; 1 banana; 1 apple
• Dinner: 1 slice Dave's Killer Bread with chive hummus, 1 apple
• Extras: 2 beers

Exercise log: 20 minutes on an inclined treadmill, push-ups, sit-ups, stretching

How I feel:  I was proud of myself that I made it to the gym after, let's say, not my favorite day at work...  Let me explain: I am the party coordinator for all of the events around the two offices I work at.  On Thursday, we have planned a Spring BBQ to boost ccamaraderie and enjoy the decent weather we have been seeing.  To prep for this, I made my shopping list and.... cleaned out the grill.... that hadn't been touched in over a year, and it didn't seem like it had ever been cleaned.  I am not normally a squeamish person, but while cleaning this, I gagged several times and nearly threw up twice.  As I worked on cleaning the scum from burned meat of the past off of the grill, I got to thinking that if this black tar was created on the insides of this grill after a year or two, think of what a lifetime of eating these meats does to the inside of someone.  Certainly not black tar, but I'm sure just as greasy plaques inside of their arteries.  I can say this for certain: I will never eat any sort of grilled meat again.  At least that unpleasant activity reaffirmed why I am doing this 6-week Eat to Live Challenge.

How I felt about that nasty grill....

I just want to say, thank you to all who have been following, or partially following my progress.  It means a lot to me to have an audience to keep me accountable and are so encouraging.  I'm sorry that this post is a bit lack luster, but like I said earlier: my recipe for chive hummus is coming soon, and it is crazy good!

How was your weekend?  Do you find it harder to stick to your health goals over weekends or holidays (especially as we are getting into BBQ and picnic season)?

Kale Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

Hello all!  Very sorry I wasn't able to post my daily log yesterday.  My day was jam-packed with errands and a lot of fun.  First, I woke up and did some household chores before my mom and I were to have a girl's outing.  My mom ended up canceling, unfortunately, because she is a substitute secretary at a local school district and had accidentally gotten signed up for a shift when she had thought she had marked out for the day.  Bummer!

I then stayed around the apartment in the morning doing a bit more housework and rearranging the living room.  Feng shui anyone?  I also finally hung up some pictures that had been sitting in the corner since we moved in over a month ago :/.  After that, I made Kevin lunch and brought it to him at work since when he went to make it himself this morning his deli meat had gone bad (I think that's a sign he should go Nutritarian with me, don't you?).

After making Kevin his lunch and I made myself a green smoothie to-go (see below).  Once I brought Kevin lunch, I went to run some errands for the rest of the afternoon.  This included getting a new screen protector put on my iPhone, getting a birthday present for a friend, going to a local spice and vinegar specialty store, trying to get Rip Esselstyn's newest book My Beef With Meat (which I decided to probably just get on my kindle iPad), going to spend a gift card at a novelty store, and getting some things at Target.

At Target I was browsing the clearance clothes rack and decided to treat myself to a new dress to wear out last night since I have been well at sticking to my 6-Week challenge.  I posted the picture on Facebook to the group Dr. Fuhrmans Eat To Live - Nutritarian Plant Based Diet.  I got a lot of great responses and encouragement from the group.  Later, when my mom had seen the picture online, she told me she was so surprised that that was me and that I was looking so great.  Thanks mom, for always being my #1 Cheerleader :).  Here is that "progress" picture:

After running errands, I did a small workout (more about that in my daily log below), then got ready for our fun evening out... you guessed it, in my new dress that is one size smaller that I would have been two weeks ago!  First, we parked at my work that is by the Spokane Arena, and walked across the Downtown Riverfront Park to go to dinner downtown at The Steelhead Bar and Grill.  It is an upscale gill that makes great fresh food. 

Normally, while eating out, I would try to get a salad, but all of their salads here had meat included.  I know I can ask for no meat, but I'm always worried that I will still get charged the meat price for the salad even though I ask for it off.  I don't think that's fair, do you?  Instead, I ended up ordering a portobello sandwich with a side salad.  It was a big sandwich, but this ended up being my lunch and dinner, so the portion worked out perfectly.

After dinner, we went back across the park to the arena for a Spokane Shock indoor football game. Since Spokane doesn't have its own NFL football team, we have the Shock instead, which is essentially  a team with fairly professional-grade players on a field about a quarter of the size of a normal football field.  That means lots of action, lots of scoring, and lots of crowd fun!  My dad was able to score us ticket is one of the suites through his work, so we got a great view!

During the game they had a raffle toss where you donate $5 to a local charity, and you get 6 small footballs (think tiny stress-ball size) to attempt to throw into a car that drives slowly around the field with its windows down between the 3rd and 4th quarter.  The balls that make it in get put into a raffle to win half of the money from the proceeds.  From where we were seated, this is nearly impossible, but we gave it a shot anyways.  I threw two of them, Kevin threw three, and one we gave to another guy in the suite that is a client of my dad's.  It turns out that the client had thrown the ball down to the lower seats, and someone has picked it up and tossed it in.  We surprisingly won the raffle!!!!! We ended up walking away with over $300!

Luckily, that night we were also going to the casino for a friend's birthday.  No big money was won, but we did have a lot of fun.  We didn't get home till later in the night, so there was no blog post, and I will report my weekend log on Sunday or Monday.  Now, my daily log, and make sure not to miss my smoothie recipe below!

Food Log:

• Breakfast: Kale Orange Creamsicle Smoothie (recipe below)
• Linner: Portobello sandwich on a focaccia roll and a mixed greens side salad
• Extras: 2 beers at the casino

Exercise Log: 1 mile outdoor run, abs, push-ups 

How I felt:  Yesterday I felt very confident and happy. For the first time in a long time, I felt good about how I was eating and my body image.  At no point during the day was I temped to eat any SAD (Standard American Diet) foods, although there were plenty around.  Today (Saturday) will be a bit more of a challenge, as I am going to a friend's BBQ in the evening.  Instead of grilled meats, I'm opting to bring two corn on the cobs to grill for myself. Yum!  Hopefully the BBQ will have a couple of healthy sides.  I did hear that someone was bringing hummus!  Now on to my recipe....

Kale Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup raw cashews
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 handfuls of chopped kale
• 3 small oranges, peeled (about 1 cup or so)
• 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed (optional)
• Several ice cubes

Instructions:

• Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Add more ice to achieve the thickness you desire. 

Amy's Notes:  

This was the perfect serving side for a meal on the go.  For this, I used cashews and water because I didn't have any non-dairy milk, but you could easily substitute 1/2 cup+ for that portion of the recipe.  Also, feel free to leave out the kale if you want more of a traditional orange creamsicle taste.  The great thing about this recipe is the oranges are sweet enough that extra sweeteners (dates, stevia, etc.) are not needed.  I put my smoothie in a to-go water bottle since I was running out the door to Kevin's work.  Green smoothies are great for a meal on the go!  Enjoy!

How often do you enjoy green smoothies?  

Day 4, Week 2

I am happy that today is my Friday!  At my work we have every other Friday off as a company-wide initiative to save on energy and gas.  Yay for being environmentally friendly AND giving me some three day weekends :).  Since tomorrow is my day off and my mom is back in town, we are planning on spending the afternoon together and going to check out a spice store close by.  I'm hoping to find some Indian spices I have been looking everywhere for!  Perhaps some new spices tomorrow will bring inspiration for a new recipe post.  But for now, on to my daily log...

Food Log:

• Breakfast: 1/2 small watermelon
• Lunch: whole wheat crackers, small cup of leftover chili, kale salad with cucumbers and ginger dressing
• Dinner: thai tofu lettuce wraps, a bite or two of creme brulee
• Extras: 1 beer, 1 Dr. Fuhrman brownie

Exercise Log: Be prepared to be proud of this blogger...

• 20 minutes on the treadmill, jogging for one mile and walking the rest of the time
• 5 minutes solid of ab workouts
• legs and hip flexer workout
• squats and lunges
• 5 sets of 5 pushups

How I feel:  I'm happy that I was finally able to get my booty to the gym!  Positive talking is where it was at!  Yesterday I said, I will go to the gym, and I did not let myself down.  In the end, I felt great for sweating out some of my thoughts and stresses, and it was nice to feel my muscles warm and working.  As for eating today, I feel like I did pretty well at sticking to it, even though I had dinner out with some girlfriends tonight.  In the past I maybe would have ordered a pasta or pizza from the restaurant we went to, but instead, I ordered an appetizer of lettuce wraps.  Not only did this keep my check costs down, it kept my portion of food at a reasonable level.  Although I could tell the food was way over-salted, I was happy to have so much lettuce to offset it with.  Overall, I feel like I need to get more fresh fruits in, but I am needing to go to the grocery store to stock up tomorrow.  Perhaps I'll take a walk over to a local fruit stand about a mile from our apartment.  Exercise and fresh fruit?  Doesn't get much better than that!

What is your motivation to get yourself to go to the gym?  Do you find it a chore?  How do you feel when you are done?