January 5th, 2012- Food Blog

Today was my “off day.” I had to work today so I planned on yanking out a Tupperware of chili from the freezer and that is exactly what I had Josh do. Thursday’s I work very late and often don’t get home until 10 -10:30pm. So its the best day for us to use something pre-made. The phenomenal thing about freezers and pre-making food is that you can make something beautiful and healthy and just have it when you are ready.  We are lucky enough to have a large chest freezer in our basement and I’m not sure how we would live without it at this point.

Breakfast

Quinn’s Purple Mooshie

See January 1st, 2012-Food Blog

After Quinn and I ate our smoothies I had a choice in front of me. I was completely out of salad. My goal this week has been to have a salad for lunch everyday. But I also really wanted to elliptical. I knew there was no way I could get both in, and yesterday I sacrificed my work out for food. So today I did the opposite. I let me salad slide and did 45 minutes of elliptical. I put “Elmo’s World” on the TV embraced my flouting of the American Academy of Pediatrics and put some Buffy on my iPhone for me. Sarah Michele’s ass kicking ways kept me going strong and Elmo distracted my child. I think it was a wise decision. I did my 45 minutes of Pilates when I got to work.

Lunch

Lighter Lasagna

See January 4th, 2012- Food Blog

Holy God, this Lasagna tasted BETTER on day two. It’ll be tough to go back to my salad tomorrow. I’ll have to put something fancy in it. Grilled pear perhaps?

Dinner

Becca’s Hot Chipotle Chili

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions (I like sweet onions) coarsely chopped

1 spoonful of minced garlic or 2 fresh cloves minced

2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped

4 chipotle chilis

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

3-4 Bell peppers seeded and coarsely chopped. Go for color!

2 cans black beans rinsed

2 cans kidney beans rinsed

2 cans chickpeas rinsed

1 can tomato purée (15oz)

1 cup chicken or veggie broth

1 16 oz package of Frozen corn

Finely mince jalapeños and chipotle chilies. Chipotle chilies are smoked jalapeños. They come canned in adobo sauce and add more flavor than heat. I like to mince my jalpeños and chipotle chilies in my food processor. If you get jalapeño on your hands, it will BURN when you take your contacts out no matter how many times you wash your hands. I learned that the hard way. My husband learned this again making Vietnamese Hot and Sour Soup. Its basically like macing yourself in the eye. So handle with care.

In a skillet heat up olive oil over low to medium heat. Add onions, minced chilies, garlic, spices and saute until onions are translucent. Sometimes I add a dash of water to help soak the spices in.

Add all the ingredients to a crock pot and cook on low for 4 hours or 2 hours on high.

Sometimes I add other things. Sweet potatoes taste amazing in this recipe. Potatoes would also be good. Some people add mushroom, I don’t because I hate their texture. You could also make this recipe with fresh beans. You’d need to cook it longer and add more chicken broth. You could also take the heat out of the recipe by removing the jalapeños. Go crazy!

Yes this is a direct repeat but cooking something new every night seemed like a bit too much of a pain in the ass this week. We served our chili in whole wheat wraps with thinly sliced avocado and quinoa. It was, of course, delicious and filling. I’m waiting to cook a bad recipe so that I can pan it. But honestly everything has been so good. Stick around! Tomorrow is Udon Saute. I LOVE udon.

-Rebecca Garrison

January 4, 2012- Food Blog

Day Four. Today, I was lucky enough to have a session with the incomparable Pam Garcia. However, said session was at 9:30am in Norwell and I have a baby who likes to sleep until 9:30am. So I attempted to drag myself out of bed early but failed miserably and didn’t leave time to make a smoothie. So I gave Quinn a breakfast bar and rolled out of the house near 9:10.

Breakfast

Breakfast fail. No breakfast 😦

By the time Quinn and I got home it was 11:30am so I waited and just ate lunch. Quinn had to nap so she went to sleep and I attempted to pick up my atrocious house and cook while she napped which unfortunately meant that I didn’t get in any elliptical today. 😦

Lunch

Becca’s Lunch Salad

8oz Arugula

4oz Spinach

1 Tablespoon Bleu Cheese Dressing

Quinn was super hungry for lunch but didn’t seem to want anything I had and was having a bit of trouble pooping so I made her some Bean Brownies. Which she loved and did the trick quite quickly. See my Brownies post as I’ll be snacking on them all week.

Quinn enjoys some Bean Brownie batter

Dinner

Lighter Lasagna (NOT Vegan, vegetarian) Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites

2 cups cubed zucchini

1 cup cubed bell peppers

1 cups chopped tomatoes

4 cups sliced mushrooms (12 oz or so)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup dry red wine

3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

10 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed

2 cups low-fat cottage cheese

1 cup grated low fat mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 1/2 cups prepared tomato sauce

1 pound uncooked lasagna noodles

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Combine the zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, salt, and wine, in sauce pan bring to a boil, cover, and the simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes, until all of the vegetables are tender and juicy. Stir in the basil and set aside.

Cover and cook the spinach on high heat in just the water clinging to the leaves for 3 minutes, until wilted but still bright green Drain and chop coarsely. Combine with the cottage cheese, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese and set aside.

Spread 1 cup of the tomato sauce evenly on the bottom of a 3 inch deep nonreactive 8×12 inch baking dish. Layer with 5 0r 6 noodles, 1 generous cup of undrained vegetables and 1 cup of the spinach cheese mixture. Cover with a second layer of noodles, 1 cup of the sauce, 1 heaping cup of the vegetables, 1 cup of the spinach-cheese mixture, and a third layer of noodles. Finally, add the rest of the vegetables, the remaining spinach cheese mixture a fourth layer of noodle, and the rest of the sauce. Cover tightly with the foil and bake until the noodles are tender, about 60 minutes. Let sit at least 10 minutes before eating.

Notes: There are several notes on this recipe. First, I hate mushrooms so I left them out. I added more zucchini (I used three), and more bell peppers (I used three) and more tomatoes (I used three). I added a beautiful Pinot Noir for the wine and I added a bit of powdered garlic and dry basil. This seemed to work well but I think I may have added too much Pinot and it was a bit watery as I didn’t measure. I chopped the veggies large and this seemed to help them stay firm and not mushy. But upon eating I think I would cut them much smaller next time. They were a bit big to chew. I added more spinach and I didn’t chop it. Definitely use a tomato sauce you are fond of, any will do but it will STRONGLY flavor the lasagna. Now to the big issue I had. I grabbed my trusty old Pyrex baking dish. But after I got through layer two I realized I had hit the top and would not be able to sneak another layer in. So I dumped all the ingredients in and left out a whole layer of the pasta. The pasta I chose was a whole wheat and delicious.

Josh and I both agreed this was one of the best lasagnas we had ever had. It wasn’t as sinful but it left us both full and satisfied without feeling horrible and greasy on the inside. It was yummy, filling and lacked the fat and meat that so many lasagnas have. I certainly need to work on my recipe and find a better dish for this but again this is a keeper. Although this recipe is not vegan, it only has 218 calories per a 12oz serving, which tempted me to give it a go. That and I LOVE lasagna. Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites so far is awesome. We haven’t made one bad recipe from it.

Till tomorrow! We are making my famous chili.

-Rebecca Garrison

January 3, 2012- Food Blog

 

Day three. My body is starting to feel better. I have more energy. I haven’t been sleeping better but I am hoping that will come. Today I managed to squeak in 45 minutes of elliptical which felt great but was tricky with a two year old trying to get on with me saying “I try it!” I also managed to squeak in about an hour of some good solid Pilates, but my back was a little tweaky today so it wasn’t of the highest quality. I kept looking forward to the beans Josh and I had planned for the end of the evening.

Breakfast

Quinn’s Purple Mooshie (Vegan)

See January 1, 2012-Food blog

Lunch

Becca’s Lunch Salad

8 oz Spinach

4 oz Arugula

1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinaigrette

I was in a huge rush today so I threw my salad in a Tupperware and took it with me to work and ate it when I got there. I didn’t have time to do anything fancy. And I had some snacks. I ate hummus and  carrots, and I tried some pre-made kale chips but they were GROSS and not worth the calories. I think it was the nutritional yeast and salt they slathered on them. I have made my own but mine were much better.

Dinner

Barbecue Beans(Vegan) from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites

2 cups dried navy beans soaked at least 8 hours in water that cover them by two inches.

2 to 4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup onions chopped

1/2 cup prepared non-fat barbecue sauce * use a vegan BBQ sauce to ensure vegan-ness

1/4 cup prepared mustard

1/4 cup molasses or pure maple syrup

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce to taste.

salt and ground black pepper

Drain the soaked beans and combine with the garlic and onions in a large soup pot. Cover with water at least an inch and bring to a rapid boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours until tender. Add water to the pot as necessary to retain water level.

When the beans are ready, drain them and stir in the barbecue sauce, mustard and molasses or maple syrup and vinegar. Add Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste. To cook the beans on the stove top gently simmer on low heat with a heat diffuser for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring often. To bake them, transfer the beans to a baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes stirring once or twice during the baking.

Note: Josh and I used canned navy beans rather than dry as it was just shorter. We sauteed the garlic and onions with beans in a tiny bit of olive oil. We used my favorite brand of barbecue sauce, Sweet Baby Rays; I doubt it was fat free. We used maple syrup and no Tabasco as I hate it.

This was DELICIOUS. It made me wanna bust out the grille, fire up some black bean burgers and invite friends over for beers around the fire pit. I have never really liked baked beans but these were so sweet and yummy that I’m converted. I’ll also always have a dish to bring to summer barbecues. Josh and I served this with sauteed kale. We just sauteed it with a little garlic, olive oil and salt. However, in our haste to eat, we didn’t let the kale soften enough, so it was a bit tough and bitter. I solved the bitter problem by piling my sweet beans atop them and scarfing them down.

Following along? I’ll tackle a Lighter Lasagna (not vegan) tomorrow and I’m flying solo, Josh will be working and this dish is not pre-made. (We had a cook-athon on Sunday) Wish me luck. I’m gonna need it.

-Rebecca Garrison

January 2, 2012- Food Blog

Today is the second day of my food blog. Everything has been delicious so far, but just like last year, my body is having a bit of trouble adjusting to the very high fiber content. The same happened to me before, and my body adjusted after a week or so. I’m sure I’ll be feeling squeaky clean and healthy next week.

Breakfast

Quinn’s Purple Mooshie (Vegan)

See yesterday’s blog for details

Lunch

Becca’s Spinach Salad (Vegan)

80z spinach

4oz arugula

1/2 cup snap peas

1/2 one avocado

2 tablespoons bleu cheese dressing

Toss in a large bowl and enjoy!

Dinner

Vietnamese Hot and Sour Soup (Vegan) From Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites

2 cups thinly sliced onions

2 teaspoons olive oil

5 garlic cloves minced or pressed

1 0r 2 fresh chilies seeded and minced

7 cups Southeast Asian Vegetable stock (recipe to follow)

1 1/2  cups canned straw mushrooms (15 once can drained)

3/4 cup canned pineapple chunks (8 oz can undrained) or 1 cup fresh diced pineapple

1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/4 cup soy sauce or Asian fish sauce

1 1/2 cups diced tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes

In a large soup pot, saute the onions in the oil on low heat for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and chilies and saute for another minute, stirring to prevent sticking. Stir in the stock, straw mushrooms, pineapple and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add basil and mint, lime juice, soy sauce, and tofu. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the flavors are well blended. Sprinkle with mung sprouts and basil leaves and accompany each serving with a wedge of lime.

Notes: I used a pre-minced garlic to save time. We minced the straw mushrooms VERY small so that I wouldn’t notice the texture. I bought pineapple chunks not suspended in juice but heavy syrup. So I drained and did not add the liquid. We used fire roasted tomatoes to enhance the flavor. We used soy sauce as we did not have fish sauce. Josh hates tofu so we substituted a very thin brown rice noodle.

Southeast Asian Vegetable Stock (Vegan) From Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites

1 onion, peeled, and sliced

6 garlic cloves, peeled

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

3 inch piece fresh ginger root, sliced

1 fresh lemongrass stalk, chopped

2 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 teaspoon black peppercorn

1 bay leaf

1 star anise (or 1/2 teaspoon anise seed)

9 cups water

Combine all of the ingredients in a large stock pot and bring them to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 45 minutes. Strain the stock through a colander or sieve pressing as much liquid as possible out of the vegetables. Discard the vegetables and spices.

Notes: I used a dried lemongrass stalk. Also don’t skip the broth and substitute a chicken stock. This fragrant broth makes the soup.

This soup was again so good. Very different from the comforting feel the tomato bisque had. It was a hot (spicy) soup with a complexity of flavor that I have never experienced before. Josh and I loved the brown rice noodle in the soup, but if you are a tofu fan go for that. This soup warmed you from the inside out heating your blood from the spicy chilies and soothing the palette with the sweetness of the pineapple. Tangy and sweet, it was oh so delicious and will certainly be added to our roster of regulars.

-Rebecca Garrison

January 1, 2012- Food Blog

And so my food blog begins! I’ll be blogging everything I ate for one week so follow along or block me for a little while. It’s up to you!

Today I woke up after very little sleep and by some miracle without a hangover. Last night we were lucky enough to hang out with some good friends at a local Quincy restaurant called Remicks. It’s a new place and we were able to get a reservation for six at the last minute. The service was prompt, as was our food and drink, at least compared to our pitiful experience at Siros last year. It was, as my daughter would say, so so so good. My Cosmos were crisp with fresh lime and just the right amount of cranberry. The oysters weren’t the best I have ever had but were good. The arugula salad was great, barely-there dressing and shaved parmesan that let the peppery arugula stand on its own. However, the size of the salad was pretty pitiful. I’ve become accustomed to a large salad and I don’t think there is a restaurant out there that has a serving bowl large enough. I like a LOT of greens and very little of the accouterments they drown salads in now-a-days. In order to make greens filling you need a great deal, and like I said most restaurants just can’t accommodate that. For dinner, I had steak tips. They were nice and rare, flavored beautifully and served next to nice crisp fries. Anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for fries and nice crispy one makes me melt. My delicious evening was topped off by a chocolate torte drowned in caramel. YUM.

So it’s easy to see that though I didn’t have a hangover, I had a bit of a food coma going on. Most restaurants you go to worship flavor over all else and sacrifice any thought of healthy in order to achieve it. I personally think a better balance can be struck so I turned to my shelf of recipe books to inspire our dinner today. I selected Tomato Bisque from The Conscious Cook By Tal Ronnen. I have some major things to thank Tal Ronnen for, most notably cashew cream, a DELICIOUS cream substitute that I swear you cannot tell in recipes isn’t heavy cream. There are other favorites, such as Cream of Asparagus Soup and Fresh-Baked Focaccia with Caramelized Onions, but most of the recipes in this book I find to be beyond my abilities. I tried to make his goat cheese from cashews and that was a huge failure. Many of the recipes involve mushrooms which, despite a fervent desire to enjoy, I hate. Or they employ tofu, which my husband feels the same way about tofu that I do about mushrooms. He would like to like it, but no matter how many times he tries to convince his taste buds that tofu is good, they disagree. Still this book is worth the purchase just for the cashew cream alone. Cashew Cream is a life saver for lactose intolerance or for people who just don’t do dairy. Of course my recipes and commentary to follow.

BREAKFAST

For breakfast I had my traditional smoothie. I’ll do my best to relay to recipe but I make this every morning and I never had a recipe for it so I never measure.

Quinn’s Purple Mooshie (Vegan)

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup  frozen mixed raspberries, strawberries, blackberries

1 banana

2-3 cups soy milk

BLEND

Make two large servings, three smaller. Just cut down the recipe to make less.

This a makes a delicious smoothie that tastes sort of like a blueberry creamsicle. Blueberries are loaded with antioxidants and are scrumptious and fiber-full. The same is true of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Bananas have tons of potassium and fiber. Soy milk makes a tasty and not horrible for you filler liquid. For Quinn’s sake, I add psyllium husk to bring in yet more fiber. This seriously helps her poop and combats the binding nature of banana. Lately, I will also add a fresh pear if I have it on hand. This also helps her poop.

I use frozen blueberries because they are yummy and I use a frozen berry mixture that my local BJ’s carries. Both are easily available to me. If you want smoothies, see what options are available and use them. Also use a fruit juice if soy milk isn’t to your liking. I’ve tried just water but it was pretty gross. Play. See what you like. I drink a big ol’ smoothie every morning because I need it to keep me full til lunch.

LUNCH

Today I ate a LARGE and I do mean LARGE salad. As I mentioned above I like greens and I don’t like a lot to interfere with them, today’s salad was:

Becca’s Lunch Salad (Vegan)

8 oz or so spinach

4 oz  or so arugula

1 cup or so snap peas

tablespoon or so balsamic vinaigrette.

Toss in a large bowl till everything is evenly coated.

This salad took me about an hour to eat. That is my only complaint with salads. Now I was also running around cooking other things while I ate it but the very act of chewing that much salad takes a long time. I challenge you to eat that much salad by yourself and not be full. I say it can’t be done or you just need to add more greens.

DINNER

I really didn’t snack today. I had some water throughout the day. I also had a coffee before breakfast. But other than that there should not be any extraneous calories creeping in there. Dinner was:

Tomato Bisque (Vegan)

1 Onion (sweet), chopped

1 Carrot, chopped

1 Stalk Celery, chopped

3 cloves garlic smashed

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour (Tal Ronnen calls for unbleached all purpose)

5 cups faux chicken stock

1 (28 oz) can whole fire roasted tomatoes with juice OR approximate that amount of fresh and fire roast them yourself as we did.

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

leaves from 2 fresh thyme springs

1 bay leaf

freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 cup Cashew Cream

Parsley for garnish

Note: At this time of year we never have any of those spices fresh so just use dried. It’ll taste fine.

To fire roast the tomatoes, we cut them into quarters and baked them for 25 minutes on the top over rack right next to the heating element. They get slightly charred and it totally changes the flavor. We skipped this step once and just used fresh and we will never do that again. It made for a very bland soup.

Place a large pot on medium heat. The author here uses earth’s balance, a vegan butter substitute to saute the onions. We just use a little olive oil. Its healthier and I use way less than he does. Add onion, carrot, celery, and garlic. Saute for 10 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the vegetables and continue cooking and stirring for two minutes.

Add the stock, tomatoes, parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, season with salt and pepper, then add cashew cream. Continue to simmer for another 10 minutes, but do not boil.

Remove bay leaf. Working in batches pour the soup into a blender, cover the lid with a towel and blend on high for several minutes. until very smooth. Pour the soup through a fine mesh sieve ( we never ever do this. A: why? B: that takes out a lot of the good fiber). Ladle into bowls and garnish with parsley.

This soup is AMAZING. Its so creamy you would swear it was a decadent, terrible for you concoction. Instead it is oh, so delicious and GOOD for you. Read that recipe again. No cream and almost all the fat is all from the cashews! Note. BE CAREFUL blending the hot liquid. We normally use our blender and we tried our food processor today which was a FAIL. The liquid started slopping out the top and when we tried to transfer it to the blender it started spilling out the bottom too. If you have an immersion blender USE THAT! If not the blender does work but the steam tends to blow the top off the blender when you start it. So have a towel on top to catch the liquid and for goodness sake don’t burn yourself.

Cashew Cream (Vegan)

2 cups whole raw cashews rinsed well under cold water.

Put the cashews in a bowl and add cold water to cover them, cover the bowl and refrigerate over night.

Drain the cashews and rinse under cold water. Place in a blender with enough cold water to cover them by 1 inch. Blend on high for several minutes until smooth. If still piece-y, strain.

To make a thicker cashew cream use less water. Have it just cover the cashews.

My notes on cashew cream. We can NEVER find raw cashews so we just buy the roasted ones from Bjs. They are salt laden so we rinse them very well. We never bother to pick out the broken ones. We don’t always soak them for more than four hours or so and we never cover them. It always comes out tasting just fine. Also it doesn’t keep very long so we just adjust the recipe to make enough for whatever recipe we are making.

 

Josh and I ate the Tomato Bisque with a crusty whole grain bread(probably not so vegan). It was amazing and our best ever thanks to our new found roasting technique. We used the bread to sop up the soup and I would swear to you it was some of the best soup I’ve ever had. It felt like comfort food. I might have gone a little over board with the bread, (4 slices!) because I just couldn’t get enough of the combo. We have made this before but it will certainly stay on the roster because it was AH-MA-ZING. Till tomorrow.

-Rebecca Garrison

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resolution

Too many cookies! (not really but that is how I feel)

I’ve decided this year to make my New Years’ resolution public. That way, I am completely accountable if I slack off. I hesitate to say “fail”, because we are always works in progress. I personally think that you should set a goal that seems a little unattainable, as it gives you something to work for.  If you set a goal that is a little beyond your reach and you “fail”, you might feel like a loser and lose your momentum, spiral into self doubt and recriminations, wondering why you even tried in the first place. Those emotions aren’t particularly useful, so let’s take away the idea that you can attain your goal and instead think that you are reaching toward it. That way any motion in the right direction is good and “failure” isn’t in the picture.

As many of you may know, my struggle since I’ve had my baby, and quite possible my entire dance career, has been my weight. Last year, I read a book called Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman, so perhaps I should begin there. One year after I had my baby, I realized my baby weight had yet to shed. I tried hard not to worry about my weight her first year, as I was breastfeeding and wanted to be a healthy, strong mommy for her. I figured some pudge must be good for milk production so I didn’t stress too hard, despite the fact that I got married under those circumstances. It was very difficult not to slip into full blown “brideorexia”. Luckily, I have a very loving husband, who I was pretty sure loved me despite my extra weight. Having a baby helps you be pretty sure of that. Now, was I obese? Certainly not. But I gained a solid forty pounds during pregnancy and only lost about fifteen of that after I had her. I was SURE breastfeeding would melt the weight right off, everyone told me it would, but that was NOT the case for me. Breastfeeding seemed to tell my body, “no, no! I need that weight, I’m feeding a baby here!” and I simply couldn’t convince it that it didn’t need ALL of it. I carried that 25lbs around until last January, when I simply decided enough was enough. I didn’t feel like myself with the extra weight. I felt like a shadow, with less energy, less vivacity, less spring in my step, literally weighed down.

Now to top all that off, I was also dealing with pretty debilitating back pain. See my very first blog post for info on that. I just wanted to feel like myself again. So I read Dr. Furhman’s book and started down a path toward veganism. Not on principal, but for health purposes. For six weeks, I cut out all dairy, all meat, all animal by-products. Did I cheat? You bet. But for those six weeks I bet I only cheated three or four times. And what I really liked about this diet was it really that it opened my mind to foods I never would have tried. I became a huge fan of kale, a delicious super food. The same is true of beans, which I LOVE now. I prefer them to meat. They make me feel more full than meat. And at this point if I eat more than 3oz or so or meat I start to get grossed out by it (unless its chicken fingers, not sure why). But Dr. Furhman goes on to recommend that 90% of your total caloric intake should be from vegetables or fruit. Just pause and think about that for a second. That is a LOT of vegetables. He cautions you to use refined sugar, and flour with caution. That means noddles and bread should not be the bulk of your meal.

Following this faithfully, I lost all 25 pounds and a little more. I can’t tell you how much I liked that little more. But I also think its important to note, I didn’t feel like me again. I felt new and better, vivacious again, but like pre-baby me? No. For one thing, I was still in a lot of back pain. For another, weight had shifted on my body into new places and left others.

Like most people, I was pretty smug about my weight loss and as social pressures weighed on me I gradually slipped out of my healthy life style. My salad lunches were replaced by pasta, I added desserts back in, liquor, eggs for breakfast and before I knew it, I was making french toast for my little one every Saturday and having a slice of cake everyday. After this past Christmas I returned from my mother’s cookie-filled house five pounds heavier than when I set out for it, and that was on top of the eight pounds that slowly crept up on me over the year.

So here I am one year later, determined to reclaim that CLEAN feeling my body had when I was eating well. I would like to lose at least fifteen pounds (remember those goals should always be a little further than you think you can get) but mostly I’d like to be able to move without pain, fit in my jeans and bounce around vitally whenever I choose. I don’t want to feel like a shadow of myself. So my New Years’ resolution is to reclaim me!