Things I love This Thursday

Exercise: 30 mins HIIT elliptical, 5k w/ 2 mile tempo at 8:55 avg pac

The weather in California is super weird today, it's more like the south. So far at almost 2pm it's 91 and cloudy. Very rare for this time of year. But I'll take it over 105 and dry any day. I love the humidity.

Actually, I love this weather so much I'm blogging from the patio. Heaven.

And the view.

I LOVE crepe myrtles in July. Boring the rest of the year, but so worth it.

Oh and Music Man changed the photo file so they are no longer chronological by year but by month so I stumbled upon this photo from 1 year ago today. LOVE him

My garden is totally out of control but I am loving the bounty that we are harvesting daily. The sweetest zucchini, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, lettuce and some herbs. Coming up with dinner on the fly is so much easier when you always have a salad and pasta sauce in the back yard.

Yesterday a friend of mine asked me if I had heard of the 17 day diet. I vaguely remembered my MIL having some success with it and I knew there were a few 17 day cycles but not much else. She told me she had started the day before and was frustrated by hunger and needed some motivation. I responded with all the helpful hints I could think of; like doing something besides eating, snacking on veggies...all that stuff that I KNOW how to do but don't do myself :) And it got me thinking that maybe I needed some motivation too so I decided to do it with her. I've gained some weight back over the last few months, not drastic, but I'd rather be slimmer so this seemed like a good jump start.

I haven't purchased the book yet so I only know the basics of the 4 17 day cycles but this US News article explains more. I think I will purchase the ebook if I can get through the first 17 day cycle.

Today is my second day and all is well thus far. I'm actually loving it because it's always nice to see a 3 pound weight loss, water weight or not. I'm definitely eating better than usual because I'm not eating tons of unhealthy snacks, but not that much different from my normal diet. For breakfast I had an egg white omelet with spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms and on the side I had plain greek yogurt mixed with a little stevia, cinnamon, chia seeds and hemp seeds.

The only difference was I'd usually have toast instead of the yogurt and fruit. It was totally satisfying, even after 60 minutes of pretty intense cardio I wasn't hungry until lunch.

For lunch I had leftovers from last night. Apparently I cheated a bit on this meal because zucchini is a no-no in the first cycle, but oh freakin' well.

I have zucchini coming out of the wazoo and I refuse to eliminate it from my diet completely. I love zucchini "noodles". They are definitely not pasta but a good stand in when covered in veggies, tofu and sauce. Yum Yum.

Hope you guys are having a fantastic week and had an awesome holiday!