Day 5 - Smoothie In A Bowl

Breakfast time for me is a make or break time of the day. I know two things to be true for the first meal of the day for me:

1. If I put off eating till, say, afternoon, I don't get the hunger pangs and cravings.
2. If I don't just buck up and eat a breakfast featuring fiber and protein I'll be in binge mode by nightfall.

To help focus on number two and avoid number one, I make SIABs...Or 'smoothie in a bowl'.  I first got this idea from a cool blogger named Kathy. She writes a great healthy food blog called KERF- Kath Eats Real Food. Many of my best breakfasts are thanks to her.

This mornings smoothie was fantabulous! Let me show you :)

I'm such a perfectionist... That little bit running down the inside of the bowl at 5 o'clock in the picture is driving me CRAZY!!! And I already ate it, so I can't snap another shot. Please forgive me.

What's in it? Well there's a base that I always star with, but I improvise to suit my cravings.

Base:

• 1/3 cup raw rolled oats
• 1/2 cup fat free milk
• 1 Tablespoon Chia seeds*
• 1/2 cup vanilla or plain Greek yogurt
• 2 cups frozen fruit (this is also changeable, which makes tailoring it so easy and fun!)

The frozen fruit were strawberries and peaches. My typical toppings (which are shown here):

• 1 whole sliced banana
• 14 grams shredded sweetened coconut
• 1 Tablespoon Justin's Chocolate Almond Butter** softened in the microwave to make it drizzle-able

How do I prepare it? Well, the oats need to be softened with the milk. You can do this overnight by just placing both of them in the bowl of your food processor or blender, or heat them together gently over a low flame just before blending. I also add the Chia seeds at the same time to soak up some of the milk and get soft. After the oats and Chia have softened, I scoop it all into the food processor with the fruit and yogurt and blend away. You could put the banana in, too, but I prefer slices atop my bowl. More chewing action. Drizzle/sprinkle your toppings and then omnomnomnomnom!

For weight watchers this bowl provided: 1 serving low-fat/fat free dairy and 5 serving of fruit (wow!). Also, with the Chia seeds you get tons of wonderful Omega-3's and lots of fiber. They keep you feeling fuller longer. Yum...

Tomorrow: The results of the sushi making evening.

*Chia seeds... I use Bob's Red Mill. I met Bob (yes, the real Bob) last Fall and toured his facilities. I was impressed by his genuine nature, good heart, and commitment to wholesome, healthy, delicious foods. He's kinda the Grandpa everyone would want to have ;) Find this in your local grocery store's health food/natural food section, or specialty stores. He has TONS of gluten free products too.

 ** Justin's Chocolate Almond Nut Butter... Yum. Just yum. Find this also in the health foods/natural foods section of your local grocer. He has quite a variety of nut butters and flavors of them. And they also come in individual squeeze packs. Traveling packages of deliciousness. Oh my.









And just an FYI-- I'm not paid by any of the companies whose products I review or drool publicly over. They don't send sample or anything like that. I find good tips from others online or see them in my grocery store and like anyone else I figure, "Eh, what the hay... If I don't like it, I'll give it to the kids." :)  But if anyone wants to send me free yummy sample I would gladly review them. But I'm brutally honest. So it better be good. LOL

Day 4 - Sushi-ish Issues

I've been craving sushi. Not seafood sushi, veggie roll style.

When I was pregnant with my last little one (that cute munchkin over there ------>) I went out for sushi with a bunch of friends. Even if I liked seafood, I wouldn't have been able to eat it raw, so I ordered some veggie rolls to "fit in", hoping that I would be able to stomach them. You know- just being social.

I ordered sweet potato rolls and peanut-avocado rolls. O.M.G. I never knew I liked Asian cuisine this much!


So I got a hankering for it today walking through my local and beloved Wegman's*. I picked up some sweet potato sushi made fresh by their in-house sushi chefs. Also, I've convinced myself that my culinary background has given me enough backbone to try to make it myself... So tomorrow I'll be making the peanut-avocado. I'll post pics. It'll be epic. Either epic great, or epic fail. I'll let you know : )

These are my rolls that I bought. But they're the same thing. This I found on Tastespotting.com

*Don't know what Wegman's is? Check out this awesome video of Alec Baldwin talking about his mom refusing to leave her home due to Wegman's : )   It's a funny clip, but long. Watch from 2:15-3:45ish. It's so funny! He actually did a series of commercials for them after this... And I've included those here too! LOL

Day 3 - Successful Aches

Well, my first 2.45 days restarting my journey have been good and successful. I've already seen results on the evil numerical monitor that resides in my bathroom, though nothing is official till Wednesday's weigh-in.

I do have one complaint, however. My knees are killing me again! They last hurt like this when I originally started my weight-loss journey April 3rd, 2011. But now I'm 20 pounds less than I was then. So what gives? I figured it out this morning...

Though I'm no longer at that original weight, I still carry it around in the form of an ever-growing munchkin. :)  even more reason to get back to healthy, to keep up with him!

Day 2 - Motivation from the Boobs

Reason Number... oh I don't know... I want to again lose weight:

Once again my body doesn't match my boobs. They look much happier on a healthy sized me. (I never said all of reasons for wanting to lose weigh were altruistic!)

Day 1 (Decmber 26th, 2012)

New Info (as of December 26th, 2012)

Since my last regular posting we have had many, many things changed in our lives. New baby. No more working for me. Move across NY state from NYC area to Buffalo. It's been an adjustment and I have to wrap my head around weight loss differently now. As of this day, I am recommitting and starting over. This is no longer an extenuation of my original 100 pound, 365 day journey. It's different because life is different. Time to adjust and get back to healthy. It won't be the same and I can't expect to succeed in the same way now as I have in the past.

So let's get on with it!

My current (and scary) stats:

• Weight: 230.4 lbs. I was 207 a month ago. This was the lowest I got after baby #3 and before beginning to gain again. Still not my highest weight ever, but scares the ever-loving bejeezus out of me.
• Eating habits until today: any and everything without thought, but always in response to boredom, stress and lack of energy to make anything healthy.
• My hubby is along for the ride intentionally this time, which will be a huge help for me. He came along last time because I gave him no choice with being the food buyer/preparer in the house. This time he is going to face this challenge and revamp of lifestyle head on. Thank you my Love :)

So today I start over at Day 1. New lifestyle, new challenges ahead, new commitment.