sometimes you just have to try something new...

Hey there!


So it seems that I have become quite bad about blogging this month. I started off great and then I think life just got in the way….well, either that or I realized that I didn’t have too many “important” things to say and figured I should wait until I do…which as you can see doesn’t seem to be that often. But I guess what that just proves is that I am missing the whole point of this blog… I mean this about sharing my weight loss journey…and my journey to a better, more whole me….and sometimes…well I am just boring (gee doesn’t that just make you want to keep reading!).

Anyway…this past weekend I actually did do some exciting things and so I thought what the hay, let’s share!

First thing first…I had my second cooking lesson on Friday (yeay for friends willing to put up with my endless naïve questioning about such things as “Why is the water gurgling” and “When do I season”)! This week’s lesson was all about couscous, the perfect veggie mix, and chicken (my first lesson was on fish and risotto). On top of that I spent a good hour in the grocery store getting taught the importance of eating fresh and all the great things you can find in just the produce section (it was kind of like being on “Take home chef”….well without the really hot Australian guy)! Anyway this week’s lesson was extremely important too because it all boiled down to me being able to make an entire dinner for my parents for their anniversary without any help (which I did today). I gotta say watching people cooking is so much easier then actually doing it. The very process of throwing a little of this and a little of that into a pot and coming out with something that tastes even remotely good, pretty much overwhelms me (let alone it never quite works out for me)!

Anyway it turns out that my father accidentally ate my left overs from my cooking lesson, which I had thought I had done a good job of hiding but apparently didn’t…and so today at the last minute I ended up having to combine the two lessons and came up with a dinner of salad, lemon chicken, mushroom and onion risotto, and a veggie mix of snap peas, red peppers, onion, and mushroom, with a key lime pie for desert (which was only a little tart cause I used too much limeade…a rookie mistake..hee hee)! Considering my father is a chef (well former chef) I considered it a job well done when the only thing bad thing he said was that the chicken was a bit cold (which it wouldn’t have been if he had come home from church on time)! Now I think it’s time to try conquering some of the recipes in all the cookbooks people have been sending my way (see picture to the right).

Oh and for another moment of excitement in my life….today I followed the words of Jillian Michaels and “Felt the fear and did it anyway”! Basically I am not really good about ever really wanting to put myself out there. I like the idea of change but the footwork…or actually the idea that the footwork could actually lead to my rejection….usually holds me back from actually doing anything to really change my life. Well lately I’ve been having a difficult time with accepting the beliefs of my church and so I’ve been thinking a lot about checking out this other church that I pass every day on my way to work. All week I planned that today would be the day I would do that since I was planning to spend the weekend at my parent’s house and the church is seriously 5 minutes from their door. Well when it actually came time to go this morning I was so nervous about it. I mean it’s not like anyone invited me to go or like I had a good reason for just showing up. I figured I would stand out like a sore thumb and I wasn’t really sure if it even was the kind of church I would truly feel comfortable attending (mostly because I knew very little about it). Anyway I almost completely convinced myself to skip church and hang out at the coffee shop for the morning, when I realized that I couldn’t do that. It’s like I had this moment where I felt like I was deciding to shrink back into this old lesser version of me or I could choose to just put one foot in front of the other, put myself out there, and see what happens. So I went and I loved the service (actually it was probably the first time in almost a year where I truly felt the presence of God in a service) and was really glad I went (even though as I was leaving the pastor stopped me and it turned into a really awkward conversation on my part).

Anyway…this is turning out to be a very long post (I guess that’s what happens when I don’t blog for almost a week). I’ll fill you all in on some more fun stuff later.

Jess