Day twelve begins

Bringing the food diary up to date, after I got home last night, I had a thin brown rice cake with a small amount of Arrowhead Mills valencia peanut butter on it. I also ate half a pear. Later, I made a pot of lentils as follows:

1 whole onion chopped fine
4 celery stalks chopped fine
3 large carrots chopped fine
5 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1 bag of frozen spinach
1 Tsp garam masala
4 large sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 Tsp cumin
1 Tsp olive oil
1 bag of dried lentils
1 container of vegetable broth (I use Whole Foods 365 brand organic)

Place all of the veggies in the pot and add the olive oil, garam masala, rosemary and cumin. Saute until the onions are clear and soft. Add the remaining ingredients and then simmer until the lentils are tender.

Takes about 45 minutes. Completely delicious. No added salt, and very little fat.

I also made a big salad consisting of romaine lettuce, red endive, red bell pepper, red grapes, heirloom tomato, and raw almonds. Added a dressing of balsamic vinegar. Again, delicious, no added salt and no fat at all.

I ate one bowl of the lentils and two servings of salad. I am pushing on salad now, rather than the more caloricaly dense legumes. I figure I can maintain fullness and satiety while reducing my calories that way.

Later I made a smoothie consisting of banana, frozen cherries, frozen blueberries, ground flaxseed, Natrol Factors green supplment and soymilk. I made the same smoothie this morning as well.

I slept very well, although I was bothered a bit by arthritis in the night. Thsi morning, I have plenty of energy. I weighed in at 245.8, down significantly from yesterday. My waist was 49 inches flat. I also measured blood pressure this morning at 124 over 72.

My plan is to ride the bike today at 1 with Ray and the biking group. Should be a nice day, although a bit cool.

I have some medical stuff to follow up on. Dr. F. is interested in reviewing the test results from Dr. Sharp. I am very open to this. It is great to get many sets of eyes on this problem.

More later.