Fiddle Food Journal

Link to Fiddle Food Journal

Then I'm sitting her doing a happy dance that my own diet works so well when I follow it! The hardest part of the entire diet is recording what you eat but that is THE SECRET! When I write down what I eat the food just melts right off of me. It may seem like a major pain but when you think about it, it is pretty easy for a giant return. Because I'm trying to put my food journal on the blog for all of you to read instead of in Calorie Count, Livestrong or LoseIt or one of the other calorie tracking web sites it is taking me a little while to get all the calorie counts up there. eventually I will just so you have them. I've already lost 2.2 pounds and I started on Sunday. Last night I had what I jokingly call "the miracle diet food" because I lose weight every single time I have Flank Steak and half of a large baked potato for dinner. Flank steak is grilled with olive oil and kosher salt. Baked Potato can have either REAL full-fat sour cream or Greek Yogurt or Buttermilk and salt. The lowest amount I've lost eating that dinner is a half a pound and the most I've lost is 1.4 pounds. That is in a single day and obviously the other food I eat throughout the day is a factor. In the summer I have it with a tomato salad and in the winter I have it with an Arugula Salad or other veggie. Then of course my piece of Fiddle Fruit for dessert! This time a yummy pear!

The other great thing I made on accident was a Jalapeno Cheese Fiddle Scramble. I wrote about it on the Fiddle Food Journal Go to Monday, November 29 for the directions: http://fiddlefoodjournal.blogspot.com/ and eventually I will get it photographed and up on the blog.

Then along the lines of food journaling I just found this book called The Writing Diet: Write Yourself the Right Size by Juila Cameron. Many of you may know about her life changing book The Artist's Way. Her book came about because she realized that so many of the people in her Artist's Way Classrooms left the classes thinner than when they began. That creative unblocking was also the key to weight loss.

Now you may wonder if I have any regrets over eating the Corned-Beef on Rye from Shapiro's (twice) while I was in Indiana or the Pumpkin Pie or Steak n' Shake and I don't have one. I do wish I could have exercised more and perhaps done more of a boost and balance system while I was vacationing but there just wasn't time with everything I had to do. But in a way coming home from vacation and back to happy fiddling is its own sort of balance. I only get to eat Shapiro's when I'm in Indiana and they have the best Corned Beef in the Country and the best Rueben's. If I lived in Indiana all the time I'm sure I would only have them on boost days and not all the time. But when I can only have them a few times a year you are sure I'll be eating them. And then I look forward to coming back home and eating normal food again. So it truly is all its form or balance and has nothing to do with being "good" or "bad" or "cheating" or "not-cheating." I purposefully and mindfully ate all of that food because I wanted to and now I'm purposefully writing my food journal and eating delicious Fiddle Food because I want to lose weight. I'm not hungry or deprived. The only "hassle" in all of this is taking time to write what I eat and taking time to eat a real meal instead of a hundred unsatisfying snacks on the go as I rush all over the place. Plus, all the vacation eating just sped up my metabolism anyway which is why it is dropping so quickly off of me now. Boost and Balance! It's so great!