Day 66 !!! Victory !!!

Day 66 - We made it! 

Okay, it wasn't perfect, but it was still a victory.

We didn't cook every day - we had leftovers, we ate over my parent's house, we went out to eat for social occasions, and we did go out ourselves sometimes or even got pizza/fast/junk food some of the days, as you've seen if you've followed the blog.

But the main goal was to STOP our bad habit of buying fast food almost every day (or multiple times in a day)! And that HAS occurred!!
Of the 85 days since we first began (remember, we reset and refocused mid-way!), we had 8 days where we either ate out or ate junk for laziness or emotional reasons. This is a 91% success rate - I'm calling it a win!

So some days I still don't feel like cooking and that evil thought pops into my head - but more often than not I can quickly turn this down as I now know that:
* What I make will taste better than anything else out there.
* I will feel better (healthier and more satisfied) during and after I eat, if I choose to make my own food - feel better both emotionally and physically!
* I can come home and pull something together quickly, it doesn't have to be an ordeal.                      * I have the ability to plan, prepare in advance, keep the fridge and kitchen organized (and this helps immensely in keeping on track!)
* It just takes a little practice, you'll learn as you go along, it's possible to change your life! Change happens in the moment - we have a chance with every choice, with every meal, am I going to do what is right for me here? You don't have to start on a Monday, a new week, a new year. If you 'mess up' it's not the end of the world, you just make a better choice next time. Do your best, and yes, your best is good enough. Each step you take towards a healthy lifestyle will bring compound rewards in future motivation, energy, and lasting health - it is worth it!

What else we're taking away -if you read my post on Day 56, some of this will be familiar:
* Jesse's blood sugar is generally lower, and his A1C levels have dropped 2 points.
* I am now pain free!
* I lost 19 pounds  (even with all the Halloween and Christmas candy I've already eaten!), and Jesse has lost some weight of indeterminate amounts. Apart from some light walking and a few days of minimal stationary bike work, this is really all from our eating choices.
* I feel lighter and a little sleeker.
* We both have more energy. I was able to walk joyfully to and fro through the entire Greenfield Village yesterday for Holiday Nights and still be able to move the next morning - something that would not have happened a year ago. And this with a case of plantar fascitis (heel pain) due to poor shoe choices....ha!
* I sleep better when I'm eating right - more sound and restful.
* I have also found that doing this has opened up new ways of thinking for me. I feel more hopeful. I feel that more things are possible for me. I know that I can change my life, and have power over my experiences - and have proof of this!

Where are we going from here?
Well, I think we'll take a break for the holidays and then jump on the 21 Day Kickstart program! I am going to continue to post the dinners from this program because I feel it does help me to stay accountable to our choices. The desire to eat out is much lessened, but it's still there a little bit - so I'm not quite ready to give up the safety blanket. :)
If you're interested in joining us for the 21 Day Kickstart beginning January 7th: http://support.pcrm.org/site/PageServer?pagename=21day_vegan_kickstart&JServSessionIda003=upegog3qg1.app234c

Also - I am going to do an extra post on the weekends displaying a healthy baked good. I am not yet ready to give up the sweets, and I've learned that not planning to have some means that I occasionally buy junk on the way home! So, I am going to bake something healthy and super yummy once a week, keep little bits in the freezer (if I can!), and essentially find a way to have my cake and eat it, too!
Hey - you have to set yourself up for success, and if my current 'success' stage is eating home-made dessert made out of slightly healthier options (versus eating my historical choice of processed, or fast food junk made out of dairy and corn syrup) - so be it. It's a step. :)

THANK YOU for hanging in there with us, and for offering support, inspiration, and advice!
Happy Holidays, everyone! :)

Day 66: Sunday Dec 23 ~ Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna ~

~ Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna ~

Well, we made it! Yeah, the post is a little late, and actually we had leftovers for our real dinner, but I'm cooking ahead today and thought I'd share this. :)

We've had this dish a few times - made a batch, then had extra chopped veggies which we froze to use in the next batch a few weeks later! It is SO good! :)

I thought this would be a nice dish to bring over for our family dinners this week. Something that hopefully everyone can enjoy - lasagna with a kick! - and something that will be super yummy and still on plan for us. I know we'll probably have a little 'off plan' things, but I'll feel better the more I limit this - so this yummy lasagna is a way to have my pasta and eat it too. ;0
http://engine2diet.com/recipe/raise-the-roof-sweet-potato-lasagna/


And as I bid you all adieu for a while on the blog, thought I'd share one more bit with you -
While the clock approaches 2:30 a.m. I just reached a breaking point in my work, contemplating whether to ride out the second wind and plunge through till Christmas Eve eve or take a little nap....and here's what the guys are doing...

Well, I can't begrudge him - he did work hard today, and well, the cats have to sleep to keep their stripes in line. :) but it's so funny they're OUT! And for me - time for another cup of coffee and phase 2 I think!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year's all! :)

Day 65: Saturday Dec 22 ~ Pizza Margherita ~

~ Pizza Margherita ~

SO excited to be going to Holiday Nights at the Greenfield Village tonight! :) I love all the holiday spirit there - the old-fashioned street lights, greenery shop, caroling, bonfires, horse-drawn buggy rides, all kinds of goodies - and I am thrilled to be able to share the experience with my family - they've never been! :)

I've had this dish on my 'to bake' list for a long time, so I thought I'd finally get to it! :) I made one the 'pizza margherita' style, and I made a veggie pizza - using up the remaining cut veggies from Thursday's wraps. Yummy! :)

Pizza Margherita
From "Heart Healthy Pizza" by Mark Sutton. Tons of great recipes, and very helpful tips! :)
All recipes (below) on this page are Copyright 2012 by Mark Sutton. http://www.hearthealthypizza.com/

Basic Pizza Dough - http://www.hearthealthypizza.com/Recipes_F.html [I opted for the whole wheat version, essentially replace 1 cup flour with whole wheat flour]
Classic Tomato Sauce - http://www.hearthealthypizza.com/Recipes_S.html [I used diced tomatoes I had in the freezer, sprinkled with Italian Seasoning and Garlic Salt. I had intended to just use pizza sauce from a can, but Jesse brought the can opener with him to work - oops! :)]
Millet, Sunflower Seeds, and Oregano Sauce - not available online ( replacing mozzarella cheese)
Parmiso (replacing Parmesan) - not available online

Day 64: Friday Dec 21 ~ End of the World Feast: Pumpkin Soup and Hot Chocolate~

~ End of the World Feast: Pumpkin Soup and Hot Chocolate ~

 

Well, the Mayans must be honored today - don't want to make the gods angry, right? ;0 It might cause the end of the world or something...

Anyway, my first thought was corn, "we call it maize", beans, you know the 3 sisters....but then I found this fun tidbit and decided to go with Pumpkin Soup and Hot Chocolate. I feel that the end of the world is deserving of chocolate, and what better way to give tribute than to consume the thing I am most grateful to this culture for?  :)

A note on the hot chocolate - I was leery of drinking chocolate with only water. I learned on the Hershey's tour this summer that milk is a very important part of milk chocolate - so I was thinking about trying it with even soymilk....then decided to woman up and follow the recipe.
It actually wasn't bad at all! I think the honey not only adds sweetness but body. Now, once you put the cayenne pepper in - it does burn a little going down, at least until it's settled in the liquid. As Worf would say, "this is a warrior's drink". To the Mayans! :)

 

These recipes retrieved from: 
http://car.utsa.edu/Legacy/mayarecipes.htm (via: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmaya.html)

*To make the pumpkin soup plant-strong, we skipped the oil and would have used veggie broth v. turkey broth if I had some prepared. Since I didn't, I used 2 cups of water instead. I think this would be good with soymilk or veggie broth to help give it more body - but Jesse & I liked it this way also. :)
P.S. I had pumpkin puree in the freezer, so I skipped the first half. You could also used canned pumpkin to expedite this. And 1/2 my pumpkin was actually hubbard squash. :)

Pumpkin Soup
Recipe by Shanti Morell-Hart

In early pumpkin soup recipes, the pumpkin would have been baked whole in hot ashes. Peeled and chopped pumpkin would then have been thinned with broth from wildfowl or game.
1 small pumpkin, about 12"
2 tbs palm oil
3 tbs honey
1/2 tsp ground allspice
4 c turkey broth
Salt to taste
Thinly sliced onions
Roasted pumpkin seeds, for garnish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pumpkin in a baking dish and roast until easily pierced with a knife, about 1 hour. Allow pumpkin to cool, slice off top and scoop out seeds. Clean pumpkin fibers from seeds and discard. Toss seeds with oil and salt to taste. Spread out on a baking sheet and return to oven 15-20 minutes, until crisp and golden. Reserve for garnish.
Scrape the pumpkin flesh from shell and mash, or puree if a smoother mixture is desired.  Place the pumpkin in a large saucepan and season with salt, honey and allspice. Gradually stir in enough broth to make soup with thin or thick consistency, as desired. Simmer over medium heat about 5 minutes, until hot. If desired, serve soup in small pumpkin or squash shells. Garnish with onions and pumpkin seeds.

Hot Chocolate
Recipe by Shanti Morell-Hart

When Cortez and his army arrived in the land of the Aztecs, they were unimpressed by the little dark brown beans many of the Aztecs were carrying, until they learned they were used like money! These beans were cacao beans, a popular trade item before getting ground, roasted, and made into hot chocolate (without milk-- no cows!)  As popular as it was for the Aztecs, chocolate, or xocatl, was originally developed as a food by the Maya.  Sometimes it was made without honey, as a bitter drink, and occasionally even contained chiles, to make it spicy. 
2 ounces (squares) bitter, unsweetened bakers' chocolate
1 cup hot water
3 tablespoons honey
dash salt
3 cups hot water
Chop the chocolate and heat it in 1 cup of water until melted. Add honey and salt.  Beat the hot chocolate with a balloon wire whip as you add 3 cups of hot water.  Serve the foamy hot chocolate with pinch of cayenne pepper.
 

Day 63: Thursday Dec 20 ~ Tex-Mex Freezer Surprise ~

~ Tex-Mex Freezer Surprise ~ 

I'm trying to work on clearing out the fridge and freezer before Christmas arrives as I know we'll need space for all the goodies everyone is making! I found a mystery bag which turned out to be a batch of salsa we made that just wasn't quite the right consistency - too soupy...which went great with my bag of black beans and some frozen mixed veggies. Put in a pot, after they began liquifying tossed in some penne pasta...and voila! Tex-Mex Freezer Surprise has been created. 
 

Served with some homemade tortilla chips, this was an ideal dinner for a cold and stormy night! :)
(see instructions for chips: http://freedomfromfastfood.blogspot.com/2012/09/day-1-friday-sept-28.html)

 

Day 62: Wednesday Dec 19 ~ Veggie Wraps with Homemade Hummus ~

~ Veggie Wraps with Homemade Hummus ~

 

This is what we were SUPPOSED to have yesterday! :) But anyway - today when I got home I spent 20 minutes chopping all our veggies, so now we're ahead a little bit.

Here's what we included: hummus (see below), brown rice, celery, carrot, red pepper, tomato, sweet potato, kale, lime juice, lemon pepper. Also on mine: olives, parsley, red onions.
I just took a pinch of most everything in our fridge and we rolled it up in a flour tortilla. Yum! :)

Hummus - make your own: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/hummusrecipes/r/oilfreehummus1.htm

* I made my own and froze it in yogurt cups, once solid remove from container by running 

water over the bottom and squishing until it pops out, then put in ziploc. It's good in a pinch, but it does lack a little bit in texture after freezing - so if you do this, I would recommend keeping it for a spread versus a dip.

Day 61: Tuesday Dec 18 ~ Schlubway :(

~ Schlubway :( ~

 



Well, I'm claiming 1/2 progress tonight. I did begin prepping tonight's dinner and if it weren't for a few factors, but mostly Jesse's low blood sugar, I would have held firm. I felt a little defeated caving in during the last week of this challenge!

I had planned veggie wraps with hummus (now Wednesday's dinner), took the hummus from the freezer to thaw, cut up some tomatoes - but that was as far as I got, so other veggies not prepped and kitchen is still a wreck from before.

14 hours later...work, Jesse then went on to cookies to close out and of course they're busy so it was late, I"m stuck at work but using the time to do Christmas crafts, then I learn that I have an interview the next day (yeah)...so we go by the place, then go pick up some things I need (namely a pet fur roller in case the interviewer had allergies or just could see the pounds of fur on everything I own)...and it's after 9 p.m. before we get home and Jesse hasn't eaten since noon. I was really worried about getting things ready for tomorrow, and both of us were just tired, so we decided to get Schlubway....which I think is doubly ironic considering Jesse's scathing review of them not a week ago!

 

I'm claiming 1/2 progress though because it was a struggle to allow this - versus how we were prior to the challenge, where it would not have even been a question.