This lovely array of Petits Fours met me at work today…..and my diet’s shot. Oh well, that’s what birthdays are for!
Image Credits: Top – mine, bottom
Tag: Diet
In Anticipation
Beginnings
It’s the beginning of the month and the week for all of us. It’s the beginning of a new house and a new year for me. Sometimes that can feel tiresome and old-hat but hopefully it is refreshing and exhilarating. For my 25th birthday, I gave myself a diet as a present. It wasn’t exactly fun getting here (no processed foods, no drinking, no starches/sugars) but I’m reaping the benefits now (rediscovering my closet/cheekbones). I hope to take the past four weeks of restricted eating into consideration as the diet ends. My goal is to appreciate food more, to spend time discovering recipes, spices, cooking, chewing, smelling and savoring. As much as I’d love to dive into a stack of pancakes and devour a pizza, I’m really craving things like eggs, avocados and cheese. Hopefully the beach in a month will keep my motivation up!
Yummy
Lately, because of the diet, I’ve been thinking more about food and how much I appreciate it. How much of an event it can be and how I occasionally take it for granted or abuse it. Eating is such an adventure. There are so many natural fruits, veggies, spices to choose from and combine, it’s a shame when we waste our time on processed foods. Although, french fries are sometimes the ONLY thing I want. When the diet concludes (two more weeks!) I am going to make a conscious effort to take more care about what I put in my body. It’s always a worthwhile pursuit. Don’t you agree?
Check it out! One of my favorite healthy/foodie blogs is One Smart Brownie by the lovely & accomplished Carolyn Brown.
Self Control
Ok. I realized today that I am going to be physically on the beach in six weeks and two days. I do not feel nor feel that I look fat. With that said, I know I’d look better -5, -10, even -15lbs. I know I’d feel better, I know my clothes would fit better, I know my boyfriend (who lovingly tells me I look amazing) would agree once it was off.
My mom and I are going to Charleston, SC (one of my fave places) to visit my brother who is in college there. I want to get a tan and get lots of cute pictures and wear my cutest summer items while there, not to mention my mom is looking better than ever above age 55. NOT FAIR. If she asks to borrow my swimsuit, I know that will send me spiraling into anorexia but I’m just not sure I want to wait for that.
Here we all are. I think I’m hiding it pretty well but SUMMER IS COMING!
What can I do in 6ish weeks to lose 10lbs? I know it can be done. Question is…am I willing to do it and what is it that I should do.
Goal:
Will also take:
These jeans were loose and are now quite tight. Too tight to wear.
Wish me luck. I NEED IT.
Cleansing and craving
G’day. I don’t remember it ever being -5 degrees in Fayetteville, Arkansas but apparently that is what it will be tomorrow. What is one to do with their time besides shuttling in and out of places like office buildings, grocery stores, basketball arenas and homes when the weather takes this sort of turn?
I have decided to go on a “cleanse”. Initially, I chose the master cleanse or lemonade diet. On Monday night, I mixed up a pitcher full of water, lemon juice, syrup and cayenne pepper (after a $50 trip to the co-op). On Tuesday, with my first sip of the concoction, I nearly gagged. I was quite depressed as I’d hoped to continue on this path to inner cleanliness and healthier lifestyle for 10 WHOLE DAYS. Supposedly, you should consume 10 servings of the drink. I barely got through 3. By 8pm I was starving, hungrier by far than any other time I’d accidentally gone without eating. I decided to switch to a juice cleanse, where you drink around 800 calories/day of organic and unadulterated fruits and vegetables. Needless to say, I guzzled down some veggie juice and felt much better. Later I spoke with my friend Lydia, who is a master cleanse veteran. She explained that you cannot add the cayenne pepper to the batch if you make a day’s worth ahead of time. The longer the cayenne sits in the mixture, the more it seeps in and the more it seeps in, the spicier and albeit grosser the mixture becomes. You MUST add the cayenne on a per serving basis. Good to know.
For today, I am still on the juice cleanse. I feel fine and I actually slept really well last night. Hopefully, that will continue. The evenings are much harder for me when it comes to resisting food temptations. I am actually excited about ridding my body of toxins and spending 10 days w/o caffeine or alcohol. But, there really isn’t much to do besides eat & drink when it’s <10 degrees out!
Despite my new year’s resolution to save more money, I’ve been salivating over a few things…
Have a fabulous day!
The Window Shopper 