Eat to Live Weight Loss: Week 1 Day 2

7:00 8 oz coffee

8:30 Blueberry Green Smoothie

1 cup blueberries, 1 cup strawberries, 2 cups mixed greens, 1 tbsp ground flax, 1 scoop greens powder;

9:30 Peppermint Tea, yerba mate tea

12:00: Plate of mixed greens with 1 whole beefsteak tomato

Can of trader joe’s organic black bean soup with 1/3 cup barley mixed in (couldn’t finish)

5 large strawberries

Salad: Mixed greens and tomato
Broccoli, Mango, Black Bean Stir-Fry

Bag of M&M’s

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Eat to Live Diet Week 1: Day 3

Total Weight Lost: .8 lbs

My leftovers from last night smelled awful when I took them out of the fridge this morning. (To be fair, they really just smelled like broccoli). I don’t like broccoli to begin with, and couldn’t stomach the thought of eating this dish for a second day. I decided to throw it in the Vitamix, dress it up a little, and if it was still unappetizing I would just toss it.

The end result was AMAZING. I will make this again, broccoli and all. In the end, I couldn’t taste the broccoli – just the chile, mango, cilantro, and garlic.

Hot & Sweet Soup

(Broccoli base without the broccoli taste!)

The original stir-fry Recipe:
1 bag frozen broccoli
1/3 cup black bean & salsa puree*
1 cup frozen mango
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup stock
salt to taste

*1 can of black beans and some salsa in a food processor.
Directions:

Throw it all in a pan or pot and cook til it’s hot.

Next day soup:
Leftover stir-fry (there was about 3 cups of food leftover)
Garlic, 1 clove, raw
1/2 lemon, peeled
Cilantro, about 1/4 cup loosely packed
Additional 1/3 cup black bean puree
About 1/2 cup water to loosen it up, maybe more.

Some notes on the original stir-fry dish:
I ate a full plate of it, but had a hard time getting it down. I was super full, felt completely bloated, and had gas pains immediately following.  If you like broccoli, or add the additional ingredients I threw in the soup it probably wouldn’t be terrible.

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Eat to Live: Week 1 Day 1

12 oz coffee

Blueberry Green Smoothie

1 cup blueberries, 3 strawberries, 2 cups mixed greens, 1 tbsp ground flax, 1 scoop greens powder;
1 cantaloupe

Lunch
Salad, heirloom tomatoes
Okra / Tomato / Kidney Bean / Barley stew
strawberry fruit salad

Dinner
Baby Bella mushrooms (1 package) cooked in chicken stock with 1/3 cup barley

Dessert:
2 cups frozen strawberries with 1 scoop Barlean’s chocolate greens (hell ya!)

1 tbsp Barlean’s Berry flavored Flax Oil

Workout: New Rules of Lifting for Women, Stage 1 workout 8b

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Starting the Eat to Live 6 week weight loss diet

Tomorrow I’m starting Joel Fuhrman’s 6 week weight loss program outlined in his book “Eat to Live”.

I’ve been doing eDiets with varying rigor and little success. This program sounds promising, and I like that it’s mostly plant based. The quantity of meat and dairy I’m currently consuming is uncomfortable for me, mostly because I know it’s not healthy.

I made a trial Eat to Live meal tonight, and the quantity of food is almost overwhelming. You definitely get a nutritional bang for the buck.

A huge skillet of okra, tomatoes and kidney beans would give me my daily serving of beans and cooked vegetables. This is definitely enough food (by volume) for 2 meals, but calorically, it could really be one. I can see how eating enough becomes a challenge on this diet.

The statistics for this meal are startling and impressive.

About 5 cups of food comes in at 445 calories

23.5 grams protein

31 grams fiber

I find that nothing short of amazing!

My current weight is 133lbs. My BMI is 22 (what does that even mean?). I’ve been trying to get down to 124, which I know is a good weight for me. According to Fuhrman’s height / weight calculations¹, I could go down to 115. He uses a different formula than the one you’ll see everywhere else. According to him, a woman starts at 95lbs for 5 ft, then 4 pounds for every inch over 5 feet. It’s certainly much lighter then the current U.S. height / weight charts, and would be very thin for me, but not out of the realm of possibility.

1. Eat to Live; Joel Fuhrman M.D.; 2003, Little, Brown and Company; page 22

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Raw Treats: Energy Balls

These are my go to sweet treats! Super, quick and easy to make.

2 cups walnuts (not soaked)
2 cups raisins
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tsps vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cardamom (optional)

Put walnuts and raisins in a food processor and process until the mixture starts to form into a ball, and has a fairly uniform texture. There will end up being a good bit of oil from the walnuts. Form into small balls (about 1 tbsp) and roll in the coconut. Makes about 30 balls. Keep refrigerated.

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