UNDER PRESSURE bum da dum da da da dum, ba dum da dum da da da dum

Well I started this blog like 3 years ago and was all pumped up about losing weight. Then I fell off the wagon and stopped posting. Then a year later I manned up and posted again, saying I was gonna start posting again.

....That was a year ago. Oops.

So let me be clear. I'm not making any more promises. I suck at keeping them. But I got a new pressure cooker and have posted a couple things on Facebook and a few people have asked for recipes and I figure where better to share them on a blog I already have, which is already about food and with other recipes?

So. Here we are. With a pun title.

It started because Mom bought the Power Pressure Cooker XL, and when Emily and I were home a few weeks ago she made her first dish - roasted chicken with rosemary and other herbs. Once prepped and in the cooker, the pressurizing takes about 17 minutes and then only about 20 minutes to cook from raw. This fascinated all of us in the family, and we were all somewhat skeptical. But when we released the pressure (scary, loud, fun) and opened up the cooker, the meat was falling apart as if it'd been cooking in a crock pot all day. And tasted AMAZING. Needless to say, I was sold.

Oooooh....ahhhhh....

My first recipe attempt was Lemongrass Coconut Chicken, which I found here.
http://nomnompaleo.com/post/137755902728/pressure-cooker-lemongrass-coconut-chicken

Thanks to Nom Nom Paleo for the deliciousness! I've found in my online searching that the Instant Pot seems to be a very common pressure cooker. Being that's not what I own, some changes had to be made.

I'm not going to take the time to type out the whole recipe here because you lazy bums can click and give Nom Nom Paleo the recognition they deserve. But here are my notes, for those of you who maybe aren't familiar with some of the ingredients (I'd never worked with lemongrass or even heard of "coconut aminos" before). For my non-Midwest readers who don't have HyVee or the Health Market found therein..... I'm sad for you.

1.      The recipe calls for a “thick stalk of fresh lemongrass” –  I bought pre-cut and packaged lemongrass from HyVee as that’s all I could find. I didn’t know how much to use, so I used 2 pre-cut pieces totaling probably about 6”. Looking back, I think I could have used more. Once I started smashing it (the website shows an image using a meat pounder, which I don’t have – I used the back of my garlic press!) the smell was wonderful. I didn’t taste much of it though in the final product, so I think I could have added quite a few more pieces without it being overwhelming.

2.      The “full fat coconut milk” is the canned kind – I find it in the Asian section in the Health Market.

3.      I had no idea what “coconut aminos” was, but after some Googling decided that it’s basically a fancier, healthier version of soy sauce. I have gluten free soy sauce I’ve used in other dishes so I used that and I think it was just fine.

4.      I also had no idea what “five spice powder” was. I found “spicy szechwan five spice seasoning” at HyVee, but the recipe pictures show clearly a powder, not a seasoning. If I had a mortar/pestle I could have maybe spent time crushing the seasoning up but that’s too much work, and I am a lazy lazy pile. So I just used the seasoning as it was and I think it turned out just fine. I also probably could have looked at other grocery stores, maybe an Asian market or something, but the recipe calls for one teaspoon. I wasn’t interested in spending that much time and energy on one teaspoon.

Note – I Googled alternatives for this (chili powder, all spice, etc) and found that there really isn’t an alternative for the Asian spice mix unless you make your own.

5.      Have you worked with ginger root before? I hadn't. Treat it just like a potato: Use a peeler and peel the skin, then cut it up into pieces. Smells yummy!

6.      The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of the fish oil. Me personally, I’ll use maybe just one next time, simply because it made my kitchen stink like FISH! But the taste was not fishy at all. Which I was so relieved to discover after the smell!! Also it made the rubber gasket seal on the pressure cooker lid stink like fish too. Lemon juice and/or baking soda can help when washing, but ultimately just making something else will get the smell out.

Ready to get this party started

ommmmmmgggg

The next two recipes I made I found from Power Pressure Cooker XL's website & YouTube pages, respectively.
The first, Apple Cider Pork Loin, found here.
http://www.powerpressurecooker.com/rsp_details.php?rpid=25

You can click the link to see exactly how they recommend; but below I'm going to write out how I actually did it --

Ingredients
2lb center cut pork loin
~2-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cup apple cider
1 medium onion, sliced
2 apples, cored & sliced
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon minced dry onion

Directions
1. Season the pork loin with salt, pepper, & minced dry onions
2. Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet
3. Sear the pork loin on all sides in skillet
4. Press Chicken/Meat button, add olive oil to inner pot.
5. Sautee onions in pot
6. Add all remaining ingredients & pork loin to pot
7. Place the lid on the cooker, lock the lid & make sure pressure release valve is closed
8. Press CANCEL button
9. Press CHICKEN/MEAT button, then TIME ADJUSTMENT to 20 minutes****
10. Once timer reaches 0 hit CANCEL, release pressure, open.

***OK. So, after 20 minutes, I opened it up and this is how the meat looked:

Uhhhh... Nah

So I put the meat back in, sealed it up and had it run for another 15 minutes. It was cooked then (it looks more pink in this picture than it actually was, but almost tasted just a *tidge* dry. So I think 10 would have done it. So my suggestion is maybe cook for a total of 30 minutes.

Umm....okay!

Yes.

This meal was SO DELICIOUS. The apples were the perfect addition.

My third, and (so far) last dish I've made in the pressure cooker is Mushroom Risotto, from the Power Pressure Cooker XL's YouTube, found here.
http://youtu.be/5nUJVKSY5nY


I'd never before attempted to make risotto because (in case you hadn't picked up on it yet) I'm a lazy person. Risotto is a patient man's dish. But not when you have a pressure cooker!! This video claims to make risotto in 8 minutes. Now, remember first is prep time, then the building of pressure can take 17 mins, then 8 mins to cook. But still. It's a hell of a lot better than standing over a hot oven and stirring for an hour straight.

With the video... it's deceiving a bit, because there is sort of a recipe in the video description, but there are ingredients missing - notably, the mushrooms, and sherry - two key pieces to a MUSHROOM RISOTTO. So you need to watch the video for the actual ingredients. OR see them here:

I'm pumped, are you?

Ingredients
2 cups Arborio rice***
4 cups chicken stock (I get Rachel Ray brand cus it's just a teensy bit less sodium than the others)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, diced
~2 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz cremini (or any type) mushrooms
4 oz heavy cream
6 oz sherry cooking wine
2 oz butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
grated parmesean cheese - for topping
fresh basil, chopped - for topping
lemon zest - for topping, optional

Directions
1. Press RICE/RISOTTO button
2. Add olive oil, ~1 min to heat up
3. Add onions, garlic - stir up a little to "sweat" them - add salt & pepper
4. Add in this order: mushrooms, sherry, rice, stock
5. Stir briefly to mix all together
6. Place the lid on the cooker, lock the lid & make sure pressure release valve is closed
7. Press CANCEL, then press RICE/RISOTTO and then TIME ADJUSTMENT up to 8 minutes
8. Once timer reaches 0 hit CANCEL, release pressure, open.
9. Add butter, stir, then add cream.
10. Plate, top with parmesan cheese, basil & lemon zest.

***So, when I made this, after the first 8 minutes I still had a LOT of liquid. I hadn't used quite two full cups of rice, but I used the full liquid ingredient amounts. So I added some more rice and set it through another round of cooking for about 4 minutes (I thought it was 6 because I forgot to do the time adjustment... it auto sets to 6 minutes). After that time, the new rice wasn't quite cooked all the way through so I had to do another round for 4 more minutes.

All said, this took longer than it should have, but it was due to my own error. I'd make sure you do at LEAST 2 full cups of rice, maybe even 2.5 to make sure the liquid all gets soaked up in the first round.***

When it was done.... IT WAS SO DELICIOUS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

I need this in and around my face

Alright I'm done for now. More later, nerds.

 

 

I'm still here...

Remember how I used to post here weekly? Pepperidge farm remembers.

But seriously, I used to be so pumped about eating well and writing and sharing my adventures with you, internet world.

What happened?

Well.... laziness happened. Convenience of fast food happened. Depression reappeared. A lot happened. I don't want to give you excuses because I've been giving myself excuses for over a year.

I wrote the following in January, when I realized it had been a year since I'd posted here, and I truly had the intention to post it and get back into the swing of things that month. That obviously didn't happen, so here it is now:

To say “it’s been a while” since I’ve written here is a grave understatement. It’s been almost an entire year. Why haven’t I written? Why haven’t I updated you all on my diet, my life, how much weight I’ve lost?

Because I haven’t lost any more. I gained everything back. It’s January 13, 2015 and I’m back to 184lbs. I haven’t done Sunday meal prep in months. In the past seven days alone, I’ve had Jimmy John’s, pizza, breadsticks, Chinese delivery, and Taco Bell. I’ve failed. I’ve fallen, hard.

I just spent time re-reading everything I’ve written in this blog. I was so happy. I was funny (I think). I was having FUN. But I stopped cooking, and started making excuses.

“Oh, I have to go out of town this week, I don’t want food to go bad.”

“Oh, I’m really into this book, I don’t want to get up and go to the store.”

“Oh, my mortgage payment and credit card bills were really high and I am too broke to go buy a bunch of health food.”

These are all bullshit. I got lazy. I cheated one too many times and went back to my old comfortable ways.

I’m mad now. I’ve been sad. I’ve been uncomfortable and I cried – no, I sobbed – before heading home for Thanksgiving because we did a family picture and needed to wear jeans and I didn’t have a single pair I could fit into. I bought newer, larger pants for work because those size 10s I loved and bragged about in my last entry (a year ago) no longer fit at all. 

Here’s things that happened in the last year that I haven’t shared here because I had nothing good to say about my diet (this blog is, after all, supposed to be about me getting healthy):

1.       I got a tattoo. The tattoo I’ve wanted for years and years but always felt I was too fat for because it’s huge and goes up and down my entire side. I never thought I could get this tattoo because I could never show it off. But last February, I felt good about my body and got the tattoo. I spent five total hours in a lot of pain because I wanted to be able to wear bikinis in the summer and show it off. But I wasted my money and time because I couldn’t show it off this summer. I wore a one-piece swimsuit once this summer - Fourth of July – and had shorts and a shirt on most of the day.

2.       I bought a house. I bought a beautiful home in west Omaha with an enormous kitchen that I couldn’t wait to use to cook all of my new and healthy recipes in. I was exhausted and crammed trying to cook all my paleo and gluten-free meals in my tiny apartment kitchen. I bought a house and have wasted the space I’ve been given. 

3.       I had crushes on boys. It had been over a year since I’d felt good enough to attempt to put myself out there and try to date, or at least hook up. I joined a dating website and went on a date (which ended going nowhere, but that’s beside the point). I drunkenly attempted to seduce someone at a party (this also ended up going nowhere). In short, I equated my self-worth with my ability to get laid. This did not do me any good. 

Obviously quite a lot more happened in the last year.  Good things. I got promoted. My mom beat cancer, again. These are things that deserve their own posts. It was, truly, a good year. 

But I can feel the depression creeping back. It tingles behind my eyes and presents itself as the desire to run home and curl up in a ball under a blanket where no one can see my double chin and bloated belly. 

I learned long ago that depression is a sneaky bastard who won’t go away just because I try to be positive. I’m still on the meds I started two years ago. Maybe I’m growing immune. But I felt so much happier, healthier, and friendlier when I was eating well and taking care of my body. The proof is right there in all these posts from a year ago. Delilah even commented on one “Are you drunk? No – I think your brain is running on the correct chemicals and you are YOURSELF again. Seriously…Welcome back.”

And I was. I was myself. I wasn’t hiding and avoiding going out with my friends, which I find myself doing now again, frequently. Val G, if you read this, I’m sorry I didn’t come out for your birthday. I had all the intentions to do so because you came to Omaha for mine. But the thought of having to wear too-tight jeans all night long and be around a lot of people felt crippling. That’s when I knew it was time to change. I’ve reverted back to my old, terrified self. 

So I’m here to say, I’m coming back. I’m going to do my best to get back on track. I’m going to do everything I can to get back to a regular schedule of Sunday meal preps, taking lunch to work, cutting out all the bad stuff and sticking to the good stuff. I need your support. Bear with me. I want to be happy again. I want to be ME again.

Love.

So, there's that.

I mentioned there that the point of this blog is on my adventure to finding health and losing weight. And that is still something I need to focus on. However, in the last year and even more so in the last few months, I've realized that part of the reason I failed last time was because I was so focused on the losing weight part, and not so much on the health part.

This time around, I want to be focused on the health part. I'm not going to ever weigh 115 lbs again, I've said it before. I know this, and I need to really be okay with it. I put so much stock into how my weight defines my beauty and that simply isn't fair. I am allowed to feel pretty even when I am 184 lbs. But I need to feel healthy, and right now, I don't.

Because depression is a bastard who makes you feel like getting up and doing anything is basically the worst idea ever when you have a perfectly good couch and a functioning television, I had simply lost the desire to meal prep, cook, grocery shop, all of it. It was an exhausting process anyway: an hour to pick out recipes and make a grocery list from it. An hour or hour and a half at the grocery store, making sure I have everything I need. Four hours cooking and preparing and stowing away. And then four days later, being so sick of the 3 or 4 recipes I made, throwing away any remaining leftovers.

Waste of time, waste of money, waste of food. No good at all.

Enter my new best friend:
Evolve Paleo.
(See evolvepaleochef.com)

A coworker's girlfriend is a radio DJ and she did a broadcast at their grand opening, so they got a week's worth of free food. He brought some to work and this is how I found out about Evolve.

It's all paleo, gluten free, and sugar free food: a week's worth of snacks, sides, entrees and desserts. Pre-cooked and individually packaged, just ready to pop in a microwave and enjoy. The menu changes weekly. Make your order online by Thursday night, pick it up on Sunday. Well you can have it delivered but an extra bonus is Evolve is only about 5 blocks from my house. NICE.

Granted, it's not the cheapest option in the world. I did the 1-person weekly meal plan for two weeks, and wound up with more food than I could finish (6 packs of 2 paleo energy balls, 2 veggie snacks, 3 fruit snacks, trail mix, 5 breakfasts, 10 entrees, 3 salads, 4 desserts):

week 1

week 2 - had a few remainders from the week before

So for my 3rd week (this week) I just ordered a la carte so I didn't have to choose as many sides/extras, etc. Saved me about $30 but I still have all my entrees.

I forget how filling REAL food actually is. The portions look so small but they are extremely filling. And delicious!!! These pictures may not look very appetizing but I promise they were all very yummy.

Maple Mustard Braised Beef Burger & Sweet Potato Fries.
I could have eaten this every day.

Corned beef for St. Patrick's Day!

Pot Roast & Mac n Cheese
I added just a touch of salt.

Taco bake with cauliflower rice.
I ate this with some quinoa & black bean chips. So yum.

My hope is to utilize Evolve for a few weeks until the chemicals in my body get back to normal and stop hating me for all the processed, over salted, over cheesed crap I've been putting into it for the last 10 months. Then hopefully I'll be more motivated to try new recipes and get back to cooking on my own. And maybe get better at making smaller portions so I don't waste as much as I did before.

So.
That's about it, I think.
Here's a few pics just to highlight what's been going down in the last year.

Tattoo in progress. Many ouches, many tears. I'm not ashamed.

Tattoo completed! 5 morning glories to represent Dad, Mom, Karen, Emily & myself.
March 2014

I'M A HOMEOWNER!
April 2014

I got a stupid sunburn!! V-neck polo, big sunglasses, thick watch. Sexxxxy
June 2014

Ma & Pa came to visit and we enjoyed my new patio.
July 2014

July 4th - I wanted to show off my tat but didn't feel good enough to bikini.
This scandalous one-piece was my compromise.

Davenport North HS Class of 2004 Reunion
July 2014

Christmas happened.

Enterprise Holiday Party.
Didn't feel good about my arms this year so I went with mesh/lace long-sleeved  dress.
January 2015.

Yeah ok that's all for now kids. I'll try to get better about posting weekly, but no promises yet.

Love y'all!

Lotsa pics in this one. Then it gets serious. Then there's love. LOOOOOVE

First and foremost, I'm sorry I haven't posted in such a long time! I could list off a dozen excuses including the busy holidays, traveling, blah blah blah... but the fact is I just have been too lazy to post! And to be entirely honest, I have only tried a couple new recipes and felt they weren't really worth sharing on their own.

But here's what I've been up to since Thanksgiving!

Because I'm a human with taste buds, one of the things I've been missing the most since becoming gluten-free is garlic bread. My officemates often go to a local Italian place for carry-out lunches, and the smell of garlic bread is just. too. much. I love it, my mouth waters, and basically I die a little bit inside. And sometimes I cheat and have some and then feel gross.

When Delilah and I stumbled upon the Gluten-Free Gala at HyVee in October, one of the freebies was a boxed mix for garlic bread. Once I remembered I had this, I did a little dance of happiness.

Along with breadsticks, I of course also miss spaghetti on occasion. But rejoice! There are gluten-free pastas out there too. So I picked up a box along with some organic spaghetti sauce and was all set.

Making the breadsticks was a little awkward. The instructions say to add cheese, which I did, but it kind of all lumped in one section of the dough, so I had to re-roll and re-cut the dough a few times to get an even mixture.

They smelled delicious and looked fantastic.

The pasta was interesting. I followed the directions for length of cooking time, but the noodles came out overcooked and very sticky. Like, mushing together into one smashed lump of not-spaghetti. But I had faith. So I heated the sauce and was ready for a delicious dinner.

Now, I'm not sure if it was just the particular flavor of sauce I bought (I've had organic pasta sauce before and loved it) but I wasn't really a huge fan. It could have been that the noodles were, as previously mentioned, mushy. And sadly, the garlic bread didn't meet my expectations either. It's been so long now since I made this that I can't remember exactly how to describe the taste, but, well, it wasn't texas toast by any means. 

I haven't given up on gluten-free pasta, but I haven't tried it again since then either. Next time I will cook it for a shorter amount of time and hope that helps. I'll also keep looking for garlic bread alternatives. I'll keep you posted!

Christmas rolled around and we did Secret Santa in the office. I wasn't sure what I would get for mine, my friend Jeremy. But I figured, hey, everyone likes cookies, right? But not everyone likes my healthy, gluten-free brand of cookies. So I found a recipe online for Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies and decided I'd give them a shot! And it was so fun!!

The recipe called for using a stand mixer, and I at the time only had an electric hand mixer. I thought that might work, but after talking to some friends I decided it'd probably be easier with the stand mixer. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to own one anyway! 

I stopped by Target on my way home from work and bought the only model they had. It was on sale for only about $30 which was fantastic!

I'd heard about fancier more expensive mixers but felt that for now, at this time in my cooking life, this would suffice. And I am pleased to report it made making the cookies an absolute breeze.

So, without further ado: Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies (not paleo, not gluten-free!)
Note: This recipe calls for the dough to chill in the fridge for up to two hours - so make sure you've got the time before you begin!

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 + 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 TBSP milk
1 + 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice
5 tsp red food coloring
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.

2. In the bowl of the electric stand mixer, whip butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. 

3. Mix in eggs 1 at a time, blending until combined after each addition. Mix in milk, vanilla, lemon juice and red food coloring.
(I like to get all of my ingredients portioned out ahead of time - this makes any recipe easier, especially the first time you make it. No rushing to measure/pour!)

Red food coloring looks gross on its own.

This could have been featured if Dexter Morgan ever had a cooking show.

4. With the mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Then stir in white chocolate chips. 

5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill 2 hours or until firm enough to shape into balls.
6. Spend two hours drinking wine, taking selfies in your new awesome apron, and playing with your awesome dog. (This one wasn't on the website, but, I figured...)

Preach.

hey girl heyyyy

Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. WTF Mom, get off the floor.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour powdered sugar into a bowl. Remove dough from refrigerator, scoop dough out and with buttered hands, shape into balls (roughly 2+1/2 TBSP each). Roll cookie dough balls into powdered sugar and evenly coat. Transfer to parchment-paper lined cookie sheets and flatten slightly.

8. Bake 13-15 minutes. Allow to rest on cookie sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Enjoy!

yummmy!!!!!

This recipe makes plenty of cookies, so not only was I able to gift a lot of them to Jeremy, but I was left with a few for myself on cheat days! :)

Speaking of cheat days, Christmas was finally here! Olivia and I packed up and headed to Davenport on Christmas Eve. I was happy to be able to take off the two days after Christmas to maximize family and friend time. It was awesome. It was also filled with so much amazing home-cooked meals; I basically just said to myself: "Okay. You can eat this, and love it, and then go home and be BACK ON TRACK WOMAN!"

So eat I did. Cheat I did. And I looooooved it.

Preach.

Mom's famous chicken enchiladas (made slightly healthier by replacing sour cream on top with plain greek yogurt... Yum), some kinda magical french toast bake, barbecue pulled pork sandwiches, Happy Joe's taco pizza... I mean, c'mon. Let's be real. That shit was all delicious.

Christmas was amazing and wonderful. I love my family. We made an epic music video, because, duh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhH2zVUTHiU

We played Twister with my nephews, which was awkward and hilarious.

"Don't sit on your nephew. Don't sit on your nephew."

My parents bought me what I wanted most for Christmas: A brand new, anodized non-stick set of pots and pans!! Yay!! I'd been working with hand-me-down cookware and it was just not working out.

So awesome.

All in all, things have been going pretty well!

One thing I really want to share, and am very nervous to do so, are some before and after pictures of myself. The before pictures were taken around Labor Day Weekend (Sept 4th-ish) and the afters were taken around December 22nd. 

Let's ease into this before I get to the more awkward pics. Here's a fully-clothed before and after.

I had lost 22 pounds by this point. To say I'm excited is an understatement. As of today, it's 25 pounds. I've sort of plateaued, but I think that the over-indulgence during the holidays and re-balancing back to normal since then has been the reason there.

Okay, so, here's the other pics. The two on the left were taken the weekend I began my new lifestyle. The two on the right were taken in late December.

**WARNING** pale flabby skin ahead.... awkward... **YOU'VE BEEN WARNED**

..

..

.

.

.

Okay here

merp

So, there's that. I shared this on Instagram weeks ago, because I follow and interact with a lot of other paleo, gluten free, health nutty types and they just EAT UP before and after pics (pun intended). I was terrified to share it there, but at the same time felt so proud of the physical transformation from just a change in diet. I know a lot more people will see this here, since I share these links on Facebook, AND I will have an article in our company newsletter outlining my progress which will also share this link. But I feel like it's necessary. I want to be strong and not be ashamed of who I used to be. I want to be able to show the transformation so that people truly understand. 25 pounds may not be a lot to some, it may seem like much more to others. I never thought I'd get here. 

I still have so much room to go. I want to lose another 20, but my progress has slowed. I have cheated a lot in the last few weeks (being on the road to Des Moines for work frequently means I eat Subway in the car frequently.) I have to get better about shopping regularly and I want to start trying new recipes. I've gotten lazy and have mostly been living off of the beef, quinoa and red pepper recipe, along with the chicken salad, and the occasional steak. My lunches have been bland mixes of cottage cheese with fruit, and quinoa chips with hummus. So, I need to slap myself in the face and remind myself I'm not done yet. Seeing these pictures helps me with that. Being faced with where I was is a constant reminder of where I don't want to return to. I hope that in another couple of months I can share with you more before and after pics, with even more weight off.

The greatest part about losing weight? BUYING NEW CLOTHES HELL YEAHHHH

So like none of my work pants fit anymore. These are the same pairs of pants I mentioned in my original blog post here, when I copied the entry I'd written to myself back in April of 2013. When I was so depressed and dependent on food and I'd have to leave the top snaps unbuttoned just to make the pants fit. Those same pairs of pants were falling off of me. My butt looked nonexistant (not a difficult feat) and I didn't even have to unsnap the pants to take them off. Add in the week of important meetings with 7 different credit unions over 3 days, and realizing I had no actual matching pants/jacket SUITS? You know what that means. SHOPPING!!!!

bam!

snap! (this one's my favorite suit)

I have to admit, there's been a lot of selfies in my life. I feel like, hey, I've worked hard, I deserve cute pics. :)

Our company holiday party was last night (well, just for Omaha, Lincoln, and Sioux-area) and I was so excited to have a great new dress that I felt fantastic in. 

Super classy mirror pics, huh? :) Anyway. Consider those some more "after" pics.

Moral of the story.... if you're wanting to get healthy and lose weight, at least consider going gluten-free and paleo. It's changed my life, and I'm incredibly lazy, never wanted to cook anything, and hate working out. But this has become an investment, and it's FUN to try new things. I guess if I can help one person feel better about themselves, I'll be happy. I can't thank Delilah enough for showing me the light. And, just in the same way book-lovers love to trade and share novels, I absolutely love sharing recipes I find and trying new ones my friends find.

Be happy, my friends. Feel the love. :)