I made something

Totally borrowed this from http://modfrugal.com/

 

I can't take credit for this idea, but I wish I had.  If you didn't know yet, I am part rabbit and will eat a salad a day.  Maybe twice, maybe more.  I can't think of many days since my HCG times that I haven't gone a day without salad.  I ate lots of salad before that too, in fact when my mom would have us down to visit and ask what snacks she needed to provide us, I would ask for salad.


So, I like salads.  DO YOU GET THAT?! Okay good.  Since I started flirting with clean eating, I found a few recipes for homemade dressings I liked a lot.  Now that clean eating and I are serious, I have at least 4 dressings I make on the regular.  Store bought dressings taste a little off to me.

I have made your basic balsamic/EVOO vinaigrette pretty much as a basic staple around here.  Goose is the biggest fan of it.  Then I learned of a couple from Skinnytaste, which I recommend you run over and get some ideas because I LOVE THAT SITE!  But this one I just discovered, is on a whole new playing field.

Basil Balsamic Vinaigrette.  *drools*  I found it on pinterest (go figure) and was led to this site and when I saw how simple it was, and hey I have like 80 cups of basil outside, I KNEW I had to try it.  I have never had white balsamic before, BIG MISTAKE.  It will become a staple.  Anywhoo, this recipe can't be simpler.  Its just a couple ingredients and then blend it a couple seconds and BAM.



I made it last night and patiently waited to try it tonight.  I wanted the basil to meld and get all full flavored.  It was worth every second of the wait.  I just made a simple spinach salad.  Nothing else on it because that's really just how I like it.  The dressing was phenomenal.  Even better, when I dipped a piece of bread in it to sop up what was left.  HEAVEN.

If you haven't dove into making your own dressings, this is one to try first.  And if you don't care for basil you should be slapped around.  And if you still don't care for basil, try a simple half and half EVOO/Balsamic Vinaigrette!

HCG

HCG.  I know by now most people have heard of this.  I know there are some very differing opinions of this "diet".  I know there aren't a whole lot of people who have enough willpower for it.  I wondered about it for a while but at the time only the injections prescribed by a doctor were available so I blew it off.  My mother eventually went on it (the injections), and it took me a whole year afterwards to see she kept the weight off before I actually decided I needed to know more for myself.  I am well aware that there are negative responses to this diet.  "How can anyone survive on 500 calories a day? That's so unhealthy!  You can't lose that weight that rapidly, its not safe!" etc. etc.  I am also well aware that there are people who tried it and didn't like it, couldn't handle it, made them sick, etc.  This isn't a story to make you just go out and buy HCG.  Because if you aren't willing to commit the entire time to it for a true reset, you will fail. Period.  Just settle down there sassy and let me just tell you MY story!

red, green, lean

The bottles aren't mine, I SWEAR!
This isn't even Saturday, either!
The apples and tomatoes are being divas and asked not to be photo'd. 

Lately I have been working reaaaaaal hard on getting my diet squared away.  When I say diet, I don't mean "Oh, let me starve and not eat anything at all so I can lose weight.", I mean my regular foods.  With the current workout I am doing, I need to eat a lot of proteins and junk so I can't just eat less and call it good.  However, it feels like I am holding onto the extra carbs and I decided to do some digging and figure things out.  How can I cut carbs from an already low-carb plan?  Where is the extra sugar coming from?

Cans, cans, cans!

Look at these beauties!

In the last couple weeks, I have spent some time watching food documentaries and sharing them with my family.  After watching, we are even more open to trying to shop solely from the Farmer's Market.  I hadn't been taking photos of all our shopping days because, how boring to see weekly pick-ups?  However, this Saturday's shopping extravaganza was the largest one yet!  We are trying  to avoid the store (Kroger, Country Mart) at all costs, though with certain things it's pretty impossible.  I don't think I can make rice paper and we aren't in big enough of a town where our market provides cheeses....yet.  I already make bread for Goose each week but wouldn't it be nice to buy local, instead of worrying that there's GMO's or corn by-product in it? Basically, if we can get it at the market or the Nature Girls store, then we are good.  Some of these things this week were purchased with intent to can and start stocking up our pantry.  I made an impulse buy this week and bought a bag of peaches.  I don't even eat peaches!

Because I want to get old.

People who truly have jumped on the "healthy bandwagon" usually have reasons why they did.  I'm not talking the fad dieters who choose to drop a few lbs this month, or join a workout group for a month and quit after.  I mean the people who had their eyes opened right up and slapped in the face with "you NEED to get better for YOU".

Here's my reason.  I don't like divulging this as a conversation starter, I don't want to be pitied.  In fact, most people would never know or guess that I have a disease.  I don't tell this story for pity and I refuse to let it define me.  But it is a part of me, and a major factor in my health changes no matter how big or small they are and will be.

Cravings

We went to the market yesterday.  I didn't take photos because one of the tiny humans had an emergency allergy issue and used my curtains as a snot rag/food napkin the other day and my pretty backdrop is currently in the dryer.  Gotta love washable things.  I don't think I ever want fancy enough curtains that I can't just toss in the washer.  I like to be lazy.  Trust me though, I got a lot of green!  Two bags of lettuce, honey (as if Goose needed a fourth jar of honey!), green onions, one tomato (yes one.  Skeptical Goose didn't know if he'd like greenhouse grown maters) and bison rib eye steaks.  I then took him right over to my latest find, Nature Girls.  It's a small local health foods store.  Not like Whole Foods, but good enough for us not lucky enough to be near one or Trader Joe's.  I had wanted Goose to check out the meat prices because I mostly suck at it.  There, we ended up with some kale, shitake mushrooms, cheese, and the little gem I found, Frozen Kefir.  Several times I heard him say "ooooh we need to come back for THAT!" I was too busy trying to show him all the things, and he was just focused on the mushrooms and tomatoes and safflower oil.

We were actually out shopping for an HDMI cable if you can believe that but I am good at saying, "oh we just should stop here since it's on the way", and before you know it I have drug  you all over the place shopping for things you didn't have on your list.  *points to self* IMPULSE BUYER!  Since he had to see if there was such a cable at Walmart, I ended up with an okay batch of asparagus too.  By the end of it all, we had to go to three different stores for the HDMI cable, and Goose wildly proclaimed that we were going all over the place back and forth across town.  "Making a star all over the town of Rolla", he said.  Whatever. Quality time!

A very helpful tool: the tiny mighty Fitbit! UPDATE!

Get your own!

Back in October 2011, I decided I needed some help with counting my calories.  Not the calories I consumed.  The ones I burned.  I used Calorie Count for what seemed ages, but it only counted my caloric intake of foods, not what I was putting out.  It was ideal for food journals which works really well and I encourage everyone to write what they eat down but I needed more.  I also wanted something that was convenient to wear and would register my video workouts.  I had looked at some of the HRM watches (which I was skeptical about because really I just wanted to do the calories...I can measure my own heart rate thankyouverymuch), and even considered a Nike + Sportband but it only registered a pace walk, meaning if I am standing in my living room doing TurboFire, it wouldn't show up that I did anything.  I also feared that it wouldn't show me on a treadmill in case I get lucky enough to twist Goose's arm into one someday.  Thinking ahead for the future here people!