Today

My idea for this blog is to eventually morph it into a website where I share insights on my career as well as recipes – something to flesh me out to people I network with and maybe to open up some potential opportunities along the way. 

 

Branding can increase the success of a business or in my case a personal website.  In my welcome post I spoke of what Kaleidoscope means to me, and what image I want to put forward which would be my brand.  Brands help users and followers recognize and distinguish the virtues of one website over another, but words only do half the job.  In order for a brand to make an impression there must also be an image to associate with it.  Otherwise known as a logo. 

So, at the present time I am working on creating my own logo using Adobe Illustrator – I want to design a logo that is simple, but also contains color.  This will be quite an accomplishment seeing as I am teaching myself how to use Illustrator at the moment.  I’m finding the provided tutorials helpful and I bought a book to also help me along.   Hopefully I will have some mock ups in a week or two!  As someone with a lot of technical aptitude, I’ve always been quick to pick up new software applications and I hope that this is the case with Adobe – I already have a good handle on Acrobat and Photoshop.   

My coach and BFF Dianna caught up with me earlier today to go over my weekend and force me to take a step back and a hard look at my recent decision to enjoy a few slices of cake on Saturday.   Even though she is helping me and forcing a bit of tough love, I felt defensive of my choices and told her likewise which, was difficult for me to do without first taking a step back.  I’m glad that she seems to understand and is giving me some space to think things over. 

Dianna did ask me to make a list of 5 things I can do to avoid eating things that are not on the plan.  So here it goes. 

1)      Take a step back and reframe.   – If I am upset it is time to put what is upsetting me away for a bit and go back to it later.

2)      Ask questions – Why do I want to eat?  If I am hungry what can I eat instead?  How can I satisfy my craving without going off the plan?

3)      Read the label (Do I really want to eat something that I have to look up and find out what it is?)

4)      Drink 2 glasses of water.

5)      Phone / text a friend.  Vent.. Go for a walk etc.

So there it is.  And here, is a recipe for Frozen Almond Milk Chocolate Mousse which, I started making last night and finished this evening to have a tasty treat to combat the heat.

Adapted from Minimalist Baker

6 Egg Yolks

¼ Cup Maple Syrup

3 cups unsweetened Almond Milk

1/3 cup Cocoa Powder

1 Tbsp. Unflavored Gelatin ( I prefer Great Lakes brand) 

Stick freeze bowl of ice cream maker in the freezer (unless you have one of the fancy ones that doesn’t require freezing in advance)  Mine takes 24 hours to harden internally. 

Beat the egg yolks with the maple syrup until they leave a trace with the whisk or use a hand mixer and do it fairly quickly.  Add Tbsp of unflavored Gelatin slowly while beating yolks.  The mixture will thicken as the Gelatin starts absorbing the liquid.

Place 1 ½ cups Almond Milk in sauce pan over medium heat stir in cocoa powder and bring up heat to bubbles, add other 1 ½ cups Almond Milk bring to simmer. 

Take 1 cup of Almond Milk / Cocoa mixture and slowly add it to egg yolks (which should now be thick) while whisking mixture.  This is to temper eggs so that they do not curdle.  Add remaining mixture slowly to egg mixture and stir constantly then add it back to heat until it starts to bubble again.

Pour mixture into a heat proof container and let it cool for 20 min on the counter top.  Cover it and place it in refrigerator to cool completely.

24 hours later (if you have to wait for your ice cream maker to freeze) or once mixture is cool – put the mixture in ice cream maker (it will look like Jell-O which has not completely gelled).  Follow ice cream maker’s manufacturer’s instructions for making frozen desserts.  You have frozen mousse when the mixture resembles soft serve.  Place it in freezer proof container and freeze until desired hardness is achieved.

Garnish with toasted almonds / chopped up 85% cacao chocolate / Mint / berries etc.  Serves 8.

Frozen Mouse recipe earned a 5 year olds approval even though it isn’t very sweet.    

Feeding My Heart with My Fork

I have been following a very restrictive diet for the past couple of weeks and have doing very well with it (at least sticking to foods that are on the plan) during that time but there are things that tempt me.  I find that I am especially vulnerable when I am feeling anger.

My coach Dianna and I had talked for length about me not eating the Pizza and Cake at my son’s birthday party this week.  I strategized I would bring a healthy salad for everyone and watermelon wedges to complement the cake for anyone who wanted it.  I would stick to water and focus on the party itself.  It seems easy but then there are things that happen. 


I’m just going to say it.  I was never comfortable not having cake at my son’s birthday party.   My coach was telling me I wasn’t going to have it.   In the moment while the kids were playing and I was picking up, keeping an eye on the picnic site, chatting with a friend about how I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted a slice of cake and I was really feeling boxed in and restricted I decided to be defiant, I cut a small slice of cake and in between bites, I thought about how good it felt to be defiant.  My plan was not to say anything, swear the people around me to silence and just let it be my secret.  As the day wore on I started feeling the effects of the cake, fatigue and irritability, but I also felt guilt.  It may be an act of defiance to eat the cake – even though no one was forcing me to eat it or not eat it, but if I am to hold myself accountable – I had no business trying to convince others not to tattle on me, I am the one who will see the results of my actions or choosing not to act.  It wouldn’t really matter to anyone else if I decided to eat the entire remainder of the cake (except maybe my son – who is hoping to enjoy some left-overs).    So after a long nap, I logged the cake into MyFitness Pal.

Even after all of that I wanted another piece of cake so after I ate some of my left over salad – I cut myself another slice.  I decided at this point guilt is a useless emotion; Dianna would probably be upset that I went back on my agreement with her not to have cake, but I will have to deal with that eventually. I should have spoken up and told her how I felt about not having any in the first place. 

The cake was good, I focused on each bite.  The thing I realized while focusing on it is that I knew even before tasting it that it would be really good, and exactly what the texture would be and exactly how it would taste.  So if I had maintained my agreement, I wouldn’t really have missed anything because I knew already what it would taste like.  Nonetheless I quickly devoured the piece and realized that it made me thirsty and left my mouth with a sticky feeling.

In the past I would have washed it down with a Diet Coke, but instead I chose plain seltzer water to satisfy my need for bubbles.  After nearly 4 weeks of foods which are low on the glycemic index I couldn’t handle the thought of washing the cake down with soda.  I did decide to pair it with my 85% dark chocolate though which cut the sweetness and was satisfying.

In truth though, I had been having a rough week when it came to staying on the plan.  I had been denying myself my usual favorites and was feeling deprived.  When I misunderstood the intent of an email at work I decided to have a piece of raspberry danish that my boss had brought in earlier in the week.  (For what it is worth the danish should have been stale but it wasn’t so it really begs the question of what else was in it that wasn’t good for me).

I’ve been finding when I have anxiety; I go into a sugar spiral.  When I go into a sugar spiral it leads to more anxiety, frustration and feeling that I am entitled to give in to my sugar cravings.  I am not always good about sharing my feelings with others.  At work, all I needed to do was take a step back and really think about the message that was being conveyed to me rather than reading into it something that wasn’t there to begin with.   With family, I know their patterns and behaviors.  I do not have to allow family members to make me feel bad about something because they feel bad about themselves.

A single cave in can lead to a total derailment.  Today in the “hangover aftermath” of eating the cake and the danish and giving in to a Diet Coke earlier in the week, I am more difficulty than usual resisting the cake, but, I have also worked too hard to lose my progress so far.  I want to be healthy and so I am moving forward.  I’ve made things a lot more difficult than necessary and I have to own that. 

 

So far I have lost about 8 pounds.

 

 

 



Before 5/3/15 228.4 lbs





Now 5/24/15 219.8 lbs



 

Welcome to My Blog!

I chose the name Laura's Kaleidoscope because well Laura is my name and I wanted to pick a name that suggested forward momentum and the many different facets of my life and the different ways I see the world.  Kaleidoscope was perfect because as you turn a kaleidoscope you never see the same image twice.  We are forever changed by our choices, either they lead to something better or a learning experience, therefore we can only move forward. 

As I mentioned, Kaleidoscopes have many different facets, some of the topics I will be covering in this blog include motherhood, crafting, career, increasing my personal health and many other things that light my creative spark.

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