{ Back to Basics }

In order to break through this longgggggg (did I mention long) plateau issue, I have spent most of the past week going back to the basics and taking the pressure off.

Back to the basics of eating whole, natural foods, making a meal plan (for an obsessive compulsive eater, this is a key), writing everything down that goes in my mouth, kicking up the exercise every day, increasing my water intake, and most importantly for me right now.................taking the pressure off.  I remembered that last year when I lost the 70+ pounds, I didn't put pressure on myself..it just was.  Laurel Mellin, author of The Pathway and The Solution, says something to the effect of "weight loss should be joyful work."  So, that is what I am working on right now.

Oh, and I was recently elected as Co-Leader of my TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) group and so have pledged to go to my meetings every week religiously.  It is so easy to just stay home when you don't have a loss.  No more for this chickie.

Short blog, but wanted to update with my thoughts.

{ 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!!