Monday Morning Weigh In……..With Purpose

Home Makin’ Girl was talking about weight loss last week and threw a shout out to see if anyone wanted to join her as she walked this weight loss journey.

Seeing as I’m already walking that road, I figured “Hey! Why not do this with some others?

It’s almost always more fun to do things with someone(s) than it is to do it alone.

So, Last Tuesday – which was when she wrote about this – I had actually stepped on the scale that morning and it rang out loud and proud at 197.4 lbs.

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So I said that I’d take a picture of myself to go along with the weight, and I’ll be keeping a record of what’s going on here.

I’m hoping that putting it out here, makes it a little easier to stick to my “plan” or at the very least that I’ll think twice about shoving that extra piece of “whatever” in my mouth.

I’m taking an exercise class 3-5 times a week and so I’m happy with that.

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I started just under 2 months ago at just over 200lbs and while I’ve not noticed a huge weight loss, I have noticed a fairly decent drop in inches. I don’t know exactly what those inches are, but I am fitting into clothes that I wore when I was 175lbs and quite a bit flabbier than I am now.

It is frustrating that I’m still heavier as I’d really like the weight to go, but it helps a little that I am slimming or toning. I do believe that weight loss will come…..at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

With all of that being said…..here we are and it’s Monday Morning and my weight this morning was…..

196.2 lbs.

This is a loss of 1.2 pounds.

While I wish it was more….I can be happy that it was a loss and not a gain. YAH!

I’ll be updating a bit more regularly, or at least that’s my plan.

Anyone else want to join us? You can update in my comments or link back to yourself or whatever you want. It’s just fun to know that others are there for you and understand what you’re up against.

ps. I was just headed out to my class and had Jon snap a picture of me rockin’ my work out gear.

Holding myself back!

Yup, I’ve been holding myself back.

You might be wondering if this is a good thing or not and…well, it is!

I’ve had these amazing lightbulb moments recently and you know how when something hits you as HUGE, or LIFE CHANGING or ALTERING that you want to share…..well, this is one of my moments and I’m gonna share….m’kay?

I’ve been exercising for over 3, almost 4 weeks now and while I’m not thrilled with the weight loss (haven’t really lost anything. I’m hovering between 196 and 202 and that sucks). There are other things that I’ve definitely noticed as positive effects from the exercise.

I’m needing less sleep. I feel stronger. I can do more and more of the class each time with better technique and skill. These are all positives. I can see and feel muscles developing (under the nice layer of fat that I’m hoping will start to melt soon). I’m excited to go to the class and feel AMAZING when the class is done. These are all good things, eh?

I’m working on my diet to find the right balance of food and calories that will fuel my body and help me to start loosing.

I will admit that I’ve felt very discouraged by how hard I feel like I’m working and the fact that I don’t see the weight coming off, BUT…..I am trying to focus on me getting healthy and strong FOR LIFE and not just for weight loss. I believe the weight loss will come…..or so I keep telling myself.

I’m also learning more about myself and having these little “lightbulb moments” during the class which then translate into more thought provoking times outside of class.

I am a highly organized (heck you could call it anal) type of person. My mind moves so fast……ALL THE TIME. Trying to shut it off or at the very least slow it down is a major undertaking. I find that I’m constantly thinking of what comes next. I’m constantly trying to figure out what happens in the future so that I can plan or organize for it so that it will all run smooth and then everyone will be able to enjoy life. (another realization just hit me – BLAM!!!! – man….I’ll be processing this one today some…..hmmmmmm)

I realized one class that I was so tired and overwhelmed because in my head I was running through how long there was still in the class and how much we still had left to do and which exercises that were hard I still had to do and how long until the easy ones started…………

My thoughts were focused so far ahead of myself and I realized that I was exhausted just thinking about what I still needed to accomplish. I was totally psyching myself out and was completely sapping any energy that I might have had to do the exercise that I needed to be doing right at that moment.

I tried very hard to bring myself back to the present, and to focus on what was in front of me and to just take it one step at a time, but honestly…..finishing that class was very difficult.

I went into the next class purposing to stay right in the moment and to not race ahead and while I had to reign myself in a few times…..I did WAY better and actually found that I had the energy to do the class and I wasn’t wasted by the time the class was finished. In fact, I was surprised at how fast the class seemed to zoom by. It was awesome.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how this applies in my everyday life.

And….well…..it really does apply.

I know that I’ve got a busy, BUSY fall that needs to be planned and organized and while I love to plan and organize – I’ve been letting it all overwhelm me slightly. I know that I can do it all. I know that it’s not too much. I even enjoy it. And so I’ve promised myself that I will view the over all picture lightly. I’ll see it for what it is….the big picture and then I’ll get busy with what needs to be done today and this week.

I can do this….and I’m gonna just relax and stay present and just enjoy today.

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Tomorrow will take care of itself and my worrying about it won’t make it any easier or harder – will it?
Matt 6:25-34

Day 5……looking Up

Alright, so I blaaaaaaahhhed all of yesterday’s blah right outta me, and today has been a better day.

We ARE going away early next week for a 2 nighter in Whistler. It should be a ton of fun. Neither Jon nor I have been to Whistler recently and the kids have never been up there. So, we should have a blast up there with the family. Do you have any suggestions of things that we “should for sure do” while we are there? I’d appreciate hearing about what your favorite summer activities at Whistler are.

Today went a little differently than I planned or rather it went differently than I had thought it would, but it was still good.

My brother came over this morning to work a bit more on the trim . We have those HORRID rounded walls that were SO POPULAR about…..oh…..15 years ago (the age of our home) and so we had to order special rounded trim pieces to finish off the trim after we had the flooring put in. They finally came into the shop and today he brought them over. It’s so nice to spend time with family, even if they are working.

After he left, we popped over to this little coffee and tea shop in the Fort. It is such a cute place AND…..best of all, my cousin works there, and was able to take a quick break so we visited. So much fun.

After that we hit two stores to try and find me a pair of Birkenstocks. I’ve bought them a few times in the past and wear them until they fall apart. I end up feeling so great from wearing them (I’ve had massive issues with my feet) and I’ve really noticed that recently my feet have been hurting and then that means that my knees are hurting and then my hips hurt and my back hurts and then I get a headache……yah! All because of my feet. So, I’m on the search for another pair of Birkenstocks, but I’m looking for something pretty. We’ll see. I’ll show ya what I got, when I actually get a pair.

We didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but we can still look in a few other places.

We headed home after that and I’m feeling more settled now. We are managing to work though some of the boxes and to get the garage cleared out some and to put more and more things away and I’m feeling like it possible that we might get “sorta” settled before this vacation is over and definitely before school starts.

One HUGE weight off my shoulders are the kids school supplies. I found out that the school orders packages of the school supplies from Smartpacks and I am ordering the kids supplies tonight. We got ahold of the company today and the kids supplies will be delivered directly to the school and it’s for a decent price, but the biggest thing…..I don’t have to go anywhere and search out “the best” deals or fight with all the other crazy parents….I’m just sitting here on my butt clicking away and feeling so happy and smug. Yah me!

Tomorrow we’ll probably attack a few more boxes and maybe try to do something fun with the kids….we’ll see.

But, I’m feeling WAY more relaxed about everything today. And that’s a good thing, right?

ps. for anyone who cares – I’ve exercised 10 outta the last 13 days, and am feeling good about myself. I’ll weigh in tomorrow morning to see how that’s all going.

Apple Hemp Muffins

Yah, so I took a down day on Monday after my melodramatic post….OH WOE IS ME! And then – BLAM! Whadda ya know…I’m back at it…..or not…..we’ll see! Just taking it one tired day at a time!

Here’s the deal. I did some baking on Monday and they were SO yummy I just had to share.

They still taste pretty good the next day, but fresh outta the oven with a light schmear of Earth Balance and they were DELICIOUS!

I found this recipe at the Happy Foody. Here in this exact post…..to be exact.

We are attempting to fatten Jeremy up this summer as he looks like he has an eating disorder….well, to be more accurate a not-eating disorder. The meds make him feel slightly nauseated and so he doesn’t eat. Which means that he’s skinny…like skinny, SKINNY, skinny. We have managed to have him not LOSE weight on the meds (which apparently it is totally normal to loose weight on ADD meds), but honestly I can’t fathom him losing any weight. You can already see every bone and sinew on his body. It’s slightly nasty…or maybe even a little more than slightly nasty. Not cool for an 8 year old.

And so, I feed him and feed him and feed him again; and deal with him un-medicated as often as I can so that he can gain some weight and look just slightly more “normal”. This ought to be a FUN summer.

Any way, the point is….for healthy, non-dairy, non-egg muffins…these are amazing. Give’em a try.

Here is the recipe that I used….tweaked slightly from the original which you can find from the link above.

Apple Hemp Muffins

Don’t they look scrumptious!

Apple Hemp Muffins

1 1/2 cups stoneground Spelt Flour
1 cup ground oats (blend quick oats in food processor until flour consistency)
1/2 cup hemp seed nuts
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (freshly ground is best!)
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
3/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine all wet ingredients. Mix together gently and fold until blended (do not over mix). Bake for 15-20 minutes

Makes 18 small muffins.

Nothing of Value……

I have absolutely nothing of value to say.

I tried 4 times and wrote 4 different posts actual, whole, REALLY SUCKY posts on that day that Jon guest posted and then I gave up and asked if he had anything.

Siah has slept through the night exactly ONCE in the last 2 weeks and that was Saturday night.

He has had 2 allergic reactions complete with bloody diarrhea, vomiting, screaming, and wicked WICKED, gut bloating, stomach rumbling gas. Throw into the middle of that a wicked virus, that I’m guessing attacked because his immune system was compromised, and you have my life over the last 2 weeks.

I’m so freaking exhausted that I can’t think straight.

I’m losing words…you know when you can see the word in your mind or a picture of the word or an idea of what your talking about and you can’t verbalize it…..ya I sound like a complete idiot right now as I struggle for words and they just aren’t coming.

I’m forgetting things….important things.

I don’t do this. I’m an “on top of it” kind of person. I remember everything. I don’t goof up (much).

I figure that conservatively we have been getting about a total of 3-4 hours of sleep a night and that’s been broken up into hour stretches.

I’m an 8hr of sleep a night person and this feels like it’s slowly destroying me.

On top of that, he is miserable and tired and because of that tiredness and cranky-ness, Siah is an absolute MONSTER during the day. After the good sleep on Saturday night, he was his normal happy self on Sunday morning, but after a too short of an afternoon sleep – he once again crossed over into “grouchy bear” territory.

I think about my bed. I fantasize about sleep. I dream about running away from my children and my home and all the packing and moving and sleeping for 2 weeks. I just want a few consecutive days of sleep straight through in a row. It’s so sad.

I really just want my baby to sleep.

And so, I have no idea when I’ll have something exciting to say or even interesting as I’m certain that this is not interesting reading material. Something amazing might happen today and I might scrape together the effort to share it……….or not!

I LOVE to come here and share, but when I’m this tired I’m aware of what that “something to share” sounds (or reads) like. BORING! And so I’ll be back when I can find my brain or my funny or even if I just get a good bit of sleep…..

…to make the weekend a little bit more fun-ner!

And we woke up this morning to Siah barfing.

I seriously cannot believe it. Well, I guess I can as it’s actually true, but good grief.

And, if the barfing weren’t bad enough he’s got a fever of 102*F.

So, I have no idea what this means for my plans for this weekend, but today – I’ll be staying at home today praying that my little boy feels better.

He has fallen back to sleep right now and I’m hoping that he will sleep peacefully for a while. After the initial barf-fest at 5am, he did come to bed and we snuggled and slept and then he woke at at 6:45am and barfed some more. Fun, Fun!

So, I’ll be spending a greater portion of today snuggling my baby. Which except for the sick part, is not a bad way to spend a day.

Randomness

I sat in the baby’s room last night, listening to him scream and then stop and then scream and then stop and all the while singing and shushing him and desperately hoping that he would just hurry up and “go to sleep” already. Fun Times, I tell you. Fun Times! No, I can’t just leave him in there all alone to scream himself to sleep. One – there is that whole, “life is precious and even more so since I held my son in my arms and then left him at the hospital never to see him again” thing and two he can sort of climb/fall/drop out of his bed and I don’t want him hurting himself. It wasn’t that long and he was stopping and starting which means that he wasn’t really serious….just pissed!

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Jon stayed working late in Vancouver last night and so it was all 4 of the the monkey versus me in the evening struggle. Again with the even more funner times. I don’t think “funner” is a word, let alone the phrase “more funner”, but I’m not changing it.

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TMI warning…….you’ve been warned…..read at your own comfort level….

Remember last month when I talked about this amazing tea and how it had totally helped me out with regards to extremely heavy flow. At that point it hadn’t done anything about the length of the cycle (42 days I think it was last month which I attributed to nursing, but I’m still nursing right now so…….?) Well, I’m so pleased to be able to say that this month I am ROCKIN’ a whole 29days. Yup! I almost didn’t believe it, but it’s kind of hard to ignore the signs. I was pretty certain I had at least another week or two, and when I counted out the days….WOOO HOO! 29 , BABY! And so far, we’re rocking the lighter flow and so this is truly what I’d call, “A Happy Period!” Thank you, Always! And just so you know….I’ve always (pun intended) hated that slogan.

But I am totally happy with my tea and the way that my body is regulating and cycling “normally”. I wasn’t even as “witchy” as I can sometimes be around this time of the month……that’s good too, eh? AND…..it probably explains a little of my “down” mood over the past week….right? Now that I think about it, it would also explain the wicked tummy ache that I had on Sunday….hmmmm?!?!?

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We had the Home Inspector over to the town home yesterday morning and apparently we are buying the best deal on the face of the planet or at least in BC. Two elderly people who have not really lived in the house for the past 14 years, since it was built, are giving us an immaculately cared for place. Little things like the BRAND NEW, installed 2 months ago dishwasher…has never been used because how many dirty dishes can two old people make and really, its faster to just hand wash them. And they are leaving behind their little in perfect working order freezer so we can ditch our energy sucking monster that we can never seem to fill up any how. And the 14 year old water heater, looks like new and only it’s serial number shows it’s true age……honestly…the water heater is the only thing (aside from the roof which we know about) that we might need to replace in the somewhat distant future. The home inspector figured that the water heater might spazz out when actually expected to…you know……work! With 6 people, and at least one load of laundry per day and at least one load of dishes in the BRAND NEW dishwasher…..it’s going to be something that gets a work out….

But…..we are getting a wicked, WICKED deal. And the tools….OH MY GOODNESS….I should let Jon tell you about the tools….some that have never been used and they are leaving them for Jon…He feels like he’s gone to testosterone heaven.

I do believe that we are being given a HUGE blessing in the this town home; and while I’m still struggling with SHARING my property and not just having a stand alone HOUSE….I can see how this is SUCH A BLESSING FOR US in SO MANY ways.

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I’ve not packed one more box since the weekend and a huge part of me is FREAKING OUT ABOUT THAT. Another part says….hey, it’ll all get done, right?

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I’ve gone to work today and left a brutally messy house behind me. I hate to say this, but honestly….I don’t even want to come home because it’s going to be even messier….unless Jon has done something about it and there is nothing that I care to do about it until tomorrow when I have my next “home” day. And so…it sits….unhappy and messy….and causing stress.

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I can’t wait for school to be over because seriously….if we had to go through another month coughing up as much dough as we have this past month for various field trips…..we’d be bankrupt….seriously. Why do they save it up until the last month? Why not spread it out over the year? We are fortunate enough to be able to afford these field trips (times 3 kids), but I GUARANTEE you that there are more than just a few parents who can’t and who are feeling incredibly guilty that they can’t nd so are going into debt so as not to be embarrassed over it. It’s not cool.

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I think that’s all I got for ya right now….but I’ll leave you with two questions?

Are you a sock person or a no sock person? (I’m a “no sock” person, year round)

What is your favorite “summer” colour? (my favourite “summer” color is red…think strawberries, watermelon, cherries)

Heavy Loss and Loss of Heavy

I should have updated on Saturday, but somehow it’s Monday now……..

How did that happen?

I lost a bunch of weight this past week. I think that the biggest culprit of the weight gain was not in fact the wedding food, but it was “that time of the month”.

I was down 3.8 pounds. And now, I am currently 188.2 pounds….or at least I was on Saturday.

So, the whole weight loss thing seems that it’s going “okay” for me. My sister is getting married in a month and while I’d love to be down to 180lbs….I’ll just be happy if I’m under 185lbs. Baby steps, people…..it’s called setting realistic goals so that if things don’t work out the way I “hope” then I’m not too, terribly disappointed.

One thing that was AMAZING….if you’re a guy or just don’t like to talk about “female” things, then you should just stop right here and be on your merry way……I’ve warned you!

When I originally started seeing the naturopath about all the losses I’d had, she put me on a whole bunch of stuff, but one of the things was a tea.

I LOVED the flavour of the tea and what she told me was that it was a tea that helped with “female health” and reproductive organs and energy and that well, it was just pretty darn good stuff.

I took it for two months and then got pregnant and stopped drinking it. During that time I went from a long 35 day cycle to a 29 day cycle and went from bleeding like I was a stuck pig for an entire week to what I would assume (from what I’ve read) is a normal or normal-ish length and flow for all that fun time of the month stuff…..you know average flow for 4-6 days.

I figured that the naturopath had worked her magic and that was the reason for my “normalcy” finally after my entire life of being….well……grossly not normal…

I found a recipe for some tea online and wondered if this was the tea that had been given to me back then. It sounded similar. I picked up the different ingredients and mixed the magic potion up and made myself a pot of loose leaf tea. As it was sitting and brewing, I smelled it and it smelled exactly like I remembered. After it had sat for a while……I had a cup and YUUUUUUMMMMMMMY!

It was the exact tea.

I was thrilled. I could make it anytime I liked and for WAY cheaper than I had bought it through the naturopath.

I had wondered if it would help at all with how I’d been feeling which was tired and a bit worn out and also if it would help with the “overwhelming time of the month” situation.

I did feel a bit less tired and like I had more energy, but there was absolutely NO difference in the length of my cycle. In fact, nursing is still messing that whole thing up and I was actually 43 days in between cycles. But, OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! the difference it made in the amount of it all.

I actually felt “normal” again….not “my normal”, but what you read in books and on the internet and hear from the dr that should be normal. I was normal. It wasn’t overwhelming…It was, quite frankly, amazing.

I know that amazing is not something that you typically read about the whole time of the month thing, but honestly….this month was amazing. And all I did differently was to drink some delicious tasting tea. I’m so excited.

If you click on the links below, you can read about the benefits that you can get from the ingredients. This stuff is pretty darn good for you.

Mama’s Brew Tea (but you don’t have to be a mama to drink this stuff)

8 parts Red Raspberry Leaves
3 parts Peppermint Leaves
3 parts Alfalfa herb
2 parts Nettle Leaf

I use tablespoons to measure it out into a glass container, and then mix it all around. I store it inside a dark cupboard in the kitchen.

I use 1 tsp of the mixed tea to 1 cup of water.

I actually make 2 litres (8 cups) at a time. I’ll have a cup and store the rest of it in my fridge. I just pour out a cup into a pot to heat it up. (I don’t have a microwave) Supposedly the microwaves actually breaks down some of the nutritional value.

I’ve made it two ways….

1) In a pot on the stove. I’ve put in 2L of water into a pot and then 3 TBLSP of the tea let it come to a boil and then let it steep for 10 minutes.

2) I boil 2L of water in my kettle and then put 3 TBLSP of the tea into a pitcher and when the water has boiled, then I pour the water into the pitcher, stir the tea around and let it steep for 10 minutes.

After it has steeped for 10 minutes, then you can strain the leaves out (I use a mini-strainer) and then it’s good to enjoy.

Some people like to add honey to it, but I just like it plain. It’s delicious as both a hot and cold tea.

You should be able to get the ingredients at your local heath food store. None of them are difficult to obtain.

If you decide to try it out….let me know what you think and if it helps you at all.

A “No ‘Poo” Update

There are some out there who will understand my title and others who won’t, and that’s okay…it’ll all become clear very quickly.

I got an e-mail today from someone who came across my blog because she was looking into something that I was looking into over a year ago.

There are a few things that we started over a year ago and I’ve actually been thinking about the fact that we’ve made some pretty radical changes in our life style over the past few years and really…..it’s all been good. I’ll try and update on a few more things in some upcoming posts.

But, to talk about the whole no shampoo deal……

Just over a year ago, we ditched shampoo and really have never looked back.

The whole baking soda thing really actually does work.

I still don’t use the apple cider vinegar to rinse with, but from time to time Jon will. The difference between the two of us is that I have absolutely straight thin hair and Jon has thick and amazing curly hair. He figures that it helps him and I really don’t think it does anything for me.

In the past year, I did buy one bottle of some all natural non SLS shampoo, but other than that…it has been baking soda and water.

Even the kids have adapted and they would probably be my only gripe, and really – it’s not the baking soda as much as it is a “user error.” The 12 year old has hit puberty and has the nasty greasy hair to show for it. When she does a crap job of scrubbing then she walks outta the shower with hair that is just as greasy as when she waltzed in. The other gripe, is that the 10 year old has sometimes come out of the shower with a HUGE clump of the baking soda that was not scrubbed in properly and never got rinsed out well and so it’s just sitting in her hair and if left there, it can be quite irritating – not to mention terribly ugly.

For the 8 year old boy and the baby, mostly we just use water on their hair…and the 8 year old probably gets his hair scrubbed with the baking soda about once a month.

I believe that the scrubbing is the kicker. You’ve got to scrub the baking soda in and around very well in order for it to do a good job of cleaning.

We are still using this method a year later and I don’t see us quitting anytime soon.

But, how is my hair – you ask???

It’s fabulous. Really. Not that I’m bragging, but I feel like my hair is WAY healthier that it was before. I can go longer in between shampoos. I probably wash my hair twice a week. It just doesn’t get as greasy. It feels soft and is manageable, and I think that it has more body because there is less “gunk” weighing it down.

I am thrilled that I gave this method a shot. It has been SO worth it for us. It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s healthy and it’s amazingly cost effective.

One thing that I haven’t totally figured out is how to store it and use it in the bathroom, in a pretty way. Right now the box sits on our counter or in our vanity and we bring out a small measuring cup and take some into the shower with us. I am looking for a nice container that I’d be able to leave sitting on the edge of the tub and just be able to either spoon out or shake out or………..I dunno something.

We actually left a box sitting just outside the shower, but it got some moisture in it and the baking soda got clumpy. So, I’m just gonna just throw it out there and ask if anyone has any ideas of what I could use to store the baking soda in the bathroom and preferably in the shower but that would still look nice.

Anyone???/Ideas????

Anyone out there tried this? What were/are your thoughts? Did it work for you? Lemme know.

ps….I have a 40% off sale on all the jewelery in my store and it’s on until the end of May – just in case you were interested in picking up a little something for a little less.

Shrimp Fettuccine

Well, I had my first weigh in yesterday.

And the damage……..

I lost 4.4 pounds. That brings me from 194 lbs to 189.6 lbs…..officially leaving the 190’s, even if only by a smidge.

YAAAAHHHHH! I’m so excited. I managed to stay within my points allowance for each day and with the extra “flex” points that you get each week, I went out for my weekly date with Jon – for sushi.

We’ve been trying to figure out some fun meals that fit within the points per day, AND….that also fit within the lifestyle and diet that we’ve chosen.

In some ways, it’s a little more difficult to eat the way that we do and do Weight Watchers…only because some of the more “natural” things cost more points than a sugar free chocolate bar or things like goat cheese have a higher fat count than regular cow cheese and I’ve not yet come across a low fat or fat free goat cheese. There might actually be some out there, but I’m just happy that I’ve been able to find decent goat cheese, in the first place.

This past Friday night I was at a bachelorette party and we ate a a great little restaurant. I was thrilled because they had a spinach and goat cheese salad with strawberries and a vinaigrette dressing. It fit perfectly within the points that I had left over for that day and so I ordered it and it was okay….I was surprised that the goat cheese had no flavor – which is amusing considering that I typically think that goat cheese is a little too strong. So, my tastes must be adjusting.

Two of the girls in the party ordered a seafood pasta with cream sauce and it looked heavenly. I was SO JEALOUS….and desperately wished that I could even just try it, BUT…..I keep telling myself that…….

Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels!

And, I made it through the dinner and then all was well.

So ever since then I’ve had a hankerin’ for some sort of creamy shrimp pasta.

I picked up some shrimp on Saturday and some rice fettuccine.

I did vary a little from our diet in that I also picked up some fat-free cream cheese. Now I know that it has dairy in it, but it’s just a little cheat, right?

I made the cream sauce from

1/4 cup of Fat-Free Cream Cheese
1 Tblsp of Vinegar
1 Tblsp of Soy Sauce
1/4 cup of onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp of oregano
1/4 tsp of cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

I added in 2 1/2 cups of shrimp and cooked it all up.

It tastes AMAZING!

I boiled up a package of Brown Rice Fettuccine and then when it was done cooking I threw in a bunch of asparagus with the tips removed and then broken in half. There was probably 3/4 cup of asparagus in total….I’d probably double that next time and believe me THERE WILL BE A NEXT TIME!

I threw the asparagus in with the sauce just to heat it up but left it crunchy. YUM.

and…………..VOILA!

Shrimp Fettuccine

One serving was

1 cup of Brown Rice Fettuccine (4 points)
and a quarter of the shrimp, asparagus, cream sauce. (3 points)

It tastes delicious and is totally worth the 7 points.

If you were starving and combined this meal with a nice green or spinach salad, it would be perfect.

I’m looking forward to my weigh-in next Saturday