In several of my posts I have mentioned a few generalizations about Diabetics. I have commented that a huge percentage of us need to lose some weight (me included), and tremendous amounts of us have high cholesterol, as well as high blood pressure. I pretty much lost out on life from somewhere around September-ish of 2014 to around July-ish of 2015 due to rhabdomyolysis. (Look it up. It usually kills people.) In my case it came as the direct result of taking statins for high cholesterol for many years. I have now not taken statins since February, 2015, and I will never EVER take them again! With just a few changes in my life and the addition of specific supplements, from May, 2015 to August, 2015 I dropped my cholesterol 54 points, putting it in an acceptable range. Not bad! A couple of doctors were still trying to say I had mild to moderate high blood pressure and wanted to put me on meds for that. I have always fought the addition of meds for this or that and every hiccup or headache, so I said no to blood pressure meds. I did not have huge amounts of weight to lose. Dropping 20 pounds would be wonderful—-25 would put me where I should be for my age and height. Over my lifetime I have gone on probably every diet ever devised, invented, or published. With the help of all of them, as well as a very physically active life, I have stayed slim and trim, until the last 10 or so years. Anyway, I recently had a long talk with Self and came to the determination that overweight does absolutely NOTHING whatsoever in any way, shape, or form that is good for any aspect of life. So I got serious about getting back to my historic weight. Well I am not there yet, but I have dropped 10 pounds. Better yet, my cholesterol is acceptable and my blood pressure is excellent! I am not going to start writing about my diet plan, but from time to time I will give you a recipe from my plan that turns out to be exceptionally tasty and enjoyable. Here is one of them:
Ingredients
- Olive oil cooking spray
- 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup well-washed, chopped leeks
- 12 cups chopped fresh greens (I used pretty much equal amounts of fresh spinach, collards, broccoli, with the addition of fresh mushrooms and fresh carrots)–as long as the fresh veggies (mostly green) make 12 cups.)
- 8 cups unsalted chicken stock
- 2 tsp fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried if fresh is not available)
- 1 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese finely grated
Instructions
- Lightly coat a large stock pot with the cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. (actually, I almost never season with salt, nor do I serve it on the table. Added salt is just not a good idea for anybody, let alone us Diabetics). After the oil is hot, add the chicken and brown it well. Add the leeks and veggies and cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies have wilted but not browned (around 2-4 min.).
- Add the chicken stock to the pot, cover, and bring to a simmer until the veggies are soft and the chicken is tender (roughly 20 minutes or so).
- Add the thyme. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle the cheese on top.
