Recipe: BFC Italian Soda

If there is one "secret" to my weight loss, it is that I gave up Diet Soda. I loved my Coke Zero and had a few everyday. I know there is a whole debate, similar to the chicken and the egg and which came first: Does diet soda make us overweight? Or is it just that overweight people happen to drink diet soda? Whichever, I gave it up while doing Jorge Cruise's Belly Fat Cure and lost my weight. But on occasion I will have a Zevia (or other stevia sweetened drinks) soda. They don't contain the artificial sweeteners and are great for on occasional treat!

Zevia has recently came out with a few new flavors including Strawberry and Cherry Cola. My friend Lisa hosted her annual crawfish broil last weekend and always has an Italian Soda Bar setup. I thought the new flavors would be perfect time to try a low sugar alternative! So here is my take on the traditional Italian soda.

Low Sugar Strawberry Italian Soda Recipe: S/C Value 0/0 

• 1/2 Can Strawberry Zevia
• 1/2 Cup Club Soda (optional and to taste)
• Ice
• 2 Tbsp Cream

First add the cream, then ice and lastly the zevia. If you want it less sweet, like I like it, you can also add Club Soda or any sparkling water to taste. (make sure you use a club soda that is naturally sugar free and free of artificial sweeteners, check the label to know for sure). You can garnish with a strawberry if you don't need to watch you sugar intake very closely (like I have too).

You could use some of the other flavors of Zevia (like Black Cherry, Orange or Grape), but I thought this was the lightest, freshest taste. Zevia doesn't have any artificial coloring, so it is clear instead of pink! It's so good, I'm going to make one right now :)

My other favorite summertime drink is the Greek Frappe. Check out my sugar free version HERE! This is a great alternative to a high sugar Starbucks latte, and has the nice caffiene pick me up. My boys are finally out of school and we determined to enjoy the summer and make the most out of it!

Saucy

Over Memorial Day we had a few work friends over for a backyard BBQ. Unfortunately it was really cool and windy, not ideal weather, but oh well. We grilled up flank steak and shrimp on skewers and setup a Taco Bar. It was a lot of fun, and something that fit everyone's diet (yea)! My favorite part were some homemade sauces. I got the idea off of Pinterest and they turned out great!

I made a really spicy Chipotle Sauce and a Cilantro Lime Sauce. They were great on the tacos, but I continued to use the leftovers on many other meals, like burger toppings and as a dip. The Chipotle Sauce was the hands down favorite, but very spicy.

I made the sauces by adding all the ingredients to the recycled jar, attaching my blender blades and bottom to the jar opening and blending it right in the jar (click here for a visual on how I did this). It worked beautifully!

Chipotle Sauce

• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
• 1/2 Greek Yogurt 
• 1/2 Cup canned Chipotle Peppers in spicy sauce (sometimes says adobe sauce)
• splash lemon juice

Cilantro Lime Sauce

• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
• 1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt
• Large bunch of Cilantro
• Lime juice (3 small limes)
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

I started saving glass jars (like pickle and condiment jars) and using them for decorating at parties and to store things. I found these great  Chalk Labels at Cost Plus World Market and made nice labels. I also got these little metal buckets in the Target dollar section and put all the snacks in them, instead of bowls.

We made Refine Mojitos and I really look forward to enjoying more of them over the summer. A girlfriend with a backyard avocado tree gave me a bag full of avocados. I can not tell you how good these avocados are! You store them in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them, then set them on the counter for a few days to ripen. They have a really thin skin and are a much lighter color instead. They made great guacamole! You never would have guessed it was diet food!

Recovery

Thanks for all your sweet comments! I am feeling so much better today and really only feeling the side effects of anesthesia - which is awful. I feel queasy, my face is extremely puffy and I'm constipated. Fun! I also have a really sore throat from that tube that stick down it. That is almost the worst part. I really wish now that I had had this procedure years ago when I first scheduled it. So hopefully I learned a lesson about procrastination and fear from all this.

I won't know for a few months if it really fixed my problems. I'd be happy to just bleed once a month (currently I bleed during ovulation and during my period) and just have a "normal" period. I suffer from menorrhagia (excessive bleeding, clotting and lower back pain) during my actual period. There are a bunch of hormonal symptoms that go along with this that I really want (fingers crossed) to go away too. I haven't ever written much about it hear because it feels like TMI and is embarrassing. But when I do talk about I'm surprised at how many women also suffer from this. The women in my family typically have early hysterectomies to solve it all, but I'm excited that the comparatively simple endometrial ablation might solve it! Yea for modern science!

Endometrial Ablation Today

I am having an Endometrial Ablation today. In fact I am leaving for hospital in just a few minutes! It is a procedure I was supposed to have four years ago, but then we suddenly had to move and I didn't want to deal with it in the middle of everything else. Then it took me a while to get settled and it turned out my new doctor didn't recommend the procedure. Instead he wanted to start back over at square 1 (note to self, don't put things off). Then I found a new doctor that I loved and she immediately knew I needed this. Then I got cold feet and after having tons of tests and a biopsy, I played phone tag with the surgery scheduler for two months... because I'm a chicken (note to self, seriously, stop putting stuff off).

So wish me luck! I hope it solves a very long standing problem and improves my quality of life. It is outpatient surgery and I plan on being one of the people that recover quickly and quietly.

On a much funner note (and yes, to get my mind off the fore mentioned topic), are any of you Real Housewives of New York fans? I only watch the New York and Beverly Hills ladies, and love them! They are so rich and catty and just completely unbelievable - I love them! ;-) On the season opener of RHNH I was so surprised to hear one of the new Housewives, Aviva Drescher, tell a friend that she shouldn't order a Diet Soda, "artificial sweeteners will give you cancer" she said and suggested they order Iced Tea and use a special sweetener that she carried in her purse - and it was Stevia! 

1 Year 100 Pounds: Month 5 Weigh In

What an exciting month! I’m writing this the afternoon before my weigh in tomorrow (now today!) because I want to be full of thought in this journal entry. Don’t worry; I’ll post my weigh-in results at the bottom. But it’s a reminder that it’s not all about the number on the scales, it’s much bigger than that.

I’ve gotten so many nice compliments this month and actually started seeing and feeling the changes take place. Not just in the mirror; not just in my stride, or the way my clothes are starting to hang; But in my head – I feel the change taking place. I think I’m becoming impatient with the process, the journey.  I’ve made the changes in my lifestyle now for FIVE months; new habits and new resolve.  I’m just waiting for my body to catch up!

I walked around the block or my work parking lot 4 times in the last week. No skeletal pain! Yesterday, I actually plugged in my earphones and tried to keep up with the music. Unfortunately, LMAFO’s Party Anthem is WAY too fast! I only lasted about 100 yards before I had to slow it down. But it actually felt good moving and challenging myself like that. But the next song up is my new anthem. I’ve heard it hundreds of times before, but never with my head in this place. Wow, did it speak to me!

Don't wanna wait 'til tomorrow

Why put it off another day?

One by one, little problems

Build up, and stand in our way. Oh

One step ahead, one step behind it

Now ya gotta run to get even

Make future plans I'll dream about yesterday, hey!

Come on turn, turn this thing around

(Right now) Hey! It's your tomorrow

(Right now) Come on, it's everything

(Right now) Catch your magic moment

Do it right here and now

It means everything

Miss a beat, you lose a rhythm

An nothin' falls into place. No!

Only missed by a fraction

Slipped a little off your pace. Oh!

Workin' so hard to make it easy

Whoa, got to turn. Come on, turn this thing around – Right NOW!

If you haven’t heard it, it’s Van Halen’s “Right Now.” Excuse my indulgence, but I wanted to share it.

So how’d I do this morning? Since 1/1/12, I’ve lost 40.8! For the month of May, I’m down 6 pounds!  I made some changes this month in my eating plan. Amber is about ready to reach through the phone and throttle me, as well as my other sibs.  I actually weighed earlier in the month and was seeing no movement. It FREAKED me out.  I have been true to the Wheat Belly diet. So I decided to shake things up; just like Amber talked about in her “Time for a Change” post.

I decided to replace a meal with a protein shake. I started with breakfast, but since I usually have a coffee and cream for breakfast, I didn’t see much of a change. So I moved it to lunch or dinner and that was tough – especially dinner! I had to deal with the big hunger pangs. But in a way, it reminded me that “this is hard, but I’m worth it.”  It helped me refocus and move through a plateau. In the past, I would have become irate; thrown a “it’s not fair” tantrum, looked for excuses to get off the plan for just one day, or one meal. And while I vow to eat more in the month June, including lots of greens and proteins, I needed to make some sacrifices and rededicate myself to my goal in May, whether they paid off at the scales or not. Does that make sense or am I just crazy?

So before Amber starts charging me rental space on her blog, I just want to say, life isn’t always fair, or easy; and neither is weight loss. But right now, I’m worth the extra effort. Right now, I deserve to reach my goals. Right now, I am my priority. Let’s turn this thang around! Have a glorious June.

Sister M

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1 Year 100 Pounds is written by my sister Misha who is on a journey to lose 100 lbs this year. She started Jan. 1 with a goal to lose about 8 lbs a month. Her issues with weight are very different than mine and she is 10 years older than me, but I thought my readers could really relate to her and she can definitely use the support. You can follow her weigh-ins and full story HERE. p.s. I never wanted to throttle her.