Week 37 and the first post of the new year! I am here to tell you that I’m so, so glad the holidays are behind me. The good news is that I didn’t gain any appreciable weight during the holidays, which really is a great accomplishment. The bad news is that I didn’t lose much weight either. I started the month at a cool 200 and finished at 198. So, still progress I guess. This week though, I’m up a little over a pound from last week. I’ve been thinking a lot about how my portion size and water impacts my weight loss!

Pounds lost: 53.4

% to super goal: 42.3%

New Year’s Resolution: do the damn thing!

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In this post, we’re going to focus on the good news. And here it is: I went through the holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas (3 holiday dinners!!) and New Years, and I don’t feel like I restrained myself too much. I still had yummy stuff like ham, roast, potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, pecan and pumpkin pie, deviled eggs…all my favorites. It really reinforced for me what I posted about a while back – food is just food. I don’t have to cut entire food groups out of my diet, I don’t need to think too hard about whether I can “have” something. I just need to eat slowly and manage my portions. And drink lots of water!

Note to Self: Manage Your Portions and Water!

One thing I did notice is that water makes a huge difference for me! When I don’t drink at least 64 oz a day, I don’t sleep as well and I don’t lose as much weight day to day. I learned a while back that water helps your body process carbs and sodium, and it takes a lot to do that – more than I realized. When my body is low on water, it doesn’t shed the weight I gained from eating that day. So I end up maintaining, or gaining.

On days when I drank plenty of water, I saw my day to day weight be much more favorable. I’m going to go with this idea a while longer and see if I can learn anything more about how water can help me with my weight loss and getting healthy. I did learn from MyFitnessPal that weight loss due to losing water is very common, and that water weight can fluctuate greatly day-to-day. In that same article, I learned that water also can help you feel full and can help enhance the rate at which you burn fat.

Meanwhile, I learned a new recipe from my sister for a super simple low-fat dip! I tried it with chips and veggies, and it was good with both!

A note on the Gorgonzola: it looks like Gorgonzola has a little less fat per serving than bleu cheese, and it is sold in a reduced fat version. You could replace it with bleu cheese though, if you like that better.

Garlic, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Cottage Cheese Dip

Ingredients

• 3 cups low- or non-fat cottage cheese (I used small-curd)
• 1 cup low-fat cream cheese (I think you could sub sour cream for a little different flavor)
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• ¼ cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1 cup chopped walnut pieces
• Salt (or garlic salt) and Pepper to taste

Instructions

Super simple…mix all ingredients! The Gorgonzola is pretty strong so you can use less (or more, if you want). Blend well. I’m going to try with bacon bits next time!

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