Nov. 21: Volunteering at the Austin Humane Society

Those of you that have been following my blog for a while know these things about me:

~ I suffer from chronic depression
~ I am a complete animal lover
~ I'm a big fan of Lyle McDonald's work

I'd like to link you to a very special series that he has written.

Volunteering at the Austin Humane Society

This series touched my heart for so many reasons, particularly the ones listed above.

If you have ever suffered from mental illness or know someone who has, read this series.

If you love our furry friends, read this series.

If you use Lyle's site and forum and benefit from his writings, read this series.

Lyle gives away so much knowledge for free.  It's payback time, my friends.

Nov. 21: These Boots Were Made for Walkin'.....

I feel amazing.  I took a looooonnnnggg walk with the dog today.  My back didn't hurt, my leg didn't hurt, and the cold crisp air felt fabulous against my cheeks.

Ever since I moved, at the beginning of October, my back has steadily gotten worse.  Exercise has gone done the toilet.  I've been seeing a chiropractor and the improvement is nothing short of miraculous.  Before this treatment, after about 10 minutes I was dragging my numb, tingling right leg behind me like Quasimodo.  Today, I felt really good and did some stretching.  I took a short walk to the store and when I cam back, I decided to leash up the pup and go for it.  We wound through all sorts of little streets in our new neighborhood (I say new because we haven't really seen that much of it so far."

Now the pooch is laying on her favorite chair, pooped out, and I'm here typing, feeling inspired about health and fitness again!

(I couldn't get rid of the freaky eyes - I promise, she is a normal brown-eyed doggy!)

Every week, it seems like there is a challenge, standing in the way of healthy eating.  Sometimes it's my schedule, sometimes it is roadblocks and temptations thrown in the way by others.

This week, it's "brokeness."

I've got very little money for groceries this week.  We won't starve to death or anything, but fat seems to be the world's cheapest ingredient.  Everything inexpensive seems to be quite high in fat and carbs.

I have tomorrow off, so I will be looking for some bargains, and I will adapt my menu around them.  My veggie intake has not been what it should be lately either, something else I need to rectify.  This week you can expect a lot of stir fries.  I'm also going to be looking for some less expensive protein options - I'm very partial to skinless boneless chicken but it may not be in the budget right now.  I may also make a beef and cabbage soup.  We've really been enjoying a nice bowl of soup at the end of a long day - and it's another effective way to get the veggies in.

I'll be back after grocery shopping tomorrow to post the menu!

Nov. 16: Down Some Pounds

For once, the scale is making me happy.

It's probably because I was so sick, but I am down 6 pounds from the beginning of the month!  Today's weigh-in was 180.

I've made a huge change in eating habits, even though I am still dealing with WICKED cravings.  I'm being strict, but not so strict that I rebound.

A huge difference is cutting back on the Diet Coke. I don't know why, but when I drink that all the time, the way I so enjoy, I eat more.  I know there are studies with various hypothesis on why people drinking lots of diet soda gain weight, and it seems it is very true for me.

I'm sure with cutting out the fast food, the sodium intake is totally different.  That would also account for a few pounds.

The exercise thing is just NOT working out for me.  I've been under the care of a chiropractor for severe neck and back pain.  After two weeks, I can't go much further than a kilometer until I'm dragging my leg behind me in a most undignified fashion.  The chiro says to listen to my body and not force anything, and has also banned me from heavy lifting in the gym until this is straightened out.  I think I'd feel so much better if I could go out and take long wanders with the dog.  At least I don't have a pounding headache every second of every day anymore.

I had tried going to the doctor for this, but all they did was tell me it was stress and give me pain killers.  I'm getting more relief from the chiropractor after just 3 visits than the 3 doctors visits and multiple bottles of medication they gave me. While I'm definitely not anti-modern-medicine, there are some things a pill won't fix.

The meal plan is right on track for the week, and that in itself gives me a big buzz of success!

Nov. 14: Weekly Food Prep

This week, I'm really feeling the cooking bug.  Maybe because it's cold and foggy out, maybe because last week's food prep kept me so successfully on plan.  Whatever the reason, I'm itching to get into the kitchen today!

First things first, I'm roasting 2 chickens.  Have you seen those flattened chickens at your local grocery store?  They are supposed to cook way faster that way.  Anyhow, they are on sale, so I'm grabbing two and making them today.  While they are in the oven I'm going to also make a batch of baked brown rice.

The chicken soup I made last week was such a hit that my daughter R asked me to make it again this week.  So after the chicken cools, I'll remove the yummy white meat and put it away for other meals and then I will put the carcasses and dark meat in the crockpot overnight to make broth for more soup.

Sunday: Roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots, green beans

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Mexican chicken  casserole (recipe below)

Wednesday: Chicken noodle soup

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza night



Mexican Chicken Casserole

("Casserole" usually indicates something baked in the oven.  We're going to nuke ours in the microwave in one dish servings.)

cooked chicken

cooked brown rice

canned rinsed black beans

frozen corn

chili powder, cilantro, sea salt

salsa

tortilla chips

finely shredded cheddar

plain non-fat or low-fat yogurt

Based on your pre-determined serving sizes, add chicken and rice to a large bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup of beans and corn, and then season to taste with spices and salsa.  Heat in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, or until hot.  Carefully remove the dish from the microwave and top with some shredded cheese and crumbled tortilla chips.  Return to the microwave for 30 seconds, top with  yogurt and then enjoy!

One of the really nice things about this dish is that, depending on your nutritional goals, you can tweak the macros to suit.  For the kids, you can top it with a bit more cheese if you want.

Now that I am finally feeling healthier, this is the week that I am going to start my early morning walking plan.  I'm going to start off with a brisk 20 minute walk with the dog, and see how things go from there.

My goal has changed.  After the epiphany I wrote about yesterday, I really want to lookin the mirror and love what I see.  I want to treat myself kindly and feel beautiful.  I want to stop punishing my body with food and instead, nurture myself with food and activity.

I'm off to church and then the grocery store! 
Have a great week!

Nov. 12: Have You Ever Felt Beautiful?

I was talking with some friends the other day when something horrible hit me.

We were discussing at what weight we felt beautiful.  I realized that I have never felt beautiful.  There has never been a point in my life when I appreciated my body without reservations.

When I was a teen, I was very athletic and I had a tight muscular body.  This was before the fit body was thought of as a beautiful thing, so I felt ugly and masculine.

In university, I gained a few pounds and got up to a size 8.  I had some boobs and some hips, and it was such a drastic change for m that I felt fat.  I was horrified to see the scale creep over 130 pounds. (Keep in mind I am 5'8"!)

Later, I got into some swimsuit modeling.  Everyone else thought I looked beautiful but I spent time picking myself apart, scanning myself for cellulite and groaning in despair at the slight, natural, feminine protrusion of my belly.

Then I had a child.  I gained 50 pounds and couldn't see the beauty of my body supporting the sweet little life within it. I felt huge, ungainly and unattractive.

After my daughter was born, I was dismayed at the changes in my body: the stretch marks, the saggy muscles, the loose skin.  I couldn't fit into any of my old clothes and felt hideous and fat.  In my personal life, I discovered that my husband at the time was cheating on me, which of course, made me loathe my body even more.

Later, after the birth of my second daughter, I dieted ferociously and got back down to my university size, an 8.  I was sick, I was cranky and I was hungry.  Everyone else told me I looked great but I hated the way my breasts looked like droopy empty pockets on my chest.  Everything about me looked sunken and saggy.  Again, I was miserable with my body.

So I gained it all back.  And then I gained some more.  I reached my personal maximum density of 212, and I definitely wasn't happy with my body then.  I hated the largeness of myself, the way photos of me pointed out that I was truly larger than people I used to find quite heavy.  I hated the multiple rolls of fat that traveled down my torso, the cellulite that dotted my legs and the fact that my calves were too big to fit into boots.

And again, I lost weight.  Most recently I've been as low as 165, a size 10, and after 41 years of hating my body, I still picked myself apart. 

I regained some of the weight and I am trying to take off the regained pounds.  I want to remain at a healthy body weight.  I look in the mirror and cringe at the muffin top that rolls over my waistband.

I actually don't know what it feels like to look in the mirror and feel beautiful.  Why do I focus on the ugliness?  Why can't I find some trace of beauty that makes me feel good?  What would it feel like one day to love myself and see the good points and blur over the rest?

I can look back now and wish I looked the way I did when I was 17, or 21, or 33.  But would it make me happy? It didn't when I was 17, 21, or 33.  Would I feel beautiful?  I didn't when I was 17, 21, or 33.

Is this just a personal thing?  Have the rest of you felt beautiful?  Can you look back on a time in your life when you were really, truly, happy with yourself?  When you looked in the mirror and felt beautiful?  I can't imagine what that must feel like.

I want to find out.

Nov. 7: Real Chicken Soup Isn't Yellow

Unless you put the feet in.

Yep, that is why chicken soup you buy at the grocery store is filled with yellow food coloring.  Traditional Jewish chicken soup used the feet of the chicken to endow the soup with a golden color,

With no chicken feet in the local grocery store, my homemade soup is kind of a brownish color.  I'm still fighting off this silly cold and today I feel even worse than I did yesterday.  So I have some lovely homemade soup simmering away on the stove, with lots of delicious chicken in it.

HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP

1 box of organic chicken broth

4 skinless boneless chicken thighs

1/2 cup of thinly sliced carrots

minced garlic

finely chopped onion

1 tbsp of olive oil

2 tbsp of Italian seasoning

pasta of choice

In a large pot, saute the onion and garlic until golden and tender.  Add the chicken and lightly brown the outside.  Into the same pot, add the chicken broth, the carrots and the herbs.  Simmer for 3 hours on low or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and falls apart when touched with a fork. 

At this point, remove the chicken and shred it with two forks.  Set aside.

Turn the heat up and bring broth mixture to a boil.  Add pasta (I like whole wheat egg noodles) and cook until the pasta is tender.  Remove from heat and stir in the shredded chicken. 

(You don't have to wait until someone has a cold to make this - it's a delicious, cold-weather comfort meal. )

I've done lots of thinking about exercise.  I feel that the only way it's going to happen is if I do it first thing in the morning before life gets in the way on a particular day.

Off to enjoy my soup with some fresh focaccia!

Nov. 6: Thank you!

All of the feedback and encouragement I have gotten from you all has been amazingly helpful at getting me back on track.  I don't know if this applies to the rest of you all, but diet, weight loss, and whether I'm on track or not isn't something I can really talk about in my everyday life.  None of my friends are really dieting, so the topic is boring to them.  I work with a bunch of guys who would just stare at me blankly.  The people that I do know who are dieting are still in that place of justifying every bite they put in their mouth.  I'm good enough at doing that - I sure don't need someone else making up excuses for me!

So really, that leaves a forum that a post on with people I just adore, and this blog.

I believe, strongly, that without this blog to keep me honest, I'd have quit long ago.  I'd never have hit my goal weight and I would have probably yo-yoed back up to a higher weight than last year's Maximum Density.

I also love sharing recipes with you! I really enjoy cooking and being able to share some tricks and ideas is so much fun to me!

This week's menu:

Monday: Honey Garlic Meatballs, brown rice and steamed green beans
Tuesday: Mexican pita pizza
Wednesday: Ground chicken and bean burritos
Thursday: BBQ Beef Chili
Friday: Upside-down Nachos


What are upside down nachos?  I posted the recipe last year but it's definitely worth posting again.  I thought I had a pic somewhere but I can't seem to find it.

I use some of my big batch Mexican ground chicken for this (recipe below)

UPSIDE DOWN NACHOS

In an oven safe pan, layer, in this order:

~1 serving of ground chicken mixed with 1/4 cup of black beans

~ chopped veggies of choice (think peppers, onions, tomato, etc)

~1/2 serving (about 25 grams) of finely shredded cheddar

~ 6 blue corn tortilla chips, crumbled

~ the other half serving of cheese

Bake this in the oven at 400* until hot, bubbly and delicious.  (5-10 minutes)  When it comes out of the oven, top with plain, low fat yogurt and salsa, and perhaps some homemade guacamole if you are feeling industrious.

I love this because it gets rid of my pub-food appetizer cravings.  My kids love it because it has a funny name.  6 tortilla chips never made anyone fat, and neither did a bit of cheese.

BIG BATCH MEXICAN GROUND CHICKEN

2 pounds of extra lean ground chicken

chopped onion and garlic (to taste)

sprinkle of sea salt

chili powder (I like LOTS)

1/2 cup of barbecue sauce or ketchup

In a nonstick pan, cook the chicken, onion and garlic until chicken is cooked through, stirring to keep it broken up.  Once chicken is cooked through, season with sea salt and chili powder.  Stir in your choice of bbq sauce or ketchup and heat through until hot and thoroughly mixed.

There are a billion and one uses for this big batch of yumminess.  I'll list a few.

~ Taco or burrito filling

~ Mexican pizza topping

~ Mixed with brown rice

~ Upside down nachos

~ Meat for chili

~ Taco salad

~ In a pinch, stir it into canned spaghetti sauce and serve over pasta

I make a batch of this nearly every week - it's a staple in our house!