I'm Still Here - And I'm On A Diet!

I'm alive! I took a couple weeks off of "Mostly Raw Monday" for several reasons:

1. The "aquapocalypse"(I don't think it's considered "raw" to wash your produce in boiled water that takes 12 hours to cool down because it's 85 degrees outside)
2. I'm on a diet.

Yes, you read that right - this crunchy head, former eating disorder struggler is on a diet!

I gain a lot of weight while pregnant. In my first pregnancy, I gained over 65 pounds. I lost it all, plus 10 more pounds, in about a year. I then gained 10 lbs during my 2nd pregnancy & miscarriage. This 3rd pregnancy, I was more diligent with my eating, but I still gained about 50 pounds. That just seems to be what my body does during pregnancy.

Then after Monkey Bear was born, I was only down 15 lbs from the birth, and my body promptly gained another 10, leaving me at 55-60 lbs more than I was in the fall of 2008. I lost those 10 lbs with quite a bit of effort, but was having trouble getting my weight to budge any more.

So, I'm unofficially doing Weight Watchers. This might strike some as ironic since Weight Watchers was my first diet - and my first diet was a catalyst in sending me toward an eating disorder. But since I know eating disorders are not about food, but about state of mind, and the Weight Watchers plan appeals to me, I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm going to join officially once I have a scale that works (I dropped mine on Friday and broke it).

That said, my diet hasn't changed too much. I increased my protein and decreased my fat (I have trouble self-regulating my nut intake!). I'm still eating tons of fruits & veggies, and since greens & cabbage are "free" or "zero point" foods, I can still drink huge green smoothies and eat tons of homemade kraut!

I also bought myself T-Tapp for my 35th birthday (which was on Mother's Day). Some ladies on my mom's message board I'm part of convinced me to try it. I'm still getting the hang of the various moves, but I think it will be fun. And it only takes 15 minutes!

So there's an update. I'll keep you posted on my new, reduced-fat recipes, as well as my weight loss journey.

Today's Food & Sick Dogs

So today's food:
Breakfast: All raw: green smoothie, some veggies, soaked nuts & seeds and home-grown mung bean sprouts
Lunch: PR & Banana on gluten-free bread with coconut hot chocolate
Dinner: Early Thanksgiving

Only our early Thanksgiving (meaning I couldn't fit the turkey I scored at Shaws in the freezer) was usurped by having to take our very sick dog to the ER. We're waiting for some test results but hope he's OK.

I'll have to share my Thanksgiving recipes tomorrow because it's late!

Yesterday & Today's Food

Yesterday's Food :)

Breakfast: Eggs, toast, grapes & soaked nuts & seeds
Lunch: Hummus, Veggies & Bread
Dinner: Leftover Moroccan Lentil Stew from the freezer

Today's Food:
Breakfast: Cereal, 1 egg, grapes & celery with peanut butter
Lunch: Green Smoothie, Potato Chips & Toast
Dinner: Leftover White Bean Sausage soup from the freezer

Food Updates!

I'm slacking in my food updates!

Saturday
Breakfast: Eggs & Toast
Lunch: Leftover Lentil Soup & Green Smoothies
Dinner: Burgers, Fries and tons of salad
Dessert: Chocolate Cake (from Bob's Red Mill GF mix)

Sunday
Breakfast: Eggs & Toast
Lunch: Leftover Beans & Rice
Dinner: Leftover Lentil Soup

Today
Breakfast: Coconut Yogurt, Flax Meal & Oats with Concord Grapes & Peanut Butter Toast
Lunch: Leftover Lentil Soup, Peanut Butter Toast & Green Smoothies
Dinner: Homemade Hummus with Veggies & a bowl of cereal

I got some serious scores this week at the grocery store, so my fridge is full and there's lots to eat :) More recipes will come!

November 5th & 6th Food

I didn't post yesterday's food! It was a busy day.

We had Garbanzo Flour Pancakes for breakfast. I had random food for lunch, as we were out, and dinner was Taco Soup.

Today, I had a green smoothie for breakfast, along with some mung bean spouts and soaked cashews & pumpkin seeds. Lunch so far was leftover chicory salad, with sprouts, raw beets and a little rotisserie chicken. I'm also going to eat the last little bit of Taco Soup. Dinner will be beans & rice, topped with this relish I make. Maybe I'll post the recipe later.

Streamlining Spending

I'm searching out more ways to streamline our spending. We only really have one budget category where our spending gets out of hand, and that's food. In every other spending category, we are truly down to the bare essentials and have been for months.

So I've added several money-saving & couponing blogs to my Google Reader:
Free Grabber
Thrifty Mommy
Money Saving Mom

And my newest addition, Super Coupon Girl

She claims to be able to spend under $20 a month for enough groceries to feed two people. She says she buys plenty of organic items, too. She lives on the opposite coast and I don't have access to the same stores as she does, but I'm still keeping an eye on how she does it.

There are several challenges for me to keep our grocery budget down. First, a good number of our grocery staples are not available in traditional grocery stores & they rarely go on sale. Second, some of the staples we use aren't available in stores at all, so I have to get them on-line or from the natural foods buying club I use. Third, we eat a lot of produce. A lot a lot a lot, and I'm not willing to change that. In fact, most of what Bear eats is produce. Bear is consuming more & more solid food, but our grocery budget has stayed the same.

So I'm trying to find more ways to save, and thought I'd pass some of them along to you!

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

I texted Roy today to say Good Health is heaven on earth :)

Not only did they have the donuts I wanted to try, they had the rice yogurt, coconut milk yogurt AND coconut milk "ice cream".

I tried this tonight:



Wow.

In Defense of Food

I'm reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan.



It's quite interesting, and he's really bringing me back! Remember Snackwell's?



I don't know if anyone of you bought into the whole "fat-free is better" belief system, but I sure did! Remember when you could get fat-free everything? I remember that even Taco Bell had fat-free & low-fat cheese for awhile. Anyway, you should pick up a copy of the book from the library if you can (I had to wait a couple of months for it; it's quite popular!). It goes into all the theories behind "nutritionism" and why so much of what we believe about food today in America isn't really based on fact, but rather bad science and politics.

Speaking of food, Trader Joe's has this roasted plaintain chips that are amazing! I don't know if they're new or I just never noticed them, but they are good!