Gold Stars!

Everyone needs some motivation in order to loose weight, eat healthy, exercise, behave, whatever the resolution may be. I jokingly mentioned using gold stars for when I make it down to the basement and actually USE my rowing machine.. and what did I end up doing? I got a pack of stars at the store a couple days later.

Once I "earned" a star and put it on the calender that is hanging on the kitchen wall, I imagined what it would look like with a bunch of stars. As lame and childish as the stickers and imagery may sound, that was encouraging! I'm not aiming to get a star every day. Rather just to have a bunch of them on there by the end of the month. If it's several days in a row, and then none for a few days, then so be it. I've got an almost 4 month old daughter to care for! To be able to SEE what I've done for the month at a glance seems to be helping more than anything else has so far. :)


Another step I've taken in my weightloss goal is to stop buying cookies (and forbid the Hubby from buying me ice cream!) If I really want cookies, then I have to make cookies. No more purchased goodies. So yeah, I've had cookies, but I know exactly what's in them - less weird crap, and more oatmeal! yumm... oatmeal chocolate chip cookies... good stuff! I do have to admit to buying one of the tiny Ben & Jerry's ice cream single serve cups the other week tho.. but it was forced self restraint, right? :)

I've also started shredding carrots into tomato-based foods. I got that idea from making a copy cat version of Olive Garden's pasta e'fagioli... I never taste the veggies in that soup, so I tried putting shredded carrots in taco meat last week. Neither of us could taste it! Our local grocery store also carries frozen chopped onion. PERFECT for those of us who hate chopping onion.. and those of us who don't like the texture in food can just cook a lil bit up really quick and add it to almost anything. With the fancy pants new blender that I won from Cranky Fitness, I've been thinking back to one of her posts about Jerry Seinfeld's wife's cookbook (which I can't find now, dammit!).. she basically purees veggies and hides them in regular foods for her kids. I'm so tempted to try that now that I've got The Blender..

Wa, you now know if you have spaghetti sauce or tacos at my house, it'll have hidden veggies!


And the ultimate motivation for me this week? stepping on the scale and seeing that I've lost 4 lbs since i re-started my weightloss project, post-baby. WOOHOO 4 pounds.. GO ME! :)