Weight Update: 374.6

Total weight lost: 22.4 pounds

*I am pic­ture­less (sorry). I took a pic­ture and then noticed that my toes were just too jacked up to be posted on the Inter­net. I need a pedi­cure badly! I was not expect­ing to have lost any­thing because my eat­ing habits were not as great as they have been. In addi­tion, I am retain­ing water and feel extremely bloated. This hap­pens a lot to me when the weather is humid and I have to rely on asthma meds more. I am going to weight myself again on Sat­ur­day to see if there is a change.  I will take a pic­ture then.

I wrote before about this jour­ney being about more than weight loss. While I need to lose weight, I also want my lifestyle to be health­ier. I want to focus on cre­at­ing healthy habits and mak­ing healthy choices. The bot­tom line is that this is for my fam­ily. So, I have been spend­ing so much time out of the house get­ting active and in the Kitchen cook­ing more. And when I say that I have been cook­ing, I have really been cook­ing. Below  is one of my new favorite recipes.

But before you get to that, I need to say that I have have been seri­ously kick­ing ass! I weigh in tomor­row (Tues­day) so I will add the update there, but I FEEL so much bet­ter than I have in a long time. I am LIVING and that is all the proof that I need that I am doing this!

My goals are to con­tinue work­ing out 45–60 min­utes a day depend­ing on what my knees can han­dle; to step up the water intake because I have not been get­ting enough; and finally, I need to be bet­ter at jour­nal­ing my food intake. I have to make sure I see exactly what I am eat­ing so I can’t lie to myself.

And now for the soup.

Kristina’s Veg­gie Bean Soup

I have become some what of a soup addict as I travel on my jour­ney to lose weight. And while the weather is get­ting warmer, I am still lov­ing a bowl (or 2 cups of soup) after a long day. Using fresh veg­eta­bles and avoid­ing canned or pre-made broth makes home­made soup a fill­ing and com­fort­ing meal. Here is my “Kristina’s Veg­gie Bean Soup” recipe.  Let me say that Swiss Chard is AMAZING! This recipe was orig­i­nally posted on Mom on the Rise and can also be found on SparkPeo­ple.

Ingre­di­ents

• Car­rots, raw, 3 medium (chopped)
• Mush­rooms, 8 fresh (chopped)
• Onions, raw, 2 medium (chopped)
• Gar­lic, 4 clove (chopped)
• Cel­ery, raw, 1 stalk, large (chopped)
• Red Ripe Toma­toes, 2 medium (chopped)
• Swiss Chard, 3 cup, chopped (chop stems and tear leaves; keep separate)
• Leeks, 5 leek (chopped)
• Aspara­gus, fresh, 3 spear, medium (chopped)
• Potato, raw, 3 large (chopped)
• Beans, great north­ern, 1.5 cup (dry and presoaked)
• Olive Oil, Extra Vir­gin, 2 tbs
• Water, tap, 8 cup (64 oz)
• Sage, ground, .5 tbsp
• Thyme, ground, .5 tbsp
• Cin­na­mon, ground, .5 tsp
• Bay Leaf, 1 tbsp, crumbled
• Adobo Goya, 0.25 tsp
• Pep­per, black, .5 tbsp

Direc­tions

• Serv­ing size is 2 cups. Should make 10 servings.
• Sauté onion, gar­lic, car­rots, leeks, cel­ery. mush­rooms, toma­toes, and aspara­gus in olive oil using a large stock pot or dutch oven.
• Add all remain­ing veg­gies except for the pota­toes, Chard leaves. DO NOT ADD BEANS YET.
• Add enough water to just cover the veg­gies and add all spices/seasoning.
• Bring to a boil and then sim­mer for 1 hour.
• Add beans and pota­toes and the remain­ing water.
• Stir and allow to sim­mer for 2 hours. Be sure to stir and check water level peri­od­i­cally . Add more water as needed. Soup should be brothy not thick.
• When soup has fin­ished cook­ing add Swiss Chard leaves and cover fro 10 min­utes. Serve in bowl.

Num­ber of Serv­ings: 10 | Serv­ing Size 2 cups | Here is the nutri­onal info

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