NON WW & WW NEWBIES, OUR NEW LIFE, THE START OF SOMETHING WONDERFUL

@TeresaW1020 here is the recipe, it looks more complicated than it is (it's a lot of writing!):

Green Chili with Pork
1 (3½- to 4-pound) boneless pork butt roast trimmed and cut into 1½-inch pieces, trimmings reserved
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt divided
1 cup water
1 1⁄2 pounds tomatillos husks and stems removed, rinsed well and dried
5 poblano chiles stemmed, halved, and seeded
1 large onion cut into 8 wedges through root end
5 garlic cloves unpeeled
1 jalapeño chile stemmed and halved
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1⁄8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch ground cloves
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon pepper
1⁄2 cup minced fresh cilantro plus extra for serving
Lime wedges

Toss pork pieces with 1 tablespoon salt in large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Meanwhile, chop pork trimmings coarse. Transfer to Dutch oven. Add water and bring to simmer over high heat. Cook, adjusting heat to maintain vigorous simmer and stirring occasionally, until all liquid evaporates and trimmings begin to sizzle, about 12 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until dark fond forms on bottom of pot and trimmings have browned and crisped, about 6 minutes longer. Using slotted spoon, discard trimmings. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat; set aside pot.

Adjust 1 oven rack to lower-middle position and second rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place tomatillos, poblanos, onion, garlic, and jalapeño on prepared sheet and drizzle with oil. Arrange chiles skin side up. Broil until chile skins are blackened and vegetables begin to soften, 10 to 13 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through broiling. Transfer poblanos, jalapeño, and garlic to cutting board.

Turn off broiler and heat oven to 325 degrees. Transfer tomatillos, onion, and any accumulated juices to food processor. When poblanos, jalapeño, and garlic are cool enough to handle, remove and discard skins (it's OK if some small bits of chile skin remain). Remove seeds from jalapeño and reserve. Add poblanos, jalapeño, and garlic to processor. Pulse until mixture is roughly pureed, about 10 pulses, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. If spicier chili is desired, add reserved jalapeño seeds and pulse 3 times.

Heat reserved fat in Dutch oven over medium heat until just shimmering. Add oregano, cumin, cinnamon, and cloves and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatillo mixture, bay leaves, sugar, pepper, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in pork and bring to simmer. Cover, transfer to oven, and cook until pork is tender, about 1½ hours, stirring halfway through cooking.

Remove pot from oven and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Using heatproof rubber spatula, scrape browned bits from sides of pot. Stir in any fat that has risen to top of chili. Stir in cilantro; season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, passing lime wedges and extra cilantro separately.

My phrase for the year: CHANGE HAPPENS

@cbabie I love that you and your SO are making the best of a rainy week and enjoying the fireplace. There's nothing quite as relaxing as a wood burning fireplace, I love using my Grandma's when I visit

@trooworld thanks for sharing the recipe. You always do such an amazing job of searching out and trying new recipes! It sounds like your eating has been on pointe!

@theslightedgeforever I got a good laugh out of your Beverly Hillbillies photo! I also do well at social distancing because I'm okay staying home from parties! My energy levels actually aren't too bad. I feel like the bloat from the holidays are gone. I wouldn't say I'm where I want to be, but I'm not in a bad place either! How are you doing with energy levels and your goals?

Happy Tuesday! Last night was actually great. I got a good walk in, did a zoom yoga session with a friend, and my salmon turned out great! This morning I had to motivate myself to get a workout in, but I ended up doing MBF's leg day week 3. The single leg Russian deadlifts with a 20lb weight were KILLER!

I also got some dissertation work in before work which felt good to get a jumpstart on. I'm at the less stressful part where I'm reviewing sections for grammar and clarity, which is easier than writing new content. Don't get me wrong, I have other sections I need to add content too, but it was nice to do an easier part this morning and feel like I was making progress.

@trooworld Thanks for sharing the recipe. I got 50% Your breakfast looked really good. I'm a visual person and I like all the fruit cut up versus just laying a banana, some whole strawberries, and a tangerine on the plate. You're doing great, keep it up.

@mswatson0777 My energy levels and goals: so-so. I'm actually going to change one of my goals. See below. Your mental health sounds so much better now. You are making progress on each part of your life it seems which is a grand thing.

@cbabie Sorry you had a brown-out. Can't be due to the heat. Did they figure out what caused it? I bet Pinterest would have some good ideas for a brown-out with kids. Glow sticks, even a walk outside with everyone would have been fun. If they don't want to go, just leave them at home. There are enough open spaces where you live to walk around without running into someone. What's the vaccine situation where you live? I read today where some people are being asked to double mask in places. Put on some music and dance. Lots of ways to burn calories.



I was discussing plant based diet with @retiredandlovingit yesterday and it's something I too have been thinking about but it gets as far as I want to add more f&v to my diet. Which is not really a SMARTER goal. So I figured out today a way around it. I was listening to a podcast about Your Health First and it was talking about constipation. How people are ending up in the ER for this condition. young people. I also learned that diabetes destroys the nerves in the intestines. Didn't know that one. So it was talking about fiber and how we need to be getting 35-40 gms a day of fiber. He's a gastroenterologist/hepatic specialist. The book I'm reading is talking about how gut health is related to brain health. Brain health would determine if I will end up like my mil or not. Increasing fiber would be a win-win all around. So beginning on Thursday I want to try an experiment and track fiber instead of carbs. I will still use my carb cycling spreadsheet and the colors but just change my focus slightly. My current intake is averaging 12-14 gms per day. 35-40 is way too far out of reach right now. So I will babystep my way there. I will try to get 14 on my green days, 17 on my yellow days, and 21 on my red days. Then once I achieve that, I will slowly move up the goals so it all becomes a habit. I'm hoping to learn new recipes along the way.

January goals:

Yellow-Went Over 209/164 gm
Intentional Exercise-36 min walking 39 min dancing
Water-50%
Zone minutes 71 minus 3 due to inactivity 5/8

Hi all from snow country! We got about 12” of the “lovely” white stuff! At least, dh is feeling a little better so he got out the big snowblower. I helped by shoveling the sidewalk from front door to driveway. At least a 2-3 ft drift there!

@cbabie. That’s too bad, no power! Glad you could keep baby girl entertained tho. I seem to get headaches when weather changes. (Although not as much as I used to) Keep trying with the walking & logging.

@TeresaW1020 you are killing the workouts! Great job! Listened to the GA governor on tv at noon. Sounds like they are vaccinating quite a bit, although not really enough. I Tried getting on county website, pharmacy websites, etc, since they said 65+ could do it now. Nothing!! Worst part was filling in all the info, only to be told there are no appointments!, Grr..they could have said that first! GA’s pollen is the worst! Good thing you got covers.

@mswatson0777 Glad you got some work done on your dissertation, even if not the harder stuff. I actually like my gas fireplace instead a wood one. Flip a switch on & off & no mess, lol. We had a wood burning furnace for too long. Think we got your snow this time, lol. My niece in Mpls says we are beating them for snow this year. Wouldn’t have thought that.

@trooworld. your fruit looks delicious!! Wish we had a little more in season. Good job with the bike & your water! Glad the scale is rewarding you!

@theslightedgeforever My sister is like your friend...very black & white WFPBNO. If someplace can’t guarantee no oil, she just won’t eat. & she is so thin, she could do a little, but her dh has heart disease in family, so she avoids it with him. Good plan with the fiber. I was getting 25 or so grams, but am trying to up it to 35. Some days I make it, but more about 30-32. What book are you reading? I follow a lady who went plant based & lost over 150#, but the thing she is most grateful for is renewed health & mental clarity. I really “only” have 20-30# to lose, but my main focus is my asthma (?) cough. I am stopping the sweetened fizzy water I was drinking, and the next thing to go will be dairy. I am reading “Your Body in Balance” by Neal Barnard & also some of Dr. McDougalls books.

Well, going to go clear the walk a little more, so it will melt. Then need to clean a little. Hope everyone has a good day.

This is a similar recipe to what I posted earlier but less complicated. It can be made with pork or chicken (or try steak!):

Chicken with Green Chili Sauce (4 servings)

1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cubed
black pepper
seasoned salt
garlic powder
1 lime
SAUCE:
10 tomatillos
1 tomato
1 clove garlic
2 whole jalapeno
3 whole red chili peppers, dried
salt to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

Season chicken with pepper, salt, juice from the lime and garlic powder. Heat oil in skillet. Put seasoned chicken in skillet. Saute until browned.

At the same time, make green sauce:

Boil tomatillos, tomato, jalapenos, and red peppers until soft. Drain and place in a blender with garlic and salt. Blend until smooth.

Combine sauce with meat. Simmer for 15 minutes. Serve over rice or cauliflower rice.

@trooworld I got 50% Thanks for recipe

@mswatson0777 I'm looking at that video thinking how much my knees would hurt and I haven't even pressed play yet. Thanks for posting it. We'll see how the fiber thing goes. My first thing to think about when eating is the protein so we'll see how this works. How much I'm going to have to tweak. I'm sure my son is go glad he moved away from Iowa this year to Houston. Are you in Northern MN or closer to Iowa? I actually don't mind zoom meet ups. As my dad always said, I could talk to a wall. I'm having a Jeopardy zoom meeting on Friday night.

@cbabie Great job on making the ice cream substitution. We have everything in our family history. lol

@teresaw1020 I love the Beck book. I still have my response/advantage cards from it. Plus all the notes I took from the book in my Penzu journal. I haven't heard yet how my kids are faring with their second dose of Covid vaccine. Hopefully good.

@mswatson0777 Yes, I thought it was a good investment! Luckily, once I got to work, I took some medicine and the headache/migraine went away. It's sort of back today though. That workout looks great, good job! Keep up the work on your dissertation, you are making great strides. I'm glad it's helping to do 30 minutes twice a day. Yes, with exercise or anything else, little blocks do add up!

@cbabie that's a great substitute for ice cream, well done! That less complicated recipe IS delicious and easy to make. My headache is gone, thankfully. It left after taking meds at work yesterday. Hopefully the walks help with the stress when you can do them?

@TeresaW1020 Thank you! Yes, bad timing but I felt better by about 10:00 a.m. Yes, a food processor will do the job just fine. An immersion blender is very handy as is a cast-iron skillet. That sounds like a good workout. I'm glad you are getting a lot out of your bible study. I'm ready for the Beck Diet Solution, too!

@theslightedgeforever I got about 80% of my new goal. Yes, I am enjoying it so far. If I get bored and want to switch, I'll just do something else for a bit, like you.

Hello all. I worked onsite yesterday and when I got home, since my headache was gone, I decided to do a Walk at Home video that was 33 mins. That's the longest video I've done and I can't believe I did it after a busy day at work! At work, a well-meaning co-worker gave me a candy bar from India. I was curious about it, I should have just thrown it away, but I ate 1/3 of it. Later in the day, I also had a mini Toblerone. Although it's disappointing that I ate these things, it's a far cry from my behavior just a few weeks ago when I ate about 8 pieces of Toblerone! Change happens.

My phrase for the year: CHANGE HAPPENS

@cbabie Yum on the chicken and dumplings! I’ve seen a Keto recipe for them but I just don’t know if somethings can, or should, be duplicated. Ya know? Good job on getting your 10k steps in! I haven’t seen War Room but I think I need to now that I’m in the Priscilla Shirer fan club.

@trooworld OK, you ate some candy but like you said it was better than last time. And next time might be better than this time. Progress is a step by step event and sometimes we miss a step. Great job on walking after you got home from work.

@theslightedgeforever That is a great idea to use Penzu for journaling! I forget that I have an account there. I hope your kids second dose of the vaccine goes well. Have you been able to get the vaccine yet or find out when you will be able to?


Hi All! Today was a usual Thursday. I had my staff meeting this morning and then came home and helped DH file a workman’s comp report for our pastor. When he fell, he had surgery to repair his broken left wrist, which is still hurting him a lot and slowly healing. Come to find out he had also ripped his tendon on his right thumb and tomorrow morning he has to go have surgery to try to repair it. He really doesn’t want to do this surgery and almost backed out, but in the end, he listened to everyone and will have it done. Our associate pastor is scheduled to preach, and we are all hoping that his new baby boy will decide to wait a few extra days to be born. My diet is going well and I’m 28 days sugar-free!!

@cbabie Great job with the tracking and walking! That's too bad that you didn't eat dinner, what you made sounds delicious. Our weather is funky, too: same thing...sunny and nice yesterday but rain today.

@TeresaW1020 Thanks! Your poor pastor...that sounds painful! Yay for 28 days sugar-free!!!

@mswatson0777 That candy bar wasn't worth it, it tasted kind of like peanut brittle but not as good lol. It's a good thing it wasn't good because if it were, I would have eaten the whole thing! When is your birthday??? I'm glad you are sticking with your dissertation schedule!

Hi all. Yesterday morning, I did a 33-minute workout video to start off my day. I had a good day eating-wise, I stayed under my points and even got 4 rollover points that go into my weekly points! According to my Fitbit, I sleep better when I do a workout at about 5 pm so I decided to do another workout after work. Twice in one day! Who am I? LOL

My phrase for the year: CHANGE HAPPENS

@trooworld Wahhoooo!! Congrats on all your hard work that you have done this week. You have been working so hard and adopting habits that are really working. I know you did the happy dance when you stepped on that scale!

@mswatson0777 Is it your birthday this week? If so, Happy Birthday to you!! I hope you have an awesome weekend.


Good morning! I’m happy to report that my pastor came out of his surgery better than we had expected. I’m not sure what kind of pain he is in, but we are all praying for a quick recovery. I’m taking him a big pan of Ziti tomorrow. DH and I are leaving in a little while to go pick up that chair that I had ordered back in October. I can’t wait to see it and really hope it looks as good as I imagined when I ordered it. DH is taking me to Panera for lunch and I plan to behave and keep it low carb. I lost 4.8 lbs this month, which is huge for me. But I need to kick it up again because I’ve been bouncing up and down for over a week with the same pound. Time to move it down!

I hope my life slows down this week to do some personals. But for now this will be all about me.

Thursday I took my son out for his bday and had some rolls and then they brought my steak and mashed potatoes. Well, the food got stuck in my lower esophagus. Occasionally I have this problem. My father had it extremely bad. I found out it's called a Shatzki ring. I guess kind of like scar tissue that narrows the esophagus. It took me 3 hours to clear it. I went to the bathroom twice and then had to go home. I'm just glad I didn't end up in the ER with them having to remove it. I only got 3 bites of my steak down. Left the rest and then later ate the mashed potatoes at home. So guess no rolls and steak for me for a long time. I scared my hubby. lol

Then the first day of the fiber option plan I realized that this did not help me automatically choose fruits and veggies. I still got my total needed with whole wheat bread for a sandwich and some popcorn plus a banana I think. So I think I figured out what I need to do. Do something similar to the WW blue plan but I will track it on itrackbites app. They have different plans, but I chose the carb conscious one. Plus you can do manual setting for points so I found a WW calculator and am using that as a guideline. I'm still going to keep my green/yellow/red days because that works with me socially to stay on plan.

So I'm going to experiment for February.
Red Days-16 points
Yellow Days-23 points
Green Days-30 points

Plus I get 35 weekly (which the green days will have to come out of) I haven't decided if I will roll over 4 points on Red days like they do on WW. My actual number of points allotted is 23 per day.

Yesterday was a yellow day and I got 22 points.

I might double track a couple a days a week to see how it compares to cals/carbs/fiber.

I thought I posted yesterday, but I don't see it so I guess it disappeared! Oh well. Happy Saturday all!

@trooworld Sorry to hear the candy bar wasn't worth it. I love trying candy and food from different countries. Also, congrats on the loss, it sounds like you're hitting all your goals!

@TeresaW1020 Almost 5lbs in a month is absolutely fantastic, congrats!! And I bet your pastor will love the ziti, that's a perfect thing to drop over so that he and his family don't have to worry about a meal. I hope the chair fits well in the space.

@cbabie I hope you have fun singing with your sister in law again! And I hope you enjoyed the birthday celebrations, a double birthday is a great reason to celebrate!

@theslightedgeforever How scary! I'm so glad you're okay and that you didn't have to go to the ER. I hope the new plan helps you increase your fruits and vegetables intake

Hi All! We stayed out pretty late last night hanging out at the quaranteam's house. I had all three dogs in or around my lap for most of the night, it was great. Tonight they're all coming over for a DnD campaign. I've got to get my dissertation draft out so I'll be working while they're here, but I'll join in for a glass of wine or two.

This morning I went on a bit of a shopping spree and got some new leggings and slippers for the cabin. Nothing major, but it's fun to get some little things once and awhile. Some of the leggings I still wear I've had for almost 13 years(!). They were good quality and held up well, but I think it's time for me to start replacing some things.

@theslightedgeforever Wow, that would be terribly scary to have food caught in your esophagus like that! Did it hurt? I’m glad that you cleared it out without going to the hospital. Is the fiber plan that you are starting for weight loss or health? What do you do for fiber on your low carb days? I’ve been taking those sugar-free fiber gummies in case I need fiber but many of the Keto docs I follow don’t think fiber is necessary at all. They point out that infants don’t eat fiber and have no problem filling a diaper.

@cbabie Interesting that you lost better by tracking points than calories. Why do you think that is? When I double-tracked with WW and calories it was eye-opening how the same number of points could have a 200 to 400 calorie fluctuation. It was a reminder that those 0 point foods have calories. I hope your weight will be good for you this week.

@mswatson0777 It’s great that you have friends to hang out with. My ex-husband was into D&D and I just never could get into it. The group finally kicked me out. Shopping sprees are the best no matter what you are buying! I went to a couple of stores yesterday looking for some new tops but everything was so ugly that I ended up with nothing. I really don’t NEED anything. I just wanted something new.

@RetiredAndLovingIt That is great that you and DH were able to get your shots! Do you have to get the second shot? If so did they give you an appointment for that? I hope you don’t have any side-effects and will be able to get out and enjoy life again.


Good morning! Yesterday was a fun day as DH and I went and picked up our new chair, did a little shopping, and had lunch at Panera. Lunch was interesting. I got the Green Goddess salad with chicken and no side. DH got a bowl of soup and a Bear Claw pastry. My reaction to him sitting in front of me eating one of my favorite pastries was interesting because I really had zero desire for it. NOT even a bite!! Not breaking the no sugar challenge played into me not wanting it but to not even have the desire or feel resentful that he was eating it was fascinating to me. And speaking of not eating sugar. Today is day 31 and I’m feeling super proud of myself for going a whole month with no sugar or alcohol. I lost 5.2 lbs in 31 days, which for me is amazing! I’m excited to see what February brings and a little nervous since I will be away from home for three days and down in Florida. But I'm also determined to not come home with a big gain. *fingers crossed*

Here is my cute chair with Maggie checking it out.




NO SUGAR!!!