{ So I am an Emotional Eater }

So this is not a surprise since I have been eating my emotions for the last 20 years, but this past week, despite the last year of taking care of me and and actually dealing with my emotions, I realized how easy it is to make the wrong choices.  So easy to just go back to that crazy emotional eating mess that I was. It was just a few days of *bad* eating, but it was quite the eye opener.

It shocked me in the last week, when I was dealing with a few stressful situations, how very easy it was to go backwards.....not just once but for an entire two days. Why oh why?  It wasn't the drastic bingeing that I used to do, but it was enough for me to feel sick, bloated and crazy.

So, as if I didn't already know, it was reaffirmed to me that I still have a lot of work to do with this psyche of mine.  As I always say, and as it was made abundantly clear to me, I am absolutely a work in progress.

Until next time,

{Slow Cooker on a Slow Easter Day}

(source: Martha Stewart)

Happy Easter to my friends that celebrate.  It's been a stressful few days, so wasn't feeling up to going out to dinner with the family today.  I also didn't feel like standing over the stove, cooking myself, so what better to do than to pull out the crock pot and use whatever I had in my fridge/freezer.  Seriously, is there anything better than a one-pot meal?  The house smells wonderful and at the end of day I have dinner for tonight and lunches for this week. :) Let's just call this *Clean out the Fridge Crockpot Soup*.

This is a short post this evening, so I can sit down and have a big bowl of soup and get ready for the new work week (ugh! - but thank goodness I have a job!).  See you tomorrow!

{ It's a New Day....It's a New Blog }

It's so intimidating to figure out what to write for my inaugural Vegan Lolly blog post.  So instead of writing something, I wrote nothing for several weeks.  But in thinking it through, that is exactly what I have always done with my weight. So not anymore...let me just start this blog with telling you a little about my story...my continuing story.  I had such a significant amount of weight to lose that it seemed too overwhelming and so I stood still...did nothing.  Well, actually I did do something...I kept gaining weight. :)

But things changed in the Spring of 2010 and since then I have lost more than 70 pounds!  Oh, I still have a very long way to go, but on that day last Spring, at the age of 45, as unhealthy as I had ever been, and my self esteem at zero, I had reached rock bottom.  My weight loss goals seemed overwhelming and unattainable.  I could fake it well, but inside, both physically AND spiritually, I was dying.

Through a series of "AHA" moments that would require entire blog posts of their own (!), on that day last Spring, I set a new course for my life and my health.

I hate looking at "before" pictures of myself, and have very few of them actually, but thought I should post something here for posterity....

I'm still a work in progress and I want to use this blog to document the vegan life that I love so much, share my weight loss successes (and even the disappointments), share my journey of going from a sedentary chick to a girl - dare I say it - that actually could be enjoying exercising (but still doesn't do it enough), share interesting health and nutrition information that sparks my interest, post some of the yummy vegan food that I make, and finally, if I am honest, there may just be a picture or two of my beloved four-legged children.

 See...I just had to do it! :)

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!