My Meat and Potatoes Husband

Hi All,

I mentioned in my Three Bean Chili post earlier last week that my husband, Kevin, had been enjoying quite a few of the meals made in my new pressure cooker.  For those of you who havent followed my blog for very long, my husband is not a nutritarian and dislikes vegetables in general.

A few weeks ago, for my works health care program, we had our weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose checked.  Thankfully my work pays for all of this and comes into our office to administer the tests.  By doing these health checks, it allows us to earn money back on our health premiums while working towards health goals throughout the year, such as eating more vegetables and exercising.

Kevin hates hates HATES needles, but he came in anyways for the screening.  Happily, I had excellent numbers other than my triglycerides were higher than last year (but that was probably due to spending a weekend drinking in Leavenworth for Oktoberfest just prior to the blood test).  Kevins numbers, particularly his cholesterol were not ideal.  (For the sake of his privacy I wont say what it is.)

After being married for 2 years, I have all but given up the game of telling him "you should eat better", "what about your arteries", and "should you really be eating that whole pizza?".  All I told him after the health screening was that I was concerned for his health and wished he would take steps to eat better so we can be together for a long and happy life.

This same week I got my pressure cooker in the mail.  I proceeded to make Chickpea Soup Italiano, which, to my surprise, Kevin ate.  Then he requested that I make a jar of chickpeas to send with him to work along with a banana and handful of almonds.

OK!  This is something I can totally get behind!

Over the last week, he has been eating bean soups, plain chickpeas, and quinoa and grain dishes.  He even has had oatmeal with me three times over the weekends as long as it had fruit and nuts in it.  Are there a ton of veggies in all of these things?  No....  But are there animal products and horrible fats, sugars, and preservatives like in his normal diet?  NO!

Im so excited that he is taking little steps to eat better.  However, he has been on a business trip to Chicago over the last 5 days.  Im sure he hasnt been eating well like he would have if he was home, but hopefully he is ready to jump back into eating better with me.  Wish us luck!

(Also, dont tell him this, but he liked my homemade vegan caesar salad dressing.  Im picking him up some lettuce tonight on the way home from work so that I can pack him a salad for tomorrow for his first day back.)

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Carnivorous Husband Health Challenge and My Gym Challenge Day 1

Hello Readers!  It has been way too long since I have posted!  I realized I was on day 3 of week 5 of my 6-week Eat to Live health challenge the last time I posted, and for those of you who have been following.... To sum it up: I cheated and let things slip, I tried my best to stick with it, but then certain events came up including my birthday, having house (apartment*) guests stay for nearly a week, having a large basketball tournament downtown and eating on the go, eating out often with friends and family, and then a trip to the other side of the state for 4th of July weekend and staying with the in-laws. Id like to think that I made the best choices I could in the situations I was in, but those choices ended up becoming further and further away from the Nutritarian lifestyle.  This is sad for me to admit, but we all have mistakes and setbacks and this was one of mine.  What do you tell yourself when you fall off the wagon?

In other news.... I have some pretty crazy news that I never thought I would ever hear: my very meat and potatoes carnivorous husband is going to try the Nutritarian diet.... For one week.... With a catch.... I will have to do everything he says at the gym for the week.  The reason this "deal" came about was when we had gone to our small apartment gym yesterday after not having worked out since all of the commotion that led me off of my 6-week challenge. I wanted to go because I was needing to read a bunch of blog emails and was going to power walk on the treadmill while I did. I thought I was being quite productive since I would normally sit my lazy booty in the back porch and do the same thing. Kevin, who went hard on the stationary bike, told me that when I go to the gym I should be dripping in sweat and pushing myself to work hard and improve. That is all fine and dandy, but not something I would normally do. 

Later on that evening Kevin decided to make me a deal: he would eat however I wanted him to for a week as long as I would do whatever he said at the gym for a week.  One week of hard working out to get my husband to seriously try eating Nutritarian?  IM IN!  So this is what brings me back to blogging after my shame of not completing my 6-week challenge: documenting my husbands first tracks in Nutritarian shoes!

We started all of this today, and I have to say that it didnt go half bad. Here is how Kevin (and I) ate today:

Breakfast: Dr. Fuhrman Antioxidant Rich Breakfast Bar (find the recipe in Dr. Fuhrmans Member Center), 1 apple

Lunch: large romaine (me, spinach) salad with broccoli, cucumber, chickpeas and OMG Walnut Dressing (recipe from My Beef With Meat), 1 apple

Dinner: corn on the cob, Broccoli Mushroom Bisque (recipe in the Dr. Fuhrman Member Center), Better-Milk Biscuits (My Beef With Meat), sugar snap peas, and blackberries

Overall, Kevin was a great sport other than thinking the soup was way too bland, but he liked it with the biscuits I made. He said this was so much more food than he was used to eating (volume-wise), but that he liked the fruit. He was disappointed that today happened to be Free Slurpee Day and he wasnt allowed to have one. As for my hard work out, I was definitely sweating much more than I am used to at the gym, but feel energized and ready to go for tomorrow. 

Im looking forward to the rest of the week and taking on new challenges at the gym and in the kitchen. My husband will not be the easiest person to cater for while eating Nutritarian, but I will make it work, and hopefully he has a longer list of vegetables and Nutritarian dishes that he likes by the end of the week.

Do you have any recipes you would suggest for a meat and potato guy going Nutritarian?  He loves broccoli, romaine lettuce, and cucumbers.... But not too many other veggies. 

Oh, and here are some fun pictures from our shenanigans over the last few weeks since I have posted:

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Results so far on my version of Chef AJs Ultimate Weight Loss Program

So how have I been doing since beginning with my version of Chef AJs Ultimate Weight Loss program?  Mentally, Im worlds better!  Physically, Im on the right track.

I mentioned in yesterdays post that I have had a bad relationship with food and food cravings.  This program has helped with that tremendously, along with being vigilant to not look at food blogs.  Instead, I have been enjoying reading some knitting and home improvement blogs.  Overall, I feel like I am more in-tune with my bodys needs and have consistently been eating only when truly hungry.

Since starting the program, I am down 7 lbs and have been steadily losing from week to week.  Along with actual weight loss, I have been feeling slimmer overall, as if what I have been losing has been only fat that has been holding on for a while.  My clothes have been fitting better, even to the point that one of my favorite pairs of jeans were too lose even after a wash and dry.  I think that I still have a good 20-30 lbs to lose before I get within a comfortable healthy weight, but I am encouraged to keep on my same path and let that happen over time.

Another physical change that I have noticed is my skin.  Since I was 15 or so, I have been dealing with acne of some sort.  Some times have been better than others, but I have always had a blemish or pimple on my face to deal with or cover up.  After starting the program, I havent had a single breakout.  As if weight loss wasnt motivation enough!  It has been so nice to use minimal makeup and to not be self conscious of my face.  I have felt more confident as a result.

One thing that has helped me a lot to stay on track is planning my weekly meals ahead of time.  By this I mean my lunches and dinners.  My snacks and veggies for breakfast change up daily depending on what veggies and fruit I have on stock.  For lunches and dinners, I have been batch cooking many of my essentials including brown rice, baked sweet potatoes, as well as soups and chilis.

For brown rice, I cook it once a week in my pressure cooker, generally making 8-12 cups in the end.  I leave about 2-4 cups in the fridge and freeze the rest in 2 cup portions in baggies.  Over the next week, I pull out and defrost what is needed.  Kevin eats quite a bit of rice although he is not following my same plan, so we go through my stock pretty regularly.

The sweet potatoes I either bake 4-6 at a time and store them in the fridge until I need them, or I have been taking raw potatoes to work and baking them in our toaster oven in a pinch.  My sweet potatoes are generally my favorite food within a day.  Often I chop them up and add them to my soup or chili, eat them plain by themselves, or top them with a vegetable or bean based sauce (like Chef AJs Yummy Sauce).

The chilis and soups I have been making include my favorite Three Bean Chili, Summer Vegetable Corn Chowder, Potato Leek Soup, Mexican Pinto Bean Soup, and Creamy Broccoli Soup.  The nice thing about most chilis and soups is that my husband will eat them, so I dont have to worry about his meals very much.

Thats all for now folks.  Ill be coming back later next week with a few more posts about some fun traveling, crafts, and home improvements we have been doing.  See you next time! :)

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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My UNhealthy addictions

I know I am trying to encourage healthy eating, and working out, and generally leading healthy life style. Well.... I am not judging when you dont lead a healthy life style... So I expect not to be judged by anyone as well. I am only human, and of course I am far from perfect. The fact that I WANT and ASPIRE to lead a healthy life does NOT mean that I always DO lead it. 

So, today I wanted to make a little confession. I wanted to talk about my little addictions which I have... Everyone has weak sides, I know it. And I have to be honest: I am not precisely trying to fight them too hard. I am simply trying to slowly reduce them, but I do NOT even WANT to live without them. So here we go...

1. M&Ms. I know it is silly. I know. But when I have a pack of those yummy chocolated peanuts with probably artificial colouring, I just go peanuts! I ask my bf to buy them ONLY in small packs, because I end up finishing the whole pack anyway - regardless of the size. 

This is a pretty big pack.... And I still ate it in like 2 days...

So as you can guess, lots of my calories almost every day come from the M&Ms. Sigh. But I am planning to go a little bit down on them.

2. Raffaellos. Yes, I love the coconut filling and cream... And I know, it is again lots of sweet calories, but I cant resist when I have an open pack of them in front of me. Though it is easier than M&Ms.

Finally and the worst...

3. Wine. I LOVE red wine. I didnt use to, but I love it now. We sometimes have wine with dinner almost every day. And I know it is not healthy at all, it is not a bit too much chocolate, but when the good bottle of wine is open and on the table, boy I need one more glass of it. It tastes sooo good. So we decided not to drink anything alcoholic during the working week, and go out on the weekends, it works most of the time. And starting in August I am quitting drinking and going dry for 30 days. Need to clean my body. :) So thats a good step forward, I think!

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My Scale

... I broke it.  I broke my scale.

No, it is not what you are thinking.  Although in the years since I started (sometimes loosely) following a Nutritarian diet, my weight has fluctuated from stress, too much socializing (oh, beer!), and occasional binge eating from food addictions that I continually need to work on, my weight hasnt gone up nearly enough to result in breaking a scale from my weight.  My husband weighs more than me and uses it often, for Heavens sake!

I also did not maliciously break it for telling me anything I did not want to hear.  Nor did I break it to symbolically prove a point that a number on a scale does not reflect my value as a person.  I broke it completely by accident.

The other day I stepped on the scale and got a normal reading.  Since we have had a digital scale, the number blinked and stayed on the screen for a minute or so when it had the final reading.  And every time it did this, I would step off and briefly put a toe on the scale to get it to reset and make my number disappear from the screen.

I dont exactly know why I do this.  Maybe if I see it for too long it will become something of permanency that I have a less chance of escaping.  My husband is the only other one in the house and knows my weight anyways, so it cant be that Im embarrassed to have him see it.  Maybe some ghost is in the bathroom and I dont want them to know either (If I were a ghost I dont think I would hang out in a small bathroom, but hey, to each ghost his own!).

This particular time when I stepped onto the scale to reset it, I accidentally stepped on the very edge, causing the scale to lift up on the other side, then come crashing down with a loud BANG when I lifted my foot off.  Kevin from the other room: "Oh gosh, what did you break?"

The screen was blank.  In a moment of panic, I stepped back on the scale and heard a scratchy crunchy sound, like sand being rubbed between two surfaces.  Digital reading went crazy, never settling on a number.  Kevin stepped on it and it eventually settled on a reading: 55.8 lbs.  "Look!  Im good.  I dont need to exercise."  The sad little broken scale went into the garbage. And Kevin and I talked about spending money on a new scale, because we needed one... right?

I generally weigh myself just about every morning.  Sometimes the reading makes me do a little happy dance, sometimes it makes me shrug for being about the same, and sometimes it makes me reconsider what I had consumed the days before (or convince myself that I just need a good trip to the bathroom).  Either which way, it often sets the tone for the day to come, whether that be negative, positive, or indifferent.

But in thinking about this, it struck me.  I let a little square thing that sits on my bathroom floor to have some input into how I go about my day.  The weather?  A bit.  My calendar?  Yes.  But a scale?  How dare I let a scale effect my happiness and how I live my life.

Then I noticed how successful I had been in sticking to the nutritarian guidelines around when my scale broke.  I have been eating more fresh and cooked vegetables as well as more fresh fruit.  I have been paying better attention to satiety and eating only what I need of the right foods.  Now, Im not going to attribute this positive progress only to not having a scale.  I have also been strict to prep my meals ahead of time and to have plenty of fresh produce available in my fridge.  But Im guessing my attitude towards food and satiety has been altered a bit while not seeing that blinking number between my toes every morning.

Does this mean we will never own a scale again?  No.  Im probably going to go buy one today.  But I might just not open it yet.  And when I do open it, Ill probably tuck it away under my sink and only use it weekly, or bi-weekly, or monthly.  I havent decided.

My point is: Im grateful that I happened to clumsily break my scale.  Although Kevin isnt super happy to be spending money on a new one (which probably wont be used as much), Im happy to have been able to go through this impromptu experiment to see how I felt without knowing exactly how gravity was effecting my mass every particular day.  And you know what?  It felt pretty damn great!


Health and Happiness,

Amy

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My Fitness Pal

I really dont want to make an advertisement. Really. But I simply have to mention this app and web-site. Previously I have been using My Calorie Counter (MCC)  from Everyday Health, and I still use the website, it has a lot of interesting info and offers a lot of options. But yesterday I ran into My Fitness Pal (MFP). I do not know how I didnt know about it earlier. Jeez! It is great! Moreover, you can install the app on your iPhone (iPod, iPad, Android, etc.) and it works offline, and whenever you have Internet it synchronises everything. Basically, it stores all your info on line. MFP offers much more than MCC especially in terms of individualisation. For example, calculating calories for your favourite menus, individualising recipes, and creating your own list of most often used foods. It also has personalisation with exercise in a similar way, so I hope to create the TA Meta workouts there at some point... It offers gadgets (I added a tracker to my blog now), and a community as well. All of you- especially those who are not using one of TAM menus, can definitely keep track of your weight and exercise there - it is very useful!!!

This is how it all looks on iPhone:   

 

Good luck!

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