Heart Healthy

[blissful]

We have two diets/lifestyles going on in this house now.
My get your heart healthy diet (blood pressure is high on medication) and lose some weight diet. I'd like to lose 20-30 lbs.
Trapper's diet doesn't care about his heart, he's healthy as a horse, good cholesterol and good blood pressure. He doesn't care if though he's 30 lbs overweight.

So I read about reversing heart disease diet, and a video on minding your mitochondria, about south beach, about vegetarian, about atkins, etc etc.

Limits and 'cheater foods'
1. Avoid dairy products (I get 1 oz of cheese or no dairy products / day).
2. Avoid breads (I get <100 calories of bread / day or none)
3. Avoid sugars (I allow 1 T honey if any at all / day)
4. No potatoes, corn, white rice, white pasta.
5. Avoid meats unless lean/chicken/fish (4 oz / day or none at all).
6. Avoid free oils (I allow 1 Tablespoon butter or olive oil / day or none)
7. No soda or delicious special coffees with milk/cream/sugar/chocolate.

Everyday for the past three weeks I've been having vegetables and fruits, beans and lentils, my vitamins, granola made with rolled oats and flaked quinoa and almond milk, seeds, hearty wheat rolls cut 1/4'' thin and toasted, eaten with hummus, nuts and a little of the 'cheater foods' listed above if I'm craving something.

Today:
Cauliflower and fruit smoothie 16 oz.
3/4 C granola and 1/2 unstrained almond milk
4 toast crisps with hummus w/pecans and 4 olives halved
Green smoothie 8 oz.
coffee or ice tea x 2 per day

Yesterday: I skipped the granola and had beef and broccoli, no rice--a cup. (along with the smoothies and toast crisps)

Day before: snacked on turkish apricots (same type of diet)
Day before: snacked on cheese--was craving salt
Day before: added a cup of roasted cauliflower w/parmesan and balsamic vinegar.
Before: added curried vegetables made with almond milk.

Some days I'll have a Tablespoon of the Apple cider vinegar/honey/molasses mix in a 16 ounce glass filled with water for trace minerals.

The smoothies contain a mixture of pineapple, strawberries, cranberry juice, sometimes an apple and banana, peaches, lime juice, and then about 1/3 of the blender full of swiss chard, romaine, radish leaves, cabbage--whatever I have. No sugar added. Sometimes I add ginger or cinnamon. It is not strained or juiced, all that fresh food is good for me.

And guess what? A little weight is coming off--who'd have thought! I'm not hungry at the end of the day. I'm feeling pretty good!

Sorry this is long...but it is!

Trapper's foods:
Meat, more meat, white bread especially white rolls, butter on every sandwich, baloney, mayo, cheese, gas station food sneaked in, 6-8 bottles/cans of diet pop, and ice cream everyday. He'll eat broccoli if he must, 1 salad per month, green beans twice a month, corn, popcorn, chips, tortillas, cheese dip, white saltine crackers, rice, potatoes, sour cream, pizza.

He's very physical for his job, I'm currently not very physical. Should I get a life insurance policy on me or on him?

I'll have to up my intake as soon as I'm exercising--I know. Anyone want to join me?

 

[CWS4322]

You GO, girl! Remember that changing your eating habits and lifestyle habits are more important than dieting. Just parking your car a few blocks away from your destination means that you walk more than if you parked as close as possible to the door. Dieting is a form of deprivation. Once you reach your "ideal" weight and revert back to old eating habits, the weight tends to go back on. One of the reasons I decided to store so many of my pans and appliances in the basement at the house in the City is because I will go up and down the stairs more often. I'm at that age where one gains weight because of a change in hormones, if you get my drift. Would the insurance policy cover if you smothered him in his sleep? Don't you hate people who can eat like that?!? I'd weigh 300 lb if I ate half of what he eats!

 

[Aunt Bea]

I think it is fantastic that you can make this work!

I would need to borrow a pillow from Princess Fiona and do a little midnight gardening if I lived with someone who could eat like Trapper!

 

[blissful]

I think it is fantastic that you can make this work!

I would need to borrow a pillow from Princess Fiona and do a little midnight gardening if I lived with someone who could eat like Trapper!

It's not so bad having him eat like that. I can just make a regular good dinner (if he is home early enough to eat it) and I eat the healthy stuff and he eats the rest! All is fair in love and war, he gets acid in his stomach so bad he has to take antacids, I haven't had one in three weeks! (I only do the catholic guilt thing, mentioning how I don't take them anymore, about once a week.)

I called him an hour ago and he won't be home in time to eat (too late at night), so I'm making some orange beef tomorrow--yum yum, mine without rice and some roasted vegetables to go with it.

He mentioned wanting some healthy oatmeal, dried fruit, nuts bars that I make, so that guilt thing might be taking hold of him now.

 

[blissful]

CWS--thank you, I understand what you are saying. I don't shop much or even go many places, so I really need to build in some walking time in some other way. Hormones and age--I'm there too.
I'm glad it works for you--to walk the stairs all the time. I've moved most of my kitchen ware to the first floor where all the cooking is done.

I forgot to mention--8-8 oz glasses of water everyday, which I enjoy.

I'm having trouble trying to incorporate a few vegetables that are just a little too crunchy for smoothies. I can put them in but then the smoothies are more crunchy. I'm thinking I need to either steam them first for smoothies or use them in soups.

Cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, broccoli. I'm thinking I'll have to add a soup or two to the current mixture of smoothies.

The limited grain in this diet is really helping with any joint pain and it's supposed to be good for reducing inflammation in all parts of the body. I used to have hip pain, deep aching, and it's subsided.

The smoothies, I make three at a time, and I put them in the refrigerator for the following days. It's the first thing I have in the morning and no preparations or dirty dishes on 2 out of three days. It sure fills me up to start the day, and it takes about an hour to sip it all.

Trapper enjoyed the orange beef with white rice, followed by a huge white bread roll with butter. Then he had a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream last night late and he spent half the night being sick. I wonder why this happens? As long as he is happy, I'm happy......I suppose.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Treat your cauliflower like you would to make mashed potatoes, use your allotted butter in this.

I have a few extra pillows...I'll get more if needed.

 

[CWS4322]

Treat your cauliflower like you would to make mashed potatoes, use your allotted butter in this.

I have a few extra pillows...I'll get more if needed.

I thought
the Walmart ad this week had pillows on sale...

 

[blissful]

You gals are funny!

It's finally a full three weeks here--and drum roll please--10 lbs down for me! I almost can't believe it. Without an exercise plan so far. That'll change now. I'm starting to 'Feel' like moving around more, I have more energy. I used to crave an hour or more nap everyday, now I might close my eyes for 15 minutes and I'm full of energy. Yesterday I was completely grain free (including whole grain) and completely dairy free--but I'm not that way everyday.

They say (those imaginary healthy people on the internet at the perfect body mass index BMI = 18.5-24.9), that if you don't take in breads, dairy, free oils, and fill up on vegetables, fruit, whole grains-legumes, seeds and nuts- and lean meat, you cannot gain weight and will lose weight, and it's true. I'm at a BMI of 24.1 this morning. (there is a 30 lb spread for being in the normal BMI range)

I made two recipes of orange sauce for the orange beef, mine was 'warm' in spiciness and his was just very sweet and not warm.

Peel an orange thinly and like filleting the skin off fish, fillet the white pith off the orange peel, then finely dice the peel.
Squeeze one orange for the juice.
Mix the orange peel and juice in a med size sauce pan.
Add 1 finely chopped garlic clove.
Add 7 oz of orange juice concentrate (5 oz for his).
Add 3 Tablespoons soy sauce.
Add 1/2 cup honey (1 Cup of sugar for his).
Add one finely chopped hot pepper (none for his).
Bring to a boil until it is coating a spoon with a thick syrupy like mixture.

My orange sauce was not overly sweet, had a nice heat to it and I liked it. His was sweet, exactly like what he wanted, almost like a candied beef, just like in the restaurant.
Served with thin beef slices marinated in soy sauce and rice wine and corn starch, fried quickly in a little oil. Rice (if desired).

Stirred up some coleslaw from cabbage and shredding a carrot, drizzled with a little olive oil, vinegar, honey, steak seasoning, and salt.

Thanks for the tip on the cauliflower!

I was extra hungry last night, probably stress eating at me for the frustration of trying so hard to be healthy while watching Trapper nonchalantly eating whatever he desires. (We have ice cream, chips, bags of candy--which hold no appeal to me.) I decided to have an extra 16 oz smoothie and some coleslaw a couple hours before bed.
This time the smoothie was: strawberries, pineapple, cranberry juice (just a few tablespoons), cabbage leaves, apple, pea pods, greens (romaine, swiss chard) blended until smooth.
I'm amazed, that the fruits are so sweet, I can barely tell there are greens or pea pods in it. The smoothies are a rich dark forest green and if I was blind, I'd never know there were pea pods, greens or cabbage in it.

Since my vacuum cleaner son left two months ago, we haven't had white rice (until this week), potatoes, corn or pasta. I haven't, Trapper has had rice. I'm going to have to use up the potatoes, probably oven fried, herbed wedges Trapper can have for a side dish and to take with his lunches this week.

Wish me luck for my next three weeks. I get some inspiration from this video, a woman doctor, with MS, wheel chair bound to walking. It's 18 minutes long--I know, LONG. Still inspirational.
Minding your mitochondria.

 

[blissful]

One thing I noticed, which I'm sure most people trying to fix their diets/lifestyle changes will notice, is that you don't have enough of the 'right things' in the house, you'll eat some of the wrong things.
It took me a good week to have all the right things in the house and get some prepared for those moments when hunger struck.

I have pre-prepared some chickpeas, small red beans and brown rice, so it can be ready at a moments notice. Fresh fruit and veggies are always on hand. Granola is made and ready anytime. Almond milk is made once a week. Thinly sliced tiny rounds of whole grain bread, slightly browned in the oven, kept for using with hummus--instead of fatty crackers. Smoothies, fruit or green are made every 2 to 3 days.

What is working: To make something special everyday--beef and broccoli, orange beef or chicken--something hot and healthy to look forward to eating each day.

Mistake: Don't put mustard greens in a smoothie--they are HOT, and if you can't handle the hotness, you won't drink it (and I like spicy). Ask me how I know.

Trapper's food yesterday: 2.8 lbs of brats cooked up--for dinner and then for lunches with white bread rolls, buttered, to be alternated with white bread ham spread salad sandwiches (made with bologna, mayo, pickles). If he inadvertently begins to lose weight eating this stuff, I just don't know how that could happen.

Okay girls, no more pillow talk , it sounds like exercise on my part and that is not part of my plan.

 

[CWS4322]

Mistake: Don't put mustard greens in a smoothie--they are HOT, and if you can't handle the hotness, you won't drink it (and I like spicy). Ask me how I know.

Mustard greens are best in very small quantities or as a natural laxative if one is constipated or if one wants to clean out one's colon. Mustard greens are "volunteers" in our garden, but one small leave in a huge salad is about all we use.... It didn't take me more than one side of steamed mustard greens to figure out mustard greens are not my friend.

 

[blissful]

CWS--are mustard greens 'hot' when they are steamed--as in spicy hot? Or does the steaming make them less hot?
The ones I had in the smoothie last night, didn't bother my gut, just my taste buds.