Going home.

Vacations are fun. They give us a little boost when we're feeling low on energy. Three weeks is a little long, but I have enjoyed my time here with my family. Something I really enjoyed is the fact that I have lost fatty weight, that I have lots more energy and feel happy, and that I am able to go back home with the new fresh perspective on healthy eating and food in general. Believe me when I say that I never thought this was going to work for me. I never thought that I would be able to lose a huge amount of weight in such a short period of time. Today isn't my weigh day, but my weigh day is going to be a little hard for me to do since I will be back in California and Ben and I don't have a scale. Yet. ;)

The grand reveal about being on three weeks of shred is: I have lost 15 pounds in three weeks. The first week I lost 9 1/2 pounds, the second week was 3 1/2 pounds, and this third week I lost 2. On a general average it's healthy to lose about 2 pounds a week if you're on some sort of weight-loss program. So as long as my weight is moving down, I'm not too fussy about how much I lose at a time.

My sister-in-law wanted me to share a couple recipes that I use, so here are a couple meal favorites.

Lemon-berry fruit smoothie

One and a half cups skim milk or almond milk

One scoop of vanilla protein powder

One small container blueberry yogurt, low-fat or fat-free

1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries

1 cup frozen blueberries

1/8 cup lemon juice

One large handful of spinach leaves

Makes 2 servings.

Tomato bisque soup

1/2 can progresso tomato bisque soup

1 cup shredded lettuce, dark leaf

2 tablespoons low-fat or fat-free cottage cheese

Heat soup, add lettuce and cottage cheese, stir together.