Since I just spent my tenth night in my new house, I can officially call myself a resident and your newest neighbor!  

My name is Taryn and 534 days ago I was living it up in my condo on the north side, enjoying paying assessments and parking and incredibly high prices for groceries.  Then, BAM! I tore three ligaments off my hip and pelvis.  With an injury like that you'd think I'd have an awesome story behind it or footage like that poor skier from "Wide World of Sports" in the 80s, but no.  I made it to the injury big leagues just taking my dog for a walk.  That takes talent that tumbling head over heels down a hillside does not.

So far I've had surgery, over a year on crutches, several thousand dollars of physical therapy and a new found appreciation for the wonders of human anatomy. I had to move in with my parents and spent months on bed rest.  It has not been fun. However, from all these lemons I managed to find some lemonade in the Homewood-Flossmoor area.

I never even considered moving down here but after a couple of months of feeling like I was on vacation, I decided to take the plunge, sell my condo and buy a house in the area.  Now here I am, frantically googling stuff like "how often do you cut grass?" and "what is a water bill?"  I am loving your beautiful little area so far. Please feel free to stop by any time to borrow a cup of sugar.

Actually, a cup of sugar is a horrible segue into the main purpose of this blog. I've been writing for two years about trying to lose weight on my blog Inner Fat Girl. After losing 100 pounds four years ago and gaining 75% of that back, I’m finally on my way back down the scale ladder.  It’s a long journey but I know I’m going to get there and it’s meant so much to me to have people cheering me on.

I also love to cook and bake. It’s my version of yoga or therapy because it calms me down. Unfortunately, unlike yoga, cooking has a calorie count. During my exciting time on bed rest, I found a ton of really great low-calorie high-taste recipes and I’d love to share them with you all.  I'd also love to get new ideas and awesome recipes from you too.

Since I’ve used up so much space already, the first one is going to be simple but trust me on this one, it’s delicious.  I found the recipe here after seeing it on Pinterest.  Take one box of cake mix and instead of adding oil and eggs, dump in a can of pumpkin.  Spoon the batter into a muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.  I know you’re doubting me right now but holy moly, these are delicious.  I’ve made them with yellow cake mix and also chocolate but I think they will be incredible with spice cake mix.  Even my very picky family gobbled these down. 

Thanks for making Homewood-Flossmoor such a great area to live.  I’m really looking forward to setting down some roots here.