So, I am down almost six pounds, which is great, but I have three more to lose by the end of the month for my kickstarter and I have to do it over Thanksgiving week. Yikes. This is going to be tight. And did I mention that I'll be out of town for most of the week, sharing my first holiday with my boyfriend's family, followed by a second celebration with my family??
I've been sticking to a pretty healthy menu the past week as I try to get off as much weight before we leave town as possible. I joined a local foods co-op recently and got a bunch of local produce (plus pastured eggs!) last week, so I spent some time cooking healthy, nutrarian-inspired meals. I made a healthy ratatouille with the eggplant, zucchini and pepper and served it over a roasted spaghetti squash for a couple Italian-inspired meals. I must confess that I used real parmesan cheese on top, though. All food changes have to come slowly and in moderation for me. I swapped pasta for squash and it was actually really good, but I haven't let go of real parm yet! They also gave me some really fresh lacinato kale (the flat kind) that was excellent with apple and carmelized onion in a shallot vinegrette, topped with curry-roasted acorn squash. Thanks to hydroponics, I've had some fresh lettuce, too! I'm realizing how lucky I am to live far enough south that a lot of veggies get an extended season, like the delicious cucumber I got from the co-op. Today's lunch was a salad, some defrosted veggie & bean soup I made a few months ago and a wheat pita with hummus & veggies. Tonight, I'm hoping to use a black bean, green pepper and onion mixture I made over the weekend with some fresh co-op tomato and corn from the cobb, hopefully in a corn tortilla if the ones in my fridge are still good.
It's actually really fun to be getting excited about food and planning recipes while also losing weight. The weight loss is slow, but steady. As long as I don't eat too much processed foods, snack stuff or ice cream on top of all the healthy food, the weight comes off. And I'm making some really delicious stuff! And it's fun! I'm lucky that I really enjoy cooking and meal-planning.
It's not all easy, though. I'm unlucky in that I work about 50 hours a week. I often feel like I have to choose between preparing healthy food, exercising and having a social life. I can't do all three to my full satisfaction. Plus, I have a boyfriend who prefers to eat out and hates veggies. As far as I can tell, his favorite foods are liverwurst, cheese, milk, pasta and fruit pie. On the lucky side again, I don't like liverwurst or most cheeses. It's really just the pasta and pie that makes my mouth water, and he doesn't usually have those lying around his house. Speaking of temptations, for anyone concerned about eating less meat, it really does get easier. In fact, I find I'm really not tempted by meat at all any more. I miss cured meats a bit. I love a good chacuterie platter. I did enjoy some local, humanely-raised chicken sausage at a frou-frou restaurant with friends this past Saturday night. (I also had some butternut squash barley with brussel sprouts at said restaurant. Say that five times fast.) For the record, my bf is understanding when I say I just want to stay in and eat the food I've cooked, but he won't usually join me, so we do end up eating out more than I would prefer and I have to make a real effort to order something healthy instead of pizza or pasta or anythign with the word 'cream' in the title. Often, I'll have a salad or small, healthy dish about 30 minutes or so before he picks me up so that I won't be starving at the restaurant. And knowing how he eats and how his family eats, I'm a little concerned about what the menu is going to be like while we're down in Florida for Thanksgiving. But, for reasons I won't get into, we're going to be staying in a hotel. I've checked and it does have a refridgerator, so I'm going to bring some healthy snacks with us in a cooler and hopefully I'll be able to get enough to satisfy that way. I feel like my tastebuds are slowly getting to a point where I'm actually not as tempted by some of the really processed foods (think Little Debbie) that he loves, but if there's a lot of pie around, I might have trouble controlling myself. I'm thinking it's going to be hard to avoid a lot of extra sugar over the holiday. My aim is to stick to the three-bite rule with everything from chips 'n dip to pie.
Wish me luck!