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We did it! We bought an Instant Pot at

Costco last night! We had been thinking about getting one for a long time. They had been recommended to us by a number of people. With some travel coming up we got to thinking the instant pot would allow us to cook out of our hotel room or an Airbnb very easily. So we decided it was time to pull the trigger and we bought one. Rather than try our first attempt on a road trip next week we got it out and cooked Instant Pot Vegetarian Lentil Chili using slight modifications to a recipie found at rebootedmom.com.

The unboxing was relatively

uneventful followed by a quick test in the manual to steam three cups of water. Meanwhile Mande assembled all the ingredients for the chili in a large bowl. When the steam test was complete we put the ingredients into the inner pan of the Instant Pot. We put the inner pan into the Instant Pot, set it for 20 minutes on high pressure on the bean chili setting. We then went and sat in the living room and talked while the Instant Pot did it’s thing!

The recipe indicates to let the instant pot cool ten minutes. It has a timer that automatically starts counting up when the cook cycle is done so you know when ten minutes is up. We then used the pressure release to release the rest of the pressure and opened the Instant Pot. Viola! Chili!

It looked and smelled great.

We served it over baked potato and baked sweet potato!

Our first experience was very good. Looking forward to trying many more receipies in the Instant Pot!

Found this place with real gluten free and vegan options. Couple blocks

from the beach and nice outside patio to eat. I got curry and Mande got tofu veggie tacos.

Check out Cafe Verde!

Before switching to a Whole Food

Plant Based lifestyle we used to eat at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop fairly often. But after we switched we weren’t eating there because the only veggie options had oil in them. Recently they added veggie tacos to their menu. And … If you order them oil free they will cook them on the grill without oil. Check them out at a Fuzzy’s Taco Shop near you.

Found another place to eat out. Chilli

Thai in Carrollton. The Curry’s are oil free. I got the green curry with brown rice. Very good. Ask at your local Thai restaurant for oil free!

I shared previously that I had one

more pound to go to get to a normal BMI. This morning I did it. Lost one more pound. Down to 169 which is 74 pounds of weight loss. And that brings my BMI to 25!

While I understand BMI is not the be all end all that some would claim it is it’s still a nice milestone. Others say normal BMI leaves you to skinny. But those same people can’t explain why I still have belly fat. So my goal is to loss the belly fat. I’m not sure how much weight that is!

A lot of times I’ll take leftovers for

lunch. But today there wasn’t any meals to take. I’ve eaten all the extras from the freezer. However in the fridge we had quinoa that had already been cooked and black bean mash (Engine 2 cookbook). I put those in one bento box. In a second box I put spinach and cut up veggies (zucchini, red pepper). You could use any combination of whatever veggies you have on hand and sounds good. At lunch time I microwaved the black beans and quinoa. Then put the veggies and spinich on top and topped it off with half an avacado.

I made my first Tofu scramble for

breakfast today. I used this recipie and then added some left over potatoes and chili powder. I saved it over a bed of spinich. Probably made it a little spicy. But definitely good. I’d make it again!!

I stepped on the scale this morning

and what did I see 170 pounds looking at me. Another milestone to hit 170. That’s 73 pounds of total weight loss from my Max of 243 pounds.

It’s fun to see what weight loss looks like. Like when I lost 58 pounds it was the rough equivalent of 7 gallons of water (A gallon of water it 8.34 pounds so 7 gallons is 58.38 pounds).

I found this website weight and things you can enter your weight and it shows you equivalent comparisons. Instead of my weight I entered 73 pounds into the search to compare my weight loss. It shows me how many sushi (1655) my weight loss is. Then you can click the next button and see other comparisons. Since I spend a lot of my exercise time playing basketball I found the comparison to 58 basketballs meaningful!

Putting my weight into BMI (Body Mass Index) I started out at 35.9 (obese).

And now at 170 pounds I am still listed as overwight with a BMI of 25.1.

I know you can’t necessarily put a lot of stock in BMI but it’s interesting to note that even now I’m still considered overweight by this standard.

So my next goal is to be normal. Lol. Normal BMI. That’s right losing just one more pound will put me within the normal range!

Ive shared before that I’m not actually just focused on BMI. In his book “How Not to Die” Dr Greger suggests a better measurement is a ratio of height to maximum body circumference to not exceed two to one. He describes this as the waist to heirghr ratio or WHR and you can learn the detailed explanation in his video. With that in mind my I’m 5’9″ which is 69 inches. So by Dr Greger’s standard my maximum circumf should be no more than 34.5 inches. However mine is 38 (down from 39 when I first bought a tape measure a few months ago). I don’t have a starting measurement. But I know it has to be much more than this since my starting waist size was more than 40 and my belly was larger than that. So while not completely focused on weight loss now I’m focused on losing abdominal fat because it can contribute to many health issues.

Mande bought me a new pair of

slacks and two new pair of jeans. While that shouldn’t seem like a news worthy announcement it is. Since being on this journey I’ve gotten an entirely new wardrobe – in smaller sizes You see these have a 32 inch waist! The previous pairs were 34 inch waist. But before this lifestyle change my slacks were 40 and 42 inch waist (with the elastic stretchy waistline)!

For more details of the benefit to a slimmer wait line see the posting that goes into details of the waist to height ratio.

We created this blog to track our

journey to 100 pounds of combined weight loss (and beyond). As of today, July 30th we are pleased to announce that the journey to 100 is complete. That’s right as of today Mande and I have lost a combined 100 pounds. Notice that the name of the blog is “Journey to 100 and Beyond” because it’s not just about 100 pounds of weight loss combined but even more than that. Stay tuned as we continue to lose weight, get healthier and track our progress here.

Thanks for your support and encouragement. Now how can we support and encourage you? Comment with your goals for weight loss and better health. We are here to help you.