February 8th-February 14th

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!  This week has gone by incredibly fast for me.  I just don't really know where it went.  I am going to try to start blogging on the weekends (hopefully with next week's post).  I think a nice Sunday afternoon blog session won't be too hard.  We'll see though.

This week has been a bit of a rough one for me.  Nothing really to do with food.  My wisdom teeth are giving me grief-really just one of them.  My top two have been up for a while, but it is like the bottom two got stuck or something.  They are about half way up...and the left bottom one is trying like everything to fully meet the rest of my mouth this week.  I have had a fever (off and on), an ear ache, a big swollen face, and (of course) a very achy tooth.  So, I have not been able to eat a ton of anything since about Thursday.  Want the good news? I have a consultation today to schedule the removal of all my teeth of wisdom.  I have been told for a while they all need to come out and by multiple dentists.  So, now is the time!

I do not have many pictures this week because I haven't been terribly excited about even trying to eat, but here are a few.

Meredith made us this Tuscan bean soup with kale earlier this week.  The Tuscan bean part of the soup was really good, but I found that I am not the biggest fan of kale.

Basically this week I have kept to the 4 hour body style of eating.  Veggies and beans, veggies and beans, beans and veggies...

For breakfast on cheat day this week-Saturday- I made vanilla bean scones.

They were yummy!! I also made walnut chocolate chunk brownies.  (Yea, I am really good at taking it easy on the gluten...)  I am bad at this cheat day stuff.  By Friday at lunchtime I am extremely tired of just beans and veggies-extremely!  So, by Friday night, when I head to the grocery store to stock up for cheat day, I want to buy every bad thing in the store. We ended up buying a brownie mix, some chips, M&Ms, small candy coated Cadbury eggs, and some ice cream. You see what I mean? As it stands right now, cheat day is just a day for me to totally pig out and make myself feel sick.  I feel like I eat so much junk on cheat day that I don't really want it through the week that much (until about Friday).  Maybe that is the point.

My tummy is still doing really well throughout the week (when I am only eating veggies and beans).  I am still having a bit of trouble surrounding cheat day...but I am eating a whole bunch of junk, so that could be it.  One day I am going to be strong enough to not go completely insane on cheat day.  I hope.

Also, just this morning Meredith told me that I look like I have lost weight...in my head.  She just kept saying that it was my head that looked thinner.  I laughed quite a bit and then asked her if my big ole head really looked thinner.  She, of course, meant my face. =) I hope she is right. 

I will leave you with this- Happy Valentine's day, rawr!

   

Believe it or not, you can get this little guy at your local Wal-Mart on a shirt in the ladies section.  I thought it was perfect for Valentine's day!

January 27th-February 7th

Hello, all!  Sorry it took me so long to get around to my "once a week" post.  So, remember the post about the two books I was reading-Skinny Bitch  and The 4 Hour Body? The last couple days of January I started the 4 hour way of eating.  I will not reveal everything about the diet because I think you should read it for yourself if you want to start it don't assume what I say about it is all right.  The aspects of the diet that you will see displayed here are as follows: eat meat, veggies, and beans at every meal (for me though, eat A LOT of veggies and some beans at every meal); and you get a cheat day every week!!  It has been weird getting used to not only eating breakfast consistantly, but eating a big breakfast everyday.  I am actually eating 3-4 eggs every morning with veggies and beans on the side.  It is a ton of food!  I think I am getting used to it now, but the very first morning I thought I was going to puke! 

This is a representative breakfast, a 3 egg black bean omlette with sliced tomatoes on top.  I made this bad boy, and it was tasty!

You would be surprised how hard it is to find a restaurant with beans on the menu.

.

I've been eating a lot of Mexican lately.  They always have beans!  It is getting a bit old though.  You can only eat Mexican food so many times before you are sick of it!

I am seeing results already after eating this way for exactly a week and a day, (side note...I am down roughly  15 lbs from December!) but I am really bored! Really, really bored.  This diet isn't supposed to be fun it is supposed to work, but I need variety!  I need it bad.  I think, for me, it is the diet mind-set is the trouble.  Before I started eating this way I was eating salads a majority of the time, but I was never bored.  I think when I start a diet my brain sabotages the rest of me.  I really want to get healthy this time though...so I am going to stick with it for at least a month.

This week also marked the start of implementing fish into my diet.

This was my first fishy meal of the year.  Grilled Salmon, homemade pinto beans, and some over roasted zucchini slices.  I had a bit of tummy trouble after this meal, but in retrospect, I am thinking it was because I hadn't eaten any fish in a while.  This is what Meredith whipped up for dinner tonight:

Steelhead trout rubbed in pesto with a small salad and some english peas.  It was so good I could have kept eating for a decade!  

My stomach has not been acting up at all (save on cheat day) since starting the 4hour way of eating.  Cheat day, oh glorious cheat day!  That is a big bonus on this diet.  I was raised with a bag of chocolate in my hand, so I have trouble taming my sweet tooth.  

This is what I have to walk by a million times a day at work.  Every time I go to the bathroom these chocolatey wonders stare at me from my neighbor's desk and there are multiple jars like this sprinkled throughout my office.  Even the guy who delivers our office's paper also brings a bag of warm Otis Spunkmeyer cookies.  I has been hard.  I look forward to cheat day every day of the week.  

Discoveries of this week: 1) I think my tummy has issues with gluten.  This diet totally nixes all bread, rice, and grains of any kind.  As I said earlier, I have been doing great.  On cheat day, Saturday I ate a big helping of mushrooms in champagne sauce over pasta.  I had a ton of trouble that night. I was miserable.  I was able to further confirm my suspicion of gluten just last night.  Meredith and I hit up a Chinese buffet.  I love shrimp-love it!  Every time I get to eat it (usually at a Chinese buffet or something similar) my stomach goes crazy.  Last night though, being mindful of gluten-I couldn't eat eggrolls anyway-I ate a plate full of peel and eat shrimp.  No trouble AT ALL.  I am going to continue to try and experiment with this gluten issue and I'll let you know.

2) Extra desert Delights gum is amazing.  It tastes like it is straight out of Willy Wonka's workshop.  I recommend the apple pie kind (it tastes like you are eating a big slice of pie) and the orange creme pop kind (just like a dreamcicle).  Every time I want to run around the office, gather up all the candy jars, run into my office, slam the door, dump my booty over my desk, and face plant into it Gimme style (Gimme, the animalistic alter from United State of Tara) I pop a piece of gum.  I almost always feel better.

3) All of a sudden this week I have been having a lot of trouble with cigarette cravings.  I don't know what's up with that, but hopefully I can conquer it!