When did this happen?

210.  2.  1.  0.  What?!?!  When and how on earth did I get to be over 200 pounds?  I haven’t been this heavy in almost 10 years.  I weighed less when I was 9 months pregnant for goodness sakes!

And I can feel it.  I can feel the wheezing.  I can feel the lumbering elephant-like movements of my body.  I feel the blood cutting off from my abdomen on down.  I am sad that I cannot play with my daughter like I want to or how vacuuming counts me out.

Lord knows there have been quite a few stressors in my life in the past year.  Unemployment.  Money worries.  Loss of a child.  Getting older.  Family troubles.  So much to hide from and food has always been a comfort for my family.  During the day is easy.  I am the example for my daughter and I feed her the way we should all be eating, but when she goes to sleep, it’s like a pig in poop.  A glass of wine or bottle of beer and the snack button turns on overdrive.  Nevermind the snacking horror that occurs when the red devil is arriving.

So that’s it.  I can’t very well continue to set a good example for Queen E if I am not in fighting shape.  I need accountability.  I need a support system.  So this is where I turn to you and maybe you can turn to me and we can hold each other up.  Every week I am going to post a little snippet about my progress, tips, and some recipes that I might want to share.  I can tell you that I am going to try my darndest to do mostly paleo.  I will tell you my victories and my failures.  And most importantly I want you to share with me.  Tell me what you want to see.  We can try things out together.  And succeed together.

Here is entry numero uno…I am down four pounds already.  Yay!  Go me! Going the “slow and more likely to be permanent two pounds per week” route.  That means that to reach my goal of losing 50 pounds, I would have to lose two pounds per week for the next 6-ish months.  Fingers crossed.  Thanksgiving is a killer.  I am pretty good for Christmas though.  I bake so many cookies I don’t even want to look at them at the end of the day!  🙂

The temps are very comfortable and unseasonable for us here in the Northeast, so I took advantage and walked to work today.  It felt good to get the blood flowing and it was pretty energizing.  Once I caught my breath and wiped my brow.  I had my first 10,000 step day in a quite a long time today….10,020!  Walked 4.32 miles and burned 2,609 calories.

For dinner, we had an adapted version of Danielle Walker’s Sausage and Peppers Arrabbiata from Meals Made Simple.  It was soooo soooo good!  Please see below for the recipe & enjoy!  Queen E and I had this with the sweet potato noodles, but the Hubster is not a fan, so I made his with regular old elbow pasta.  Meals like this are so easy to adapt to the different tastes in your household.  And that’s what we need more of in our lives…easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Sausage and Peppers Arrabbiata

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs spicy Italian sausage, casings removed, crumbled (I used tomato and mozzarella chicken sausage)
• 1 medium yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced crosswise
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup chicken broth (recipe calls for dry white wine.  Not enough dinero in the bank this week for white wine)
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and sliced
• 8 oz button mushrooms
• Sprinkle of crushed red pepper, to taste.
• 1 (18 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 3 pounds sweet potatoes (can also use butternut squash or zucchini for noodles)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

• Brown the sausage with the onion and garlic in a dutch oven over medium -high heat, until cooked through.
• Add the chicken stock or white wine and reduce the liquid for approximately 5 minutes.
• Add the bell peppers, mushrooms, crushed red pepper, and tomatoes to the pot.
• Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
• Peel the sweet potatoes, cut off the narrow ends, then slice them in half crosswise.  Use a spiral slicer to create noodles.  You could also use a julienne peeler.
• Steam the noodles in a covered pot filled with one inch of water for 1-2 minutes, until crisp-tender.  Drain.
• Stir the fresh basil and parsley into the sauce right before serving and adjust seasoning as necessary.  Serve the sauce over the steamed noodles.

Queen E ate every drop and she loved even more that we used parsley and basil from her “Tea Garden”  I thought I would miss the pasta, but this was so much more flavorful.  The contrasting sweet to the heat was welcomed and it was so hearty.  I had no desire whatsoever for seconds, just because I wasn’t sure where my tummy would fit it!