Yay!

I'm down a few more pounds and feeling amazing these days about my body! It's not perfect, and never will be, but I'm finally to the point where I'm satisfied with what I see in the mirror! HUGE breakthrough. Now, I'll just be more and more diligent about proper nutrition. Optimal nutrition means OPTIMAL health. It's all about what you're choosing to fuel your body with. These days, we are bombarded with so many convenience foods that we can forget just how wonderful and satisfying and convenient an APPLE can be. Throw some natural, unsweetened peanut or almond butter into the mix and you've got yourself a DELISH and oh so satisfying snack.

My food life lately has taken on a different form. I'm looking for the simplest possible ways to feed my body. I want it to be fast, packed with nutrition, and of course I want it to taste great and fill me up (keeping in mind that I'm eating 6 times a day, so I don't want to get too full). Seeking out these perfect little power meals takes some practice and some patience. Eeek!! That means sometimes I have to prepare ahead of time-very hard for me to do. The thing that sounds the EASIEST is actually the most difficult thing for me to do. Be ready. If I know I'm going to be out of the house for a while, I should bring a snack with me. Like I mentioned before, simple is best. I don't mean a microwave meal or a quick stop by Subway (not healthy at all), I'm talking some good quality protein powder  and a small piece of fruit...or a few hard boiled eggs and some fruit....apple with peanut butter. Small, satisfying and complete. My husband will eat handfuls of raw spinach and hard boiled eggs for every single meal...throw in a piece of Ezekiel bread from time to time and he's perfectly happy. I, on the other hand, can't seem to keep it THAT simple, but still simple compared to how I used to be. Thinking all day about what kind of super delicious meal I was going to have next. All that cooking and prepping....well, it's just plain exhausting. I LOVE to create healthy meals, but in real life-I'm only going to cook a few times a week and it's usually a simple one-pot soup or stew creation.

I lost my point. Again. Hmmm....ok. So I got this RAW Garden of Life Meal Replacer protein powder stuff today at Health Nut Nutrition. Talk about POWER-PACKED nutrition in a glass...this stuff delivers! I had a few scoops about an hour ago and it got right to my head...(JAWS-no? kidding) anyway-I'm really surprised at the lack of digestive involvement thus far, if you catch my drift ;) EVERYTHING hurts my sensitive tummy, especially protein powder. Not this stuff!! I didn't enjoy the taste of it though (very earthy/grassy/thick/gritty texture), so honestly-I have to defile it with some xylitol packets and add a few frozen blueberries and strawberries. Not perfect, but so much better for us than that wal-mart protein garbage we've been ingesting. I'll see if I can't find a link to the new stuff (Garden of Life® | Foundational Nutrition | RAW Meal), and you can see why I'll gladly doctor it a bit to make it more palatable and take all the nutrition it has to offer:) I think I'll test it out on the kids. They love "grass" (Naked juices) so I think they'll be able to handle this. I'll just put it in a smoothie with some greek yogurt and lots of berries. I get excited when I think about all the good this will do for my little growing eating machines. I can't keep them satisfied!

Almost forgot! My other deliciously healthy purchase was some Tulsi tea! I went for Chai flavor and it's just wonderful, doesn't need sweetener at all. Still has the caffeine that I need early in the day so this may be a good one to take over my morning coffee habit. We shall see...until next time-remember to keep things simple and develop a healthier habit!

Food Journal 9.26.2010

Slept Late-
Breakfast @ 11am- Eggbeaters Omelet w/ Rst Red Ppr, Spnch
                     1 Whole Grain Waffle, dry
                      8oz H2O
Snack @ 1:45pm- Kale Chips w/Ccnt Oil and Lmn Ppr Mrs. Dash
                      2 Tbls Hummus w/Flax Tortilla Chips (about 15 chips)
                        15 Grapes,  Coffee
Lunch @ 3:30pm- 1 Egg Muffin, Apple, Kale Chips, 3 Pretzel sticks
                        1 cup Coconut Milk
Snack @ 5:30pm- 5 Sun Chips, Kale Chips
                        8oz H2O
Dinner@ 6:30pm- 3oz Salmon (garlic, lmn, ccnt oil, mrs dsh), Chobani Grk Yogt w/
                         2Tbls Whl Grn Cereal, 8oz H2O
Snack@ 7:00pm- 10oz Grn Tea


Today was a wacky food day for me. I made egg muffins, kale chips and hummus right when I got up this morning. I just kinda snacked throughout the day on fruit and the veggies I had prepared earlier. I didn't love the salmon I made for dinner, so I just had a small piece of it and had dessert (greek yogurt) instead! It was a coconut oil kind of day as well. I used about 1/2 a cup of the oil for cooking today:) I probably ate a good 3 to 4 Tablespoons of it all by myself!! So, now as I finish up this post, I'm sipping on some green tea instead of drinking coffee like I normally would. I've gone back to black, clean coffee these days and I just feel so much better for it.
The thing I'm seeing as of today that was missing from my meals- not enough protein. I started out with good protein, but as the day went on, until dinner, I didn't have enough protein. I had carbs and fat galore, but didn't get a good balance to run efficiently. I know I always struggle with how much protein to have during the day because I'm not working out right now. I'm still short-changing myself though. Need more protein. I could have easily popped an extra 2 egg muffins...oh well, that's why I'm journaling. I was tired today, and I think that led to my grazing more that I typically would.