Changes

I was hungry sort of early today for lunch. This felt like more a snack than lunch. I made fast guac (avocado and salsa!) with some carrot legs to chomp on.

A few hours later Maxine and I were headed out to visit a friend. I was hungry and knew I had to eat before we left. In days gone by it would have been pretty typical to grab a handful of Kashi crackers and some hummus as a quick, healthy, out the door snack. I’m not knocking this as a healthy snack option, this is of course better than something from the fast food drive thru. I’ve just come to discover, especially this past week and the disappearance food cravings… any processed foods, organic or not, seem to be what sends me into a downward spiral with craving sugar and more processed carbs.

So instead of my old usual, I whipped up a fast salad. It really only took a few minutes since a lot of this stuff was prepped and ready to go. Plus there was really no other option, since I haven’t replaced these the sorts of foods I thought were so innocent, once they were finished up.

Mixed greens with tomatoes and the last of the marinated portobellos. I used the portobello marinade as dressing on the greens!

And a Larabar for the road. Fast fats.

Max and I got to our friend’s house only to discover she wasn’t there! So we hung out in the car and amused ourselves with an apple and a camera.

After we got home the whole family spent some time working in the garden… weeding and digging up what will be a future strawberry patch.

I was so happy to discover this little guy on the cucumber plant during my weeding extravaganza!

I coo’d at him and promised to be gentle when I sink my teeth into him in just a few weeks.

After a full day, I had nothing really planned for dinner and I had no idea what to make. I really wanted to stick with mainly raw foods, so I went with easy.

I had started soaking some raw cashews earlier in the day to give Gena’s raw mayo a test drive. OK, making your own raw mayo probably doesn’t sound “easy”, but throwing ingredients into the food processor and scraping them out into a bowl falls into the easy category for me these days. I followed her recipe and threw in some sun-dried tomatoes to boot.

Dinner was a veggie sandwich on Ezekiel bread with raw mayo.

And a sea of salad.

More mixed greens, tomatoes, green pepper, shredded zucchini, raw sunflower seeds and ginger miso dressing.

I say with certainty that avoiding processed foods has helped me immensely with battling food cravings. I think eating a lot of fruit is satisfying my sweet tooth as well, and I’m easily satisfied with just a little dark chocolate each day. In the past I would have days where I would be fine, but the craving for something REALLY sweet, like ice cream or cake and frosting would build and build until I couldn’t stand it anymore and would cave. And often times end up overdoing it.

Yes, yesterday we went out for ice cream, but it was different. I didn’t feel like if I didn’t have ice cream I would run screaming into the night. It was just a fun spur of the moment treat and I didn’t feel like I needed a ton of ice cream to feel like I’d had enough.

I don’t mean to go on and on about this, but looking back at today’s pictures I realized how the changes I’ve worked toward have made a real difference for me, and that makes me very happy. Even when I think I have healthy eating figured it out, I’m reminded that this really is a journey and there are going to be bumps in the road. I’m sure I still don’t have all the answers. The key is to get back up and keep going, keep experimenting and keep an open mind too. When you finally get some of the results you are after, it’s so worth the time and effort invested.

Lazy Laundry Sunday

Call us crazy, but we don’t have cable television. When we moved into our house four years ago we decided we would just use old fashioned rabbit ears and skip cable to save some money. Let me be clear that this was not my idea, but I went with it.

Turns out it was one of the best things we ever did. We watch way less TV because of it, and the girls watch movies from the library or shows on PBS. I like that they aren’t subjected to the advertising on TV. With the new converter boxes the digital signal comes in crystal clear and we have a few more channels to boot.

No cable saves us money and time too. Instead of staying up late channel surfing after the kids are asleep, I end up going to bed too. In bed early –> easier to get up early and have time to fit in exercise. I guess I’ve swapped TV time for exercise time. Deal or No Deal really wasn’t making that much a difference in my life anyway.

That said, sometimes I DO wish there was something more to watch on TV. Like this morning when I swapped work out time for laundry folding time.

Instead I dug through my VHS collection (wow, no cable and still use a VCR? How cool am I?) and was reminded of the comments on this post when I saw Pretty Woman on the shelf. A movie from my adolescence that I haven’t watched in years. (Kiddos still asleep! 😉 )

I was amused to watch this again realizing how much of this movie I didn’t understand as a kid. The obvious didn’t get by me, but so much of the adult conversation about business, politics, relationships went totally over my head as an 11 or 12 year old. It was fun to watch this again this morning with a new perspective.

I noshed on some strawberries while I folded. And folded. And folded.

Once I felt hungry again I blended up my steel cut oats I soaked overnight.

I soaked a half cup of steel cut oats with two chopped dates, ground flax and cocoa powder overnight in a half cup of almond milk.

Threw the whole thing into the blender with a few more glugs of almond milk and topped with some shredded coconut and raw almond butter.

Today’s bowl was not that great. I added too much almond milk when I put it in the blender and it was really soupy. I think I should have used more dates too because it wasn’t as sweet as I like it to be. I wonder if the cocoa powder messed with the taste and sweetness too. It still disappeared but I’ll have to pay closer attention to the mix next time around.

Today is an official rest day, I’m way behind on some things around the house (laundry!) and am glad to have the extra time today to get caught up.