Homemade Preserves! Yum!

So today I made home made preserves for the first time!!  We have a Pineapple Guava tree in our front yard.  For those of you who don't know...   Feijoa sellowwiana are originally from Brazil.  It is a cold hardy guava that grows as far north as middle Georgia and as far west as my front yard!  These evergreens have  glossy-green leaves that are silvery white underneath.

Mine look like this:

After inspecting a few online recipes, I created my own!  I used about 4 cups of the mashed guava fruit, 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice, 4 cups of sugar in the raw and pectin!  We'll see how it turns out.  I have 7 jars of it.  Can't wait to taste it on toast in the morning!

Heading into Fall

Wow how time flies.  I can't believe that we are already heading into October.  I haven't really succeeded in getting back on my diet bandwagon - it's one day at a time right now as things go.  Two things I've become interested in lately... more plant based eating and juicing.  Dare I use the V words... Vegan or Vegetarian.  From what I've read and watched, the plant based lifestyle if really compelling... but I do like steak.  How do you compromise that?  I can skip the chicken, no problem there.  If we think of all the good things plants provide for us...all of those daily nutrients that most processed foods leave us depleted and deficient in, it's really something to consider.

Two documentaries I've seen lately:
Fat Sick and Nearly Dead is an awesome documentary on the benefits of juicing and
Forks Over Knives is another great case for switching to a plant based diet.

Check them out - both are on Netflix.  I also love my Breville juicer.  Thank you for the recommendation Joe!

Motivation... trying to find it everyday!

So these days it's getting harder and harder to keep up the motivation to work out, eat right, etc. When I start to feel that way I just need to remember how different things actually are now than say 2 years ago. I was feeling badly since I only worked out two times last week. What a bummer... in the past I didn't work out AT ALL. I even did a little jogging last week, though my shins hurt for 3 days after! So that being said... I've made improvements! I'll also start the week with a goal for at least 3 workouts, that's my target. If I do more, GREAT, if not, no biggie. We have a new dehydrator and Jim is going crazy making lots of dried goodies. Dried bananas so far are a favorite in this household. So yummy to snack on goodies that are sweet and healthy too, not processed junk! Pineapple is in there tonight, can't wait. Disneyland blackout lifts on my season pass today, so I think it's time for Maisie to catch up with her Disney friends tomorrow. That will be a day full of walking! We love hanging out at Disneyland and not feeling pressured that we have to do everything. We do what we can and have fun, gotta love the season pass! So that counts as a workout right ;o), all that moving around!

Maintenance Mode

Well, here I sit, not losing any weight for probably the last 5 months after losing almost 80 pounds in about 10 months. I still have 40 pounds to go, I'm not done yet!!! My body is fighting me back... I've tried working out more, eating less, juice/vegetable fast, eating more, taking a break, you name it. So here's what I'm going do. I'm going to just try to maintain for a while. Take a break from the must lose weight mindset, let's face it, it's not helping me right now anyway.

Let's also be real, that's my problem, maintaining my weight, not losing the weight. I've probably lost at least a hundred pounds before, 20 here, 30 there, etc. only to end up putting on more in the long run. The problem is keeping it off. It's the bad habits that put it back on and if you don't change that you're doomed. Doomed to be FAT, let's face it. I don't want to me be fat anymore, been there done that. I'm trying to keep my new habits as part of a new lifestyle, if that works for a while, then I will try to tackle the next 40 pounds. Wish me luck! Everyday finds it's own challenges.