Favorite Things: FOOD! How I lost six pounds in one week!

My overhauled bread bowl is now full of veggies for this week's recipes.

I am a total self professed foodie.  I love to eat, to bake, to savor lots of different flavors... I favor most cheese and baked goods.  Dan is also a foodie.  We encourage each other's foodie habits and spoil each other with our favorite foods.  I am one of those wives that shows her love through food.  I bake Dan treats, make yummy dinners, layout out spreads of our favorite cheese and accompaniments, I even bake homemade bread.  I am solely responsible for the baked goods addiction that many of Dan's co-workers have developed because I send baked goods to his office so often.  But this week things have begun to change....

I have come to the realization recently that when I bake really delicious but unhealthy treats and meals for my family (on a regular basis) I am not showing the right kind of love.  I have decided that I want my meals to say, "I am super delicious...I took time and thought to prepare...AND I will nourish your body and keep it working the proper way."  If I truly love my family I will take time to make them food that will keep them healthy, not send them to an early death.

Shopping for week 1 menu! (Plus a few extras like milk for Lena, Goldfish crackers for Lena, Spaghettios for Lena...etc.

I have wanted to change the way I cook for a long time but I put it off.  I didn't want to take the time to research recipes, restructure my pantry, and honestly I didn't want to give up making the baked goods that I love to make.  BUT...I didn't lose any weight from June until the end of September and I knew with my boot camp and triathlon training it wasn't because I wasn't exercising.  I knew that if I wanted to push through this weight loss plateau I was going to have to change the way I ate.

Crockpot meatballs and spaghetti squash.

Recently, I became acquainted with a food blogger online and in real life (I teacher her daughter piano lessons.) whose nutritional philosophy is: "It's time to change the way we eat.  It's time to cut out processed foods and to return to a diet filled with wholesome ingredients." I began following her blog www.realhealthyrecipes.com and her Facebook page (of the same name).  I was surprised by the variety of recipes she has posted and by how good they looked.  Still I was hesitant to try her recipes out because they called for some ingredients I hadn't tried before like blanched almond flour, coconut oil, coconut crystals, nutritional yeast, etc.  Then Diana, the food blogger, offered an 8-week menu planner with accompanying weekly shopping lists and I bought it and last week I began my 8-week boot camp towards a healthier lifestyle.  Here are my thoughts on my new food plan:

• I love shopping for all my meals in one shopping trip at the beginning of the week!
• I love not having to wonder what I should make for dinner every night.
• It is fun rating each meal on our menu so we can decide which ones we want to make again or tweak.
• It is surprisingly easy to make your own meals from fresh, non-processed food five nights a week.
• After not losing a pound all summer I lost six pounds in one week on this new meal plan.  
• Lena (my super picky eater) tried, ate, and liked,THREE new vegetables in one week.  Her favorite is cauliflower rice. (She has tons of variations of this rice that I can't wait to try!)
• I am a fan!

Most of the new ingredients were not that hard to find!  These were some good deals I found at Costco! (Coconut oil, coconut crystals, blue agave syrup)

Since I am such a fan of baked goods I love that Diana has tons of healthier cookie and dessert recipes for me to try.  My favorite so far is a blondie recipe that is awesome!  I am so glad that I have taken the plunge into learning healthier cooking techniques and some great new recipes.  I am certain that I will still eat cheese and have some of my old favorites occasionally but I LOVE that I have finally found a way to eat healthy food without getting bored and feeling deprived.  I will have to update once we get a few more weeks into our 8 week Real Healthy Menu.