High on the Hog

In honor of St. Patrick's Day this post will be in green.

This week we are eating high on the hog!

What? You don't know what that means? For all of you that don’t have hillbilly roots like me, I looked up a couple of definitions for you. The phrase "high on the hog" means, living in comfort with a lot of money, or to be in prosperous circumstances. The term came from the idea that quality meat is found on the upper parts of the pig. My Dad uses this phrase a lot, especially while I was in college. Probably when I was spending more money than I should. He would ask, "Are you living too high on the hog?”

Well, I wish we could say we are living in comfort with a lot of money, or that we are in prosperous circumstances, but this week we are just eating high on the hog in celebration of me losing... drum roll please... 17 lbs.!

We have been in a weight loss competition since the New Year and it ended yesterday. The winner won a free weekend to Myrtle Beach. So I have been eating pretty healthy, and exercising A LOT! I am sad to report that I came in third, close to second, but still third out of about 30 people. (Come to think of it, I come in third a lot! In track, I probably came in third place in something every track meet.)

Unfortunately, I lost all the weight in my hands (now resulting in a loose wedding band), my feet (now resulting in shoes that are too big), and my chest (you can figure out where I'm going here). How come the weight can’t come off in the places you really want it to come off of? But, hard work does pay off; it is nice to see the results, and I feel so much stronger, and feel good! (I should add that in November I couldn't even do a sit up. Having babies has pretty much ruined my ab area. But, now I can do sit ups, hold planks, push ups, etc!)

I started off by doing the first two weeks of the South Beach Diet. (I’ll share some great recipes I found later.) I lost 6 – 8 lbs. on that. Then, I just tried to eat healthy, and I paired it with a lot of exercise. I didn’t eat most sugar, (though I did enjoy cake on special occassions, and a cookie every now and then) tried to stay away from food with white flour in it, and have had no potatoes as well.

Then I hit a stand still, and got really bad shin splints. I had them for about five weeks (I actually jumped for the first time yesterday). As a result of those, I started spinning. Let me tell you, I'm not a big sweat-er, but I sweat more in one spin class than I do in a typical year. It seems like you can feel the pounds dropping (or dripping) off of you! I also talked to the fitness coordinator at the gym and she gave me some tips, which helped me lose more weight! We figured out I ate way too much dairy. (I LOVE milk and was basically drinking 6-8 cups a day, at least.) I also had cheese sticks for snacks, cheese, yogurt, etc. So, I cut back my dairy, and of course had to start drinking more water (yuck). I did eat a lot more protein to build muscle to burn more. So, I had a lot of tilapia, shrimp, cream of wheat, and egg whites, and celery with peanut butter. (TIP: Scrambled egg whites are disgusting, stick with hard boiled.) I also have a love affair with sweet potatoes now. I have always liked them, but piled them with butter and brown sugar, I can now eat them without the sugar, but still add a little Brummel and Brown. I eat 5-6 times a day, and really have just reduced portions, and eat more foods that are good for my body, and less foods that are bad for my body. I know, not a new concept.

A bad thing about John and I is that we both really enjoy good food. It would be a lot easier if we didn't have the same weaknesses. But, this week I am rewarding myself with the following goodies: (in moderation, of course.)

We got Girl Scout Cookies about three weeks ago. I wrapped them in a bag and put them in our pantry to be opened yesterday. There were many times I wanted to open those cookies, but eating well and exercising for the past ten weeks has given me a bit more self control. Honestly, I could eat a box of these by myself in one sitting. But, yesterday I only had two.

My sister in law, Heather, introduced us to Boursin Cheese. If you have not had this stuff, you are really missing out! If you want to make your mashed potatoes a little more gourmet, add some Boursin, and viola! I haven’t had mashed potatoes yet this new year, so I am looking forward to John making some with Boursin. He makes really good potatoes. Delish! It's a little pricey, but you can find it cheaper at Sam’s Club or Costco.

I sampled this bread with the French butter above at Harris Teeter about two weeks ago, and almost brought the butter home to sit in my fridge and would have had to practice self control until yesterday. But, I waited, and yesterday went and got me some of this yumminess. It is also pricey, and has a lot of calories and fat, but is delicious. I know what you're thinking, "What is the big deal about bread and butter?" Well, I am a bread and butter girl. (SIDE STORY) In college,the grocery store, Macey's, had this delicious white bread, Grandma Sycamore's (I think that was the name). I remember one night (late night) I needed a snack and pulled out the bread and Brummel and Brown, and everyone was like, "Gross, you are eating bread and butter?" Soon, I had a table full of college girls and boys enjoying the deliciousness with me. (SIDE STORY 2: When you were in elementary school, did you ever take cream in a mason jar and pass it around the classroom with everyone taking turns shaking it until it turned to butter, and then eat it on Saltines? A lot of kids didn’t like it, but I LOVED it.) The bread at Harris Teeter was delicious too, so I had to buy some of that to go along with my French butter!

While searching for a picture of my French butter I found this butter taste test on this site. When I saw that my butter was number 7 (one step above Land O Lakes? What???) I was a litte disappointed. I now have to go back to Harris Teeter and buy some Danish butter!

Here is my little tip of the day. If you are looking for some good chocolate to make fondue, here it is. You can find it in the gourmet chocolate area of your grocery store, though not all stores carry it. Symphony Bars are also yummy too, we like the ones that have toffee and almond pieces in them. I would like to try some European chocolate next. We LOVE fondue! We used to have it a lot more than we do now. It was fun, because on the nights we knew we were going to do fondue we would hurry and put Trevan to bed, and get on our pajamas. John would wash and cut the strawberries, slice the bananas, and I would make the fondue. (That is still how it works today, we just have one more kid to put to bed.) We eat fondue in the living room, turn on the TV, and unwind eating delicious fondue.

I couldn’t wait until later this week. So, we did this last night. My pajamas, the remote, and fondue = a little bit of heaven. (Don’t worry, I went to the gym yesterday.)

To end the week with a bang, we are headed here. Normally, I would have to unbutton the top button of my jeans just thinking about this place, but I've got a little wiggle room now.

**In preparation for this week, food items were accumulated gradually as to not blow the grocery budget in one week.**