Wonderful Snow

This is my dog Bandit. Well I guess I should say our dog. My DH loves this little guy too. He is so much fun and has quite the personality. We have had many dogs in our lives from poodles to german shepherds but we have never had one quite like the little guy. He is a miniature pincher. We thought he was a miniature doberman and even looks like a smaller version, but the minpin was actually around before the doberman was.

We got him on our anniversary a year ago. We've been married for 35 years on the 21st of January and got Bandit as an anniversary present. So we now get to celebrate two things on that day.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we purchased him. We bought him and then went home and looked up what a minpin was and boy were we surprised. They are a bundle of energy. They are a small dog but are fearless, curious, stubborn, sweet, energetic, you name it! We have never had a dog with so much personality. He just doesn't want to sit still during his waking hours.

Last weekend we went up to the mountains to see the snow. We just love snow and don't get to see it all that often. Afterwards we came home and we ended up with snow at home a few days later. That was such a wonderful site. Unfortunately it didn't last very long. Poor Bandit was so cold but wanted to stay and play in the snow. He tunneled with his nose as you can see in the picture. After a few minutes he raised one paw and then the other telling us he was freezing. One thing minpins are known for is that they get cold easily. They are missing some of the fur that other dogs have.



Here is another picture of him sitting on our dash in the Tahoe. He loves laying up there because he like to watch where we are going and view all the sites as we pass by. He is quite the character. Plus its usually warmer up there. If he isn't laying up there he likes to sit on the console between my husband and I. So we velcroed a little pad there for him. Yes, he is so spoiled!.... and so much fun too!



So what is going on with E2L? Right now I'm doing well with the diet. I've found lots of new recipes that are delicious and that makes it successful.

I am struggling with not eating cashew butter. It is such a temptation for me and I eat it like candy. I eat way to much in one sitting. So at the moment its in the freezer. I am debating on whether I should give it away to friends or try to try and overcome the tempation and not eat so much of it. I use it in creamed soups and it can be used in sauce recipes and dressings. Oh it is so delicious and I bought 4 jars. Two of them have been eaten by me within a two week period. I haven't weighed myself but I know I've gained some weight because of it. That was really a stupid thing to do. I am not buying any more from now on. I'll just use the raw cashews instead of the butter in recipes.

I also was able to clean the house all by myself. That is a great accomplishment for me. It means I have more energy and less pain of which I am so thankful to the Lord. He is the one who is helping me through all of this. I should say that the house at the moment is an RV. If you've read my past blog posts you know some of my history and why we are living in our RV. One more year and we should be able to move into a house. We sure hope so anyway.

Okay I guess that's all for tonight. I posted this last night and tried to publish and lost it all. I don't know why I have so much trouble with blogger. I guess I should ask others if they have some of the troubles I do. Its really allot of work to type all of this and add the pictures and then loose it all. Its very discouraging. I hope Blogger can get some of their issues fixed soon.

Well its time to get to bed. Hope to see you soon! Eat To Live everyone!

Hoping to fast soon

In a couple of weeks I will see my doctor and find out if the liver enzymes are still up and if it would be okay to begin the 10 fast. I really can't wait to do this. I have a friend who thinks I'm crazy for doing this. She continues to discourage me with a doom and gloom outlook. She says things like I'd be afraid because you will probably fall and if I were your husband I wouldn't let you do it.

I've tried to get her to read the book because she if vegan but she won't. I just would like her to read it so she understands where I am coming from but she won't read it. Anyway, I don't need that type of discouragement right now so I want to avoid the topic with her.

She also says that if I'd only follow what she recommends I'd probably be cured by now or feeling so much better than I do. She wants me to follow super mega doses of supplements from a book she read. I tried to explain to her that because of the way I eat, I am getting all the nutrients I need for optimal health. She just doesn't get it. But that's okay. Maybe one day she will.

I made a great creamy lentil soup this week. I'll post it hopefully tomorrow if I can sign in to blogger. Sorry I've not been posting. Sometimes I still have trouble with the blogger program and being able to sign in. It is frustrating. I have had some problems today also but perservered and here I am. :-)

Eat to live everyone!

Eggplant Parmesan

I tried this recipe last night and it was so delicious. Even my SAD husband liked it too!

A few things I did or would do differently. If you like sauce like I do double the sauce recipe. That is what I did and both my husband and I liked it better. We tried it first the original way except I didn't broil the eggplant. I also cooked it for about 45 minutes and another thing I would do differently is to not use the breadcrumbs in the layers but just add them to the top for the crunch. I think that is all I changed. I'll hope you'll try it either way and enjoy it as much as we did.

Recipe courtesy of:Fatfree Vegan Kitchen

Vegan Eggplant "Parmesan"1 large eggplant, sliced 1/4 inch thick2 pieces of whole grain bread, toasted and made into breadcrumbs2-3 tbsp. soy parmesan (or ground almonds)fresh basil leaves, chopped or torn olive oil spray

Tomato Sauce:1 medium onion, chopped3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed1 16-ounce can diced tomatoes1 tsp. oregano1/2 tsp. basil1/2 cup vegetable broth2 tbsp. tomato pastesalt and pepper to taste

"Cheese" Sauce:
1/2 cup extra-firm silken tofu1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk1/2 cup vegetable broth2 tbsp. cashew butter or tahini1 tsp. onion powder1 1/2 tbsp. nutritional yeast1/2 tsp. salt (optional)1/8 tsp. white pepper2 tsp. corn starchSalt the eggplant slices and put them in a colander to drain.


Prepare the tomato sauce by sautéing the onion in a non-stick saucepan until it becomes translucent (you may use a little water if you like). Add the garlic and sauté for one more minute. Add the remaining tomato sauce ingredients, and cook for 15-20 minutes.


Prepare the cheese sauce: Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Blend again right before using to make sure that the ingredients haven't separated.Rinse the eggplant slices and pat them dry with paper towels. Spray a baking sheet lightly with olive oil and place the slices on it (you may have to do this in two batches). Spray the tops lightly, and place under the broiler. Watch carefully, and remove when the slices start to brown, about 3 minutes.


Assemble the casserole: Preheat the oven to 350. Spray or wipe an 8x8-inch non-metal baking dish with a small bit of olive oil. Place half of the eggplant slices on the bottom of the dish, edges overlapping. Sprinkle with half the breadcrumbs. Spoon half the tomato sauce and pour half the cheese sauce over the breadcrumbs and sprinkle lightly with soy parmesan. Repeat the process with the remaining ingredients (reserving some bread crumbs for on top, as mentioned above). Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes, until slightly browned on top. Sprinkle with fresh basil just before serving.

Serves 4.Each serving provides approximately: 238 Calories (kcal); 9g Total Fat; (30% calories from fat); 13g Protein; 32g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 477mg Sodium; 8g Fiber. (These figures, especially fat and sodium, vary drastically depending on the exact ingredients you use.)

Copyright 2006 Susan Voisin and Fatfree Vegan KitchenAll rights reserved.If you re-post this recipe, please give credit where it is due and post a link to http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/09/vegan-eggplant-parmesan.html

Various Questions - Salt?

Ok, so what is wrong with salt?

That is a question I often hear when someone asks about the way I eat. I even wondered that myself.

This was the one thing that was so difficult for me to give up. Well mostly give up. The types of food I eat; vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes all have salt. In fact, each day I consume about 700-800 grams of salt. I am allowed 300 extra grams of salt per day which is not very much if you compare the amount of salt consumed by the SAD (standard american diet). The DASH study showed that Americans eat anywhere from 5-10 times this amount.

While our bodies do need sodium, they do not need the amount that most Americans consume on a daily basis. I don't know if you've experienced this or not but as I added salt to my food over the years I have continued to add more and more. I guess our taste buds get use to one amount and require more and more until we think it tastes just right.

One of the health issues for too much salt is one that most people have heard of or read and that is hypertension or "high blood pressure". And this in turn will lead to heart disease.

Salt can also contribute to osteoporosis by taking calcium and other minerals, excreting them through our urine.

Just for your own information, maybe one day while grocery shopping you could begin to look at canned goods, frozen items, bread, cereals, etc. and find out how much sodium per serving they contain. You might just be surprised at what you find.

Some might ask about more healthy salt like sea salt but the bottom line is salt is salt and no matter where it comes from it will still do allot of damage if taken in large quanities. If you are a person who likes to salt their foods, it is best to not add it while cooking and just add a tiny bit at the supper table if you must. You could transition by adding less and less each day until you are adding little to none to you food.

Many may think that high blood pressure is the result of old age. But a larger population are now finding themselves in the doctor's office with raised blood pressure at a younger age. For the past 5 or more years my blood pressure has slowly been increasing. This last time it was up to 135/99 and the doctor was ready to put me on medication. I asked her to give me a chance to bring it down myself. This is when I found E2L and after 3 months I went to see the doctor and she took my blood pressure. It was 110/70. What a relief that was! E2L really works!!!

A New Year

I just wanted to say hi to everyone. Sorry I haven’t posted recently. I haven’t been feeling too well. I have been in allot of pain lately. I also had some computer problems. that hopefully are resolved.. I want to try to post daily.

The December challenge went really well. Overall I did do pretty well with eating nutritionally. What I learned by joining in the challenge was that first of all, it was fun.
*smile* I also learned that I have allot of cravings that I can either indulge or refuse to pay attention to. I have had success in doing both. Ha!

I am the type of person that it’s either all or nothing. Either I’m going all the way with E2L or I’m not. Well I have had to adjust my personality a little. When I first began E2L it was all or nothing and I did so well. I indulged once in awhile but for the most part it was Kale days all the way. And then Thanksgiving came and we visited my daughter and family for 4 days. So we were away from our home and my vitamix. Yikes!

I did do really well but I did have some pumpkin pie and for one meal I ate some of the Thanksgiving leftovers. Doing this challenged my all or nothing ideal. Then December comes and there are more food temptations to deal with. So I guess what I learned is that its okay to have cravings and its okay to give into them every once in awhile and not to feel bad about it. I also learned that next year I’ll be better prepared.

We have a New Year’s challenge going on and I was going to keep up with it, but I haven’t been checking in because of the pain. Actually I have been challenged to throw in the towel! If I am in pain whether doing E2L or eating SAD why bother to struggle with preparing two meals, one for my husband and one for myself. And when I’m not doing well why not give in and let someone else prepare the meal. There are lots of restaurants to choose from. Hehehe!

You know, I can never go back. I know I am so much better off nutritionally and that this way of eating is really better for my health, even if I don’t feel the benefits of it at the moment. E2L will always be my way of eating. At times if I eat something else, that will be okay but it will only be those once in awhile occasions.

My goal at the moment is still to do a fast. I’m just waiting to see the doctor and see what she says about the liver enzyme elevation and then I’ll check with Dr. Fuhrman to see if he thinks I’m ready for the fast. This has been my goal the whole time and will always be my goal. I’m learning patience and perseverance each time it has been delayed because of my blood work. I have refocused and decided that it is more important to fill my body with all this wonderful, nutritious food. This is my medicine. And hopefully sometime in the future I’ll be able to do the fasting.

Well I guess that is it for now. I’ll try to post again tomorrow. Eat To Live everyone!!!

Problems with Blogger

It is so great to be able to post on my blog again. I've been out of commission for at least a week and a half. Blogger is now no long a Beta version and I was having trouble signing in.

I emailed them a couple of times and didn't get a response so I finally decided to do a new blog and copy everything over.

As I began to post to a new blog, I had this one (the old one) opened. I was going to mention the problems I was having and then proceed to copying and pasting and as I was looking at this blog I noticed I was signed in. Each time I would try to sign in I would get an error saying there wasn't an account. So I guess somehow by signing up for a new account it recognized my email account.

Well whatever happened I'm just glad that I don't have to do all the copy and pasting. And I am glad to be back posting again. Hopefully I won't have any more problems.

I hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends during these past two months and are looking forward to the new year. I am expecting, hoping for some improvement in health. I need to make an appointment to see my PCP and have her check my blood work. I really want to get on with the 10 day fast and a month later I can do another 10 day fast.

This is short but I will catch up on the challenge days and how they are going. The challenge is coming to an end but we will begin a new one in January. I'll see you later today hopefully!

More benefits of Eating To Live

Saturday was a Kale day. Let me see if I can remember what I had.

B-Blended salad smoothie

L-None

S-Golden Austrian Califlower Soup over green leaf lettuce with steamed broccoli on top

D-Banana Oat bar

Carry over balance - $4.00

Exercise 30 minutes 1.00

Exercise + Kale .50Tab

Tab = $2.50

Today I had another SAD meal so it is a Blueberry Day. We were away from the house today and the place we ate lunch didn't have salads nor anything else that would be a good choice for an E2Ler. So $4.00 + $2.50 = Tab $6.50 (my highest yet) Tomorrow will be a better day. I've made my mind up.

I'm going to continue with some more of the benefits I've had "Eating To Live". My hopes are that some of you reading this may be encouraged by what I write.

I think I wrote about the excruciating headaches I have each and every day. They are not migranes and I don't believe they are sinus headaches. At least they don't feel like the sinus headaches I get periodically. These headaches are on the right side at the temple area and above the ear and go behind the ear. Whatever kind of headache it is, it causes so much pain. I took Relafin for awhile and when Dr. Fuhrman said that you need to be off medications to be able to fast, I made the hard decision to try to endure the pain without the Relafin.

Around that same time that Dr. Fuhrman said I needed to be off medicines, I had my Relafin refilled and they gave me this long list attached to my perscription of all the side effects of NSAIDS. So that helped me to make the decision to go off of the Relafin and bear the pain as well as I possibly could. Well the pain was absolutely awful. It was so difficult to not take something to help lessen the pain. It was so overwelming to continue to endure each and every day without something to ease the pain! The Lord helped me day by day to continue without the help of medication and to carry on with E2L. I don't even remember when I began to feel some ease of pain. I guess it was probably around 4-6 weeks before I noticed that the pain had lessened some. It isn't totally gone yet but it is so much better.

Also what is interesting is that a strange thing happens to me when I eat a non-E2L meal. At least I thought it was strange at first and you may think I'm crazy, but after a day or two if I eat SAD, the pain in my head will get really bad again which encourages me to get back with the program. I may never be able to really go back to eating SAD, not that I want to, but it just goes to show you the tremendous benefits there are from eating a plant based diet. I am probably at the beginning stages in the healing process of getting rid of the headache all together and I keep interferring with the healing by eating a SAD food or a SAD meal. I could kick myself in the seat of the pants!!! So what a great benefit I receive from eating this new, healthy, nutrient rich diet!

Another thing that would happen each day is that my heart would fibrillate. Every single day I experienced pain and fibrillation of the heart. This is caused by the fibromyalgia or I guess I should say it is a symptom of fibromyalgia. If you want to learn more about fibromyalgia, please click here http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_treatment.html. If you can't click, then you can copy and past it in your browser (internet explorer window). Again, I can't remember exactly when I began to feel some relief of the fibrillation but it was at least a month of following E2L that is such a nutrient, plant based diet. The pain is still there and hasn't completely gone but it has lessened quite a bit. I still probably experience pain every week and maybe for a day or two at the most, and that is it. I don't have to put up with the pain every single day like I was. How wonderful is that! ;-)

And then there was pain I use to have in my left arm along with numbness and tingling. I thought it was totally gone because I experience pain and numbness so infrequently now, but it has almost disappeared. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have so many things disappearing from sight or almost gone! It is just so exciting for me. I also had pain in the back of my thighs that use to cause pain every single day. Especially as I sat in the car or on a couch without the benefit of being able to raise my legs and rest them on a foot stool. I can't remember the last time I felt pain there.

Another great joy in my life from eating so healthy is that the HOT FLASHES are almost extinct. If I drink too much caffiene, I have noticed that they will return but as long as I am careful and only drink decaf coffee every once in awhile, I don't experience the hot flashes anymore. I am talking about serious hot flashes too. I am drenched and dripping with water when I experience one. In the evening when I lay in bed, trying to fall asleep, I play the covers on, covers off game, (reminds me on wax on, wax off if you've seen the "Karate Kid" movies ;-) all night long. And during the day I'd be drinking ice cold water all day and place the ice to my face while trying to find the coolest room or find the coolest vent to get under. My poor husband had to put up with a colder house because of me and he was so sweet about it too. There was always this weird feeling at the pit of my stomach every time a hot flash came upon me. I guess you just need to experience it to know what it felt like because it is hard to describe. I guess the closest thing to it would be an anxious feeling. Ahhhhh, what a relief to have that gone as well.

It's about that time again, it is getting late again so I guess I'll continue with more later. I just want to encourage anyone who has some health issues to consider "Eat To Live". I'm not going to lie and say it is easy. For some it may be easier if you are already eating lots of fruits and veggies, but I have found that many, when beginning a new way of eating, have had to transition into E2L. For me, I jumped in with both feet and plunged the depths of E2L because my goal is to fast and I had to eat healthy before I could do the fast. So I had great motivation going on in my life.

Even if you don't have health issues, or don't think you have health issues at this time in your life, if you continue to eat the Standard Amercian Diet, chances are your arteries are clogging which causes heart disease. In the China Study, they autopsied some of the most fit and healthy men that were soldiers during the war and found that they had clogged arteries already and these men were in their 20's. I know, I said I was going to bed so I will. Just remember to Eat To Live!!!!