Jim's Place

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

I've been using my crockpot lately and this is one of my favorites. And it's even healthy! Best of all is that it is a no-brainer to make!

INGREDIENTS:
2 boneless,skinless chicken breasts
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can mild enchilada sauce
1 large onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
2 cloves garlic, minced (I buy the minced garlic in jar)
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth (low sodium)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn,beans and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
2. About an hour before serving time, pull chicken breasts out and shred using 2 forks. Stir shredded chicken into soup.
3. Serve with extras as desired such as corn tortilla, cheese or sour cream,

NOTES: This is fairly spicy as is. For more heat use hot enchilada sauce and/or add more chili powder. This pretty much fills up a 5.5 qt. crockpot. Add another can of beans if you prefer. Avoid the temptation to add more chicken! I tried using 3 breasts once and all I tasted was the chicken!

I got this from allrecipes.com but made some changes. Check out their site!

Hope you like it!

NOTES: I sometimes use a can of hominy instead of corn. Don't be taste-testing for a few hours - best to be safe until the chicken has cooked. Don't put the cilantro in the crockpot until the end or it'll wither into little black specks.

Time for a little 'homework'...

After finally conquering the sinus infection that dragged me down for the last couple of months, I started back in the gym yesterday. I only felt like doing one exercise. Today, I did 2 but it was obvious that even though I'm doing better now I still don't have much of a spark. Most of that is clearly due to the strain on my body from going through the lengthy and draining process of withdrawing from the cortisol medication I've been taking for the last 5 years due to a misdiagnosis of pituitary failure. Prior to reducing the dosage I was starting to get pretty dern active, even cleaning out my garage! For me that's pretty earth-shaking news! I'm jazzed to no longer have the sleep difficulties and other side effects of too much cortisol and my sense of well-being is better than it has been in years! However, I have simply been listless and lethargic lately and tonight was trying to figure out what to do about it. The key answer is to keep doing my best and accept that most of it is medically-driven and it'll just take time...

However, I still felt I needed to do a bit of emotional and mental 'homework' to work through issues that tend to arise when you go through a tailspin. I grabbed a chunk of one of my posts a year ago and inserted it below... I hope it helps you if you are also having a hard time getting your spark back...

Jim   

====================(from Dec 2005)==========================

Caught in a tailspin?   

Hi gang!   

I’m just starting to get back on track after having my BFL program sidetracked for several weeks. Some of my tailspin could probably have been offset with better planning, but most of it was due to being sick. After 10 years of chronic illness, I guess I'm getting pretty good at pulling out of a tailspin… I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned and what I do to recover from such setbacks in not only my BFL program, but life in general. My guess is that quite a few of my BFL buddies are also facing a similar challenge of trying to get back on track.

It DOES matter!!!

 Now that I'm finally getting back into working out, I decided to assess how I could do better than I have in the past. Even though it's clear that my biggest obstacle in the last year has been illness, I realized that there were areas where I could improve even during those times when I'm not feeling well. There have been countless times over the years when I felt too sick to work out. My approach typically was to just get through the day and try again tomorrow. Even though my focus was still on doing the best I could to eat right, very often I felt so exhausted that I simply didn't feel up to putting in the energy necessary to fix a BFL compliant meal. I would simply tell myself that one day or one meal wouldn't make that big of a difference. Generally, that logic was sound. Unfortunately, I assumed that the illness would subside within a day or so. But that approach doesn't cut it when you find yourself facing one setback after another... over time those exceptions that you thought might at worst slow your progress have actually led to regaining a lot of weight...

Although I'm feeling pretty confident about conquering my chronic illness, I have been developing some strategies to give me some good fallback options if the road gets rough again. I've got several crockpot recipes that will allow me to have several meals in the freezer anytime I need them. That way even if I don't feel well, I can still have a BFL-compliant meal. For example, I've got a great chicken tortilla soup recipe that is a no-brainer to make.

With the holiday season in full swing I wanted to encourage my BFL buddies to avoid that trap of thinking it doesn't really matter if you miss a workout or mess up on a meal (I know, I know...I should do better at taking my own advice!!!). The truth is that it doesn't really matter if that only happens occasionally, but you have to be careful that it is not the result of a change in focus or a lowering of your standards. It is too easy to change your focus from a passionate "How can I make great progress and excel?!" to the crash-and-burn focus of "What can I get away with?"...

Have a great holiday season. Enjoy it but wouldn't it be great to start the new year feeling empowered and excited instead of feeling the regret of 'losing it' during the holidays? You betcha!!!

Keep on truckin'!!!   

Greetings from Marina Del Rey!

Hey everyone! How's your Friday going? I'm sitting here in my hotel room at the Marina Del Rey Hotel overlooking the marina.

I drove up today from San Diego to see the UCLA pituitary specialist again. He was the one that suggested in March that I was misdiagnosed with pituitary failure in 2001 when the actual problem was pituitary insufficency induced by the steroids I was taking for my asthma and allergy problems. The doctor's office is in Beverly Hills and I decided to stay in a hotel rather than make the 130-mile drive back home today.

He provided a good explanation of why I've had such a hard time over the last year and we came up with a good battle plan going forward although it looks like progress can only be made slowly...

The sleep problems and ballooning up were caused mainly by extremely high cortisol levels - caused by my body producing extra cortisol on it's own while I was doubling or tripling my usual dosage of cortisol medication. Of course, the assumption was that the pituitary gland was not functional when it turns out that it was. The test in September confirmed that. High cortisol levels also cause food cravings and false hunger.

It appears that I have probably had an ongoing low-level sinus infection for YEARS. My last MRI showed blockages deep in the sinus cavities. Combined with almost a complete blockage of one nostril it makes it hard for things to clean out when my allergies are triggered. In fact, I saw a dermatologist in Texas during my Thanksgiving visit and he said my ongoing issues with skin rashes were due to a chronic fungus that is very likely in the sinuses.

The doctor today also said that tapering off of my cortisol medication is very hard on the body. He said I tapered too fast and that is why I have felt so exhausted and lethargic at times. He also said that intense exercise will cause setbacks - adrenal exhaustion - during the withdrawal process. So if you're still with me so far here's the basic plan...

1. Slow down the withdrawal process - 4 months (instead of 4 weeks!)   

2. Get a cat scan of the sinuses and get the necessary sinus surgery as well as fixing the blockages in the nostrils.   

3. NO intense exercise during the withdrawal period! (Sheesh!) I suppose I'll focus mainly on moderate bike rides.   

4. Get plenty of sleep and DON'T push yourself to do anything!   

I'm really jazzed to feel like I finally have a good understanding but it does feel a bit intimidating going forward. I guess I'll have to follow a somewhat toned-down version of the Body-for-Life program.

OK gang, I gotta get back to doing a whole lot of nothing! Actually, I'm pretty wound up about the whole thing... I'm relieved to be getting answers FINALLY but I'm anxious to get rolling full blast. But I suppose the best thing I can do is to keep my 'truck' in the lower gears and be patient...it'll be some time before I can shift into overdrive... But the most important thing is that I'm on the right road heading in the right direction and I just have to have faith that eventually I'll get to where I want to go...

Thanks for hanging in there with my long post! You guys mean the world to me and who knows... Maybe by next year's BFL cruise you'll start calling me 'Slim Jim'!!! Sounds good to me!

The crash of '99

 That is the title of the latest monthly article I just wrote for the Pituitary Network Association's monthly newsletter chronicling my 10-yr 'journey' through chronic illness...

It's a bit embarrasing to realize that this segment reveals that the guy who many people think has been courageous in his battle with chronic illness has at times been quite mortal and not so brave... However, I hope that this article provides some inspiration...

=============================================================

The crash of '99   

After returning home to San Diego, I felt a great sense of accomplishment as I shared the story of my successful 112-mile bike ride. It was the beginning of the summer of 1999 and it seemed like things were finally starting to go my way… Some of my stock options vested at the beginning of June, providing a surprisingly large amount of cash. After years of struggling financially, I had finally made a breakthrough. I could hardly believe my good fortune when I drove away from the Toyota dealership in my brand-new 1999 Sienna van. What a great blessing it was to have been able to pay cash for my beautiful new van as well as catch up on all my bills. It was starting to look like my big comeback from illness and the adversities of the past few years was in full swing… I had lost a lot of weight in the last few months but I still had 50 more pounds to lose to get back to my old athletic self. I took a break from training by going camping in the Laguna Mountains near San Diego in late June but then it was time to get back on the bike and back in the gym. I signed up to do the next TNT (Team-in-Training) ride in November. I visualized crossing the line in the Lake Tahoe Century in under 6 hours…and at less than 180lbs. I also planned on returning to racing in time-trials. That’s where it’s just you and your bike racing against the clock. I had entered a race only once – in 1995 – but that was enough to get me hooked. I never felt more alive than I did putting the pedal-to-the-metal on the race course with my heart rate pegged at over 170bpm. I ordered an expensive time-trial bike – the Rocketwing. I figured by the time the Rocketwing arrived a few months later, my weight would be down enough to be able to compete in the local races. What an inspiring feeling to think that the ’fat sick guy’ was going to be a competitive bike racer!

In August, formal training began for the upcoming 100-mile bike ride in November. It was great to see my friends from the Leukemia Society’s TNT program. The first couple of weeks went great although I was somewhat concerned about how I was feeling. Riding the bike just didn’t seem as much fun as it should be. I had felt that way earlier in the year but assumed it would get better as my conditioning improved. And then it happened. My body crashed. For over a week, I felt completely exhausted. I tried to be optimistic but deep inside I feared that my old mysterious nemesis was back. I took almost a week off from work and began to feel a bit better. Maybe it was just a bug and would be gone soon… Or maybe my thyroid dosage was off. But I felt so much frustration when the tests came back normal. Throughout September the same relentless exhaustion persisted. My training came to a halt…I had to bail out of the 100-mile ride… and cancel my plans to be in the Christmas musical at church.

The annual camping trip with my friends to South Carlsbad State Beach was planned for the first week in October. I was looking forward to going but knew that it would be rough on me getting things ready unless I got some energy back. Indeed it was a bit draining, but I still felt a great sense of excitement when I finally finished setting up my tent trailer on a spot overlooking the Pacific Ocean. But later that night sitting around the campfire with my friends, it was obvious to my closest friend Katherine that I was hurting….

“Jim, you’re really having a hard time aren’t you? I can tell because you slump when you are sitting. But most of all, I see the hurt in your eyes…” She was right. My body was hurting all over and within an hour it was a struggle just to sit up. I had abstained from alcohol for almost a year because I was so focused on doing everything I could to lose weight and regain my fitness. But at that moment I just wanted to escape…from the physical pain...the frustration…the confusion…the disappointment. Certainly, I would never give up or lose my optimism but right now I desperately needed a break… I only had one thing to say to my friends gathered around the campfire…

“Will someone please make me a drink? And PLEASE, make it strong…”   

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