Getting to The Point of No Return and My New Chai Green Smoothie

Thank you to everyone that volunteered to save my butt during my kitchen renovation! I will be contacting you all personally by e-mail within the next two weeks.

Today I want to talk to you about something that is really coming into focus for me at this point in my journey: the amount of fruit in my diet and how it is affecting my weight.

At PEERtrainer (http://www.peertrainer.com/) they have a program called The Point of No Return. I'm not here to sell you on a program (although it is worth WHATEVER nominal amount they are charging for it).  I mention this now because the concept is extremely important in getting you to and keeping you at your happy weight.

So what is "the point of no return"?

For me, it is the state of mind and body where maintaining a healthy weight is not confusing, mysterious, difficult or scary. For those of you who have dieted and failed time and time again, I think you know what I am talking about. You might have an enormous amount of fear and uncertainty regarding your physical and emotional health.

I know that I did. So when I came upon PEERtrainer, their method really spoke to me. They focus a lot on a concept called "diet fusion," which in essence means that it is up to each and every one of us to find our own individual way of eating that gets us to our own Point of No Return. For me, it is a no-added fat Vegan diet free of most processed foods. For you, well, only you can find that magic combination.

Which brings me to the point of all of this: Finding your way takes TIME. I have been laser focused on getting to my point of no return for almost two years. And I am slowly getting there. But I am getting there. It takes an enormous amount of trial and error.

For example, one of my trials along the way was The Raw Food Diet. I was introduced to it, thought it sounded intriguing (who wouldn't want to eat all of those yummy looking desserts every day?), read up on it and started preparing interesting raw food dishes and desserts right away. At the time, I didn't really quite get that the heavy reliance of many raw recipes on highly caloric ingredients like nuts, oils and dried fruit would not be offset by the also heavy reliance on raw vegetables. So I dove right in and failed. I think I gained ten pounds pretty quickly.

But that was party of my journey, my own personal trip to my point of no return. I can't have any regrets because I learned so much from the experience. For one, raw desserts rock! And if and when I do indulge, I want it to be a raw concoction. I feel that I am getting maximum nutrition as well as flavor from a raw dessert, even if the calorie count is through the roof. Sometimes I am just going to indulge. Secondly, there would have been a "right" way for me to go raw, and that would have been without the oils and nuts. But thinking of an uncooked diet without those things left me less than excited, so I returned to a balance of raw and cooked food, and I'm content with that today.

Another one of my experiments, which has lasted far longer than my raw experiment, and continues to this day, has been drinking a green smoothie for breakfast almost every morning. My first green smoothies consisted mainly of a lot of fruit with a handful of fresh or frozen spinach and some flax or chia seed. Somewhere along the way, I experimented with adding more green things (and even carrots) but the fruit component remained high. Lately, and this is the key to what this is all about, I am working on using as little fruit as possible in my morning smoothie.

For example, take a look at my original Chai Green Smoothie. Two dates and one large banana made that smoothie pretty high in sugar, probably more than the entire daily recommended amount of sugar. And lately, my food choices have been heavily influenced by ideas about sugar that are continually coming into my awareness. It started back in December with this article from Disease Proof on the ill effects of sugar. Then  Debby the Healthy Librarian hit me with Dr. Lustig's video Sugar: The Bitter Truth. Soon after, Chef A.j. was mentioning on Facebook that if she had written her cookbook today, she would have done it differently, based on her new level of awareness regarding sugar, dessert and the health value of smoothies.

I started logging my food in gory detail on My Fitness Pal, a calorie/nutrition tracking application and website. I was looking for information on how much fiber I was consuming everyday, but I learned something far more valuable. I am consuming far too much SUGAR every day (and it wasn't from Twinkies!). So when PEERtrainer did a blog posting all about fruit in the diet (and sadly, fruit is very high in sugar) all of my confusion went away and I knew that limiting my fruit every day was getting me very close to my Point of No Return.

Ahhhhhh, progress.

New Chai Green Smoothie

serves 1

1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk

1 Tbsp ground flaxseed

1 small frozen banana, broken into chunks

1 large pitted date

big handful rough chopped celery

big handful fresh parsley

giant handful fresh spinach leaves

1 tsp chai spice blend

7 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.

Granted, this is still not a low sugar smoothie! But remember, it's progress, not perfection. I'm working on it! And I can tell you that watching the amount of fruit I eat each day over the past month has resulted in significant weight loss, so I think I'm really onto something that will really help me in the long run.

What new information have you learned that really helped you to progress to another level with your weight loss/maintenance efforts?

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Here for the Fight

Banana Walnut Softserve. Even better than the original with the addition of walnuts.

I'm sensing that there is a little bit of misperception about me out there in the blogosphere. It's pretty understandable, given the fact that I have a healthy food blog and all. That misperception is that I eat perfectly all of the time. There is no such thing that I know of.

I wish it were true, but it's absolutely not. I struggle with overeating on a daily basis. Just because I have finally figured a few things out about compulsive eating does not make me a "normal" eater. In fact, it just makes me even more aware of how abnormal my eating and thought patterns are.

But what is really important to note is that I am not throwing in the towel. The old me would have a bad day or a few bad days and just say, "What the heck. I'll never be able to stay on this food plan and achieve a healthy weight. I might as well eat whatever I want."

My struggles are new. No longer am I fighting with junk food. Anything that had a mother or a face turns my stomach to the point where it's not at all hard to say no. Refined sugar tastes way to sweet.

But healthy food, that's another story. I'm still struggling with eating too much of it. But the old me who would give up--she's long gone. This me is here for the fight. Just thought you might want to know that.  

Raw Banana Walnut Softserve 

serves 1

1 1/2 frozen bananas broken into chunks

6 walnuts

splash of almond milk

Place all ingredients in a high powered blender or food processor and blend, stopping to scrape down sides of container as necessary, until misture is the consistency of softserve. If using high powered blender, tamp down continuously throughout the blending process.

The good news about these "cookies" is that a sugar addict can eat them without losing control! They are only slightly sweet and would make a great breakfast for someone on the go.

Lightly Sweet Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Cakies

inspired by a recipe from Clean Food by Terry Walters

makes 2 dozen cakies

Printable Recipe

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup rolled oats (or 1/2 cup oats and 1/2 cup unprocessed wheat bran)

2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened dried coconut

pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup semi-sweet dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place peeled bananas in a medium bowl and mash. Add applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla extract and stir.

In a seperate medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips.  Add the banana mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine (do not overstir). Fold in chocolate chips.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using a teaspoon, scoop heaping spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet and smush down a little. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until edges start to get brown and crisp. Remove from oven and place cakies on wire rack to cool.

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With Dr. Fuhrman, the Salad Really is the Main Course

Greens and Strawberry Salad with Cashew Currant Dressing

recipe adapted from a recipe courtesy of  http://www.drfuhrman.com/
Serves: 2-4

Printable Recipe

CASHEW DRESSING

1/4 cup raw cashews or 2 tablespoons raw cashew butter
1/3 cup unsweetened soy, hemp or almond milk
1 peeled apple, sliced
2 tablespoons dried currants or raisins

SALAD

1 head (about 6 cups) romaine lettuce
5 ounces (about 5 cups) organic baby spinach
8 med-large strawberries, washed, destemmed and sliced 

To make dressing, blend cashews or cashew butter with soy milk and sliced apples in a high powered blender until smooth. Add the currants and blend well.

Place the lettuce, spinach and strawberries in a large salad bowl. Drizzle dressing over the greens and berries and toss to coat.

How often is salad the main course of your lunch or dinner?

Do you consciously try to eat salad with every meal? As the meal?

Has salad as the meal helped you to lose weight or maintain your weight? 

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Raspberry Banana Date Soft Serve

So it seems my 11 year old cannot get enough banana soft serve these days. "Dessert Mommy?" she says. "Sure!" I say.

Wow, what planet am I on?

Planet happy!

And speaking of planet happy, today for lunch I had my first ever blogger meet up! It turns out that one of the coolest plant-based diet bloggers in the universe lives within 30 minutes of me and we met for lunch at my favorite restaurant, Organic Energy. For her own personal reasons, I can't publicize who she is, but I can tell you that I am so excited to make these kinds of connections. Who knows, I'm already dreaming up a plant strong pot luck at my house where my new blogger friend and I, along with some other local plant strongers, get together for some socializing and rockin' food. 

Anyway, back to the frozen banana soft serve . . . last night's raspberry variety got my daughter so pumped up that she asked me if I could make this one EVERY night. Okay, twist my arm!

  

Raspberry Banana Date Soft Serve

serves 2

1 1/2 large frozen bananas, broken into chunks

1 cup frozen raspberries

4 large pitted dates

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

Place all ingredients into high speed blender or food processor and blend until it becomes the consistency of soft serve ice cream, scraping down the sides and tamping down (if using the blender) as necessary.

Have you ever made frozen banana soft serve? If yes, is it a regular thing in your diet?

What are your favorite additional ingredients or do you love it best with just bananas?

Do the other members of your household eat it too?

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Raspberry Mango Banana Soft Serve

If you've never tried ice "cream" like this . . .

This is Max. He's almost 3.

He's a pretty picky eater.

More please!

Nuf said.

Raw Vegan Raspberry Mango Banana Freeze

serves 2-3

2 large ripe frozen bananas, broken into chunks

1 cup frozen mango

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

2 large pitted dates

1 Tbsp ground flax seed

1/4 cup unsweetened nut milk of your choice

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend, tamping down, until all ingredients are blended to a smooth consistency. Serve immediately.

Do you make raw vegan ice creams? If so, how often? Who in your household eats them?

What are your favorite ingredient combinations?

If not, what are you waiting for?

Again, thank you everyone for all of the wonderful comments! This is so fun!

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A Siesmic Revolution of Health

I know, I know, I mentioned this a few days ago. But here is a much better clip from CNN about Bill Clinton's recent healthy lifestyle changes, and this time with comments from both Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. Dean Ornish.



For those of you whom this information is not new, how has this information affected the way that you eat? What changes have you made to your diet? Do you feel like those changes are sustainable? Have you experienced any health benefits because of it?

One of the things that has really changed for me over the past year and a half is the way I view breakfast. Instead of a meal that I am trying to skip to conserve calories, I now view breakfast as two things: (1) a must, because if I skip it I find that I overeat later in the day and (2) a way to pack in a whole lotta nutrients and fiber. And the easiest way to do that is with a delicious green smoothie! Here was today's:

Rejuvination Green Smoothie

1 small apple, removed from core

1 medium frozen banana, broken into chunks

1 cup frozen spinach

1/4 avocado

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

8 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

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Vegan Spinach Zucchini Soup and Puffed Corn Calorie Controversy

This is Baby Kitty. We got her last summer at the North Union Farmer's Market.  She's a wild and lovable lap kitten. Don't worry, we washed the soup pot before making this:

Healthy Girl's Best Friend Soup

In my opinion, there is just no easier way to lose weight than by adding low calorie, high nutrient, soups to your daily diet. Here's the recipe for one of my favorites.  2 cups=1 Weight Watcher point

1 large onion, peeled and diced

6 cups vegetable broth

6 regular sized zucchini, diced large

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp seasoning blend of your choice

8 ounces frozen spinach

1 box frozen winter/butternut squash

1 cup unsweetened almond milk 

Heat soup pot on medium. Pour in a few tablespoons of vegetable broth. When the broth is bubbling, add onions and saute them until translucent. Adjust temperature on pot to prevent onions from burning.

Add the remaining vegetable broth and all of the zucchini  to the pot. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp seasoning blend of your choice.  Bring soup to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat to low and simmer until zucchini are cooked through and soft.  Add frozen spinach and stir. Using a hand/immersion blender, puree soup.

Add frozen butternut squash and stir until squash is defrosted. Add almond milk and stir. Taste soup and adjust seasoning if necessary.

A bowl of vegan yumminess!

Ever wonder if the calorie count on a particular package is correct? Yesterday I ran into Holly, one of my Pilates buddies, at the Farmer's Market. She and her friend were excited about a product that was being sold by one of the Amish vendors. It was a pretty sizable package of Honey Puffed Corn and the label said that 1 bag is 25 calories. Imagine my excitement as I tasted some and it was crunchy, lightly sweet and really delicious.

Then I got to thinking, can this big bag of deliciousness really be only 25 calories? I hunted down the vendor and started asking questions, but all I got was a "Yes, it's 25 calories." I asked how that could be, if the other packages of puffed spelt and other puffed stuff had a lot more calories for the same volume.

So I went an little further in my exploration and found unsweetened puffed corn in the supermarket. Imagine my surprise when I saw the nutritional label. One cup is 60 calories! But the bag of Honey Puffed Corn from the Amish vendor had about 4 cups in it and it is sweetened, so how could it be only 25 calories? It's likely that the label is incorrect and the package probably contains over 240 calories of puffed corn.  

That's a serious calorie difference. Too bad, I though I had found the most perfect TV watching munchie food!

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Whole Wheat Vegan Blueberry Stuffed Pancakes

Did you think you had to fore sake pancakes forever to maintain your girlish (or boyish) figure? Think again. Hodgson Mill makes a "Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake Mix" from whole wheat flour, whole grain yellow cornmeal and a few other ingredients and it's totally E2 approved. Rip Esselstyn mentions "whole grain pancake and muffin mixes" as a pantry staple to keep at all times in your Engine 2 healthy kitchen.

I happened upon the whole grain mix yesterday when shopping at Miles Road Market for our 4th of July barbecue so I thought we would treat ourselves this holiday morning. I used Ener G egg replacer instead of the eggs and almond milk instead of cow's milk,  but I was too chicken to do anything about the oil that the pancake recipe called for, so I did use canola oil. Next time I will definitely substitute apple sauce for the oil. Then I loaded in all of the fresh blueberries that the mix could handle. The results were AMAZING. And finally, my photos do my food justice!

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Banana Soft Serve Vegan Overnight Oats

No food photos, so I thought I would share this with you.  That's my 5 year old out on Lake Erie!

Again, I really want to apologize for leaving all of my readers high-and-dry for the past few weeks.  My sudden quieting down has a lot of factors, including my lack-of-a-camera-situation but truthfully, a bit of lack-of-motivation recently. Which, in the world of someone who has to work hard to remain at a healthy weight is not such a good thing!

So this weekend I pulled out a recipe that I had in my to-do pile. I can't even remember where I got it from, but after about an hour of searching for it on one of my favorite blogs, http://www.choosingraw.com/, so that I could provide you with the link, I broke down and did a google search for it.  It's a breakfast dish that combines chia seeds and oatmeal soaked in the fridge overnight into a parfait with banana soft serve (remember that heavenly creation?). Well, I guess this stuff is pretty popular, because there are a world of links about it on the www. And after eating it for breakfast this morning, I can attest to its strange addictiveness. If I could, I would eat it again for lunch right now!

So here's a cool YouTube video that explains the process.  The woman in the video has a fantastic blog called Oh She Glows! http://ohsheglows.com/ I highly recommend giving this recipe a try and letting me know if you do!

FYI-The recipe that I used did not layer in cacao nibs or anything else but rather just used the overnight oats plus the banana soft serve. Just saying! Although I'm sure these are great additions. Plus, I used 2 frozen bananas instead of one, 'cause I can't get enough banana soft serve!

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Carrot Pineapple Cake with Cashew Date Frosting

A friend of mine and I got into a brief discussion yesterday about whether or not I post the recipe and pictures for everything I cook in my kitchen, regardless of whether or not the recipe is a "success." She had assumed that because she made one of the recipes that I posted  (Aduki Bean Stew with Millet Mash) and didn't like it, that I didn't like it either but was in the business of blogging about everything that I make.

Ironically, she then mentioned that she made said Aduki Bean Stew a second time, but added both olive oil and salt, and substituted Quinoa for the Millet Mash, and loved it!

I'm here today to clear up some myths and shed some light on this very, very interesting subject: Just who will love the recipes posted here at Healthy Girl's Kitchen? I do have to admit, for most people that are accustomed to eating SAD (the Standard American Diet) jumping into Healthy Girl's Kitchen recipes could be quite a shock to the taste buds and the system.

First, I do not post everything that I make. I consider my kitchen a test kitchen of ultra healthy recipes (remember, I am less into creating my own original recipes and more into testing and tweaking other people's recipes). I have had high hopes for many of the things that I have chosen to test, only to dump them down my garbage disposal, and you never hear about any of those experiences. 

Case in point: the following cake recipe from Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. I made the cake and the icing that was suggested in the book and ended up dumping the icing. It was tofu based and the flavor of the tofu was too strong in the end. I thought it would ruin any chance that people would like the cake, so I threw it away. It is subjective! Maybe some people would like the tofu icing, but I didn't, so I whipped up an icing that I had made in the past from Eat for Health by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and the cake was a smashing success! Well, at least I thought it was . . . remember it is subjective. But my three kids loved this cake, and that is a pretty great sign!

Carrot Pineapple Cookie Cake

makes 12-16 servings

3 cups whole-wheat flour

1 cup grape nuts cereal

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar

egg replacer for 4 eggs (4 tbsp flax seed meal mixed with 12 tbsp pineapple juice or 2 tbsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 8 tbsp water)

2 cups shredded carrots

1 16 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix first 4 ingredients well in a large bowl.  Add remaining ingredients and mix.

Scrape batter into two 9-inch round cake pans and bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely.

Carefully slice each cake in half horizontally with a long serrated bread knife. Frost cake.

Cashew Date Frosting

2 cups raw, unsalted cashews

2 cups unsweetened almond milk

1 1/3 cups pitted dates

2/3 cup brazil nuts or hazelnuts

1 tsp vanilla extract

Place all ingredients in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.  Spread on cooled cake.

To make a chocolate frosting, simply add 4 tbsp cocoa powder before blending.

But does that mean that you will love, or even like, any and all of the recipes that you decide to try from Healthy Girl's Kitchen?

From real life experience I can tell you that not everyone likes what I like. It's as simple, and as complicated, as that. The following are the factors that I believe account for a person's taste preferences when it comes to healthy eating:

1. Are you trying to lose weight? How serious are you about that goal? It might be that the more serious a person is about weight loss, the more open they are to enjoying a dish that they know is going to get them to their goal. At first, you just can't afford to be so picky if you want to lose weight. In time, those healthy foods that were once "not your favorite" taste better and better. This happened for me with lentils. I used to hate anything with lentils. Lately, I have been eating a soup at a restaurant that is so delicious to me, just amazing, and it is made with red lentils.  And all of a sudden, I just can't get enough lentils. My battle with lentils is over!

2. How recently have you been eating SAD? It takes some time for a person's taste buds to adjust from enjoying a McDonald's hamburger to loving Aduki Bean Stew.  This reality is talked about a lot in places like http://www.diseaseproof.com/ where many people are dramatically changing their food habits. Inevitably, a person eating ultra healthy begins to taste real, whole plant food in a way that they may never have tasted it in their life. Something as simple as a raw spinach leaf can be an incredible taste sensation that a person savors. Sound crazy? You should watch me eat!

3. Different strokes for different folks.  Everyone is unique. I pick and choose recipes to try and ultimately post based on my own unique taste preferences (I love ethnic food, not too spicy). I'm pretty sure that readers can easily discriminate amongst the recipes that I post based on their own taste preferences.

4. Salt. Salt can make almost anything taste good. It's also something that we Americans over consume to a scary degree.  Over time, if you are seeking great health, you definitely want to watch and restrict your salt intake. But limiting salt in a recipe will have a dramatic effect on the way any savory food tastes. It is just another thing that your taste buds will adjust to if you give them a chance.

Did I answer my own question? I don't know, but I think you get the point!

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