7 week ETL challenge
 

hi everyone,

I thought I put up a challenge. It's only 7 weeks till new years and Dr. Furhman has a 6 week plain so I thought I'd start today with a 7 week. Does anyone want to join me? I know ETL is hard for some to follow but I also know it works. ;)

I'm in for one week :lol: I started it today, but it's just this week only.

Today's menu:
B blueberries, spinach and almond milk smoothie with flax seeds and 1/2 banana
s almonds
s orange
L big salad with spinach leaves, avocado, tomatoes, onions, 1/2 cup adzuki beans, 1/2 cup wheatberries, roasted red pepper vinaigrette
s 1/2 banana
s 1/2 pound of broccoli with lemon juice
D same as lunch
s apple

E treadmill, maybe twice

Oh gee, I'm in shock! 7 weeks till New Years? :dizzy:

I'm in. Starting tomorrow. It's too late for today.

Is it really seven weeks until New Year's? Can't be true!

I've been doing ETL for 5 weeks although this week is a bit off for me because I'm away from home.

I'll give it a "go". Just borrowed his book from the library on Monday and it looks do-able for me because vegetables are my favorite. Plus the man has such sound reasoning for why his method is favorable.

The challenge isn't for me, but I'll check in from time to time to let you know how I'm progressing and to see how you all are doing.

I've devised a bean dip that I scoop up w/veggies. All that's needed is a food processer or blender and drained, rinsed pinto beans with canned chiles. Once these are blended add diced raw green onions and sweet red peppers. A squeeze or two of fresh lime juice and spices (cilantro, cumin, coriander, cayenne and s&p) all combined with the "eyeball" method. Quantities to one's taste, no right or wrong way.

I knew that I'd find others here interested in ETL.....this is a great support group.

That 7 week fact is a little disturbing, the year went so fast :eek:

Well today has been a good day. started out with a blended salad then some trail mix with cherrio's then I just had some oatmeal. I'm going to have a salad for dinner and I was thinking of makeing some carrot soup if i have time.:carrot: I'm glad to find other etlers out there.

Maureen

gggbdomino, I didn't think that Cheerio's and such were allowable foods...I'll have to revisit the plan.

I am going to think about joining in for 6 weeks. I'll check back in with y'all! ;)

B - carrots (I was late), L - 2 cups of homemade 4 bean chili, no fat poured over 2 c romaine, s - apple, 20 almonds D - salad w/ romaine, cherry tomatoes, green beans, mushrooms, onions and cooked broccoli, S - pomegranate (Yeah! It's pomegranate season!)

Today's ETL meal plan:
B - <1 c old fashioned oat meal w/agave nectar, banana, clementine orange
L - chi chi bean garam masala, my bean dip w/baby carrots, celery and sweet green peppers, apple, maybe another clementine orange
D - grilled portabella mushroom cap smothered in sauteed onions, 1 shredded romaine heart topped with grated carrots, shredded zucchini, blk olives, celery and a little South Beach ranch dressing (I love that it's okay to eat a whole romaine heart, that's a lot of lettuce)

Bevies for the day:
1 glass of light vanilla soy milk, peppermint tea and chamomile tea all day long :coffee:

:hug: Good morning everyone. I think cherrios goes uned the whole grain very so doften catagorie. You guys I have a big challenge comeing up my best friend Rachel is comeing to town this week end for her Birthday. The last time she was here I gained 7 pounds. I can't do that this time we like to cook and go out and eat, and well lets face it we eat alot togeather. I'm a little worried about it she is so not vegan. So my goal is to do really well till Friday and then just maintain and not gain till Tuesday.

have a good day

Maureen

by the way the meals look so yummy you guys are doing so well

B - fruit (banana, 2 c. berries, organic applesauce)/greens (spinach) smoothie with flax seeds, L - lowfat lentil soup and an apple, D- a salad made with cabbage, an apple, beets, carrots and an onion with some balsamic vinegar for flavor. And pomegranate for a snack. (Did I mention I was happy it'd pomegranate season :D)


Maureen - that is challenging. I have friends with whom I eat out a LOT too. Is your friend open to having fun over other activities? I know not all are and if you suggest something other than eating out to do together they look at you like you are nuts - but it's worth a try! Denver has to have some amazing non-food related things to do, it's such a beautiful place. When I was a kid we went there once and ate at the HUGE mexican restaurant that had a waterfall and a wandering mariachi band - it was something. Is that still there? Probably not since I was a kid a long time ago :-)

sure it is casbonita it's a land mark. It's still there ;) Rachel and I do have alot of stuff that we plan to do but she's here for 4 days so we will have to eat. I just hope I can be stronge and not be to bad.

thanks Maureen:hug:

It's still there?!?!?!!!! I am so going there again. Now I know what my anniversary present should be!!!

Casa Bonita is a crazy place, horrid food though.

I miss some of the Denver food like Heidi's Deli... best sandwiches I've ever had... EVER.

oh i love the bread at heidi's mmmmm yum

Oh Nelie - don't shatter my childhood illusions ;)


Food today - B: fruit/greens smoothie L: Salad D: Black bean soup, carrot and celery sticks S: fruit of some sort or another

well all I can say is they should shouldn't have a drive through at star buck oh well.

Ok I'm back and I'm back on it! Although today I need to go to the grocery store.

Breakfast - Blended Salad, literally... I had made salads and cut up veggies for DH while I was away. He didn't eat all of it and had one salad left and there is no other fresh veggies in the fridge. So I used a little bit of spinach I had leftover from my trip and his salad, mixed with frozen strawberries and bananas. I added a little ginger to the mix as well.

The rest of the day is TBD but I am hitting the store in a little bit to replenish my supply of veggies.

I went to Costco yesterday and bought tons of food. Some of it will be used for Thanksgiving, I think.

Anyway, last night I made 2 dishes for dinner. One was the Chickpea Casserole from Vegan with a Vengeance although I used kidney beans and i didn't use oil or bread crumbs. It was good.

I also made sweet potato samosa filling which was really easy. Basically I sauteed some shallots, mustard seeds and curry powder, I then added a cup of diced mushrooms and a can of canellini beans. I then heated up 3 sweet potatoes in the microwave. I put the sautee into the food processor and then added the sweet potatoes. I did need to add a little water to the mixture in the food processor. I left it a little chunky, I then added the mixture back to the sautee pan with thawed frozen peas (organic, taste so much better than regular). I heated everything through and served both the samosa filling and the casserole with a salad for dinner.

It's so nice to read examples of meals that are like I cook! :D

DH and I went out to eat at a vegan chinese restaurant so lunch and dinner were chinese. Lots of veggies, some tofu and some "wheat" meat.

I had a really tough time this week. Vegetarian is easy. Vegan is doable. But ETL was tough. I like more flexibility in my portions of foods. In other words, I don't like being told how much of this or that I can eat :lol: I'd rather just count calories and not strive towards a pound of this or a cup of that.

Has anyone else had this problem?

:yes: I like more beans and legumes than are "allowed". I feel like I do better with the protein-rich vegan foods. I also love tofu and a little good oil here and there. I have NO problem eating all the veggies, as I do that regularly anyway!

I actually don't have a problem although I don't measure my food. I highly doubt I'm getting 1 lb of cooked veggies every day but I am surely getting in 1 lb of raw and at least 1 cup of beans. Although today was an unusual day and I think I was a little low on raw veggies and beans.

I would really like to try this. Actually, not long ago I made it 2 weeks without meat and I don't eat dairy. No one hardly noticed I wasn't eating meat. My family would not be for going without meat or dairy. I'm reading ETL right now and I have a friend who has great success with it. Nellie, Did you dive right in with this? Did you feel deprived?

Hi ladies,
6 week to new years. How is everyone doing? I am back from my long week end and i realalized how bad I feel after going off program. It feels like I have a food hang over. Thank goodness this only happens once a year.

Maureen

My sentiments exactly. Lately I've been having lots of red lentil soup and veggies with my homemade bean dip.....prolly should be having more salads :carrot: it might speed up my weight loss

Carol,

I did dive right into it. I wasn't even sure I could do it past a week but I decided to go for it and found it fairly easy. The only issue I had was the week that I went on a business trip. I didn't eat as much veggies as I should've but I did stay away from meat, dairy, eggs and products that contained them.

One thing I've found helpful is to make salads ahead of time. Initially, I was making salads for just that dinner and the next day lunch. I was amazed how well the salads kept if I made them for 2 dinners and 2 days worth of lunch.

One of my favorite salad additions is roasted red peppers. Sauteed mushrooms are good as well. I also like putting beans on my salad.

nelie, do you roast them yourself? Or use the ones already roasted in the jar at the grocery store? And do you keep the prepared lettuce in a zip lock bag that has little holes?

I roast the peppers myself. I have a toaster oven that is useful for small jobs like that.

I buy the 6 pack of romaine lettuce from Costco and I cut them up as needed. I find that the 6 pack pretty much lasts me a week although when it starts getting thin, I mix in bagged spinach that I buy, again from Costco.

I'm hooked on roasted peppers and put them in everything! I went to a big farmers market not too long ago and bought 12 pounds of red peppers for only 8 bucks. I roasted them all and froze them individually :T

I chop mine up and freeze them right from the garden. I even put them on salads and noone notices that they were frozen. I wonder if you could roast them after you freeze them.

HI ladies happy Tofukery day or lentel and spinich with mushrooms day which ever. I'm at work today but I get off at 2 then it's off to pick up a friend then off to the store for some canberries and lst minute stuff.

I hope you all have a wonderful blessed day. We all have so much to be thankful about.

How do you do this when your DH is a veterinarian and wouldn't think of a vegan lifestyle?

It can work if you have your way of eating and purchasing and he has his. :)

Honestly, I know some people who are able to be veg or vegan with a partner who is omni and it works for them, but it would never work for me. Everyone has different ways of thinking about veganism or vegetarianism though, so if they are able to make it work, more power to them!

For me, veganism is the only choice, based on a combination of factors (ethics, environmentalism, health, Spirituality etc.) so to have a partner whose morals and values were divergent from mine in this way would not work.

It is easy for me. My husband eats what I make him. I make good tasting meals and he doesn't think he is missing out on anything. Would your husband complain if his meals were meatless?

If so, then you make your meal and his meal similar but add some meat to his.

This was completely my choice but after a couple days, DH said he enjoyed his foods and he felt a lot better eating the meatless diet.

Even so much that DH's mother sent us home with turkey for DH. I served him a small piece for dinner the other day and then he said his least favorite part of the meal was the turkey. So now my dog is enjoying turkey with her meals.

Is anyone using ETL and calorie counting too?

I'm not but I've counted calories for some of my days and on a regular day, I get around 1100 calories. That is good considering I'm stuffed on those 1100 calories.

Would you please post a typical day, with serving sizes included?

I can post today although I need to estimate on my lunch soup which is a bean soup with veggies. I went and looked up how many calories in a typical dry bean soup and used that for the estimate.

Breakfast - 2 spinach smoothies, 1 with 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup blueberries, other with 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup of strawberries. (total calories 241)

Snack - 1/2 cup celery strips, 10 large baby carrots, medium sized apple (total calories 148)

Lunch - Salad with 1 cup of romaine lettuce, 1 roma tomato, 1/2 cup mushrooms, 1/2 cup celery, 1/2 cup cucumber, 1/2 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup black beans, 1 tbsp chunky nsa salsa (total calories 190)

Lunch (part 2) - Bean and veggie soup (4 cups, estimate around 300 calories)

Snack - 1/2 cup of celery strips, 10 large baby carrots (total calories 67)

Dinner - Salad, repeat of lunch salad (total calories 190)

Estimated calories for today - 1136