Healthe Trim Update, Recipes and more!

Good Sunday morning all!

First I want to address Healthe Trim and where I am at with it and then I will recap what I did yesterday and my juice experience this morning.

Healthe Trim.

When I bought it back before Thanksgiving, I was in the 180's weight wise. I was still working out but it wasnt coming off like I wanted. I had already started working with Eric a couple times but even with the running, and the zumba, I wasnt seeing the numbers move much.

So I thought that I would give the new Raspberry Healthe Trim a go. Now I do have to admit this...

I still drank coffee after being on Healthe Trim for about 3 weeks. For 3 weeks I cut caffeine completely!! I wanted to see how my body felt on it for a while.

They say to not drink caffeine because there is already caffeine in the pills from green tea and they dont want you to get shaky. However! I have a VERY high tolerance for caffeine- probably from all the other diet pills I used to take LOL. So I found that I didnt get the shakes even with coffee in the morning.

Now that doesnt mean that you should go out and drink pop (soda) because it has caffeine.

These pills will not work if you have artificial sweeteners. They just wont. End of story.

Way, way back, I didnt stop the artificial sweeteners and surprise, surprise they didnt work. This means to read labels. Now I think they are talking about artificial sweeteners in big amounts. Soda, ice cream, cookies etc. The reason being is that artificial sweeteners negate the appetite suppressant that is in the pills. FAIR WARNING! And a LOT of the so called "diet foods" have artifical sweeteners so READ!

Anyways...

If you look at my weigh in chart, you can see that I started dropping weight pretty quickly after that (with the exception of the couple of holiday days). And even when I did gain the weight, it dropped back off quickly.

I would take 2 pills in the morning about 6am when I got up to get the kids ready for school. Have breakfast about 8:30, then have lunch about noon, take two more pills at 2pm and have a light dinner after I worked out. They say to wait a couple hours after taking the pills to make sure they absorb into your body before you eat.

The thing I noticed about these pills quickly is that my hunger disappeared. These pills are great for making you feel full faster. I would take them in the morning and really have to push myself to have breakfast. And yes. Have breakfast. It is what is going to get your body burning the food fast during the day. And try to make breakfast your BIGGEST meal of the day. It will burn all day long and you wont go to bed with a stuffed stomach. If you skip breakfast, your body goes into starvation mode and you can actually GAIN weight. Dont want that do we??

So now I am down to my last few pills. And I am going to hoard them for emergencies. Just in case I need to reorder and want some to get me thru until my order gets here.

As of right now I am no longer taking Healthe Trim. Yesterday was my first full day off of it.

No you dont have withdrawl. Or shakes...or suddenly become ravenous.

Why am I stopping it you may ask.

Well I just feel like I am in a good spot now. I have gotten back down and my body is responding really well to my exercise. Healthe Trim helped get my mind and body in a good place. And I know from this point on, I can do this on my own.

These pills are costly. But they do work. BUT to get the best results, you should start changing your diet. Track what you eat and also exercise. I do know people who didnt do anything to change their diets. They still ate the pizza, hot dogs etc and they said the pills made them feel fuller faster. And they were successful at losing weight. BUT what you have to consider if this is the route you are going to go, is that are you going to LISTEN to your body and STOP when you feel full? Otherwise, forget it. These pills wont help you. They arent magic. You cant continue to eat a half of a pizza and expect to lose weight with a magic pill. Thats the fact. But if you can eat pizza, listen to your body and STOP when your body tells you that you feel satiated and full, then yup these will work for you. For me I had to cut my arm off in order to stop the cancer. LOL- bad analogy I know. BUT I had to stop eating the bad stuff because I knew starting out that if pizza was put in front of me that I couldnt say no. That I would overeat to the point of being sick. So this is all about what works for you.

Would I buy them again? Yes. I am a supporter of this company. And I think I have used just about all their products. And just as a reminder- I am not compensated by Healthe Trim for this review. I bought them on my own, with my own money. Yes they sent me the Cleanse for free because of the ordering mix up but that is because they are a great company and would probably do the same for you.

Ok I hope this answers your questions. Let me know if you have more!!

Back to yesterday!

I ended up running out when the boys went down for a nap to get a book called the Happy Herbivore. It is a low fat vegan cookbook. My friend Ambreen has been cooking out of it and all the food looks so good. So after talking with Aaron yesterday morning about my decision to become vegetarian (on a trial basis) and how I want to do the juice fast and also incorporate a vegan dish into our meals once a week, I went and got the cookbook.

After that I ran to Meijer and bought a ton of produce to get me thru the week.

Last night I made vegan chili for dinner. It is awesome!

And then I made vegan black bean brownies. I know, I know, it sounds really gross but you pulse it all up and you cant taste the beans at all. It really takes the place of the flour density. And there is oatmeal in it as well.

The kids werent fans of chili so they had hot dogs. I made them each try one bite but they just werent digging it. It is a bit spicy so that is ok. I will continue to have them try one bite each time. Then if they dont like it, they dont have to eat it.

Aaron and I both had the chili and again- it was awesome! I didnt miss the meat at all. The beans made me feel really full with just over a cup of the chili. And for just over a cup of chili, it has 307 calories, 1.9 g fat, 17.2 g protein, 18.6 g fiber, 117% of Vitamin C for the day plus so many other great vitamins and minerals.

And the boys LOVED the brownies. A big pat on the back for me for now being able to sneak in beans, bananas, and oatmeal into their diets thru a brownie. LOL. The brownies are really fudgie and dense. They say one batch yields 9 brownies but I can only have a small piece at a time. Excellent for when I crave chocolate. It stops me from over indulging. And for 1/9 of a pan of brownies, it has 112 calories, 0.9 g fat, 12.2g sugar, and 3.5 g protein. Well I should say that this is if you go by the recipe. I tweaked it. Instead of agave nectar, I used real maple syrup. And instead of raw sugar, I used a squirt of raw honey.

After that the boys got to bed and I went downstairs and ran 1 mile on the elliptical. I was waiting for my friend to come over to work out in the basement. I was getting frustrated because we got a new stereo for the iPod/iPhone and even though it was plugged in, it kept turning itself off after a few minutes. Finally I put batteries in it to see if that helped. It did but why in the world do I have to put batteries in something if it plugs into a wall? Ugh.

Anyways so I had to keep getting on and off the elliptical to fiddle with the stereo and turn it back on.

Finally after a mile I stopped, got off and called Aaron down to take a picture of me. No- no nakedness you perverts. LOL. I wanted to try doing that plank at home by myself that Eric had me do on Friday.

I was able to do it!! And with no assistance I might add!! And when my friend got here I showed her. She is doing the plank a day challenge with me and wanted to show her how to one up the challenge.

Then she and I did the plank a day 1:30 standard forearm plank. After that, I introduced her to Zumba and we did about 45 minutes. After that I showed her some exercises she could do with a balance ball, how to do side planks, mountain climbers and a couple other things to strengthen her core. All in all, for me in 1:28 I burned 619 calories. Not terrific but I will take it.

After the exercising was done, my friend left and Aaron and I watched Snow White and the Huntsman. Good movie. Nothing I would buy, but I would watch it again.

This morning I weighed in at 165.0. Woo hoo! Back down to my low pre holiday. Now to work towards getting back into the 150's. It is getting close!

This morning I decided that I would make a juice with all the produce I have. The first one I wanted to try is the Mean Green that was in Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It has kale, ginger, lemon, granny smith apple, celery and cucumber in it. Well I ended up having to strain it from my nutribullet. I think with all the stringiness from the kale, ginger and celery it just made it too thick and I couldnt drink it. Once I strained it, it was pretty good. Zippy from the ginger for sure but I didnt have to choke it down.

Today my plan is to have another juice for lunch with some veggies and hummus and almonds and some chili for dinner. I also plan on making some kale chips. Yummy! Then I will run on the elliptical for an hour before calling it a night. It is a school night after all! WOO HOO!

Tip of the day: I have to share the recipes from yesterday just in case you want to try them. I will also include them on my recipes page for future reference. Please let me know if you try either of these recipes and how you like them. I would love to hear the feedback. And I will fill you in with recipes as I experiment with my vegetarian/vegan lifestyle.

VEGAN 3-bean chili
Serves 6

INGREDIENTS:
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-squares
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-squares
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2-squares
1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3-4 tablespoons water for sautéing
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons chili powder
3 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or one 16-ounce can diced tomatoes)
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained (or 1-1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed)
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Water or tomato juice as needed
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves or fresh parsley (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat up the few tablespoons of water in a heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. This is to replace the oil that is often used for sautéing.
2. Add the bell peppers, onion, garlic, oregano, and chili powder, cayenne, coriander, and cumin, and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, the canned corn, and all the beans, and bring to a boil. Add a little water as needed.
4. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, adding water or tomato juice as needed if too much liquid evaporates. Season with salt and black pepper, and stir in the cilantro or parsley. Serve in shallow bowls.

Serving suggestions and variations:
*Add a dollop of non-dairy sour cream on top of the chili once it’s plated.
*You can obviously use any color variation of bell pepper; the more color variety, the prettier the dish is. Same goes for the beans. You can use all black or white (Navy, Great Northern, etc.) instead of pinto. It’s really up to you, your preferences, and what you have on hand.
*Add more cayenne and chili powder to make it hotter.
*Serve with different color tortilla chips: white, red, and black/blue.
*Sprinkle shredded non-dairy cheese over the chili. (Follow Your Heart brand is delicious. Check Whole Foods and other large natural foods stores, or ask your grocer to order it)

VEGAN Black Bean Brownies
1 15 oz can black beans, drained, rinsed
2 spotted bananas
1/2 cup agave nectar (I used real maple syrup)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup raw sugar (optional) (I used just a squirt of Raw Honey)
1/4 tsp salt (optional) (I didnt use)
1/4 cup instant oats

-Preheat oven 350
-Grease 9-inch square pan
-Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender (except oats) and blend until smooth
-Stir in oats and dump into a pan
-Bake 30 mins or until toothpick comes out clean