Day 4

My apologies for the late post,usually we try to do them before the end of the day, but we got side tracked looking for a replacement handle for our pressure cooker. Our son who will remain nameless (Gigantor) somehow managed to put the lid on incorrectly and we had to muscle it off.

For breakfast we had some blueberries and raspberries which were delicious!!

For lunch we decided to customize some leftovers. we had some leftover  salad  from wednesday. Lana added some shredded Swiss chard  for greens and some additional garbanzo beans.


For dinner Allana made this amazing black bean soup that consisted of onions, garlic and celery. We also had a raw slaw that consisted of beets, carrots and cabbage with a peanut dressing. More to come... Onward

1st Weekend

The weekend was filled with highs and lows. We went to the farmers market, all of us! It was a fun, we also went the coop for a few things we needed, it was a good day. We ate the curry vegetables leftovers Friday night, it tasted better the second time around. Its been a challenge being alcohol free, I never realized how dependent I was on that evening glass of wine. Hopefully it will get easier.
Sunday we made eggplant and tomato stew, served on spiralized zucchini. It was a very simple recipe:
Eggplant
Tomatos
Onions
Garlic
Added some kale, green olives and basil ... Delicious!
I promise to get back on track this week, I will provide more detail an recipes.

Onward

Day 3

Well, day 3 is in the books. It started out pretty slow, but finished with a bang! Lana didnt have any fruit this morning because she wanted to workout first, me i was working out my mouth,had 3 meetings back to back. Had a banana and some yerba mate tea.
Lunch had a Tunisian flare, there were red potatoes (steamed), chickpeas, purple bell pepper, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, a sprinkle of kalamata  olives over spinach and mixed greens.This was dressed with tahini, harissa, lemon juice, nooch (thats slang for nutritional yeast :)) smoked black pepper.... yum!
For dinner we felt for curry, so I called dibbs on cooking and put on my iron chef hat (figuratively) and got busy... BAMM

Jamaican "Ital" Vegetable Curry served on  a bed of Quinoa..... Rasta for no salt

My baby really enjoyed tonights dinner :)
We did some of the cauliflower finely chopped, celery, onions, shitaki mushrooms, garlic and green onions,  carrots and green beans. seasoned with jamaican curry, no-salt seasoning, ginger, cilantro and lime juice. served on a bed of steamed quinoa.. Yes Bredda!!

on that note, we are calling it a night. looking forward to more excitement tomorrow.... Onward

Day 2

We made it to  the end of our 2nd day. It was touch and go this morning for a while, we didn't sleep that well and had to have a serious talk with our son about respect.  Tuesdays is an early day for me, i start work at 7AM CT. The commute is not too bad, just need to navigate through the many pairs of shoes in the foyer and make it upstairs to  my desk. ;)
We had a light breakfast today, it was sliced oranges and blackberries. Its funny, I never actually tasted blackberries until today, quite tasty! It was a busy morning, I was on calls for most of the day. Allana made another awesome BIG salad with a south western theme. We had baby spinach, spring mix, black and red kidney beans, red onion, jalepeno, yellow bell peppers, and mango dressed with fresh squeesed lime juice, black pepper and cumin. It looked so delicious when it was served and I had to stare at it for half an hour as one of my meeting was running long.
came up with a neat substitute for my chardonnay.. I add about 2Tbsps. of Braggs apple cider vinegar to a glass of water, when I close my eyes, it tasts just like the Yellowtail chardonnay i love to drink. :p
For dinner, I volunteered to be the chef (upon hearing that, Justyn volunteered to cook for the kids!) that was fine with me, everyone loves Lana's cooking better than mine, even me. I made a vegetable stir fry. as we are cutting out pastas, I decided to use some green cabbage sliced thinly and blanched.. BAMM.. noodles! it had baked tofu, carrots, eggplant, broccoli, string beans, green onions, bell peppers, celery and spring onions all sauteed then tossed with the cabbage and topped with my special peanut sauce (no salt peanut butter, grated ginger and a splash of rice wine vinegar) it was delicious if i must say so myself (luckly, Lana said it was as well).
Well, its getting time for me to turn in, still staying the course and keeping the faith. Until tomorrow... Onward

Day 1 draws to a close

We just finished cleaning up from dinner, all in all it went well. For lunch we had a BIG salad!
It had corn, black beans, baby kale, yellow peppers, cilantro, red onion, yellow grape tomatoes with a cashew cheese dressing.
For dinner we had an even BIGGER salad! this one contained mixed greens, swiss chard, chickpeas, red onions, yellow bell peppers, Chinese eggplant (sautéed in water), steamed purple potatoes and broccoli with a sesame seed dressing. we are going to have some blackberries for desert ;)
Surprisingly, I feel quite satisfied, usually by now I am looking for something to snack on (because i have had a few too many glasses of chardonnay) and yes, no alcohol for the duration of the program.

I am calling it a night, I have an early day tomorrow and would like to go for a walk before my first call.. onward

The Beginning

It's August 12th at 8:30 am, the first day of my journey back to health. It's been a slow downward spiral health wise for  me, I have a very sedentary job that keeps me behind a desk for up  to 60 hours per week sometimes. I found out in October 2010 that I had high blood pressure and was hospitalized for 10 days while they tried a battery of drugs  to bring it down from 285/135. My doctor  at the time told me i could have died at any moment with it being that elevated.. Great bedside manner that guy had :)

In September of 2012 i was diagnosed with diabetes, this was strike 2! I felt as though I was punched in  the stomach and the wind knocked out of me. I became very diligent about taking the medications but not doing anything about my diet or exercising. I also noticed that I had been steadily gaining weight, got up to 239 lbs. In  June of this year I drove down to Dripping Springs, TX to help Allana and the young people (cant call them kids anymore) pack up to move up to Sioux Falls. During the next 30 days I dropped 30 lbs by just eating a mostly plant based diet.

The realization that brings us here today was I went for a walk with my wife recently and was  barely able to make it up a hill that would have been a piece of cake 10 years ago. I also would like to be able to control my high blood pressure and diabetes without anymore medication.

After weigh in this morning I had some lemon tea, an orange and a smoothie made from mangoes,pineapple  and a various other ingredients that Allana told me but I forgot :) 

More to come... Onward