Free 3 Day Punch Card at Elements!!!

I have loved getting my heart pumping and healthy at Elements. I also enjoy making my bones and muscles strong with the weights. If you don't have a place to make your body work and make your life longer for your family, try Elements! Kim Branch, the wonderful owner, will allow you to try a few classes or the machines to see if you like it! The trainers/teachers are the best! They have a life coach available, lots of yoga classes, Zumba, and much more! Just mention that you heard from Heidi's blog, secondchanceliving-heidi.blogspot.com, and you will be set up from someone at the the front desk! Have fun!

Leftovers

Tonight I used yesterday's leftovers and added swiss chard. Heated it up and it wilted. I added hot sauce to taste. lol

When the kids eat ribs...

Salerno's has half price ribs on Tuesdays, so we get a side of spinach cooked in garlic and olive oil. Tonight I cooked the Harvest Blend Quinoa from Trader Joe's, added black beans, tofu, sun dried tomatoes, and hot sauce. Quinoa is a grain that is a complete protein. It is very good for you. We will see how it tastes. Probably not as good as the ribs that waft through the air at my house but hey, mine is heart healthy. Yes, my kids still eat red meat/meat once or twice a week. They also eat fish and chicken.

Snacks

We love dates, figs, nuts like almonds and walnuts. Fresh fruits of any kind is always legal for our plan. Our favorite movie treat is popcorn cooked on the stove with olive oil. Yum!

Hidden Sugar

Sugar is hidden in yogurt, barbecue sauce, peanut butter and even soy milk! Always look at labels, and make smart choices with no sugar added!

Traveling?

Eating healthy is hard on the road. Always pack a cooler full of healthy stuff. Don't go out to restaurants. Grocery stores have healthier food. Keep it simple!

Super Soup

Start a chopped onion, chopped potato, and some baby carrots cooking in some olive oil. When the onions are clear, add a few 12 oz. cans of V8. Put in a frozen bag of Okra, a 16 oz bag of Harvest Grains Blend from Trader Joes, and a whole bag of green to the pot. Cook on high until greens are wilted. Add a can of kidney beans and chopped tofu. Simmer then for 30 minutes. You may have to add more V8, but it ends up like a veggie chili. We love it, and my neighbors do, too! :) As usual, add lots of hot sauce!!! :)

Favorite Breakfast!

I love Grape Nuts with a cut up banana and soy milk. Craig eats a more elaborate meal. He eats Cheerios, walnuts, almonds, pecans, Craisins, ground cinnamon, grouns flaxseed, and frozen mixed berries. Might I say that it is a heaping bowl!

Craig's Attempt - This is what happens when Heidi is not home. lol

He made the kids pasta - Whole wheat. He set aside some for us.
In another pan, he put a can of chicken chili from Costco with a simple can of tomato soup. He was going to add red beans, but thank God he didn't! When I got home from working out, I combined the pasta, the soupy sauce and I also added a bunch of greens that I grew in the garden to add good vitamins...and tons of hot sauce. I heated it until the greens wilted. It was good, I guess. We ate it. Craig says he is sorry if you try this at home. lol

Not Your Mamma's Collard Greens

One bag of frozen Collard Greens 16 oz
1/2 a head of cauliflower cut into florets
One can of red beans/kidney beans
1/4 container of tofu, chopped
Frank's Hot Sauce to taste. (lots!)

Put everything into a microwave safe bowl and cook it covered for 12 minutes.

Serve with a bit of bread/pita. We put a tablespoon of smart balance mayonase on the side if we felt like dipping or spreading.

Who needs bacon! Ha!

Welcome to Second Chance Living!

Never take life for granted. Last year, after 15 years of marraige, my husband was diagnosed with heart disease at the young age of 42. He got three stents in what the doctor described a very difficult surgery on his "widdow maker" situation in his arteries. We are very blessed to still have him. The doctor and dietition gave us strict orders on how to eat in order to live a long healthy life, and we are doing it! The typical American diet is what we were doing before this big event of a near fatal heart attack...Pizza on Fridays, sure, I'll have a couple of brats, MMM! ribs, sweeet! We would eat birthday cake and some sweets if we felt like it. We thought were doing well. WRONG!

Since the 3 stents, we have changed EVERYTHING! We exercise so much more, 30 minutes a day of cardio at least 5 times a week. We strictly gave up sugar, fat/fried food, white pasta and rice, alchohol. After being in intensive care for a week, I thought I deserved a PHD in nutrition because I listened to the dietition and doctor, and read the thick packet that they gave me about what we can and can't eat. I know that my husband would do nothing if I didn't do it myself, so I am eating what he is eating.

After changing our lives, both of us lost 30 pounds in a mere 2 months. It was strange, it just fell off! People kept asking what I did, and I would explain what happened and what we ate now.

Things I have incorporated into our new "Second Chance Living":
Portfolio Eating Plan (google it)
Skinny Bitch Books (but we eat chicken at parties and fish once a week)
The Kind Diet
Sommersize by Susan Sommers
Lots of Vegetarian cookbooks, I love the ones with color pictures because I'm a visual learner.

The other element of our new life is exersise. I joined Elements Diet and Fitness so I could stop freaking out and shaking because I was so stressed. I thought I'd try yoga. Then I found out lots of ways to confuse my muscles! I found Zumba. I am now a Zumba freak! All of these classes from Elements as well as the awesome weight machines have lifted me out of my mess from a year ago to feeling better than my twenties in my forties!

I want to share some recipes and stuff with friends who might be interested. I want to change America with my own "Food Revolution" like Jamie Oliver! Too many people are sick and dying young because of what we eat and our lifestyle. But I have learned that some people just don't want to be helped. I am so thankful that my husband and I are on the same page in this lifestyle. We are opposite of where we were exactly one year ago. This is our second chance, and we want all of you to have it before you go through what we went through.