Kitty Adventures Journey of a lifetime

[bunsofaluminum]

oh my heck, racquet ball is SO MUCH FUN! I usually work my abs harder than anything, just laughing my head off.

On the kale, I wonder if throwing some garlic in there would work. Lemon? i have used kale for kale chips more than anything else, oooh, but wait a sec...the E2 Diet Book has a wonderful sandwich using kale. It's called the lemon kale sandwich or something. It is scrumptious.

Kale chips are pretty easy. You just tear the leaves away from their stems, into maybe 2-3" pieces (you can trim w/ a knife but tearing it works, too) put them on a baking sheet and set the oven at its lowest setting. It takes a couple of hours, but they are yummy when they're done. You spritz soy sauce on them before baking. Now I gonna have to go get me some kale.

have a good one! good for you on the three pounds released! yay!

[kittyadventures]

Buns thanks for the tips I will have to try those kale chips they sound yummy.

Another day done.

for my meals today I had:

Breakfast: the applesauce oatmeal which is really really yummy
a cup of herb tea
lunch: was broccoli and sweet potatoes
Dinner: was green beans and a potato onion celery fry(Not to worry it was not with oil)

My tummy is really full now because I just guzzled a big glass of water.
I am not sure why maybe because of all the fiber but with this diet I drink a lot of water with my meals 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups of water.

anyway right now it is making me feel really full which I know will pass shortly. that plus for some reason I ate too fast... I try to make myself slow down but I didn't do very well on that. Oh well tomorrow is another day

For exercise today I roto tilled in my vegetable garden. I did three and a half beds. I planted one of the beds with lettuce and spinach and kale and radishes and peas.. Each bed is four feet wide by eight feet long so you can plant a lot in them.
Tomorrow I want to do beats and some other types of greens I think.

I will be planting yellow and green Beans and Cuccumbers and tomatoes and peppers this year too. I may also put in some zuccini. because I am a gluten for punishment LOL
I am trying to figure out how much to plant I am eating so much more vegetables but hubby decided he didn't want me to plant cantaloupe this year which frees up an entire bed for more stuff.

I hope you all had a magnificent day today too!

[sksamboots]

Your doing great. Keep on keepin on

[kittyadventures]

Your doing great. Keep on keepin on

Hi SKSAMBOOTS! HOpe you had a great day today!

[raven]

Hi Kitty, Your garden sounds great! We live in oak chaparral with very alkaline water, and very hot summers, so there's not a lot that grows well. We have tomatoes and fruit trees. What really grows well here are the native plants and cactus. We have tons of big healthy cactus. My neighbor, who lives on a different kind of soil (they have redwood trees) has a pretty good garden. So i think it's the combination of soil and water, but prett much everything we plant dies. I have a technical (two year) degree in horticulture, but i think i became a horticulture major so i could meet my first husband, the father of my daughter. I have the love of plants, but no intuition as to what they need. I like gardeners though. I envy you. I hope to hear how all those plants come up.
Raven

[kittyadventures]

HI Raven WE are practically neighbors LOL I live in Hollister. I know what you mean about some of the limitations I went through a lot of plants trying to find what worked for my area and it has to have the added component of being distasteful to pocket gophers.

The soil is solid clay so solid you can dig it out and fire it into a pot.
so we made raised beds which would probably work for you too.
THe boxes have wiring on the bottoms to keep the gophers out. otherwise I would get no vegetables at all.
I also grow a lot of cactuses and mediteranian plants which do very well here. Also plants from south africa, Australia and New zealand. and of course all the natives.

[raven]

Hi Kitty. Our beloved puppy Mellon came from Hollister. The only time i've ever been there was to pick her up, a year ago last December. When we go out, we usually go to Palo Alto to shop and see friends.

But Hollister's only about an hour and a half drive from here.

We have raised beds - and packaged soil. It helps a little, but without different water, most stuff still dies. We do have a bunch of bulbs, which get watered by the rain, and then die before it gets too hot so they need to be watered. I think that's why they survive year after year, they don't get killed by the water. The water smells like terribly rotten eggs, before chlorination.

Anyway, how are you doing? Are you learning the ropes? Is it getting easier? Many of us hit a difficult period after doing well for a while, do you have plans in case that happens? My plans include: always eat rice cakes first, before that off-plan food. Often, that's enough. Plus, i eat a lot of raw veggies while i'm cooking. And i cook a lot a couple of times a week and freeze some so i can grab something on plan in a hurry.

You probably know all this.

Take care.
Raven

[kittyadventures]

Hi raven I actually have had a bit of a struggle this week Yesterday i ate abunch of Eater candy and got an upset tummy and also had some cheese.
\NOt really good,

Today so far I have been staying on plan, I have been trying to read as much as i can about the food density stuff,,, hopefully I will do beter next week my weight wnet up so far the last couple of days Of course last week it did that then dropped right down so maybe it is just that I am not getting my proportions of starch to veggie right,

Todays meals
oatmeal
Apple
1/4 c pinto beans'
a medium carrot
2 russet potatoes medium sized
1 cup of mixed vegetables
huge broccoli stalk not quite 2 cups when chopped up
about 1 /2 cup of lettuce

I am still hungry right now so I probably will eat a small sweet potatoe
other wise i wake up in the middle of the night feeling hungry.


About your water situation have you had it checked for arsenic.. this is a comon problem for our area, It occurs naturally in the soil on one side of town here, Most of those people use reverse osmosis.

it gives the water a foul smell. The arsenic i mean.
If it is arsenic that would explain why it kills all your plants.

Any way thanks for the heads up I will start working on a more concrete plan for when I am struggling more.

[raven]

Hi Kitty, nope arsenic is okay.

For what it's worth, i turned a real corner several years ago when i read Diet for a New America and realized that even a vegetarian diet caused suffering to animals. I used to say that i was McDougall - plus butter. I gave up the butter, and the occasional chocolate, permanently. I couldn't find a way to do it for myself, but i could do it for the animals. It wasn't the final decision to give up oil, but it was for me a giant step to stop eating any dairy or eggs. Have you considered that?

Take care. I wish you well.
Raven

[kittyadventures]

Hi Raven thanks for sharing, I guess I am not quite there yet. but I am headed that way.

I do have occasional eggs from our chickens who live quite the life of ease and chicken happiness they roam our whole acre have lots of fresh grain and bugs to eat and fruit and tomatoes they raid my vegie patch every year. and they generally have a blast chasing cats and having a good time. But if we were still eating store eggs i would have quit long ago. as to the meat part of it... I actually find meat pretty easy to walk away from. Having our own farm animals makes it more evident how food animals are mistreated. I have seen a couple of turkey farms up close and personally and it is not a pretty site for the turkeys who are over crowded and living in their own filth.
the same goes for chickens who are even more mistreated than the turkeys.
I think if people actually saw this their selves they would have a harder time eating meat.. And I don't mean the videos on line but in real life. it is sobering!
as to the milk hmmm I hadn't thought of the milk in the milk chocolate. I usually eat dark chocolate but I see your point. And the cheese too.

Well now one more step on the journey.


as to this week it has been an exercise in eating out, stressing, over eating Easter candy (a good reason to not have it around) and in trying different foods. NOT a successful diet week really but a very successful week of internal growth.

1 pound lost for the week. Here's hoping this new week will be a better week!

[sksamboots]

Congrats on the weight release. Keep on keepin on

[kittyadventures]

So Easter has gone reasonably well so far
Breakfast was Oatmeal with raisons.
IT is not my standard plain oatmeal but that is okay I have it on the weekend with Hubby.

Lunch was green beans and my homemade Potatoe salad

certainly not MWL but then I don't think there is any way to make potato salad MWL

but this is what I did do

I boiled my potatoes I did add eggs because it is a feast day and well they are fresh from my free range organic happy go lucky chickens.
I did reduce the number of eggs to potatoes
I also put in mustsrd
and relish
and light mayonaise
which is not even close to real mayonaise but tasty I reduced teh mayonaise to 1/3 of what I usually add in and I have to say it tasted just fine. I was worried it would be too dry but it was great.

I also had water mellon and strawberries,
IT was yummy.


Dinner was a bit more of the potato salad but just a bit
and more green beans and more strawberries

pretty yummy.Plus now the salad is gone so it won't be around taunting me to eat it. always important for things that are not on the plan.

I am making some brown rice for eating this week and then I am going to put a pot of steel cut oats on for my first stab at it.
according to the can if you bring it to a boil for one minute and leave in the pan covered and in refrigerator in the morning you can reheat it and cook it for about 7 minutes .

I hope it works!


Happy Easter to all and hope your days have been good!

[kittyadventures]

So today was not a good day. IT started out good but went down hill from there.
I had the steel cut oats today . THey were good. and I had a cup of cut up strawberries with them.
But then I didn't bring a snack to work becaus ei have been fine all last week with out it. But I got stuck at work and was very hungry by the time I left and had 4 hard candies.
then I went to the store on my way home to shop. (I know better than shopping while hungry but I didn't need to get tons of stuff so i figured it would be okay) any way by the time I got home i was starving so I had potato chips, a bunch and some candy,

I redeemed my self with an organic apple and a potato. and lots of water for dinner but still i am mad that I messed up like that,
IT is of course my fault for not having some easy to grab MWL food available and letting my self cave to a hungry tummy.

So tonight is chop up stuff night and prepare as much as i can for the rest of this week. and from now on Sundays will be prep for the week day in order to have plenty of snack stuff to eat if I get in a pinch like that again.

[kittyadventures]

Today was a better day. I read a lot of articles over on the vegan newsletter site that Dr Matt linked in.
I am learning more and more about what I need to do to be successful not just with the MWL but with my pre diabetes

Apparently I need to limit my protein to less than 50. I have to go reread all that and go back to the cron o meter and sort out what that all means.

and after much more reading I now understand why I need to not use any fat or oils or at least as little as possible.
SO I have found the piece of information I needed to finally give up my cheese and my chocolate.
This will be hard but I think I can do it. Sadly I JUST bought a couple of dark Chocolate bars (Gourmet type ) I will probably have to give them away so I don't eat them. I have always kept the Dark Chocolate because I can easily eat a tiny piece and it satisfies my chocolate craving.
so I suppose once I am on this diet for a while I will get over it.

todays food was
Steel Cut outs for breakfast with 1 cup of chopped up strawberries
Lunch was a large russet Potato and mixed vegetabels (Green beans corn carrots peas and lima beans) This is a really yummy combination

dinner was a large salad (no Dressing)
and a spinach mushroom pepper pizza on a corn bread crust.(small, equal to 1 and 1/2 regular size pizza slice)

i have found a couple of Gluten free Pizza crust recipes so this weekend I am going to try to make my own mcdougal pizzas.
And freeze them to make when ever I really want Pizza. That way I can have them oil and cheese free.

One of the best things about all this is not feeling like my body has betrayed me any more. I know what to do to be better! Now I just have to eat the way I know is Best!

[kittyadventures]

Back to exercising today I ran/walked for 30 Minutes on the tread mill for a little over 2 miles Uggh this extra weight is slowing me way down.
I also did 5 minutes on the elyptical and 10- minutes n the bike not sitting back but sitting forward and alternating fast and faster.
I did 2 minutes on the rowing Machine and a bit of weights and will be walking for 3 miles tonight with a friend of mine!

I think there is nothing more daunting than looking at myself exercising in a full length mirror. IT will keep me honest about where I am and where I am heading I think!