Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek Soup

INGREDIENTS

3 Large Leeks – chopped
3 Scallions – chopped
3 cloves of garlic – smashed
4 potatoes - skinned

STOCK

4 tbsp. butter – sliced

3 cups water

4 cups milk

1 cup pinot grigio

3 ¾ cup chicken broth (30 oz.)

1 ½ package white extra sharp cheddar cheese

SPICES Sprinkle for taste..

Paprika

Parsley

Turmeric

Black pepper

LET THE PREPPING BEGIN…

Boil potatoes until soft. 

In separate large pot, on low heat, melt butter, add chopped leeks, scallions and garlic. Cook at medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and wilted. 

Add water, milk, wine and broth.  Stir and add potatoes.   Continue stirring and let cook for about 5 minutes.    Stir in cheese and spices.  Continue stirring until cheese has melted.   Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Pour soup into a blender (may have to split it into two batches), blend soup.  Soup should have a thick consistency to it.   You don't want it to be chunky or completely liquefy it.    Pour back into pot on stove and cook at low heat for 20 minutes or so, until soup thickens up. 

Enjoy!

Successful Weight Loss Transformation

A big shout out to this beautiful woman for losing 48 pounds!!!!

There is nothing more motivating than a successful weight loss story. Everyone is taken back by the transformation, whether you are dieting or not. As humans we are wow'd by it!

Check out the transformation my beautiful niece has gone through. She dropped 48 pounds!!!! She looks absolutely stunning. I am extremely proud of her dedication and commitment to her diet. She did a 360 on her eating plan and has turned to healthier bites and a diet that she could stick too. She wanted it and was ready for a change. Her success has made her somewhat of a celebrity; she's been featured on a few good morning talk shows in her Texas home town. I am unbelievably proud of her for achieving a goal that many would give up on. Losing weight is not easy. You have to give up all the things that you fell in love with, that aren't so weight-loss friendly. You're exposed to all of it during your weight-loss journey and there are days when the weight may not even budge and you haven't deviated once from your diet. Patience, dedication, will power and not allowing anything to get in your way, is how you achieve the goal that my niece achieved. Her confidence is through the roof and how much fun is she having shopping for new clothes!!!!

Brooke, you will be an inspiration to many!

Follow your heart....

The weather was beautiful. Blue skies, a small breeze blowing through my hair, turquoise water in the distance and light colored sand.   The perfect day for a run on the beach.   It was January in Miami.  A time when the weather across other parts of the states is a bit chilly, but not in Miami.  

I had set out to go for a run.  My boyfriend and I laced up our shoes and were ready to make our prints in the packed sand on South Miami Beach.   We started to jog and it felt like I had no stamina to even put one foot in front of the other.  I workout all the time, I couldn't understand why this one particular workout felt like I had cinder blocks on my shoes.   We've all had those workouts, that don't feel like our best, but we motor through.

Motoring through wasn't exactly coming easy.  I had to drop my pace to a slow jog, and break it down into a walk and a jog, just to get through it.  It was probably the hardest workout I've ever experienced.

By that evening, every ounce of energy had left my body.   I felt like a wet sticky noodle, completely limp.   

Back home and having no stamina, shortness of breath, light headed feelings, ringing in my ear, near fainting spells, erratic heart beats, memory issues, etc.  I started to bring these symptoms to the attention of the 3 neurosurgeons I saw.   All 3 said the symptoms were not related to my aneurysm.  Only one of them thought it might be a heart issue and suggested I see a cardiologist.   

At that time, I was with Kaiser.  I made an appointment with my general practitioner.  As I started to share my symptoms, she immediately fired off a diagnosis, without collecting any more information about what was going on with me.  She said, it sounds like allergies and suggested I take Allegra.  I took that for a very short period of time.  My symptoms persisted and the Allegra only made it worse. My heart rate which had already been elevated, was now racing out of control.  I knew at that point, this was not an allergy, but something else.

I was rushed to the ER on 3 occasions and each of those Dr's had diagnosed me differently.  One said it might be anxiety attacks, the other said he thought my esophagus was damaged and prescribed pepcid, the other Dr wasn't really sure what was wrong.  

I switched General Practitioners thinking that I would get another perspective.  He heard me out and suggested I get a cardio stress test, a pulmonary function test followed by an echo cardiogram.  In the meantime, they had me wear a heart monitor for 24 hours.  

The results of the pulmonary function test come back and they said I had asthma like symptoms and prescribed an inhaler.   Over time, I didn't notice any change so I stopped using the inhaler.  I kept thinking to myself.  They have no clue what I've got.  I keep pushing for answers and they keeping wanting to throw meds at it.    

I met with my Oncologist and she said, "has anyone shared the results of your echo cardiogram or heart monitor with you?".  I said no, she replied "it's very concerning".  I asked her what the report said and she told me there wasn't a report.   She said she would have my General Practitioner call with the results.   I decide that moment to march over to the records department and request ALL my records.  I was beyond irritated at this point, my heart rate must have been soaring because I felt lightheaded.   

That same day, the records department called me to inform me I can come pick up my disks.   Wouldn't you know they forgot to include the echo and heart monitor results.  Yup, I had to go back and request those again!

Once I have the disks, I place one in my disk drive and wait to be prompted for my password.  I enter my password and up comes notes after notes after notes.  I begin to click through them, familiarizing myself with the layout and how to get to the information I was looking for.  Viola, I come across the echo results.  I can't believe what I'm reading.  The echo suggested I had cardiac arrhythmia and a defect in my septum between the two upper chambers in my heart.   This defect is an incomplete closure of the septum and if troublesome can cause strokes and massive heart attacks.  

Holy Shit...I am finding this out for the first time only because I requested my medical records.  My Dr never called with the results.  I continue on to the heart monitor results which say I have rare premature atrial contractions.   I have no idea if that is serious or not, but naturally I'm thinking I should have been told about this.  I saw one more doctor at Kaiser because I was so determined to find someone who would listen to me and be concerned about my symptoms.  The last Dr I saw said, you are healthy as a horse and that I needed to work out more!

Thankfully, my new insurance has kicked in and I'm sitting in my practitioners office, who I have saw for 9 years, prior to Kaiser.   I was so anxious waiting to see Dr Joe.  I knew he would help me and was dying to tell him what I had discovered.   After sharing the results of my tests with him he says "this is an urgent matter we need to get looked at right away,  Your surgery could be delayed, depending on what is going on with you."

I was referred to a skilled and experienced Cardiologist at UCSF who also writes and researches everything about the heart.  This is her world.   She spent about 2 hours with me, collecting information as far back as January.  Never providing a diagnosis, but rather is fact finding to understand more about the symptoms, what triggers them etc.

She confirmed that I do in fact have a heart defect and that I have an arrhythmia.   She wanted more data before providing any kind of diagnosis.  She ordered a echo cardiogram stress test on a supine bike.  While we were waiting to kick off that test in the hospital they discovered I have high blood pressure and did not want to proceed with the test.

High blood pressure can cause an aneurysm to rupture.   The risk was high enough that we discussed options.  They gave me high blood pressure medication and waited until the medicine took effect...about 1 and a half hours.  My blood pressure was lower and considered safe for this test.  We kicked off the test and my blood pressure soared through the rough within minutes of exercising.  They halted the test and said this appears to be a blood pressure issue.  They prescribed blood pressure medication and have restricted my diet and exercising, in order to keep the BP down.  

Imagine if I didn't listen to what my heart was telling me, and I took the advise of the Kaiser Dr who suggested I work out more.   I would have risked rupturing my aneurysm and putting myself in a grave.

I'm still being watched by UCSF.  I've had to wear a really groovy wireless heart monitor, to help determine what kind of arrhythmia I have.   The unit will come off this Friday and we hope to have the results prior to my surgery on June 19th.

If this story sounds all too familiar, don't give up.  Listen to your heart and if it's telling you to keep seeking information, than do that!  My heart has never misled me.  I cried a ton during this process.  I was frustrated, I thought I was losing my mind and that maybe I wasn't having symptoms, I became depressed....BUT I NEVER gave up.  I kept searching for the answer and I know I will get that from UCSF.   

Don't give up on your heart!

I have a Brain Aneurysm

It was a beautiful evening in late January.  I was at a restaurant on the harbor, having dinner with the executive team, sales & marketing teams, of my company.   We were laughing and reflecting on the days events at our Quarterly Business Review.   Everyone was unwinding with a cocktail and enjoying the night.  

I took a phone call that almost paralyzed me.   My Dr. had shared that I have an aneurysm in my brain.  I didn't have much background information on aneurysms at that time, but I knew from the sound of his voice it was something serious.  I sat back down at the table with everyone and wasn't sure if I should lean over and tell my boss, if I should somehow find an excuse to leave the dinner, or just sit there with my frantic thoughts.   I had already ordered my food, so I decided to stay.  My food arrived, but there was no appetite or interest in eating.  Instead I ordered another glass of wine.  Once dinner was over and I was in my car, I began shaking all over, uncontrollably.  Fortunately, I was staying with friends that nite and was able to surround myself with love and support.

A brain (cerebral) aneurysm is a bulging, weak area in the wall of an artery.   The artery walls weaken causing ballooning of the blood vessel wall that can form an aneurysm. Aneurysms grow due to constant pressure from blood flow. They often enlarge slowly and become weaker as they grow.  Think of a  water balloon, the more you fill it up with water the tighter the balloon becomes and it can burst in your hands, when too much water has filled the balloon.    This is the same case with an aneurysm, as blood fills the balloon, it becomes weaker and eventually can rupture, causing death or if you survive a rupture, you can be severely disabled.  50% of ruptures end in death.

Aneurysms are either hereditary or caused by years of high blood pressure, smoking and heavy drinking.  There are no known aneurysms in my family, I'm not a smoker or heavy drinker.   I have had high blood pressure on and off over the years, but it's been controlled through diet.   It wasn't until recently that my blood pressure has been high...probably because of the stress I have, knowing I have a ticking time bomb in my brain.

I do feel extremely fortunate that we discovered my aneurysm prior to a rupture.  Statistically about 1.5 to 5 percent of the general population has or will develop a cerebral aneurysm. About 3 to 5 million people in the United States have cerebral aneurysms and don't know it.   Most aneurysms go unnoticed or don't produce symptoms, until it ruptures.   When an aneurysm ruptures, it is described as the worst headache of your life.

I was lifting with my coach and naturally we were pushing my limits.  I was straining to push the weight off my body, when all of the sudden I had this sensation of a lightening bolt coming down the center of my brain.  It was so painful I had to squat down and gather myself.   This happened several more times over the course of 3 weeks.  It was then that I reached out to my Neurologist and they ordered an MRI the next day.   They suspected it could be a tumor.  When you have been diagnosed with Cancer, you always have to consider a recurrence. The MRI came back showing no signs of a tumor.   The Dr then ordered and MRA.  An MRA shows images of your blood vessels.   It was that test, that revealed I had an aneurysm.

There are three options to consider when treating an aneurysm.  
- watch it; take images every 6 months
- coil the aneurysm
- craniotomy (brain surgery)

The options presented by your Dr, will depend on the severity of your aneurysm, your age, the likely hood of the aneurysm growing etc.

Given all the facts I gathered from 3 different neurosurgeons, I chose craniotomy.   I found one of the top surgeons in the US, who specializes in surgical aneurysms and AVMS.  He's performed over 7,000 surgeries of this kind.  Patients from around the world, come to him.   He's a chief surgeon at UCSF.   When you are looking at having any kind of brain surgery, you want to make sure you are in the hands of a very skilled and experienced surgeon, to lower the risks of something going wrong.

I feel very comfortable with him and have had nothing but positive experiences with the medical team at UCSF. My surgery is scheduled for June 19th!

Broccoli garlic jalapeño side dish

This spicy super green good will heat you up and have you coming back for more!

2 heads of broccoli
2 tsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ to ½ jalapeno, diced
pinch of kosher salt
pinch of black pepper
Preheat oven to 450.
Toss the broccoli florets with garlic, jalapeños, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl. Lay out onto a cookie sheet and roast for about 20 minutes or until crispy/charred.

serve over rice with chicken, ground turkey or bison.  If you find it's too spicy, put a teaspoon of non-fat greek yogurt on top, to cool it down.

Am I on Vacation?

I travel almost weekly, for work.  Years prior, my travel was sporadic, which allowed me to be disciplined about the food I was eating and I could fit in two workouts a day.  Yup, I said two.  These two worksouts aren't about being in the gym for 2 hours, but instead knocking out an interval cardio session and pumping some iron.  I was fit and liked my physique!

Those days are of the past, or are they?   Business travel can take a toll on you. It's not as glamorous as those who don't travel, might think.  You are either getting up at 2:30am, to catch at 5am flight, to fly across the US, or you're taking a red eye to limit the travel time, so you can get back home.  Sleep is disrupted, dehydration is a major factor when traveling.   You can bounce from meeting to meeting and if you don't carry water with you, you are hosed! Or perhaps you wish you had a hose to drink from.  Trying to stick to an eating plan or a diet is challenging.   Fitting in workouts is yet another issue.  You eat less, but consume more calories when you travel because you're skipping meals for meetings.  By the time you eat, you're famished and you're eating like you are on vacation...there are no limits to what you eat.  Entertaining customers or having dinner with colleagues, reeks havoc on your weight because it turns into a booze fest.  You're now piling on even more calories.  Your metabolism is getting jerked around and you're not burning calories.  This does not do a body good!

It's no wonder those who are on the road 50%+ of the time, can't keep a trim physique.   We are sleep deprived and there is no ceiling to the amount of calories we consume...after all it feels like vacation right?  We are staying in hotels, eating out at restaurants and being catered too.  That's identical to what we experience on vacation...minus the customer meetings and sleep deprivation.

Last week, all of this became a reality for me.   I did ALL these things.  I felt horrible by the time I got home.  I was retaining water from not only being dehydrated, but from eating rich foods, drinking fabulous and very expensive wines and not getting much sleep.  This can put you into depression, making it hard to get back on track.   I am very aware of what I was eating and drinking..and the fact that I had no time to sneak in a run.  My mind on the other hand was telling me I was on vacation and to enjoy myself..and that I did!!!

Guess what, I'm traveling again this week and can you imagine what I would look like if I allowed my mind to continue to control my eating decisions when I travel.   Good grief, I would have to buy a whole new wardrobe.  It is all about mind over matter.  

I had to put a stop to this.  This time I packed a small brown bag of fruit: grapes and an apple, a small portion of sliced almonds and oatmeal on the go.   This would be my go to bag if I got hungry.  Once at the airport, the smells of sweets, grilled burgers and more, came pouring out of the mini restaurants.  You many not even be hungry but the smell is so overwhelming you fall into the trap.  Next thing you know, you're at a table ordering something off your plan with a alcoholic beverage to wash it down.   

I've reached a point where all of this is now almost disgusting.  I gained 5 pounds as a result of eating like I was on vacation.    If you aren't used to traveling for business and you have a jam packed schedule and are a foodie like me...pay close attention to your eating patterns, cuz you too could come home with some extra weight..and it's not luggage.  

Last nite I walked through the airport, with a full belly from eating a home cooked meal prior to heading to the airport.   I smell cinnabon, grilled burgers, fries, beer and wine.  My mind is going crazy, almost like it's panting for some of this junk!   I remind myself I've already eaten and I'm not hungry.  It's nite time and it's time to sleep, not eat.   Whew, I board my flight and survive falling prey to the luring smells.   

6 hours later, I'm at my destination.  I'm hungry but not starving.  I make it to my hotel an hour after landing.   I sit in the restaurant and order an egg-white omelet with veggies for breakfast.   I make sure I drink two full cups of water with my meal.  Surprisingly, I can't finish my meal because the water has filled me up.

I'm ready for the day.  I will resist the temptations of a basket of bread and a dish of butter on the table.  I will resist the savory NY steak with burgundy gravy on it, served with rosemary mashed potatoes.  I will resist the wine.   Instead, I'll order a grilled chicken breast or fish with veggies.  I eat whole foods normally, so I should eat this way on the road too. Will I have a drink?  I might, but it won't be wine.  I notice I pack the pounds on when I drink too much wine.  It will be a citron club soda with a lemon twist.  It's hard to sit at a table where others are drinking and eating any and everything.  So I'm not going to deprive myself completely, otherwise bad things can happen.  

No matter where you are, who you are with, or the purpose of your travel.  Don't jump off the ledge.   Maintain a healthy eating lifestyle.  Your body will show it!  

Until next time...

Emotional Eating

I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately.   Mostly because I have truly recognized my emotional eating habits.   It's a much tougher habit for someone to break than they might think.

Emotional eating happens when we are looking for comfort.  It typically is a fairly private event, and doesn't always happen in front of someone.   You aren't necessarily hiding what you are eating or sitting in a closet or behind close doors.  This is not like binge eating either.   You may not be eating non-stop for a period of time, but rather are reaching for food outside your eating plan or normal diet.

I would say there is a large percent of us who have emotional eating habits in this world of ours.   Recognizing that you have them is step one.  Figuring out how to deal with the issue or stress that is driving you to your emotional eating event can be tough.

Why is it tough?  Well if you normally reach for food when stress or anxiety is high, you have immediate comfort.  You may have extreme guilt after or perhaps the next day, from whatever it was that you ate, but you found comfort in that moment.

For all you emotional eaters, imagine having a stressful moment, day or situation.   Your instincts tell you to find comfort.  Let's say you have recognized that you want to eat something to make yourself feel better, feel less anxiety or stress.   What do you do?  There are many other things you can do.  We've all heard these before... Go on a walk, go workout, take a hot bath (I can't remember the last time I soaked in a bathtub), read a book, etc.   What works for one person, my not work for someone else.   You have to figure out what works for you.

I sit and listen to what it is that I really need and in most cases, it's someone to talk to, to be able to unload my stress or anxiety with.   So I either reach out to a friend or I write all my feelings down and believe it or not, I've found more comfort and less calories and guilt in that method, than food.

Seek to understand why you are stressed or feeling anxious and ask yourself what you need to feel better.  Food does not heal stress or anxiety.  In fact, it can sometimes add to those feelings if you are trying to maintain your weight.

Until next time...