Good morning everyone!

I want to share a couple of my new favorite go-to lunches with you. I tend to get in a real lunchtime rut, especially when I’m eating healthfully…I’m not all that creative with my regular meals and sometimes I need to make an effort to change it up!

So, you can imagine my excitement when I recently created a super yummy wrap that is delicious and also totally filling! Here is what I did…

First, I bought a tub of Philadelphia whipped cream cheese. Buying the whipped is important because it’s light and fluffy and also lighter in calories than a regular block of cream cheese. It’s also easier to mix seasonings into because it’s light and fluffy…I mixed in half a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix to make a yummy ranch cream cheese.

I spread 2 tbsp of the ranch cream cheese onto a low-carb whole wheat tortilla.

For an extra punch of protein, I added 1 ounce of sliced smoked turkey. You could use chicken, or anything else you have on hand. Then I added lots of lettuce…about 3 handfuls! The more you can fit into your tortilla and still wrap it up, the better.

Then I added a couple of crisp pickle slices…

…and some sliced black olives.

Wrap it up and you’re good to go!

I put a toothpick in the wrap to hold it together for the picture, but really I eat it like a big lettuce taco. The ranch cream cheese gives it a huge punch of flavor, which I love…and if you’re filling the tortilla with fresh veggies, you can totally splurge on ~150 calories or so of cream cheese!

You can also totally switch up what you fill the tortilla with…some thick slices of heirloom tomato and some avocado slices would be delicious! Use whatever you have on hand for a super filling and yummy wrap.

My other very favorite go-to lunch is a monster salad! This was my lunch yesterday…

About 5 handfuls of greens (a mix of lettuces and spinach)…some grilled chicken, a couple cups of strawberries, some pecan halves, a few blue cheese crumbles, a sprinkling of dried cranberries and a drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette dressing. I DIE. So delicious!

Salads don’t have to be boring, or calorie bombs! Sure, I added nuts AND blue cheese crumbles AND salad dressing to this salad…but the whole thing was still less than 500 calories, which is right on track for a healthy filling lunch. Plus, if you’re going to eat healthy, you have to enjoy it!

Is it lunch yet?

…about things you’re not willing to change! That’s right!

(picture via http://arthlete.tumblr.com —love this girl’s drawings!)

I owe you guys an update on the healthy living front…and unfortunately I don’t have much to report. The last couple of weeks, healthy living has not been my focus. I had a great birthday, and a fun Easter holiday, but then I got really sick and so the last ten days or so I’ve just been in recovery mode. Luckily, the antibiotics kicked in and I am feeling better.

I haven’t been to the gym since before my birthday two weeks ago…major fail! My bff Alex and I have also been really slacking on our early morning walks. It’s been a combination of being really busy/tired, then sick, now back to really busy/tired…my brother is visiting for a few days from southern California. I’ve had a jam-packed couple of days catching up at work and then brother visiting/family stuff going on. I won’t make it to the gym today, but starting tomorrow I am definitely back on the stick! I know I have gained a few pounds back…maybe more than just a few…but I’m not weighing myself until the weekend. I’m going to give myself a few days of healthy eating and working out to shed a little bit of water retention and then I’ll see where I really stand. I have a fridge full of fruit and veggies ready to eat, so that is a good start!

How about you? Are you on track this week?

I am going to admit to this right up front: I am not a good sick person. I can handle a cold alright. I’m not happy about it, and I might get kind of whiny, but I’ll handle it. The flu? A whole other story. I literally get emotionally upset when I have the flu. I hate it that much. And tonsillitis? Well, let me tell you—right up there towards the top of things that make me totally miserable. I have been a very cranky girl all week long. Tired, and in pain, and CRAN-KY.

Err…what I meant to say was, “What’s not to love about tonsillitis? The sensation that you’re choking on your own throat? You can’t swallow and it hurts to talk, and it radiates to your ear and makes you feel like you have an ear infection too. It’s awesome.”

Heh.

So I went to the doctor on Monday, hoping that it was strep throat so that they would give me some antibiotics and we could be done with it. No dice…my strep test was negative and I was sent home to wait it out. All week long, it’s been getting worse and not better.

Can’t quite picture what I’m getting at here? Well, let me give you a visual—and because I have already posted some unflattering pictures of my face this week, and no one needs me to point my camera down my throat a click a few photos for display on the internet…I decided to break out the art supplies and do a little illustrating for you guys! Get ready to be wowed.

What? Every girl should have a pack of Crayola markers. Obviously.

Okay. Here is an illustration of healthy, pink tonsils. That little dangly thing in the back of your throat? That’s called the uvula, in case you weren’t aware. And that’s a nice pink tongue sticking out at you, because I know you’re laughing at my drawing.

But I don’t care.

Now, here is a drawing of *my* tonsils. One tonsil, still nice and pink and normal. The other one? Not so much.

I actually don’t think that I drew it big enough. I do think that I got the angry factor across, however.

So now what? Well, I called the doctor again last night and told them that my illness is getting worse and not better. I was casually asking how much Advil I could really take safely in one day, and the doctor finally agreed to call in a little prescription help! Woohoo! One hour and one drive to the pharmacy later, and I am the proud owner of a bottle of antibiotics that will hopefully clear this mess up.

And none too soon…because given the pain situation and also the trouble swallowing, I had a chocolate milkshake for lunch yesterday. And THAT cannot keep happening. Please send your “feel better” vibes my way guys! It’s always mucho appreciated.

Happy Thursday!

Alright ladies, listen up—I’m about to speak some truth.

Ready? Here it is.

We live in an oil-centric world.

There, I said it. Can we all just agree on this simple fact? I mean, this blog isn’t about gas prices or politics or billionaire oil tycoons or conflict in the middle east, so we don’t even need get into those things…but I think we can all agree that from our cars to our cooking,  we are totally digging the oil. (HA! No pun intended—slash—pun totally intended!) Agreed? Awesome.

NOW…One thing that I do NOT depend on oil for?

Washing my face.

Until now.

But first, here is some more real talk: I have problem skin. Always have, and I’m afraid I always will. I’m never without a “blemish”… and around that super-fun time of the month, it can get downright 13-year-old-girlish around here. I’ve tried different skincare lines, different scrubs, different spot treatments…I’ve gotten facials, I’ve upped my water intake, I wash my pillowcases often, I’ve switched my makeup, I’ve bought the Clarisonic…I’ve prayed, I’ve meditated, I’ve screamed, I’ve cried…well, you get the picture.

Acne is one of life’s totally-not-fun things. Here is what my skincare arsenal looked like last week.

But what if it looked like this……?

Crazy, yes?

I was listening to the Simple Mom podcast on Homefries last week, and in one of the episodes Tsh and her guest Megan from SortaCrunchy talked about how they both are WASHING THEIR FACES WITH OIL. This necessitates the all caps and bold type because, as you can imagine, I was like, “There is NO WAY that ANYONE washes their face with OIL. NO. WAY.”

My years of acne warfare has taught me that oil is the enemy. Your face is oily, the oil clogs your pores, you get huge zits. That is the way of the world. You must get rid of the oil with gritty cleansers and benzoyl peroxide and harsh astringents. And then you must soothe your dry, flaky, raw skin with lotion that has more benzoyl peroxide and nasty chemicals in it. And then pray whilst standing at the ready with your salicylic acid spot treatment, just in case it becomes necessary to burn your face off with acid. That is just the way it goes.

But…this washing your face with oil idea? I was intrigued. Very intrigued. My insatiable curiosity, combined with my total aversion to actually work when I’m at work, meant that I had to learn more. I read Megan’s post about washing her face with oil, and I googled more.

Turns out, it sorta makes sense…!!

Harsh cleansers strip your face of all of it’s natural oils—the ones that keep your skin moisturized and protected. When you strip those oils, your skin goes into oil production overdrive trying to replace them. Your skin gets greasy and your pores get clogged. You wash your face again. Your skin in freaking out. Vicious cycle ensues.

BUT. Basic chemistry tells us that “like dissolves like”. I drew doodles on my binder in chemistry class all those years ago and forgot this basic concept, but it sounds vaguely familiar. Anyway, the concept of “The Oil Cleansing Method”, or OCM, is that you use a combination of oils with cleansing and moisturizing properties to cleanse your skin. The oils dissolve the excess oil on your face and in your pores, wash away dirt and take off your makeup. Then you rinse your face with a steamy hot washcloth—i.e., plain old water—and you’re good to go.

Worth a try? I debated for several days. I read and re-read articles. Then I decided. WHY THE HECK NOT? My zillion-dollars-worth of Proactiv isn’t helping me much. Why not try something totally out of the box?

There is a long list of possible oil combinations—everything from avocado to sunflower to grapeseed oils. After some research and a trip to Whole Foods and my own pantry, here is what I ended up with:

1. Castor Oil: Your main cleansing oil. Cold expeller-pressed.

2. Sweet Almond Oil: Also expeller-pressed. A light and really moisturizing oil.

3. Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Another good moisturizing oil, and a little cheaper than the other two oils.

4. Tea Tree Essential Oil: Good for acne—add a drop or two each time you wash your face.

I found an empty travel-size plastic bottle in my bathroom cabinet and I made some hash marks on it for mixing my oils. I decided to go with a 1/3 castor, 1/3 almond, 1/3 olive oil mix.

The castor oil went in first. The almond went on top of that—it’s less dense than the castor oil and floated on top. The olive oil went in last—much richer in color and also dense like the castor oil. A good shake and a good labeling—and you’re set.

Now, you know that if I’m really going to try this crazy idea, I’m going to have to document it. Documenting it properly requires “before” pictures. Putting “before” pictures of your broken-out face with no makeup on the internet is vaguely terrifying. But, since I’m big on the real talk today, here you go:

Cropping the pictures made them look slightly less awkward. (And only very slightly less terrifying. Now I know why they put those big black bars over people’s faces in embarrassing pictures.) You can see that I really break out around the corners of my mouth, also I have this big blemish right on the edge of my lip and several large blemishes on my cheeks and my temples. Other than that, I just have a lot of uneven skin tone from past breakouts, large and plugged up pores, some dry flaky skin, and a lot of hope that the oil cleansing method will work it’s magic on my poor little face. I’ve read a lot of rave reviews, so I’m ready for it to completely revolutionize the way I care for my skin.

Clarisonic, stand down!

I might not need you for a while.

How about you? Have you ever heard of the Oil Cleansing Method? Ever tried it? I’d love to hear your experience…and stay tuned for updates on my oil cleansing method adventure!

Happy Monday everyone…

I hope you all had a nice Easter! Or, if you don’t celebrate Easter, I hope you had a super awesome weekend!

I am sick with tonsillitis but I managed to have a nice holiday despite the feeling that I am choking on my own throat. A few of my very favorite people in the world came to spend the day with my family and we had a great day. And we ate a TON of food…but that is neither here nor there. Err…okay?

Okay.

Now—on to business. In one of my recent posts, I kind of alluded to the fact that I haven’t felt like writing about weight loss lately…and I said I would expand on that thought a little later, so here it is! Now, maybe it’s just me, and the fact that I’ve been writing about my cereal and my bike rides for almost two years now…but I feel like some of my blog posts have become so boring! I mean, who wants to see my cereal again? And does anyone really care that I rode the bike for 60 minutes today, instead of 50? Or 30? Or not at all…?

I started this blog as a chronicle of my weight loss…and it still is that. But instead of writing about my food and my workouts, you may have noticed that I’ve been shifting my focus just a little bit. I have a great life with a lot of fun and interesting stuff in it, and I want to share more of those things with you, and not just my workouts, not just my food.

That being said, I want to share an email that I got today that totally made my day. This email came in this afternoon from a very kind lady named Rose Mary:

“Hello Melissa: I was looking on the internet for a photo of a mustard field. I paint and needed an image for a painting in progress. Up popped your photo of the tree in a field of mustard. I quickly saw that your site isn’t about photography but about the awesomely brave journey of a wonderful woman! There are tears in my eyes as I write to you. I have only admiration for what you are doing and incredibly much more so because you have the courage to put it out there for the world to see and, apparently, only to help others. Keep it up. Never stop. The world needs people like you. How did you ever get so right with yourself to do what you are doing??
I have had a lifelong battle with 40 pounds and the couple of times I’ve gotten them off they came back. Yours never will because your head is in the game. Congratulations and best wishes for all you do.”

Talk about tears in the eyes!! If anyone has a tear welling up, Rose Mary, it’s ME! What a touching email…Man, I LOVE BLOG EMAIL!!!!!

Now, I hope it’s okay with Rose Mary that I shared her email with you, but I had to do it because it had a real impact on me today. Like other weight loss bloggers who hit a plateau and then start to get down on themselves because their weight loss has slowed…sometimes to an extremely slow crawl…a dribble of sorts…kind of like a…well, anyway! Like some other weight loss bloggers who feel like they should have lost more weight by now, sometimes I get discouraged because I haven’t lost more weight or because my weight has just fluctuated up and down around the same five pounds for months. Then I get an email like Rose Mary’s, and I’m reminded of why I’m doing this! And why I’m chronicling it on the internet for the whole world to see. Now is not the time to give up. Now is the time to keep our heads in the game and DO THIS.

So, here is what I’m going to do…I’m going to keep blogging about my healthy living efforts, but in the interest of…well, interest, I’m going to vary things more. I will still post about workouts and meals, but I might turn it into one weekly roundup post instead of daily updates. That way you can see that I’m handling my business, but you’re not bored to tears with bike photos and the same breakfast I eat every single morning. I’ll still post my weekly weigh in, but if I skip a week, it’s no big deal. And in the meantime, I’d like to post more recipes, crafty projects, photo shoots, real life happenings and more. After all, I am more than how much I weigh! And I want my blog to reflect that.

A special thank you hug goes out to Rose Mary…I don’t know if I’m really a brave, wonderful woman.

But I will agree that I take a mean photo of a mustard field.