Thankful for Turkey Noodle Soup!

Everything these days seems to be GO GREEN and I have also adapted this methodology in just about everything I do. From the Wal-Mart plastic bags, to the empty soup cans and milk cartons. What about left-over food items? Well I am always combining left overs in the fridge to make custom casseroles and this years Thanksgiving turkey carcass was no exception. One thing I have been doing more of recently in the kitchen is my homemade chicken soup. I really feel like I have perfected the recipe and decided to use the leftover turkey carcass just for this application. Here is my personal home-made recipe for you. It literally is the best home-made turkey soup I have ever had. You can make this same soup using a rotisserie chicken carcass should you choose.


Before you go to bed take your turkey or chicken carcass and remove any meat you can get off the bones and put those aside with your other leftover turkey meat. This is good for turkey or chicken sandwiches you can eat while making this soup. The entire process can be up to 24 hours so you will get hungry along the way. Place the carcass in the crock pot and fill the pot about an inch from the top with chicken broth. Make sure the entire carcass is submerged in the liquid. Leave for the night to cook on low heat and covered.

The next day you will get a large bowl big enough to hold all the liquid from the crock pot. Use a strainer to pour the liquid into the bowl and catch-all the meat and bones. When this cools you will have to go through the strainer to pick out the meat and put back into the crock pot with the liquid while tossing the bones into the trash. Cut up 2 bundles of celery into your size of preference and toss into crock pot. Cut up 4 small/medium-sized onions (white and yellow) and toss these into the mix. Cut up a quarter of a cabbage and toss that into the mix too. Personally I like to get the vegetables smaller so they mix well together. I like tasting a bit of everything in every bite. Add a can of Original Rotel and some salt and pepper to taste and slow cook for another 4-6 hours.

Pick up a pasta of your preference and add this to the mix. I used gluten-free rice noodles because not only are they good for you, contain no wheat but they also do not soften up in the soup like flour noodles. You must be careful here though because if you cook it too long they can turn to mush and ruin your soup. Test the noodles often. Once the noodles have reached an "Al dente" feel and taste turn the crock-pot or stove off and move the soup to a cool. While the soup cools the noodles will soften up even more but not too much.

Ingredients:
Turkey Carcass
Extra Leftover Turkey Meat
Celery
Onions
Original Rotel
Salt & Pepper
Gluten-Free Rice Noodles
 

I hope this soup will blow your mind as it did my own. It's a great way to use the left over turkey carcass and you will make so much of this you will have leftovers for days that do not get old. Also, this soup is a very healthy option, low in calories so you can eat it all week and not worry about gaining a pound. In fact you just may lose some weight!

To make it even thicker and healthier, cut up more cabbage and toss it in. I always find cabbage to be a good soup filler! If you have any questions feel free to call Paul comment!


Medabolic Recent Program is a Success!

Following the HC3 Trim program, we continued the process moving into the Metabolic Reset Program in which we continued taking supplements, and maintained a low-fat, low calorie diet (1200 calories for me and up to 1500 calories for Paul).

I had read a lot of blogs and general information and my biggest fear going into those next three weeks was the fact that most people seemed to struggle to keep the weight off even eating 1200 calories and exercising. I was so happy with the results from the HC3 Trim, and definitely didn't want to be back in a position where I was struggling to keep the weight off. We weren't supposed to lose or gain more than 3 lbs over the three weeks. Honestly Paul and I both wanted to lose more during this time because we both have around 10-15 more lbs we would like to lose. Either way, we went into the program hoping for the best!

We had fluctuation in weight, but thankfully it was usually not more than a pound or two. We had the occasional slip, but generally have kept to the low-calorie diet. It was honestly a struggle to reach the 1200 calories for me, which seems surprising, but when you're not eating out all the time, it's really not hard to eat healthy and still feel full!

We have gotten through the three weeks of the Metabolic Reset, and it has absolutely been a success! I've been able to maintain, and even lose weight since the last weigh-in. This past meeting with Kelly at Optimum Health, she gave some more good advice. We are allowed to have cheat days (within reason and under certain restrictions) once a week.Those restrictions consist of three or more days of working out prior to the cheat day, limit carb intake to 10 carbs per meal excluding the "cheat meal." Seems pretty easy... I think we can handle that!

Kelly's analogy was based on taking a class, you won't fail a class if you do badly or even fail the occasional quiz, but if you fail a lot of quizzes, you will probably fail the class. When it comes to living and eating healthy, if you continue to stay on a good track, you will succeed, but if you allow those cheat days to happen too regularly, you will likely fall into an unhealthy lifestyle and fail...

Here's to continuing to drop weight and stay healthy! If we've done this well up until this point, I imagine we'll be able to continue!


Phase II: Metabolic Reset Begins

Paul and I started the Metabolic Reset program today, and we couldn't be happier! It's the first time we have had eggs in over a month! YUMMM!

So here's how it goes, we begin higher calories, 1200 for me and 1300-1500 for Paul. In the program manual there is a list of all the foods to eat freely, those to limit, and those to avoid at all cost. Kelly, the nutritionist at Optimum Health, has decided to start our first week without dairy and then we can start to add that in during week two.

So here is the overall daily consumption guidelines:

  • Three to Four Proteins daily, 4 oz per meal (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and a small snack) - All lean meats still, but we are able to obviously add in eggs, salmon, tuna, turkey and others as we see fit!
  • Two Plant Fats daily - You can get this from Avocado, Pecans and Almonds, Salad Dressings (with olive oil), and Coconut Oil, etc.
  • Four to Six Servings of Vegetables daily - This ranges from salad lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, to celery, cabbage, tomatoes and so much more! Sticking mostly with items that are low on the glycemic index.
  • Two Servings of Fruit - We get a wider variety, but still need to stay away from things like bananas and watermelon, etc. But we can have honey-dew melon and cantaloupe which I love!

We can now consume alcohol! FINALLY! We cheated a couple of times on HC3 and while it didn't cause us to gain, it definitely set us back on the weight loss. So it's not something to go hog-wild with, but it's not going to hurt us! The best alcoholic options are:

  • Wines: - Anything Dry! The Dryer the better... Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, maybe Pino Grigio... etc.
  • Liquor: Best option is Vodka - Martinis, Vodka and Club Soda with Lime and even Flavored Vodkas are ok!
  • NO BEER! Well it would have to be a treat, but Paul is not allowed to consume Gluten, so it looks like we will avoid beer, but we could try Red Brick Ale, if he must have beer...

After the first week, we can start to add in dairy! Only one serving per day... I LOVE Milk, so I will be getting my skim milk on, but we can also have cheese (low-fat, and non-processed). Kelly said low-fat string cheese and laughing cow cheese are good options for a small snack, and good for protein.

So the whole point of this phase is to get our metabolism, adrenals, and pituitary stable and working to our advantage. And the food recommendations also have a point as they don't want our blood sugar to spike, which causes hunger and bad habits! See the full diagram of "the point" below!

This weekend we are headed up to the North Carolina Smoky Mountains for the Labor Day Holiday and Paul and I are looking forward to widening our meal options as well as cutting loose a bit with a few drinks! YEAH!


HC3 Trim Phase I Comes to an End

Today was our last day of the HC3 Trim program, and I have to say it has definitely been a success! We've lost a combined total of 52 lbs and 21.5 inches!!! Paul and I both feel we do have more to lose, but you'll see details about our total weight-loss, and overall inches dropped, and clearly it has worked!

We are no longer taking the hormone, and have completed the two 500 calorie days (without the hormone), and everything is looking good! We are both really excited to add things into our diet like eggs, dairy and a wider variety of fruits, vegetables, and proteins!

I'll be posting again soon with details of the Metabolic Reset Program, which will be our focus for the next three weeks. But the nice thing is, we will be back up to a normal caloric intake, we will begin exercising, and we will be able to indulge here and there in some of the things we love (including alcohol)!!! But one of the things that stuck with me from Kelly at Optimum Health is "try to just break one rule at a time..." So if we are going to indulge in something a little more fatty for lunch or dinner, make sure the other meal is lower in fat and calories. It makes sense!

So here are the before and after images and it's pretty awesome to see the change! And we expect continued loss as we begin to work out! Also check out our measurements too! The numbers tell just as much, maybe even more than the photos.

Monica's HC3 Measurements:

Starting Measurement

Ending Measurement

Total Loss

Chest

44

39.5

4.5 inches

Waist

37

33

4 inches

Biceps

13

11.25

1.75 inches

Thighs

25.5

23.5

2 inches

Weight

157

137

20 lbs

Paul's HC3 Measurements:

Starting Measurement

Ending Measurement

Total Loss

Chest

48.5

45.25

3.25 inches

Waist

44

40.5

3.5 inches

Biceps

15.5

14.5

1 inch

Thighs

26

24.5

1.5 inches

Weight

244

212

32 lbs


HC3 Diet - Days 1 & 2 - "The Loading Days"

We met with the Optimum Health nutritionist, Kelly Hall, on July 11th to discuss the diet in full detail with the plan to begin the diet on the following Saturday (July 16th). We figured if we had to consume 3500 calories of high fat foods, it would be much easier to do that if on the weekend when we could focus on eating!

It really does sound fun, eating all those fattening foods you always feel guilty eating. And while you would think that you can eat whatever you want, you really do need to focus on high fat calories, not high sugar. You won't get the same results if you eat all deserts!

So Saturday rolled around and we took the hormone in the morning when we got up and then we began our fatty feasting! We decided to use the, iphone app, myfitness pal to make sure we met our minimum calorie intake of 3500. We ate scrambled cheese eggs, bacon, sausage, burgers from McDonald's, Hot Dogs, KFC Original Recipe, Bologna, Steak, Pepperoni, Block Cheddar Cheese, Peanut Butter, Cashews, Pecans, and to end each night we each had HUGE slices of Cheese Cake!  Check out the details below on the images from the calorie counter!

The first day seemed to go smoothly, and I was actually proud of myself for getting through it, because while it seems like a pretty simple thing, it's quite hard! But we both made it through the first loading day. Now day two wasn't as smooth, I was definitely struggling to reach that 3500 calories, and the things that helped most were the nuts and peanut butter. They pack a lot of fat calories for a smaller amount of intake, so you don't feel so full. We also had a very fatty steak for dinner that night and while I struggled to finish it, I actually got it all down! And then had to move onto the cheese cake desert. By the end of day 2 of loading I was miserable and actually started crying I felt so disgusting! It was rough! All I wanted to do was go to sleep.

But in either case we both made it through the loading days, and the total weight gain for myself over those two days was minimum I think I gained about 1.5 lbs total.

And we were both ready to start the low calorie, low fat diet!


The HC3 Diet - It's Time to Drop the Weight!

So after an awesome first 6 months of marriage, both Paul and I found ourselves packing on the weight, and faster than we ever imagined. We were gradually less and less interested in being active and more and more uncomfortable with how we felt about our bodies.

One of Paul's clients, Optimum Health, provides weight loss management options, and as a jump start to the weight loss they supervise the HC3 Diet. Paul and I had talked about it for a while as an option, but were contemplating if we couldn't do what the diet requires by just a eating better low carb and low fat diet. But on HC3 it's very different!

They tell you how you will take a hormone and supplements and only eat 500 calories and my first thought was, I can lose that much weight if I was eating 500 calories without a hormone. But the burning question was how could I actually get by only eating 500 calories. It seems crazy, especially considering I had on many occasions done calorie counters and struggled to stay under 1200 calories.

The HC3 Hormone is a homeopathic version of the HCG Hormone, the pregnancy hormone. And while taking it, it is telling your body that it needs to provide additional nourishment to you and the baby you would be carrying. So the hormone causes your body to consume the additional calories (of fat) while you only consume 500 calories. To start the diet off, you have two days of loading, in which you consume 3500 calories of high fat foods to set the basis for the hormone to burn those same calories for the next 40 days. After the "Loading Days" you drop down to 500 calories and your body begins to consume the remaining 3000 calories from the fat that is stored in the body. It's pretty miraculous, but we have already begun and it is working!

I will be posting details of our experience from the first two loading days and at a minimum weekly updates of our weight loss as well as, our highs and lows, and of course great food options that have helped us get through this 40 days!

If your lucky... I may even post some before and after photos of us both!