Back to Cooking or Uncooking That Is

The ants are gone...for now. It's been two weeks since I've seen a live one and while I don't think we're completely free from the their return, I'm at least happy that they're not crawling everywhere for now. The benefits are a super-clean kitchen and family room :) No one likes ants so we're all pitching in to keep our place as spic and span as possible. 

With the elimination of these little pests, I've brought back the fruit, veggies and other groceries into the mix. My body has been craving a high raw low fat vegan diet. Here are this week's eats in pictures.

I visited my favourite local grocery store, Henry's, although the sign has now officially changed to Sprouts.

The pineapple was a good pick and made for a great breakfast Wednesday morning! 

I spent a lot of time in the Los Angeles area last week attending meetings so I made sure I had snacks ahead of time. The best part of following a low fat raw vegan diet is the ease of food prep. I need to get a better lunch bag - the grocery bags just aren't cutting it. Fortunately I have already picked up a couple of the re-usable variety at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, i.e. the annual RD conference. 

I digress. Here are my eats for the rest of the week.

Mango Avocado Salad on Wednesday

Surprised at the selection of fruits and veggies at one of my conference last Friday. This  was plate 1 of 2 :)

Giant zooks from a co-workers garden. I chose to start with the biggest one.

I used half to make this delicious Zook Salad Friday evening.

The other half was used in my first 'oven-as-dehydrator' experiment.

The results: over-dehydrated zook chips but they were still very tasty as a Saturday treat. I'll be trying again with one of the remaining zooks.

Another mango salad on Saturday afternoon.

Cucumber Radish Salad for FNCE today.

Mango Ginger Salad for FNCE. Yes, I love mangoes!

On the weight loss front, I am happy to report that my weight has remained stable! Well, I've actually lost 0.6 lbs which is good considering my diet has not been on point the past couple of weeks. Getting back on track feels so good!

Hope you enjoyed a fun and healthy weekend!

- Kareen, RD

Letting Go

While cleaning up today, I stubbed my toe against this very full suitcase.

And it hurt. 

The suitcase has been sitting in the bedroom since we moved back to Cali in February. I've been ignoring it but today I was painfully reminded of its existence. I also knew today I needed to make a decision about it. The suitcase contains reminders of a lower weight, tinier waist and smaller thighs: my smaller and cuter clothing that one day I aspired to fit into again. 

Here's a snapshot of what the suitcase contains.

 

Some pants

Some tops

Some skirts

Some dresses

I clean out my closet yearly but these are the items that always survive the culling. I love them and I want to be able to wear them again even if it's been at least five years since I've worn any of it. The problem is that I no longer have the space to store them.

I have tossed around the idea of donating or selling them but today I realized why I haven't been able to get rid of them. In my mind, it would be an acknowledgement of my weight loss failure. Thinking clearly, I know that is not the case. While I was on a roll with clarity of thought, I also realized that perhaps holding onto to the past could be preventing me from moving forward. 

It's just clothing but I have a lot of emotion wrapped up in that suitcase. I know the exact weight I was when I fit into each piece of clothing. That's probably not healthy. I know I will reach my goal weight but my body will likely be different than it was 10 years ago. I need to embrace that fact and be proud of what I accomplish instead of beating myself up for not being able to fit into some old dress. No more focusing on the past. I'm going to enjoy the journey of getting healthier and when I'm ready, I'll have a great time shopping for new clothes!

I'll be donating the contents of the suitcase to my church's community service department. I'm excited to know that the clothes will be put to good use. 

Make this week a great one.

- Kareen, RD