#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!