#plant-based diet for Thanksgiving

Medical update

Wonderful!  We finally saw a cardiologist, and a new cardiologist at that.  While John really liked his original cardiologist, he was never available.  We would call to schedule an appointment and were always told the first available appointment was 3 months away. Three months????

We asked for a new cardiologist and were given one who follows a plant-based diet and recommends that for his cardiac patients.   He also directs the Ornish wellness clinic in our area and has been studying the link between plant-based diet and reversing heart disease for 16 years...and he and his family follow the same diet.

Excellent!

He is interested in helping John eventually remove medications and in have test results - DATA - to back up decisions.   We felt so much better after meeting with him.  He understands the diet, the health benefits, and is willing to work with us.  John sees him again in 5 months and, pending positive test results, they will begin looking at removing medications.

YES!

Plant-based, not Vegan

One of the facets of our discussion with the cardiologist was terminology.  His preference - and the current word choice - is that of plant-based eating rather than vegan. this reference point here has to do with health.  Someone eating potato chips and drinking soft drinks all day is technically vegan, but not healthy.

So...the current phraseology is hat we follow a plant-based diet.

This really does make sense, and it helps define our food choices...everything we eat comes from plants.

Juicing or Smoothies?

We mentioned to the cardiologist that we were juicing to help john get the vegetables hat he needed.  the cardiologist said hat was fine but that we were wasting a lot of the nutrients because our juicer removed the pulp rather than integrating it into the drink.  Years ago before we live n our boat, we had a Vitamix and loved it...made smoothies everyday - and the children enjoyed them as well. The Vitamix made bread dough, ground flour, made but butters, hot soups, and was very useful.  It was huge, though, and took up quite a bit of counter space. when we moved on the boat, we measured everywhere, trying to find a place it would fit. Nothing. It was too tall to fit in or under a cabinet. It could live in the shower or in a sink.....or up on the fly bridge.....but there would be no way to lug it an and use it because of its height.  Reluctantly we gave it away to good friends and later bought a juicer which we have been using. Now, though, we have ordered a refurbished Vitamix and cannot wait for its arrival!

Misconceptions

The more time we spend with people who do not eat a plant-based diet, the more questions we receive. Evidently there are quite a few misconceptions out there.

10 minute whole grains & rice blends from Aldi

Folks seem to assume I spend a lot of time preparing a meal....I really don't spend any more time preparing a plant-based meal than I do a meal with meat. Most meals are ready within an hour...and most of that time is spent with food cooking wen I'm doing something else. Crockpot stews and chilis take about 15 minutes to prep then cook all day. Rice takes anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes.  Aldis has the wonderful blends of whole grains and rice that only take 10 minutes to cook, so we use them a few times a week. Probably the most time-intensive recipe I have tried was beet burgers with grilled pineapples. They were awesome! I had to cook the beets and the whole grain brown rice and let that cool before assembling. Then I realized the mixture needed to chill 2-36 hours before making the patties and cooking them.  I put everything in a gallon ziplock and chilled it overnight...and we had brown rice and black beans for dinner that night while the other was chilling. We also have a lot of leftovers, which I freeze, so those make fast dinners or lunches.  I have enjoyed spending time creating beautiful salads, but that is fun!

Anther misconception is that we can eat eggs and butter. Nope. John reminds folks that if it had a face or a mother we cannot eat it, and some people seem to miss that connection with regards to eggs. I see why the term plant-based diet fits so well.  Neither of these foods come from a plant, so..nope, we don't eat it.

Our first plant-based Thanksgiving

Our first thanksgiving went well.  We had dinner with family, and I brought a bean chili, a cold bean and artichoke salad, and my apple spice cherry bread. We ate grilled asparagus, Brussel sprouts, corn, and what we brought and were fine.  the rest of he family sampled our food ad asked for recipes, so I think we were not too big of an issue for them.

We survived!

This week's recipe experiments

I tried two new recipes this week - one for the crockpot and one for breakfast.

Slow cooker lentil and pumpkin chili 

I needed a bean dish for Thanksgiving and wanted something in a slow cooker to make it easier to transport and keep warm, so, I googled.  what a wonderful invention.  Whatever did we do before google? anyway, found this recipe that included pumpkin and a secret ingredient - a tablespoon of chocolate - and this was a great find...and a recipe that family members have requested. Although we have not tried his, spooning this chili over a baked potato sounds delicious. 

Click HERE to see this recipe on spryliving.

Chocolate waffles, vegan style

We decided to be decadent and try a waffle recipe.  Actually, we were in WalMart looking for another 3 quart saucepan for cooking rice and found a waffle maker for less than $20, so we bought it and then I started looking for recipes. We took a recipe and tweaked it - our first healthy yet decadent breakfast.

These are absolutely wonderful!

Dry ingredients                                     Wet ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour                  1 3/4 cup almond milk
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa                  1/4 cup safflower oil
2 teaspoons baking powder                  2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions.
2. Sift together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients individually.  Mix together until well combined.
4. Spray the waffle iron with cooking spray and cook waffles as instructed in your waffle iron manual. With our waffle iron, we cooked them for 6 minutes.
5. Serve with your choice of topping: powdered sugar, maple syrup, sliced fruit.....

Makes 8 waffles in our waffle iron.

Can you imagine anything better than chocolate for breakfast? AND we had enough to freeze! We will definitely fix these again and even share some with house guests.

This plant-based  whole foods diet is becoming easier every week, and we survived a food-based holiday! We ate in a restaurant with family on Thanksgiving Friday, with john eating a salad while I had a taco salad.  My plan is to find enough recipes that when family and friends come to visit, we can feed them without their missing the meat.

We can do this!

#eatingvegan

Medical update

Whoo hoo!   John saw our primary are physician today:  fasting BS was great.  Pulse was great!   Blood pressure was awesome!  And when he returns in January for a checkup, the doctor will rerun bloodwork to check cholesterol, PSA levels, and blood sugar so we will see how the impact of the diet....and hopefully begin removing a med or two. 

We see the cardiologist the day before Thanksgiving....and..John has lost 10 pounds since his heart attack, aka, since becoming vegan.

Odd Questions

Someone asked us if we were "still vegan."  This question just leaves me nonplussed. If a cardiologist refers you to cardio rehab to pursue a vegan diet, then the response is, "Heck yes, we're vegan!" I mean, come on - what other choice is there for us?  If we continue to eat the way we had been eating, then John would invariably have another heart attack, and another, until eventually one would take him away.

We are now vegan - if others do not agree with this approach, then fine, but do not imply that this is a fad for us. This is our new lifestyle. I want many decades of time with him, and if this is what we have to do to be together, then there is no question.

Another odd question: "Are you angry vegans?"  I have to admit that I had no idea as to how to respond......and had to ask a vegan work colleague if she knew what that meant. She thought about it and finally came up with the idea that perhaps this person was referring to the ones who become vegan as part of animal rights - angry vegans - the ones who throw red paint on those wearing fur, who picket McDonalds..... Nope, not us. I don't feel animals should be tortured or mistreated, but we are not animal rights activists.  Now, I might be willing to protest a lack of GMO labeling or the lack of farmers' markets or the inclusion of soy in so many products.....

Our Continuing Education

Finally, after a month of waiting, our two Dean Ornish books arrived, and John is reading the chapters regarding causes of cardio vascular disease....it is not genetic, we do not inherit it from our parents, we develop it from our food choices.  Well, that certainly places the responsibility squarely in our hands: we are responsible for what we put in our mouths, and what we put in our mouths impacts our bodies.

Finding nothing to watch on the regular television channels...and even less to watch on the cable channels... we flipped back to Netflix and found the documentary Food Choices. Here is the trailer for this production:

This documentary promotes a plant-based diet, utilizing research and nutrition experts. Three topics really intrigued me.  One of the topics addressed was vegan athletes who reported the same results I have found - more energy, better workouts, greater speed and endurance. (I am now running 8-minute miles, down from 10-minute miles). The second topic of interest was the "fat vegan" (not my term - THEIR term). Most vegans are somewhat lean, but some are not. I had not really considered that before. These vegans eat a plant-based diet yet remain overweight and with some of the same health issues as those who eat meat. when these vegans drop foods such as avocado, nuts, nut milks/butters, and oils, they lose weight and their health improves.  the final item that caught my attention was vegetarianism. While I have known that a vegetarian eats  no meats, it never occurred to me that eating eggs, milk and butter really made them no different from those who consume beef, poultry, or fish. They still consume animal products...and those animal products still negatively impact their health.

The impact of food on our health just continues to amazes me....

I still spend quite a bit of time researching and looking for oil-free recipes..  I love to bake and really miss baking as I currently have only one really good moist bread (see previous blog post for recipe), but oil-free, egg-free, nut milk-free recipes are difficult to find...but I will keep looking...or figure out how to make some substitutions.

The Veggie Issue

I have finally resolved the issue of how to get enough veggies in our diet:   JUICING!   I don't know how I forgot about this.  We used to juice and own both a Jack LaLanne Juicer and Nutribullet...and 4 different recipe books on juicing. We were watching  another documentary - this one entitled Hungry for Change - and were reminded about the power of juicing in an interview with Joe Cross.  


The following trailer  is for Hungry for Change:

If you have never heard of Joe Cross, he is the force behind, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (trailer below) who took on a 60 day juice fast to address weight loss and a variety of weight-related medical problems:

Any way...we started juicing again, and I feel much more confident about us both getting the vegetable servings we need. We are still doing Shakeology with spinach added, but the juicing gives us carrots, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes - all sorts of options!  We will definitely keep a close  eye on John's blood sugar to make sure we do not overdo on the fruit, but I feel as though a weight has lifted!  We can have the servings we need without having to cram in food all day long!  Yay!

This Week's Recipe of Interest

Pre-cooking

8 hours later

Since the weather is trying to turn cold, I wanted to have some slow cooker recipes where dinner could cook all day, and we could just add a side salad. There is just nothing better than loading up a slow cooker at the beginning of the day and knowing that dinner is basically taken care of. I found a wonderful recipe for Black Bean Pumpkin Chili. 

There is one problem with this recipe:  the pumpkin and spices smell so good cooking that it tempts you to open the cover to inhale.  Do not be tempted!   Leave the house if need be because this meal smells fantastic as it cooks.  Add a side salad with a few blueberries, seeds, and oil-free dressing, and you have a complete and easy meal.

Being a vegan is becoming easier....

We can do this!

#notofuforus

Medical update

John is doing much better!   He has more energy and stamina, he walks up a flight of stairs without needing to use the handrail, and his cognition has improved. Fasting blood sugar is still in the 70s each morning, and his blood pressure is normal. P2O2 is now up from 97% to 98%.  He is down to one bloodwork visit each week.....and he has lost a total of  seven pounds since his heart attack no October 14, 2016.

YES!

My view

While energy has seldom been an issue for me, I have also noticed an increase in energy and stamina and can put more into my workouts than I had been able to in the past. I have lost 6 pounds since John's heart attack, and I attribute all of the improvement for both of us to going vegan.

Exercise update

John has been doing Tai Cheng pretty steadily and says he feels more flexible than he did when he started. As for me, I have been 21Day Fix Exreme while waiting to begin Core de Force on Monday.   I have really missed my martial arts workouts so I look forward to this workout. I'm hoping we can do these together.

Eating vegan

We have now been eating vegan for 24 days.  According to some soures, we have broken the meat-eating habit.  People ask us if we miss meat, and we don't.  Others suggest a variety of "veggie" hotdogs and such to eae us through the transition, but we have not really had a transition. We jokingly refer to our diet as having quit meat "cold turkey," and we simply have not looked back.

Motivation is everything!



Channel-surfing through Netflix one night we found a great movie to further encourage our new vegan lifestyle.  The trailer is below:

Plant Pure Nation is based on The China Study, research that supports vegan eating to reverse heart disease and cancer. This was an excellent movie, particularly as it it  referred to a diet study that took lace in a rural town in North Carolina.   This is great viewing for anyone who wants to learn more about using diet to reverse a variety of illnesses.

We are still struggling with balance and trying to eat enough veggies..Funny to think about being a vegan and not eating enough servings of veggies.... grains and beans are no problem, but these meals get large!

Currently I'm up around 7 am, grab some slow cooker oatmeal then go work out. Mid morning I eat a small salad and have a chocolate vegan shakeology with spinach and cherries for lunch. Sometime mid afternoon I gab a serving of beans and rice, then later we have dinner with a salad, grain, and beans, sometimes a veggie.... I just need to get better at making sure I fix a veggie. For me, if I eat lunch then have my shakeology later, I am just too full throughout the day.  John gets up later on, does his various tests and takes his meds, then has oatmeal. Next he does Tai Cheng, followed by his vegan chocolate shake with banana or cherries and spinach...followed by an afternoon snack then dinner.

Food Successes

I have greatly enjoyed perusing the internet searching for oil fee tofu free vegan dishes, and we have ordered quite a few new cookbooks to assist me in this endeavor.  What we look for are dishes we could serve our meat-eating friends and family when they visit, those that are tasty, easy to prepare, and "comfortable."  I thought I would share a few of them here for those of you who might be interested in experimenting.

Overnight Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oatmeal

before adding water

9 hours later

This breakfast is so easy and so good! The idea of waking up and walking into the kitchen to find breakfast ready to dish up is amazing.  Where was this recipe when  I was raising children? I have been playing with this one for a few weeks, starting with the recipe on the steel cut oatmeal container and tweaking it:

      1 cup steel cut oats

      2 cups dried apple 

      1 cup chopped dates

 1 cinnamon stick

  4 1/2 cups water

    
In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients, stir and set on low heat.  You may have to play with this, however.  I have a cheap slow cooker (less than $10), and this burns on my low setting, so I use the WARM setting and have great results. Cover and let cook overnight for 8-9 hours.  Remove the cinnamon stick when ready to serve. Leftover oatmeal can be refrigerated - beter yet - FROZEN - and reheated easily.

Apple Spice Bread

This recipe started out as a muffin recipe, but I soon figured out we could make it more versatile by cooking it in a loaf pan  for 45 minutes rather than as muffins. I use a silicon loaf pan to avoid having to grease a regular pan, and the recipe calls for using flax seed/flax meal with water as an egg substitute. Made with unsweetened applesauce, apricot jelly, and grated apple, this recipe is delightfully moist.  We tend to substitute  black cherry jelly (all fruit, no corn syrup!) for the apricot jelly, and the sweet cherry explodes in each bite.  Just plain yummy! This makes a great breakfast and would be great with almond butter or apple butter....or toasted.....

* 2 Tablespoons Flaxmeal
* 1/4 cup of water
Mix the flax meal and the water in a small bowl and set aside for 10-15 minutes. The flax meal will absorb the water and make a thick gel - a Flax egg!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the following ingredients together in a medium bowl:
* 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
* 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
* 6 Tablespoons sugar
* 1/2 cup raisins

In a large bowl, stir the following ingredients together:
* 1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
* 1/2 apricot spread or cherry jelly
* 1 cup grated apple
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Stir  the flax mixture into the liquids bowl. Stir in half of the dry ingredients, then add the remaining half, stirring gently to combine.

Pour into a silicon loaf pan. Bake about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the loaf. Avoid over baking.

Let the pan cool on a wire rack for a few minutes. Then remove the loaf and cool completely - if you can - on the wire rack. This loaf will keep in a sealed container for a few days ..assuming any remains...... We tend to eat this so quickly that I have no idea how long it will last.

Beet and Bean Burgers

Although I really loved these veggie burgers, John is not a fan of beets, and these have a definite beet flavor.  But we tried them, and they freeze well, so I can take them for work lunches. Pictured here with a salad and ginger orange carrots, these burgers were moist with good texture (not as oat-y as some veggie burgers) and held together enough to cut them and dip them in Dijon mustard, BBQ sauce, or high fructose corn syrup-free ketchup. 

Plan ahead, though, if you decide to make these as I spent two hours making them, and they then needed to sit in the refrigerator for anywhere from 2-36 hours. Expect to turn your hands red as you work with the beets, but that does wash off.

This recipe is from Kitchn.com.

Jane Esselstyn's 3,2,1, Salad Dressing

I love salad, and this oil-free dressing is absolutely wonderful and easy to make. Jane Esselstyn is is the daughter of Dr. Caldwel Esselstyn and co-author of the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook.  This dressing can be made in just a few minutes and is always fresh.  Although it calls for the juice of a lemon, I never have one around, so I substitute lemon juice using the instructions on the bottle.

That's all for now. Next week is John's 4-week check with out family doctor, so more updates then....   I have a few more slow cooker recipes to try out as well....AND I start Core de Force so expect an update on the martial arts workout!

 

We can do this!

#balance

Medical update

John's blood work is finally balancing (and I guess I have not fed him too much vitamin K :-), and is on a somewhat regular dose of blood thinner and does not have to return for new blood work for a whole week! His fasting blood sugar ranges between 79 and 99, and he is energetic and feels good!

Yay!

I seem to have lost another pound or two and am also full of energy.  Is this, perhaps, the vegan diet?

Balancing food

Balancing food is still proving to be difficult. I am just having a hard time making sure we get the required servings of veggies each day. Part of this is the Vitamin K issue, that, to be honest, has terrified me.

This  has to do with blood clotting.  Because of  John's stents, he has been put on the blood thinner Warfarin.  The liver uses Vitamin K to produce blood clotting agents. So Vitamin K's job is to help blood clot while Warfarin's job is stop blood from clotting.

This means the trick is to  try to keep the level of Vitamin K in John's diet pretty stable. This task would be easier if he liked vegetables.  I take that back:  he does like vegetables - potatoes...not really the healthiest vegetable.  To give him credit he has dutifully eaten green beans, broccoli, carrots, and peas....and salads. Sometimes, though, due to appointments and scheduling, we miss lunch...or do not eat lunch until around 3 pm...and I am uncomfortable with him skipping a meal because of the need to keep the Vitamin K intake steady. At least his weekly INR test helps us understand the levels.  I hope that by the time I am more comfortable with this that the cardiologist will take him off of Warfarin.


One interesting note:  John can eat rice.  We have avoided rice for years because of his diabetes, yet rice is not bothering his blood sugar, perhaps due to the other dietary changes made.

In the meantime, we have tried a variety of bean stews, a veggie burger recipe, and have even eaten out at a local vegetarian/vegan restaurant. We have both enjoyed the recipes we have tried, and I plan to try another veggie burger recipe this weekend.

When to eat?

I never thought when to eat would be an issue, but it is. I am often up at least an hour before John, and I grab breakfast (either oatmeal or a whole wheat waffle), then go downstairs to work out. By the time I finish and come back upstairs John is finishing his oatmeal and getting ready for Tai Cheng (more on exercise below). Shakeology for post exercise, followed by showers, and I am off to work. I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful job that allows me to work from home most of the time although I do try to go into the office at least two days a week. Now it's time for lunch so we can eat dinner during my office our break between 6-730 pm. Some days we really have to push to get those meals in.

#pushplay

John started Tai Cheng this week, a Beachbody program designed to improve balance and mobility by focusing on gentle non-impact movements while integrating them with martial arts application - perfect for John! We used to take Tai Jitsu classes several years and loved them.  We miss the dojo, the instructors, and the students, and this is a way to reconnect to some of that training. He has really enjoyed these exercises and has even added in some sit ups afterwards using our Total Gym.  I am very proud of him.  John has more energy and seems to be healing well.   His right writ and arm are still terribly bruised from the heart cath and he is still unable to put his weight on that wrist or to lift more than 10 pounds with that hand, but is better!

I am currently redoing a few different workouts while waiting for my new workout DVDs to arrive...hopefully within a week as I am anxious to move on.  We both seem to be revisiting our martial arts as i have chose the program Core-de-Force, a mixed martial arts workout.

Loose ends

We are settling in to this new lifestyle and look forward to new recipe, new workouts, and seeing what's ahead on this journey. I have discovered all sorts of new friends ready offering support, information, bibliotherapy, and recipes and am astounded at what energy people give so freely. We hope to be able to give back just as gracefully.

I will continue to blog about recipes, the task of balancing, food, and our journey as we delve more into a vegan lifestyle.

We can do this!

Next post: awesome vegan dishes....