I may take the scenic route, but I eventually reach my destination.

My body took a road trip the last couple days.

No, not really, but the time I take to figure out what works for
my diet and what doesn't is kind of like a road trip. Think about
it. When you get in the car with the whole family, you're super
excited about your destination because it's going to be OMG, fun. Dad's
secretly dreading it because he'll be driving most of the way and
will become the family pack mule. He just wants to get there and
get it over with so he can relax. Mom wants to check out all the
side bonuses on the way, like the Biggest Ball of Twine and she wants
to take pictures of the kids in every state. The kids are just excited
to be going somewhere new, until the excitement wears off in the
first few hours and then they have to stop at every rest stop to
pee.

Dieting is kind of like that. It's super exciting in the beginning,
but once you get going, you hit all kinds of bumps in the road. Like
all the extra peeing due to the water you're drinking. Or the pitstops
your body makes when you've leveled out. And it's true that you get tired
of being a pack mule for your extra weight and you just want to relax.

It's not that I'm lazy. Goodness no. It's just it gets to be that
"time" and I get sluggish and I want to do things like lay in bed
in the morning instead of doing my two miles and I want to have lovely
things like white flour and processed food in bags. Which I did both.
In moderation, so it wasn't too awful. But still, my body was angry
and protesting. It's really no different than being in a hot car with
all your angry family members who want nothing to be somewhere where
everyone else isn't because they've just had enough.

Nothing about me is subtle.

My friends joke that I'm a little slow. It's the god-honest truth.
I am. I'll believe most any untruth I'm told. And my body told me a
HUGE one. I got on the scale yesterday morning and saw I put on
six pounds in....two days. I seriously thought it was a joke.
Come on, I had a few slices of veggie "pizza" and a portion of
Smartfood white cheddar popcorn. And I didn't do my morning walk
for two days. Okay, three. But I was tired. I jumped off the
scale, all the while giving the scale a talking-to for lying to me.
Got back on and the same six pounds were there, taunting me. And
then, I was cranky because I was sure that pizza and popcorn were
coming back to haunt me. Serves me right, yes? I knew that my body
can't handle it but I didn't want to listen, then am surprized
when all my inside organs go juvenile and just let go of everything. A
ll at once. And sit pouting because they'd warned be right before that
if I didn't get to a rest stop soon, they'd sure show me.

I have a point.

Once I got to thinking about it all day and crawled into bed and
REALLY thought about it, I was just about feeling as slow as all get
out. Because yes, I did put on six pounds but only one was really
something I could have controlled. Because I didn't think, oh yeah....
uh,you have five pounds of bloat EVERY MONTH. Doi.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I want to be the change. I
know a lot of you are like me who constantly torment yourself over
"falling off the wagon" and indulging in something now and then. I
know that you've got to let yourself have something every once and
a while or you'll never get to where you want to be, weight-wise.
I know now that processed white flour and packaged popcorn dosen't
work for me but I can find a way to make those things healthier
again so I can have them and enjoy them without my whole body going
on strike. And once I do this a time or two, I eventually find out
these shortcuts so the trip isn't quite as long and hard on the whole
body-family. This way, we enjoy the trip and it dosen't turn out like
a really bad version of National Lampoon's.

Do you know what I mean? Eh. Play along anyway.

So, for those of you who are also traveling to a new weight
destination, how's it going for you?

Still going strong.....though my pillow is calling to me.

I'm still going strong with my new way of life. So far, down 28 pounds.

I only have one issue.

I cut out soda a week ago. Which is freaking HUGE for me. All
I had were a few small headaches and I was a little tired-er than
usual. Which, considering all the new things I'm doing with my
Mom's group and the responsibilities at home were just a little
more for me to juggle. I'm Supermom, right. My job is to juggle
everything, right, and just kind of roll with it. And most of
the time, I do alright with this.

And I thought I was doing okay, but once I hit two in the afternoon
the last two days, I hit the wall and am completely out of energy.
I took a nap at two yesterday. I NEVER do that. EVER. But I had to
because I was just wiped out. And when I got up, I was even more
exhausted. I asked around about what I could be doing to help with
this and it turns out that I might not be getting all I need by just
taking my D vitamins (which are a GODSEND by the way.).
So, I'm going to be adding in B12 and a good multivitamin or prenatal.
And, I've just got to give my body time to ride itself of all the
nasty toxins I was taking in from the Diet soda.

(And let me tell you about that evil diet soda. As soon as I
dropped it, the scale started moving down again and I lost three
pounds by the next day. Holy cow....can you believe it? I got off
the scale and got back on because I thought I was hallucinating.)

Why am I telling you this? Because even Supermoms who think they've
got it all under control could use a little help. If you are on
the weight loss track and all gung ho about "Woo-hoo, I'm losing
weight. One step closer to skinny jeans!", you might be missing out
on something that you need along the way. And even Supermoms get
lost now and then and need to ask for directions on where she
should be going.

So, if you are doing this weight loss thing and either have
commented or are lurking, how's it going for you? Are you struggling
and need a boost or are you a rockstar and want to gloat?

I'd love to hear from you!

Craving-squashing soup, my way.

What a busy week.

I'm glad to have one day at home before the madness starts all
over again.

We spent most of the week at the lake, which was wonderful.
Washington only has about a month of hot weather and when it
is finally hot, we do it up. At least to Washington standards.
This meant a lot of juggling my meals because I don't do sandwich
with thick deli meats, sliced cheese and lots of mayo from the
cooler or packaged treats, like chips or crackers. I mean,
the ones I buy for my boys are organic and all low in sugar/fat,
but I try not to eat much out of a box/bag/package if I can
help it.

I ended up throwing together a soup from a suggestion that I got
from a friend and just kind of making it my own. It was too hot
to roast broccoli for soup so I skipped that step and just
steamed 4-5 cups of broccoli. (If you can do it, roast your
veggies for your soup. Just toss your veggies with a little EVOO,
about a tablespoon, and a little salt/pepper and roast for about 20
minutes at 350*. Super simple and really bumps up the flavor of your ingredients/soup.) If you'd rather use cauliflower, I've done that
instead of broccoli. Just use a whole head.) Anyway, once you get
your broccoli just barely steamed, let it cool just a bit and
puree in batches with enough organic chicken broth to make it
into a thick puree. Set that aside for a second and get going
chopping whatever veggies you have on hand. Last batch I made,
I used zucchini, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, mushrooms and
cabbage. I sauteed my veggies in a large saucepan with a tbsp.
each of UNsalted butter and EVOO until just a little limp, then
added it to a medium-large pot with the pureed broccoli adding just
another cup or so of organic chicken broth or so. It's really
depending on how thick you want your soup. I like it a little
thicker so I use just a cup. I warmed it through and added 1 cup
2% sharp cheddar, some red pepper flake and about a 1/4 cup fat free
evaporated milk. (If you don't have evaporated milk,
you can also use fat free milk or fat free half-n-half) I just
warmed it through to melt the cheese
and wa-la.....a creamy vegetable soup that's both filling and
fooling because you think you're eating a fattening soup but
you're really not. Sometimes, I add a tbsp. of dijon to give it a
little twang. I find that a cup of this is filling enough for lunch
and the little cheese and butter curbs all my wanting for foods that
I shouldn't have. One pot of this will do lunch for me all week OR will
go about three days if I eat it for lunch and dinner, which I did
last week as it was too hot to cook and again, I didn't
want a sandwiches with fattening cold cuts and processed cheese.

And you know, it fits into the "single wide budget" because it only
uses a smidge of cheese and all the veggies were bought from my local
produce stand and really only cost me a couple bucks to make a huge pot
of soup that fed me very well for up to a week. Just think how much
you'll save making a pot of soup from home and brown bagging your lunch
for work every week!

So, that's what I ate last week. I plan on making the soup again and
roasting the veggies as it's a little cooler in Washington next week.
I love that I am cooking with all these local fresh vegetables that
last month, I would have completely passed over for a less healthy
choice. I have tried this with the cabbage soup diet and as it's
a very tasty soup, it didn't have the little touches of the
creaminess that I love in soup. My soup has a just enough of that
where I can have my creamy-cheesy goodness without gorging myself
on a high-calorie, carb-laden soup. I hope you try it for yourself
and let me know how it works for you.

Cheating in any way always comes with consequences.

Hey. Guess what?

My "visitor" is gone. Glory be. I've never been more glad
to see something end. We'll, that's not entirely true. I've
felt that way about more than one thing in my life a time or two.

I admit. I kept at it. I really did. And I was down almost another
five pounds. Almost.

But, I fudged last night. Big time. We'd had a long day yesterday
and I was bone tired when I got home and didn't have the energy
to juggle the kids until bedtime and cook dinner. So, when the
kids asked if we could do pizza for dinner, I caved. They make
it so easy now, you don't even have to call it in if you don't
have to. You can order pizza online!

I've got a secret, though. I think the "diet" gods were waiting
for me to eff up. Honestly.

I don't know how I did it but when I ordered my Veggie Lovers
pizza minus the green peppers and plus jalapenos, it came back to
me exactly how I ordered it. Supposedly. Only it didn't. Half my
Veggie pizza had cheese and extra jalapenos and the other half had
the veggies and extra jalapenos. But, of course, I was too tired
to pay attention and notice that something was different. And,
my saint of a husband said nothing to me while I kept stopping
for a while between bites and remarking how hot it was. Noooooo,
he waited until I'd finished my first piece that he thought I'd
ordered my pizza really different from usual but that he thought
I "knew what I was doing". (Lord. When do I ever really know what
I'm doing. I fake it REAL well.) I will fess up that I was suffering
for that pizza in more ways than just one last night.

And this morning, too.

My husband, of course, thought this was a RIOT. And kept singing
a particular Johnny Cash song all morning to me. What a guy.

Jerkface.

Let me be a lesson for you. If you plan on swerving off your new
path for a healthier body, make sure you don't bring passengers.