Weight Loss

Sunday, March 14, 2010

New Start

Happy Sunday!  Did you remember to "spring ahead," lose an hour of sleep and change your clocks?  A part of me is sad to lose the morning daylight, but I need to remember that it will now be light outside when I leave work!  A great thing to foster additional activity.  Maybe I'll be embracing my bike.  Plus, that early morning sun will return soon enough.

My weekend has been full and I still have most of Sunday remaining.  Yesterday, I had four miles on the schedule.  I forgot how tired and how weak your legs can be after a marathon.  There was no strength to run those miles, but I did get them in, walking as fast as I could.  I then spent the day in Colorado Springs with my best friend, eating yummy food and shopping.  The shopping was fun and reinforcing.  I'm feeling out of control with my eating.  And yet, I still fit into a size 6/8.  Its amazing how poor eating can change how you see yourself.  Still, I want to feel in control with my eating.

This morning, so many of my friends are running the Runnin' of the Green!  I wish them all great fun and good luck.  It is a 7k fun race with a great party at the end.  My plan was to go down and cheer them all on, but I decided to skip it to go into work.  It will make the week less stressful if I get a few things done today, before the week begins.  This was the most challenging work week for me in a long time.  I know part of the feeling was due to the fact that I wasn't working out, so there was nothing to get rid of my stress.  But other parts are due to the fact that the responsibilities have increased significantly, with a lot of litigation deadlines.  I love my work and I know as I gain additional experience, the stress will become less.

The beginning of the week brings a new start for me.  I need to return to healthy eating and regular strength training.  I think a lot of the blogging world is looking for a new start...lots of discussions around getting back on track.  Here are my goals for the next eight weeks:

1.  Eat more veggies and fruit.
2.  Eat less processed foods.
3.  Stop eating at 7:30 pm.
4.  Limit drinking of alcohol.
5.  Move every day.
6.  Start P90X.
7.  Stay hydrated.
8.  Log calories.
9.  Get at least 7 hours sleep/day.
10. Try new healthy recipes.

Wish me luck!

Here's a nice recipe for a marinara sauce that I adapted from Food & Wine.  I think it lends itself to your own creativity as it provides a great base.

2 T olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
2, 28 oz cans of whole tomatoes
2 T tomato paste
1/2 c. red wine
onion powder
garlic powder
fresh basil

In a stock pan, heat olive oil.  Add garlic cloves (whole).  Sautee garlic until fragrant.  In the meantime, open cans of tomatoes and by hand, crush the tomatoes.  Add tomato paste to garlic and cook for one minute.  Add remaining ingredients, except fresh basil.  Adjust onion and garlic powder to taste.  After the garlic had softened, I took the cloves out and sliced the garlic.  Simmer until reduced by 1/4 or 1/3.  Then, add fresh basil.  And serve.  Or freeze.  Remember this is a marinara sauce...so its a simple one.  You could add veggies to the sauce as you wish (mushrooms, zucchini, etc.).

When I went to look for fresh basil, the quality was either poor, or it was only available in very large quantities.  So I used the following "basil in a tube"


This is fresh basil in canola oil.  It was a good substitute for fresh basil, better than dried, but if you can find fresh basil, use it.

Here's to a new week, a new start on healthy goals!

Laura

2 comments:

  1. oh that basil looks like a great product! Our basil goes bad so fast. Have you seen tomato paste in a tube? It's awesome and we don't waste as much as we did. Do you still log your food on the apex body bugg site?

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  2. Hi Beth! The basil is a great product...and I have seen the tomato paste in a tube - genius. I've also frozen any paste I don't use in 1 tablespoon blobs and just add them to recipes that way! Way excited for you and your body bugg. I do log on the website...just haven't been faithful to it recently- but I'll be back on it tomorrow. It isn't always intuitive, but I've come to enjoy comparing my calorie intake with the calories burned.

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