Bumping, Grinding, Boahs, and Booty.

I've avoided working out, sweating, and getting tired for almost a year now.  What was the magical motivation to get me to sweat?  BURLESQUE DANCE CLASSES!

I often share about how I'm afraid of getting into a super bombshell bod because I have never worn a bikini and I think I might just like being less clothed then more.  So I started to explore Burlesque classes because Chicago is notorious for it's booming Burlesque scene and has been for years. I decided on Studio L'amour which is Michelle L'amour's studio in the West Loop.  The cost of the classes were a steal if you got a friend to go with you, and I did my research about Michelle herself.  She's a sister that don't mess around.  She has achieved and created a renewed love for Burlesque and is one of the most talented Burlesque dancers in the world these days.  And lucky ol' me got to meet her, have her instruct my first class, and damn she does have "the ass that goes POW!" which is her famous tagline.  I'm forever thankful for her ass because she got my ass moving and feeling fantastic!  Burlesque is perfect for me because it combines my love of dance, music, theater, individuality, confidence, femininity, fun, and sexuality into this amazing art form.  Burlesque's history is fascinating and I absolutely adore these talented performer's strong natures and confidence.

Frenchie Kiss (one of the famous Chicago Starlets) taught my class yesterday and will continue for the rest of the session.  She was absolutely fantastic, super fun and upbeat.  What a supportive, detail oriented, and talented teacher!  I'm looking forward to watching her perform on Sunday at their Speakeasy. 

Some more good news: I'm 4 lbs down!  But I stopped tracking and didn't lose this week.  So I'm back on the WW tracking bandwagon after this entry because I know it works.

Here's a video of Chicago Burlesque star Sally Rand performing a tasteful and graceful dance with an exquisite feathered fan!  What a beauty!

Crazy Hungry Monster is growing up!

It's been almost 2 weeks that I have been eating healthier and following Weight Watchers.  I learned last week more about my triggers and habits, and this week I'm relishing in my new habits and lifestyle.  The little Crazy Hungry Monster inside of me is getting older and wiser.  It has discipline, new knowledge, and is chilling out more and more every day.  I don't get those super cravings, and when a meal is put in front of my face I'm not in any race to finish.  I'm enjoying the food I eat more because I appreciate it and understand it a little better.  The domestic goddess in me has really enjoyed frequent trips to the grocery store and trying out new healthy recipes. Today I'm going to share a few meal ideas, recipes, and some of my favorite staples that make eating like this delicious, satisfying and fun.

GROCERY STAPLES

Eggs, Egg Beaters, reduced-fat sharp cheddar, Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes, Natural Oven's Right Wheat bread, fresh Pico de Gallo, a big box of organic baby spinach, Sriracha or Cholula, fresh cracked pepper, fat free cottage cheese, crunchy dill pickles, fresh fruit (oranges, strawberries, etc), Light Rye or Sourdough Wasa crackers, frozen berries, Garlic Hummus Dip, prepared brown rice, Better n' Peanut Butter, and assorted fresh veggies (carrots, scallions, onions, celery, bell peppers) and a big size Original Rice Dream.

BREAKFAST!  Here's one of my favorite breakfast inspired songs/animations to get you in the breakfast spirit:

I'm a breakfast girl.  Sometimes breakfast is what inspires me to wake up and have a fabulous day.  I have been experimenting in the kitchen with scrambles and ideas from my favorite breakfast joints and making them healthier.  Let's go!

Hillary's Hot Big-A$$ Breakfast Sandwich

Serves 1 hungry bitch.  5 pointsplus

Ingredients:

1 large egg

1 or 2 egg whites (depending on your hunger level)

Non-stick skillet

Minced garlic

Big handful of baby spinach

Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes or Pico de Gallo

2 tbs of reduced fat sharp cheddar

2 slices of Natural Oven's Right Wheat bread

Salt n' Pepper to taste

Any other veggie you like (mushrooms, peppers, scallions, etc) get crazy!

Hot Sauce of choice

Instructions: 

Heat skillet over medium to low heat and spray with a lil bit of cooking spray.  Toss on the garlic, baby spinach, and any other veggie you like.  Toss around with a spatula until the baby spinach starts to cook down just a little bit and push veggies to the rim away from the hot spot.  Crack in 1 egg and 1 or 2 egg whites into middle of pan.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Throw 2 slices of Natural Oven's Right Wheat bread in the toaster.  Return to skillet.  Turn up heat a little bit and throw on the cheese, diced tomatoes or pico (drained).  When the eggs start turning white, I take the veggie mixture and evenly distribute it onto the eggs and then smash the yolk and spread it around the veggies.  Scramble to your liking.  Place toasted bread side by side on a plate.  Make a pretty swirl with hot sauce on each toasted slice.  Divide the scramble in half on each piece of bread.  Serve open face and add some more hot sauce on top for some extra kick.  Delish!

Hill's Power Bowl of Delight (inspired by Flying Saucer's La Bazza Bowl) 

Serves 2 hungry bastards or 1 hungry bitch twice. 7 pointsplus

Ingredients: 

2 large eggs

2 egg whites

1 cup of prepared brown rice

1/2 cup of rinsed canned black beans

adobo seasoning (no msg)

Herdez medium salsa verde

Pico de Gallo

1/8 cup of reduced-fat shredded cheddar divided

large handful baby spinach or other hearty de-stemmed greens (kale, chard)

1/2 onion sliced

2 non-stick skillet

Directions:

Heat skillet over medium heat with a lil splash of water or salsa verde.  Add onions and greens of choice.  Add some adobo seasoning and saute until greens are cooked nice and perfect.  Transfer cooked greens and onions to a bowl.  Turn down heat a bit and add black beans, rice and about a 1/2 cup of salsa verde to skillet.   Add another sprinkle of adobo, and cook until heated throughout.  Throw some Pico in, toss, and add cooked greens. Toss mixture and set to a very low heat.  In another pan, scramble or prepare eggs the way you like.  After eggs have cooked, turn off heat on both burners.  Divide rice, beans and veggie mixture into 2 bowls.  Top each bowl with cheese and mix to melt it perfect, then top with eggs.  Add hot sauce.  Enjoy.

SNACK TIME!

• Spread 2 tbs of Garlic Hummus on 2 lite Wasa crackers, top with drained prepared Pico de Gallo. Fresh, easy, flavorful, and crunchy! 3 pointsplus
• Orange or fresh fruit. 0 pointsplus
• Sliced bell pepper sticks.  Hydrating and refreshing! 0 pointsplus
• A dill pickle. 0 pointsplus
• 1/2 cup of fat free cottage cheese. 2 pointsplus
• Green smoothie: 2 large handfuls baby spinach, 4 frozen strawberries, 1 cup of Rice Dream blended in Ninja. 3 pointsplus

LUNCH! 

• 2 slices of Natural Oven's Right Wheat bread, 2 1/2 tbs of Better n' Peanut Butter, 1 tbs of no sugar added jelly.  6 pointsplus
• Streit's soup mixes (serves 4) I always add a cup of chopped carrots and celery to add some more oomf.  3 pointsplus 
• Left overs from dinner.  depends on recipe 

DINNER! (Links to the AMAZING and DELICIOUS recipes I have made in the past 2 weeks and LOVED!)

• Stuffed Pepper Soup 6 servings.  7 pointsplus!
• Kalyn's Stuffed Cabbage Casserole (This recipe has many of the same ingredients as the Stuffed Pepper Soup! Suggestion: Make both on same day and have lunches/dinners for the entire week). 10 servings. 7 pointsplus!
• Baked Potato Soup (Cauliflower saves the day!) It was a little bland for my liking, so I added 1/2 cup chopped green scallions instead of chives, 1/2 tbs of Cajun Creole spices, and Sriracha hot sauce. It was perfect. 5 servings.  5 pointsplus!
• Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana 8 servings.  5 pointsplus!
• Steamed broccoli with Cholula as a side. 

DESSERT

• 2 frozen sliced bananas, 2 tbs of Better n' Peanut Butter, and 1 cup of Rice Dream blended in my Ninja to soft serve consistency.  2 pointsplus!
  
• Weight Watcher's Ice Cream Candy Bars.  4 pointsplus!  (I know it's full of preservatives and isn't natural, but holy shit it tastes like a Snickers Ice Cream bar).

Feed that crazy hungry monster within with power foods and live happily ever satisfied, less hungry, and thinner.   Hope you enjoy the recipes and ideas.

XOXO, Hillary

Ethiopian cravings, Girl & the Goat, tracking, thinking ahead, and holding myself accountable for it all!

Tracking, thinking ahead, and holding myself accountable for it all is pretty much the backbone of Weight Watchers and dang it's feeling good.  What I love so much is the structure and that it forces me to think ahead.  More time to think about food!  Weird, but it does satisfy my passionate addiction to food. The thinking ahead is taking place of impulsive, and usually unhealthy choices.  I'm sorting out foods that don't sustain me or satisfy me and choosing power foods that really fill me up, keep my hunger levels even, and just make me feel so damn good.  Every moment is a new learning experience.  Why would I eat a bagel and cream cheese and still be hungry when I could eat a big ass breakfast sandwich on Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain bread with spinach, reduced fat cheddar, egg & egg white, spinach, garlic and onion doused with my favorite hot sauce Cholula with a side of strawberries and feel satisfied.  After I eat my big ass breakfast sandwich I feel like Wonder Woman and I'm full and happy.  I also really love that WW recommends that you don't deprive yourself of foods you love, even if they are unhealthy.  You don't have to give up anything you love, you just have to hold yourself accountable for it and then make some changes to the rest of your day.  I'm learning quickly that most of my impulsive cravings are not worth it because I am still hungry after.  I'm also not eating impulsively because I'm less hungry and always have a healthy veggie or fruit on hand when I want something in my mouth.  This bitch wants to be full, satisfied, and feel great after I eat.  So far, that's how it has been! 

It's amazing how much my grocery cart's appearance has changed.  Less boxes and almost 85% produce and the bill is a lot less.  I'm eating up all the recipe suggestions on the site, and also using their "Recipe Builder" to figure out how many points are in my favorite recipes.  I'm not eating out as much because I have no clue how restaurants prepare my food.  So I'm saving money on my groceries AND saving money from eating out.  Double score.

One of me and my hubby's favorite cuisines is Ethiopian and we often frequent Ethiopian restaurants.  I was craving some Ethiopian but decided to take it in my own hands this week and make it myself.  I found a Tikil Gomen recipe (my fav Ethiopian dish with potatoes, carrot, cabbage, and onion) off of AllRecipes.com (FAVORITE recipe site ever).  I always choose the most reviewed/best rated recipe and I/anyone who tastes the food is always impressed and happy.  Guaranteed deliciousness. To make Tikil Gomen healthier then it already is I cut the oil in 1/2 and just added a little water as needed to help finish cooking the potatoes.   I also limited the potatoes to 2 lbs because they are more points and used 2 more carrots. I used the WW "Recipe Builder" to calculate my special Hillary version of Tikil Gomen to be 6 points a serving (makes 5 nice big servings in total).  I'll include my recipe at the end. 

But if you've had Ethiopian you know that Injera (the spongy sourdough-ish tasting flat bread) is essential.  Injera takes forever to make and I wasn't about to spend a few days making it when local Chicago Ethiopian ladies make it/sell it at Kukulu Market just east of us.   Fresh Injera bread in a pack of 3 (14in diameter pieces) for $1.75.  Can't go wrong.  Mami made my batch.  She did a great job.  I love her.  After some research I calculated that a 12 inch diameter piece of Injera is 4 points.  The kind I bought was more like 14 inches so I ate about 3/4 a piece to be safe and it was totally enough.  That's a nice bowl of Tikil Gomen and a lot of Injera to enjoy for 10 points, and we did enjoy it very much.

Speaking of enjoying good food, we celebrated Valentine's Day on Sunday at Top Chef winner Stephanie Izzard's restaurant Girl & the Goat.  I allotted my extra 49 points for this night and I'm pretty sure I used all of it.  We had the Culture Bread (fresh baked rustic bread) served with fresh butter and beer cheese sauce, the Chickpea Fritters, the Chicken with side of fried pickles, the Goat Sausage pizza with blood orange, Pig Face, the Green Beans, and an Agave Fleur cocktail.  I loved everything but the Pig Face.  My favorites were the Culture Bread, Chicken dish, Green Beans and Goat Sausage pizza.  One thing that was frustrating was when I came home to track the food...

Exhibit A:

 

Exhibit B:

... so I did my best and chatted with my WW leader about it.  I did exactly what she suggested and found similar things to account for the food.  I had to break down most of the dishes guesstimating the ingredients and their portions, but it wasn't too much of a hassle because I had such an enjoyable experience and was in a happy foodie coma.  If you haven't been to Girl & the Goat, you gotta go.  It's a foodie's dream on a plate.

Later gators,
Hillary

Oh! And here is my amazing Tikil Gomen recipe:

1 heaping teaspoon cumin

1/2 heaping teaspoon tumeric

4 tbs minced garlic (i love it)

1 tsp ginger

salt & ground black pepper to taste

2 lbs of white potatoes, peeled and diced

6 monster sized carrots, peeled and chopped thin

1 large yellow onion, sliced thin

1/2 head of green cabbage, shredded

1/4 cup Olive Oil

Sriracha (if you like a kick)

Prepare veggies (hardest/most time consuming part).   Heat olive oil in a big pot under medium high heat and add onion and carrot.  Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add garlic, cumin, tumeric, ginger, salt & pepper, and green cabbage.  Lower heat to medium and stir that shit every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes.  Add potatoes, lower heat to low, cover, and cook it for an additional 30 minutes (maybe more) until the potatoes/cabbage are nice and soft and the sauce thickens.  Check on it every 10 minutes, give it a stir and add a lil bit of water if needed so it doesn't burn at the bottom.  The water also assists in cooking the veggies.  Taste it, and add some more salt & pepper to your liking.  I added a beautiful swirl of Sriracha to give it a kick and enhance the flavors, and stirred it one last time.  Now eat it.  Enjoy!

My journey begins!

My relationship with food is really passionate. When I say passionate, I mean it.  My relationship to eating healthy and maintaining a healthy weight is horrible.  When I say horrible, I mean it.  This blog is going to tell the story of my journey from 245 lbs to 129 lbs (my goal weight).  That's 116lbs to lose, and I'm going to give myself 2 years (hopefully less) to achieve it.  I'm hoping that this blog will inspire and help others, as well as help myself on this journey.  I'll include recipes, photos and other things that might be exciting to look at, along with my candid entries.  I'm not afraid to share my fears, struggles, and moments of excitement with you.  I'm doing this for myself, and if you want to read along, then do so.  First off, I'm gonna give you a quick history (I'll try my hardest) on my relationship with food.

I grew up the daughter of a very loving, caring, and wonderful "weight conscious" mother.  My father was a marathon runner, and was also always very fit.  I, however, have always been stubborn, oppositional, and in love with food.  My parents often joke at how much I talk and photograph food, because to them food isn't as cool as it is to me.  I blame my passion for food on my generation, all the food network channels, and my genes.  I'm adopted, and after reuniting with my biological family I noticed quickly that they were all a solid build, mostly overweight or obese, and enjoyed food as much as me.  I'm not blaming anyone specific, and actually I shouldn't even blame my genes, generation, and food network.  It doesn't matter and is not worth my time.  All I can do is focus on myself and get to the place I dream of being.  That's a 129 lb sexy motherfucking goddess, who wears adorable vintage clothing and looks like the sexiest big breasted stylish pin up girl in all of Chicago.  That's right.  I'm gonna be a model. 

Growing up my mom sent me to school with the healthiest lunches ever.  Sitting at a table of 20 kids with PB&J and PB&Fluff sandwiches on white bread, Doritos, and Oreos for dessert was pure torture!  Every day I'd try to trade my rice cakes spread with a teaspoon of unsweetened PB for pretty much anything unhealthy that I could get my hands on.  I was never super overweight growing up.  That didn't happen until I was in college where I had ultimate freedom from my parents.  Not to mention, I had the assistance of Aderal and Ritalin (prescribed) that kept my metabolism running like an energizer bunny from age 10 to 21.  When I stopped my meds late into college (a difficult, yet wonderful decision) the weight started piling on.  My impulse control went from a ten to a zero.  Although my amazing personality blossomed and I didn't feel like an anxious zombie everyday, my belly blossomed along with the quest for eating everything I've never had which included pizza, arby's, steak n' shake, and so much more. 

So the first time I gained a large amount of weight was Freshman year of college.  I lost it during Sophomore year from all the dancing I was doing, working out, and just being happy.  Then I stopped taking my meds, gained it all back and more into my Senior year.  I went from a size 8 to a size 22 in 3 years.  Nearing 240lbs, I had a break down and went Vegan.  I lost a ton of weight, started cycling, and moved back to Chicago after college.  I got down from a size 22 to a size 12.  Then I fell in love and got married to an amazing, caring, loving, nonjudgmental husband that has never made a single negative comment to me about my weight, looks, or anything.  He had also struggled with being overweight growing up so he has always had compassion towards me.  He is actually the most compassionate person I know, it's so annoying!  ;)  He finds the greatest importance in my happiness, not my dress size, and I love him for that.  Although, once we got married the weight started to pile on both of us.   He had been able to stay fit and skinny for about 5 years.  He gained about 20lbs, and I gained who knows how much, I don't keep track.  Well that's going to change, for both of us.  He is supporting me on this journey, along with a dear friend, and we have joined Weight Watchers.  But I'm doing it for real this time, no more excuses. 

Speaking of excuses, here's a list of my excuses for getting/being fat:
I'm so positive about being fat!
It's okay to eat a bag of oreos, I'm gonna be a plus sized model.
I'm pretty and people still think so.
I'm beautiful and people still say so.
I'm amazing and people still think so.
I gain weight proportionally!  I don't look like some top heavy person with dinky legs.
Plus size power! Bigger women are cooler, more comfortable in their skin and have better personalities.
Adele is overweight.
I'm so cute.
I'm hungry and this is what I want now, and I deserve it.
Who cares if I don't care?!

Ridiculous right?  Plus, Adele lost weight recently and I started to hate her!  But what I really realized was that I hate how unhealthy I am  (not Adele) and that its time that I really need to do something about it long term.  No more ups and downs, no more size 8 to size 22 every 3 years, I'm going to lose weight, keep it off, and get to a size 6 or 8 and be healthy about it.  I have a lot more to learn about food and myself and I'm dedicated to it.  So here is goes!  Hope you enjoy my journey.  Below is a slideshow of my weight fluctuations throughout the years.  Can't wait until I'm 129lbs.  Gonna be a model, bitch!

Weight Slideshow - slideshow with music