A funny thing has been happening to me.  I lost weight... in Italy.  Italy is now a place where everyone goes expecting to gain weight now thanks to 'Eat, Pray, Love'.  I've been trying to figure out why exactly because it's a noticeable amount of weight.  Here's my run-down:
I didn't sleep much (that's supposed to make me gain pounds not lose them)
I had my gross morning tea (apple cider vinegar and honey - good for the gall bladder) way before eating unlike at home where I drank and ate simultaneously.
I completely lost my chocolate tooth.
I worked out anywhere between 20 minutes and 40 per day (mostly 20 min) which is less than my usual.
I drank beer and/or wine almost everyday. (again, shouldn't that make me gain pounds?)
My meals were regular but sometimes I didn't get to eat everything on my plate (but we're talking 3 courses at least)
I walked quite a bit but not a lot.
Each meal (with the exception of breakfast) contained pasta and bread of some sort.
In short, there is really nothing here that yells WEIGHT LOSS in all of the normally prescribed ways one might think.  If anything, according to almost all the advice out there I should have gained weight.  Once I came back to Canada and realised what was happening (i.e. 'where the hell did my tummy go') I started racking my brain for the magic formula.  How could I keep this going? (It has continued but again I'm not sure why) Then I would feel stupid and guilty and angry that it even mattered to me because I don't want to be all 'OMG size totally doesn't matter' when it comes to other people and all 'OMG I can't fit into a size ___ anymore' when it comes to me.  That's lame.  All the same, something was changing here and I'm curious to find out why.
Then I started reading one of my favourite blogs.  She talks a lot about her crazy food/eating journey and how jacked up it has been and how much she's working on making better terms for her.  For her mind body and for her food.  She is learning to eat again.  In fact, a lot of people out there are getting really sick of diets or no carbs or salads all the time or whatever.  People are starting to just eat real food again and maybe they're losing weight, maybe they're not.  What I seem to be finding though is that they are feeling better.  Eating real food as they want it (not junk - let's be clear) including bread or pasta or rice or ice cream and getting lots of rest makes people feel better.
I'm thinking about all of this.  It flies in the face of just about everything I've ever been told to do when trying to maintain a 'healthy' weight.  The overriding message for me seems to be this:
Change is good.  Doing and/or eating the same stuff eventually just becomes something your body gets used to and then adapts to.  Keep changing it up and add variety.  Don't count calories every single day.  Let yourself loose a little and indulge once in a while.
Sleep is good.  Sleep is great.  Get lots of sleep.
Exercise is good but don't kill yourself.  Again, change it up.  Take lots of rests in there too.  I don't feel like I need to exercise vigorously 6 - 7 days a week.  It doesn't help me.  Working out 5 days a week with 2 of those days being rigorous might be just fine.


I've experimented with this salad throughout the work week.  Not because I thought it would continue my strange slim down but because it appealed.  I saw one of my office mates walk in with a quinoa salad last week that cost her about 7$.  I figured I could make it pretty easily or at least some kind of facsimile.  It's a great salad, simple and refreshing, but I have to admit that I'm kinda hungry about 2 hours later.  Maybe I should eat it with a burger.

I think that these salad pictures pretty much suck so I'm leaving you with this picture of my lilacs about to bust open.  That doesn't suck.

Quinoa Salad with Kale, Beets, Carrots and Feta adapted from BBC Food Magazine
serves 4 - 6

1 cup quinoa, uncooked
2 regular sized beets, peeled and diced
3 regular sized carrots in bite sized pieces
1 1/2 cup cucumber, cut into large chunks
1 1/2 cup red or yellow pepper, cut into large chunks
1/2 cup chives, coarsely chopped
3 - 4 tbsp lemon juice
4 - 5 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt
pinch pepper
pinch sugar
1 cup feta, broken into small chunks
4 - 5 cups kale or leaf lettuce, coarsely chopped

Cook the quinoa (using the 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa ratio) in simmering water for about 8 - 10 minutes.  Drain and set aside.
Boil the beets for about 15 minutes or until almost completely soft. Drain and set aside.
Boil the carrots for about 10 minutes or until almost completely soft.  Drain and set aside.
In a small container combine the cucumber, peppers, chives, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar together.  Stir to mix and set aside.
At this point if you are having the salad at a later date (like later in the day or the next day) then you can cover everything and put it in the fridge.
When ready to eat...
Place the chopped kale or lettuce on a large platter.
Top with generous amounts of quinoa (you don't have to use all if you don't want to).
Sprinkle liberally with beets and carrots.
Add the cucumber and peppers mixture on top of that.
Top the entire thing with the feta chunks.
Serve
I made mine for lunches so I just combine it daily in a container... worked well.