Hot Mom Diaries, Part 2

  I lost 5 pounds this month! I'm down to 121 now and I see it mostly coming off in my stomach and face. I've been on a non-dairy diet mostly and that seems to be helping me be healthy. It made me realize that dairy has less healthy foods associated with it and helps reduce sugar. I was eating yogurt before, which seems healthy, but then I saw (after I started eating them) that they all had between 16 and 26 grams of sugar!! Yikes. Without milk, I don't eat cereal and when Michael and I went to Bahama Breeze one night I ordered the quesadilla without cheese or sour cream. So it was basically a "drydilla" with spinach and chicken that I scooped diced tomatoes, onions and cilantro on top of. It was still very good- and a lot healthier. This diet also makes grocery shopping much easier and faster because I'm eating a lot of the same things every day. 

Spring mix salad with Southwest quinoa

  Work days: I always have bananas and deli meat on Triscuts. Then I have also brought a quinoa salad, bratwurst with sauerkraut, grapes, salty and sweet nut mix (including creme brulee almonds from Starbucks!) and raisin english muffins with peanut butter. I don't eat all of that in one shift, but I like having options.

  Days off: Scrambled eggs for breakfast, a banana if I have one left over from work, tacos with chicken flavored rice, pulled pork, tomatoes, corn, and cilantro. Michael even liked those a lot. I am big on turkey or chicken and lettuce wraps with hummus too. For a while I kept buying granola from Bulk Nation (I never went there before since I assumed it was a gym for body builders- ha!), but haven't eaten as much granola lately. Until yesterday when I attempted to make my own. I really don't like making food because I don't like messing up a recipe or not liking the taste of how it turns out makes me cranky. Plus the fact that it takes so much longer to make it than eat it, and then wash all of the dishes. Luckily I was able to get a good batch on the second try when I did not use peanut butter.

   Granola is known to help with milk supply, which is why I have been eating it more the past couple of months. But with it also causing "roughage" in the intestines later due to high amounts of fiber, I don't eat much each day. Here is the recipe I used that turned out pretty well:

2 cups of oats

1 beaten egg white

1 tbsp melted coconut oil (might not use that next time)

A bit of olive oil -- I didn't measure much

A good amount of maple syrup -- this helps the oats clump together which is how I like it

Some brown sugar chunks

Vanilla extract

Salt

(Usually the recipes say to add cinnamon too but I don't think we had any?)

I put it on aluminum foil -- parchment paper was suggested but I wasn't going to go to the store to get ingredients because at that point I might as well buy premade granola! -- but it came off okay, and baked it in the toaster oven at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. After it had all cooled I was able to start pulling chunks apart, but it was still soft and sticky because of the syrup. So I flipped the pieces over and cooked them for another 10 minutes until they were dry and crunchy.

Beast of the Middle East with hummus and pita chips -- Yellow Dog Eats

  I haven't gone on a walk for the past 10 days. My last walk was with my friend Jackie and the walk a few days before that was with Alana. I prefer walking with a friend because it is more fun and safer. I have definitely felt myself getting stressed due to not going on walks and having that outlet for my negative energy, so I need to get back into that. I have dedicated this month as Sweaty Saturday starting tomorrow. Bike rides on Tuesdays, Yoga or Zumba on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, PiYo (Pilates) on Thursdays and walking on the weekends unless I'm super pooped. There are free exercise classes at the gym at work, so I'll be participating in a lot of those this month. I have worked there for 4 years and this will be my first time going. I did swim a little bit in the ocean at Clearwater when we went last weekend and mowed the grass on Wednesday which feels like it burns a load of calories considering sweat is literally dripping down my face.

   Luckily after the first week on this diet I stopped having cravings for unhealthy foods, but I did buy a frozen cheese-less pizza. It was okay, but not my favorite since it only had a few ingredients (broccoli, mushrooms, onions & tomatoes). I didn't eat the outside crusts.. One thing that makes me really proud about losing weight and being healthier by listening to my stomach, is that we can still go out to eat a bunch. I know a lot of people hate losing weight because they think they can't have good food anymore. Well for one, even I get surprised how good healthy food can be, especially if you're hungry, everything tastes good!! Secondly, a lot of it is about portion control. You can eat what you want, just don't eat so much of it. Serving sizes are there for a reason. I once was told a story about Michael's sister-in-law who lost weight by simply following the serving sizes, even though she was still eating whatever she wanted (including cake). For me, I just take home more left overs when we go out and control myself from stuffing the whole bread basket in my "face hole".

   I also get a lot more interested in trying new places, especially ones that are local small businesses. Last night we went to a place called Oreganatta. It was a pizza and pasta buffet, so like CiCi's but more expensive. We went there because I had picked that restaurant as one of the free $100 worth of coupons that we got when we bought our Wicked tickets last year. Michael said the dessert bar was lacking as the mini cakes and brownies were dry. He said the pizza was fine in a way where he would eat it after a long day if he was really hungry, but he wouldn't order pizza from there. I didn't have any pizza due to all of it having cheese and I'm not eating that right now, but I was still satisfied with my salad, tortellini, and chicken pesto pasta.

   This pressed juice made me think of the documentary that Michael and I watched a couple years ago called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" about a guy who did a juice cleanse for 60 days. He had been on a load of different medications, but after losing 100 pounds all of his symptoms went away. It's similar to a smoothie, but not thick because it only contains all of the juice that is pressed out of the fruit or vegetable. This one was the flavor of the day including spinach, kale, apple, pineapple, celery, cilantro and mint. I was half expecting it to be gross, but decided to be adventurous and a supportive customer anyway. It was pretty good, but I did notice a lot of tummy rumbles later in the day and the next day. Surprisingly Michael was very interested in that documentary and even looked at juicers around that time, but never bought one because the amount of food used to make one drink would add up in cost so quickly!! Maybe he'll share the next pressed juice with me. Cheers to the rest of the month.