Day One

Day One was great.

We started the morning by weighing ourselves. We didn't have a tape measure on hand, but we'll measure ourselves tomorrow. We've decided that we'll weigh in and measure up every Monday before breakfast - hopefully we'll see some good results.

For breakfast we had multi grain oatmeal with blueberries, bananas and maple syrup. (Shout out to Carolyn A for the breakfast suggestion!) With OJ on the side and our daily vitamins and flax seed oil, we felt great. My breakfast kept me full until 2pm! Although I need not make a habit of waiting that long as I'm hypoglycemic.

For lunch, I had a facon (Smart Bacon's vegan; Morningstar isn't), lettuce, tomato and avocado sandwich on sprouted grain bread - YUM! I brought grapes and an apple to get me through the afternoon, but I only needed the grapes.

At about 3pm, I got a headache and began to crash - that'd be the caffeine withdrawal starting. At 3:30 I made myself a cup of green tea, took a pair of advil and felt markedly better by 4pm.

David was off of work today so he ate some different things. He had the same lunch as I did, but he also had a handful of blackened pumpkin seeds and some veggie chips, as well as some grapes.

When I got home, we made the salad dressing for our vegan Caesar Salad (recipe below) and then headed to the gym - where we saw Liza B and her cute new haircut! We did 30 minutes of cardio and hit the road - not trying to conquer a mountain on day one. We figured if we made it too hard core, we'd have a hard time motivating. So today, we made a good, strong, babystep :)

Seeing as David and I both ate grapes today, I thought I'd share some of the health benefits I read about them in The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods by Michael Murray:

Nutritional Highlights: Grapes provide nutritional benefits similar to those of other berries. Their nutritional quality can be enhanced by eating the seeds, which are edible in all varieties. More specifically, grapes are very good sources of manganese and good sources of vitamin B6, thiamine, riboflavin, potassium, and vitamin C. In addition, grapes contain flavonoids and the compound resveratol.

Health Benefits: Grapes are an excellent source of health-promoting flavonoids. Typically, the stronger the color of the grape, the higher the concentration of flavonoids. These flavonoids are extremely powerful antioxidants. They have been shown to reverse atherosclerosis, protect against vascular damage, and prevent blood platelets from clumping together to form potentially serious blood clots.

Resveratol belongs to a group of compounds called phytoalexins that plants produce in self-defense against environmental stressors, such as adverse weather or attack by insects. Resveratol acts as an antioxidant and has also been shown to reduce the buildup of plaque in arteries. In addition to possibly reducing the risk for atherosclerosis, animal studies demonstrate some anticancer effects and anti-inflammatory action.

OK, now the Caesar Salad with Roasted Garlic Crouton Recipe from Veganomicon:

Caesar Dressing (makes lots):
1/3 c. slivered or sliced blanched almonds
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3/4 lb. silken tofu
1/4 c. olive oil
3 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 heaping tbs. capers
4 tsp. caper brine
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
salt

Croutons:
1/4 c. olive oil
4 cloves roasted garlic (recipe under this one)
1 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1/2 - 3/4 baguette cut/torn into bite-sized pieces
1/4 tsp. salt

Salad:
1 large head Romaine lettuce, chopped
pepper

To prepare the dressing: pulse the sliced almonds in a food processor or blender until crumbly. Empty the ground almonds into a large jar (this is where you'll add all of the rest of the blended ingredients later, so make sure it's big enough to store your dressing). Blend the tofu, garlic and oil until creamy. Add the lemon juice, capers, brine, sugar, mustard powder and pulse. Adjust the lemon juice and salt to taste. Add to the container with the almonds; stir to combine. Cover and allow to chill for 1/2 hour +.

To prepare the croutons: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine olive oil, roasted garlic and lemon juice in a large bowl; mash together until creamy. Add the bread and toss to coat. Spread onto a rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake for 10-14 minutes - toss a time or two so that they don't get too brown on one side.

Toss greens with dressing. Add croutons, toss again. Sprinkle with pepper. YUM!!

This salad is DELICIOUS. I'm eating it as I type. It has more oil in it than I'd like to use right now, but not if you consider that we'll get several servings from the dressing and croutons we made. I wasn't super keen on making my own croutons tonight ... but it was totally worth it!

How to Roast Garlic: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take one or more whole bulbs of garlic; cut off about 1/2 an inch off the top, exposing the top of each clove. Drizzle with olive oil, about a tablespoon. Wrap tightly in foil and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. For slightly caramelized cloves, unwrap the top and let roast for 8-10 minutes.

This recipe is not for the garlic averse. It's pretty strong. But we love garlic, so we'll definitely make it again.

Abbreviated info from The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods:

Nutritional Highlights: Garlic is an excellent source of vitamin B6. It is also a very good source of manganese, selenium, and vitamin C. In addition, garlic is a good source of other minerals, including phosphorous, calcium, potassium, iron and copper.

Health Benefits: It is beyond the scope of this book to detail all of the wonderful properties of this truly remarkable medicinal plant. Garlic appears to provide protection against atherosclerosis and heart disease. Garlic has also demonstrated blood pressure-lowering action in many studies. Garlic also has a long history of use as an infection fighter. It's effective not only against common infections, such as colds, flu, stomach viruses, and Candida yeast, but also against powerful pathogenic microbes, including tuberculosis and botulism. Garlic also appears to offer protection against some cancers, including colon cancer. The beneficial effects of garlic are clearly quite extensive. Its use as a food should be encouraged, despite its odor, especially by individuals with elevated cholesterol levels, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, Candida infections, asthma, infections (particularly respiratory tract), and gastrointestinal complaints.

With that, I'm off to bed!