Busy Week

This week has been very busy, with trying to expand our business after twenty-plus years as a small, family-operated firm. Secured our new artist today; waiting on a decision from our potential new salesperson. So I've been away from blogging until now.

Noticed how my stomach is shrinking. Anything near the portion size I used to eat is immediately uncomfortable. It's taking a conscious effort to remember my new portion sizes, but I'm slowing getting used to it.

I'm eating a lot of soups. They're quick and easy, and they're filling and nutritious. And I can easily extend it to a complete meal by adding fatless grilled chicken breast.

Which brings me to using small amounts of meat as more of an accent rather than the foundation of a meal. That's really helping to keep the calories and fat down, too.

This weekend I'm going to make a soup with cabbage, parsnips, onions, and small white beans. I'll base it on some of the San Marzano tomatoes I stocked up on, and thin it with chicken broth. I think I'll make the spice base Paprika and a bit of marjoram and ground caraway seeds to give it a Hungarian flavor.

SlimFast is working surprisingly well. I thought the mouth feel was going to be terrible, but they're working wonders with refined cellulose gum these days. I actually wish they had a version that wasn't as sweet.

I guess the biggest thing so far for me is getting used to hunger. I talked about this with my brother-in-law a couple months ago, and he had the perfect word for it: panic.

That really is it; I literally panic a little when I begin to feel hungry. I just have to remind myself that it's all part of the process, grab some celery, and "deal, bitch!"

This is going to a long, hard climb, but I'm up to it.