Less of Josephine.

I don’t know why I get such a giggle out of this, but I do. Seeing as I have lots of experience shaving my legs, I can easily imagine how hard it would be to successfully shave my own back (fortunately, I have no need to actually do this, but I do have a vivid imagination). But this tool, The Mangroomer (my, what a clever name!), promises to make it easy for the average guy plagued with unwanted back hair. Now my darling husband is a pretty hairy guy and I’m trying to picture him adding this to his daily routine. Uh, no. I just don’t think so. And can you imagine the stubble that would immediately ensue, eek!?! But it is funny to see men inflicted with the same sort of pressure to be hair-free that women have been experiencing for years. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, I suppose!

Another week is gone, and I can’t believe it has already been 10 weeks since I started making significant changes to my lifestyle! This morning I weighed in at 176, which is a 2.8 pound loss for the week and puts me at an overall loss of 31.8. Yippee! I feel much healthier having taken off over 30 pounds and my stamina and intensity for all three sports (running, swimming, biking) is steadily increasing. Yesterday I put on size 10 shorts that I couldn’t even get around my hips 10 weeks ago. I still have a hard time actually SEEING the changes, though other people are saying that suddenly the changes appear very dramatic. So that’s nice!

One of my new favorite easy meals is cheeseless pizza. Since making my own crust would take entirely too long for my tastes, I tried using Light FlatOut Wraps in the Sundried Tomato flavor. On top of this culinary masterpiece I added some some Smart Deli “Pepperoni”, along with roasted onions and peppers, tomato sauce with a dash of BBQ sauce mixed in, and lots of pineapple. Yes that’s right, pineapple. I’m on of those strange people who mix fruit in with “regular” food. My husband claims this is pizza sacrilege, but not being a religious sort I’m unimpressed with that argument. Until he can prove I’m doing irreparable harm to the universe, I will continue in my evil fruit-loving ways.

The verdict: The FlatOut Sundried Tomato wrap is a great size and shape and has 90 calories with 9 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber. The wrap crisped up easily and perfectly for a quick pizza, and I could have piled on lots more toppings without fear of the crust buckling under the pressure. I’ve always been a big fan of a thin, crisp crust and this wrap emulated that really, really well. However, the wrap had a certain wangy flavor that bordered on unpleasant. I don’t know if that flavor was due to it being a “light” wrap or if it was what the manufacturers consider a “sundried tomato flavor” (they’d be WRONG), but either way I could do without it, thank you. Next time I’ll try the Multi-Grain, non-light version of the wrap, which is 100 calories with 9 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber. Yes, I’ll gladly pay 10 calories to skip the wang.

The Lightlife Smart Deli “Pepperoni” was tasty and added a semi-spicy note overall. Not spicy enough for me, however, so I coated the whole pizza with red pepper flakes to amp it up. The fakeroni didn’t crisp up like fatty, real pepperoni would, but I still enjoyed the flavor it added to whole pizza. One serving is 13 pepperonis (30 grams) and has 50 calories and 9 grams of protein. I cut the traditional round pieces into smaller chunks to more evenly distribute it over the pizza and there was plenty to go around.

I’ll have this meal often because I love pizza and it was fast, easy, crispy, and decadent feeling. If I can find a flavor without that odd wang, I’ll be a long-time customer of FlatOut breads. I also enjoyed the Lightlife pepperoni, but I’ve heard that Yves has a really good version too, so I may try that one before I settle into Lightlife patronage.

So, I have this hat. It is a great hat and I wear it all the time. ALL THE TIME. It’s fabulous at keeping the sun off my face, but in all honesty I really love it because I can throw it on and not bother to brush my hair and no one is the wiser. Yes, I’m that low maintenance. Anyway, about this magical hat. It is both functional and stylish, cool yet unpretentious, casual yet jaunty. It is simply the perfect hat and lots of people have told me so. The hat, which I’ve owned for over 5 years, usually averages about 1 compliment every month, usually by other hat aficionados who, while sporting perfectly decent and attractive hats upon their noggins, eye my hot little number with a drooling avarice they can not hide. Of course I am always gracious and return their compliments with appropriate comments upon their own interesting head gear. But let’s be honest, nothing can hold a candle to my hat and we all know it.

Here is said hat posing with a delicious bottle of Bundaberg Rum — which my dearly devoted and spirit-loving husband brought back for me from Perth, Australia — and a black bandanna just because black goes with everything.

What’s interesting is that since I’ve lost weight, compliments on the hat have skyrocketed. Today, in the grocery store, I received FOUR compliments on the hat! Can it be that the hat is even more attractive when my face is thinner? It must be so, because three of the four people who lusted after my straw cutie weren’t even wearing hats themselves! I am so proud to finally support my hat in a manner it would approve of as it attempts to take over the hatless world. How relieved it must be that I’m finally working hard to provide it with the fittest most attractive head I can manage.

For Feathers, my fellow frog enthusiast!

My pond (I need to find a better shot, but this will do for now) with waterfall. This is directly outside my bedroom glass slider so that we can see it while in bed. At night a light in the water makes the whole thing glow while the frogs have their disco dance party:

This is the most “exotic” looking of our frogs. He (she?) lives on a root ball that has managed to work it’s way in under the waterfall. We also have a large bamboo wind chime that is a total frog condo, with every chime occupied by multiple frogs. I need to get a picture at night when they all start coming out, it is very cool!

As always, Monday morning is where the buck screeches to a halt and I officially weigh-in. Scale gods be praised, I’ve had another good week as I’m now 178.8 which is a 3.2 pound loss for the week and puts me at 29 pounds down for 9 weeks of work.

I’m almost half way to my goal weight and that will be exciting, but I can only hope that when I do finally reach goal (38.8 pounds down from where I am today) I’ll be light enough to simply recline on air while nibbling imaginary, calorie-free grapes as our model is demonstrating for us here:

Oh to live such a luxurious skinny life of leisure. All hail the scale gods, all hail!

My husband teased me last night that all I seem to eat now is “squirrel food” because of how many vegetables and fruits I’m eating. His comment made me think of poor Twizzlers, the overweight squirrel:

Is that not the fattest squirrel you’ve ever seen? You can read his full story on the Best Friends website, but in short he was inappropriately kept by people who fed him junk food and made him live in a cage too small for exercise. The poor thing. But he looks like I feel on most days!

Weighed in this morning and I am at 182 even, which is a 4.8 pound loss for the week, and brings my total loss to 25.8 pounds for 8 weeks worth of effort. Yippee!

This weekend I was sorting through some of my small clothes for inspiration and I really do find it hard to believe I will ever fit into some of them. Particularly a pair of SUPER cute, size 6 (long) jeans by Tommy Hilfiger. They look impossibly tiny, yet I remember the moment I tried them on — standing right by the store display I yanked these itty bitty jeans on OVER a pair of shorts because I didn’t feel like going to the dressing room. I can’t believe I was ever that small! At 5′10″ tall, those jeans made my legs look like they went on for miles and miles. But honestly, it doesn’t seem possible to wear them, right now I can only get them mid-thigh! But I guess if I stick with what I’m doing I can get there eventually. It seems amazing to me that my body can grow and shrink so dramatically, like some demented magic trick. If only I could say “abracadabra” and slip those jeans on. Wouldn’t that be a dream.

Since I’ve cut so far back on sodium I’ve been really feeling the lack of strong flavor in some of my meals. I like strong, heavily-flavored, spicy (REALLY SPICY) foods and I’ve been doing a bad job translating that into reality in my fledgling cooking attempts. So I really need to start working with spices to get that flavor up! Bring on the hot peppers! Tabasco! Cayenne! And… what else? I’m drawing a blank. What the heck is in Chinese and Thai food that makes it hot? Curry? Those funky looking red pepper things? Whatever it is I want it! Obviously I need to do some research. I’m sure this is like Cooking 101 or something and here I am fumbling along trying to figure it out. My poor mother, she is a naturally good cook and when I call her and ask, “How long do you bake a potato?” she must wonder exactly how the gene skipped me.

I checked out the “Vegan Handbook” from the library and my goal is to pick out a couple of recipes (simple recipes, I’m all about fast and simple) to try and make. The first I’m going to do is “Curried Eggplant Sauce” (eggplant, tomatoes, green onions, raisins, curry powder and cayenne!) for over pasta or rice. And because I’m immensely attracted to anything with the word “cake” in the title, I’m also going to try “Spicy Corn Pancakes” (corn, chipotle peppers and garlic - yay!).

Mmmmmm, hopefully they will turn out as good as they sound.

Caution: some touchy-feely stuff ahead, most unlike my normal sarcastic self.

I’ve had 2 really great weigh-ins in a row now, so I’m a very happy camper. This week I’m down to 186.8, which is a 3.6 pound loss for the week and a 21 pound loss total for 7 weeks worth of effort!

My body is just now beginning to reflect the changes with a noticeably smaller waist and, slightly less exciting, noticeably smaller boobs, too. I’ve moved to my next smaller pair of shorts, which is a relief because I really despised the ugly, dump ones I was wearing so much because nothing else fit. Or, perhaps more truthfully, the old shorts were fine and I despised the dumpy body that was wearing them. I’m also extremely pleased with my fitness improvement — my running and biking are getting stronger and stronger every session. I had one of my best runs to-date over the weekend and I felt so freaking strong the whole way through. There were moments it felt effortless, like I was flying. When I finished I was on a tremendous high, the endorphins just pumping through my system, and no food could taste as good as that feels, period. Soon I’ll be getting back in the pool (renewing my pool membership is a 40 pound down reward, so 19 pounds to go!) and then looking for a triathlon to race! Conveniently, there are several races in the fall that just might do for me!

Not only am I feeling good physically, I’m feeling really good mentally as I’ve had no problems transitioning from vegetarianism to full veganism. It feels really, really good to be eating ethically, even if I’m therefore totally out of step with most of the people around me. But I love it. I love that fact that I’m minimizing the world’s cruelty to the absolute best of my ability. I love being a part of the solution, not the problem. I wish I had made the transition years ago.

So, I’m in a very good place right at this moment. I have broken my binge eating pattern and it’s been 54 days since I’ve had a binge. I hope (plan!) to NEVER have another. I’m feeling motivated and sure I can continue on this journey to the healthy me. I’m focused and already planning strategies for maintenance, since that has always proved the trickiest part of the equation. Happy, happy, joy, joy, Josephine is making a comeback!