Oscar Party!

Last night's tapas (and, of course, a BIG bowl of popcorn!)  for our Oscar viewing party came together without a hitch.  Although all of the things I made weren't the picture of health, the nice thing about tapas is that everything is bite-size... so it was easier to control my portions.  I made some cornbread squares, fried bread and chorizo, tomato and spinach pizzettas and chicken empanadas.  We had a nice time munching and watching the Academy Awards.  I personally would have liked to see Social Network get best picture, but was happy to see that at least Aaron Sorkin was rewarded for his incredible writing.

And now today is all about compensating for indulging last night.  Sipping some hot lemon water - which is helping to sooth my stomach.  Going to whirl up a smoothie and then hop on the elliptical and burn some calories.  Since the weekend's storm brought snow to really low levels, I think I'll drive the kids up the mountain for some sledding after school.  That's always a good way to burn some  extra calories!  And then tonight's dinner is going to be very light.  Since I bought a huge bag of lemons last week I'm thinking of making some lemon chicken and couscous.

Once again I am very pleased that I'm able to take a night off from watching what I eat for a special occasion and get right back into the swing of things the next day.  It wasn't too long ago that one break from eating right would have led me into wave after wave of eating poorly.  It's important for me to indulge every once and while because it keeps me from feeling trapped.  I used to always find myself saying things like, "You only live once!" before dishing up a huge wedge of lasagna followed by a rich dessert.  My mind has been retrained to realize that, yes, I only live once... so treat this body right because there isn't another one to swap out when this one is worn out from all the abuse with food.  So when I indulge now, I do so cautiously and then compensate for it by doing all the right things the next day.  I'm not going to punish myself for last night and the pound I gained from dinner.  I'm just going to flood my system with some nutritious foods and get my hear pumping with some exercise.  S'all good!