Up Where the Air Is Clear

Today marks a major landmark in my metaphorical journey to health. Today marks six months since my last cigarette and two weeks since I had a soda. Thinking about the money I have saved in addition to the health benefits I have gained is really nice. One more week with the sodas and I will have made it into a habit and every day making the right choices will get a little easier. Quitting cigarettes was big for me in several ways. Beyond the obvious benefits of not sucking on cancer sticks, that process laid the ground work for what I am doing now. I learned that when making such a huge change in one's life that it is more important to be ready to do it and to really want the change than the particular methodology one uses. I also told people what I was doing so that if I stopped or slipped up I was accountable to more than just myself. I have had success thus far in my weight loss following the same rules and I think I can stick to it the same way too.

I mentioned previously that one way I planned to enjoy food without overeating or eating the wrong things is to cook more. The past couple of weeks have presented me with the challenge of keeping things interesting with my food. This has really given me a chance to stretch my culinary muscles a bit. Last nights dinner was particularly successful so I thought I might share it with you. last week I had cooked an oven-full of boneless skinless chicken breast and had portioned it out, but just throwing it on some greens was getting a bit boring. I had purchased some more veggies Monday night, including a whole head of lettuce, so I thought I might do some lettuce wraps. I stir fried a chopped whole green pepper and I used a vegetable peeler on some zucchini to get a nice change in textures. Once they were soft enough to eat I threw in the precooked chicken and heated that up. The big challenge was figuring out how to dress the filling. I didn't have any hoisin sauce, but I had found a BBQ sauce (sweet baby ray's) that is 70 calories for 2 tablespoons and I had some light soy. I put a tablespoon of each together with a splash of a prepared gyoza sauce I had in the fridge and I had a surprisingly delicious glaze for less than 70 calories. Spooned into a few large lettuce leaves, I had a feast on my hands. The best part of the whole meal was that for less than 600 calories I had as much food as I could eat, it was quite tasty, and I had a really good time making it. The recipe is definitely a keeper and losing weight is gonna be downright easy if I can only come up with a few more like it.

I have work late today, so I am gonna hit the treadmill for a while. Weigh in #3 is Saturday.