RECIPE FOR BLACK BEANS AND TEST

If the weather permits, this weekend I'm supposed to be going to a get-together. These are the true tests of willpower. With so much food around, it is hard not to eat without thinking. And what do they have at all these get-togethers? Of course, all the bad, i.e. good, stuff! Foods in the form of fat and sugar of course! *sigh* I just know I'm going for it. And I can't because I still haven't met my weight goal for this week so it's not like I can cheat. Maybe that will keep me honest.

On the upside I've had no soda since Saturday. That's a plus.
I've had no chips since then either. That's a plus.
And no cakes or cookies too. That's a plus.

Went to the supermarket and didn't buy any of that stuff. Unfortunately, the way we roll here is if it's in the home, then it's game. I also made a batch of black beans from scratch and they came out delish and I've been measuring my meals. But still no weight loss. What's up with that?! I'm sticking to my five small meals but you know what, come to think of it, what I have not been doing and what I read is a good tool in losing weight is drinking water. If you drink two glasses of water before each meal and snack you're guaranteed to not eat so much, hence, weight loss. I need to get on that pronto.

Here's the recipe for the Cuban Black Beans for anyone who's interested. It's so simple to make and so much more healthier. Trying to eliminate any can foods will help in your weight loss because of the sodium required to keep these foods palatable and safe to eat. And we all know sodium = salt = weight gain. Personally, I try to stay away from as much processed/canned foods as possible.

Ingredients:
1 lb. dried black beans
1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
5 cups water
1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste
1 TBSP of vinegar
2 TSP salt
1 TSP sugar
1 TSP black pepper
6 large cloves garlic

Soak beans in a large pot of water overnight.

When ready to cook following day, chop onion, green and red peppers and garlic into small pieces. Add olive oil to pan and saute chopped ingredients until tender.

Meanwhile rinse beans and add the 5 cups of water and put to boil. Discard any beans that float to the top. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the above ones once tender and bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about an hour and a half or until beans are tender.

Sayonara my bananas and remember as close to nature is always best!

Weigh-in today: 168.4

I've had no soda for two days. Back to drinking water and may I say it is delish. The elimination of drinking soda along has stabilized my sugars because I am not waking up hungry in the mornings.

The soda, chips, pastries, cakes and cookies (not the usual fare in the home but the holidays were here and well...) have all been used up and will not be replenished. If I don't have it in the house, I won't eat it.

The last package of my microwave popcorn is in the cabinet and I may invest in a popcorn popper so I don't have to microwave anymore and could just make it natural. Anyone have a good idea what to drink with popcorn if not soda? My pleasure was diet coke and popcorn but now that I'm no longer drinking it, what do I do substitute it with? Hmmm? I may have to give up the popcorn because this is hard. I like the fizz. Maybe seltzer but that just doesn't do it, does it? I like the sweet taste of the diet soda. I may just leave that pleasure for when I go to the movies.

Went to a workshop yesterday on health and they talked about maintaining one's ph balance in the body and came to learn that much of the foods I eat (dairy, processed foods and grains) tends to be acidic and so these foods imbalances one's ph balance in the body. I was surprised by the grains category. The new food pyramid submitted by Eat Right America consists of minimum of 4 servings of vegetables a day, 3-5 servings of fruit, 1-3 servings of nuts/seeds, 1-3 servings of beans, and 1-3 servings of whole grains/starchy vegetables with the limited consumption of fish, eggs, non-fat dairy, poultry, meat, white bread, pasta, full-fat dairy, processed meats, processed foods and sweets. This sounds more like a vegetarian diet if you ask me.

I will certainly begin to incorporate more vegetables into the diet and that's not a problem since I love vegetables; fruits will take work; nuts and seeds I can do but I'm trying to lose the weight, not gain it!; beans, of course, from scratch. I make two batches each weekend and freeze them, and; my whole grains, which I love, I will certainly not give up.

I understand that anything processed is not good and we should eat as much to natural as possible and that will be my goal. I am not big on and don't buy much processed food to begin with but there are foods, like cereal, that I can't find my way around to giving up.

My challenge will be the creative ways in which to make lunch and eliminate the cold cuts altogether since the nitrates in cold cuts have been linked to stomach cancer and other degenerative diseases and also the raising of bad cholesterol.

And so on the fourth day of the new year, I'm learning, I'm trying, I'm doing...

Wow. It's been a while since I've been here. I started this blog for one reason only and that was to document my day-to-day to see if I could succeed in finally turning my life around. This blog would hold me accountable.

Well, let's see if this time I can stick to it. I am a reactive hypoglycemic. What that means is that I cannot afford the luxury of missing a meal or eating what I want. I generally do not miss a meal (even though so many times I want to!), but many times I eat what I'm not supposed to. My addiction to sugar is proving harder to overcome than anything else.

The blog is called The Physical Heart because it is the heart that I am most concerned about and need to take care of the most. I have a rare heart condition that warrants I maintain a certain weight for it to work properly and not lead me to an emergency room some years down the road. I just had my cardiology appointment this past week and my current weight is 170. The cardiologist would like me to be at 150 though he said that the weight I really should be at because of the heart condition is 130. I am 5 foot 5 and a half. At 150 I look thin. At 130 I think I may look too gaunt but who am I to argue. He is giving me three months to lose 20 pounds. I am going to go for the whole banana and lose the 40.

I know this doesn't sound like much to many of you but when you're coming from a place of a high-risk health problem, 40 lbs., even 20 lbs. is big. So....

I am 52 years old. The years are creeping up and with it the usual amalgam of health-related problems that comes with aging. Do I want to find myself under the operating knife anytime soon? No. Do I want to gradually decrease my quality of life because of my addiction to food? Of course not. But I'll be honest, sometimes that piece of milk chocolate or glass of soda with chips tastes so divine. And that's how it all starts. I had lost the 20 lbs. last year, but then layoffs happened at work and the stress of the job multiplied. I would come home exhausted and have no desire to cook. So I would pick up fast food on the way home and that was dinner. The stress of the job sometimes led me to munch on chips and soda or chocolate in mid-afternoon as a little pick-me up. Little by little the pounds crept back up again and again I find myself in the same boat.

I cannot afford this kind of lifestyle anymore. I cannot afford the negligence to health. I am an intelligent woman and know what I have to do, yet.....

Yet we try again because that is what we do. We keep trying until it becomes habit and I hope in 2011 it will finally be habit. I will find my way there by way of reading and learning and visiting other blogs and reading of the experiences and failures of others in the same situation so in that I learn. So that I will finally learn.

This is the year of finally getting it together. This is the year where I will begin to deconstruct what is going on upstairs that is preventing me from doing what I need to do. I will learn. I will lose. And I will keep it off....