6 Week Challenge

Many of us over at the yahoo discussion group decided to join forces and partner in the 6 week challenge.

For some it's their first time, while for others it's a decision to begin again, to begin fresh with the arrival of the new year.

There's been a lot of energy with so many beginning the first of the year.  There's been lots of questions, answers, struggles, victories, and, of course, loss of weight.  But maybe even more important, there are some friendships being made and a spirit of support and encouragement has rained upon the this special group of E2Lers.

I've been eating for health/eating to live for over 3 years now.  I've lost most of my extra weight, but would like to shed the rest and arrive at my goal weight of 123 pounds.

My Dh has been reading, The Engine 2 Diet and has chosen to get rid of all the meat, dairy, oil and unhealthy processed grains and starches.  We pilfered through the kitchen cabinets/pantry finding all the SAD (standard american diet) foods and gathered them all.  My shelves are almost empty.  :)  I'm thrilled!  Now my refrigerator and freezer are buldging at the seams.  hee hee

Monday, January 4 began with a whole wheat bean burrito with homemade salsa for my Dh, and for me - I started out with my usual green blended smoothie. 

Smoothie Recipe

3 large kale leaves, stems removed
1-2 cups frozen spinach
1 cup stawberries
1 cup blueberries
1 TB ground flax seeds
1/2 dropper full of dha
1 TB chia, hemp or sesame seeds
1/2 frozen banana
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
enough water for 64 ounces of smoothie

This is my usual recipe that I pretty much stick to.  Sometimes I'll add some broccoli sprouts.  And occasionally I'll change the strawberries to a tropical fruit mix and the blueberries to a mixed berry.

I have lots of parsley growing and thought I might throw some of that in the blender too.  I want to up my crucifers, so I might add some of the broccoli stalk too. 

If any of you want to do that too, just make sure you peel the stalk first.

So I drink half of this in the morning.  The rest I'll drink later in the day or for breakfast the following morning. 

For lunch I prepared Dr. Fuhrman's vegetarian chili recipe in the Eat To Live book page 222.  The only thing I did different was to use yellow onion instead of red, I didn't add raisins or dates either, but added 2 cups of frozen corn.  We ate on this for most of the week, and afterwards we ate either an apple or an orange.  Dh is eating more grains/starches than I am, so with his soup he ate either a whole-wheat pita, or a whole-wheat tortilla.

Thursday I made Dr. Fuhrman's Asian Vegetable Stir Fry.  You can find this recipe in his Eat For Health book page 205.  I've eaten this a couple times already, but it's my Dh's first time and we both loved it.  It was so delicious and very filling.  We almost couldn't finish the suggested serving. 

I pretty much followed the recipe.  I didn't have bok choy so I used cauliflower instead.  One thing I will change the next time will be to add the sesame seeds to the stir fry instead of adding them to the baked tofu cubes.  There was too much waste.  I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but much of the seeds were on the foil and not the tofu.  Either that or I'll use 2 tablespoons instead of 4 and see if that makes a difference.

We finished the stir fry today at lunch.  Tomorrow I'm making a portobello burger with sweet potato fries.  Dh saw this in the Engine 2 Diet book and asked me to make this recipe next.  I'll post pictures if I remember to take them and let you know how well Dh is doing with eating for health. 

He's always been a meat and potatoes kind of guy and for him to want to eat healthy is such a shock to me, but I am so excited and feel so blessed to be able to share a healthy eating journey with my best friend. 

Eat to live!  John 6:58