You’ve Got This in the Bag (or It’s All About the Shopping Experience!)

You might take your weekly (or daily) trips to the grocery store for granted… or maybe you have come to realize that “You Can’t Eat it if You Don’t Have It”. (If that sounds familiar it is because it is the first Power Start session!) The truth is, you have to learn to make those trips work for you in terms of ‘good foods.”

Let’s try an experiment this week: I am giving you TWO (one seemed too limiting) brown paper shopping bags. Your mission (should you accept it) will be to take a stroll through the aisles of your favorite grocery store and fill those two bags with the foods that will lead most to your weight loss success (or weight maintenance success) this week.

Choose wisely! (You only get 2 bags to last you the whole week!)

Here are some hints that were suggested by the members in the meeting room this week:

Make a list, spotlighting Power Foods. (Hint: shopping the advertising circulars really helps spotlight the great deals.) Eat something before you go shopping! (Less impulse buying!) Shop the perimeter. (Most stores are laid out with the “healthy foods that spoil” on the outside edges of the store!) Take your calculator or smart phone. (You will want to know about an item before you buy it!) Shop alone! (Or take your book end!) Shop when it is not busy in the store! Don’t be tempted by the ‘impulse items’ in the checkout line! Take your cookbook along so you don’t miss a key ingredient.

How are you coming with filling up your 2 brown bags? Can you really make that happen? Of course! What will be the outcome of this mission? Weight loss success, which leads to Living the Weight Loss Dream!!

The Infamous Cauliflower Pizza Crust Pizza!

I have made this a few times now and am totally happy with it!

Cauliflower Crust Pizza
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil (optional)
Pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

Directions:
To "Rice" the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time). There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To Make the Pizza Crust:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!
*Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.

Get your motor runnin'.

Like everything else, it starts with getting started. Or, as they say in the song that used to roll through my head as I roared out on my motorcycle, “Get your motor runnin’.”

I am not sure where the motivation comes from, but it’s motivation that gets us started and keeps us going. It’s the “light bulb moment” or the “aha moment” or just the fleeting thought of what could happen that gives us the push, the power, and the motivation. In one given moment, we have decided to rise to the challenge and make changes in our lifestyle. We are off… with our motor runnin’, heading down the weight loss highway!

But THEN, after what could be hours, days, weeks, even months of feeling motivated, we run out of gas. We putt putt to a stop. Or come to a screeching halt. Or take a wrong turn… or the wheel falls off entirely.

I have spoken with about 200 people this week regarding the things that motivate them and what KEEPS them motivated. The number one thing that rang out overwhelmingly was the BELIEF that this is really possible. It is the inner strength to believe that even if we have small ‘failures’ (as we tend to think about them), we can really and truly pick ourselves up and go on.

SO it’s time to fill up the tank, get your motor runnin’ and accomplish what you believe you can do! (If you don’t do it, who is gonna?)