a year later and now fatter...

Hello,
blogosphere..... have you missed me?

Well its been a year since I have visited, how was your year?
while you are thinking of all the gloriousness of 2014, let me recap my year.

I got cancer. Brest cancer that is.
had my boobs chopped off and replaced with bigger implants. it wasn't that bad really, it saved me from having chemo or radiation, and I got new boobs in the process.

Still living in the same place, still with my crazy RH and the kids. oh yeah I got laid off too. So now I"m on a continual hustle, until RH gets his act together.

I'm also pushing 200lbs, and am miserable.

So this year, I decided on something different. I decided I'm just going to tackle this food/diet thing like a job, scratch that,  like a project.

I went to see Dr. Menezes (my fine ass doctor, damn! he's cute), I went to see him because of my annual respiratory infection, that of course likes to make an appearance around Christmas time. A Shot in the butt, a breathing treatment,  prednisone and antibiotics later.... I asked him what he would recommend for weight loss. His answer? the south beach diet.

I gotta admit, I hate anything with "diet" in the title; but if this is what my own doctor is recommending then, yeah, why not.

besides after I thought it thru, this is what I came up with.
we are all products of our environment. To say we are all influenced by our experiences growing up. with food in particular, for me it was a form of love.  if you ever hang around any Latinos you know we like to feed you. anyone who comes over, friend or stranger, you know its a bee line to the kitchen where you get bombarded with a little coffee? something to eat? have you eaten today? yes, you have?.... well here's a little of this to hold you over....

My mom was always cooking, we used to grow vegetables in the back yard. She made breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. And everything was an extended extravaganza of food. nothing was just simple.

breakfast: eggs, grits, toast, cheese, bacon, sausage and biscuits.
lunch: sandwich and soup or sandwich and salad or some meat and vegetables
dinner: Meat, rice,beans,salad, vegetables and dessert.

YES all of that almost everyday

we used to joke that she should just pull up a bed in the Kitchen. Come to think of it, it would have saved her some time.

In any case, what my thought process was that basically what we learn growing up is our first go-to reaction to pretty much everything. so when I go to make dinner everyday I immediately think of, ok, what meat? what starch? what vegetable?

I never think of something simple or healthy, simply because I can't regurgitate those types of recipes from memory.

but what if I retrain my brain. what if I forget all my mental conditioning and absorb something new?

here's where my project came to be. I spent $8 on amazon, buying the south beach diet book and an additional south beach cooking guide.

My mission: to cook every recipe in the south beach book and only eat those foods.
Time: One Year.


Once I get the book, from cover to cover, I will cook every meal in that book and track my progress.