China Study Dinner

I haven't blogged in forever I know, but I just was keeping a few things to myself, and then those things started to take up most of my energy and focus, and there wasn't much left to blog about. I was on a really strict diet all summer as you know, and it was great for me in a ton of ways. I learned so much about controlling myself eating-wise, and with the training regimen I was on, I also learned a lot of self-discipline in getting all of my workouts in. Towards the end of the summer it was weekdays was a 40-50 minutes hard cardio in the mornings, 40-45 minutes weightlifting, and a 30 minute cardio session at night. It was hard scheduling that all in, and sometimes I was freakin tired, but it was so worth it. I finally had a body I was proud of. I've worked for so many years trying to get these results, and frankly didn't have the tools I needed. Thanks so much to my trainer Sandy for all that she did for me. She's well worth her fees. After I reached my goals I finally started reading The China Study that's been recommended to me over and over again by almost everyone I know interested in health and fitness and IT ROCKED MY WORLD. This is a book written by a national reasearcher (he has written over 350 peer-reviewed published articles in major scientific journals) regarding a major study spanning ovr 30 years of the rural Chines peoples, and a number of other studies he and other researchers have done supporting his findings. What findings? Take home message: the higher the animal protein in the diet, the higher percentages of most cancers, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases. This ROCKED MY WORLD. I was almost sorry I read it. This summer was all about animal protein. I am still worried I won't be able to keep on the muscle I've gained going all plant based, but there is a vegan bodybuilding site and while there aren't too many girls on there, I'm trusting if I'm careful I should be OK. I got into a lot of good habits this summer: eating a LOT of veggies, no sugar, LOW LOW fat, and portion control. I couldn't move into this without my training. Thanks again Sandy. OK, so here's what we had for dinner tonight.

Roasted vegetables --including two giant eggplants from my garden

Raw zucchini hummus: 3 medium zucchinis, 1 1/2 t. cumin, 1 t. salt 1 1/2 cups raw cashews, 1/2 cup lemon and 3/4 cup cooked garbanzos (because it was a little thin)
Kale chips: cover a baking sheet with potato chip size pieces of kale, spray lightly with vegetable or olive oil cooking spray, sprinkle with salt and pepper, or whatever seasoning blend you want (try salt, chili pepper, &garlic powder!) and bake at 250 for 30-40 minutes until they are all crisp. These are super good. The kids love them. You might be surprised.

I spread some of the hummus on a big lettuce leaf, piled on the roasted veggies and went to town. DELICIOUS! The kids had theirs on corn tortillas, but I was conserving a few calories because of the cashews, and I had a huge butternut squash shake earlier in the day. What??? No really. 2 cups of roasted butternut squash, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, ricemilk or soymilk or almond milk or nonfat if you have none of these, and my vice: splenda. (I suck I know, but I've tried stevia and it doesn't do the same thing for me. suggestions?) It was like pumpkin pie in a glass. Yum. I froze the last half of the shake, and blended it up later with some more water and Pero and that was fantastic too: like a frozen pumpkin pie latte. Sorry no pictures. I was considering it.

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