Chilled Asparagus with Coconut Curry dipping sauce

I just made this to take to a friend's house for dinner tonight.  It's vegan and low carb!

If you like curry and feel like preparing a healthy, plant based treat for your family, this makes a great appetizer or snack!

Here's how it's done.

Steam asparagus and immediately run it under cold water and put it in the fridge.  Or, remove it from steam and transfer it directly to ice water.  You want your asparagus spears to be firm.

Mix one package of silken tofu with one can of coconut milk, one large, heaping tbsp yellow curry powder, 1/2 tsp sat, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar and half the juice of one lemon.

Enjoy!

Weight Update

Recently I posted about some big lifestyle changes that I implemented exactly two weeks ago!

Over the past two weeks I've worked REALLY hard.

Yesterday when I put on jeans that were previously snug, I noticed that they slipped right on with no trouble.  Jay hugged me and mentioned that I felt thinner and I could also just sort of feel something happening.

But today was the day of truth.

I am ELATED to tell you that I hopped on the scale and was 8 pounds lighter than I was two weeks ago!  8 pounds is a lot and I'm crazily excited!  I had been feeling miserably out of control and defeated and some of the changes that I made have been sacrifices.  Of course, I'm only scratching the surface of the weight that I want to lose, but it certainly is motivating to see such a significant change in two weeks.

It makes all of the wine I stopped drinking worth it.

Hooray!  Hooray!  Hooray!

Hooray!  Hooray!  Hooray!

Dear Fat, I hate you.

You can pretty much always tell how I'm doing by the number on the tag on the inside of my jeans.

I starve when I'm sad.

I eat A LOT when I'm stressed.

And I spend all of the rest of my life trying to undo the damage done from the tough times.

So, in 2010 we lost everything we owned to the bb's.  It was easily the worst thing that has ever happened to me personally and there was a lot of crying and a deep sense of being violated.  These were terrible times that I'm glad are gone and I'm not going to focus on much here... but my point is that the sadness shrunk me down to practically nothing at all.  It seems very unfair that I'm never able to enjoy being thin because I'm always so depressed.

I spent the following year working pretty hard to rebuild our lives.  We moved to a nice house (but in a  crappy neighborhood.) I got a job and tried to balance all of my responsibilities as a stay-at-home-mom with those of a working mom- which was an insane, crazed undertaking.  We began fertility treatments and month after month I pumped my body full of baby making drugs only to be disappointed by my failure to get pregnant.  Then we moved to a money pit in New Jersey and settled in.  Then we moved again, but this time across the country and on less than a months notice... smack dab in the middle of the holiday season.

This was a stressful year and a half or so...
.
..and now I'm fat. Again.  My god.  I can't believe it!!!!  

But I'm also happy and in a good place emotionally and mentally.  I have the time and motivation to turn this ship around and get healthy.

Often I find that the way I want to eat is not the way I feel healthiest, so I'm putting all of my idealistic food issues on the back burner and making some big changes.

Actually, I made them.  10 days ago.  And I have to say, it's going pretty well... though not without some fight.  It is me against the fat and I'm going to win the war.

Here's what I changed.
1.) Diet
No sugar.  No flour.  No starchy vegetables.  No rice.  No super sugary fruit.
Lots of lean protein and green, leafy vegetables.  Berries and a little bit of dairy is okay too.
This part is easy for me.  Protein keeps me feeling full throughout the day and I've never been one to do a low carb diet by eating bacon cheese-burgers and blocks of cheese.  As long as I'm not feeling hungry, I am able to successfully stay away from high carbohydrate foods.

No alcohol at all for the time being.  I love to drink wine at the end of the day, so this really stinks.  But it had to be done... I'm not sure when I'll let myself drink a little again, but outside of a special occasion, it won't be for awhile.

No more added salt.  Anyone who has had a meal with me knows how much this hurts.  Giving up salt makes food not worth eating in my opinion.  Giving up salt is WORSE than giving up wine.  Without it... I'm not even hungry.

No more added sweetener.  Outside of a vitamin drink that I have once a day, no more fake sugar.  I do like a little sweetness in my coffee, which is a sacrifice but it's not the end of the world.

2.) Movement
As you can read, I've been out doors a lot working in the garden.  I've never been one to love organized activity and won't ever join a gym or tie myself to any kind of work out routine, but I feel that as long as I'm moving and not just sitting on the couch watching Big Rich Texas, I'll be okay.

Also, my mom's personal trainer has a workout video called Strong Mind, Strong Body, that I've worked out to  several times.  It's really a butt kicker though and she says things like, "Smile.  If you're not enjoying it you shouldn't be doing it."  Truth be told, I'm not enjoying it.  The video is great and if you're a person who loves working out... you'd probably get a lot out of it.  But my friend Julia said it best when she said that working out is like going to a dentist.  It's something that you have to do in order to maintain good health, but it's not fun.  I know that there are many people out there who disagree and really love a good, sweaty, breathy workout... but I'm not one of them.  I will probably continue to force myself to do parts of this video because I can really feel them helping, but I don't know that I'll be able to make it part of my life permanently.

Bunny is at track three days a week and I've been using the opportunity to walk the track while she runs.  Usually I only walk one mile, two at the most... but it's better than sitting on the bleachers and watching.

I hope I start to lose a bit of weight soon.  I feel like I'm fighting for every pound.  In the past all I've ever had to do is skip flour and sugar and the pounds would fall off... but this time has been a little bit discouraging.  It's only been 10 days, so I'm trying not to feel too sad, but in the past I've lost a tremendous amount of weight immediately.

Either way, I'm going to stick with it because I know that this lifestyle is better and healthier than I have been.  Wish me luck.   Some of it hurts.

Food

I went to the doctor to talk about nutrition and my speculated gluten intolerance.

We talked a lot about my diet and my overall history with food and vegetarianism. Interestingly, she said that she was so happy to hear that I'm eating meat now. She said that she personally feels that vegetarian diets are unhealthy because many people consume and awful lot of crap in order to get as much protein as they need. She said that she'd rather see a person eating red meat on a regular basis than pastas and other carbs.

She hugely advocated low-carb diets and encouraged me to get the carbohydrates I eat from fruit and vegetables instead of grains. So basically my diet should be meat, fruit, veggies and dairy. No flours, grains or added sugar. This isn't really a stretch for me.

We touched on the quality of meat and other food that I eat, but didn't speak a lot about it because I already care a lot about eating organic food.

I think that it's interesting because it wasn't that long ago that most doctors would tell you that eating meat each day was terrible for your health and that a vegetarian diet was, by far, the healthiest thing that you could do for your body.

I need to make an appointment at Quest to have my blood work done.