Thinking Thin

After a couple of months of celebration I find myself in the position of once again beating myself up for overindulging in food and drink.

Last year I went on a pretty good diet....by pretty good I mean I not only went on a diet for more than a week, I stayed pretty true for closer to 5 months. AND I joined a gym. AND I actually went to the gym. More than once a week.

OMG...what they say is true...diet + exercise actually work. Who knew?

And I lost weight, more than I have ever lost before in any stretch of time. Which is good because quite frankly I have more weight on me than I ever have in my life. Not a good feeling just to look in the mirror and not love what you see, but also not good to have your doctor threaten you with medication of you don't get your blood pressure/sugar under control.

So I made the change in my life and found that it did make a difference, the weight came off little by little, my clothes started bagging on my butt and I felt better about myself not only for the loss of the weight, but for the thought that kept rolling around in my head. "Holy crap, I CAN do this!"

And then the holidays came. I know this is a piss poor excuse, but I am using it and will probably use it in years ahead. The days are shorter and I felt less and less like skipping off to the gym with a big bottle of water and more like hunkering down on the couch in my cozy living room with a glass of wine and something that falls in the category of comfort food.

Every day I kicked myself for it knowing I was going to gain weight back and have to work harder to get back where I was at. And yet, I did nothing about it.

Until now. :)

Like most Americans at the beginning of the New Year I tend to set goals for myself that include diet, exercise and depriving myself of tasty adult beverages for a period of time. Most often I do 2 out of three as it tends to be a bit much for me. I don't really want to turn in to a cranky brat and my friends thank me for this. :)

I didn't gain as much as I thought I had, but it is just enought to piss me off and make me want to get rid of it and more ASAP. I am not sure how much fun my food blog will be this month since I am probably going to be eating a LOT of salad, but I will try to bring something fun to the table.

Tonight I made an old favorite of my family's out of LOTS of veggies leftover tri tip from last nights dinner. Very good diet food as it is heavy on the veggies, light on the meat and little or no carbs. Think Chinese omelet with savory gravy. It makes for a good breakfast too which is good because this recipe makes quite a bit! Note the positive words scattered throughout the recipe. :)

Egg Foo Yung

1 cup Bean Sprouts (Good DIET veggie!)

2 SKINNY Carrots, peeled and grated
2 Green Onions, chopped SMALL

1 Celery Stalk, sliced THIN (another good DIET veggie!)

1 can drained Straw Mushrooms, chopped in to SMALL pieces

1 1/2 cup Tri Tip, sliced THIN & chopped in to SMALL pieces

You can also use chicken, pork or shrimp...I tend to use whatever meat I have in the fridge that is healthy & seasoned well.

7 Eggs (preferably from HEALTHY chickens)

Beat and season with...
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix all together and pan fry in a non stick skillet, if needed, use Pan or nonstick spray. Should make about 8- 5" cakes.

I like to use a small omelet pan to help keep the shape so the egg doesn't leak everywhere.

LIGHT Gravy
1 1/2 cups Chicken Broth
1 T Rice Wine Vinegar
2 T Soy Sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne

Thicken with 3 T water and 3 T flour

Serve hot with gravy and keep thinking THIN!!