Friend of Julie: After the Refresh

Life after the refresh is great. I went for a refresh over a week ago and I learned a lot. My biggest lesson: I was not looking at life through clear lenses. I could see progress from this program, but I was not seeing what I was doing to slow down my progress.

I asked about dried green beans and I learned that dried veggies are not on program. Julie reminded us that we can call the office if we're not sure about an item. I never thought to call to ask because I was living the good life, eating these beans along with meat thinking they were a great treat. All along, I was denial. There were many times that I ate the beans by themselves (no protein) and not just a handful, but an entire package. Yes, I was aware that eating them alone was off-program (equal portion of meat to veggie), but I was ignoring this fact, figuring it couldn't be all that bad. I knew something wasn't right that I was eating so many of them; I suspected they were carbs, but I ate them anyway.

Julie said I may have well have been eating potato chips. Ah, okay. Hmmm. I guess I was...there's that denial again...I was eating potato chips, as I had also been eating mixed dried veggies, knowing there were potato chips in the mix.

All the while, I was looking in my refrigerator for "grey areas" -- foods that were holding my back from losing weight. This is it right here-dried veggies. We're not allowed dried foods on the program. They are carbs and they  cause swelling, which is happening in my ankles. This is the biggest reason my weight loss has slowed. I'm off the dried veggies now! I've been on this program for fourteen months and I'm still learning new things from refresh classes. 

For the past few months I've been working on the balance between work and home life. Work won most of my time and things were out of balance at home. I was not having much fun and none of my home projects were making any progress.  Looking back, I'm happy to realize that when stress really set in, I didn't think about eating as a way to cope. As I wrote recently, in my post Game On, I no longer play the games I used to play; they are no longer part of the way I think. I'm so happy that I no longer am in the circle of using sugar to soothe me when I'm stressed.

Thinking back on the past few months, I realize I used those dried green beans and mixed veggies as a way to handle stress. I really didn't see this until now. I still feel good that I didn't go to sugar. I'm ready to move on now and begin to lose weight once again. I'm leaving stress and those dried veggies behind me.

Here's a couple yummy recipes I made recently...

Sausage with Onions and Peppers


For breakfast this morning, I cut three sausage links into bite size pieces and put them in a hot pan. When they were about half-way done, I tossed in slices of green, red, and yellow peppers that I had in the freezer and kept stirring until the sausages were fully cooked.


Rib-Eye Steak au Poivre  

I had hoped to post the recipe along with the video I made, but I just haven't had time, so I'm posting the recipe by itself. If the video ever makes it to a final cut, I'll post it.