A year ago, I was one of those people who wanted to lose weight but just a little too lazy to do it. Then one day I got that “Hey I’m getting married, pretty please be in my wedding!?!” e-mail from my friend. Suddenly it wasn’t going to be just me and my husband and my family and friends that knew I was overweight. I’d be trapped forever in someone else’s wedding album this way! Oh. My. God.

I joined Weight Watchers and learned portion control, but what really did it for me was discovering the bento community online. I found hundreds of people online who made their lunch with just a little bit more care than usual with amazing results. I found there was something immensely satisfying about opening a beautiful lunch in the middle of a long day. It was as if small amounts of food arranged in a peaceful manner tasted just a little better. I’d look at my silly little collection of miniature soy sauce bottles and sigh with odd contentment. And my pastel sushi grasses. And my riceball molds... my egg molds… my food picks... my 87 bento boxes… The bento bug had bit me and it had bit me hard. I started a food blog called Adventures in Bentomaking, documenting my lunches and my weight loss.

With bento and Weight Watchers combined, I lost 22 pounds. I’ve now been doing bento on my food blog for over a year and though I’ve discovered a lot of great things to put into my lunches, the first one that comes to mind is the Kim Chee Crab from Foodland here in Hawaii. Sold in their fresh seafood section with the ahi poke, oysters, and shrimp, their Kim Chee Crab is made of chunks of imitation crab coated with a spice mixture similar to what is used to make kim chee cabbage.
I’d never realized how much fat was in salad dressing so I used the Kim Chee Crab to spice up my salads. At times it was a little too spicy for me, so I added fresh avocado to help tone down the heat. Combined with finely chopped Romaine lettuce, no dressing is needed for this salad and it’s full of flavor! You can get Kim Chee Crab at a lot of supermarkets in Hawaii, but I still always go back to Foodland for theirs.

I fall into slumps now and then, but the weight is still off and my bento is still a very important part of my day. Now and then, when the kids are asleep and the husband isn’t looking, I’ll still open my bento drawer and stare at everything with a little grin on my face.