Our first meal from the Happy Herbivore

In regards to that last post and our last weigh in, I'm not sure what the "blip" in my system was that caused me to de-rail but as of the weekend, everything is back to normal (minus my two pound gain-- that will of course take more than a weekend to take off) .

I'm personally back on the healthy eating bandwagon and feeling good.

This week I decided to hell with my lack of having a laptop of my own and have officially started to create new bookmarks on Abels laptop with healthy recipes.  

He doesnt mind of course because we use two separate internet browsers so he never even sees what I'm bookmarking but for reasons of propriety  I suppose I felt it was poor manners to clutter up anything on his laptop at all.   (I'm silly that way)

I didn't quite get a chance to play around with the new TVP product I purchased BUT I did get in on the testing of a recipe from The Happy Herbivore.

Far be it for me to publish recipes that aren't mine or that aren't otherwise available on the interwebs but this dish was pretty damn amazing and I would definitely encourage anyone with a kindle to get this book at less than $5 just for this recipe alone.  

I'm not going vegetarian nor vegan in this lifetime but as mentioned before, the world of new food options entrances me and has me looking up vegan and vegetarian recipes like a madwoman.

We did adapt the recipe enough to fit the SASS eating strategy as best as possible although I'm pretty sure the tamale/cornbread topping was not the healthiest fit in terms of whole grains....but do you hear either of us  complaining?

Never.  

The differences we made for our particular casserole was the entire omission of corn and the doubling of the black beans from 1/2 cup to a full cup.   Our salsa of choice was a green salsa my mother ever so lovingly jarred from her personal garden  and, to boost up the heat factor, a few additional canned green chiles.

Because we've gotten into the habit of making just enough for two servings, we dusted off our internal calculators to halve the original recipe.  It wasn't too hard to do which was lucky for us...

...until ,that is, we got to the cornbread batter.   That was a little trickier because I really hate math and anything that doesnt end up in a whole number.   The end result was our batter being a little thicker than the norm but that could be because we used only a smidgeon of the maply syrup called for.  (note the fork prong marks running along the casserole where I tried to make the batter cover end to end...oopsie)

Though I enjoy a good sweet cornbread, the thought of a sweet "masa" replacement for a savory tamale casserole just didn't appeal to me.  For "sweet" tamales absolutely, for black bean tamales... not so much.

We also threw in some chopped cilantro to the batter before baking it atop our luscious casserole.

Its a dish that has earned a 4-star rating in our recipe box and the perfect excuse for me to soon buy those cute little individual sized casserole dishes I see all over the place.  

We'll definitely re-visit this recipe in the near future as the combinations for the different fillings are almost endless!

Day 90 Weigh In

This week pretty much went down the crapper for me so I'm not too surprised to see a gain (gasp) for the first time in three months.   A gain of 2 pounds which isn't entirely catastrophic but disappointing nonetheless.   It was a week of "I don't give a damn" when it came to the foods I was eating.

As much as I'd like to figure out why I had such a negative turn, theres not a single answer that seems logical.   Its emotionally tied in to a lot of things but I put an end to it yesterday after a massive headache and uncomfortable stomach issues.  Perhaps the strangest thing of all was that all of my indulgences were sweets.

It's crazy as I've never been one driven by a sweet tooth yet this week it was all about cookies and sugared cereal.  Its no wonder indeed why this food hangover is as strong as it is today.

Not exactly the way I was hoping to end off the final week of our 90 days but whats done is done.

Abel on the other hand had a small loss of .4 lbs.   Except for our weekend out of town he's stuck to the eating plan all week so I'm not surprised to see he still had a loss.

To make things a little easier next weigh in will be on the first of July and then from there on out we will be weighing in the first of every month.    No more weeklies for us!    

Lets hope I'm actually harnessed and fully secured back on the healthy eating/no-binge bandwagon from here on out.   If this weekend proves to be different I may have to reconsider ditching the scale and keeping the weeklies for accountability.

All in all three months in and the 90 day tally of weightloss:

Frances: - 22.2 lbs
Abel - 34.4 lbs

From the looks of things month 3 was a bit of a wash for me, I struggled to lose much for two weeks and then gained the final week.   I'll still take a little pat on the back though.  Given my track record for losing weight and having the ability to keep it off I've done surprisingly better.   I must always remember to keep that in mind.

One foot in front of the other.   :0)

Tofu and TVP... yay or nay?

Taking a sneak peek on the scale today (curiosity got the best of me) its noticeable that I haven't been following the plan for a few days.   I'm still maintaining and the chances of me losing the two pounds I was hoping for by this Saturday is probably not going to happen.

I'm quite ok with that for the moment.  I considered going back to the FastForward aspect of the SASS Yourself Slim Plan but considering I'm not quite in need of a "reset" button I will opt out and simply stay on the right track.  The numbers on the scale will not dictate my attitude towards myself.   That is the price one must pay for indulging in lemon bars, cookies, gummi bears, chocolate covered amaretto almonds, and after a lovely Monday night out, we can also add alcohol to the list.  I realize this sounds like I was a complete glutton over the weekend but everything was moderated and portion controlled so I was sure not to see a gain come from it...

Its a rare thing for me to have a drink these days but Abel and I went out Monday night to see George Lopez perform at The Funny Bone in Newport.  Of all the places to see Mr Lopez perform I never would have thought he'd be across the bridge from us in Kentucky.   Once we heard the news and found out the tickets were reasonably priced, there was just no way we were going to miss it!

Considering this was one of the best weekends I've had in quite a while I have no room for complaints :0) I don't believe Abel has stepped on the scale at all since last Saturday so I can't quite report how he's doing but we all know how much more forgiving mens metabolisms are than womens.  Lets not get onto that subject please... ;0)

In other news, I finally got my kindle back and downloaded a few new goodies.  I've never been one to have magazine subscriptions but considering how cost effective they can be when downloading them onto a device as opposed to having hard copies, I went ahead and got a subscription to Vegetarian Times.

As I explained in an earlier post, I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan but the meals we've had sans meat leave me in such a different world of flavors that I'm intrigued and curious for more.  

I also bought The Happy Herbivore's book (kindle edition) because it had such great reviews and seeing it for less than $5, I wasn't about to pass it up.  For many of her recipes I'm thrilled to know 90% of the ingredients she tends to use are already in my pantry.   Had to say finding that out was a proud moment for me!

This book is going to be my reason to once again give Tofu a chance.   I've only tried preparing it once before and though I had no idea what I was doing (let alone what the differences in tofu textures were), I prepared a serving in "buffalo tofu" form....  and absolutely hated it.    I used a firm tofu and made no attempts at squeezing out excess moisture as I have now been told should have been done.  I also failed to season it with anything other than Franks Hot Sauce...  (a staple in our pantry).  I'm a huge sucker for textured foods but when I went to eat my little creation I couldn't get past the mush of it and though I've heard many people say tofu has no taste I beg to differ from my recollection of that day....

Considering there is a mini list of things I thought I hated which I now love (onions, kale, olives and cabbage I'm looking at you guys)  tofu will also get its day for redemption. Me being a not-too-picky eater I don't like the idea of shunning foods.  Believe me, I'm a creature of peace and harmony and I want nothing more than to love tofu... and eggplants...  but the latter we will save for a day when I'm truly brave.  Eggplants, oh eggplants why can we just not get along?

Also on my experimental list is the new-to-us ingredient of TVP.  (Textured Vegetable Protein)   I've seen this in stores several times and though I've read the description for it each and every time, I have yet to toss it into the cart to give it a shot or to find a good use for it.

Considering I see it used in a few of the Happy Herbivores recipes I decided now was as good a time as any to make the purchase.   In case you've never heard of it, its made from defatted soy flour cooked under pressure and then dried.

When rehydrated it is widely used as a meat substitute and is a good source of dietary fiber, iron, magnesium and phosphorus.  Each (dry) 1/4 cup serving contains 80 calories, 7 g carbohydrates (dietary fiber 4g), 12 g protein, 0g fat, 3g sugar, 594mg potassium and 2mg sodium.

I'm thinking sometime this weekend I will give it a whirl as we already have our meals booked for the week.  In the SASS Yourself Slim book, Cynthia highly encourages one to have a minimum of 5 vegetarian meals a day and though I'm not sure if she's including breakfasts or snacks in that category (or if she means 5 lunches/dinners) I would still like to follow through with that for the next 30 days when we go scale free.

Currently I would say we have at least 2-3 vegetarian lunches or dinners every week and now that I have my hands on a few more resources for recipes I'm looking forward to it.

If anyone out there has tried TVP or wants to weigh in on Tofu I would love to hear it... I'm a little intimdated by the tofu but I think next Monday will be the day I try to play nice with it...  if it isn't meant to be at least I will know I gave it all I had...

wish me luck :0)

The weekend in yummy photos

Weigh in was supposed to be Saturday morning but considering we went out of town earlier than scheduled (Friday night) we just decided to forego the weigh in and come back to it this upcoming Saturday.  

As I had mentioned before my parents both had reason to celebrate this weekend as Fathers Day and my mothers birthday coincided this year.   This meant lots of celebratory "goodies" and of course more risky road trip foods.  

Thursday morning I ended up working on my fathers special cookies as I wanted to taylor a recipe specifically for him.  He's not too keen on super sweet things so the standard sugar cookies from the bakery I work for were definitely out of the question.   Instead, I snagged this recipe from Smitten Kitten and substitued regular flour for whole wheat flour since it was all I had on hand.   The cookies were good though not sweet at ALL.  I almost thought for a second they were too bland but considering my initial plan was to add some chocolate details, it came out perfect in the end.  To play it safe I only made a portion of the recipe -- just enough to get two taste test cookies and 5 cookies for my father.  

In case you havent noticed I'm a sucker for personalizing gifts.   Forgive the wonky lining of my chocolate piping skills but considering I'm used to using a stiffer icing for such projects, I felt this wasn't too shabby at all.

As for my mother, well as much as I wanted to make her an actual "cake" I felt a little awkward doing so because for the past few decades her sister (my aunt) was always the one to make everyones birthday cakes. Sadly we lost my aunt to cancer last July and my mother is of course still feeling the tremendous loss.   The last thing I wanted to do was to give her a reminder of my aunts passing.   Not that its not already something she still thinks about on a daily basis, but you understand.  

So after giving it much thought I went with this fantastic recipe for Strawberry Lemon Bars from Marc at NoRecipes.com.  My mother adores strawberries and it seems like everyone in our family loves the tart little flavor of lemon so it was absolutely perfect.   It's not a "cake" but still an incredibly special treat.  

Pay no mind to the cracks that are scattered throughout the surface.  I couldn't find anything in my mothers kitchen to plate it on and upon trying to place it in a shallow oval dish, the small dip of the center caused the entire thing to shift inwards and crack.  

As for the strawberry "roses" at each end, they probably took me about 5 practice tries before I finally ended up with something I was happy with.   If anyone is interested in how to make them, I found a pretty good video here.  I then just chopped a few kiwi slices to look like "petals" and tucked them underneath.  

All in all, our short trip back home was pretty awesome and I'm glad I got to spend some time with my parents on their special day.  

And before anyone asks, that is indeed a photo frame the lemon bars are sitting on top of.   If nothing else I get major creative and quick thinking points for last minute decisions when I couldn't find anything to sit the entire thing on.  ;0)

Also, in case youre wondering whats inside the gifts, my father got the movie Shotgun Stories and my mother got two cds of Jim Nabors lovely singing voice.  I never knew "Gomer Pyle" was a great singer but apparently my mother was very well aware and has always wanted his Christmas CD.    She mentioned it to me two weeks ago in a passing conversation and I knew it was the perfect gift.  

Hope you all had a great Fathers Day weekend.  Theres more to update on but it shall have to wait as today is just another day and I'm back to the grindstone...  

Laptop woes and Fathers Day treats sneak peek...

I wasn't lying when I said the author of SASS Yourself Slim, Cynthia Sass loves beans.  Nor was I exaggerating.  Check it out for yourself in her latest article.

I wont go as far as saying I would want beans to be my food of choice if i were stranded on an island with only one food choice.... but you can rest assured that these days there are always black beans and garbanzo beans stocked in our pantry.  I realize there are so many more beans to be had but for now these are the two that are permanent pantry staples.  Yum!   Ive even been itching to roast up some garbanzo beans into crunchy little snacks but its that type of snack that always gets me in overdose trouble...

Even though our meals include a "snack" meal,  my saving grace is that its actuallya meal rather than a typical "snack".  I would do much better eating toast spread with ricotta, fruit and nuts than say, a bag of pretzels, a string cheese and dried fruits/nuts because those are all  "snacky" foods and they always have a tendency to leave me wanting more.  Does that even make sense?  

In other news, yesterdays Mac N Cheese using nutritional yeast was interesting.  Not bad in any way, but also not sing-song praise worthy.   I do feel I watered down the mix too much so I need to keep experimenting with it.  I was afraid it was getting too thick as I was stirring the ingredients together so I added more water then the recipe called for.  After the pasta and broccoli  went in though, it thinned the sauce out even further and I should have just left it as it was originally.   

I'll definitely give it another go and properly share with you the experience.  We did snap a few photos of the mac last night but I'm presently having to deal without my laptop as the keyboard has gone down and my lappy is the only one that has photoshop on it.  Though I can still access my program and files its a bit of a pain to sign in sans keyboard and get things moved around.   Right now I'm trying to keep in mind that this laptop isn't mine and I'm not to clutter it with 150 recipe bookmarks.  

So far there are only 8 bookmarks that I've added... in the last 24 hours.  Thats some damn good restraint if you ask me ;0) 

Tomorrow I will be getting a few recipes together to bake prior to our weekend trip home.  I've got the perfect baked goods for my mothers bday as well as for fathers day that I am just dying to make and get photographs of.  

This of course means dealing with the pain of my laptop but it (hopefully) will all be worth it in the end.  I'm creating a cookie recipe for my father and am waiting on my order of special cookie cutters: 

available at perpetualkid.com

What could possibly be more "Fathers Day" then these adorable cutters?

What the heck is "Nooch"?

Apparently this "nooch" has been around for quite a long time and I've just recently stumbled across its existance.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not, but going through all the recipe blogs in my favorites folder, I find myself fascinated the most by the vegan and vegetarian recipes.  

I'm a diehard meat eater but quite frankly there are several recipes that are helping me little by little let go of my animal instincts to feast on delicious little animals.  Granted, not enough for me to become a vegan nor vegetarian but definitely enough to learn about the benefits that other forms of proteins have to offer.   Beans are becoming one of my favorite foods these days!

I remember first reading Cynthias book in which she states how much she loves her beans and I couldn't help but think "EGADS, I like beans as much as the next guy but to proclaim a love for them... thats a little odd"...  

and now here I am making the same proclamation of love.  

Yay beans! 

But this isn't supposed to be about beans.. no.  This is about "nooch" as it is commonly referred to in the land of food.  From what I've read, in vegan diets specifically there tends to be a bit of a lack of some vitamin B complexes and because of this reason, many people turn to Nutritional Yeast as it is fairly rich in such a vitamin.  Its also naturally low in fat and sodium and serves as quite a good source of protein.   

Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about yet?  Probably not because quite frankly I don't know much about vitamins and what they do for the body but I'm slowly learning.   If I'm the last person on this earth to know what Nutritional Yeast is then by all means indulge me a little and let me have my blog entry.  

Thus far I've read about people adding it dry to popcorn, using it for an eggs benedict sauce and of course most commonly those who use it to make Mac N Cheese.   Oh la la.. mac and cheese... color me happy! 

Lets face it, when you're talking about an alternative for cheese I demand to make a test run of it and get my opinion out there.  Cheese is like gold.. delicious delicious gold...  so how is this going to stack up I wonder? 

I can't even tell you the last time I had mac'n cheese.   But I can tell you that tonight it's the star of our menu and I'm truly hoping it doesnt disappoint.  I've got my hands on a fairly reputable recipe and in a few minutes i will be whipping up the sauce in the kitchen.   Apparently people don't like the sound of Nutritional Yeast so they shortened the name to Nooch... 

personally I dont think "nooch" sounds any more appealing than Nutritional yeast but what are ya gonna do?  If this recipe is worth its weight in deliciousness I may have to give it a new nickname.. nooch just won't do at all.  

Will we like it? Will we hate it?  Will we end up eating a bowl of shredded wheat for dinner instead? 

Stay tuned for tomorrows thrilling conclusion.  

:0) 

If it looks like a potato, and bakes like a potato....

Jicama Fries

I'd love to tell you I found the perfect french fry alternative with the above photo but the truth is I have mixed feelings about the Jicama Fries and I need to do some more experimenting.  They look and smell pretty awesome.  They don't taste awful so in a way thats kind of a win isn't it?   Are they edible?  Yep.  Can I say that I "liked" them?  ...  yep.  

But I think theres room for improvement.  If you've had Jicama before you know its consistency is very similar to a water chestnut.  Its got a nice crunch to it but a little watery with a delicate sweetness.  Thats what makes it so refreshing to eat with a twist of lemon (or lime) and salt or hot sauce.  (Well thats how we grew up on it anyway)

I had recently read that jicama could  be baked a'la faux fries and I thought it was genius.  I cut them into fry shapes, Abel dried off the excess moistness of them with a towel and with a hit of oil and spices, they were tossed into the oven.  The end result was a crispy exterior which was perfect.  The inside however still had that "juicy" bite.  Not perfect.  It also seems that the baking experience brought out the sweetness just a tinge more.  The extra boost of sweetness didn't bother me much, just the "juiciness" of the bite felt a little off.  

Abel had a bite and decided they were not going to be accompanying his black bean burger.  In an attempt to boost their little ratings I pulled out some ketchup and two types of hot sauce.  Surely the hot sauce had to make it better, right?   

Not exactly.  The hot sauce made them seem even sweeter... 

Bleh..

The ketchup though... that seemed to make enough improvement for Abel to change his mind and add them to his dinner.  After all was said and done (and eaten) Abel changed his tune and said the "fries" were good.  I still say theres room for improvement...  I'll get it right eventually :0)   

We'll be going back towards Chicago this upcoming weekend for Fathers Day and my mothers bday.  They both happen to fall on the same day this year so how can I not be there to celebrate?   This means I will be back in the kitchen playing with baked goods again.   Wish me, my tastebuds and my waistline good luck as we may just need it! :) 

Saturday Weigh In

Day 76.

Gah.  No movement on the scale front for me this week.

Abel of course had a 2.2 loss.

I shouldn't be too surprised at my number.  Things at work have slowed down and since I have an extra day off that means my feet had an extra day off and my activity wasn't as much as it has been in the last 6 weeks.

This of course only nudges me to start working out again.  Especially since I won't be working mondays for a while. No more excuses nor hiding behind "my job keeps me busy I dont need to work out".   Regardless of the numbers remaining the same I got a lovely compliment from our store owner yesterday.  I'm not sure why there is a difference between someone saying "youre losing weight" versus someone saying "youre slimming down" but I definitely like hearing the word "slimming" in reference to myself.  21.4 pounds away from my first initial weight... its so close now!

In other news, two Saturdays from today will officially be Day 90 and after that we will be moving into monthly weigh ins rather than weekly.   I would love to be a minimum of 2 pounds lighter by Day 90 which considering it means losing one pound a week it shouldn't be a problem.

As for Abel, well I really think he's just going through the motions of weighing in for my behalf.  He's not necessarily interested in what his numbers are and i'm pretty sure he's looking forward to the days where we just weigh in monthly.  Again, I totally envy that about him.  He doesnt care about the number -- he just likes feeling good while eating really good food.

Speaking of which its back to the scouring of the interwebs for more recipes to try this upcoming week.   This weekend my experimental food victim will be Jicama.

Mmm... jicama!

When experiments fail...

A couple of flops made their way into our kitchen this weekend.   The culprit:

Vanilla Caramel Truffle Tea

To be honest I didnt buy this tea with the intention of drinking it straight.  I always say I want to be more of a tea drinker but have yet to enforce it into my life.  I have a box ful of green tea waiting to be used up and instead of drinking it we find ourselves using it for Cynthias Green Tea Chicken recipe. (One of our favorite recipes btw)

Its not that I don't like tea.. its just that I never care enough to make some.

That said I thought Liptons Caramel Truffle would be awesome to infuse into some recipes.   My first idea was to throw it into something sweet.  French toast could be perfect as the addition of fruits wouldn't require any additional sweeteners.

I tossed some of the tea blend into the eggs prior to coating the bread.  Though this wasn't exactly a "fail" of a recipe, I probably wouldn't make it again with the tea.  It has an overwhelming aroma to it thats almost perfumey.   The same way the Rose Biscotti I made a few weeks ago had... except with the Rose biscotti it was a rose aroma which was divine.  This one is one I can't quite put my finger on but I imagine would be because it is has a black tea as a base.  I've never had black tea before so perhaps I should research these things before I try to enforce them into cooking.

Or perhaps one might think I should just drink the damn tea as it was intended and stop trying to get fancy with it...

... so all in all, experiment #1 was just "so-so".  Experiment #2 involved a savory dish.

The way I see it if a Mexican mole sauce (pronounced moh-leh, not like the little animal creature "mole") works so damn well with chocolate and even peanut butter in some recipes then why can't this black tea with caramel truffle work in something equally savory?

The dish of choice:  Enchiladas.

I used a basic enchilada recipe and tossed in some of the tea...

It was... "interesting" to say the least.  Still haunted by the perfumey undertones it wasn't something I would do again BUT the original recipe is definitely staying in our "keeper" pile.  These are kale and kidney bean enchiladas snagged from Branny Boils Over.  Considering this was our first time actually cooking with kale I probably shouldn't have added the tea infusion just in case we didnt like the kale to start with.

Lucky for us, we loved everything about these enchiladas except for my silly tea shenanigans.   I've never deemed myself a fan of Kale but after reading her recipe and the intro to the recipe I trusted her words enough to give kale another shot...

it did not disappoint.

But, getting back to our tea here.....  am I admitting defeat on cooking or baking with this caramel tea?

For the moment, yes.  I am.  I am hopeful in thinking that creating a baked good with this tea will provide a winning combination but I will hold off on that for a while as I'm still in "disappointment" mode.   Last night in this defeat I suggested to Abel that we just make the tea as it was intended and unwind with it after a long day.

Surely if nothing else it would have to be a decent cup of tea... the undertones are strong but something I could see myself enjoying as a tea rather than in cooking.

When all was said and done, I added a teaspoon of sugar, taste tested it and thought "meh, its not bad I guess"...  I then thought adding in some milk would certainly boost its flavor points and thats where I ruined the entire cup.

The poor cup of tea ended up drained in the kitchen sink.   Abel was a trooper and drank 1/4th of his before declaring it a disaster.

I'm sorry Lipton... I oh so wanted to enjoy your tea...

perhaps another day in another experiment things will be different.  For now the poor box is being "benched" in our cupboard...

Would love to hear any recipe fails or disasters from anyone else out there.  Though I was pretty disappointed and felt like kicking rocks after all this I can't complain too much as most of the experimenting for other dishes has gone very well and nothing has been completely inedible...

..yet.

Saturdays Weigh In and Catching Up

Would you believe I have the day off? 

Its a Monday and though my To-Do list is a mile long I have no words to express how appreciative I am that every hour of this day is on my terms to do as I please.   Just for myself!

First thing on my list is to update with Saturdays Weigh In:

Despite our 3 day weekend and the haphazard food planning due to us being out of town for Memorial Day, I still managed to lose a pound and Abel (having eaten like a King while away) maintained for the week.  

Win for the two of us in that respect.  

More items on my to-do list for the upcoming weeks are to photograph and share some recipes on this blog (which I have been promising since this whole thing started) and to create an actual progress page to make it easier for anyone curious as to how the SASS Yourself Slim Plan is working for us in terms of weight loss. 

In other news, I'm finding myself spending every spare minute I do have looking for  recipes to tweak.   Its a sick little obsession that I am starting to wonder if I need an intervention for. 

My bookmarks now have 151 recipes that I would like to try and tackle these upcoming months.  We've already taken on a few with great success, and a few that left us highly disappointed.  I will post more about these in the upcoming weeks though, promise! 

I will say one thing for those of you who constantly post photos and recipes on your blogs... 

MAJOR kudos to you because I am finding that it certainly takes a lot of time to get all these things done.  How people do this while working full time jobs, dealing with families, small children, going to school, (or a combination of these things!) and still sharing your awesome kitchen skills with the world via blogging....

well.... I'm in utter awe.  Here, its just Abel, me, our jobs and a pet fish..

If I even thought about how much busier life would be with a child or school hours, my head may just explode.  For now, I'll stick to baby stepping my way through anything and everything new and see where it leads.  I know I've said it before but changing up your lifestyle in terms of diet is a huge commitment and takes more than willpower and good decision making. It takes knowledge, time, commitment and dedication. 

Today marks Day 71 since we started using Cynthia Sass's Book as our strategy guide for eating.  Almost two and a half months in and though its still a work in progress in terms of becoming second nature, its indeed continuing to be effective for us.  By Day 90 I would like to revisit the review I wrote and write in any changes we've been incorporating in while still losing the weight.  

Who can believe just how fast time is flying?  For now I will get back to my to do list... 

..after I get my lunch on of course :0) 

Happy Monday eats bloggers!