We’re both down ten pounds! What a way to go!

It’s pretty crazy. I feel good – sore, but good. I honestly never saw myself as a person who would go to a gym – let alone semi-enjoy it! It’s rather amazing how 1) difficult it is and 2) easy it is. I know that’s a complete contradiction, but it’s strangely true.

Our trainer has figured us out in these five weeks. He’s now pushing harder, making us do more difficult tasks with more repetitions – but the more we do them the easier they finally become – until he drops the next bombshell and picks up the pace. I am just no good at doing dumbbells over my head. He has me doing dumbbells over my head. My arms feel like they want to fall off and refuse to lift that damned thing one more time – and he tells me I only have five more to go. I’d call him a cruel, heartless man if it wasn’t for the encouragement he also continually gives. He’s an encouraging cruel, heartless man – and we’re down ten pounds because he’s giving us the motivation to succeed.

Ten Pounds! I’m pretty psyched!

You’ve noticed that we most certainly are not depriving ourselves in the food department. Desserts are pretty much off the table but we’re getting by really well with fresh fruit. And the cakes and pies and cookies will be back, but probably not with the frequency they once were. This is the new normal for us – and it’s not bad, at all.

Another thing I’ve pretty much knocked off is bread at dinner every night – although we’re still eating bread and we often have sandwiches for lunch. I’ve missed my bread-baking, so I decided I’d bake some, today – a nice Five-Grain with Walnuts from Carol Field. It has a little bit of everything in it. I didn’t feel like transcribing the entire recipe, so the link above will take you to the recipe on Google Books.

But I did take pictures of the process… This is mixing the five flours and the walnuts… white flour, sprouted wheat flour, rice flour, rye flour, and oat flour.

Mixed and out of the Kitchen-Aid… Slightly sticky. You want a bit of a wetter dough for sandwich bread.

Rolled into a ball and into a pan for the first rise. It’s 90°F/32°C outside with really high humidity – perfect for Mother Nature’s All-Natural Proofing Box.

And then after a mere hour…

Loaves formed and back out to Mother Nature’s All-Natural Proofing Box for the final rise. I left them out for an hour – I really should have pulled them in after about 30 minutes because they over-proofed, a bit and then fell a bit as I put them into the oven.

But… they still came out great. I took one loaf and cut it in half and gave it to two neighbors – because I didn’t want two loaves of bread in the house. We have great neighbors – directly next door is a young couple with two really cute girls who are very skeptical of Blanche, and the other side of them are two sisters probably 20 years older than us. We have a fun time with all of them and they said I could make too much bread any time!

And as a side note…

Dinner tonight was leftover Jambalaya with a fried egg on top.

Without bread. That’s for lunch!

Added on Saturday:

Here’s Lunch!

Victor just said I never have to buy bread, again…