Quantity

Medical Update

The difficulty in balancing John's medications continues. He was showing some blood in his urine which made the medical staff concerned abut the blood thinner...but then he passed a kidney stone, and the blood has vanished.  We returned to the doctor for the 3rd time this past week and hope to start moving to weekly blood checks, if not monthly, then soon...

He has kept his five pounds off, and I have lost another pound....

Which brings us to my next quandary with balancing food...

Quantity? Calories? Or portions?  Which is it?

Many diets focus on calorie counting, often with the addition of exercise.

Heart disease reversing vegan diets (which differs from a standard vegan diet) suggest that calorie counting is not necessary if one eats a plant-based, no oil, whole grain diet filled with leafy greens and colorful vegetables. A vegan friend of ours tell us the the more colorful our plate, the better! Almost everyone loses weight with the diet change. It is still possible to overeat as a vegan, however, so that should not be discounted. Too many whole grains, starchy vegetables, and desserts can cause weight gain...and exercise is still key (Esselstyn, 2007).  I admit, we are still struggling with the balance part...just  how much plant-based proteins, how much grain, leafy greens, and colorful veggies do we need?  How often? How do we balance all of this with john's medications?

 Beachbody focuses on portion control in lieu of calories, providing a good visual as to exactly how large a portion really is. I have been very successful with this approach in the past, but a vegan eating plan is new to me.

Eating HEART-HEALTHY Vegan. . . .

I want to stress that we are following a heart-healthy vegan diet, which omits nuts, oils, tofu, and avocado. What I share here reflects our understanding of adapting the Beachbody vegan diet to our heart-healthy diet based on Esselstyn's research. This is not an official Beachbody diet, simply our take on adapting it to meet our needs....at this time.  As our comfort and confidence grows this may changes as well. We are also looking at a simple portion control  approach as opposed to a meal plan to accompany a specific exercise program....that is a job for much later...

Because of their convenience and my comfort level with them, we are using the Beachbody containers to address portion control.

Approximate container measurements follow:

• Red = 3/4 cup
• Purple = 1 cup
• Green = 1 cup
• Yellow = 1/2 cup
• Orange = 2 Tablespoons

Beachbody folks will notice some differences: only one orange and no blue containers. The missing orange container is nuts, olives, coconut, and oils. Seeds are good.  The missing blue would contain avocado, raw whole nuts, and coconut milk.

Because of our current activity level and life style, we  are looking at level one as explained in the 21Day fix Vegan Eating Plan.

So...during any given day we each need  the following:

• 5 green containers (green and yellow veggies, beets, tomatoes,onions...)
• 1 purple container (fruits)
• 3 red containers (shakeology, beans, lentils, peas,seitan)
• 3 yellow A containers (whole grains, such as quinoa, brown/wild rice, corn, amaranth,millet, buckwheat, oatmeal)
• 1 yellow B containers (tubers and more processed grains such as pastas and breads)
• 1 orange container  (raw seeds, flax seeds chia seeds)

How it's working....so far.....

3 red containers. What most folks view as difficult - the red (or protein) is really easy to get.   We have a serving of shakeology every day, leaving us with 2 other reds throughout the day.  For us that has become beans in the form of two bean chili, sloppy joes made with lentils, or black bean dishes. I have more recipes begging to be tried!

1 purple container. This is very easy to overdo.  John likes either 1/2 banana or some frozen cherries in his vegan chocolate shake, so if we plan to have fruit later in the day,we need to think about it when we fix our shakes.

5 green containers. This is difficult for us. We have started to have small salads with lunch and dinner (2 down, 3 to go) and try to add salsa or tomatoes to bean dishes.  We have had green beans and orange-glazed carrots, even beets.  I have made an artichoke heart and bean salad, but this area is lacking. I need more recipes.   I know we can add spinach to our shakes (adds texture but no taste), but we need to find a way to add more greens!

3 yellow A containers. This one is pretty easy for us as well.  We begin each day with steel cut oatmeal. I would also put our 100% whole wheat homemade bread in this category.  We tend to have either wild rice or brown rice.  I have made some apple spice cherry muffins that would probably be a 1/2 yellow A  and 1/2 fruit.

1 yellow B container. This is another weak area for us.  We love sweet potatoes but we do not have them every day. We have found a Kashi cereal that we sometimes use as a snack (whole wheat and cinnamon). Ezekiel bread makes an English muffin that John likes, but most of the items in this category are too refined to fit within our dietary needs.  Luckily if we skip the yellow B, we can add a yellow A.

1 orange container.  Yeah, we often miss this. We could certainly add seeds to those small salads as a garnish to other dishes...I just forget to buy them and do so......back to my grocery list.....

Pulling it all together

We now have a better idea of what to eat each day and need to plan accordingly. (I process when I write, so this post helped me plan and process). While it has been wonderful to go to bed at night and not have to ask ourselves, "What should we take from the freezer for supper tomorrow?" we do find ourselves needing to plan better. Running back and forth to doctor appointments has often left us missing snacks and feeling very hungry and stopping somewhere is not as easy an option as it once was.

I have added these missing items to my grocery list and am starting to do more specific meal planning and prep.

Now, to experiment with new recipes - more on that later!

We can do this!

NEXT POST:  Integrating exercise into the mix. John is beginning his Tai Cheng program, and I am repeating 21Day Fix Extreme.

Meal planning and lessons learned

Let me begin with the ending phrase of the last post...lose weight.

Yep, weight is rolling off of both of us, and we are not hungry. At the time of this writing, I have lost 3 pounds, and John has lost 5  in the 4 days we have been vegan.  Not too shabby.

I am a researcher.   I enjoy researching and look for peer-reviewed professional research for support. Books based on peer-reviewed research speak to me; therefore, this heart reversal diet simply feels right. If if this diet can also reverse/prevent diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and cancer, then why not follow it???

What we have tried and learned

Artichoke Heart & Bean Salad

1. Meal planning and prep is a necessity. Meal planning has taken a whole new twist as we pour through four different cookbooks and the internet looking for ideas and menus. We make a list of meals with recipe books, recipe names, and page numbers...and add to a shopping list. Recipes seem to make large quantities of food, so one recipe can make enough for 5-or 6 servings. (The first time I use a recipe, I make it as written, planning to adjust for quantity and flavorings the next time.) For example, the artichoke heart and bean salad pictured on to right made enough to fill a three inch deep, six by six inch bowl, and the leftover pumpkin lentil soup filled a 20 ounce container.

2. Plan out the grocery store visits. We live a good 20 minutes away from a grocery store, so daily visits to make sure all food is fresh is not really an option.  Instead, we keep the grocery list with us whenever we leave the house and work in groceries at the end of other errands.

Our newly rearranged pantry

3. We had to reorganize the pantry and the refrigerator. I spent Friday evening cleaning out the panty and fridge, throwing out opened food we could no longer use and bagging up unopened food to take to a minister friend for his church pantry.  Some food will go to my office next week. The results were a much better organized pantry...and much more room since we no longer need different oils, salad dressings, condiments, and such.

4. These are not my mother's beans! As a child, I remember helping my mother wash beans and set them to soak overnight so we could cook them in a large pot all day on the stove. Crockpots and pressure cookers make this no longer necessary, but, even better....a variety of beans are available canned and cooked. We choose those that are unseasoned and thoroughly rinse them before we heat and add our own seasonings.

our veggie bowl

5. Quantity of food eaten is not as important as the quality of the food. This part is amazing to me!  Well, not the quality of food part, but the quantity of food. Basically, John has no calorie restriction - unheard of in most diets! Portions are not measured. We feel full (not stuffed) and are still losing weight. This is so interesting to me that the entire next blog post will explore quantity vs calories vs portions.

6. Cravings have not been as much of an issue as we expected. While our books suggest that cravings for fat will disappear after three months, neither of us crave fat.  Perhaps we are still frightened by the heart attack and the stents, but we simply have not missed the meat. Every now and then I crave sugar, or John craves a treat, but a piece of fruit dipped in chocolate sauce - yes, a healthy homemade chocolate sauce with cocoa, vanilla, maple syrup, and arrowroot  - does the trick.

7. Keeping up with the changing medications has been more trouble and more time-consuming than meal planning and prep. Dealing with medications, side effects, doctors, and labs has been far worse than the lifestyle change. John's heart cath was done through his wrist, and his forearm is heavily bruised from the wrist into the elbow.  He also is unable to lift more than 10 pounds. He left the hospital with 4 new meds, 3 of which were discontinued during the first week - after, of course, he filled month-long prescriptions. During that first week he saw his PCP and the lab techs twice, but will not see the cardiologist for 3 months. (Do not get me started on the current standard of medical care!) His second day home from the hospital, his BP was 97/57.  A phone call to the PCP resulted in removing two meds as it appears he was on 4 BP medications! On day 5 post hospital, lab tests showed his blood was too thin, so he was taken off one of his blood thinners until the next lab test. Figuring out which meds are morning and which meds are evening and which meds he is even supposed to take has been a nightmare. This makes me wonder how older patients (we are not old!) with memory issues handle such events. This upcoming week sees another lab  appointment with a med check and a visit to the cardiologist's PA.  Give me meal planning and meal prep any day!

8. Traditional foods diabetics are told to avoid do not seem to be a problem.  John's fasting BS has been below 100...despite eating wild rice, brown rice, fruit, and some maple syrup.

Are we vegan?

 I guess so... At least that is the plan :-) We are experimenting with recipes and actually enjoying this life style change. We have a lot to learn, but that;s fine -learning is good. We both have more weight to lose, and John plans to integrate Tai Cheng into his routine once he is approved for activity.

Tonight I will prepare a crockpot for overnight oatmeal, and we have more new dishes on tomorrow's menu.

We can do this!

Meanwhile, the next topic to explore is calories vs portions.

Sticking a toe in the water

We decided to start slowly as neither of us have ever really tried preparing anything vegan. I was vegetarian  almost 30 years ago, but that ended with the birth of twin daughters when I just could not keep from devouring everything in sight while breastfeeding.

I am familiar with meal planning and food prep from raising three children and from Beachbody, but that was using foods I was already used to cooking.  We  have been eating whole foods for years due to my list of allergies and had been eating free range chicken and grass-fed hormone-free beef. But vegan?  That was a stretch.  The only time we ate beans was in homemade chili.

All of this changed after coming home from the hospital, and we decided we would go at this one day at a time.

http://www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/

When I posted in the Beachbody group mentioned in the previous post, it was suggested we view the movie Forks Over Knives to gain a better understanding of a vegan diet and to aid in the transition...

Oh my! What a learning experience! Everyone needs to watch this movie...if you want to avoid heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and cancer . .  .


Let me explain this heart reversal vegan diet a little. ... We can eat nothing that had a face or a mommy, no dairy products, refined grains, no oil of any kind - including olive oil, and no nuts.

You may be thinking what we were: olive oil? Come on...we've been told that is great for us - and heart healthy! I will not go into the research here, but chapter 10 in Prevent and Reduce Heart Disease (Esselstyn, 2007) explains this quite well. Olive oil may not be as healthy as we think it is.

No nuts.....another question as walnuts and almonds in particular have been touted for their health properties.  While they contain Omega 3, only short-term studies have explored the relationship between nuts and cholesterol.  No long-term studies have shown nuts being able to arrest and reverse heart disease.  Overeating nuts is very easy to do, which could negatively impact cholesterol.  So for heart  patients -  no nuts.

For us,  due to my allergies and John's, this also means no soy, i.e. tofu.soy raises his blood pressure and gives me hives.

Day 1

This day started pretty easily with oatmeal with fruit for breakfast.

Lunch was vegan chocolate Shakeology:  John  added a banana to his while I mixed mine with cold coffee and splash of maple flavoring. Easy peasy! While sipping my shake,  I made a sweet potato hummus for us to have with Ezekiel bread.  The hummus was interesting.  Neither of us like hummus, but I thought the sweet potato might provide a more interesting taste. The ingredients were simple: baked sweet potato (peeled), lemon juice, and spices (page 105 of Esselstyn & Esselstyn, The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook, 2014). Ezekiel bread is interesting as well....all whole grain and no oils or fats.   I love to make bread, and I cannot fathom how to make bread without some sort of oil, but I guess I will learn :-)

Double Bean Chili

Supper was our first real foray into a fully vegan, hearty-friendly meal. I searched the Beachbody blog and found a recipe for  Double Bean Chili, so that was where we started. This dish took me only 15 minutes to mix and 30 minutes to cook...and we liked it! We really did! So much so that John had a second helping.  We found this to be very filling... AND we had enough for another day. I love leftovers! (I do want to state that while the recipe calls for sauteing the veggies in oil, I used water instead. We are an oil-free zone)

We can do this!!!!!!!  I have been terrified about making such a change - how to meal plan, how to prepare foods, wondering how we would we eat enough to meet nutritional goals, would we even want to eat this food.

We can do this!

Now, to experiment with recipes...and figure out proportions..and how to lose weight.....

NEXT: Meal planning and lessons learned

Wakeup call

Sometimes we need a gentle nudge, right?  Or maybe not so gentle...

In this case, the nudge was a very strong push....or shove....

On Friday, October 14, 2016, my husband of 23 years had a heart attack resulting in 3 stents and a directive from the cardiologist to  begin a vegan diet to reduce heart disease.

I love beef.  We both love beef.... We even have a quarter of a cow in our freezer.   Hmmmmm...

Our wedding day in 1993

On his first day home from the hospital,my husband held my hands and asked me to be his coach.

To me, that was earth-shattering...and even romantic... then it sank in.....He wanted my help, but, to me, this means he wanted me to help keep him alive...

Scary times...

John was referred to hospital's Cardiac Rehab, and we chose the Ornish program.(Ornish's research suggests cardiac disease can be reversed by moving to a vegan diet and incorporating yoga, stress management, and family support.) We were super excited to begin this next step, as the rehab would include food classes with a chef.

Then we received the call from the Rehab to discover that only John was to attend these session (4 hours each, 2 days a week for 9 weeks). I was not included! A program that required a life change from the entire family, and family could not attend?  Ludicrous! Personally, I think the hospital was using this as a money maker, and since I was not a cardiac patient - a revenue stream for them - they did not want me there.

We ordered books on reversing cardiac disease, including Ornish's program, and started research on becoming a vegan.  John had already started drinking Vegan Chocolate Shakeology, so we ordered the Tai Cheng program. (We use DVDs as our streaming capabilities are somewhat limited.)


I am comfortable with the Beachbody portion control planning, but using beef - chicken - seafood...not legumes and grains. This was a whole new world to me.  I searched the Beachbody Blog for vegan recipes and found a few to save to Pinterest. This summer I had been a part of the 21 Day Fix Extreme TV test group, so I posted a request for assistance there...and found a whole new family of support with people volunteering to offer support and answer questions.

And we are off to veganism..and integrating this new lifestyle.....


NEXT: Our first vegan meal...

Getting started . . .

I am currently 63 and working daily on my fitness and health...and this is not easy!

Setting the stage . . .

Prior to menopause I was a size 4 and somewhat active. I started aerobics and slimmercize at the local Y after my first daughter was born in 1982, but my husband at that time was not supportive, so after a few years I had to quit. At that time I was able to eat anything I wanted without gaining weight. I could pretty much do whatever I wanted activity-wise although asthma sometimes kicked in. Once menopause began in my 40s, I only had to look at food to gain weight. Slowly the weight came on until I found myself at 180 with a double chin - and that was when I stopped looking at the scale and refused to be in any photos. My husband (new and improved version) and I were doing yoga at that time. I decided I needed something more active, and my instructor suggested Jazzercise. I have been doing Jazzercise now since 2006. I lost weight and toned up easily - as long I attended 5-8 classes each week.

Fast forward a few years through a stressful job and a move to Asheville, NC, in 2012.

Our current view

When I moved here to Asheville, I again gained some weight (about 25 pounds), but took it off again in Jazzercise, attending 5-10 times a week. Then we moved out here in 2014 to Barnardsville on top of a mountain, and Jazzercise was now over 30 miles and 45 minutes away. Luckily I teach full time online and have some freedom in my hours, but I just could not carve out that time more than a few days a week. My weight stared creeping up again. At the same time my husband John is fighting weight, diabetes, and heart problems, and my asthma started to flare up a little with the extra weight.

Flashback to September 2015.... 30 extra pounds and 26 inches ago.....

I realized I could no longer fit into the business suits I needed to wear for conferences and such, so, I purchased a Fitbit in September 2015 and added that to Jazzercise 3 days a week (in bad weather I cannot leave the mountain when it snows as we are just at the snow line). I lost 10 pounds - approximately - by walking daily...sometimes up to 50,000 steps a day - but that is just plain tough to do! I had been watching my niece, Rebecca, and her weight journey using Beachbody, and she inspired me. When we finally had a quick chance to chat face-to-face at Thanksgiving, I started pondering...and eventually tried Shakeology and the containers around Christmas 2015. I felt great with the Shakeology! John had a second atrial ablation heart surgery in January 2016 in NYC, and we both lost some weight there, and I was really watching my portions and trying to avoid refined foods. I lost some more weight and purchased CIZE, then Hip Hop Abs (although I put HHA on the back burner for later). I was 3 weeks into CIZE when Rebecca suggested I start the 21Day Fix Extreme workout and that was awesome! I really enjoyed the strength training, and 21 days was a good time period. I then did Country Heat and am now finishing up CIZE advanced. I have lost 28 pounds in the last year and my doctor is very pleased...and I am back in a size 4 and my suits fit! Now, I need to maintain. I like dance, but I also like some strength training and am trying to figure out the best blend for me.

The Beachbody approach really allows us to take control – we do not buy pre-packaged portions in the freezer section.  We create our own food– so we take control, we know what is in our food, we make responsible choices, and can even go out to eat !  The workouts rock, too! (If you want to know more, contact me directly.)

So... I have decided to become a Beachbody coach and help other people along their journey to fitness. I never dreamed this journey would be so close to home....

OK…that’s enough from me……for now....more to come....

POSTSCRIPT:  This journal started out being MY story.   This all changed on Friday, October 14, 2016, around 7 pm when my husband John had his second heart attack: The wake up call