Catch up and Good Stuff!!!

Hi guys!!!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Wedding season has kept me busy at work (I work as a Director of Catering for a hotel), and trying to keep up with the daily ins and out has kept me away from wordpress.com. And by “ins and outs” I mean the in and out of a gym door! Yes I still work out daily, especially now. While it’s been a while since our completion of the UnSupersize Me film, I am now finding the path of a normal daily life of maintaining weight loss and balancing “life” in general.

By the way, check out the awesome new website Carly Asse and Red Zero Marketting has made….it looks great!

While filming, we devoted 110% our lives to losing weight and we got great results. Now is the tough part of finding the correct balance in order to maintain my weight loss. I think that over the past year, I have gained some back, lost some again, toned up some, flabbed some out, and everything else possible. But all of this is a great learning experience, and I’m hoping to help others by letting them know that I still struggle and battle. I have learned that while eating “vegan” there are still choices that may not be the healthiest choice for me. After the year of filming, it was my time to experiement….I wanted to try all of the “vegan” products out there. Gardein?? What’s that…well I tried every type of that processed vegan frozen food! Dairy-free cheese frozen pizza?? yep tried that too. OMG Publix has vegan cookies in their bakery department now….yep tore that down too. Oppsiees….I had forgotten the one main lesson that was taught to me. While I can eat how ever much food I wanted (remember that was one of the rules of Unsupersize Me)….it HAD to be Plant based whole foods. Ok everything is becoming clearer now…I can’t eat processed foods and expect the same results as eating a mushroom. Now lets have southern fried mushrooms! Opssiees…that doesn’t work either! I’m learning the hard way what I can eat, and what I can’t (all staying within the large realm of “veganism”), and consequently seeing the effects on my weight.

At this time, I need to do a huge shout out to my mentor. Yes you all have heard me say it before and are probably sick of hearing me thank him. This thank you to Carly Asse is a little different though. He has calmly stayed in the background audience as I played in this theatre of food and workout schedules. He has watched me gain weight, loss weight, lose muscle in areas and gain in others. He could probably tell when the last time I planked and for how long I held it, just by looking at me. He has given me help when I asked for it, but he also knows that I’m strong willed enough that I need to learn from my own mistakes. I’m learning and it has to be the most frustrating thing in the world for him to watch. He knows what he taught me…so why am I not doing it?!?!? I think this is just human nature…we are taught and shown what works, but we have to be adventerous and try new things. Thanks “Carky”!

The adventerous spirit that lies in each of us, can be used for good though. And I’m hoping I can help by sharing some of the new things I have tried that abide by the Unsupersize Me rules. Here is a short listing of things that I think everyone should try.

1. Sweet Kale Salad mix from Publix. Thank you Laura Matthews for texting me about this salad mix….we probably text more about food than about boys 🙂 Rule with this mix: THROW out the packaged dressing….it is not vegan…and not healthy. Another rule: use the ingrediants list and try to recreate it on your own. It has sweet kale, chicory, brocolli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. Let’s face it, although I’m a huge local produce supporter..sometimes I can’t make it to the farmers market because I’m in the gym 😉

2. Mini Sweet Peppers in a bag. This one is great if you are only cooking for one or two people. These peppers are sweet enough to be added into any salad, salsa or topping, and you don’t end up wasting a pepper by trying to save half of it for another time. These little portions are great for just making a one person salad, which I do more often than one would like to admitt….AHEM fellas?!?!?

3. Garlic cloves. Ok sounds simple but this isn’t really a new product just a better way to buy it. If you are like me, you buy the container from the produce department that has the whole garlic cloves in this little plastic jar. And even if you eat tons of garlic…half of them go bad in the jar before you get to them. Few things…1. place a papertowel into the jar to absorb the excess moisture and they will last longer or 2. buy them from Trader Joes. TJs packages the cloves differently by keeping them seperate and fresher for longer. Smart move Joe!

4. While at TJs also pick up their frozen bag of organic mango chunks. Take home immediately and blend with almond milk. You can thank me while you are enjoying your vegan mango ice cream 🙂

5. Also at Trader Joes, I found a little hidden product in an area that I normally do not like….the pre-packaged meal/salads section. But this one is freaking fantastic and a good stand by for me to keep at work for when I gracefully leave my lunch bag on the kitchen counter (of my house!). Look by the middle eastern refrigerated foods for Balela. It has chickpeas, black beans, tomatoes, onion, lemon, mint, olive oil and apple cider vinegar. I likey a lot….I used this idea to make it myself with less salt too. Put this into a fancy dish and serve to guests…they will never now. (See photo on top!)