101 Days of Summer Challenge and Hannah’s favorite pizza

I downloaded a preview of Roni and Carla’s book #WYCWYC (or Wick Wick) to my Kindle app before it was available for sale.  I put it in my “basket” but until last week, I had forgotten I hadn’t actually purchased it!

I am only 1/4 of the way through it, but so far, I love it.  I “met” Roni somewhere around 2008 when I found her Green Lite Bites blog.  She did these recipe videos with her then only son (The “toddler”), and what I loved about her was that she was not only fun and down to earth, she used basic ingredients to make healthy, flavorful food.   And she was one of the first Blogger Meetups I ever had!  Here’s how we looked nearly 7 years ago!

I think I started following Carla in 2011 – her blog MizFitOnline was quirky and she’s inspired so many people with her weight loss, keeping it off, and how she’s raising her young daughter to have a positive attitude not only about food but her body too.   You can check out Carla’s video here.

The premise of the book is simple – What You Can When You Can #wycwyc.  I am not the only one that has the all-or-nothing mentality when it comes to weight loss.  “The WYCWYC way isn’t about changing your life overnight:  it’s about knowing that the road to improvement (NOT PERFECTION) is paved brick by brick, step by step, and by simply doing what you can when you can.”  This mindset will break the “I’ll start over on Monday” or “I’ll start on June 1!” or “when I get back from vacation, THAT’S when I will get my act together.”

But you know what?  Life is too short to live like that.  I have to realize that mindlessly eating isn’t going to bring my husband back and drinking that extra glass of wine isn’t going to suddenly make me forget that my husband is no longer here to be my biggest cheerleader.  I loved that about him.  He always and forever told me that if I decided to lose weight, it was because I wanted to, not because he thought I needed to – he told me I was beautiful every.single.day.

I don’t want to get to the end of the summer and think “I wish I would have just tried a bit harder.”  I have probably lost and gained 50 pounds since I started this blog nearly 7 years ago.  But I let life get in the way of my goals when things are out of my control.  Like Tony being sick, or having to get a second job.  One of the chapters of the book is “Be Consistently Flexible.”  When you lose your routine and how hard it is to get back at it after such events.  But with this #wycwyc  way of looking at it, it helps you stay focused on doing what you can because there will be hiccups in life that will always try to throw us off course.  “Life doesn’t always go as planned.  So, to get where we need to go, we need to do what we can with what we’ve got at the moment, and consistently keep at it until we get there.”

So what is the 101 Day of Summer Challenge?  Anything YOU want it to be.  If that means writing down 5 things you want to do this summer around town with your family, or training for a 5k, or going on a road trip

By the end of week three of my diet bet just six weeks ago, I was doing everything right.  Working out, drinking lots of water, reducing my wine, kitchen closed after dinner, etc. etc.  But somehow these last few weeks leading up to the Spartan race, I got a bit lax.  The wine started showing up by Wednesday, I found myself eating mindlessly well after dinner most of the time I wasn’t even hungry, but mindless emotional snacking is always something I need to reign in.

What really struck me when reading the book is when they talked about being “non-obsessively determined” in getting to a goal.  “When we’re determined we stick to our vision; when we’re obsessed, our vision has narrowed so much our goal is all we see – and the rest of life passes us by.  Determination is  good, obsession is not.  It’s important to know the difference.”

If you are willing to join this challenge with me, simply leave me a comment and let me know what you want to accomplish this summer.  I am hoping that by sticking together – we can help each other reach our respective goals.  If you decide to join, I am giving away a copy of #WYCWYC – it’s just too good not to share!  I’ll pick a winner tomorrow and send you a copy via Amazon.com.

And as I am seeing all the graduation photos on Facebook, I can’t believe Hannah graduated from high school FIVE years ago already.  Happy to report she’s enrolled back in college after taking a bit of a hiatus – only three semesters to go before she gets her degree.

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So Hannah requested my spinach pizza for dinner on Friday night.  I, of course, am never one to shy away from Party Pizza Friday!  But my original pizza calls for a ricotta cheese/olive oil sauce.  I didn’t have any ricotta at home and I didn’t really feel like stopping on my way home from the store just for that, so as I was driving home I thought “what about making a cheese sauce for the base?”  Hannah has now declared this the best pizza I’ve ever made.  Maybe it’s because I lost my marbles again and actually caramelized onions for her!

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I heard Tony in my head screaming “what smells like ass?!” as I was making the onions!

Guys – I know I’ve made a lot of pizzas over the years, but I guess the best way to describe this pizza is that it has the perfect balance.  The crust isn’t too thin or too thick.  The Baking Steel gives it an amazing crust.  The cheese gives it the saltiness and then the sweetness from the walnut pear balsamic glaze, well, it’s just the perfect pizza.  Try it and let me know what you think!

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So, while I was all ready to get going this week with the 101 Days of Summer Challenge, um, turns out I have bronchitis.  I started coughing on Friday, and by yesterday morning I knew it was bronchitis.  I am just so thankful that it didn’t happen to me right before my Spartan race!   I went to urgent care yesterday, and I have the Z-pak, and while I normally would have been pissed about this, I am using the #wycwyc mentality.  I’ll do what I can this week, and just take it a day at a time.

So who’s with me?  Make it a great day!