Minted Carrot Ribbon Salad

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 4 medium carrots, peel and discard
  
  


• 2 celery stalks, cut into 2” lengths and thinly slice
  
  


• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
  


• 2 tbsp lime juice
  
  


• 1 bunch green onions, cut into 2” lengths and shred lengthwise
  
  


• 2 tsp sugar
  
  


• 2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
  
  


• ¼ cup peanuts, chopped
  
  


• ¼ tsp red pepper (or any color), crushed
  
  


• Salt and pepper, to taste
  
  

Preparation:

• In a medium bowl, half fill with cold water and add about 4-5 ice cubes.
  
  


• Pare off ribbons of carrot into the bowl of water from all 4 carrots.
  
  


• Add celery and green onions to bowl of water. Let vegetables stand in water until they curl up (about 20 minutes).
  
  


• Combine olive oil, lime juice, sugar, red pepper and mint in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  
  


• Drain vegetables, arrange on plates and drizzle the dressing. Sprinkled with peanuts before serve.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (147 g)): 162 Calories, 4 g Protein, 14 g carbohydrates, 4 g Dietary Fiber, 11 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 94 mg sodium

Fresh Fruit Salad with Honey Yogurt Dressing

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup low-fat plain yogurt
  
  


• 2 tbsp good honey
  
  


• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  
  


• 2 large seedless oranges, peeled, sliced and halved
  
  


• ½ large pineapple, peeled, cored, sliced and cut into wedges
  
  


• 1 apple, cored and chopped
  
  


• 1 ripe pear, cored and sliced into wedges
  
  


• 1 kiwifruit, peeled and sliced
  
  

Preparation:

• Combine the yogurt, honey and cinnamon in a small bowl. Stir well to blend ingredients.
  
  


• Place fruit on plates and drizzle the dressing on top.
  
  

Make 7 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (213 g)): 143 Calories, 3 g Protein, 34 g carbohydrates, 4 g Dietary Fiber, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 2 mg cholesterol, 28 mg sodium

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Neighborhood News: Friday June 10

Happy Fun Friday to you All!
Thank you so much for your support & patience during the unscheduled outage of the LivingAfterWLS Neighborhood beginning June 5 and resolved on June 8. This was only the second serious unscheduled outage in the 5 year history of the Neighborhood but stressful to myself and the Tech Team nonetheless. I am genuinely grateful to you, My Neighbors,

Day 160: Why is just as important as what.

Photo Credit

As I laid in bed this morning thinking about my current state of health and how frustrated I was, a thought occurred to me.  The same thing that is happening now, happened in my early twenties, nearly twenty years ago. (Yes, I just leaked my age, oh well...I tend to be an open book) Yep, at one point, I gained 40 pounds in 6 months during a time I was the most active in my life.  Noticing the similarities, I continued to analyse the timeline of my life.

I was a teen in the 90's.  I remember the HUGE craze then was a low-fat, high-carb diet.  I was in high school and I was very rigid with my eating.  I was also a size 6 who felt like I was a size 26. (If I could go back in time and kick myself, I would.) I remember eating very little fat, if any, and a whole bunch of carbs and Diet Pepsi. I remember my cycle was messed up and the Dr. gave me medication to fix it.  So during a time where my endocrine system and metabolism was developing, I was doing everything to work against it.

A body needs good fats to help build and strengthen every system needed to be alive and healthy.  I gave my body none, or at least I didn't give it the healthy kind when I had treats or a snack.  I also flooded my body with chemicals from soda and medicine.  What's sad is if I had been eating a balanced and healthy diet, I wouldn't have needed the medication to begin with. No wonder my body rebelled when I was 20, my endocrine system and metabolism were toast.  I had abused it without even knowing and it was ticked.

Now, twenty years later, I'm still dealing with the damage I incurred while I was developing in my youth.  I'm grateful that now I know better health habits so I can teach my children not just to eat better but why they would want to eat better.  I personally think the why is just as important as the what. You need to know what to put in your body so you can be healthy, but if you don't understand or know why, it's easy to make excuses.

I'm tired. * I don't feel good. *  Just this time. * It's a special day. * Tomorrow I'll do better. * Monday.

For me, when I know the why, the why will squash the excuses and reveal how lame and flimsy they really are, giving me a better chance of winning.

French Dressing

(makes about 1 cup)

Ingredients:

• ½ cup plain, low fat yogurt
  
  


• 2½ tbsp ketchup
  
  


• 2 tbsp water
  
  


• 1½ tbsp cider vinegar
  
  


• 1 tbsp mayonnaise
  
  


• 1 clove garlic, crushed
  
  


• ½ tsp sugar
  
  


• Black pepper to taste
  
  

Preparation:

• In a small-size bowl, mix all ingredients together with a spoon or fork until well. Season with pepper.
  
  


• Store in the refrigerator in a covered container until ready to use.
  
  

Make 8 Servings:

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(2 tbsp (24 g)): 28 Calories, 1 g Protein, 3 g carbohydrates, 0 g Dietary Fiber, 2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 2 mg cholesterol, 76 mg sodium

There is light at the end of this dark tunnel

For the first time in weeks I woke up feeling like life is good. I'm not dreading going to work. I'm looking forward to heading off to the gym in a few minutes. Even though the sky here in the Northwest is dark, there's a promise of "sun breaks" today (a popular Northwest phrase that  means it might rain, but we might get to see the sun too). I feel...well, happy. For the first time in what feels like forever.

We had a new guy start on Tuesday. I'm mentoring him. I'll admit that I was dreading this task. This was going to be the third person I've mentored in the last five months. It's a challenge to mentor someone, and one of my mentors didn't turn out well.

This guy is great. He's easy going, funny, laughs at my jokes and he's super smart (much smarter than myself, but that's not really saying much). It's only been two days, but so far, so good. I have high hopes this one will work out.

I've eased up on myself about the weight thing. I went through a bad few days that included sugary, junk foods. Something I haven't indulged in for quite a while. Thankfully that only lasted a few days, and I've been back to healthy eating for several days now. Although the scale isn't going down, I'm hanging steady at 188.

I decided to give myself a break and stop beating myself up so much for my 30-pound weight gain. Yes, it's horrible, but it's not the end of the world. It's just something I have to deal with, and recently I just couldn't deal with it and my work situation too. 

Now that I've calmed down a bit about work, I feel able to tackle my weight problem. Number one is back to Weight Watchers and back to tracking. I haven't done either for over a month. My best friend has dropped out of Weight Watchers. She just gave up after months of not really trying. I've had months of not really trying too, but I refuse to give up.

Number two, back to reading my favorite blogs and commenting. I've been reading a lot of your blogs, but I wouldn't comment a lot of the times because I felt empty inside. It's hard to encourage someone else when I was feeling hopeless myself.

I'm finally seeing the light again.