After what seems like the 100th day in a row of packing and hauling toys and household items to the new house, I found myself blanking once again when it was time to figure out what on earth I was going to make for dinner tonight. I think I made 6 trips back and forth between the cupboards and the fridge with one hand glued to my cheek due to pure puzzlement. I finally waved the white flag and made giant salads of green leaf lettuce, the last of the spinach that expired two days ago, grape tomatoes, carrots, red bell pepper slices, hemp seeds and Annie’s Goddess Dressing.

After a much needed run on the indoor track first thing this morning, followed by new house related tasks, I had a root canal this afternoon on a tooth that I injured when I was a kid. Oh the timing of these sorts of things. It’s like the tooth knew I needed one more thing on my plate right now (not to mention my debit card) and has been poised and ready, waiting to become infected until just the right moment.

My appointment was with a new dentist so I had to fill out some paperwork, including a brief medical history. One of the questions I had to answer was:

Have you lost more than 10 lbs in the last year?

I was about to check the YES box before hesitating for a moment as I thought about what I weighed last December and realized that no, I haven’t lost more than 10 lbs in the last year! Yes, I lost nearly 40 lbs in 2008 – but I had reached my happy weight by the summer of 2008 and at this time last year I weighed what I do today.

These two stories tie together because of what my fall back, fast, go-to meal is these days. If you were to visit Alison of Decembers past… say December 2006 or even December 2007, my fall back meal would have been a grilled cheese sandwich and baked french fries for my “vegetable”. Not that I’m above eating grilled cheese sandwiches and white potatoes, but I know that I’ve been able to maintain my weight loss because I majorly overhauled my approach to what I once believed was healthy eating. I had to form new habits and get them to stick.

So how do you make these habits stick? We can change just about anything if we truly believe that it’s worth the effort. Knowledge is power and educating yourself is the first step toward understanding why something is worth the effort, or as the case may sometimes be, to clear up a misconception you have that is holding you back from making any progress.

These musings are pretty timely considering I’ve got guest post up on Love Veggies and Yoga today about my journey to reaching my healthy weight. Head over to Averie’s blog if out if you missed reading two posts from me today or if you just want to see some groovy pictures of Mama Averie living large in Aruba!

After I put my salad together, I spent some time with a certain 5 year old girl who relentlessly requested I play War with her until I found my white flag again and begged for mercy!

Uh oh – here we go! Dueling Kings!

This means WAR kiddo.

But awww yeah Mom and The Fallback Salad cleaned up for this round!

I was in the mood for something sweet tonight and opted for the healthiest version of a cookie I can come up with. Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel Toast topped with almond butter and a little shaved Green and Black 70% Dark Chocolate.

Little shavings get melty pretty fast!

Did you know that shaving chocolate can be a great way to save calories?

One might say you save calories because shaving chocolate is a great way to make a little go a long way. But tonight as it turns out I ate the remainder of the 6 small blocks of chocolate I broke off to do the shaving and thus saved NO chocolate calories. It turns out that you save calories shaving chocolate because you only use a little bit and (note to self:) you don’t need to break off 6 squares of chocolate for a few little shavings. Or – for crying out loud woman – put the rest of the 5 blocks of chocolate back in the fridge!

Ah well. It’s water under the bridge now! At least I won War tonight. I’ve got that going for me.