New exercise game and a victory

Yesterday was the stuff of which makes me proud ! I successfully talked myself out of an overwhelming temptation and I knew right away I was better for it.

Morning started out with another fun oats combination

Rolled oats with pumpkin, figs, raisins, goji berries and cinnamon. I am finding that sweetening oats by cooking with dried fruit instead of brown sugar just plain tastes better. The individual flavors stand out better. Rasins and dates seem to work the best for this.

The guys headed off for church services and I got to catch up with some studying and "play" with a new exercise game that my son found at the library for the Wii- Walk it Out. It combines the elements of Dance Dance revolution with an indoor walking routine and allows you and a friend to walk around a virtual island , using the remote and numchucks, balance board or the dance pad. The music is very contemporary dance kind of stuff and you can add elements to the island as you walk. It looked like fun, but I wanted to get the feel of it for myself without my son trying to do more of the game play aspects with this. It is a lot of fun and definitely long enough stretches of movement to get in a decent calorie burn. You can really get lost in playing this game and get in as much activity as you would going for a walk ( you can move around to any place while you play, as long as you stay in range of the remote). This one would be great for moms , as the music is good for a work out and stuff your kids will know and get them up off the couch and walking/dancing with you. I still think Wii Sports Resort canoeing or cycling might be a better calorie burn , but this comes in second for me so far. One day i might get one of those body bug tings and play both of these games just to find out for certain !

I forgot to take a picture of lunch, but it was broccoli cranberry cashew salad and a hummus pizza on a high fiber tortilla. Good, and very filling. Perhaps too much so, which brings me to my victory for the day. We went to the baby shower ( in our family showers are not ladies only, but a gathering of everybody so they are huge crowd affairs), and I got caught up chatting with my family and some old friends. There was food , and lots of it, but I really was not hungry at all. It was one of those situations where not eating can go totally unnoticed, so I didn't feel compelled to eat to be polite either. I was just having too much fun chatting and observing. I tried to take some pictures but my camera kept playing games, so the majority of shots I wanted to get , I didn't. The party was nice, some silly shower games were played, loads of neat baby stuff was gained by the couple, and suddenly the time had come to an end. We needed to stop at the store on the way home ( I forgot to buy mushrooms), and as soon as I was out in the car, I was HUNGRY ! The kind of hungry that makes you seriously wonder how bad it would be if you ate the upolstery in the car just to get your stomach to shut up. Every fast food chain we passed seemed like a temptress , calling me in with open arms and a friendly smile ( "Hello darling. I am Taco Bell, and you crave the crunchy spicy taste of me." " No sweetie- come to me ! I am MacDonalds and have I got a Quarter Pounder for you ! I will make everything right" That kind of talk). I decided to just shut up about the way I was feeling because if I hinted at it, we would have stopped and that would be so not good . The guys ate at the party because they were hungry- it was your standard "feed the masses" kind of food, so fast food on top of that would have gone from slip up to something of Three Mile Island type disaster. No, Diane. Be strong ! A healthy dinner awaits you at home ! So we got to the store and wound up parking at the entrance closest to the bakery- yeah. Now lets turn that temptation into Johnny Depp with a dozen roses and a smile just for you ! Focus ,Diane. You came for mushrooms.You need to se an example. Headed for the produce section, and it made me weak in the knees. THIS was food I could eat and not feel bad about, so I grabbed my mushrooms and a half a dozen pears, with the intention of eating one of these bad boys on the way home. Knowing that I could eat something as soon as I got in the car gave me the strength to head back to the bakery and make an intelligent decision on a loaf of healthy bread to go with the meal that was waiting at home in the crock pot. Johnny Depp somehow turned into Abe Vigodda in a thong, and I just was not tempted. I happily devoured my pear on the way home.

Dinner was Italian Sausage soup with Walnut Whole Wheat bread. To make the soup I sliced up 1 lb of italian sausage, 2 cloves of garlic and put them in the crock pot with 4 cups chicken stock, 1 can tomato paste and 2 t Italian seasoning. Let that cook on low 4-5 hours. When we got home I flipped the crocpot to high and added 1/2 cup whole wheat shells and 4 big fistfuls of baby spinach. I let that cook a half hour and served it.This one was a definite winner - or maybe I was so hungry I would have eaten just about anything. The guys really liked it as well, so I think it speaks for the soup.

I think this may go down as a winning strategy- if you get an attack of the hungrys, instead of hitting a drive through, hit the produce department of the nearest grocery store and grab the best looking fruit or veggie you can find.