I'm Melting....

Notice the title of this post? It actually has a double meaning.

One is, it has been incredibly HOT around these parts. I am so thankful that we have air in our house! I'm sure I would be a whole lot less pleasant to be around if we did not. When we bought our house, it did not have central air. To make matters worse, we did not have any windows in our main living area that would fit an air conditioner! We had to put a window air conditioner all the way back in our bedroom, and place fans to try to strategically blow the air to our living spaces.

That did not work out so well. So, the first thing we bought when we had saved up enough money was central air. And, we have NEVER regretted it!

Not only has it been blistering hot, but we have not had very much rain. AT ALL. The grass is so crunchy and sharp, that when you walk on it in flip-flops, it actually feels like little needles are stinging your feet! I was surprised that they did not cancel fireworks this year. Instead, they had the fire department hose everything down around where they were lighting them off.

All around you see brown grass. However,  Hubs is adamant about having a GREEN lawn. Since we live in the "country" (and by that, I mean we live in a subdivision, right outside of town) and don't have to actually pay for our water (other than the electricity it takes to run the well) the sprinkler is going almost non stop. There are only several homes in our neighborhood who water their lawn, and the difference is striking. You can definitely tell who waters their lawn, and who does not.

Some people love when the grass gets brown, because then, they don't have to cut it! But, Hubs loves cutting the lawn, and making our yard look nice. We definitely have the curb appeal factor going on. Which is a good thing, since our house is for sale! Ha!

My other meaning for the "I'm Melting" title, is that my body is literally melting away! As of today, I have now lost a total of 17 lbs. I got some clothes out the other day that I haven't fit into in a while, and let me tell you, it was just like Christmas! I had even forgotten I had some of them!

I am trying to remind myself that nothing tastes as good as being skinny....err....at a healthy weight feels. Most of the time, it works!

Some of the things that I have been doing are eating more fruit (which is easy to do since it IS summer), salad, and drinking more water. I allow myself to have ice cream occassionally, but just a 1/2 cup.

When I say that, what comes to your mind? It does seem like an awfully small portion, doesn't it?! But, if you eat it reallllllly s-l-o-w, it's enough to satisfy your craving.

I also make a mean orange smoothie in my Ninja. Here's my recipe, if you can even call it that. I crush ice to make "snow" (that's a Ninja term on their infomercial) add a few tablespoons of  orange juice concentrate, a few teaspoonfuls of vanilla yogurt, a splash of vanilla extract, a packet of Stevia, and blend away! It is yummy, sweet, and makes me not want ice cream so much. It's kind of like an orange creamsicle.

I try not to deprive myself though, because, who wants to live their whole life saying "I can't have that" every time? There are already SO many foods that are off limits to me as a Celiac, that I am not willing to tell myself that I can NEVER eat (you fill in the blank) again.

It's all about portion control, and moderation. And, if you slip up, you just forgive yourself, and start over again.

Inch by inch, pound by pound, it is slowly coming off.

17 lbs.....and counting......