Fri April 24th & Sat April 25th - What I'm Eating

Friday
Breakfast: smoothie - kefir, mango, raw egg, honey, acai berries, banana
Lunch: missed...
Dinner: baked salmon, steamed broccoli, brown basmati rice
Dessert: a very little bit of all-natural rocky road ice cream (the last of it)

Saturday
Breakfast: leftover ham and pepper quiche, cinnamon toast
Lunch: leftover garlic pork roast
Dinner: greek salad, gyro meat, half a pita
Dessert: cinnamon toast, organic white cheddar cheese popcorn

Anaylsis: Well I clearly have a bit of a cinnamon toast obsession at the moment. I also need to work on getting more veggies, as usual! But I'm doing a bit better than I was a few days ago! I missed lunch yesterday - I was VERY close to going for fast food while running errands, but the "Baby Baby Baby" mantra actually worked! It was still not good to miss a meal, but I suppose better than eating garbage. Heaven knows I have enough reserve to go without for a while, but being so hungry just makes a person lose all self control and binge later...I did manage to avoid that this time around, but it was touch and go there for a minute with the fast food temptation...

Thanks everyone for the support! I am coordinating a booth at a huge festival this weekend, so the last few days have been really crazy. It opened today and went off without a hitch, so that really took a load off my shoulders! Another day of it tomorrow, and that will be that. I have had a lot of really wonderful volunteers helping with it, both staffing the booth and providing childcare. Hubby has a big exam this coming Friday and is using every moment to study...he'll be fired from his current job if he doesn't pass - no pressure.

I had written what's been going on with the potential move, but I am not 100% sure of who all exactly reads this blog, so its better safe than sorry - I'll send you the story individually, those who asked... :)

Weds & Thurs April 22nd & 23rd - What I'm Eating

Today a friend made the remark that since I hadn't been posting on here, she figured it was because I was not eating anything I'd want anyone to know about...or something to that effect...

That is the honest truth - all the rest of the excuses are true too, but they are really excuses. I have been eating so poorly for the most part, that I am humiliated to make a record of it. But that is the point of this blog, isn't it? I do have to thank my sister Hannah, who actually follows through and pesters me when I don't post! Its a bit of a social contract we have going on here - I agree to humiliate myself, and occasionally provide good recipes or other useful information, and you harass me if I avoid it!

OK, so I don't fully remember everything I ate yesterday and today because its been 48 hours of snacking sinfulness. Not to mention, I am sure most of the time I was in a sugar-induced stupor. I'll do my best to remember most of what I consumed, but I can't promise the order. I do promise not to leave out the bad things.

Weds
- 6 pieces of cinnamon toast (the kind with way more sugar than cinnamon), but at least it was on Ezekiel bread, with pasture butter (and no, I didn't eat them all at once - think Breakfast, Lunch, and Snack...)
- 2 more grocery store beef tamales
- orange juice (I really shouldn't drink it because I can actually feel my blood sugar go up)
- 3/4's of a Panchero's chicken quesadilla with black beans - a white flour tortilla of course
- Cold Stone Creamery Coffee Lover's Only ice cream - at least I went for the small size...

Thurs
- kefir smoothie - peaches, banana, raw egg, honey
- potato salad - two helpings
- another salad containing tuna, white beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and I'm not sure what else
- bread with olive oil and tomato puree spread
- a few pieces of fruit, incl cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple and grapes
- a piece of carrot cake
- apple crisp with a bit of yogurt (plain)
- an entire bag of Werther's caramel candies
- an entire bag of Riesen chocolate candies
(just to confess some more, I ate a whole bag of Swedish Fish and a whole box of Mike and Ike's the other day on the way home from Iowa City - I think I mentioned it before but that is the full extent of it...)
- whole wheat crust quiche with green peppers, ham and cheese (at least it was homemade - yes, I got my oven cleaned...and the dishes too)
- a few carrot chips and some cheese curds

Analysis:
I know, I'm a sick puppy. I revert to eating candy when driving long distances (I drove to Lincoln and back today) when I'm sleep deprived. I'm sleep deprived because I don't go to bed until 1 or 2 am. I don't sleep well even when I do go to bed because of worrying and feeling guilty, and having colds. I'm sure I always have colds because of a lack of sleep and too much sugar... And I revert to eating lots of sugary stuff when I am stressed out... considering we may be facing an out of state move within a matter of a couple of weeks and we don't know for sure yet, among other things, I've been a little stressed.

OK, so I am starting over, no more excuses. What I need is focus! TMI ALERT: I talked before about thinking about trying for another baby - well, today is the start of a brand new cycle, therefore a brand new chance at that. I'm shifting my focus onto that. I'm going to start taking all my supplements again. And exercising. And going to bed earlier. And above all, swearing off sugar. And white flour. Baby. Baby. Baby. Whoever is out there, I need your support!!! Come pester me on Facebook if I show signs of weakness!!! Or call me - its lonely doing battle with the sugar monster... I want to write "CHARGE!" but I all can muster at the moment is ... here we go again ...

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Sorry I've been a blog delinquent again! I have no real excuses...I've been sick, busy, and out of town again. The guilt has been mounding... I won't bore you with endless details, I'll just jump back into the swing of things.

Tues April 21st

Breakfast: nothing

Lunch: 2 grocery store beef tamales, raspberry green tea

Dinner: Paradise Bakery chicken artichoke panini, Caesar salad, and a chocolate chip cookie

Snack: a few leftover Mike and Ike candies from my drive back from Iowa City yesterday (yes, that means I ate the majority of the box yesterday...better than falling asleep behind the wheel and going into the opposing lane of traffic...)

Analysis: Clearly my good eating has fallen by the wayside. Last week was better because I actually cooked quite a bit. Until I spilled toffee in the bottom of my oven. (I was baking chocolate toffee matzoh in honor of Passover...so its all Michal's fault for giving me the recipe 5 years ago!) I haven't had a chance to run the self-clean cycle yet, but its on the docket for tomorrow. I'm scared...

Here's another thought - maybe I wouldn't be getting sick every 3 weeks if I would just quit eating sugar and go to bed at a decent hour??? What a concept...

Thurs April 2nd - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: smoothie with kefir, raw egg, banana, honey, and frozen mango

Lunch: leftover spaghetti sauce with ground beef and zucchini

Snack: orange

Dinner: adzuki bean soup with carrots, smoked ham, and brown rice

Dessert: Neapolitan cheesecake...shared with the little guy

Analysis: the dessert monster won again today... maybe if I would eat more food, like good healthy food, during the day, I wouldn't want to eat sweets after dinner... Its a little crazy, but I do not keep these sweets in the house, so that means I'm actually going out to get them - talk about an addiction! I remember the first time I did this good diet thing, I was eating so much food I was never hungry, and I had to really try to eat all the stuff on my menu for the day. Then I was planning every meal ahead of time, not just dinner, and it really made a difference in terms of the veggies that I was getting, esp. I am not sure I have the time or the drive to go that far right now, but I probably need to!

You know, my chiropractor offers an electro-acupuncture treatment to help people stop smoking - I wonder if it would work for sugar addiction too?

I've been away too long - Tues March 31st - What I'm Eating

So I was out of town in Chicago last week, also suffering from a death cold, which is finally resolving - I think I'm down to blowing my nose only about a dozen times a day, which is at least a 90% improvement, and my voice sounds *almost* normal. We have only gone through 3 full-sized boxes of tissues in the last ten days...so it couldn't have been that bad!

Also a funny (not really) story about our trip - on the way home, we ran over a coyote, rest its soul. That is, a coyote threw itself in front of our van - it had a death wish, rest its soul! At first we thought it was ok for us, all bad for him, but then we began experiencing complications. Our van ended up with a busted front bumper, a trashed radiator, and heaven only knows what other internal damage. Of course all this was discovered in the middle of nowhere, Iowa, in the middle of the night. After a fun adventure involving two different tow-truck drivers, a random roadside motel, and a rental car, we finally made it home safely a full 24 hours later than planned, and our van is now still in Iowa City being repaired. Meanwhile hubby and I are sharing a car, since the bill on the rental was bad enough for just one day. In actuality, hubby ends up taking the car to work and I stay home all day. Its not so bad since we were gone all last week and I am feeling kind of homebody-ish, but I don't think this arrangement will be healthy for much longer. So that's the story...

OK, without further ado, the food info for today:

Breakfast: smoothie with kefir, frozen peaches, raw egg, half a banana, honey

Lunch: leftover lamb curry (with tomatoes, parsnips, peas, and quinoa)

Snack: most of a golden delicious apple

Dinner: Sizzler salad bar - clam chowder, romaine and spinach salad with beets, garbanzo beans, olives, and blue cheese dressing, far too much cheese toast, and soft serve vanilla ice cream with strawberry-banana sauce

Snack: organic hot chocolate made with raw milk

Analysis - all was going well until dinner... the clam chowder was chock full of potatoes, the toast was white bread, and then there was the ice cream...and the hot chocolate... then again, I had ice cream yesterday too, and cheesecake the day before that. I did not do so well on the diet while we were away - its pretty hard when you are out of town and you just don't feel like making a concerted effort, mostly because you are spending the majority of your energy wiping your snot and just trying to breathe. That being said, the sugar intake is probably one of the main reasons I got sick in the first place. Its true, sugar kills the immune system! Ah, its good to be back online spreading good cheer! :)

In all fairness, I have done a great job cooking this week up until today - on Saturday, I made whole wheat pasta with a ground beef and zucchini sauce, on Sunday I made the lamb curry, yesterday I made orange coconut chicken, and tomorrow I'm going to make either pot roast or adzuki bean soup. Little by little, day by day, I'm just trying to do better. Cooking at home is probably the biggest way to make sure I eat right, and its a lot easier to do when I am actually AT home! After that, I just have to resist the urges to go out and get dessert after dinner...that is my vulnerable time. Maybe I should be washing all those dishes and pots and pans during that time, instead of going out in search of sweets...??? :) But we all know that I have a pathological aversion to washing dishes...I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to it...

Weds March 18th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: smoothie with kefir, raw egg, raw honey, frozen cherries - forgot the banana today, definitely not as good without it...

Lunch: half a leftover enchilada with sour cream

Dinner: Olive Garden - salad, breadsticks with oil and vinegar, chicken and shrimp dish with parmesean cream sauce, red bell peppers, and pancetta.

Snack: Olive Garden leftovers

Analysis: Today was a pretty good day, but I shouldn't have had breadsticks at Olive Garden, and I should have asked for whole wheat pasta. The former I chose to eat on purpose, and the latter I forgot until it was too late. If you want to get technical, I should have had some veggies with lunch too, and snacked on something healthy at least once.

I had a good vent with a friend on the phone today, and I guess it just boils down to every time you go to put something in your mouth, you have a decision to make. You know if its right or wrong. You know if you choose right, you might feel sad or deprived now, but you know if you choose wrong, you'll feel guilty and depressed afterwards. When you are in a good mood and feeling strong, its really pretty easy to choose rightly, but if something has already thrown you into a funk, it becomes a vicious cycle: you don't care if its wrong because you want it, because you feel bad, but then you eat it and you continue to feel bad, which makes you care less and make more bad choices. Grrrrrrr. Of course, exercising makes you feel good, but when you feel grouchy, you don't feel like exercising either...

Tues March 17th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: smoothie with kefir, frozen mango, banana, raw egg, raw honey

Lunch: carrot chips and a string cheese

Dinner: pork and vegetable stir fry with mushrooms, snow peas, orange bell pepper, jicama, scallions, and garlic. brown rice

Dessert: a few bites of oreo cheesecake

Snack: Ezekiel tortilla quesadillas with raw milk cheese

Analysis: I needed a better lunch, for sure! Dinner was great, if a little on the light side, so I've found myself hungry again before bed...

So I've been slacking on posting again over the weekend - sorry! I ate many bad things that I should not have eaten - too evil to repeat. I don't have any good excuses... wait, are there ever any good excuses? One thing this blog has definitely made me realize is how much of an emotional eater I am - I never really identified that way before. I knew I ate when I was bored, but clearly, I also eat, and make very bad food choices, when I am upset. I have been grouchy about hubby's job situation for a few weeks now, with another hiccup occurring late last week and fermenting over the weekend. Apparently grouchy = I just do not care what garbage I eat. Sweets make me feel better in the (very) short term, so I eat them. Then my blood sugar goes up and I feel gross, and then I feel guilty knowing that I have just hastened the onset of Type II Diabetes yet again. Wow - it sounds obvious, but this is actually somewhat of a revelation for me. I obviously need to find better ways of dealing with these emotions. I suppose identifying the real reasons that I feel like eating the bad stuff when I feel that way would be the place to start, and then trying to deal with that directly. I think one reason I have been eating instead of dealing is because there is not that much I can do to resolve the problem... I need to learn to resolve my feelings about the problem, even if I can't actually correct the issue. Easier said than done, huh?

A long time ago, I DVR'd a series from TV called "I Can Make You Thin." I only watched a little of it, but I still have it saved. I think the guy deals with some of these things, so maybe I should actually watch it and try it out.

Weds March 11th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: smoothie with kefir, frozen peaches, banana, raw egg, raw honey

Lunch: leftover ham and cheese quiche, organic goldfish crackers

Dinner: homemade chicken noodle soup

Snack: more soup

Analysis: I staved off the sugar today...I still had some white flour with the crackers and the noodles in the soup... I would like to say I feel proud of myself for avoiding sugar today, but I am really just suffering with the cravings, and still feeling guilty from the donuts...

Tues March 10th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: smoothie - kefir, frozen peaches, banana, raw egg, raw honey

Lunch: leftover bison roast, buttered peas

Dinner: ham and cheese quiche with whole wheat crust, braised vegetables - carrots, cabbage, and cauliflower

Sin: an entire bag of powdered donuts, snacked upon throughout the day...

Analysis: need I say more? I feel sick. You would think I would learn my lesson one of these days, but it was a rough day, and they were in the house...I couldn't stop myself. Now they're gone, and I'll be warning hubby to never ever bring those kind of things into the house again! Yes, its all his fault...

Mon March 9th - What I'm Eating

Sorry this is a little late...

Breakfast: smoothie with kefir, frozen mixed berries, banana, raw egg, raw honey

Lunch: leftover kale soup - its finally gone now!

Dinner: Roasted chicken and leftover vegetable trio - that is finally gone now too!

Snack: 4 fruit snacks made with 100% real fruit and no added sugar, small scoop of Mocha gelato from Whole Foods

Snack: 1 piece whole wheat crust hawaiian pizza

Analysis: I have to stop this late night eating! I am loving the breakfast smoothies, though - they hit my craving for sweet, but have plenty of protein, and I am so excited about all the extra vitamins and enzymes that I am getting from the kefir and the raw egg. I decided it didn't need the extra regular milk...

Friday March 6th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: leftover kale soup

Lunch: Ezekiel corn tortilla quesadilla with raw milk cheese, leftover vegetable trio

Dinner: fish fry - baked fish, green & kidney bean salad, mac and cheese, bread and butter, jello, a couple bites of a really nasty cherry cream cheese pie...

Dessert: a gluten/soy/dairy free sugar cookie, a bite of brownie, a piece of sushi, an orange slice, a few chocolate covered almonds, iced tea

Analysis - tonight we had a girl's night out, so I enjoyed some of the delicious things that people had brought to share... I think I did better on veggies today, but still too much sugar and white flour...I should have skipped the mac and cheese and bread at the fish fry. If I am going to be off my medication, I really need to start being much more strict on my diet. No joke. Its just so hard when you are out and about, and when seasonal things come along like fish frys... Doesn't matter - must stay focused or will become diabetic in the near future!

I had another round of acupuncture today just to follow through with what we did on Tues, and I have to tell you, my lungs feel back to normal. I haven't used the inhaler at all today, or felt like I needed it! I guess we'll see how long that lasts... I still do not know if it was merely asthma, if it was related to the medication I was taking, or what. I guess in a couple weeks I will be retested to make sure I still really need the medication, and then I will decide whether to go back on it or not. I don't really want to be on a daily asthma treatment, esp not a steroid, so I am hoping that whatever the problem was, it doesn't come back! Hopefully it was the liver stagnation and the acupuncture just cleared that up - assuming that going back on the meds wouldn't aggravate that again, I think we'd be in the clear. Regardless, if my insulin is still too high, I will go back on it, and I guess I will just have to get acupuncture more regularly to keep myself in better balance. Like I said, I really need to buckle down on my diet. I am constantly faced with times where my willpower is tested, and I have been giving in every time lately! I've got to get it together!

By the way, I asked the acupuncturist again today about her education, and she actually did 4 years of undergrad plus 4 years of acupuncture school - that is as much as an MD! I am SO impressed and cannot understand why they have such restrictive practice laws - well actually, I can. Its the drs trying to protect their monopoly again - if people found out that acupuncture could help them without expensive drugs and surgery, they might do that instead!

Tues March 3rd - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, Ezekiel toast with cultured pasture butter and cherry preserves, a little bit of leftover bison roast

Lunch: leftover Portuguese Kale Soup

Snack: banana and some raw milk cheese

Dinner: leftover kale soup and more bison roast, with a little A-1 sauce

Dessert: Maggie Moo's ice cream - single scoop

Analysis: I was doing so well until the evening, then the sugar craving hit and the willpower caved to the ice cream... Ice cream is actually not the worst cheat in the world (in great moderation) because at least it has some fat and protein with it to slow down the sugar a little. But if I am going to have it, I really should be having the all-natural stuff, not a brand of which I do not know the ingredients, because more likely than not, it probably contains the dreaded high fructose corn syrup.

I got acupuncture today for the second time ever, and it was lovely. The acupuncturist said that according to chinese medicine, when you are stressed, even just normal life stress, it can be tough on your liver, and that in combination with my medication, might have caused my liver to attack my lungs of sorts. I am not very well-versed in chinese medicine, so I can't explain it any better than that, but when I told her the story, that is what immediately came to her mind. I do think there is a lot of wisdom in that healing modality - it is a system that has existed for over 3000 years, so there must be something to it! I asked her how long acupuncturists go to school and she said 4 years - I was actually surprised it was that long - it must be a very extensive training! Anyway, she did overall energy balancing, lung support, relaxation, and also a little help for my reproductive system... Just like the first time I tried it, I have been feeling better and better as the day went on. I am excited for tomorrow because I suspect I will be feeling quite great. Tonight I already did a lot of cleaning that I hadn't been able to keep up with before.

Some people will want to say that its all psychosomatic, and for one thing, in my experience, I really do not think it is because I experienced benefits I never anticipated, and for another thing, so what if it is? If it makes people better, it has achieved its purpose, right? That's what MDs do when they hand out antibiotics for viral infections, which they do all the time... The ER doctors wanted to give me Ativan or Zoloft...no thanks - I'd rather have needles stuck in me all day than take drugs with potentially toxic side effects, when I do not even feel that I have an anxiety issue! I am sure those medications truly help a lot of people who really do need them, but I know I do not fall in that category - at least not right now! And even if I did, I certainly would want to try more wholistic (read: non-pharmaceutical) forms of treatment first... Acupuncture not only helps relieve stress, it also helps balance energy and can support your body in healing itself! Why just mask the symptoms when I can do something to potentially actually heal the deeper problem, whatever that may be? Anyway, I've gotten into a rant here, and I know when you start talking about anti-depressants some people get a little ruffled. So please understand that I am simply talking about my personal experience with this situation at the moment, and that I would never hold anything against someone who used those medications when they felt they needed it. That being said, I am exploring alternative therapies to those, and want to share the knowledge that I am gaining about it so that maybe others will think of trying it for themselves if they are looking for some sort of solutions... I will update as to the further developments!

Sun Feb 15th - What I'm Eating

Brunch: yogurt with raisins, almonds & honey

Dinner: Ezekiel tortillas with black beans and cheese

Snack: all natural strawberry popsicle

Analysis: I know I said I learned my lesson, but the popsicles are not the same as ice cream - they're not near as rich and they are a lot smaller quantity. That being said, I'm not going to be making them a habit either. My eating today has definitely stunk, though! No proper veggies... This weekend has really been kicking my booty - between being sick and having to overhaul a couple of lectures at the last minute, I have been staying up too late and feeling bad all the time. When I am exhausted, I don't have the energy or motivation to take decent care of myself and it becomes a vicious cycle. Only one more week, then I'll be done with a lot of my work commitments and should be able to get a grip again...I just need to try to be focused and keep my head above water until then - and snacking on sugary snacks is probably not the best way to do that!

Sat Feb 14th - What I'm Eating

I know this one is a bit late - but I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day! Gosh its hard to remember what I ate yesterday - won't be making the mistake of putting it off again...

Brunch: (I slept in) mushroom and black olive pizza on cornmeal crust, made by my hubby (the pizza, not the crust...)

Dinner: Grilled salmon on a bed of jeweled pearled barley, with grilled asparagus and steamed carrots and parsnips.

Dessert: Maggie Moo's ice cream...

Analysis: It was Valentine's...we splurged and used a coupon that came in the mail for Maggie Moo's - and guess what - it was a big mistake! I felt really gross the rest of the night...which I guess is a good thing, because I learned my lesson and it will be a very long time before I do something like that again! Dinner was great - we went to a place called McFoster's Natural Kind Cafe - which is one of the only organic/vegetarian/natural food friendly restaurants in town. The jeweled pearled barley was interesting - not what I expected, but it was infused with ginger and delicious with the fish.

Sat Jan 31st - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: Ezekiel cereal with raisins, almonds, honey & whole milk

Lunch: most of a ham and cheese sandwich with mayo on Ezekiel bread

Snack: baby carrots

Dinner: cheeseburger with mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomato on a whole wheat bun. broccoli slaw with mayo, apple cider vinegar, and agave syrup. baked sweet potato fries

Analysis: wow, I very nearly forgot to do this blog tonight! I have decided to fight my night-time cravings and say no to them for once, so no snack tonight. I can't decide if I feel hungry or just empty inside...I think its the latter, which will probably not really be solved with eating! I think its mostly just the remnant of the physical addiction to sugar.

Also I noticed I really had a lot of mayo today. Granted, its organic, expeller-pressed safflower mayo, but still... Well its to be expected - there really was very little food in the house until we went to the store this evening. We're all stocked up now though and set for a better week of eating, so I'm glad about that. On the other hand, hubby actually made the meal plan this week - I just have not had time. I did look over it before we shopped, so I guess we'll see...I'm sure it will be fine. We bought a lot of veggies...

Today was a beautiful, relatively warm day, so I took the little guy on a walk through the neighborhood for my exercise. He had a great time seeing the birds and squirrels and an ambulance driving by. He absolutely did not want to come in the house when we got home - he usually throws a fit going into the stroller - this was definitely the first time he complained about getting out! I promised him more walks on future nice days, so I guess I'll have to keep that word!

Thurs Jan 29th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: egg & cheese burrito w/whole wheat tortilla

Lunch: leftover bacon kielbasa, a few spoons of applesauce

Snack: most of an Ezekiel English muffin with butter & boysenberry preserves - the dog ate some when I had to leave the room for a minute...I was ticked...

Dinner: pork chop, big salad with homemade vinaigrette, broccoli & green beans.

Snack: chicken & mozzarella quesadilla - the last whole wheat tortilla...

Analysis: kind of a funky day - a lot of cravings and feeling negative about food today. :( I have to drive past a Little Ceasar's pizza place on the way home from work, and tonight I was dreaming about garlic cheesy breadsticks, and also those cinnamon glazed breadsticks... waaaahhhh!!!!

I didn't get any exercise done today, but I did take the little guy to a toddler playtime at a local community center gym, where I chased him around for an hour and a half...does that count? I would do some pilates now, but frankly, I'm exhausted...

I also wanted to tell you about how I make pork chops... I don't bread and fry them, surprise, surprise! I usually toss a little seasoning on them and then I cook them in my electric oil-core stainless steel skillet. Its not frying because there is no oil...its not exactly baking either, though I guess that would be a little closer. Anyway, they turn out nice and brown and very moist. If I didn't have this special skillet, I suppose I would broil or bake them... frying definitely falls into the category of "damaged fats."

Weds Jan 7th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: Sprouted grain English muffin with butter and all-natural blackberry preserves. Celery and peanut butter. Water and pills...

Snack: Very Cherry Berry tea. The baby's leftovers from breakfast, which was sprouted grain corn tortilla with colby jack cheese and turkey.

Lunch: Ugh, I went out again! At Panera I had a half salad - Fuji Apple Chicken - and a small cup of garden vegetable soup. Water.

Dinner: Homemade enchiladas: whole wheat tortillas, ground beef, black beans,and colby jack cheese, and sauce with coconut oil, whole wheat flour, tomatoes, cumin, garlic, & onion powders. A little sour cream on top. Green beans. Water. (My enchilada sauce recipe always goes over well, so I can post it if anyone wants to try it.)

Snack: Honey Vanilla Chamomile tea, fig and sunflower crackers with provolone cheese. Pills and water before bed. (I write it here to remind myself!)

Analysis: Well darn it, I went out to eat again. I really had no choice, it was that or skip lunch entirely. Its becoming evident that this whole eating right thing is going to require a major re-org of all of my lifestyle habits. I need to learn how to anticipate, pack and bring food with me when I'm out. I need to be more careful of the baby's nap schedule so I don't get trapped in the car, like today. I need to plan way ahead what I'm going to cook and when I need to start preparing it, taking meat out of the freezer, etc. I need to make double sure I have all ingredients before I start cooking... Etc. Etc. I am a person who thrives on flexibility, so this is not easy for me!

On the sugar craving front, the herbal teas seem to be helping a little. Celestial Seasonings has a great selection of herbals and fruit-based teas that you don't have to add sugar to, and have a very satisfying flavor. Since I try to avoid caffeine (you think my toddler is already wild...keep in mind I am still nursing him!) and juice is just pure sugar, I always enjoy a nice fruity tea as an alternative beverage to water!

Last but definitely not least, I found my pilates DVD and did it this evening. Wow I am out of shape. That workout used to be so easy for me that I would do extra reps while the lady was talking... Yikes, tonight I had to go back and do all the beginning modifications. My flexibility is gone and my muscles were burning! I am looking forward to seeing my body change as I make it a regular habit, though.

Also on the body-care front, I went to the chiropractor today! I got the full tune up and she worked on my chronically bad right shoulder for a while. I am going to go every 2 weeks until my shoulder is doing better, and I think every month after that. In the past, that frequency has kept me feeling pretty good. If you don't have a chiropractor, I highly highly highly recommend it. They help with so much more than back pain! I have come to realize that chiropractic care is all about your autonomic nervous system. These are nerves you can't feel, but they control all your internal organs. So you won't have a pain if one of them is pinched, but the organs it controls can suffer and affect your overall well-being. (Did I mention I am a Biology/Anatomy and Physiology college instructor?) All chiropractors are not created equal, so I suggest getting a referral from a friend who likes theirs.

Tues Jan 6th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: 2 mini breakfast "pizzas" as my 18 month old calls them. 2 small sprouted corn tortillas from Food for Life, topped with a chopped hard boiled egg, melted colby jack cheese, and black olives. Cranberry Zinger tea (sweet enough as it is) and pills.

Lunch: leftover BBQ pork (it was a big roast!), broccoli with butter and salt, half an apple (my kid, and therefore, my dog, ate the other half...)

Snack: string cheese and a banana

Dinner: Quiche - whole wheat crust, green peppers, colby jack cheese, bacon, eggs and cream. water.

Snack: another piece of quiche. water, pills before bed.

Analysis: Well today wasn't too terrible. Of course I can always do better on the veggies. I really should probably avoid bananas since they're pretty high in sugar, but they are going bad so I needed to eat it. I made the quiche myself - it was really easy! I got a pre-made crust from Whole Foods (2 in a package) and you just put whatever you want in the crust and pour the egg and cream mixture over it. 4 eggs and 1 cup of cream. Then you just bake it at 375 for 50 minutes or so. If you try it, be warned that it will rise up in the middle, but it will go down again as it cools. I can tell its done when the middle seems to be all the way dome-shaped...if you make it, you'll know what I mean.

The sugar cravings are about the same today. TIts worse at night... I know I just ate a piece of quiche, which should have been nice and satisfying, but I feel like I'm starving! Doing this blog at night really actually helps though because I am reminded of all the better choices I'm making and how much thought I'm putting into it, and then I don't want to screw it all up by eating that ice cream... I think hubby might have gotten rid of it for me though...what a sacrifice that man made for his darling wife!

I forgot to exercise today, darn it! Its too late now... Man its hard to remember when I'm so out of the habit!

Jan 5th - What I'm Eating

Breakfast: Kashi Heart to Heart Instant Oatmeal (Golden Brown Maple) with cream and flax seeds added. Grilled chicken. Water and pills.

Lunch: leftover BBQ pork. celery and valencia peanut butter. clementine orange. Black Cherry Berry tea - naturally sweet, no sugar needed.

Dinner: P.F. Chang's - chicken lettuce wraps and lightly sauteed spinach with garlic. Water. 1/2 a fortune cookie.

Snack: almonds, raisins, and a couple of semi-sweet organic chocolate chips.

before bed - pills - I promise!

Analysis: well, for breakfast I finished off a box of instant oatmeal I had. From here on out, if I eat oatmeal, it won't be instant, because that tends to be more processed and have more sugar...but at least the Kashi stuff was not too bad. I also didn't get a snack during the day, but that's mainly because it took me like an hour and a half to eat my lunch... And yes, we went out to dinner...we had a gift card. For going out, it was really about the best I could do though! I think the biggest problem with going out is that you don't know what types of oils your food was cooked with, and chances are it isn't what you would choose at home... You do the best you can...

The sugar cravings are hitting me HARD today! It was all I could do to limit myself to only one clementine orange today - they are so sweet! I actually have a carton of all-natural vanilla ice cream left over in the freezer, which I can't seem to forget about for more than about 10 seconds at a time, but the half a fortune cookie, few chocolate chips, and raisins were my compromise. As a friend suggested, I might have to introduce that ice cream to the hot water in the sink!

The good news is: I exercised today!!! YAY!!! When the boy went for his nap, I sat down for a quick lunch, but then got a wonderful phone call from a dear friend who recently moved away. I couldn't not talk to her, but it slowed down my consumption of my lunch! We did break it off early enough to get a yoga video in, though. I intended to do my pilates video, but I couldn't find it! Anyway, the yoga was nice, but really reminded me how disconnected from my physical self I have become, and how much attention that self needs! From now on, when we are at home for naptime (I'm not at work) I am going to do my exercise first thing. On the other days, I will have to decide when I will do it - maybe as soon as hubby gets home from work, we'll see.