I have not had many new revelations about dieting in the past week. I am going steady and strong so I have not found anything new that may be of use to anyone reading my blogs. This is a good thing though. I have found a nice groove and I am exactly one month away from my trip. My days are pretty much similar with similar meals at similar times every day. An example of a typical day goes as follows:

4:30am wake up

5:00am eat breakfast: Two thick slices of turkey, 1/4 avocado cubed, poached egg, hot sauce.

8:00am eat snack: Apple

10:00am eat half of lunch: Large chicken breast and a nectarine

12:30pm eat other half of lunch

3:00pm eat snack: 1/4 cup soy nuts and dried fruits

5:00pm get home, make light dinner: Green salad with nuts and fruit.

8:30pm go to bed

During that day I make sure I am drinking two liters (60 ounces) of water. Sometimes I get wily and add some lemon juice to my water. I know, pretty exciting. I am not a fruit person. I do not like the sugary taste they have. I do not like the juicy mess most of them impart. I have found a few fruits that I can enjoy though. Apples are one of those fruits. I buy Granny Smith apples in bulk at Costco and eat at least one a day. I get out my Swiss Army knife and slice off bits to snack on as I work. I also like grapes a lot. Those are super easy to pop into my mouth as I am working. I tried the globe grapes but they have seeds and that makes for more work so now I stick to seedless. No mess. The nectarines are great because they are a little juicy. I eat it right along with my chicken so it adds moisture to my reheated chicken breasts.

The week days are great. I have the above schedule and I follow it. Weekends, as you may have learned, are a whole different animal. I have a party to go to every single weekend! This weekend was no exception: Dining out with friends and then a double birthday party with an Italian theme.

Dining out with friends is an understatement. I went to a fabulous show in San Francisco. I saw Conan O'Brien's Strictly Prohibited From Being Funny On TV.

It was awesome!! Famous comedians doing stand up, Conan, of course, Andy Richter, the whole band was there, Triumph the Insult Dog was there, Masturbating Bear, the Walker Lever...everything you can imagine was there....and as a wonderful surprise, Chris Isaac did a performance!!

We bought the tickets when we thought it was going to be our last chance to see Conan live. We are quite happy to have learned that since then he has been signed on to TBS. We still plan a trip down to L.A. to see him once that show in up and running later this year.

I digress, this was supposed to be a diet update. While in the City, we were with friends and everyone was hungry. We had to grab something really quick so we ended up at a pizza place. There was absolutely nothing on the menu that wasn't cheesy and melty. My only option was to be a party pooper and get nothing. The location of the event was such that I was able to get a workout getting to it. San Francisco is known for it's hills. This area was the epitome of that. The sidewalks were not sidewalks, they were stairs. I used the opportunity to burn some calories so while all our friends were huffing and puffing up the hill with 'Za's in hand, I was sprinting up with little effort. It is a great thing when you can FEEL how much weight you have lost. I FELT lighter. I felt like a gazelle bounding up the steep hill. I also felt good about not ordering a slice of pizza like the rest of the folks.

Saturday I knew was going to be a challenge. I woke up, walked the dog and made a huge breakfast. Remember, breakfast is my largest meal of the day so I wanted to really feel satisfied all day long so I didn't go into the evening party starving. Once it came time to go to the party I had a glass of milk to help fill my tummy. At the party itself I could not resist having a Negroni. Ahh sweet nectar. Of the appetizers, I was able to nibble on a few. There were bread sticks wrapped in prosciutto. I unwrapped the sticks and ate the prosciutto. Lean protein, right? Then there was bruschetta. I ate the two with the most topping on it. I figured, it is only tomatoes, garlic and onion so I could eat a lot of the topping. There were also olives of which I allowed myself to eat as much as I pleased. I skipped the mini pizza bites.

For dinner there was Insalata Caprese, a green salad picked from the garden, beef carpaccio and a giant bowl of spaghetti with homemade meatballs. I was a very good girl! I had some of the insalata caprese salad, even though there is cheese in it, it is really fresh mozzarella so I felt I could have a few slices and I could have as much as I wanted of the tomatoes. I had a huge pile of the garden salad because it only had a simple oil and vinegar dressing. I took two slices of bread and about two ounces of the beef carpaccio. Beef carpaccio is nothing more than lean, raw meat so I felt I could have as much of that as I wanted. Then there was the spaghetti. What I did was take two meatballs and a pile of tomato sauce and plopped them right onto my plate. No pasta at all. I was so proud of myself! I was stuffed by the end of the meal but I had not eaten anything bad for me.

Since it was a double birthday, there were two birthday cakes. That proved to be a bit more difficult to maneuver. One cake was a chocolate layer cake and the other was a fruit tart. I had the latter. It may have had a lot of sugar but it still had all that fruit on top so I allowed a slice to pass my lips.

I have no excuse for the half a bottle of Chianti I had with dinner or the sip of Grappa I had to end the meal. I just really enjoyed them both. Sometimes you need to allow yourself little treats...or a whole half a bottle of treats.

When I over indulge on alcohol or food, the very next day I make a fruit smoothie. I use the recipe I developed a while ago to detox your body. You can find that recipe in my first "The Experiment" blog entry. I gotta say, that recipe is fantastic!! I always feel much better after having it. I did a lot of research on what ingredients I should put in there so I could maximize the output. It really works. The flavor is a bit too lemony for my bf but he sucks it down anyways and he agrees that it feels like it is cutting into the junk food that is sitting in his stomach. It gives you a boost of energy and gives you the feeling of being lighter. It also cures a hangover. I am quite proud of that recipe and I depend on it often. Try it out!

My weight loss is steady but it is much slower than it was at the beginning of this adventure. As you may recall, I began this whole thing in March with a rapid weight loss plan followed by a more sensible, healthy plan. The healthy plan I am following is also a weight loss plan. I am eating around 1200 calories a day which I have learned is my optimum weight loss intake. After this weight loss diet I do plan on continuing with a healthy diet, just not for weight loss. I hope to make up new recipes as time progresses. I will post them here as I come up with them.

The next distraction is this Wednesday where I will be eating Thai food followed by strawberry shortcake for my brother's birthday. Next weekend is another wine tasting event where I always end up eating way too much. Following that is Mother's Day where I will have the pleasure of eating at Angele in Napa. The weekend right before I leave my food group meets where we are cooking Southern food. What does all this mean? It means I will have to be extra good during the week days for the next month!!!

I have 32 days to lose 9 pounds. Wish me luck!