Dealing with Weight Gain after having reached goal :(

So it's been 10 months since I reached my goal weight, one of the most exciting days of my life. But now, after Christmas indulging, splurging vacations, carefree living in a hotel for nearly a month, I find myself 7 pounds heavier. I knew I had gained weight, I could feel it in my clothes and I could see it in the mirror. In reality, anyone who has struggled with weight before and has had success must surely know that the battle has never ended! So, this morning, after mustering up courage I finally weighed myself to know exactly how much I had gained. Yep, 7 freaking pounds! After giving myself a pep talk and meditating my future actions I came up with my combat plan:

1. Weigh myself once a week, not everyday. Everyday weight assessment doesn't work for me, but once a week gives me an idea of my accomplishment, or lack thereof. 

2. Go back to iTrackBites. Even though I am allowed 18 points I am going to try to stick to 12 and under, I am going to focus on veggies, veggies, veggies and log everything that goes into my mouth. I did this before and I did very well. I know that the recommendation is to stick to the number of points calculated but this works for me when I eat lots of veggies. 

3. I'm going to vamp up my basic soup recipe, make it a little more exciting, and add variety.

4. Get going on other projects to keep myself out of the kitchen and focused on other activities. 

5. Walk twice a day.

Any of you who were in Las Vegas during Christmas time most likely saw that the new Zupas was half off for about a week. Since I was feeding so many, we decided to eat there every day for lunch. I love their soups. But when I look at the copycat recipes, I see that they are loaded with butter, cream, and other fattening stuff. So I want to try to get a very similar flavor but I also want to lighten it up significantly. So here is my first attempt: