Apple a Day April

2

Replies

  • liapr
    liapr Posts: 648 Member
    Hi Gillian!!! welcome, so nice to have you here :) Sounds like you're off to a great start though. I have a lot of false starts with ETL but am also gaining momentum to give it another go. Any favourite recipes you're enjoying so far?

    Our house is soldddddddddddddddd!!!! Woohoo! We are leaving for a week away in the Cayman Islands (and a couple days in Florida on our way home). We depart first thing tomorrow morning and I can't wait for some sun and I'm so happy I can really relax now that the house is sold. I've been a gigantic ball of stress and that is partly to blame for my bad eating. Looking forward to getting back on top of my health :)

    Mihani, hope you can also vacation this weekend aka take a break for some self care and R&R!! Or at least some good sleeps :)
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Gillian that is great you are taking control of your weight, and congrats on your 4 pound loss so far. Sorry you lost your dad so young.

    Lia, have a wonderful time! So glad the house is sold, and now you can enjoy your vacation without that cloud over your head.

    I visited a friend last night and we had a couple beers, so not a perfect ETL day, but not bad...

    B - raw fit
    L - subway veggie sub, a few blue corn chips
    D - salad, sauteed italian veggies, 2 beers
    S - apple

    I'm going to make the OSG orange miso noodle bowl tonight. Can't wait to try it. I like the thai peanut one so I'm sure I'll like this one too. I stocked up on lettuce which I need to clean and get ready for salads, and got beets and carrots to shred and add to the salads. I feel ready to tip it a little more ETL in the coming week.
  • tdh1991
    tdh1991 Posts: 511 Member
    HI All,

    Welcome Gillian and so sorry you lost your dad way too early.

    Lia: Congrats!!!! Hope you are having fun on vacation.

    Back from my mother in law's last night. We had a nice visit but a lot of driving.

    My visit with Dr. Benson (fuhrman medical assoc) went well. I got my nutrient score up to 65000 which in just in the optimal range. my goal is to get it up higher than that next visit. What I have learned is that I had to eat way more vegetables then I thought. My last visit my reading was 55,000 which is ok but not optimal. To get my score up I started having blended salads most days of the week. I have been having greens at every meal and eating mostly vegetables. I think to up my score next time I need to limit the days I eat out. Unfortunately, I was only down 5 lbs from my last visit, since I gained weight over the holidays. Still, need to lose about 15-20 lbs. Right now I am a size 6 will probably be a size 2 when I get there. Will see.

    Dr. Benson wants me to do a 3 day fast; month 1, 4 day fast; month 2, 5 day fast; month 3. Then schedule a 10-12 week fast after that. Up my nutrient score a little bit more to 75000 and 85000 and get down to 120 lbs.

    So with a nutrient score of 65000 it is in the range where the body starts to heal itself. Hopefully, will work with me.

    Making a few dishes today;
    bean burger
    veggie soup
    asparagus soup
    home made hummus

  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Hi Terri, how do they measure your nutrient score? I am striving to get more veggies too. I eat a lot of veggies, but I am also eating too much bread and other grains lately. Did you mean 10-12 day fast? I can't imagine a 10-12 week fast! Of course, I'm not sure I can imagine a 10-12 day fast either. Are you feeling better since following the doctor's recommendations?

    I took an archery lesson last night, it was a lot of fun. Going to go back and get a practice session without the instructor now that I have the basics.

    Hope y'all are having a good week!
  • tdh1991
    tdh1991 Posts: 511 Member
    HI All,
    They have a gadget that measure the carotenoids thru the palm of your hand. Measure your nutrient score thru you skin.

    He wants me to do a 10-12 day fast. I contacted True North yesterday. Yes, I am staring to feel better but not all the way yet. Still struggle with cutting out sweets in my diet so I need to be better about making nutritarian sweets at home.

    B super seed oatmeal w/ strawberries, cooked spinach and mushrooms

    L: blended salad, veggie soup

    D: big salad, veggie burger home made, asparagus soup
    dessert: home made sorbet/smoothie

    plan on going to the gym tonight; weights and elliptical
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    Alas, I have been MIA lately, too. But I just enjoyed reading about everyone's adventures in April. I'm so glad you all are here. It lifts my spirits to know ya'll are out there striving and thriving! I wanted to share a link about Dr. F and there's some interesting recipes here, too.

    http://thechalkboardmag.com/dr-fuhrman-daily-diet
  • Carla_wfpb
    Carla_wfpb Posts: 1,331 Member
    Hello all (and welcome, Gillian!)

    Terri, it is so great that you're able to go to the Dr. F. clinic. Do you find it motivating? I think that the only way to really get enough veggies in is to blend some of them like you are talking about. I don't know how anyone would have room to eat that many otherwise! I

    Mihani, archery lessons sound like fun! Are you using a compound bow? In my limited experience, I found some of them very hard to pull back. I ended up using a child's bow haha!

    I'm just checking in to see how you all are doing and say hi. We've been going through an excruciating negotiation process with the sale of our home and it is also holding up the purchase of the place we found. We were ready to give up on our buyers last night but our realtor appears to have patched the deal together by throwing in $1000 of her profits and getting the buyer's realtor to do the same. I'm not going to count on anything until it is all signed and done though.

    My ETL diet has totally fallen by the wayside. I still fall into the all or nothing pattern. I need to smarten up. I'm feeling pretty crappy lately and I know it is the food and lack of exercise.

    If we do get the home we want, it has a large garden space and an awesome glass greenhouse with automatic temperature control. We are novices but have high hopes for growing (and eating) a rainbow of organic veggies and berries.

    With the warm weather, I think I am going to try to get back into my ETL blueberry and greens smoothie for breakfast. Even if the rest of the day goes badly, at least I'll be off to a good start. It might even help motivate me to do better the rest of the day. sounds like a plan!

  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Terri, that’s amazing. I’d like to see what my nutrient score would be (although not right this second lol). I sure hope these methods help you feel better. It would also be a great validation of the ETL way of life!

    Lisa, I was wondering where you got to. Glad to see you! Thanks for that link, those recipes sound really good. I’m going to try a couple of those for sure.

    Carla, I hope things come together on the house. I have felt so awful for you (and Lia too) going through so much stress and being in limbo on your house sales. The new house sounds wonderful! Really keeping my fingers crossed this all comes together for you, and quickly. Yes, we used compound bows, that was really different! I remember the old fashioned bows from when I was young and this was nothing like that. The instructor adjusted the tension until it wasn’t too hard for me. I am feeling it a bit in my arms and shoulders tonight, my muscles are so blah from lack of exercise lately. Need to get back to doing some weights. This rotator cuff injury has really set me back in fitness. I had to use a left handed bow because I couldn’t keep my left arm up straight enough without pain to use the right handed one. And I totally agree with you about starting off your day right with breakfast. If I have a good ETL breakfast it really does seem to help me make better choices throughout the day (usually… not always lol).

    I’m super duper busy with work (that’s a given though) but I am hoping to start getting caught up a bit now tax time is over. So much to do and now that I am starting to burrow out I’m freaking out about deadlines and things that have been on the back burner.

    B – whole wheat english muffin and cantaloupe
    L – Amy’s pad thai
    D – split pea soup from my freezer stash
    S – apple, some pretzels

    Still not getting to the full on ETL. I am taking the easy way out too often. I don’t feel like I’m eating poorly, but definitely not as focused on nutritarian as I should be and I know I would feel so much better and have more energy if I got back to basics. Salads… need more salads!
  • whats_her_name
    whats_her_name Posts: 716 Member
    Mihani wrote: »
    I know I would feel so much better and have more energy if I got back to basics. Salads… need more salads!

    ^^^ THIS!!!

    I've been MIA too. Just have no energy right now. Don't want to cook, don't want to do my usual activities. Feel like I need another Mexico trip... Feeling Blah.

  • Carla_wfpb
    Carla_wfpb Posts: 1,331 Member
    Mihani, I didn't know that the bows are adjustable. Maybe that was my problem. It was a HUGE bow that my Father-in-law owns. Probably for deer hunting. It is quite the culture shock being from the Pacific Northwest and then flying out to Kentucky to visit my in-laws! I shot guns for the first time there (at targets of course). I hope you are able to get through all of the items that were pushed to the back burner now that you are a little bit less crazy busy.

    Our home buyers backed out of the deal after stringing us along forever. Their realtor thinks that they were negotiating so hard and being unreasonable in their demands because they had cold feet and didn't want to admit it. What a waste of everyone's time. It is amazing how much stress there is just in being in limbo waiting to hear news all of the time. It is a relief just to be done with them. We are back on the market and doing an open house this weekend.

    I started my day off with banana blueberry oatmeal with walnuts. I didn't get groceries in time to make my shake, but the oatmeal is a Dr. F. recipe and better than a scone for sure! I like that I get my greens in with a shake, so I'll be switching to that once I get my shopping done. My husband and I agreed that I won't buy any more scones for myself and he won't buy himself any more chocolate chip cookies. We are so addicted to all of the bad foods again. maybe I should get back in the groove with a fresh vegetable juice fast.
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Hi Karrie… I was wondering where you were. Hope you are over the blahs soon. I hate when I get that way… seems like no way to snap out of it sometimes.

    Oh Carla, I’m SO sorry about the house. I really hoped this would work out. I’ll keep hoping you find a new buyer soon and you can get the house you have your eye on. That oatmeal sounds good, I should try that. I need to revisit the ETL cookbook and see if I can find some more things I like in there so I have more options. The archery range offers an animal replica hunt as well, but we just used targets. I don’t even want to shoot fake animals! We lived out in the country when I was in high school though, and my HS boyfriend was a big hunter. He learned really early not to talk to me about it lol. I don’t judge hunters actually. I have friends who think hunting is awful and cruel and etc. but they eat meat all nicely ground up and packaged in the grocery store. Most of the hunters I know have great respect for nature.

    I had an okay day. Busy but I got a few things off my desk and felt pretty good about it. Very tired though. I am looking forward to an early bedtime tonight.

    B – sprouted grain toast and raw fit (I gotta get off this toast kick!)
    L – Amy’s red curry
    D – the rest of the split pea soup I thawed out last night
    S – clementine, apple, a few almonds

    I'm going to the grocery tomorrow and stocking up for salads. Going to get back to lots of salad starting Saturday. I think I should get back to smoothies for breakfast too. Easy way to get more greens in.
  • tdh1991
    tdh1991 Posts: 511 Member
    HI all,

    Carla so sorry about your rotten potential buyers. Hope this weekend will be fruitful for you.

    Karrie: hang in there, maybe treat yourself to a massage.

    Mahini: your day looks good. Only one grain don't beat yourself up. Dr. F would mostly approve.

    Had a clean day yesterday and made it to the gym to go swimming. I would like to mix up my workouts. Too much repetitive stress on my joints doing elliptical all the time.

    I booked my trip for a 2 week water fast in October. Will be going to TrueNorth in Santa Rosa, CA Hope Dr. Benson is right.

    Goal: 2 day water fast May 1
    3 day water fast May 15
    4 day water fast over Memorial weekend
    5 day water fast during July vacation
    3 day water fast Labor day
    10 day water fast at True North
    Yikes!

    Everyone have a great day.

    Terri

  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Thanks Terri, but actually the Amy's had rice, and there's a small amount of potato in the split pea soup, so it was a pretty starchy carb heavy day. I am glad you are going somewhere to do the longer fast supervised. That sounds kind of scary, and also would be really hard to do when going about your day to day business.

    Went to Trader Joe's and got some fresh veggies and several packages of romaine. I had a gift card so I thought it was a good time to stock up there. Also got a few frozen meals, TJ's are so much less expensive than elsewhere. And their frozen stir-fry veggies are really good, they don't get all mushy like most brands, so I got 5 bags of those. Easy to throw in a pan with water rather than oil, and voila I have my pound of cooked veggies.

    Today was a less stressful day for some reason. I'm still really behind but freaking out less. Probably because I have the whole weekend to try to catch up. Sigh. Someday I'd like to get back closer to 40 to 50 hours a week. This is getting old. I even bought a lottery ticket on the way home. I'd like to retire tomorrow lol.

    B - raw fit and toast... I swear I'm giving up the toast soon
    L - subway veggie sub on wheat bread, no cheese (of course) or dressing
    D - not sure yet, but probably TJ's veggie pot stickers. I couldn't resist getting one bag I love those things.

    Anyone have big plans for the weekend?
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Spent most of the weekend in the office. I got quite a bit done but nowhere near caught up. Hopefully this week I can just keep plodding along getting things done and digging myself out of the piles of work.

    I cleaned and chopped a bunch of romaine last night, and shredded raw beets and carrots in the food processor, and got some grape tomatoes. So I'm all set for salads for lunch the next few days. I have a couple more bags of romaine so I have no excuse not to get back to salads. I think I just got tired of the spring mix lettuce. Also cut up a watermelon I bought last week. It tastes soooo good. I have missed watermelon, it's just not the same in the winter so I don't bother. And I have plenty of onions, frozen greens, canned mushrooms and beans, so I can easily whip up some ETL dinners this week. I've decided that I have to find some shortcuts to stick with a more strict ETL diet, so frozen greens and canned mushrooms to the rescue.

    Today...
    B - Watermelon, and lots of it!
    L - TJ's vegetable biryani... this was the first time I've had it and it was very tasty but definitely had some heat and it was too high in calories/fat to eat often. I'll put it on my special treat list.
    D - red lentil kale soup, more watermelon

  • whats_her_name
    whats_her_name Posts: 716 Member
    edited April 2016
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    Met the Weasley Twins from the Harry Potter movies yesterday with my DD. So much fun!! :smiley:

  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    That's so cool Karrie! Fun! Where did you get to meet them?

    Today was my first full on ETL day in quite a while, and work was super stressful today but I stuck to the plan.

    B - watermelon
    L - big salad with romaine, beets, carrots, grape tomatoes, sunflower seeds, nooch, balsamic. I forgot to add beans! Definitely not as filling without those so I got a can of chickpeas out so I won't forget tomorrow.
    D - split pea soup from the freezer stash, maybe some more watermelon
    S - apple

    I'm feeling really whipped from work today, and it's only Monday. I am not usually this tired until Thursday or Friday. I hope I can rally and get some energy for tomorrow.
  • tdh1991
    tdh1991 Posts: 511 Member
    Karrie that is so fun that you met the Weasley Twins. WE are big Harry Potter Fans in our house.

    Made this recipe last night for dinner. It was so yummy. With not eating night shade plants you will see my notes of the changes in the recipe.

    Nothing exciting today but this weekend going to see my daughter perform her last chamber concert on Sunday.

    Really Liked this recipe
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    Average Rating: ★★★★★4.64 stars
    Rated By: 25 members
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    Cuban Black Bean Soup With Garlic "Mashed Potatoes"
    Mirjam Jensen

    Serves: 5 I got 4 servings out of this recipe next time double the recipe to make more
    Preparation Time: 45 minutes

    Ingredients:
    For the Soup:
    1 small onion, chopped
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    1 tablespoon chili powder (omit)
    2 teaspoons ground cumin
    3 cups cooked black beans or 2 (15 ounce) cans low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
    3 cups low-sodium or no-salt-added vegetable broth
    2/3 cup low-sodium all natural salsa (repleace w/ under ripe mango 1/4 to 1/2 small yellow mango and 1/2 to 1 cup sliced carrots)
    1 tablespoon lime juice
    a few dashes chipotle tabasco sauce (omit)
    1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
    4 green onions, chopped
    For the "Mashed Potatoes":
    1 large head cauliflower, chopped
    1 small clove garlic, minced
    1/2 - 1 cup soy, hemp or almond milk (to desired consistency)
    1/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
    1/4 cup nutritional yeast
    2 stalks green onions, chopped
    Instructions:
    Saute onion and garlic in a splash of low sodium vegetable broth until tender. Add chili and cumin, stir until combined. Add beans, vegetable broth, salsa, lime juice, some fresh cilantro ( I also added fresh parsley) and tabasco sauce. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer about 45 minutes.

    Remove from heat and puree about half of the soup in a high-powered blender. Stir in cilantro and green onions and juice of 1/2 lemon no salt and pepper. Cover and set aside until ready to serve.

    Steam cauliflower until tender. Place into high-powered blender along with remaining ingredients except for green onions and blend until smooth (add non-dairy milk until desired consistency). Serve soup topped with "mashed potatoes" and garnish with green onions.

    Per Serving:
    CALORIES 259; PROTEIN 20g; CARBOHYDRATES 42g; TOTAL FAT 3.1g; SATURATED FAT 0.7g; SODIUM 138mg; FIBER 15.2g; BETA-CAR
  • whats_her_name
    whats_her_name Posts: 716 Member
    We met them at a Fan Expo (Canada's version of Comi-Con). We really only said "hi", "cheese", and "bye", but it was still a treat. :smiley:

    I'm really struggling right now. I don't want to prep food or cook. I just don't want to. I need to get my groove back...
  • tdh1991
    tdh1991 Posts: 511 Member
    Karrie: Dr. Fuhrman sells soup soups. You can buy some to help out.
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Hey y'all... I was doing a little surfing for ETL related blogs while eating my lunch today and came across a few things I think are worth sharing. I was thinking I needed some new information to recharge my enthusiasm. Not sure if any of these have been posted in the group before but I don't recall seeing them.

    amysnutritariankitchen.blogspot.com/ ... the recipes look good and she has some example ETL days.

    Terri had mentioned blended salads so I went in search of some ideas for those and came across this thefullhelping.com/introducing-the-blended-salad/ ... some of these sound really good. These have some oil in them but it can be omitted.

    This is not about ETL although she did try it and blogged about it which is what led me to the blog during my search, but I kind of enjoyed skimming a couple articles and intend to go back and read more bemorewithless.com/about/. I am finding as I get older that I often wish my life was more simple, less about work and bills and what needs to be done, and more about friends and family, health and happiness. So I'm interested in reading more of her ideas.

    Oh, and I found several Dr. F blended salad recipes too:

    Green Gorilla
    5 oz. baby romaine lettuce
    5 oz. baby spinach
    1/2 avocado
    1 banana
    Blend avocado with the banana,then add lettuce and spinach

    Smooth & Creamy Greeny
    6 oz. baby romaine lettuce
    6 oz. baby spinach
    1/4 cup soy milk
    8 dates

    Garden of Eden
    6 oz. baby romaine
    6 oz. baby spinach
    4 figs soaked overnight in
    1/4 cup soy milk
    2 Tbsp. fig vinegar

    Green Citrus Medley
    8-10 oz. romaine or leaf lettuce
    1 orange, peeled
    1 cup fresh pineapple
    1 Tbsp. blood orange vinegar

    Athlete’s Green Fuel
    8 oz. romaine lettuce
    4 oz. baby spinach
    1 oz. raw sunflower seeds
    1 oz. pine nuts
    1 oz. raw cashews
    1 banana
    3 tsp. fig vinegar

    Anna’s Drink & Stink
    5 oz. raw spinach
    2-3 medium tomatoes
    2 cloves raw garlic
    1 thin slice of red onion