Walkin' on Sunshine

Here we are, another dreary Sunday in Chicago (cloudy, feels like 19, supposed to have flurries through Tuesday). I, however, am feeling SUPER sunny. I lost 3 pounds this week, which is, 1., is a freaking miracle with the junk I've been eating and, 2., puts me into the next lower bracket of tens, changing the number between the 1 and the 0. I won't be telling what the number went from or to, but I'm SUPER motivated by it. After a few weeks of losing a pound, gaining a pound, I'm re-motivated by this loss!

As you may or may not recall, my resolution for March was to calm my inner voice. I have to say, I don't want to. I've been so happy lately seeing my friends and family and have so much awesome stuff coming up, my inner voice kind of sounds like a 6-year-old on Christmas morning. So I'm just going to keep letting her shriek and giggle. When I start to stress over something, then I'll work on calming it.

So, I am going to re-new my February goal of working out more. I started strong, but fell off the wagon. Now I'm more motivated than ever to keep those numbers going down. Plus, I'm going to have to shop for a wedding dress eventually. And when I do, I want to be ready for it. Nothing is worse than a bridezilla, except a starving bridezilla trying to fit into a gown. 

I hope you've all had a weekend that makes you just as happy as I am today. And if not, try to take sometime to calm your inner voice and count your blessings. There are many.

xo 

Reboot

I haven't posted in almost a month. Shame on me. I'm sorry I've left you all totally hanging. 

February and March are so hard for me. It's cold (a day before spring and it's a Real Feel of 1 degree here in Chicago), it's dark, it's dreary. I honestly don't have much to say, as I haven't been doing much except working.

Last weekend was the first weekend that got the ball in motion for all my amazing spring/summer activities. I got to go home. To Long Island. To my people. 

To some it may not have sounded like anything crazy. Friday night at local bar with friends. Saturday breakfast with Grandma. Saturday night engagement party for my middle school best friend. Home Sunday morning. To me, it was like a mental and spiritual reboot. 

I was so happy to be with my people, and just relax, and dance Friday night away, and listen to my Grandma give me all the gossip of the people in town and at church. I was so happy to curl my sister's hair before she went out and then celebrate a beautiful couple and meet some new friends. I feel like I just got a fresh start. 

So now I'm ready. I'm refreshed and looking forward to spring (even if it's still freezing) and all the amazing things coming up. And to sharing it with all of you.

Blog Slacker, Cooking Queen

I've been a blog slacker! I woke up this morning and realized it was Thursday already (how did that happen?) and I hadn't written all week! Work has been a crazy, and I spent the weekend doing a ton of cooking and prepping of food, which was so lovely. 

I've noticed that my love for cooking is really growing. Though I'm no super chef (yet), I really feel at ease in the kitchen, and it puts me in a fantastic mood. I spent Sunday chopping veggies, making home made tortillas, and trying new recipes. Some were great (the popovers, below) and some not so much (spaghetti squash - though many friends said I got a bad recipe and suggested some others). Also, doing a lot of prep on the weekends makes the weeknight dinners easy (for the most part) and makes it easier to stay on track with healthy eating. 

I'm still working off the concept of the real food pledge (www.100daysofrealfood.com). It's been really great and eye-opening to think about what's REALLY in our food. I won't preach, but when you start reading about it, it's frightening. 

While I have been eating WAY more fruits & veggies than I ever have in my life (yay me!) we're still in what I'm calling a transition phase. There's still some not totally great for you food in the house (white flour, sugary flavored yogurts, etc.). I don't like wasting food and think it would be shameful to throw it out, so I'll be replacing items with healthier options as we use them. 

So since I need to use up our flour, I made popovers. They were AWESOME!

Here's the recipe for this delicious treat - you can swap out white flour (which I used) for whole wheat flour. Just make sure the milk and eggs are at room temperature when you start, or they won't pop right.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 2/3 cup organic fat free milk at room temperature
• 2 tbsp. of butter, melted
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 
• Grease muffin tin VERY liberally. Do NOT use cupcake/muffin liners.
• Wisk together the eggs, milk and butter.
• Wisk the flour and salt into the egg mixture until it's well blended.
• Pour batter into muffin tin until they are about three quarters full. 
• Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Turn oven temperature down to 350 degrees and bake another 15 minutes.
• Take popovers out of the oven. Serve warm with butter and jam.

In this 30 minutes of baking it is imperative that you DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR! It's really hard to not know what's going on in there, but if you open the door, they'll collapse on themselves and you'll have little dough hockey pucks.

Serve these with some fresh fruit, hot coffee and enjoy! :)

I Love Love!

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. It just makes me so happy!

Some people view it as a day about couples, but to me, it's about LOVE... for everyone! Maybe because it is my sister's birthday (Happy Birthday Meg!) and we always celebrated it together as a family, I've just never seen it as such a romantic day. 

It's a day to share your love with everyone. I just love getting up in the morning and texting my friends with hearts, emailing my parents, and just taking the time to make sure that the people I love know that I love them. It's important to let people know how special they are to you.

So from me to you, have a very happy, wonderful, love-filled Valentine's Day! 

Check Yo'self Before You Wreck Yo'self

It's a little hard for me to sit here and write this post, mainly because I feel like a hypocrite. I'm a very extreme person - it's usually all or nothing. There are very few things I'm in between on. However, I do believe that one few places that there is a place for moderation is when it comes to eating. 

My goals for the year included living a healthier lifestyle. Not just to lose weight (though it's an added goal), but I also don't want to be a crash dieter for the rest of my life. I want to be healthy and happy for a long long time. Alzheimer's runs in my family, and I don't want it. I have a really blessed life, and I want to live it to the fullest.

In my searching for yummy, healthy recipes, I have come across some INSANE diets - and many of them conflict each other. All meat, no meat, all grains, no grains, no sugar, all sugar (okay I made that one up), and cleanse, cleanse, cleanse. I've become VERY frustrated. Then... I got sucked into the trap. 

I started thinking, "Maybe I need to cleanse. Maybe I can't start changing my eating UNTIL I cleanse. Maybe I can cleanse over a weekend, so when my body goes into detox, I can just lie in bed and suffer through." I was falling into the misinformation trap. Until a former co-worker pulled me up from the dark cleanse hole.

Real Food. It's that simple. Stop eating processed junk, and eat real, natural food. Eat fruit. Eat veggies. Eat organic meat. Eat whole grains. Eat organic dairy. Don't buy anything with more than 5 ingredients. Make things yourself instead of buying them prepackaged, filled with chemicals. It was like seeing the light again. Just use common sense. 

I want to thank Lisa for snapping me out of my vortex of dieting doom and introducing me to the concept of real food. The blog - www.100daysofrealfood.com - has tons of great info, great recipes and is a great reminder that sometimes, common sense and moderation really is all you need.