Bon Voyage - for now!

Hi Dolls,

Just a quick update before I leave for a Sisters weekend at my parents lovely house in South Carolina. We will be celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary! I am so excited to get away with my sisters and enjoy the last little bit of summer before the back to school business starts.

I have been doing very well with the French Women's Manifesto No. 1 - Three meals a day.

Break - Cheese on Toast & cut up plum and nectarine (so good this time of year)

Lunch - A larger meal...Yesterday I had 1 cup of Chicken Pasta Alfredo, 1/2 cup of a fresh bean salad, and a small brownie for dessert. I have also been eating a lot of garden fresh tomatos thanks to the Farmers market and my neighbors garden. Because these sandwiches are so enjoyable...I do not crave salty chips....don't hesitate - go buy a fresh - Baguette, cut up fresh tomato, slather on some olive oil mayo. YUM!

Dinner - Very Light - it is so HOT here ...so I just had 5 whole wheat crackers, Laughing Cow blue cheese spread (lite) + a cut up Nectarine and Plum. I had some chocolate also that I should not have...but otherwise all is well. Stopped eating after 6pm, and did laundry and other housework to keep the slow burn going.... I am very happy here to be seeing a waist line again!

ALSO - have added a regime of doing the steps at work. This is amazing...just once in the morning and once in the afternoon and my bottom and thighs are already toning up...and all because a few flights of stairs!

This way of eating has helped me lose a few inches, I have to weight in to see my real weight loss progress, but I prefer to just see how my clothes fit. And how I feel! And right now I feel great! I don't feel deprived and I am full and satisfied. But most of all I feel in control.

When I want to eat when I am not hungry, I stop myself, knowing that if I wait until I am hungry, the food with be pleasurable to eat, and this is a trick the French women use to satisfy their hunger. Which brings me to Manifesto No. 4 - French Women avoid anything that demands too much effort for too little pleasure! (we will explore this later)

Speaking of pleasure. We talked about le Marche' in the last post. I have never gone to markets until this year and I am so glad I have been. There is something so rewarding about picking out fresh fruits and veges and bringing them home to your own table and eating them right away. I have never tasted anything so good - except those veges out of my Mothers garden growing up. In the good old days. :)

Here we are at a SC market buying peaches!

***Aren't these beautiful! It's ok to treat yourself if you have gotten plenty of exercise that day.