Caprese Salad

(If you haven't taken my healthy living survey yet, please do! http://tinyurl.com/mv8mlq )

Depending on Alison's activities due to her upcoming homelessness, we may be going to a party at her friend's Sharon and Tommy's house tonight. They are the most amazingly gracious hosts, and boy, do they throw a party!

I haven't been in years, but Alison always tells me stories of the lavish spreads, top notch entertainment and good times shared in their home. It's no surprise they are great entertainers since they run a very successful DJ company.

I wasn't sure what to bring, but then it occurred to me that Caprese salad was just the thing. It's made with all natural, healthy ingredients (if you allow yourself the natural fat of EVOO and fresh buffalo mozzarella - I do), and it's always delicious. Lanie makes it quite frequently, and I think that's why we all love her so much. ;-)

It's easy to make - all you need are tomatoes (the higher quality, the better), fresh buffalo mozz, fresh basil, olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, and salt and pepper. It's a fresh, delicious treat that can be made in minutes.

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On the work out/weight front: I'm down another lb today, but it's still weight I was up earlier this week. I'm doing *almost* all I can - I had some low fat/sugar free ice cream at 8PM last night, after I told myself no foods after 7. I was hungry, and I had lots of points left, so I did it...

I had a very rigorous workout yesterday, and the Wii personal trainer gave me a run for my money! We mainly focused on quads and glutes and I'm walking around my house like an 80 year old this morning. It was a great workout!

Today, I know I'm going to need to focus on upper body. I'd like to go kayaking for my cardio, but it's raining like crazy. At the very least, I will go to the gym and do an upper body work out with weights.

I think one more area of focus for me should be sodium. That's something I should have been better with all week. It makes such a big difference. I'm going to make a conscious effort to eat low sodium foods and use as little salt as is possible today. Even if it doesn't make an immediate difference in the scale tomorrow, if I watch my salt intake, stay within my WW points (or under as I have been), work out vigorously on a regular basis, drink lots of water and get plenty of rest, I will move past this plateau.

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On the health front, I feel better today than I have all week. I finally got up at a more normal hour: 5:30. I slept for 7 or 8 hours, and I woke up feeling refreshed. Yesterday, it seems I had a touch of the stomach flu. Nothing major, but I did get sick a few times. I'm wondering if that's related to all the build up of being so tired and achy all week, or if it was a biproduct of my allergy issues. Who knows. I'm just glad to know it's 7:15 AM, and I've already accomplished a lot for the day!