The day started very very early (so early, it was dark) with my last serving of raspberry noosa and a few almond slivers on top.

For late breakfast I had a bowl of peanut butter and jelly banana soft serve.

For first lunch I had a bowl of vegetable soup (photo on yesterday’s post) and then a couple of hours later I shared some thin crust pizza with Josh.

For dinner I made a big batch of tomato soup with sour cream and grilled cheese paninis. I was out of regular broth so I had to use a pho starter broth which gave the soup a more citrusy sort of taste. It was really good and so easy to make! Just two large cans of diced tomatoes, 1 onlion + 7 cloves of garlic sauteed in olive oil, 4 Cups of broth, salt to taste and then about 1/4 c. sour cream. I used my immersion blender to make it smooth and creamy.

Yesterday was a food-heavy (dairy heavy!) day for me, but it wasn’t out of control. I’m finding a nice place where I’m never really full or really hungry and this prevents 95% of my urges to overeat or binge. I’m also eating frequent, smaller meals, throughout the day, which is something I never thought would work for me, but it is.  I’m learning to get over my food fears and stop worrying so much. And everyday I remind myself that being consistent will get me there and to trust the process. I’m trusting that I don’t have to starve myself, or eat foods that I don’t like to lose weight. I just need a lot less of it.

I did a lot of strength and resistance-band work yesterday and followed with some much needed deep cleaning. I’m in the process of totally cleaning the house inside and out and it’s turning into a nice workout.

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Yesterday’s breakfast was a peanut butter and jelly panini with a serving of Noosa raspberry yogurt, almond slivers and strawberries. I’m loving this yogurt and I only have one serving left! noooooo. The panini was really good, though messy. I found these panini flat breads over the weekend and just cut it in fourths, spread peanut butter and jam on the middle and toasted in the skillet for a few minutes.

I made another batch of soup from yesterday and had a large bowl of it for lunch. This one was just as good and now I have leftovers for today. I’m looking for a tomato soup now, preferably without a lot of cream, does anyone have a recipe?

For early dinner I had two pancakes made with Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Mix. I added a handful of frozen blueberries and topped with butter and agave maple syrup. Blueberries make the best pancake mixers!

For late dinner I had peanut butter and chocolate banana soft serve. Just two frozen bananas, 1 T peanut butter, 1 T cocoa pureed in the food processor. Just like soft serve! Best invention ever, thank you internet.

No exercise yesterday. I have no real excuse. Felt under the weather, down, wonky knee…the usual. Will exercise today, no excuses.

I’ve been losing weight and it feels really good. I’m doing my best to just put my head down and keep going. So often, in the beginning stages of losing weight,  I start getting excited. I start thinking, I’ve got this. And then I get confident and I stop doing what I’m doing to reach my goals, and I quickly go from I got this to what the heck just happened? I get in my head. So I’m just trusting my process, in that trust comes record keeping.

Along with this blog, I keep a detailed journal by my side. I write down everything. And I’m doing this so I can go back and see what worked and what didn’t. I’m using it for those weeks when I don’t lose weight, or when I lose a lot of weight. So I can see exactly what’s going on. Sometimes weight gain is just a salty meal or not keeping an accurate record. And so many times I’ve let those little things upset me when the scale shows a bump and think, why try? And that’s crap. Forest for the trees!

I don’t want to use this expression, but it’s fitting for how I feel: Keep Calm and Carry On. Just trusting that I’m doing the right thing and that yes I’m losing weight and that yes I have to do this everyday and no it’s not killing me, and yes I can have what I want, and no I can’t have everything I want and yes I can make switches and I’m okay. I know that if I want a blueberry pancake for dinner, I’m going to eat vegetable soup for lunch. And I can do that and still lose weight. I’m losing weight. Whew!

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I ended up eating a lot of mini-meals yesterday instead of my usual three meals. The day started with fresh orange juice mixed with pomegranate juice and theraflu because I feel a cold (second cold since December!) coming on. I’m determined to beat it.

I made a big batch of Ashley’s Garlic and Greens soup and went and deleted the photo on accident. This soup was so nice in the morning, I ended up eating it for breakfast and again a couple of hours later. I had a friend over who thought the soup was amazing too. I also liked that it was so filling, yet so low in calories.  We got about five large bowls out of the recipe. Thanks Ashley, I’m making another batch today!

Here’s her recipe with my small changes:

Garlic and Greens Soup

-1 head of garlic, minced (I used about eight cloves)
-1 yellow onion, finely diced
-1 tbs evoo
-1 bunch kale, bok choy, or chard, chopped into bite sized pieces (I used a bag of frozen spinach)
-3 yellow potatoes, diced, not peeled (I used three carrots)
-8 cups vegetable stock (I used chicken stock)
-1 tbs seasoned rice vinegar
-sp to taste

* I added 1/2 C whole wheat couscous to the soup towards the end.

in a large soup pot, saute the garlic and onions in oil until transluscent. add greens, potatoes, and veg stock and bring to a boil. simmer everything about 25 minutes until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork.

Just before turning off the heat, add the rice vinegar, and sp to taste.

A couple hours after the soup I had a serving of Noosa yoghurt with blueberries and honey. And a couple hours after that I had a croissant with strawberry jam, fresh strawberries, chicken+apple sausage, and a peanut-date ball.

A couple hours after that I had a 1 cup serving of raisin bran with whole milk. And another chicken sausage later in the evening. Lots of food!

I also did a session of the Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga. It did wonders for my knee and my mood.

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Yesterday morning I had a toasted croissant, 1 serving of Noosa blueberry yoghurt (very very good!), with strawberries and blueberries. Me and Josh  picked up this same yogurt while shopping over the weekend and didn’t realize until we got home and  unpacked three containers. It’s incredible and tastes more like cream (in a good way) than that sort of fakey-sour gross taste that most yogurts have.

For lunch I had a big salad with dark leafy greens, cucumber, Dr. Praeger’s sweet potato patty, and an organic chicken and apple sausage.

I did the 30 minute Biggest Loser Bootcamp with Bob. I can’t tell you when I bought this, but it’s been awhile. I’ve been looking for a DVD that I can replace Insanity while my knee continues to heal. It’s still twingy. But, I noticed that the more I consistently keep up with movement and exercise the better it feels.

For second lunch, I had a small bowl of fresh market brand raisin bran. Josh made this bowl for me like he eats it, with blueberries and a little honey. I never knew blueberries could be so good in cereal!

Dinner was another big salad with cucumbers, sauteed mushrooms + baby squash, creamy dressing and a wedge of panini bread. I really like the squash in sauces more than alone, they were just too bitter like this. I ended up eating around them in favor of the mushrooms.

I had these Yasso frozen Greek yogurt pops later on in the evening. They are so good and big for 70 calories!

To finish the day ( I was still hungry) I had about 3/4 cup of the vegetable fried rice that I made for Josh for dinner.

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Peanut butter and jelly breakfast.

Baked an orange cake for my aunt, but didn’t get to give it to her due to the weather. This was taken after Josh dived in. I had a piece too and froze the rest.

I made jerk chicken with saffron rice. I rolled about a pound of organic chicken thighs in jerk spices and this drizzled with honey and olive oil and baked at 375 degrees for about 24 minutes. So, so good!

I would probably wear it outfit anyway, maybe even with my John Cusack pin. This fushia lipstick is perfect. I got it from the Sephora Collection in color Mr. Lover. It stayed on all night and wasn’t dry at all like some lipsticks tend to be. The dress is from Forever 21, it just came in the mail. The jacket from Coldwater Creek. The tights from Kmart. The belt from Old Navy. Modern retro outfit?

Josh playing with my phone settings. And a better photo of the lipstick. I love it, totally wearing this one again!

Hanging out with the kitties.

Lunch at Wildflour in Roanoke. I had the steak salad (yup, there is actually a salad under the mountain of sweet potato fries!) with a killer ginger dressing that our waitress recommended. This restaurant is one of my new favorites. I can’t say enough good things about it.

Josh had the shrimp and avocado quesadilla and a side salad.

Then we popped into the book store next door and where I found these gems. I’d like to do a Julie and Julia experiment with the Chocolate and Zucchini French cookbook. So many good recipes to try! I think I’ll give myself until the end of the year to make them all.

Our final stop was for gelato at Pino Gelato in Roanoke. I had hazelnut and cheesecake, Josh had coffee and hazelnut.

And last, but not least, I lost 2.35 pounds this week, taking me to the 10 pound loss point!

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Lunch was late and eaten right in front of my computer. Josh graciously (and unexpectantly) brought home burgers and bowls of chili from the local drive-in sort of place. Their chili is homemade and really good and spicy.

Dinner was late too. We weren’t hungry until 9:30 and I was in the mood from something light because lunch was so heavy. I put this together under 10 minutes. Wild caught salmon cooked with organic butter, salt and garlic. I love salmon and rarely think it needs more than a little butter or olive oil and salt. The sweet potato was heated in the microwave and topped with butter, garlic, cayenne and salt. Mixed greens salad with my creamy dressing.

I’m getting the hang of these healthier meals. I think there’s a myth that I probably bought into at some point in my life that healthful meals were expensive and needed to be planned out. I thought they would take longer? Who knows. Anyway, this meal was about $4.50 each and the bulk of that expense was from the salmon.

What are your favorite, cheap and quick dinners?

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Remember all that snow we got the other day? It’s all melted and sunny today. I’m so ready for spring!

This morning we had whole wheat french toast with organic blue agave maple flavored syrup. I picked up a bottle at the Fresh Market last week with this breakfast in mind (and maybe some almond flour pancakes too!). The bread was dipped in an egg/milk/cinnamon mixture and fried in the skillet like grilled cheese.

I don’t have any thoughts about using agave versus anything else, but I like that a little goes a long way and I never feel groggy after eating like I do regular syrups.

Served with half a banana and cherries.

I have a new DVD coming in the mail and I’m so excited to get started. It’s called Strong Knees and I’m hoping it will strengthen my knees to prevent future injury and to help heal my knee from where I fell two weeks ago. From the reviews, it sounds like these exercises are exactly like the ones in physical therapy, or very similar. I like the idea of building up the muscles around my knees to give them more support with exercise and daily movement. This could be very good for runners too.

It was hard giving up TV yesterday. I may have whined about it to Josh for 10 minutes and then I got over it. Not watching TV or a movie last night made the day seem much longer and more full. It felt like I was spending quality time with Josh rather than zoning out like I normally want to do. We ended up meditating (I always fall asleep) and listening to music and eating popcorn. It was nice.

I also start reading Deepak Chopra’s book, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You with highlighter in hand. I have a lot to share with this one!

And listening to a lot of Miike Snow these past couple of days. In fact, I’m listening as I write this. Someone recently asked me what kind of music I listen to, and my answer made me pause. I seem to gravitate towards more upbeat/poppy/electronicy music.

******************

Random Question:

If you could hang out with a blogger for a day, who would it be? I would hang out with Olivia from Every Day Musings. Her life, photos and enthusiasm are incredible and inspiring. She is living a big life. She also makes Charleston, SC seem like the best place on earth to live.

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Breakfast this morning was a serving of leftover tamale pie from last night’s dinner. I’ve been eating leftovers for breakfast for as long as I can remember. Food is food, right? This recipe is so easy to put together: prepared polenta, black beans, diced tomatoes, monterey jack cheese, cumin, garlic and salt. Bake and eat.

Lunch was pretty uneventful, a grilled cheese sandwich. I always feel like I could eat like five more. So instead, I eat pineapple.

Pineapple will forever remind me of our family trip to Hawaii when I was 12. My mom was on a pineapple kick after that trip and so now they remind me of her. Mom, remember your pineapple rug?

I’m already feeling hunger pangs for dinner, what are you guys having?

Oh! I was interviewed for Fitbie (an MSN sister site) recently of an article, 10 Weight Loss Bloggers You Should Follow:

I have to admit feeling a little sheepish when these sorts of things come as a result of my blog and no doubt my search engine results. Not that I don’t appreciate them, because it’s kind of cool to show it to my mom and makes me feel validated on some weird level, but I’m aware of my lack of actual consistent weight loss.

I will say that there seems to be two types of weight loss bloggers, those who lose weight, and those that don’t and stop blogging. And while I’ve been tempted to be the latter on more than one occasion, I feel good about my decision to continue sharing my life. Like I said in the interview, “I want other women to know that you can have a loving husband, awesome career, and amazing outfits right now. If someone leaves my blog with hope, that’s really it for me. I want people to see somebody who hasn’t given up.” That is very true, I’m not giving up.

Today starts Lent, are you giving up anything? I’m going to try giving up TV again (I only made it to week five last year!) and continuing with eating only when I’m hungry rule. I slipped a little this weekend (I’m looking at you, smores), so I like the idea of making it through this stretch of time eating only out of true hunger.

This is hands down my favorite type of home cooked meal. It’s quick and easy to put together, healthful and most of all, delicious. I used to believe that healthy food equaled boring and plan food. For me, “diet food” was gross and unappealing. Low-fat, low-carb, low-calorie. It was cold and bland, like cottage cheese. And then I came to my senses and realized that this isn’t diet food at all, this is real food. It’s satisfying and flavorful.  It’s food that makes my heart sing.  It’s life food. No sacrifice here.

Whole wheat couscous with garlic and olive oil, topped with sauteed mushrooms and fresh parmesan.

Roasted butternut squash (I swear, the most dangerous vegetable to cut!) with sea salt, olive oil, garlic and cayenne. Roasted at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. And a dark mixed greens salad and cucumbers with my own creamy dressing.

For dessert I had four peanut and date balls. Which are exactly as they sound: roasted, salted peanuts and pitted dates in the food processor with a dash of vanilla and water. Form into balls and store in the refrigerator. They are addictive and taste a lot like peanut butter cookies, or the dough.

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