Holy moly! I’m blowing through my jar of Barney Butter like it’s my job! I’ve almost finished an entire jar in less than 2 weeks! 
I’m definitely overdoing it with this delicious almond butter, so this morning, I decided that it couldn’t hurt to remind myself what 1 serving (2 tbsps) of nut butter looks like. I broke out my measuring spoons as a visual aid.
Of course, the “standard” serving size isn’t right for everyone, so do what’s right for you. I don’t plan to measure my nut butter every time I want to eat it. Some mornings, I know I will be super hungry and glob on the nut butter like I usually do, but this morning was a good reminder for me.
On two slices of Whole Food’s brand whole wheat toast, I spread Barney Butter on one slice and pecan butter on the other. I topped the BB piece with ground flaxseed meal; the pecan butter piece was topped with golden raisins.
Breakfast also included a bowl of fresh fruit: strawberries and red grapes.
With iced coffee with chocolate soy milk and agave nectar…
Feel Great Weight Debut
Exciting news, guys! 
As most of you know, I have maintained a weight loss of close to 25 pounds for about 3 years now. Well, just recently, I was able to share my story with Health.com for their Feel Great Weight (FGW) program, an online diet plan/community. Right now the FGW program features real women and actress A.J. Cook (all of whom are on the plan) in the magazine each month, plus they have a handful of experts who weigh in. The one thing that the FGW program was missing was someone whose found—and maintained—their feel great weight, and that’s where I came in!
Each week, I will blog about “Maintaining My Feel Great Weight” for Health.com. My posts will be about my weight loss, my maintenance, and my daily life—much like Carrots ‘N Cake. My first post is all about my weight loss journey. Obviously, I am over the moon about this opportunity! I hope you guys will check out my posts as well as the Feel Great Wight program over at Health.com!
How I Reached My Feel Great Weight
Maintaining My Feel Great Weight One Carrot (And Cupcake!) At a Time
P.S. Check out the main page of Health.com and scroll down!
Question of the Day
Have you found your “feel great weight”? How do you know?
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Congratulations! What an amazing opportunity.
This is awesome! What an exciting opportunity. I just read your first column and I think it’s great! You’re such a wonderful example for maintaining a happy weight that is sane and manageable. Congrats!
Congrats on the feature!
The Barney Butter looks SO good
My feel great weight is in the low 130′s. I look fit and people call me “thin”…woohoo! haha
Congrats!! That’s so exciting! You’re a celebrity
You’re just teasing me with the BB now! I need to bite the bullet and pay for the shipping fee!
Congrats!! What a great story to inspire others!!
I DEFINITELY found my feel good weight!! I had stomach problems that dropped me to 75lbs in college
NOT feel good. Then I gained 45lbs BACK in one year!!! I lost 11 of those and now I’m feeling great and maintaining my weight (and health!!) for 2 years 
Congrats on the new writing gig Tina! Can’t wait to add it to my regular reading!
Great to read that someone else is plowing through their Barney Butter! I’m trying to cut back – at least to stretch it out – but it’s so good!
My feel great weight is right where I’m at. I used to weigh 15 pounds more and was unhappy due to not being fit! And I also used to weigh 10 pounds less, but I was overexercising and eating under 1800 calories a day to keep it there. That was definitely NOT my happy weight.
Where I’m at, I exercise 3-4 days a week, eat healthy 80% of the time, but have room for splurges and enjoyment! I don’t kill myself if I missed a workout, and there’s no pressure to fit into my ‘skinny jeans.’ I’m finally at peace with who I am, and my weight seems to stay pretty happily around the same spot. That’s my happy weight.
GREAT post, Tina!
I’m constantly struggling with my “feel great weight”. I run my best around 120 and aim for it when I have a goal race coming up. BUT I have to be super careful because I feel like death if I get down to 118! On a vain note, I feel I look best around 125, which is pretty easy to maintain as long as I’m training. But if I’m not training on a daily basis, my body always seems to go back towards 130. Luckily my clothes all fit (though a bit differently) as long as I’m somewhere in there!
I’m excited to read your entries! I’m trying to figure out my feel great weight is… I have had three babies in the last 6 years so I feel like I have been pregnant, nursing and losing weight for the last 6 years non stop! I’m taking a break right now from trying to lose weight, but I may give it another stab when I feel up to it. We’ll see… maybe this is my feel great weight and I just don’t know it yet!
Congratulations Tina! What an opportunity and compliment to your own success. You are an inspiration to many. I am not yet at my FGW – I still exercise too much and limit my food. I am working on learning to trust and listen to my body so that I can LIVE and be healthy.
wooohoo!! congrats on being featured on health!! I LOVE that magazine and I am going RIGHT NOW to see what you wrote.
Exciting!! and…OOH i’m so curious about whether your almond butter flavors mask the pecan butter!! I can only imagine it being delicious….but i’m still curious!!
Congrats!!! On both your feel great weight and being featured in Health!!!! How exciting!!!
I found my feel great weight in not such a good way. I got put on topamax for migraine control and my weight dropped off me in no time. Now I am finding it hard to maintain my girlie figure…I have to start working out (should anyways) to keep some weight on. I needed to loose the 20 lbs, but I want to stay where I am now. So I am going to go to the gym and see about weight training to firm up what I have now.
Good for you! This is one more step on your goal to blog and write about health and fitness full time, right?
FGW…I need to get there…and need to figure out what exactly that is! Guess I should read your Health posts, huh
Wow Tina thats amazing! Conrgatulations!! I’m pretty happy where I am but I’d really love to loose another 5lbs or so, or just tone up a little more over all. You’d think the wedding would be pushing me into gear, but my life has never been busier either…urrg!
I think I’ve found my FGW- This January I decided to change my diet simply by trying to eat 5 fruits/veggies a day. I had been running regularly for months but the last 10 pounds of weight from my pregnancy still wasn’t coming off. I set a goal to lose 10lbs by march 1 and ended up losing 17 between January and March. I’m 130lbs now, right in the middle of where someone my height (5’4″) should be. Though I’d like to tone up a bit more, this feels like a healthy weight where I don’t feel uncomfortably chubby or unhealthily bony. Your blog is such a great encouragement to have a healthy balance!
Hey Tina, when you were losing weight, did you eat more on days you worked out? Or for example, if you were aiming for 1800 calories per day to lose, but you burned 300 running, would you then eat 2100 calories? I’m having a VERY hard time losing weight and I don’t know what to do!!!
@Emily: I didn’t eat more unless I was really hungry. Even now, I pretty much eat the same amount of calories every day.
congrats on writing on health.com! that’s a great honor
I LOVED your article! GREAT job!
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