This has been a long and grueling week. As I posted on my Facebook page this morning:
You know how they say that as you get older the days, weeks, months and years fly by more quickly? I found the solution. Try posting everything you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between out to the blogosphere, and then tell them whether your quest to lose weight is working. Daily, relentless, public humiliation slows down the clock like nobody’s business!
When I decided to begin this quest, I had no idea what I was really signing up for. It’s almost a full-time job between developing the recipes, grocery lists, cooking, photographing & developing the photos, writing posts multiple times each day on Facebook, developing the content to include in, and write, the daily recaps, not to mention trying to keep my kitchen and photography station cleaned up.
I realize what I’m doing is writing a book and posting it in real time. Definitely bit off more than I can chew. But don’t worry, I’m going to keep plugging away at it! However, I am taking the weekend off. I will post a “Weekly Roundup” on Sunday evening which will include everything I ate over the weekend with recipes (not sure if I’ll be able to include photos yet), as well as my weight loss results. So check back then.
Today’s Helpful Hints
Helpful Hint #1: Experiment with you recipes and tweak them by adding spices and herbs until you REALLY like how they taste. Make meals that you WANT to eat. When the 6 weeks are over, the only way to keep off the weight is to make sure these meals become your standards. If you go back to bagels, spaghetti and pizza, the weight will return in no time. So learn how to make 10 really tasty and tempting recipes for each of your breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Then incorporate it into your new healthy and skinny lifestyle!
Helpful Hint #2: As the weekend approaches, take stock of what you have left in your fridge. Figure out how to use up what’s left so you reduce food waste, but keep eating on the weight loss program. I have some arugula, spinach and kale left that I’m going to make smoothies with. I also have some tomatoes, carrots, celery and a bell pepper left that I can use a salad or turn into a quick soup for Saturday night. And I have a little melon left over, so I turn that into a smoothie with my always abundant banana supply and frozen blueberries/raspberries/mango.
Today’s Recipes
Breakfast: Raspberry, Banana, Melon & Chia Seed Smoothie
This is very easy to make. Just throw 1 banana, ½ cup raspberries, ½ cup melon, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ½ cup soy/almond milk, and ½ cup water in the blender and let ‘er spin! Delicious!
Lunch: Vegetable & Bean Soup
You were probably wondering what happened to that huge pot of soup I made on Sunday. Well I’m still working on it. That’s one thing I love about soup is that is keeps all week. I have one serving left and will finish it off tomorrow for lunch. Click on this link to get the recipe.
Dinner: Portabella Pepper Arugula & Avocado Salad with Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing; Curried Lentils with Carrots & Onions
This is a remake of last night’s dinner. Instead of a pita pocket, I put the veggies and arugula in a large bowl and added a ¼ avocado. Then I turned the sun-dried tomato spread into a dressing by adding one garlic clove, onion powder and water, and then mixing it in the blender. I kept adding water until I got the consistency right for the dressing.
You know what else would be good? Toss the ingredients and a healthy dousing of dressing in a bowl, and then stuff it in a pita pocket. Very similar to last night’s dinner, but the avocado adds a smoothness, and thinning out the dressing evenly distributes all of the great taste throughout the sandwich. Click on this link to get the basic recipe.
I also finished up the last of the curried lentils. I love curried dishes because, like soups, they last all week and the flavors just keep getting better and better. Click on this link to get the recipe.
Check back Sunday night for the weekly recap and to see whether I lost any weight this week!
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