Lazy Blueberry Thursday - With Figs!

Are you kidding me?  Figs are ZERO POINTS on Weight Watchers!  I would have assumed that their deliciousness level, not unlike the scrumptious heights of avocados, would cost me some points!  But, no, this bowl of crunchy, juicy blueberries plus several sweet, ripe, soft figs cost me a big zippo in points.

And, it really filled me up too! 

I am down 22 pounds in 23 weeks.  Very exciting!   Five pounds to go to my real goal but this is my Weight Watchers Lifetime goal.  Yep, I did it, I made it to my Lifetime goal today!  Fruits like these are making it very easy for me to stay within my points.

I bow to nature for giving us such colorful, sweet goodness.

Woooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooo!

Lazy Blueberry Monday: It's a Berry WWgasm Day!

Seriously, it's like eating candy!  What is more fun than a bowl of cherries?  A bowl of BLUEBERRIES!

For those of us on Weight Watchers, it's like they're paying us to eat them when it's ZERO points! 

This is a major WWgasm!  But, man even if weight loss is not your deal, run out and grab a couple cartons of blueberries.  Their flavor, texutre and pop just went up several notches this week!  Wooohooo!

Berry Beautiful Day to All!

Lazy Blueberry Sunday!

Oatmeal + fresh yummy blueberries -- stewed together with a tiny bit of brown sugar.  Delightful breakfast that will stay with me through Bar Method class and up to late brunch with a friend.

I took a photo because it was such a bright purple against the green bowl, it looked shockingly like a deep purple hydrangea -- one of my favorite flowers.  It really does make such a difference when your food is beautiful.  We taste with our eyes too. 

So, don't forget to scoop up some beauty for the pleasure of your eyes at every meal.  It will raise the yum factor by 1000!

Never Ever Ever Ever Ever Give Up Your Favorite Foods in the Name of Weight Loss

It happened again!  I was looking for a Weight Watchers friendly chocolate chip cookie recipe and made my own twist on it to create one of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had!

If you are attached to any food, there is an alternative out there for something just as tasty and delicious -- if not more delicious -- than the original recipe. 

I refuse to make anything with fake butter, sugar, or anything even slightly other than whole, clean, good ingredients.  I don't want to forfeit taste, and I also want ingredients that are as close to what comes out of the earth or nature as possible.

So, I found a recipe that used real butter, real sugar, and lots of other really groovy stuff that I knew would give it good texture, like rolled oats.  I added toasted almonds and instead of chocolate chips I used the Scharffenberger Semi-Sweet Chocolate bar I got at the BlogHer Food Conference and chopped it up in varied shapes and sizes.

These cookies have the best crunch and texture of any chocolate chip cookie I've ever had.  Just the right amount of crunch with the right amount of soft, and not too sweet, and not at all heavy even with the whole wheat flour.

INGREDIENTS

DRY:
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
WET:
1/4 cup softened butter
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
FLAVOR:
1 cup of chopped fine chocolate - I used Scharffenberger
1/2 cup finely chopped toasted almonds
POSSIBLY NEEDED/OPTIONAL:
2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup coffee


DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Take the first 6 dry ingredients and put them in Cuisinart for a few seconds to make sure the oats are pretty finely ground.  It will all look roughly like the texture of brown sugar after just a few seconds.

In another bowl, beat the butter until fluffy with a mixer.  Then mix in the next three wet ingredients until smoothly blended.

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until blended.  Add the chocolate and almonds. 

If it's too dry to form little balls, add coffee as needed (a couple tablespoons will probably do it!) to give texture you can work with to roll into balls about the diameter of a quarter.  You will end up with roughly 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Bake for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!!! 

Lazy Loss: Happy Father's Day

It's only my second Father's Day without my dad, but somehow this one hit me much harder than the last.  Last year I was distracted by focusing on my boyfriend, celebrating him as a father, so I simply moved my attention to something else.  I tend to do that with pain -- look at a bright shiny object nearby so I don't have to deal with the dark feelings.

Today, I innocently went to Starbucks.  A lovely elderly man was ordering a latte, and just behind him, in front of me, was a rather dashing man of about my age.  At one point the younger man turned to me and I asked "Father's Day?" and he nodded yes.  Right in that moment, in  the midst of my heart being so full and happy for them and their little outing, I got nailed by a huge sense of loss that I wasn't in line with my dad.  His dad was paying and the younger man said "Senior Father's privilege" saying that even though he too was a father, the senior dad won.  My dad always paid for me too. I would have to do acrobatic sneaking around with waiters to get to pay.  My dad would laugh proudly at my ingenuity, but I could also see the glimmer of "Well, that won't be happening again." 

I started quietly crying right there in the middle of Starbucks.  It's been a while since I cried about my dad.  Mostly I've been appreciating a joyful relationship with him, in my dreams, meditations and even just in daily life hearing him whispering advice to me - particularly when dealing with the business he left me. 

He's helped me a lot with the recent ending of my relationship of two years. Even as I edge toward what I think is the tail end -- hopefully, please God -- of mourning this loss of love, he has been quite light and playful with me in my dreams.  Just the other day, my dog thankfully barked at some creature in the back yard around 3 a.m.  It woke me from a deep sleep where I was dreaming about my dad and my ex.  My dad was showing me with a bit of hilarity how grateful he was that I hadn't gotten engaged - as my ex had promised him -- to a man who told so many slightly frightening lies.  I woke up, albeit groggy, with a smile on my face. 

My dad was unmarried most of his life.  Two marriages - one about 6 years and another about 10 -- do not fill up a lot of years.  So, he learned to love to cook for himself and for guests.  He really did love to cook, and he was good at it too.  He had all the best cookbooks and experimented with them all regularly.  He had an ultimate passion for cooking soup, and toward the end of his life he passed this passion on to me. 

He also liked to bake from time to time.  And, he loooooooooooved him some bacon!  He would carefully stow away every bit of bacon grease he could get after cooking a rasher of bacon.  He always gave him a weekly treat: big Sunday breakfast.  He went to his favorite diner most weeks but loved to cook up a big American cholesterol rich breakfast.  This morning as I was thinking about baking some muffins to cure my recent craving for a good warm hot out of the oven muffin I thought "Wow, I wish I had made my dad big corn muffins with bacon grease and big chunks of crispy bacon in them while he was alive."

In his honor I made corn muffins.  Being a vegetarian, I added corn and toasted almonds instead of the bacon.  He would be laughing very, very heartily at that pathetic substitution!  I toasted my dad with yummy food, which is appropriate.  He'd approve of a toast with gin too, but muffins will have to do today.

I miss him so much today, but taking time out to honor him seems to make it a little better. 

Happy Father's Day Dad.  You were literally the best dad I could have ever had.  Had I ordered you up on a menu, you couldn't have been any more perfect. 

love, love, love,
your Lazy Daughter

Take 5: The Lazy Woman's Road to Meditation

One of my Lazy tricks I play on myself is "Take 5."  I make myself commit to just five minutes of some action that I don't want to do, just to get myself doing it.  Sometimes I'll commit to 15, but if it's something I really don't feel like doing I commit to just 5 minutes. 

Recently, when I decided I needed to start meditating on a daily basis again, I just started with 5.  I very quickly moved my minimum to 10.  And, usually I go way past the minimum I set up for myself.  Within just a few days I was actually craving my meditation, and wouldn't even think of doing less than 10.  Now, first thing in the morning when I get out of bed, I'm in the habit and wouldn't think of not giving myself those quiet moments to start my day in peace and power.  It's better than orange juice -- to start my day out right!  I am far more centered for my entire day because of my practice and I'm grateful that I started.

Whenever people tell me they want to write, or they have a book idea, I say "just take 5!"  I tell them to start with a bare minimum commitment: 5 minutes each day.  If they really are a writer or their idea for a book really has merit, they will WANT to write more than five minutes each day.  They will be pleased with their writing, with the process and will naturally move their minimum commitment up, up, and up, until soon they are inching toward their goal of having a book written.  And, they will be happy doing it.  It's like I wouldn't even think of only meditating for five minutes.  It's too delicious.  I want to do it longer. 

If my desk is a mess or my garage has an area that has gotten out of hand, I'll commit to a minimum of 15 minutes.  To protect myself, I set a timer for the 15 minutes.  If it rings and I want to keep going, I do.  But, if I don't want to do anymore, I maintain my integrity to myself: I gave myself my word that I only needed to do 15 minutes, so I keep my word to myself.  It's important that you keep your word to yourself.  It goes the other way too.  If you are about to fall asleep and you remember you didn't do your 5 minutes, get up and do it: keep your word.  Otherwise what you are saying to yourself is "That goal, that dream, that idea, etc. isn't that important."  Honor yourself, your brilliance, your ideas:  Keep your word.

And, be gentle with yourself.  If 5 is too much, start with 2 minutes.  As my pilates teacher says "you can do anything for just two minutes!"   She's usually saying this at the mid-way mark of a 4 minute plank!  LOL!    But, seriously, if 5 minutes is too much pressure, do 2! In being gentle with yourself to start, you can very gingerly move yourself into realms you know you want to go, but where you have some hesitation or psychological barrier. 

So, give yourself a break and have a breakthrough: TAKE 5!!!!!!

Giddy Lazy Woman

I've been buying clothes to "grow" into -- aka grow thinner into -- for the last couple of months.   I haven't needed to buy much because I have a thin wardrobe, but when I've been in the mood to reward my losses and celebrate my renewed shape, I've bought some new items.

I was at Anthropologie a couple months ago returning a Christmas present and tried on a dress. I could sort of shove myself into it.  The sales lady swore it fit, but she wasn't my breasts. I knew breathing would become increasingly hard and fainting or perishing due to the constraint would be quite possible.  I loved it, though, and knew it would be cute when I shrank myself some more.

I wore it today for the first time and oh my god it was so fun.  I was giddy all the live-long day wearing it.  It's fun to wear clothes that make you feel good.  Wearing clothes that make you feel good that you know didn't fit until this week: priceless, giddy priceless.

WWgasm = TWENTY POUNDS DOWN!

I haven't weighed this little since my last decade, i.e., my 30's!  I am thrilled beyond belief!  And, my god the journey has been so steady and effortless. I've lost just under a pound a week, and have even had trips where food was a major focus during this 5 1/2 months. I didn't deny myself a whole heckuva lot along the way.  I tasted everything I wanted to, and definitely overindulged at a few several course meal events.  But, other than those few occasions, I pretty much stayed the course.

Being perimenopausal, though, I had my fair share of weeks where I gained even though I knew I had synchronistically done more working out, etc.  But, my hormones didn't care about my weigh-ins.  Weight Watchers does a really delightful thing on their site, where you can see the chart of your weight loss in graph or list form.  I love the graph because I can watch the ups and downs, hills and valleys that lead me to this point.  It was very steady, ups roughly every four weeks, followed by a bigger down. 

On the up weeks, I won't lie, I still felt like I'd done something "wrong" or that I had accidentally not logged something, etc.    I had to keep remembering that if I just stick with it, the loss will continue.  My body will catch up.  It always did.

The biggest coup is that I did almost no emotional eating over these months, even though several weeks into my loss I broke up with my boyfriend.  Normally, this would have been a grand excuse to indulge.  In fact, I had gained half of the weight I just lost after my father died because my childish mantra was "I get to do anything I want!  My daddy died." 

I give full credit to Marianne Williamson's "Course in Weight Loss" for taking away all the childish mantras, and for teaching me how to truly take care of myself.  Also, I give her credit for this 20 pounds.  My original goal when I signed up for Weight Watchers on January 5th was 13 pounds.  Marianne's book really got me to see that that would have been my "as good as it gets over 40" weight, not my ideal weight.   I got that I have been denying myself my ideal weight since my 30's. 

The truth is I didn't want to do the work to unveil all the conversations in my head that were keeping me from my ideal weight.  "It's not safe -- bad things happen to me when I'm thin."  "I can't, it's too hard over 40."  "This is as good as it gets, Bridge!"  "This is good: keep some weight on so you have an excellent excuse for not having the man you want!"  If you are struggling in any way, shape or form with your weight, I recommend this book more than anything I've done on this journey.

My goal is 7 pounds more.  My Weight Watchers leader suggested just 2 more.  I'll be looking at this over the next few weeks to see where I land, but I will say I am very happy to say I am feeling great, liking what I see in the mirror for the first time in a very, very long time, and am very proud of myself.   I don't remember the last time I said I was proud of myself.  It's fun.

I will say, though, that this has been one Lazy Ass Weight Loss process because I did the full court press: body, mind and spirit.  I needed to deal with all of them to get these results, and I found the laziest solutions for me in all those area.  You need to find the tools that work for you.  But, I do recommend you hit all three areas to get to the bottom of all that is related to your not being your ideal weight -- or for not having whatever you want in your life that you don't have.

Lazy Weight Loss Tip = Eat Like a Baby!

I recently found these wonderful little olive bowls at Crate & Barrel.   At first I was drawn to them because when I do Italian dinners I always put out bowls of olives, and it's nice to have matching little bowls for the olive pits, right?  But, I bought several of them because I realized they were also a weight loss tool.  Small bowls and dishes are your weight loss friends.

I made another yummy Trader Joe's find this morning:  Country Choice Multigrain Hot Cereal.  The single serving is 1/2 cup and fits perfectly in my sweet little bowl.  (By the "weigh" for you Weight Watchers peeps -it's only 3 points for this 1/2 cup serving.  If you add agave or sugar, a couple toasted almonds, it's only another 1 or 2 points).  I savored it and it filled me up.  There's something about the psychology of having an overflowing bowl of warm yumminess that is so fulfulling!

When I was at the BlogHer Food Conference a few weeks ago, the Barilla company was showcasing their new line of PICCOLINI pasta.  Oh my god, they are adorable.  Not being a mom, I wasn't thinking about how much kids would love all the fun shapes.  I was thinking about how much more balanced a dish of pasta is with pasta and sauce, and how you can feel more satiated with far less when it's small bites like this.  They had samples out and it was fantastic. 



Later, when I read their materials I saw this is being marketed to moms who are cooking for little kids.  Well, today, I'm marketing it to anyone who wants to stay trim!  This is the perfect solution:  smaller, healthier, more balanced portions with all the bang for your taste buck!

I highly recommend the Piccolini line...try it, even if you're like me and don't have a kid nearby.  If you do have a kid in your house, they will love all the fun, tiny shapes, and your body will love it just as much.

Buon Piccolini Appetiti!

Lazy Transformative Workout = Bar Method

I'm hooked.  Yes, I am officially addicted to the Bar Method. 

I had been hearing about tales of its virtues hailing from New York for a few years, but it finally made its way to Pasadena (http://pasadena.barmethod.com/), and I FINALLY caught wind of it being here several weeks ago. 

I've been doing it for about 3 weeks now and I will tell you that it is the quickest body transformation I've ever seen.  I saw fast, great results with pilates and HIIT (high intensity interval training) but nothing that effected all parts of my body equally, causing so swift a Michelangelo-like sculpting. 

People often paraphrase Michelangelo when he was asked how he sculpted the David.  He said he took away everything that wasn't David.  I think the Bar Method is taking away everything that isn't Bridget. 

I had my teacher take a picture of me about 10 days ago, roughly 5 classes in, because I am going to do my darndest to fit 30 classes into my schedule over 30 days.  I have a lot of travel, so I may not hit 30 in 30, but we will take a photo at the end of the month and I'll post the comparative pix.  I am already very happy with how much more toned I am.  I don't think the mirror is lying, or that I am having bar-delusions of a non-alcoholic type.  But, you will be the judges in a few weeks.

In the meantime, if you have a class near you, I highly recommend giving it a try.  Many gyms are now offering bar/ballet barre classes.  It is a great comprehensive workout. 

And, honestly, as always, I love it for one very big reason:  it's LAZY!  If I can get cardio and sculpting in one hour instead of having to spend 1.5 to 2 hours to get the same results, that is one Lazy workout solution.

People! People! Plantscription is Pretty Pricking Pantastic for your Peau (translation from French = skin)

I'm not kidding.  This stuff is pretty miraculous.

I am literally surrounded by women my age, younger, and older who are paying big bucks to manage the aging of their skin.  Even the least likely suspects are getting botox or are having intense laser or chemical burns.  The most likely suspects have met the knife. 

This is the LAZIEST skin care solution for fine lines and sun damage.  I think I've been using it for three weeks now and there is a marked difference in the sun damage on the left side of my face, a reduction in fine lines all over my face, and overall my skin is just so much softer.  No kidding.  I don't get anything out of this, people.  I'm just telling you because it's LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY!  So, check it out!


You can even order it on the website, get free shipping AND two sample size products right now.  Run, don't walk, your fingers to the Origins site: http://tinyurl.com/3q3ojap.

It's so damn Lazy...and it smells good too!  Pure Plantscription bliss!

Lazy Livin' Life -- Great Advice from Deathbeds

One of the purposes of many spiritual traditions is to prepare us for death.  The guru of my guru in India apparently on his deathbed simply exhaled on his last breath the mantra "So-ham" which means I am that.  The lesson was that his final moment of life was as pure and peaceful and in the moment as possible as he had spent so many of his life's moments present to the fact that he was indeed "so-ham."

A friend just posted this link to an article about people's regrets on their deathbeds.  I think it's stellar Lazy advice.

http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2011/05/31/the-top-5-regrets-people-make-on-their-deathbeds/

We never know when, where, how...so might as well get your proverbial ducks in a row and live in this moment to the fullest, eh?