Category: Uncategorized

As of Monday, July 23rd we have lost a

combined 97 pounds. So that means just three more pounds and we will reach the “journey to 💯” milestone!

Making smoothies for breakfast can take a little time to assemble all the ingredients. Recently I’ve found a time saver. I combine all the dry ingredients into small containers while making one smoothie and then put them in the refrigerator. Then the next smoothie day I just dump the dry ingredients into the blender.

Each container has the following ingredients:

• Flax seed
• Tumeric
• Amla
• Black pepper (to activate the tumeric)
• Ginger
• Chili powder
• Walnuts
• Sunflower seeds

You can add other spices or use different nuts and seeds to suit your taste.

I hope this helps make your smoothie faster!

These hot days in Texas with the temperatures over 100 degrees really zap you. So a nice cool treat really hits the spot. Tonight I made this yummy chocolate frozen treat.

Ingredients

• frozen bananas
• Strawberries
• Frozen blueberries
• Dates
• Almond milk (or water and alonds that have soaked)
• Cacoa powder

Blend until smooth

Exercise is a key component to overlap good health. Dr Greger recommends 90 minutes per day. But that is not possible for everyone. Incorporating a couple one to two mile away alks into your daily routine can make a huge difference.

I go to the rec center twice a week. I shoot baskets for 30-45 minutes, lift weights and then get 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical.

The other days of the week I try to walk two or three times a day. My goal currently is 12,000 steps per day as tracked by my Fitbit which basically shows a general amount of movement.

Set some goals. Team up with someone. Post your daily activity on social media. You might encourage someone else. And others may encourage you to stick with it.

Here is a simply frozen dessert. Frozen pineapple, cherries and peach put it in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Very refreshing!

The other night I was sitting in my recliner when I heard the food processor running and running and running. Five minutes later this bowl arrived delivered by my wife.

It’s a simple frozen dessert made with five cups of frozen pineapple and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Delicious.

The extra was put in a bento box and put back in the frrezer. The next night I put the frozen mix back in the food processor and added a half cup of frozen blueberries. Blend another five minutes and serve. Anice treat.

It’s amazing how the pineapple whips up and creates a smooth consistency. Adding blueberries enhanced the flavor. We plan to experiment with adding other fruit. We probably will avoid things like strawberries where the seeds might ruin the smooth consistency.

As I transitioned to a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle eliminating oil was the last and probably hardest step. I’ve found that going 100% oil free is almost impossible unless you prepare all your own food.

But when you are cooking for yourself oil can easily be replaced with water or brooth and when baking things like unswetened apple sauce or banana are great substitute. This article provides some details.

I like chips with salsa and guacamole. I have yet to find a bag of chips in the store that doesn’t contain oil. So the solution is that we’ve started making our own chips using street taco tortillas. We buy these mission tortillas at the grocery store.

Mande has perfected cooking them in the oven. And then we enjoy with homemade salsa or guacamole. These pictures were used to make tostados. Cutting them in half before baking makes great chips.

So until we try mixing up our own tortillas this is a good option for oil free chips.

I’ve been asked what I eat on a daily basis. While I’ll delve more into that specifically throughout this site, I can summarize by saying “I try to follow Dr. Greger’s daily dozen“.

In part two of his book “How Not to Die” Dr Greger suggests a daily diet structured around a “daily dozen” items, servings and servings per day. If you don’t have the book, you can watch a video which explains what he recommends.

There is a free easy to use app for iOS and Android which you can use to track your daily progress towards following the daily dozen. The app is very helpful to understand if on average I’m eating a good blend of these dozen items. Like my experience with my FitBit it’s not about hitting every check box every day. Rather it’s about building a lifestyle of healthy habits. The app can certainly help with that.

It’s so important to stay Hydrated that Dr Greger includes drinking water in his “daily dozen”. I typically have a water bottle with me wherever I go. Yes, sometimes I might leave it in the car rather than carrying it into a store. But bringing it along assures I am able to stay hydrated.

We prefer the stainless steel double walled reusable bottles. These are good for the environment because there is no waste if plastic going into a landfill. The double walled design keeps the water cold longer. This is espe important in the hot Texas summers where you wouldn’t want to drink water that is hot in a plastic bottle.

You can buy these double walled reusable water bottles at many places. We have 40oz bottles that we like that we got “two for $20” at Costco. Of course you could also go for a Yeti, or go to Walmart and get aomeojust as good for a fraction of the price.

We also invested in a water filter for our kitchen. The one we for mounts under the sink and has a faucet to dispense the water. It cost roughly $149 on Amazon.

As I’ve gotten into the Whole Food

Plant Based lifestyle I’ve started using a lot more fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices. I started making smoothies for breakfast. One suggested ingredient is mint. I found that buying mint at the story seemed a little pricey. So my wife went to the nursery and found that we could get a plant amfor the price of one pack of mint at the store. We planted it in a small pot. And eventually added “chocolate mint” and another variety (which I don’t know the name of). There are now four mint plants growing in the pot. Each morning I use siscors to cut 4-5 inches of fresh mint right off the plant and put it directly into the blender (after rinsing) with the ingredients for my smoothie.

The result is delicious fresh tasting smoothie.

There are many uses for mint. For example I started putting a few springs of mint into the water bottle I use daily. The mint flavor of the water is very refreshing.

There are a number of herbs you can easily grow yourself at home. It’s fun to grow them and is something you could do with your family.

Currently we have mint, basil and a bay leaf tree that needs to grow for about a year before it will produce leaves we can use to cook with!