Today was the day I did not eat a Hershey bar.

Yes folks, last night when I laid down to sleep, contemplating my busy day and the busy one that I had ahead of me, I was thinking about the things I had accomplished. Suddenly it occurred to me! I had 2 Hershey's chocolate bars in the fridge...AND I hadn't touched one of them. What did I eat? 

An orange!

This wasn't anything that I did on purpose or consciously. I simply had bought oranges and after I ate my dinner, I wanted something sweet. I was thinking that I have a whole bag in the fridge and I should move fast before they are wasted. It wasn't till I was processing in my bed that I realized: I, Alyssa, had in fact chosen an ORANGE over a CHOCOLATE BAR!

In my world, this is huge news!  I am a notorious choco-holic. I love anything chocolate and usually will gobble entire bags of it up without a second thought. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about chocolate! I'm pretty sure my sweet tooth was an inherited trait. My father has been known to frequently "hide" (that's that I like to call it) chocolate bars in his fridge or freezer, car and has a jar of chocolate candies at his work. My grandfather is the notorious ice cream eater (he likes all sweets though...as do I!). Genetics are definitely to blame! Oooooor it could be that huge sugar high that drives me to serotonin overload in the brain. I'll still blame it on my relatives though, it's way easier than being accountable, right? ;)

The realization of my oversight of the chocolate bars gave me a thought. I have been eating better since I've been cooking my own food. The last couple of days since I've got more of my apartment arranged, I have been back to some physical activity. When I get home from work I avoid using my car and try to only walk places. Hmmm, I wonder if I've lost weight? I remembered that my work pants did feel a bit more comfortable the other day.

In the morning, I stepped on the scale...155lbs! (Yes, I am a woman and I am not scared to announce my weight to the world! It's just a number! "Weight ain't nothing but a number...baby!" 

Where did I start at? 160! In the last 2 weeks of hard work on my apartment, no television, walking to places I need to go and new introduction of eating at home and working out again, I've lost 5 lbs! I was so excited, I tried on my skinny jeans and THEY FIT!!

Me and my "skinny jeans"

Prior to moving back to Minneapolis, I was living in the suburbs. I worked out 6 days per week however I was at home and would get bored. Inevitably, I would eat. Admittedly, there were also vast amounts of time spent watching TV. I struggled to make it to 157 lbs when I was living there, even with working out so much. Just goes to show how much of a difference eating at home and walking versus driving will do for a person. It reminds me a lot of when I was living in Australia and every time I went, I would dramatically drop weight. I would eat better there as fruits and vegetables were more readily available than chips, pop and other junk food. Fruit stands in the street were easier to get to than go into a convenience store and buy chips. 

My goal is to lose 15 lbs, back to the 145 lbs I was when I came back from Australia. I'm 1/3 of the way there and I didn't even try! It's likely the next 10 will be much more difficult and I'll have to reintroduce more strength training and exercise into my life than I have the last couple of weeks, however I am proud that the food and lifestyle changes have shown some other great benefits! 

One other small story for the evening. Tonight I had a major brain fart. I did make my stir fry and it turned out wonderfully. When I began, I was missing a couple ingredients. One was non-sweetened apple juice which I went and bought but I forgot to get one of the other ingredients. I got all of the way home and, "Ah crap! No brown sugar!" I thought I would walk to the convenience store nearby to see if they had any. I also failed to remember that just 1.5 blocks away in the other direction there was a supermarket. Supermarket location now noted and logged in memory. Nope. No brown sugar at the convenience store. I saw some other gas stations a few blocks down. There was also a grocery story right near there so I decided I'd walk a little further and just go there. Now mind you, this wasn't a casual stroll. There are winter advisories here tonight because it is SO COLD! I'm talking your boogers freeze and nostrils stick together cold; the kind of cold that when you get back inside, you can't REALLY tell if you are moving your face or not because you most certainly have not felt it for the last  4 of the 5 blocks you have been walking. 

MOLASSES

SUGAR

I walked into the grocery store and stood in front of the brown sugar. Once again, "Ah crap!" Yes, I remembered:

                                  +

                                                                              =

BROWN SUGAR

I do have molasses at home because I made some Christmas cookies with it once upon a time and I certainly have sugar. Then there was my internal debate, "It's only $2.19. There's no tax in MN. It's way more convenient this way." The angel said, "But that is $2.19 you can save and you spent nothing but TIME to get here and many cold blocks. You are going to have to walk home anyways. May as well as NOT spend your money." I turned around and marched out of the store for the short but what seemed like a long non-face-feeling journey. 

I went home and did just that; I made my own brown sugar and it resulted in this delicious dinner:

You can find the recipe here: Take out stir fry at home

I used fresh veggies in mine and she actually doubled the recipe so you should half all of the ingredients if you are cooking for one. This came from a magazine originally and I couldn't find mine but saw she had posted it on her blog but just doubled the recipe. It's the best stir fry recipe I've ever eaten at home!

Have you ever gone to the store only to realize that you could make what you are looking for easily at home and have all of the ingredients but just need the enthusiasm?