Memorial Day Pig Out

It is so hard to eat right when it comes to holidays!  I know Memorial Day isn't exactly as difficult as some of the big offenders like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it was still hard for me today.  As a culture, we tend to celebrate using food, and so for me, it is a learned ritual to over eat on days like today... 

Not that I completely pigged out, but I know that I probably gained at least a pound over the course of this 3 day weekend, if not 2 pounds.  Hot dogs, candy, Popsicles, hamburgers, marshmallows, wine and beer were all consumed without restraint.  I should have exhibited more self control... but I did not. 

I have said it before, and I will say it again, tomorrow is a new day.  I will not let the mistakes of yesterday effect the potential successes of tomorrow.  I will wake up with a renewed motivation to eat right, exercise and lose weight. 

My plan to jump start the week is to start the day off with a fruit and veggie smoothie for breakfast, followed by spinning class.  Hopefully an afternoon walk will happen, and lots of decaf iced tea and ice water instead of Popsicles to combat the heat. 

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.  Here's to turning the momentum around and getting back on track! 

Weekly Weigh In

Today I am reporting that at this morning I weighed in at 200 lbs., which is 3 pounds than last week!  That means that I lost the 2 pounds I gained back at the last weigh in PLUS an additional pound. It feels really good to not only bounce back after my weight gain a couple of weeks ago, but to lose weight on top of that.  I am very pleased, and I feel confident that my "three little rules" are partly responsible for my success this week.  In case you missed my three little rules from yesterday, here they are again, in simplified form:

1. Walk as much as you can. 
2. Drink lots of water. (And other decaf, sugar free and calorie free clear liquids.)
3. No eating after dinner.

Its the little successes that keep me motivated.  I feel a renewed hope that I can lose weight and changed my life for the better... 

• 5 lbs. down, 50 lbs. to go.  
• 2 lbs. until I reach my "pre-pregnancy No. 2" weight, and...
• ONE POUND to go until I am officially in "one-derland."  :-) 

Let's do this.  

Three Simple Rules...

I've noiced lately that if I stick to three simple rules I am much more likely to lose weight.  Here are my three simple rules for weight loss:

1. Walk as much as you can, whenever and where ever you can.  I persoanlly have a hard time "working out."  I find it difficult to make time to get to the gym with the two kids, and once I get there I have a hard time finding the motivation and energy to get a really good work out in.  Instead of wasting time putting off going to the gym or feeling guilty about not going to the gym, I simply walk when I can.  I take the kids on walks or walk to the bank instead of drive, if I have the time.  Its an easy way for me to get a work out in without having to make the trip to the gym. 

2. Drink water - lots and lots of water.  I try to drink as much water or decaf herbal tea as much I can.  I often drink water between meals instead of snacking, and as you already know, I love my routine decaf herbal tea at night.

3. No eating after dinner.  This last rule is very hard for me to follow, but when I can do it I usually see immediate results.  If I can resisit snacking between dinner and breakfast the next morning it is a very big accomplishment for me. 

I have been trying hard to follow these rules since Tuesday... tomorrow is the weekly weigh in, so we'll see if these three simple rules have impacted my prgoress. 

One good choice usually leads to another...

There used to be this commercial for Nurtigrain bars that I really loved.  It showed a business woman sitting at her kitchen table in the morning, getting ready to leave for work.  She chose a Nutrigrain bar for breakfast instead of many other fattier choices available in her kitchen.  Later that day she chose an apple over a doughnut at work, yogurt over ice cream, water over soda, taking a walk over watching TV, etc.  The punch line to the commercial was "...because one good choice usually leads to another."  Now, obviously this commercial is nothing more than a marketing gimmick, since we all know that Nutrigrain bars have no more nutrition than a lolly pop, and no less sugar than a Snickers bar, BUT, the main idea of the commercial rings so very true in my life! 

I find that on days when I start off with a low fat, high protein breakfast, I am less likely to snack all day.  When I have a really delicious salad for lunch I am more likely to choose a healthier dinner.  I also notice the opposite to be true - pigging out on junk food is like a cancer for me - once I make one bad choice the desire for unhealthy food just takes over and I am less and less likely to say NO to "bad" food.  It starts off with a doughnut, then leads to a a bunch of chips, then bread and peanut butter, etc.

I need to consider this chain reaction BEFORE I grab an obviously unhealthy snack.  Is it worth the risk?  A lot of people say to me, "well, its all about moderation.  Just have one doughnut instead of five," but I personally find that very hard to do.  Moderation is NOT my strong suit when it comes to eating.  Its kind of like asking an alcoholic to stick to one beer and just stop after that.  So tomorrow my goal is to start the day off right in the hopes that "one good choice will lead to another."

Crunching Ice

Something that I love to do during the hot summer months, and I know this is going to sound kind of strange, is eat ice!  I love to fill up a big cup of ice chips, put some water in just to loosen the ice up, then slowly suck and crunch the ice all evening.  It is refreshing, calorie-free, and hydrating.  As I've said before, sometimes what I really need in order to resist food is something to keep my hands and mouth occupied.  Crunching ice is DEFINITELY they way to go on a hot day like today.

Weekly Weigh In

 

Remember those 2 pounds I lost last week... yeah.  Well I gained them back this week.  When I stepped on the scale this morning I was disappointed (but not surprised) to see that I had gained 2 pounds. 

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't at least a little discouraged.  Its so hard to be getting farther away from my ultimate weight loss goal instead of closer.  However, I have to be realistic about this and realize that bad weeks are going to happen, and that's just part of life.  This past week was exhausting and stressful, and it was extremely difficult for me to stick to my guns when it came to making healthy decisions.  Like I said, I'm disappointed, but not surprised. 

Its very tempting to allow myself to feel like a victim and say, "Everything I have done is just a waste of time, I am always going to be fat, it's not fair."  However, the real waste of time is spending any ounce of energy feeling sorry for myself.  As hard as it is, as embarrassed as I am, I have to keep going.  I have to wake up tomorrow morning, take a deep breath, and jump back on the horse.

Next week is a new week... thank God.  I am choosing to see it as 6 days to get back on track and kick those pesky 2 lbs. to the curb.  And that is just what I am going to do. 

Happy Birhtday to my son, Noah Daniel

I am taking a break tonight from my regularly schedule blog entry to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my son, Noah Daniel.  He turned 2 years old today, and I just cannot believe it.  In some ways the time has flown by, and in other ways it seems like he has been in our family forever.  Being a mom to this little man is the most challenging thing I have ever done, but by far the most wonderful.  I did not know what love was until he came around. (I didn't know what exhausted was either!)  Happy birthday, Noah.  I love you so much.

Playing in the grass with Mommy after lunch. 

I love my big boy.

Out to dinner tonight for Mexican.

Noah wanted "Rai" and "Chee," which is toddler for rice and cheese.  So that is what he got.

Birthday Boy.

Wordless Wednesday: LOL Cats on a Diet

 

Happy Wednesday! :-)

Trying To Push Through

I am so tired today, emotionally and physically.  Life as a mom with 2 kids under 2 is just exhausting.  I could write a long essay about my days at home and how hard and draining they are, but I'll spare you the details.  I will just say that some days, many days, it feels like my wants, needs, opinions and desires are completely secondary...no, tertiary to the wants and needs of my children.  Its exhausting, and normally, this feeling of exhaustion and being drained would be enough to make me give in to the overwhelming temptation to "eat my feelings," as I say.  I would normally feel sorry for myself, see this as a reason to eat half a pan of brownies, feel guilty, then decide to avoid the guilt by giving up on my weight loss goals all together and just eat at will.  However, I am desperately trying to not do that tonight.

Its not easy.  I definitely went for the brownie mix this evening, but put it down at the last moment.  I want so badly to feel sorry for myself and eat half of an apple pie right now...  But I am not going to do that this time.  Not that I have resisted temptation all day, because I have definitely given in more than once.  I'm not going to let it kill my journey however.  I won't let my lack of sleep bring my momentum to a screeching halt.  Even though I want to. 

I apologize that my blog post today is not more inspirational or uplifting.  I made a promise to you, my faithful readers, and myself, that I would share all of my journey - the successes and celebrations, the heartache and failure - honestly and openly.  Tonight I uphold my promise by telling you that I did a lot of snacking today, but I did redeem myself slightly by resisting the urge to completely pig out late at night.  I am emotionally and physically spent, and it makes resisting food so hard.  But for the sake of doing things differently this time, for ONCE in my life, losing the weight and NOT going back, I am trying to push through.  Thanks for holding my virtual hand through this process.

My favortie way to eat vegetables: Thai Curry!

My all time favorite way to enjoy veggies is in Thai Curry.  In fact, when I was pregnant and vegetables did not sound good to me at all, the only way I could force myself to eat them was in Thai Curry.  I remember going out to a restaurant at least once a week during my first pregnancy so that I could eat Panang Curry with green beans.  Heavenly.  Now, however, thanks to Wegman's international foods section and my culinary brilliance, I can make and enjoy Thai Curry right at home.  Actually, it is so EASY and you can do it, too...

Ingredients: 

2 -3 T oil (Canola, veggie, etc.)
1 block of extra firm tofu
2 -3 T red curry paste
veggies of your choice! (I like to use 4 carrots and a head of broccoli, or a handful of green beans)
white rice
1 can lite coconut milk
salt to taste

Step 1: Press the water out of your tofu using a clean dish cloth and something heavy like a big cook book or a frying pan. (The drier the tofu the more easily it will brown.)

Step 2: Heat the oil in a large pan or wok on Med-High.

Step 3: Cut the tofu into bite sized cubes and fry it until golden brown.

Step 4:  Stir in the curry paste. 

Step 5: Add the veggies, and stir fry them until tender crisp.

Step 6: Pour in the can of coconut milk and stir until you have a nice peach colored sauce.  Salt to taste.

Step 7: Serve hot over a bed of rice.  I know brown rice is healthier, but I just love jasmine or other long grain rice, and I really can't have Thai curry on brown rice.  However, go for brown and be healthier than me, if you wish. :-)

As I've said before about other foods I eat, this may not be the lowest calorie meal, but it is FULL of vitamins and nutrients.  The more veggies, the better.  To me, its not necessarily about eating low calorie or fat free foods, its about eating food that is good for my body and will fill me up with nutrients and vitamins.  I want to make my calories worth it, and then I am personally less likely to snack later on.

P.S. I like to eat this dish with tofu because tofu is a very lean protein, and it really is a "flavor sponge," soaking up the taste of the curry beautifully, plus my husband is a vegetarian. However, you could definitely substitute chicken or shrimp for tofu. 

I really encourage you to try this dish.  It is an excellent way to enjoy fresh vegetables.  Even toddlers and husbands like it. :-)

Happy Mother's Day Buffet

Happy Mother's Day!  This morning my husband took the kids and I out to the Belhurst Castle in Geneva, NY for a fancy Mother's Day Brunch.  It was a buffet style, of course, with just about every type of delectable breakfast food you could imagine on the enormous spread.  Naturally, I wanted to eat everything.  I filled my plate, thought to myself, "I'll be back" and went to our table.

15 minutes later the baby way crying, Noah threw up on himself, and we had to leave before I got to make a second trip to the buffet line.  This may have been the first time in my entire life that I only visited the buffet once.  It was not what I had planned on doing, mind you, but it made me realize something pretty ground breaking... one plate was enough.

As I walked away from the restaurant, disappointed that our brunch was not nearly as relaxing or gluttonous as I had imagined, I noticed that I was full.  I was very full, in fact.  I absolutely did not need that second plate of food.  I'm glad, in a way, that the kids melted down and forced me to eat half the amount of food I wanted to.  I would have eaten more before even letting the first course hit my stomach first.

A similar thing happened later on at my parents house.  Kids broke down, I had to leave the table after my plate was empty, and I didn't get back in time for seconds.  However, sitting here writing this blog post I can truthfully say that I am stuffed!  I definitely had more than enough food with my first helping.

Now here's the real epiphany - think of all those extra calories I can save by just learning to be satisfied after the first serving of food! If I can remember how it felt today to be full after only eating a normal amount of food, perhaps I can learn to be satisfied with less.  What an enormous leap in the right direction that would be.

Happy Mother's Day 2012

Weekly Weigh In

This morning at 7:15am I stepped onto our bathroom scale for my second weekly weigh in.  As I hesitantly glanced down at the number below, fearing the worst, I was surprised to see that... (drum roll please)

I lost 2 lbs! 

Usually, when I try to lose weight I have an "all or nothing" attitude.  If I let myself slip for a couple of days I figure its over, and I stop trying.  But thanks to the accountability that this blog has offered me, I have not really had that option this time.  I did slip up this week, more than once, but every morning I woke up to a fresh day and kept trying to make good choices and resist temptation. 

My success on the scale is proof that losing weight is not an "all or nothing" experience; Although I made some poor choices this week, all of my little successes and good decisions must have added up, and I lost weight.  I am recharged and motivated to keep working hard, even in the face of challenges and wrong turns along the way. 

Weight loss total - 4 lbs.  2 more pounds before I am in "One-derland," and 3 pounds to go before I am back to my Pre-pregnancy #2 weight.  Week Number 3, here I come! 

Water!

When all else fails, I drink water.  When I am having a hard time resisting food, I drink water (sometimes in decaf tea form).  When I have had a bad day of overeating, I combat it by drinking water.  After I workout, I drink water.  When water gets boring I add some lemon, lime, or even orange slices.  Water is so good for you, and although I have no scientific proof to back this up, I swear drinking water helps me lose weight.  Whenever I have a really bad day and I've over eaten, I drink loads of water, and somehow I am spared a weight hike at the scale the next morning.  Here is a great diagram to get you thinking about good old H2O:

This is going to be a short and sweet post this evening, as I have mountains of laundry to fold and I have spent nearly every last brain cell today on taking care of the kids and husband and even dog today... As soon as I click "publish" I am going to drink a big glass of water and head toward the laundry room.  Cheers!

Walk It Off

Tonight was a hard one.  Nick was at marching band rehearsal and I had the kids for the evening again.  Elizabeth was really fussy (I'll blame it on teething, because moms have a license to blame everything on teething) and I just couldn't calm her down.  Noah wanted juice, but we are out of juice.  As an alternative choice, he  decided that he wanted chocolate milk, but we are out of chocolate milk, too.  He also wanted to go to bed without a diaper on, but that's just not a good idea.  So he went to bed crying while Elizabeth cried in the next room over.  To make it all worse, I missed a significant portion of my favorite TV show tonight because I couldn't get the baby to calm down.  When Nick came home I was overwhelmed and just about at the end of my rope.  I handed him the baby and walked out of the house.  I just took a walk.  After my walk, I felt better.  My head was a little more clear, and my thoughts were a little more organized.  Walking it off helped me hit the "restart" button. 

Walking is just such a great activity on so many levels.  I find it helpful in clearing my head.  Just to get out of the house, get some fresh air and get my body in motion sometimes helps me to get a new perspective.  I can more easily take a deep breath and look at the bigger picture. 

In addition, walking burns calories, which is just never a bad thing in the life of a fat person.  Any small bit of exercise I can get is great, even if its just walking up and down my street.  (Which is exactly what I did this evening.) 

As a person who never really liked sports or exercising, walking is a very good alternative for me.  A person does not have to be an athlete or even very motivated to walk.  Its a very nice way to get your body moving without going to the gym.  It is for all of these reasons that I love to walk.  I especially like to walk with the kids in the stroller, because A, I am burning even more calories that way, and B, the fresh air and new sights and sounds are so good for them. 

So my advice to myself and to you this evening is to get out there and walk.  Walk around your neighborhood, a park, by the lake, the woods, even at the mall, just get up off your big butt and walk.  Know that my big butt and I will be doing the same. 

Wordless Wednesday: 3 ways to burn calories while parenting

Walk with your kids!

Clean up after your kids!

Garden with your kids

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Today has been a series of major successes and failures, and as promised, I am going to share them all with you – the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Today started off with an excellent, healthy breakfast.  I had 2 slices of whole wheat toast with my new-found favorite product, powdered peanut butter.  I got the kids dressed and ready, then rushed off to the YMCA so I could take my very first spinning class.  I never ever thought that I would want to participate in a spinning class (that’s for skinny people, right?) but I really liked it.  It was a great workout – good burn but not too strenuous, and the teacher was really good at helping a beginner like me feel successful.  I picked up the kids from the YMCA childcare room and headed home for lunch and naps….

Then the stress began.  The afternoon was basically a 2 hour long marathon of poopy diapers, spilled food, bumps on heads, crying, and eventually naps.  During this time I have to confess that I was eating… the entire time.  I wish that I was not in the habit of using food as a coping mechanism, but I am, and today I fell victim to that habit.

I ate a good lunch – peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread, an apple, and a yogurt.  Then I ate another piece of bread with PB, then a bunch of pistachio nuts, and finally, after the kids were in bed, an entire package of Ramen Noodles.  It was basically a big stress induced snacking fest.  It was really bad. 

I recovered from the afternoon fairly well, and had a great dinner – veggie and pasta strew, made by my husband.  Then after dinner he went off to play church softball for the evening, leaving me with the kids, and the stress eating began again.  More PB and bread, of course, then a brownie.  It was ugly. 

I have been doing a superb job of not stress eating lately, and an excellent job of not eating at night.  Tonight, however, the stress just got to me.  It’s almost like I have a certain amount of emotional energy to use, and when everything is going well I can use that energy towards NOT eating.  But when things start to fall apart, I use the energy towards getting things done (like taking care of the kids when they are both crying) and I have no energy left to resist food.  So I binge.  I want to change that about myself, but I’ll be honest with you, it’s really hard. 

When you are so used to using food as a coping mechanism it is very difficult to resist in the midst of a mini crisis. (Like my toddler dumping an entire canister of flour all over the kitchen floor and himself, for example.)  Clearly I need to find another coping mechanism and train myself to use that instead of shoveling carbohydrates into my face.  I don’t think the problem is a lack of better options, its that those option don’t yet sound as good as eating.  In all honesty, it’s probably going to take a long time for me to learn to turn to things other than food when I need a release from stress.  This may not be the last time I screw up, but that doesn’t mean I stop trying.  I can recover from my bad day, and I can try again tomorrow.  And I will. 

For Peanut Butter Addicts Only

I will admit it: I am a major peanut butter addict.  If I was banished to a desert island and had to choose only one food to nourish me for the rest of my living days I would chose peanut butter.  Now, natural, organic, non-hydrogenated peanut butter isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  However, it does have a ton of calories for a such small amount of food and LOTS of fat.  Again, not necessarily a horrible thing, unless A, you are eating an obscene amount of it in a day, and B, you are trying to lose weight. (Two things that apply to me).  I have tried “low fat” and natural peanut butters, but even those varieties still pack an enormous amount of calories and fat.  HOWEVER, thanks to a great friend, I have discovered the ULTIMATE peanut butter that is truly low in calories and fat, and tastes pretty darn great…

POWDERED PEANUT BUTTER!   

Now, before you slam your lap top shut and stop reading, hear me out.  Organic, natural, powdered peanut butter has just 3 ingredients – peanuts, coconut sugar, and sea salt.  2 tablespoons of this stuff is only 45 calories and 1.5 grams of fat!!!  Hallelujah!  Just add 1 part water to 2 parts powder, and you have a truly healthy peanut butter.  I will say that the taste, although delicious, is slightly more bitter than traditional peanut butter.  I easily remedy this by drizzling in just a small bit of honey to the mix, adding only about 15 calories per serving.  

I am so excited to make this peanut butter a part of my diet.  Last night I ate it on a rice cake, and I plan to eat it on some toast tomorrow morning.  YUM.  I would recommend this product to any peanut butter addict.

Looking Back and Moving Forward

Today is Sunday, and the weekend has passed.  All the stress and business of the previous week is gone, the repose of the weekend is over, and a new week is looming.  As I sit here tonight drinking my habitual decaf herbal tea I am reflecting on my journey so far and looking forward to the next week. 

I did a lot of great things this week!  I started to make some changes that I can see myself doing for a long time.  I made some good steps in the right direction:  This past week I...

• Ate a great, full breakfast every morning.
• Went to the gym with a friend after the kids were in bed one night this week.
• Took walks when ever I could. 
• Did not snack late in the evening any night this week!  (Ok, except for yesterday, which was Cinco de Mayo, I mean COME ON, how could I not have a margarita and chips and salsa and Mexican cookies???) 
• Drank tea as a substitute for late night snacking.
• Said NO to a number of foods on several occasions. 
• Lost weight. :-) 

 AND I did some not so good things, too...

•  Had a really big ice cream cone tonight after dinner.
• Let myself eat out of stress a couple of afternoons.
• Only went to the the gym once 
• Felt sorry for myself when I couldn't find a bathing suit that fit right at either store I tried on Saturday.

 With those things over and done with, I have 3 little goals for this coming week:

1. Walk every day! (Its good for me, its good for the kids, its good for the dog.)
2. Continue to eat a great breakfast every morning.
3. Make it to the gym at least one more time than I did last week.  (Even if it is only to swim with my toddler son in the pool.)

Hope you all had a great weekend, and hope you have a fantastic week. Happy Monday. 

Weekly Weight In

I have decided to dedicate every Saturday to a weekly weigh-in. Over the years I've discovered that if I weight myself too often (every day) then I become obsessed with the little fluctuations that happen throughout the week, but if I wait too long between weigh-ins I become a bit like an ostrich with its head in the sand. Therefore, I will weigh in every Saturday, once a week, and report my weight here.

So without further ado, I weighed in this morning at 203 lbs, which is 2 lbs. less than I weighed last Saturday. So all the small changes I made this week actually worked, and I am on my way to a smaller me.

I know my weight loss methods may not be orthodox or very rigorous. The changes I am making are small ones that will result in gradual weight loss, not sudden or dramatic at all. But I am doing this thing MY way, and for the first time EVER, I feel like I am making changes that I can actually maintain for a lifetime. As my husband has told me before, "you make the rules, no one else." I am taking that sentiment to heart, and so far I feel incredibly successful.

In conclusion, 2 pounds down, 53 to go, haha. And onward I march...

The Hungry Games

One fact about dieting and weight loss that people like to ignore is that sometimes you get hungry.  I think it’s is OK to be hungry.  In fact, I would argue that it’s necessary and good to be hungry, especially if you are a chronic over eater like me.   Let’s examine together the logic of being hungry…

The only way to gain weight (other than a legitimate health problem) is to consume more calories than you burn in a 24 hour period.  Your body converts the extra calories to fat, stores this fat on your butt and thighs for a rainy day, and you gain weight.  That weight stays on your body until you are able to burn it off.  The only way to burn off that fat is to expend more calories than you consume in a 24 hour period - you literally have to eat less calories than your body needs so that it is forced to tap into the fat reserves.  Eating less calories than your body needs in a 24 hour period will make you hungry.  But as we’ve just seen, it’s the only way to go if you want your butt to get smaller.  

 My sister put it to me in a different way that may make more sense:  If you are an over eater, and you usually order a pizza and eat 6 slices in one sitting, your body will get used to that.  Your stomach will stretch, your body and mind will come to expect 6 slices of pizza when you sit down to eat, and you will gain weight.  Now, when you begin to cut back on the pizza, even if you do it very slowly over time, your mind and body will be disappointed when you stop at 3 slices of pizza, and you will feel hungry. 

Therefore, being hungry is an indication that you are burning fat reserves, that your body is relearning what an appropriate amount of food to eat is, and that you are losing weight.

All of that being said, it is also true that if you allow yourself to get too hungry, your metabolism will slow down, making it harder to lose weight.  So don’t go overboard and starve yourself.  But DO accept the feeling of being hungry as a temporary, necessary and good sensation in the process of weight loss.    

As I sit down to write this post, I myself am feeling hungry.  I ate my dinner at 5:30 (veggie and bean wraps again), I snacked on pretzels after that, and I just ate half a large bag of popcorn at the movies.  So did I eat enough for this evening?  I would say so.  Is my body used to eating more?  Obviously, YES.  Thus I am hungry.  But if I can push through the night and not break down and start eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches like they are going out of style, then I might feel less hungry tomorrow night.  Maybe after a few weeks, my body will readjust and I won’t feel hungry at all.  But for now, I will sit here, drink my tea, stay strong, and accept being hungry. 

A Great Dinner

I had a great dinner today, so I've decided to blog about it.  My dinner was healthy and delicious, and very easy to make.  I tend to think that dinners are either delicious OR healthy, but this meal was both. I also tend to think that dinners need to be elaborate and take a long time to make.  But as I've said, this delicious, healthy, and easy dinner defied expectations.  

Tonight I made really great veggie wraps.  Here's what I used to make 2 wraps:

-half a head of romaine lettuce
-half a can of black beans
-1 avocado, cubed
-1/4 cup craisins
-2 tbsp lite honey mustard salad dressing
-2 slices gouda cheese
-2 spinach and pesto wraps (Wegmans brand)

 
To prepare these wraps, I mixed the first 5 ingredients into a big mixing bowl.  I tossed it all together.  I placed a slice of cheese on each wrap, then I divided the salad mixture in half and put a big pile of the mixture on each wrap.  I folded it all together and ate one of the wraps and gave the other to my husband.  It was so good and fresh and healthy.  I'm sure it wasn't necessarily the lowest calorie dinner (avocados and honey mustard and wraps aren't really low calorie foods) BUT all of the ingredients were fresh and healthy, full of nutrients and vitamins.  I felt full afterwards, and I felt that I had filled my body with wholesome food.  It is a dinner that I am proud to call my own, in all of its easy, healthy, and delicious glory. 

The Tea Party

The benefits of drinking decaf, herbal tea throughout the day are numerous.  I have found that drinking tea is not only a great way to relax and unwind, but also a way to keep my hands and mouth busy without eating.  You may be thinking to yourself, “Oh come on, get real, tea is so boring and plain.”  However, I have found that stocking my kitchen with fun, tasty, and diverse teas is really enjoyable, and selecting which tea I want to enjoy is a task I look forward to.  It diverts my attention away from food and towards something positive that I am doing for myself.  When you choose to put down the meatball sub and pick up a glass of tea, you are choosing… 

1. To hydrate yourself, which keeps your body working efficiently and promotes weight loss.
2. A calorie free treat.
3. Antioxidants!  Many teas, including green and white teas, are full of these cancer fighting agents.
4. A constructive way to keep your hands and mouth busy without over eating.
5. A warm beverage that can really help you relax and unwind at the end of a long day.

 Some of my favorites include raspberry, lemon ginger, peppermint, chamomile, and regular old plain decaf green tea.  So drink your tea hot with a squeeze of lemon and a teaspoon of honey.  Drink your tea cold with a sprig of fresh mint.  Drink your tea on the go in a travel mug, or drink it at home while you are relaxing on the couch.  Get out to the grocery store and peruse the tea aisle – you will find that there are literally hundreds of different varieties to get excited about.  I know it may sound boring, but please, give tea a try!

Some of the teas in my personal collection.