Farmer's Market Bounty

 

Market Square Farmer's Market Bounty - July 17, 2010

The promised and much needed rain never materialized yesterday, so I pouted a bit that we had canceled our hiking plans.   But a "safety first"  hiker is a smart hiker and I noticed that some small, but pretty significant thunderstorms did pass through the area where we would have been hiking.  It was the right decision, just difficult.  

Mr. B and I left home around 9 for our walk to the Farmer's Market.  If you want to take that walk with us, read this post from a couple of weeks ago.  I had not been to the market in several weeks and the difference was obvious.  Lots of new vendors and an amazing array of summer produce, crafts, flowers and local art.  I just love our market!  Today's picture shows the peaches, okra, blackberries and variety of  little tomatoes that I bought.  BTW, I don't know what the proper name is for those tomatoes because there are several varieties in that clamshell, but in the south, we call them Tommy-toes!  That particular vendor has a huge shallow box loaded with different varieties/colors of the little tomatoes and you pack your clamshell with as many as you can for one price.  Trust me, they are like candy.  I also bought the Zinnia to take to our dinner party hostess as a token of our appreciation.  For some reason, it doesn't look so great in the picture, but it was beautiful. Not shown in the above picture, is the Peach Handpie from VG's Bakery.  Handpies are VG's version of the traditional fried pie and I am sorry to say that it, along with the cup of coffee from Coffee and Chocolate did not make it home for the picture.  Let me be quick to add that I had taken one of my Soy Protein Bars and not one morsel of the Peach Handpie went in my mouth.  This is HUGE!

The dinner party last evening was a wonderful time of fun and fellowship with both new and old friends. As I expected, the dinner forced me to go off plan, but was not as difficult as I had anticipated based on former dinner parties at this lovely couple's home.  The dinner items were served buffet style, so I was able to take smaller portions of those things not on my plan.  Dessert was served directly by the hostesses, so an opportunity to decline did not really present itself and quite frankly, being appreciative of their efforts was more important to me than saving a few calories.  A mental victory occurred about half way through dessert when it truly hit me that I'd had enough and I stopped.  As this past week's NSV's indicate, something has clicked in my mind recently.  I'm too afraid yet to make a huge deal out of it and I'm sure there will be plenty of times when I gobble the dessert, fried chicken or turkey wrap like a starving woman, but the conscious change of mindset this week has been so freeing.  Once again, I believe I can attribute a lot of it to you, my new blogging friends who are so quick so say, "congratulations, that IS huge - keep up the good work."  You understand.

I wore a two-piece dress to church this morning that I have not been able to wear for over two years.  Here's a picture:

 

Sorry about the shadows.  We were running a little late and didn't take time to notice the position of the sun, but you get the idea.  I was pretty proud and strutin' my stuff.  Sure hated to put on that choir robe!  LOL!  Even at goal weight, my body shape is problematic, so to wear a two-piece outfit and be able to button the jacket is a big deal.  With 18 1/2 pounds left to goal, I really need every ounce of it to come off my hips and upper thighs because if I turned around and had Mr B snap a  rear view, this is what you would see:

 

And I'm talking about the horses' patoot, not the rider!  I can thank my sweet mother for the way I'm built.  And if it's true that pear shapes are less susceptible to heart problems, my heart should be good for a lifetime cause I am the epitome of the perfect pear.  So let's just sum it up by saying, "yeah, the front view is looking pretty good, but (no pun intended) I still need those 18 1/2 pounds to go away (and they will)!

I already know of a couple of challenges this week and others will present themselves as the week progresses.  Keeps life interesting, doesn't it?