88.3

This is a .3 gain. I did nothing really "bad" so I guess it is my body retaining because Im close to ovulating. Or it might be the flights. My body always reacts bad to the differences in pressure while flying. I can weigh in before I get in the plane and weigh in right after I get off it and it will show a couple of kilos more. My rings suddenly get tighter, my feet have no room in my shoes, you get the picture...

I did well with the food. Even during the trip. And I had the erge to binge all day yesterday because I had a horrible day at work, but still, I restrained.

I did not do well with the exercise. I did my first workout of the 3rd Cto5K week on tuesday and the second today, so I have to do the 3rd tomorrow. I would like them more evenly spread during the week...but with the two days away it was not easy. The weird thing that happened was that when I woke up on Thursday in my friend's house (I stayed at a friend in Thessalonica) I was suddenly so sorry I did not have my running shoes to go out and do the workout. For a second there I really wanted to do it and felt my body missing it!!! On the good side, my pedometer counted 27.893 steps on my two days there! All in high heels...hehehe

I did fight inside my head though. Therapy on Tuesday night was rough again. My therapist told me to keep notes and record the weird stuff. Well...all weid stuff that has happened was all the food thoughts that pour out at any moment of stress, anxiety, boredom etc. Followed by sadness when the decision not to eat was taken. Nothing weird really, besides the notice of sadness coming right on. Another proof for the food being the substitute I reckon.

Things are work are pretty tensed. They will remain this way. My job is really devided in good and evil. Good is the project planning, the research about it, the brainstorming, the implementation, the buzz about producing the event. The evil is the administrative stuff. The organisation is really beurucratic, the procedures are really complex, and the decisions made take eons and a lot of paperwork till they can be put into any use. It tires me and upsets me. Plus there is a good part of my team who does various kinds of intentional mistakes in paperwork and stuff they bring me to sign to make me look like the dufus. Fun...lol.

The gorgeous Airlie mentioned my love and romantic relationship with food in the most honourable way. And this made her make her own yoghurt! Now how precious is this?!!! To make her eat more of the good stuff, here is what I had for breakfast in her honour. I usually have this as a dessert for 2.5 points after my fishy dinners.

We call this spoon sweets. Because it used to be served in a bowl, with individual spoons, and each would take a spoonful of it. In greece we make this from any fruit you can imagine and more. From the peel of citrus or oranges too. The concept is always the same, but I have managed to make it more diet-friendly.

For each kilo of fruit, depending on the fruit's natural sweetness, you use from 800 g to a kilo of sugar. But in mine there is 125 g of brown organic sugar per kilo of grapes. So while the WW book counts one point for a tsp of this, I count 1 point for 3 tsp. And it transforms my yoghurt to a nice dessert.

You wash the grapes and take them of their stems. You put them in a big pot and on the stove in high temp till they start taking their juice out and begin to boil. You should leave room in the pot and not cover it to the top with fruit or you will experience various accidents, like it boils too much and liquids suddenly get out of the pot, you cannot stir it and it gets burnt on the bottom, etc. When it begins to boil, you add the sugar. In a cheesecloth or tulle you put 2 vanilla beans opened, star anices, cinammon sticks, cloves, and allspices. You throw that in the pot and let it boil. It will get brownish at some point. You have to take the temp down at this point and let it shimmer and shimmer, till the liquids thicken to a syrop-y consiste ncy. I usually make enormous quantities, cos many friends ask for it and Angelos wants to eat it all year, so I usually make around 12 kilos of grapes end of September, which lasts till June usually. The big quantities I make take eons. I shimmer them for 3 hrs, then let them cool to check the thickness of syrup, then usually shimmer them again for another couple of hrs. But if you make just a kilo it will take about an hr and a half I guess. Stir it often and gently cos it will start bubbling with each stirring. And keep in mind that when it cools it thickens more, so perhaps you might want to let it cool and see if it needs more shimmering. Now if only I managed to take pics actually on focus!

I'm off to the normal saturday grocerry shopping ritual. I have a crave for many veggie dinners this coming week. Artichokes are now in season and I love them with potatoes and carrots in thick lemon sauce. Fresh peas with carrots and dill in tomato sauce. with feta...mmmm! I want to cook more bulgur...I have missed it! And legumes too, cos the weather reports are frightening the last couple of days. They say that next week the temp will drop up to 12 degrees. This means it will get to -5. In Athens!!!! It will snow too!!! They forecast the worse winter weeks to come of the last 4 decades!!! Nothing better to warm you up like a steaming bowl of lentil soup. Oh...and "trahanas"which is greek word and which I tried to find in english and cannot. It is cracked wheat, boiled in milk, then dried. You then boil it in milk and water and add pieces of feta to it when almost done. This makes a gorgeous soup! Oh I promise to make it and show you!

Right...I got to get to the shower now and get ready to go out. I wish I could stay in and burn firewood all day long while napping, reading, watching films and cuddling. But this man of mine is again working and I got to do the chores...lol

Have a nice weekend all!