A Kayaking Vacation

One of my favorite things about losing this weight, is the increased energy I have!

Anyone up for a kayaking vacation? I will be when I drop all my excess weight.

Photo Credit: Stephen Gibson & SXC

Iced Chocolate Truffle Cappuccino

Mid-afternoon and the daily workload is heavy, with no end in sight. Feeling a dip in energy, I headed to the kitchen where I whipped up a little something to rev up my engine.

My solution is a delicious one. Imagine a creamy cup of iced chocolate truffle cappuccino.

Simply delish and so easy, too.

This version is made with freshly brewed chocolate truffle coffee, a packet of Winner's Weightloss chocolate shake supplement and a good bit of ice. Whip it all up to a thick, rich consistency and pour into a favorite cocoa mug. Dust the top with a flourish of cinnamon. Yum!

Diet? What diet? This sure doesn't taste like diet fare, but the high protein in this shake is actually helping me to shed my unwanted pounds.

Looking to lose some weight? Winner's Weightloss in Tallahassee, Florida is a great place for helping people to shed unhealthy pounds and reclaim the life they were created to live. For a complimentary consultation call Lori at 850-297-2500 or Ruth at 850-671-3200. Make sure and tell them Kathi sent you!

Photo Credit: Dragon Sasic & SXC

Meal Replacement Solutions For Healthy Eating

Where does the time fly?

My breakfast and lunch today tasted great.

Breakfast was a prune-studded breakfast cake. My breakfast cake is made with the same quick fix recipe that takes a beaten egg, a torn-up slice of 40-calorie honey wheat bread, cinnamon, equal, a sprinkle of (dry) vanilla shake mix and a small amount of fruit.

Since my fresh fruit supply is totally depleted, I thought why don't I try adding some slivers of prune, since I do have some of those little gems in the refrigerator. As I carefully sliced a couple prunes, visions of Jewish Hamantaschen danced in my head.

Hamantaschen are my most favorite cookie. Even though I was never a fan of prunes, the prune hamantaschen that I enjoyed as a child were phenomenal tasting.

I nuked the breakfast cake for a tad over 1.25 min. Inverted the small, round cake on my breakfast plate and dusted the top with a bit more cinnamon and equal.

Delish!!

Lunch was a small beef fillet with an oriental veggie blend, stir fried with some Winner's Weight Loss Beef Supplement. A liberal shake of various spices imparted a rich and amazing depth of flavor.

I love being on the Winner's Weightloss program! It is great to be able to eat real food.

Today, I heard that the Tallahassee, Florida LA Weight Loss Center is closing. So I got to thinking about a conversation that Ruth and I had the day I was teaching cooking classes at the NE Capital Circle location.

How cool would it be to have a place where you could swing by and pick-up a ready-to-eat meal on your way home. Not something laden with fat or calories, but a replacement meal that is light, healthy and simply delicious!

I' d love to co-ordinate or consult on a project of this type with Winner's Weightloss or even a restaurant, catering company or other facility that has a state-licensed, commercial kitchen that wants to set up an "enlightened to-go" program. No, I don't want to do the cooking, but I would love to provide recipes, ideas and public relations for such an endeavor. If you are interested, call me and let's pow-wow! Food writer and former caterer Kathi Dameron, can be reached at 850-422-3599. BTW ... If you have the time, please come by and read my latest column from Entertaining with Kathi. I would love your feedback!

Potato Saffron Frittata with Lemon-Kissed Spinach

The Food Network shared a recipe today for a Potato Saffron Omelet, as part of a Tapas collection.

I didn't take the time to read the recipe, as I knew there would be ingredients that I wouldn't be able to eat on my diet. Yet, I found the idea to be a nice launching pad for tonights dinner.

How does this sound... a Potato Saffron Frittata with Spinach? My version will be made with egg, potato, spinach, saffron and spices, prepared in an individual souffle dish. I'll serve it inverted on a bed of lemon-kissed braised spinach, to which I'll add a blast of roasted garlic. To garnish the dish, I'll do a mosaic of colorful, confetti chopped raw veggies.

Tomorrow night should be a real adventure. I'm going to a restaurant that I have wanted to go to for years, but the timing was never right. Tomorrows adventure is part of a new project I'm working on called Coastal Culinary Odyssey. Each month, I'll be visiting a different Florida Coastal restaurant and writing it up in the new Every Day Living Magazine. Very exciting! In fact in time, I would like to research the possibility of getting a grant to turn this project into a Florida tv series. I know... I have BIG IDEAS, but that is the way my mind is wired! What can I say!

Surviving The Holidays

Surviving The Holidays.... that is a loaded title for me!

Since this is a diet blog, I'll try to stay on topic and not run down any bunny trails.

I did it! I got through the Easter weekend without even craving a chocolate-covered marshmallow bunny.

This new lifestyle is becoming easier for me. Something else really amazing is happening. Years ago I received lots of compliments. But in the last fifteen years, I don't remember hearing any compliments on how I looked. But lately I've been hearing people tell me I look "beautiful."
Wow! It sounds kind of funny after so long. Funny, in a nice way.

Encouragement is such a great thing! I am so appreciative of people who take the time to encourage others along! We need to encourage one another. It takes so little, yet it gives so much. For some reason, my antennae has really been tuned in to the subject of encouragement for several years now. I've witnessed a real lack of encouragement with certain people. Best I can tell, some people simply are not wired to plant seeds of encouragement. That doesn't make them bad. They probably have lots of other gifts, instead.

If you find yourself lacking in encouragement, that is ok. You are not alone. Give yourself permission to encourage yourself! The best encouragement we might get... just might be the encouragement that flows from the inner most region of our souls.

From that interior region we can find the strength to survive anything... even dieting during the holidays!

Staying The Course

Kudos to meal replacement shakes! While I rarely go the meal replacement shake route, I am thankful for their convenience.

Right now I am sipping on a rich creamy chocolate shake and thrilled that I didn't have to interrupt my manic-like frenzy of writing this afternoon, to prepare lunch.

The diet is going GREAT! Actually it is going alot better than I would have ever expected. Even though visions of rich, decadent food flows in and out of my consciousness constantly through my passion and vocation of food writing, I am not deterred. I am staying the course without difficulty. To date I have lost about sixty pounds and feeling better than I have felt in years!

The Deep Dreams Of Our Soul: Are they Linked To Hunger

Today, I can not help to wonder how much of obesity is related to the deep unrealized dreams in our souls.

As a firm believer that every person's life and purpose was planned before the creation of the world, I wonder if when we are living outside of the bullseye of our truest authenticity, if that isn't a big piece of the puzzle as to why there is such a deep hunger.

Our authenticity is tied so profoundly to our life purpose. But if our life purpose has become scattered by the choices we make and the resulting circumstances of our reality, perhaps we lose sight of what is really important for us. Perhaps we come to believe that the big dream is not ours to have and that we have to settle for something far less than what we really want out of life.

Looking at my own life, I am mad at myself for settling for so much less than I once dreamed of.
I am mad that for twelve years I settled for a fruitless and unhappy marriage. I am mad that I am constantly doing things outside of the bullseye of what I really want.

Two years ago I identified the following goals:

1. To be a prolific best selling author, bringing the dozens of book projects inside of me to fruition.

2. To be a syndicated food and entertaining columnist.

3. To be fabulous, fit and financially secure.

4. To be living in the fullness of the best version of who I was created to be.

While by the grace of God, I have made significant progress on these goals... I recognize that I am a long way from hitting the bullseye of my target because I get caught up in things that are sort of what I want. But the reality is these "sort of things" are not what I really want-hence the reason for my anger at myself this morning.

Life is far too precious not to be going after the bullseye of our dreams. In the light of introspection, the "sort of" doesn't cut it! You either are or you are not and when you are not... there is bound to be a deep void in the garden of the soul that cries to be fed.

So we can feed it with that which it truly wants or we can attempt to stuff it with that which will never satisfy us and we will continue to be starving.