Adventures in various things

Today was an excellent day in my Adventures In Eating. It was also an excellent day in my Adventures of Being Active.

I had my normal-as-of-late breakfast of a Nature Valley protein deliciousness bar (peanutbutter and dark chocolate - who could ask for more?), and a fresh pear. I snacked on some almonds and a tangerine (which said it was seedless, but had more seeds in it than any regular old seedless tangerine I'd ever eaten!). I ate Taco Bell for lunch. It was delicious. I understand that Taco Bell is terrible, terrible for you. I also understand that it represents almost everything I hate about FDA controlled food sources, with its not-really-all-beef beef - which contains nearly 25 ingredients, a warning stating "Contains Wheat and Soy". Last I checked cow flesh did not contain wheat and/or soy... but anyhoo. The one I can say: the crunchy taco shells containing my 25 ingredient "beef" and lettuce and cheese and HOT Border Sauce DO NOT contain WOOD PULP or TRANS FATS. I wish I could say the same for Chipotle's crunchy taco shells. So I will allow myself my Taco Bell obsession. And also my Qdoba obsession... After lunch I proceeded to take a 30 minute walk in the GORGEOUS weather we had here in Virginia today, and for dinner I ate a serving of Jamaican jerk marinaded chicken breast with 1/4 cup of mashed sweet potatoes and a small square of 72% cacao dark chocolate with 1/2 cup of grapefruit for dessert. My net calories for the day currently are right around 1200. Plenty of room left for some beers (another thing to add to obsessions) and/or a light snack later.

I am getting ridiculously excited for my copy of The French Don't Diet Plan to arrive. I'm not even sure that living in regular suburban/urban America I can access the types of foods required to follow a French-style "diet"... but we do have a Wegman's down the way with a cheese department the size of most standard grocery store's entire dairy section... as well as a generous selection of free-range and grass-fed meats. We'll see how long I can stick with this.. assuming after educating myself it still sounds like a good idea.

Super awesome thing about today: my mom told me I was getting "really skinny". She is somewhat of a fibber since I'm still a good 25-30lbs away from being close to a healthy weight for my height/build. But it still felt nice to know that someone who sees me on an almost-daily basis is able to "see" my current weight loss.

Since about the end of last week I've been feeling super happy with my body and my eating choices. I don't know what that's about, but I'm going to attribute some of it to finding a couple of different inspiring websites/blogs (here's one in particular: http://www.healthyisthenewskinny.com/), plus creating my new "body positivity" pin board on Pinterest, which you can check out here.

It's kind of amazing what looking at pictures of half-nekkid ladies that are the same size or heavier than you can do. (I'll give you a hint: it makes you realize skinny ain't sexy.)

I'm really excited that there are all these body positive sites and campaigns going around right now. It's important for young women to be encouraged to accept their bodies regardless or their shape or size. I think I'll talk more on this later. Right now I have a phone date with one of my favorite people.. my cousin Maury! :)