Austin, nice to meet you, too. And Carla, things are going just fine. Aside from being on the saddest of SAD diets. I haven't been able to make anything stick, really. Not that I've tried real hard.

Carla - how is the glucose testing going?

Brooks has training for 10 days - leaves tonight - I am going cold turkey ....hahaha...vegan turkey off of wine, real chocolate and bread...I can do anything for 10 days. In October he might be going to Syria/Turkey for 6 months....I am going to try to train for a 1/2 Iroman during his deployment! I am going to pick the place (something like Florida or Aruba where it is flat) and tell him he should plan on a 1/2 Iroman and then do it with him as a surprise!!!!

Hi Donna, glad to see you. Sorry to hear about your headache. Hope they can figure out what's up and you are feeling better. Eeeeek on the snakes! I don't think I would cope well with snakes slithering about on the walking paths. What a great goal to sign up for an Ironman with Brooks!

Woohoo, Carla! Great job. Sounds like you are really doing well. Is your glucose level responding? I had to look up Geotta, had never heard of it but apparently Cincinnati. is famous for it. Go figure.

Austin, have any recommendations of specific podcasts you've enjoyed? Your meals always sound so good.

I had a bit of a headache today from the wine last night, even though I didn't drink much. I apparently have very little tolerance for alcohol these days, which is fine actually because it doesn't help me reach my health and weight goals. I went into the office for a few hours, went to the grocery, then home to a nap. I need to head back to the office in the morning and get through more work.

B - oats with berries, chia seeds, turmeric and black pepper, almond milk
L - big ol' salad, Ezekiel English muffin with natural PB
D - cabbage and kale casserole, cantaloupe

Got my new copy of ETL. I figured my old one would turn up as soon as I got the new one, but still haven't come across it. I am going to start on Super Immunity tonight.

Sorry to have been MIA...Need to catch up! Right now at work.

Today at work

GF raw Oatmeal with cinnamon, raisins and homemade almond milk

Chopped salad with dressing from THE WHOLE FOODS PLANT BASED COOKING SHOW

Potato and Engine 2 plant burger

Apple and PB

HOME after work

Leafy greens with chopped veggies and dressing

HAGDE!

Hi -

Carla - come cook for me! African peanut stew? Everyones meals sounds great.

Sloth - it was only in my left eye, more common with women much younger than I am. No pain. I was very worried about it being macular degeneration because my mother went blind at the age I am now. Plus my father had a heart attack at my age. Sigh...I swear ETL is helping me be active.

Walked 3 miles with Miss Cleo wonder dog this morning. Had a plastic water bottle for her and my most favorite water bottle for me (Yeti with travel stickers) ...it was really hot towards the end and I was pushing her to drink water plus carried her across hot pavement... home and my water bottle is gone....so bummed. Had to meet a person this afternoon and after she left went back to the park and walked 2 more miles in the heat looking for water bottle (My favorite water bottle)...did not find it (or snakes)...get back home, I had left it in the bathroom. I think tomorrow is going to be a recovery day. Lots of fluids this evening.

This is one of the coral snakes from last week.


Waiting for Game of Thrones to come on.

@bisky - Wow! The coral snake is gorgeous. I know one wants not to get too close, but I'd love to see one this close sometime.
Hurray for finding your water bottle, even if looking sent you out on a bonus walk! I hope Miss Cleo recovered nicely!
I hope Game of Thrones was fun!

@magic71755 - Nice to see you! Your menu looks great. (One question, though... HAGDE? Is that a Game of Thrones thing?)

@Carla_wfpb - African Peanut Soup looks delicious! I have added it to my list of recipes to try!

I have a super busy week this week. It's my last week to teach a class, and I am taking my son to a big academic contest on Friday afternoon. We will be there until 9 or so Saturday night, so I'll be prepping and packing 4 meals for that trip.

Today's cooking plans: Baked Penne Florentine (turns into son's lunches for the week), Mexican Pickled Carrots, Baked Kale & Cabbage Casserole (from Dr F's ETL Quick & Easy Cookbook).

Yesterday was great ETL day, and I was happy when I weighed in this morning as I was down.

HAGDE
have a great day everyone

Hey @Mihani - thanks for telling me how you make the cabbage and kale casserole! Extra garlic and pepper sound like excellent ideas! And I'll try purple cabbage next time.

Does anyone here ever ferment anything? I have a batch of this kraut, but where I went light on the salt. I am about to try making a no-salt sauerkraut. Sauerkraut is shockingly easy, and I figure it's uncooked cruciferous veggies. I kept the salt low on this batch and am going to go no-salt on the next and see if I can get it to do its thing without any.

Today was a good ETL day (except maybe for that bit of sauerkraut):
B - green smoothie (spinach, blueberries, cold brew coffee, flax seeds)
L - mustard greens & black beans with nooch and no-salt seasoning, refrigerator pickled onions, raw red onion, some apple slices
S - apple slices and walnut bits
D - steamed mushrooms with parsley and spices, small bowl of homemade low-salt sauerkraut, big salad (massaged kale, romaine, tomato, pickled onions, red bell pepper, minced raw broccoli, parsley), dressing (raw turmeric, cashew milk, spices, tomatillo), blueberries and apple with cinnamon for dessert

Great ETL day Austin. I think it was about two years ago first time I tried mustard greens and at first I thought it was too peppery, but now I love it.

Congrats on the new IP, Magic! I imagine it would be hard to find others in real life who follow ETL. I've never met anyone who does myself. Of course, I don't get out much.

Still staying the ETL course despite lots of stress and being really tired a lot. I have work to do again tonight... we just suddenly exploded with more work and we were busy before.

S - a brown rice cake
L - big ol' salad with balsamic and nooch, a clementine
D - veggies, greens and pintos in sprouted grain tortilla with salsa, mixed berries with chia seeds

I'm familiar with that website Magic, but I haven't seen the cookbook. I did have the Ezekiel tortillas. They are really good, but hard to keep from tearing. Everything is a trade-off. Your menu sounds great.

I worked really late and not sure if I am going to eat dinner. I had 2 rice cakes late afternoon because I was getting hungry and could tell I wasn't getting out of the office on time. I love the Lundberg Farms brown rice cakes. I eat them plain or put some nut butter and/or sliced fruit on them, and they don't trigger my inner snack monster so I can eat just one or two.

Lunch was a big ol' salad. I may just eat some watermelon now and call it a day.

@Mihani - I did finally try the Cabbage & Kale Casserole. I followed your lead in adding extra garlic and pepper. It's quite nice!

@Bisky - Congratulations on being back swimming! The yoga and cycling sound fantastic!

@magic71755 - I'll look up Straight Up Food by Kathy Fisher. Thanks for the rec!

Good ETL day today:
B - spinach, blueberry, flax & cold brew smoothie
L - steamed collards with nooch and spices, garbanzo beans, pickled raw red onions, apple slices
S - apple slices and walnuts
D - huge green salad (massaged kale, romaine, cherry tomatoes, pickled raw red onions, red bell pepper), cabbage and kale casserole, steamed mushrooms with spices, baked apple with a little blueberry for dessert