Challenge Rules: (GET READY, SET…)

This Healthy Challenge begins Tuesday April 20, 2010 and continues for 3 weeks, ending on May 11, 2010.  As an incentive, I am adding a $10 entry fee, which will go in the pot for the winner.

1 point for all of the following daily:
30 min exercise
no sugar, desserts (this means anything processed, like muffins, regular fruit flavored yogurts, alcohol, etc)
no carbonation
8 glasses of water
no eating 2 hours before bed
2-3 serving of fruit/veggies
7 hours of sleep

-1 point:

sugar, desserts (per serving)

Bonus points:

1 point daily used to your liking, be it score advantage or if you failed an item.

Maximum 8 pts earned daily. Please keep a daily record and send me the total points accrued at the end of each week.  The person with the most points at the end of this challenge wins the pot. This Challenge is based  on the HONOR SYSTEM.

So, the reason we designed the challenge this way is to live and eat well, which in turn will give more energy… and motivate me to get back on track and lose weight. Because we all know it’s easier to be motivated by a challenge/competition. The weight loss that comes with it is a bonus. Yay!

Get ready, set…good luck!

Thank you, Bobby Flay

I love to cook. I’m always looking for different ways to use the average vegetables, fish, chicken or whatever I can get my hands on. And since I’m starting the Healthy Challenge tomorrow, I thought I’d jump start it by cooking a pot of Minestrone soup courtesy of Bobby Flay. I have chosen to  omit the croutons, but didn’t want to deprive the rest of you so I’ve included it in the recipe below.

(…Do the multiple veggies count as my 2-3 servings?)

Minestrone with Sauteed Croutons and Parmigiano-Reggiano

Ingredients

Sauteed Croutons:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 6 slices Italian bread, crusts removed and cut into 1/4-inch dice
• Salt

Soup:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 2 large stalks celery, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 1/4 pound pancetta, thinly sliced
• 1/2 head Savoy cabbage, finely sliced, blanched and drained
• 1/2 bunch Swiss chard, washed and finely sliced
• 1 large waxy potato, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 4 cups water
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 3 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1 bouquet garni (rosemary sprig, 4 thyme sprigs, 1 bay leaf, bunch parsley)
• 3 cups cooked cannellini beans
• 1 cup spinach leaves, washed and coarsely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions

For the Sautéed Croutons: Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the garlic and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, to flavor the oil. Remove the garlic, add the bread cubes and toss to coat. Sauté until golden brown on all sides, season lightly with salt. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels.

For the Soup: Heat oil in a 4 quart pot, add the onion, celery, garlic, carrot and pancetta and cook until soft. Add the cabbage, chard, potato, water, broth, tomatoes and bouquet garni. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Place half of the beans (1 1/2 cups) in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the puree and the whole beans to the simmering soup. Simmer the soup for about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with (sautéed croutons and) cheese.

Let me know if you try it and what you think. Bon Appetite!!!

‘B’idney Update

My blood was drawn on Tuesday, and today Doc and I went over the results. Uh, it was more like Doc having a solo conversation on my voicemail going over my test results. A casualty of phone tag.

Overall, things are good. Yippee! The protein in my urine is holding stable. Good news. Which means, I think I’ve thwarted off the biopsy a bit longer because it’s not getting  worse.  ‘B’idney remains safe for now.  Creatnine bouncing around a bit, but not higher than it’s been in the past. Blood count ok. White cells ok. Bacteria level in range. Protein level maintaining. Minerals need a little work, but nothing to worry about. Basically I’m A OK (smile). Actually,  I’m a little more than ok if I do say so myself.

Thanks for all your prayers. They’re still working. Have a fantabulous weekend y’all!

‘B’idney n Di

The Challenge

TRIVIA ?

How does eating

one  1.76 oz candy bar

turn me

1 pd heavier

the next morning?

I sat up this AM, looked in the mirror and saw my tummy pucker and say hi.

Not to mention the other night, I had a strange phenomenon come over me. I went for a jog and had to actually hold my hands up to the girls, because they were bouncing in rhythm to my pace. Weird. This never happened pre-‘B’idney! This coming from a girl who could once  run without a sports bra. Yes, I have spent $$ for a Super Strapless Adhesive Bra. And have shamelessly asked my best friend to share her blessed assets, if it ever became possible. And let’s throw in that I’ve blamed my mom for shorting me on the boob gene.

Well, I am going to do something about this. Girls can stay, but tummy has got to go.  In fact, I was perusing my friend’s blog, and have decided to borrow her idea (thanks Lyndsey). Her family is doing a ‘Healthy Challenge’ for NINE weeks to motivate weight loss. Yea right. I’m  going to start with three weeks, which is much more attainable. Plus, I still have 10 pounds to lose from my transplant, so this will be good motivation.

Below is what she had listed. I am going to tweak it a bit, adding minus points  and return with a more detailed version, because this chic responds to competition and structure. At the end of the challenge, the winner gets a prize, which Lyndsey’s fam is doing a money pot. Sounds good to me. Feel free to add any other items and join in on the challenge…starting in a couple days.

1 point for all of the following:
30 min exercise
no sugar, desserts
no carbonation
8 glasses of water
10 min of uplifting reading, or journal writing
morning and evening prayer
no eating 2 hours before bed
2 serving of fruit/veggies
7 hours of sleep

…TO BE CONTINUED

Vieques

I am pathetic. I have had a draft of this blog saved for weeks. Weeks I tell you, and never posted it cuz I wasn’t finished.  Call it writers block. So, there was a previous post in cliff note form. Here’s a continuation of my stay on Vieques. Take this with that and you’ll get the grand ol’ picture…

This is ‘B’idney’s first adventure with Diana. Vieques is an island town surrounded by a magnificent coast (Caribbean on one side, Atlantic on the other) filled with colorful, mismatched homes populated by friendly residents. By colorful, I mean iron bars on all the windows, and friendly meaning  people who will borrow your belonging permanently without asking for permission. If I must break it down, Vieques is an Inner City Tropical Paradise, filled with heat and humidity. Humidity that fills in the shadows, between walls, and the cracks of my body… it’s so not attractive to stick to myself. And this is the cool season they say.

But let me tell you, I had a blast on this inner city of tropical paradise.  I explored beaches, snorkeled in the water, kayaked along the coast and laughed a thousand laughs with my friends.

      

 

I  heart   Todd  and   Joe  and     Tom.   

These boys made me smile on the inside and laugh on the outside. They are exactly what I needed to detoxify from my  normal life, which somehow got really heavy on my back without my realizing it. They call me sweet nothings, speak positively and kindly and remind me of the simpler things in life. I enjoyed visiting Vieques, but I loved being with these three. These three are what made my trip memorable.

…And these two little boys, which started Operation Puppy Rescue. We found them in the middle of the road in the rain forest on our last day and eventually dropped them off at a municipal shelter in San Juan. Smuggling them onto the plane entered my mind, but quickly left as I envisioned myself in a dimly lit room behind rusty bars.

 

The other unforgettable animal and true diva of the household was, “Chicky”.  Chicky who was just a biddy not too long ago, was found by Tom and Todd upon arriving at their pad.

(picture courtesy of TnT)

This little chickadee became the  most domesticated and SPOILED chicken to ever roam the streets of Puerto Rico. Not only did she drink hand poured coconut milk, but she drank from the same drinking cup as the boys. Ew.  Ate human food and napped in the house usually on the boys if not on the couch. And boy was she meticulous about cleaning herself. But Todd n Tom had to be even more meticulous about picking up chick poops to avoid staining our feet. When Todd would toss her outside into the  burning (yard)  depths  of a real chicken world with dirt

c

 

and bushes, she would look up in dismay as if she was too good to be amongst the other poultry. When Chicky was an egg sized biddy, she would chirp her little head off when Todd would put her in her cardboard cage at bedtime. Now she’s a teen biddy who puts herself to bed, but still cries her little head off in the process. She really is a unique one that I grew attached to. Guess you can’t blame a chick for acting all diva-ish when it was raised with a silver spoon to her mouth. In the picture above, she is eating egg yolk off a plate. Which is kind of ironic if you think about it.

Forward to the abode. A very cute abode, which looked questionable with bars on the outside but chic once inside.     

So, the most magical thing I did on the island was kayaking in a bioluminescent bay one evening. Out of this world! I felt like I was living a scene in Avatar. To be in pitch darkness and see the water sparkling around me was unreal. And to illuminate to a fluorescent green when my hand touched the water was surreal. And to see shooting comets underwater, which were really just fish darting below clashing with the dino flagellates, was a sight to behold. WOW.

The cheapest household item I discovered here is the Vieques Alarm Cluck. Cheap being that it’s free and malfunctions.     Whoever started the rumor that roosters only crow in the early dawn were playing a joke, because not only did this rooster crow at dawn, but at midnight, around 4 AM, and at least one other time in between. And when he crowed, it set off a string of other roosters on the block that had to crow too. It became the unwanted midnight symphony. The thing that made me laugh was that this rooster sounded like a dying Ford Model-T whose engine would not turn over.

The award for best fresh produce goes to the ADVOCADO. Look at the size of this bad boy. And I have a big face too!  Notice how beautiful it’s insides are. If you like guacamole like I do, the avocados here are a cook’s dream come true. Especially when most of the produce has to be shipped in and the ill looking tomatoes look like they’re on their death beds. Half the avocado made enough guacamole to feed 4 with leftovers. If I wasn’t so sticky from the humidity I would have rubbed the other half all over my face as a natural moisturizer. Haha.

The best imported precious cargo on the island goes to the four ginormous Doberman pinchers owned by Joe and Mark.

Uhm, hello? Sight to behold, right? Who would in their right mind would even think about breaking into this house with these three bitches on the property? Sadly, there are a few souls on the island NOT in their right mind who were lucky to survive with limbs still attached. The sweetest thing on the island was Joe n Mark. They threw  Tom n Todd (ahem, and me too) a farewell party, after only knowing the boys for a couple months. Aside from Joe n Mark being sweethearts, they are angels with hearts of gold. Joe will go to the ends of the earth to help just about anyone out. Hence I have nicknamed him ‘Jo-erella’. Mark, came all the way over to where I was staying to give me an anti-bacterial drug in hopes that I would feel better, only to find out that I am already taking it for my transplant.  I am a better person for knowing these men. Tom n Todd included.

The peskiest critter was the mosquito. These mini fighter jets have perfected hunting their target since prehistoric times and have eating their prey down to a science. They weren’t noisy like the ones in the States, and they were hard to catch, because if they did some fancy aerial maneuver, they would all of the sudden turn invisible.  And boy did they love a little Asian flavor. I was eaten alive. Three days into the trip, I started feeling ill. I slept a ton, was fatigued, chilled, had headaches, and had the Hershey squirts coming out the rear and pretty much wanted to die. Similar symptoms one has when suffering a kidney rejection. The last few days there, I was really getting worried, which says a lot. One day after I told Mark how I was feeling, he explained to me that the mosquitoes there carry a virus called, Dengue fever…Dengue infection is a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics and is endemic in Puerto Rico. And the reports this year according to Joe have been an alarming high. Yippee! Crazy as it sounds, I was actually relieved to hear this could be the cause of my not feeling well and not ‘B’idney suffering from my smart decision to travel so soon after surgery. The symptoms for dengue are reported to last up to 7 days. I didn’t know the intensity or all the details of this virus until I was en route home. Mark had spared me the horrific details. Sure enough on the 8 day, I noticed my body coming back to life. I know for sure someone up above was looking out for me as usual.

Needless to say, the trip was still a blast. The only difference being I would have done more and probably over did it if I hadn’t gotten sick. But everyone was safe and well and happy.

As I took off on my Delta flight, I looked down onto San Juan and thought to myself, I am not done exploring this place. There are still places I want to see. There will always be another day, another adventure for ‘B’idney n Diana, but for now, thank goodness I am going back to my home sweet home.