Holiday Challenge and Apple-Carrot Salad

Drfuhrman.com is having a Six-Week Holiday Challenge to help people maintain and even increase their health during the holidays. You can join for free and get six weeks' membership in the Member Center and a Vook (video-enhanced e-book) of Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss.  There's a new version of this book coming out in January, I believe.

In joining the challenge you're pledging to eat every day a big salad, a plate of steamed greens (though I'm sure having them in soup or otherwise is fine, too), three fruits, and a cup of beans, and to avoid white flour and sugar (as well as sugar substitutes).  With that much fruit every day, you should find your sweet tooth diminished, actually.  Dr. Fuhrman is a kind and reasonable man, and he believes you CAN have a little splurge on the holiDAY, but most of us take that way too far and make it a holiMONTH or similar.

If you decide to join the challenge, look for my thread there and join me for daily accountability! I've been doing this with focus for a bit under a month and have lost over ten pounds already.

Below is a recipe I submitted to the drfuhrman.com Member Center Recipe Guide, and it was accepted today. I have others on this blog--please search by the tag.

APPLE-CARROT SALAD

  

1 large apple, in chunks

1/2 cup matchstick or shredded carrot

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/2 ounce chopped nuts, toasted if desired (optional)

1/3 cup plain lowfat yogurt or non dairy substitute

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

a few drops vanilla

Combine apple, veggies, and nuts in a bowl. In a separate dish combine yogurt with spices and vanilla, then toss with the apple mixture. Verdict: Excellent! The day's flax seed meal works nicely with this as well.  I think the cinnamon and vanilla help cut the need for any other sweetening, but if it's too tart for you, try adding in some clementine or pear.