But OH so worth it! I made a recipe for chicken based on a recipe by Rachel Ray (Quick Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes). I just did the chicken part of the recipe and then served it with her Burst Tomato Sauce and soya noodles sauteed with mushrooms and bell peppers. The rosemary, basil, tomatoes, and bell peppers were all from my little garden! Yep, I eat like this and have lost 153 lbs doing so! For Burst Tomato Sauce, go here:http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=616Here's the chicken recipe I adapted:Rosemary Chicken
Recipe By : Adapted from Rachel Ray's Quick Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes"
Serving Ideas : Serve with Burst Tomato Sauce and soy noodles or pasta.
Categories : Poultry
Serving Size : 4
Amount---Measure----Ingredient2 whole chicken breast halves -- WITH skin and bone! 8 sprigs fresh rosemary 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil salt and pepper -- to taste
Cut the chicken into 4 as equal as possible pieces;Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Heat oil and rosemary in cast iron or heavy dutch oven on top of the stove.When hot, brown chicken on skin side, then bone side.When browned, put lid on and put into a 400 oven for 30 minutes.
To serve, remove skin and discard.
Description: "adapted from Rachel Ray's Quick Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes"
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 145 Calories (see note); 9g Fat (57.1%calories from fat); 15g Protein; 0g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 46mgCholesterol; 46mg Sodium.
Exchanges: 2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fat (see note)
NOTES : Because the skin will be discarded upon serving, the nutritional count is adjusted to having NO fat exchange and 125 calories.
My neice, Kate and my niece-in-love, Alyssa inspire me. Through the thick and thin of their lives, the blogs they write are incredible, insightful, totally inspiring and always make me grow in some way. So, I'm taking a lesson from them and journalling what has been happening in my life this past year. Why? Because it's getting tough now and I need the reminder and the accountability in hard, cold black and white of who, what, when, where and most of all why I am. So I'm warning you, the following may not agree with your beliefs, ideas, or sensabilities and will quite probably ramble and quite possibly rant at times...but it's the path God has put me on. It may or may not have things in common with the journey God has for you. But this is MY journey with Him in my own words...Many of you have heard me say over and again, "I love my Dr. Brown." He is my endocrinologist and God has used him over the past 10 years to give me hope while dealing with this horrible disease that took my mama at age 40 - diabetes. I've been diabetic for at least 16 years now diagnosed AT the age of 40. Mama didn't have those years. While that makes me sad for me and my siblings, I know that when God knit her in her mother's womb that she was only allotted that many years before she got to go be with Him. I can't be jealous of God. He has much more of a "right"' to her than I do. I do look forward to seeing her again some day and saying, "I'm SO sorry. I understand so much more now and I can't express how much I respect you." You know, those things you really don't have the wisdom to know, feel or think about saying when you're 16 years old and Y-O-U-N-G. :>)For the first 6 years after the diabetic bomb shell, I had a dr. that wasn't right for me. (Wasn't that tactful?!) His attitude was, "take these pills and don't worry about it." NOT the right approach for someone with a STEEP genetic history going back at least 3 generations where every single female on the maternal side has died of diabetes or pancreatic cancer. So the day came when we parted ways. He had prescribed a medicine that in 4 months made me gain 40 lbs. When questioned about the efficacy of this medicine for me, his response was, "Well, the diabetes will kill you but the weight won't." Stunning, huh? Especially since with those 40 lbs I was now topping the scale at 440 lbs! I can't rememeber whether I said it or just thought it, but my response was, "Well, if I can't get through the door to go to work, then I have a BIG problem!" I probably only thought it...that's where I was then. (by the way, those of you who know me, you know I am NOT there now! I WILL speak up...sometimes not so tactfully as it is contrary to my bent. :>) Anyway, when I left his office, I knew I would not be back. I stopped that nasty medicine (by the way, it was Actos) and started praying about who the Lord wanted me to go to that would HELP me. He led me to Dr. Brown.In the first year, my wonderful Dr. Brown (who treats his patients VERY aggressively and does NOT monkey around) put me on insulin and adjusted all meds. It was amazing! With the insulin, I had energy! I had not realized how lethargic I was and how fuzzy my thinking and just plain living had become due to the high blood sugars. Within the first 2 years I dropped about 60 lbs just naturally.I have seen Dr. Brown every three months for the past 10 years and have ALWAYS come away from my appointment feeling hopeful and "I can do this for another 3 months." Until May 2009. [please insert the Law & Order theme song, "Chuh CHUNK" here]... My A1C was up, my blood pressure was startlingly high (about 160/100 in his office) and as I am allergic to almost ALL bp meds except the two I currently take, he said with the most dispirited demeanor I had ever seen him have, "You know, Ms. Ferguson, I just don't have anything else for you." Can you imagine my fear, pain, frustration, agony, ...? I came away totally...beat. I got before the Lord and cried...really cried... from my spirit, "Lord, I don't know what to do! Please, please show me." And then I cried some more. After drying my tears and constant prayer, I felt very strongly God was saying, “Get on it” and I said, “Yes, Sir.” I spent a weekend researching online as to how I was to go about losing weight. I came across the following article that really spoke to my heart and challenged my unhealthy attitudes and behaviors that were keeping me from achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/introductiontoexpd.htm
Having been an insulin dependant diabetic for many years, I was doing quite a few things correctly and knew how to use the Exchange Program. however, there were some key components that I had been missing. The first was journaling. I really wasn’t aware until I started journaling that I was eating whole meals between meals! I would eat things that wouldn’t raise my blood sugar like a handful of nuts. After all, the news media says they are good for us, right? I discovered that handful of nuts was about 400 calories! You do that a few times a day and you have eaten a whole days worth of calories in snacks alone not even counting the calories expended on meals! By the way, an appropriate serving of nuts is ¼ of an ounce…about a tablespoonful.
The second component I was missing was a support system. The article specifically mentioned TOPS along with a few others. Having “done” most of the others, I researched TOPS online and was greatly surprised to find that not only was TOPS non-profit but that every spare cent goes to obesity research. I LOVED that! I believe there is a whole lot more to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight than what we currently know and the non-profit mindedness of TOPS was a perfect fit for me.
So, I clicked on the “find a meeting near you” button and discovered there was a meeting right down the road from me – TOPS Georgia 30. I said, “Well, Lord, I get the message!” I called a friend and told her about it and without even a pause she said, “I’ll go with you.” What a beautiful confirmation that I was on the path God wanted me. Since then, even though she must walk with the help of a walker and has many health challenges, to date, she has lost 75 lbs.!
Since that beginning, by God’s mercy, I have lost 153 lbs. I have about another 65 lbs to lose. The going is much slower now. There were 3 whole weeks where I ate and exercised totally correctly and gained weight each week; BUT, I lost a whole dress size during those 3 weeks! God is teaching me so many lessons. One of which is that sometimes a desire for a goodly "goal" can replace our desire for Him and His will.Here and now, I want to make it really clear...HE has allowed the decrease in my size and body. It has been my experience that there are those who really do not want to hear that. They want a magic formula to insure the results they desire. But life is NOT about glorifying ourselves and/or our puny efforts to conquer, succeed, or attain goals. Life is about being companions, brides if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Giving HIM the glory in ALL things. After all, HE is the one who created ALL things! Even our own "creativity" is there only at His behest as we are made in His image. He is the ultimate creator and made us in His image so we can be creative as well...but NOT on HIS level fer sure! There are those who would say, "Well, yes, He has helped you lose weight, but YOU have to do the work!" Then they normally repeat the, "So what are you doing?" question with a hopeful look on their face. I understand that yearning for the hope that it will just be EASY with the right "formula". But it's the wrong focus. That's like saying, "Well, true, Jesus died to save you from your sins but YOU have to accept Him." ???? So the focus should be on my courageous ACCEPTING instead of His sacrifice??!! I don't think so. That is totally crazy, skewed thinking...aggrandisement of self! Self is not and never will be the source of Life. True life and the source of it is only found in HIM! Yes, He allows us to enjoy the wonderful life He has created, this miraculous creation of His; but only so we can enjoy HIM to the fullest extent of our abilities! Worship the CREATOR not the creation. Our society is so screwed up about true, real values.So what exactly am I saying? If you want to lose weight - for whatever reason - take it to HIM and then do what He says! All other efforts will be wasted as they will not be anchored in Him. Being obese is SOOOOOO much more than just "eat less, move more". Catchy phrase and may very well work for a person who has never been obese...but I wouldn't know about that as I have fought obesity my entire life. Only the Lord's wisdom can sift through all the screwed up attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, etc. that have caused us to go "wrong". What I DO know is:1. We are marvelously knit individuals with as many different needs amongst us as the different varieties of trees, animals, flowers, etc. Yes, there are a few generalizations you can make about the same genera BUT...for example, look at the following: elephants, aphids and koalas. What do they have in common? They're all vegetarians, for pity's sake! They all pretty much eat a similar diet but look at the disparity of their body shapes and sizes due in large part to their individual metabolisms! Or look at how different people react to different medicines! One person will greatly benefit from a medicine and another person will die from it! So let's knock off this "one size fits all" mentality! Only GOD knows what you need as He knit you in your mother's womb and therefore, HE is the only one with "the manual" for YOU! He knows your metabolism intimately since he created it.2. Don't be stupid and ignore those few generalizations that we KNOW are true...i.e. anyone eating mainly processed, non-whole-grain stuff IS gonna reap the consequences of that kind of diet sooner or later.3. God wants a relationship with you just as surely as you want a relationship with those you love...but MORE so! So much more so...4. If you don't know what to do, ASK Him!5. And, “I am sure of this very thing, that the One who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6If you've made it this far...thank you for listening to my heart. "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it ALL for the glory of God." I Corinthians 10:31Amen.
But OH so worth it! I made a recipe for chicken based on a recipe by Rachel Ray (Quick Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes). I just did the chicken part of the recipe and then served it with her Burst Tomato Sauce and soya noodles sauteed with mushrooms and bell peppers. The rosemary, basil, tomatoes, and bell peppers were all from my little garden! Yep, I eat like this and have lost 153 lbs doing so! 
