Bolthouse Farms Vinaigrette: Review

I have found my new best dressing!  It's Bolhouse Farms Extra Virgin Olive Oil Raspberry Merlot Vinaigrette.  This stuff is fabulous!

It has a nice fairly rich flavor, it's not "diet" and there are no artificial sweeteners.  In fact, they use apple juice and sugar to sweeten it.  And it uses real olive oil as well as flaxseed oil, so the Omega-3 is high.

It's a downright health food!

And coming in at only 30 calories for 2 tablespoons...we have us a winner!

So my recommendation:  4.5 stars out of 5.  Yum.

Now on the subject of salads....I want to speak to the fact that you HAVE to eat in order to lose weight.  I am learning that you just can't skip meals, and that regardless of what time of day, your body needs those dark leafy greens and crunchy veggies.

Last night I was tired (worked very late) and had a lot of packing to do and didn't feel like eating.  But I made myself by grabbing a handful of baby spinach, tossing on some feta, and some of this dressing.  My body was happy and it occurred to me:  With all the travel I've been doing, there have been two constants.  I have been drinking Emergen-C daily, and eating my dark leafies daily.  And despite being on planes and stuck in rooms with coughing sneezing people, I haven't been sick, tired, run down or otherwise not feeling well,  Cause and effect?  I think so.

So here's to getting those veggies and here's to getting them with tasty low cal dressing on top!

Rejection

I can handle so many emotions these days that I couldn't handle just a few short years ago.  I can handle disappointment, loss, sadness.  I navigate through the waters of loneliness, restlessness, and boredom.  But one emotion I just cannot seem to conquer is rejection.

Mind you, no one likes rejection, I'm pretty sure.  But I take it so much to heart.  It triggers those feelings of "I'm not good enough" or "pretty enough" or "thin enough" or "funny enough" or "talented enough" or "smart enough" (depending on who's doing the rejecting and in which context.

I'd love to get to the point where I'm just so confident in myself that when someone walks away from me, I don't take it as a personal rejection and instead see it as an indication of where that person is in his or her life. And to smile and just let it go,  I'm not there yet.

I have a friend who occasionally seems to ignore me.  I have resisted urges to contact the person and pester.  Hey, if someone isn't interested in my friendship, I'm not going to chase like a puppy chasing after a car.  At least I've grown that much.  But what's interesting is that since the perceived 'ignoring' started, it has triggered all kinds of self esteem issues in me.

I walk past a mirror and find what I see repulsive.  All I can see is how much fat I have yet to lose, whereas just days ago I was feeling so confident in how much I've already lost and what I was seeing was my muscle definition and progress.  It's seeping into other areas of my life, too.  I just finished a kick-butt job for a customer with total pride in my work, and although I was on an esteem high from it, I'm already deflated and kind of wondering......is this all there is?

Hard to articulate, really.

What I do know is that I am going to face a lifetime of occasional rejection.  That's just part of being human.  I need to figure out how to block it from reaching those parts of me that are so tender and vulnerable.  I need to find a way to make it not about me...but rather, about the person doing the rejecting.  I'm not sure how to get there, but it seems like making good, solid next right choices boosts my esteem to higher levels from which to fight these feelings.

I'll add that my eating has been sloppy for two days now. That HAS to contibute to these blah feelings and "less than" feelings.  Must. get. a. grip.

At least I can see these things and kind of head 'em off before they derail me.  I still have part of me on the track.  Which reminds me of a cool quote I heard years ago but that a friend (KK) posted on facebook today:

"Even if you're on the right track, you're going to get run over if you just sit there."

And therein lies the solution to my emotional problems today.

Plateau Must Go

Lookout Mountain, Denver Colorado June 30, 2011

I just got back from 3 solid weeks of travel and am heading out for another good bit of travel in a few days.  During my travels I did a pretty good job of regulating my intake of food and hopping on the hotel treadmill fairly regularly.

So I was disappointed to see the scale hasn't moved in those three weeks!  I think I have hit my first plateau on this weight loss journey.  I was seriously hoping to have lost around 5 pounds, so the fact that I basically lost none was a let down.

A little examination of the past weeks reveals that I really didn't do any weight training.  There were maybe two days that I spent a half hour to an hour with some free weights and crunches, but nowhere near the intensity I have been doing all year,  And if you don't do weight training, your metabolism slows down.  And if your metabolism slows down, you don't burn calories as fast.  And if you don't burn calories as fast, you can eat the same amount as always and not burn off the calories the same way.  Hence, the plateau.  It all makes mathematical and scientific sense.

I can still whine though.  So waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa call the waaaaaaaaaambulance.  There, got that out of my system.

I'm truly grateful I didn't GAIN weight during all this travel.  Though I had some measure of control over my food, the past week I was working from 7 am to 9 pm and our hosts fed us (which was appreciated) but the choices weren't always so good.  Plus they brought in baked goodies all day long.  Fresh hot bagels and muffins.  It's a wonder I resisted all but the last day we were there.  And on Friday I think I ate one of everything they had:  danish, bagel, peach muffin....that's what happens when I unleash the inner junkie.

Moving forward there are a few important things I need to really take away from this past month:

1. It's okay to take an occasional side trip on my journey.  That's why this is a lifestyle change and not a diet.  And speaking of side trips, that photo is from my recent Denver trip.  What a beautiful place!
2. You reap what you sow.  When I do both cardio AND weight, I have steady results.  Drop one or both of them and I flatline.  So to speak.
3. Setting actual numerical weight loss goals can be a positive or a negative.  I can say I'd like to lose 5 pounds in 3 weeks, but if I take a detour I can't bludgeon myself with it.  The numbers are steadily moving and a 3 week plateau, in the scheme of my lifetime, is really okay.

So what am I going to do differently moving forward?  Actually, nothing!  I'm going to get back on the schedule that was working so great for me...weights 3 times per week and treadmill anywhere from 2 to 4 times per week.  I just feel good when I do that, and I get results.

It was nice taking a little hiatus, but sorry, Plateau.  You've just got to go now.  :-)