Paved with good intentions.

Well, it's been a good week! I started off last week reading through this detox in a magazine and getting all pumped up to do it. It was super restrictive in the beginning and thus I was planning out very specific meals and wondering if Roommate would be game and I started getting super stressed about it and decided not to do it. I think I kind of want that initial detox absolute shit feeling so I can have this tangible feeling of getting rid of the crap. I still may do something like that 4 week thing but it'd take a bit more planning on my part. So I decided to kind of focus on breakfasts for us, a delightfully slippery slope in making better decisions throughout the day!

It's surprising to me that I continue to remain SO overweight. I mean, not so surprising but while I eat a lot of healthy things, I also eat a lot of junk sometimes. I've also been seriously sedentary in the evenings through the winter. (Or "sedimentary" as I told K the other day. oops.) I'm going to blame some of that habit on my former job. (former! yay!!) I was just so unhappy and physically/mentally drained all the time. I'd have a horrible day at work and then come home and be all bingey. Then and now I'd go long stretches without eating. Sometimes on work days I'd get up in such a hurry I might not even drink water before work and then I'd get there and go go go, take a lunch break maybe by 2 or 3 in the afternoon and it'd be the first time I'd eaten and sometimes the first time I'd had anything to drink. Of course that meant that when I did finally eat I'd chow down or just make really poor/rushed decisions.

Anyway, the point of this post. I've unearthed some good habits I may have had before and reminded myself about the existence of healthy, super yum snacks. When someone says "healthy snacks" I start imagining little bags of baby carrots and want to stab my eyes out! I am rambling like a crazywad so I'm just going to make some lists! These help remind me!

Snacks we've been enjoying:
Ezekiel bread with a variety of toppings including pb, dark choc pb from pb&co, hummus and cucumbers/and or grape tomatoes, laughing cow cheese on toasted bread with cucumber slices
walnuts (sometimes mixed with dark choc covered ginger niblets),
apples, bananas, some dried fruit, fresh strawberries
I've made an effort to really cut back on dairy. I haven't eliminated it -- we're still eating cheese and yogurt. I've revived my love affair with Noosa yogurt and they recently added a strawberry rhubarb one!
leftover roasted veg

Green Smoothie goodness (mix n matching the following):
frozen strawberries
bananas, sometimes frozen, sometimes not
orange mango juice or just an entire orange tossed in
frozen pineapple
loads of baby spinach or kale
this AM a little sprinkle of cocoa powder and cinnamon
oats
dates

Haven't eliminated coffee/caffeine but have cut back. I haven't been drinking much coffee in the past week because I've been doing a huge green smoothie in the morning and loving it. I LOVE coffee. I never feel like I drink it and it gives me pep or wakes me up but I do love how it tastes.
Have definitely boosted water intake in general. Having it with me at all times to sip or..gulp.

One good habit definitely helps with others. I have totally found that having a huge green smoothie makes me feel good and keeps me pretty satiated for a long time. I've also been actually making a conscious effort to just go slow in prepping/choosing food. It helps to have those snacks because then I'm not starving and making a hurried/poor decision. I pack awesome lunches for work which is great because there's nothing else there to choose from so I get what I pack.

Last thurs I roasted this huge pan of veg. I slightly over-cooked them while making dinner (Breakfast!). Those have been an awesome thing to have on hand to put in my lunch or eat for snacks. I did a ton of beets, parsnips, carrots, grape tomatoes and peppers. I just put a little salt and olive oil on them. The beets were so insanely sweet! We love them leftover..they're great cold out of the fridge for breakfast or whatever! I spent a week in Romania once and every day for breakfast there was an assortment of roasted vegetables, cheeses and baked beans and I love that kind of breakfast!! I've been doing a rice cooker of brown rice and then pairing that with the veg and some beans/greens for lunch.