Ramblings of a 30-something never-cooked-before mom of 2 that lost 60lbs 3-times over on WeightWatchers eating packaged, processed food-like substances, but wants to keep it off eating cleaner, real food found mostly in the outer aisles.
December 02, 2014
Food Bank Finalists. Can you help click?
July 07, 2014
Loving my closet.
Before. |
I am sure that there are other people that feel this way about their closets, but we don't always talk about them, let alone show them in the raw bright day of light. I believe that the more we talk about the messiness we feel around our closets, the better we will feel and most importantly, we will take action to both accept the way our closets are AND make positive changes.
Because I haven't had the energy, I haven’t planned out my outfits for weeks. I haven’t kept up on sorting the good clothes from the bad; which means my outfits have been getting sloppier and sloppier. My clothes have been less appealing and I have been wearing the same thing over and over, sometimes even wearing clothes picked up from off the floor. Clearly, I haven’t respected closet and her gift; what she was made for.
I had enough.
closet = body
outfits = meals
clothes = food
wear = eat
July 02, 2014
Bounce back.
It’s probably not a surprise that someone who has lost 60lbs, 3x over wouldn't stay at goal weight forever.
Creepin Creeper |
The thing is we are not here to strive for perfection; I believe we are here to live, love, and learn. And all of those things cannot happen without a few mistakes. The trick is how we respond to the mistake. When it comes to weight loss, often time the damage isn’t done when we slip up, but when we try to get BACK on plan.
How do you feel when you slip up?
For me, I get this ridiculous voice in my head that goes something like this:So we slip up on occasion. Or in my case, slip up and try to get back on for a year.
When you break a dish, do you break the whole set? (The Napa house would be pretty P.O.’d if that were the case….)
How can you spot a slip?
For me, I notice when I stop tracking, stop “caring”, start isolating (Don’t Isolate! – ADT), or when the clothes get tight. I have been sliding for some time and I don’t want to go sliding to another weight gain. Instead, I grabbed on. I got myself back to meetings, got myself back on the boards talking with friends to keep me accountable and I am writing. Writing even when I am terribly embarrassed for gaining.But this is a JOURNEY not a destination. That would be boring. On this journey I’ve tried new things like:
How to get back on track?
- Snap & Track – I’ve taken pictures of my food to show my girlfriends. (I’m not going to eat that because I do NOT want my beloved accountable partner to see I ate THAT!)
- Text a friend – when I feel frustrated or anxious, instead of isolating and heading to the pantry, I reach out.
- Go to meetings – I’ve gone to 7 straight meetings and on one meeting I knew it was going to be a tough weigh in, so I skipped the weigh in and just went to the meeting. In my 11 years at WW, I have never skipped a WI and stayed for a meeting . Before, I’d skip the meeting all together or weigh in and dash out. It finally dawned on me that going past the weigh in counter and sitting in the chair for a meeting is more important than the 10 seconds on the scale.
- Track everything or Simple Start – I had a lovely girls weekend this weekend (In NAPA!!!!) and I was really, really tempted to not track. To just throw in the towel and face plant into the pizza, blueberry French toast, curry chicken, caramels, brownies, wine, wine, wine. Besides, I was running 13.1 miles --- who needs to track???!! But I did. I knew it was going to be bad. I had 3 more than 40 P+ days (I get 26P+), but I managed to still lose. If I didn’t track, I’m sure I would have kept eating without regard to the full feelings, because it all tasted do darn good. But now, I remember it tasting good, not the gross feeling of an overeaten-overfilled stomach.
All this paid off. I got to celebrate today with two new charms as I hit my 25lb loss since I first joined WW and for finishing my 9th half marathon this weekend (whoohooo!)
OK sweetpeas, what is one piece of advice you would like to give yourself to get back on track?
May 26, 2014
A Time For Everything - Boston Run to Remember
Me and 12,000 runners ran through the normally bumper to bumper streets of Boston yesterday. I planned on treating this as a "supported training run" for the Zooma Napa Valley Half I am running with my awesome C25K grads in June. It was supposed to be a run 4 minutes walk 2 minutes for the 13.1 miles. A time for walking a time for running.
The first beep went off during mile one and I ignored it. I kept one earbud in only, which I really liked because I got the best of both worlds...music and the ambiance of the race. I think I will do that more often.
Boston's Run to Remember is so interesting to me not because of the run or the location or the time of year, but because of the race itself.
Fortunately, Ned was invited to a surprise party.
Unfortunately, the party was a thousand miles away.
Fortunately, a friend loaned Ned an airplane.
Unfortunately, the motor exploded.
Fortunately, there was a parachute in the airplane.Unfortunately, there was a hole in the parachute.
This is my 3rd one and every year I wonder about running it...thinking about those in my family who are cops and those in my family who have been to prison.
Lots to think about, lots to pray about, lots to remember on a long run through Boston.
How I looked pre-race. A time for confidence. |
a time for every activity under heaven.
2A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
9What do people really get for all their hard work? 10I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.11Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
January 23, 2014
Lunch.
This is lunch.
Going into week 5 of dairy free, gluten free eating. Which pretty much means all outer aisle stuff.
I just realized that before I worked to maintain eating from the outer aisle, but now I'm trying to lose. Differently this time too. Eating, yoga and swearing off the scale except once a month, the first of the month.
Quinoa, chicken, fresh TJ'S salsa, tri color peppers, baby kale, chard, spinach, EVOO and salt & pepper. Tonight I'll show you how I prep for the day.
January 14, 2014
The Love Book.
January 09, 2014
Pizza Dream.
January 08, 2014
Sweet Potato Soup.
With winter comes quite a few sweet potatoes. I love them raosted in EVOO and a little sea salt.
But I can only do that so often and I figured I'd try something new.
So I just made this up. As my good friend Rob says to me when I get all food failure anxious, "if you've never done it before, you can't do it wrong."
Luckily, he was right and It did taste good. Here is what I did.....
6 sweet potatoes peeled and chopped.
One yellow onion, chopped
Garlic clove, crushed
1 apple, chopped
1 pear, chopped
1 chicken bullion cube
4 cups water
EVOO
Salt, pepper to taste
In a soup pot heat EVOO and add garlic and onion. Cook until almost translucent. Add the sweet potato and cook for about 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add the apples and pears and cook for another minute or so. Then add water and bullion cube.
Cook until the potatoes are soft. Use an immersion blender to smooth out the soup. If it is too thick, add more water. Add some salt and pepper and done.
It was kind of like butternut squash soup, but a little sweet-earthier. Makes sense since where do potatoes grow....der.
I bet this would be awesome with fresh rosemary too.
How do you like your sweet potatoes?
January 06, 2014
Click.
January 05, 2014
Humbled.
I was very humbled by the people that reached out to thank me for writing again. Your hugs and prayers and candles and thoughts have meant a lot to me.
I have the most amazing friends. I love you guys. I feel warm like a cozy, healing blanket.
One good friend commented my posts have been pretty heavy, no pun intended of course!
So today I figured a salad post would lighten things up a bit.
This has been my go to staple.
When one gives up sugar, wheat and dairy - fresh greens is one of the few foods one can eat. But who wants to chew like a cow eating cud????
The trick is to chop the heck out of the salad.
But first, please pick green GREENs. Iceberg lettuce has barely ANY nutritional value. And no taste. I swear my nose wrinkles like a rabbit every time I think of iceberg.
David, our wonderful household shopper, gets a big 'ol smooch when he comes home with a big box of organic baby kale, chard, spinach from BJ's and a roast chicken. We chop it up, add some sea salt, pepper, EVOO, lemon or vinegar of some sort, (I like white balsamic or champagne wine vinegar). Sometimes I add quinoa or tuna or egg for some complex carbs and protein. Yum.
I beleive in chopped salad so much, I keep a cutting board and knife at work to prep my lunch.
So there you have it. A light salad post, just heavy on taste.
xo
Christy
January 03, 2014
Dreams.
Georgia O'Keeffe Ladder to the moon |
Even as I celebrate your birth into the world, I struggle to feel your presence.
It seems like so long ago that you were here - It seems so far away.
Sometimes I get a little confused about how to celebrate.
When you feel absent, I fill the absence with other things like cake or dramatic dreams.
Baby Jesus, be born in my heart.
Come alive in my deepest and darkest recesses.
Plant yourself like a seed
And grow up in my dreams.