Guess who's back... back again.

Remember that time I thought it would be a great idea to start a blog, wrote in it a handful of times last summer, and then was completely over it? Sounds like a lot of ventures I start. It's a good thing my career choice has been the one constant in my life for the past three years, otherwise I would truly be a mess.

Here's a bit of a recap of the last four months:

- At one point in time, I was down 20 pounds. Can't say the same currently, which is part of the reason why I decided to come back. Overall, I've done pretty well (it's not like I've gained back all 20. Maybe 5 or 10 at this point... but who's counting, really?), but I had a few bumps in the road. My first detour was mid-October when I went to Pittsburgh to visit a friend. Up until that point, I had restarted the 17 day diet, so I was primarily no-carbing it. Well... it's kind of hard to eat out twice a day and avoid carbs completely. Then came Thanksgiving. My mom is the type of person who will talk about how we all need to eat better and lose weight, yet will come home from Wegmans with cupcakes and Stacy's pita chips. Thanks, sabotager. Will power? Sorry, but only people without souls turn down homemade chocolate chip cookies and comfort food (homemade mac & cheese, beef stew, yum) after fending for yourself for months. So it was kind of all down hill from there, because I'm currently in Florida with my family, eating my damn face off. Cookie Extravaganza 2011 is kicking my ass.

- I found an awesome Zumba instructor at home. Pros: she also kicks my ass. I never got around to buying a heart rate monitor, but I would guess an hour of her class burns 800 easily. Cons: only one class per week worked with my schedule. Oh, and I kind of stopped going after Thanksgiving, so I've missed a month. Minor details.

- I'm finally done with undergraduate academic classes, and finished the hardest, most ridiculous semester yet. I seriously did more work for ONE class than I have combined during my three years at this school... and I'm not kidding. I'm still waiting on one grade from my most ridiculous professor who went to Ghana during the last month of the semester (yeah, that's fine... we don't need you around or anything) and got back two days before grades were due. She conveniently got a bunch of viruses on her computer in Africa and lost a bunch of grades. Awesome. This is why we don't send professors to Africa at the end of a semester. Anyways. All I have left is student teaching, so that should be interesting. I can't wait to be done... until grad school, that is.

I'm back in hopes that it will help get back on track once I get back to New York. Although, I have a feeling that student teaching is going to be enough of a diet (plus, I have a stupid night class twice a week, so I'll literally be out of the house from 7am - 9pm). However, I'm definitely going to go back to old faithful (17 day diet), because it worked for me. I don't know when I'm going to find time to work out, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess. Hopefully Zumba a few times a week, and Jillian a few days a week. My brother also has a treadmill, so I should really get back on that couch to 5k business.

Some goals:

- Obviously lose more weight. Womp womp.

- Stick to the 17 day diet the best I can. The only thing I'm worried about is carb-free lunches to bring to school with me. My cooperating teacher has a fridge in her room, so that's not a problem. Suggest easy lunches to bring! I can eat yogurt and fruit during the first phase, so that's always an option.

- Cook at least two nights a week, hopefully with new recipes. My brother always cooks when he gets home from work (around 6), so I figured it might be nice to save him the trouble a few nights a week.

- Eat primarily vegetarian, at least during the week. This might be hard at first, given the whole low carb thing, but we'll see. I don't eat meat unless someone else cooks it, anyways.  If I'm not going to eat meat, I want to learn to at least tolerate tofu. I'm thinking maybe if I cut it up into smaller pieces and hide it in things, it won't be as bad. But big pieces? No thanks.

That's about it. If you have any great low carb/vegtarian recipes that are good for novice chefs, throw them my way!