Katy Perry's song Firework took awhile to grow on me but it was the video that finally had me loving the ode to owning your awesomeness. It's totally going on the iPod.

I had been boycotting my scale for a couple weeks because I stepped on it while feeling good about myself and the number didn't reflect what I thought it should (does that make sense?).

So, after a week of making wise choices, not rummaging through the kitchen at night and stepping up my exercise, I stepped on the scale yesterday morning and saw I was back in the 30s again.

Otherwise known as the bottom of the see-saw.

I'm determined not to see the top of the see-saw ever again, so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing:

Food: Eating my planned menu (Nutrisystem; more on that HERE), drinking more water and/or unsweetened teas, and not being shy with the vegetables. Nearly every night last week I sent my husband fleeing from the living room when I entered with a steaming pile of cauliflower. I've been slaying the ice cream and cereal monsters, so big, smelly bowls of cruciferous vegetables have been my substitute, with an occasional sugar-free Jell-O to tame the sweet cravings.

Exercise: More, more, more! And I don't mean hours and hours every day. All I'm doing is upping the frequency of my workouts and adding in more resistance workouts. I had been leaning heavily on cardio and it was keeping me healthy but not happy on the scale. Once I started doing more squatty, lungy workouts, I saw and felt myself getting firmer and smaller. Since having my meals be a bit of a no-brainer seems to be working, I decided this week to do that with my workouts, so I pulled out the trusty Slim in 6 DVD set. No stressing over which workout to do -- I'm just doing that, and for once I'm going to do all six weeks.

Do you have any plateau busters? What are they?

So normally I do the Wordless Wednesday thing, posting some fun photo without writing anything.

But I've been doing too much "unwriting" lately and so there are words today.

I've been super busy with my part-time editing job and often by the time I'm done with that, I can barely see straight. Seriously, it's called "computer vision syndrome" and leaves my eyes strained, dried out and bleary. (Don't worry, it isn't anything more serious. I went to the eye doc and she said "it's the computer." Great, tell that to a blogger.)

The scale has been stuck, and frankly, I've been putting too much emphasis on a number. In fact, my fancy body fat-bone density-water weight bathroom scale just up and died this week, AND I'M NOT REPLACING IT!

Too many arcane numbers to obsess over. So I'm back to the scale that just displays poundage (we had three scales in the house -- ridiculous.)

But!

I have slayed the ice cream monster and now the cereal monster. Every day for the past few weeks I have been ticking off the days that I have avoided diving into the ice cream in the kitchen freezer. Three pints have been avoided, and I do believe I'm cured, or at least under control.

Now, onto the cereal. We have a lot of it in the house, and I often will grab a box while watching TV and graze away. Cereal's not a bad food, but it becomes dangerous for me when I'm shoving fistfuls into my pie hole for a couple hours.

I have been cereal free since Saturday, and I no longer feel its pull. I'll give myself another week before I declare victory, but it feels fixed.

Food addiction -- I totally have it. Even when I'm not actually eating, I'm rearranging my pantry or cleaning out the fridge or thinking about what to make for dinner.

The thing that seems to be working for me (right now) is to attack each "binge-y" food separately. First it was ice cream, now it's cereal. What will it be next? I really don't know.

What's your danger food? Do you have it under control?

British comedian Eddie Izzard, who over the years has become a fitness fanatic, offers up his thoughts on vitamins, food labeling and fruit in this great clip (FYI, there's a little bit of swearing, in case you're at work or around the kiddies):

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Y'know those bloggers who write and vlog about all the cool clothes, shoes and beauty products they just bought? Consider this my "haul blog."

I went to Costco last week and got carried away in the produce department -- both fresh and frozen.

Two pounds of brussels sprouts, a big bag of mini cukes (which you can eat skin and all), a clamshell container of mini lettuces, fresh pico de gallo, and huge bags of frozen blueberries, mixed berries and organic broccoli.

It's part of my plan to turn to fruits and veggies to bulk up my diet. (And the broccoli also crowds out room for ice cream.) And since I hate throwing anything out, the clock is ticking on the fresh stuff, so it's giant salads for lunch every day, like this:

I also threw in a cup of strawberries, which I didn't eat at breakfast. Besides being loaded with fiber, all that produce is full of water. Water + fiber = FULL!

My diet goal this week is to eat some sort of gigantic salad at either lunch or dinner.

But what can you put on a giant salad? Here's what I'm digging lately, my two-ingredient creamy ranch dressing/dip. It's nonfat plain Greek yogurt mixed with Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix. Since I get a dairy/protein serving at lunch, I can have a container of plain nonfat Greek yogurt, which makes for a whole lot of dressing. (You can thin it out a bit with white vinegar.)

And instead of the non-resealable mix packets, I've started to find these cool jars of ranch dressing mix at the store. You can measure it into your yogurt or you can sprinkle it on veggies. (Luigi and Mario give it two thumbs up!)

Question of the week (yes, this is new): What do you put in your giant salads?