Day: January 20, 2017

Today I was that person you see at Panera’s and you wonder how they managed to bring so much stuff with them!  Did they move in?  Did they have help?  And why do they need all of that crap, anyways?!  Yep, I did need it all.  I was writing report cards today!  I actually did have help carrying my computer, basket of science notebooks, bin of filed student writing, my iPad, planner and more.  Imagine my irritation at hauling all of that into the first Panera and the wifi was out.  This girl needs wifi to complete report cards, so we found another and nestled in for a few hours.  I tell you what: today was the most productive and fun report card writing session I’ve had in ever.  This will be a repeat event!

Going in, I knew I’d be compromising my eating plan for the day today.  I mean, coffee and a pastry were in order to get the report cards going.  Up to this point, and really, the rest of the day today, I’d color my week pretty successful.  I have yet to meet my macros splits, though.  It is HARD to do!!  What I did do, however, was pay really close attention to eating clean, tracking my food and learning a lot about the food that I eat.

• I found out that vegetarian protein is seriously tricky to find enough of.  Most fake meat is also packed full of carbs, so opportunities for ‘fun’ carbs all but disappears.  Like, my max ‘carb’, in the traditional sense of the word, has been pared down to 1/4 a cup of brown rice.  And even that seems like too much mathematically, but I’m easing into this a bit and still want a little rice.
• I am ALWAYS eating protein.  Like, my rule has become: eat the protein first then fill in the gaps later.  But I still haven’t met my protein intake once.
• I’m stuffed.  I eat and eat and eat.  I feel like a cow, chewing on my cud forever.  Sometimes at lunch I look down at my bowl of food and sigh, like, damn.  Gotta finish that.  And despite being stuffed full of high fiber, high protein food and my tummy is not growling, I still obsess over something sweet at the end of the day.  Can you say sugar addiction?  
• I feel good.  Like, healthy and energetic kind of good.  I know it’s a good thing if I feel like this.
• I discovered new to me yummy foods. Roasted sweet potatoes are pretty amazing.  I made an clean avocado dressing that was super simple and yum.*
• I understand why people need cheat days, now.  I’ve never eaten quite this clean before.  Allowing the treat of the pecan braid seemed totally reasonable and without need for justification unlike ever before.  I’m really proud of how I’m eating right now.  It feels whole and healthy and so pure that the pecan roll was hardly a drop in my bucket.  If that makes sense.  
• I think I need to adjust my calories a little.  I’m not losing anything, I’m not gaining, but I’m feeling porky and stuffed all the time which doesn’t exactly make me want to hustle around the block at all.   Right now I’m supposed to eat a little over 1800.  I have eaten between 1200-1300 during the week and felt weighed down.  think if I just stop putting pressure on myself to meet the calories and just focus on the 40/40/20 (carbs/protein/fat) split at each meal, I might be more successful.
• I think I need to change my sweet morning coffee habit.  I think it’s responsible to starting my day off high in cheap, easy carbs.  I love that habit.  I think I’ll hang on just until I run out…  (I may or may not have a fridge with a huge reserve…😂)
• I focused on making the wrong kinds of food during my prep day.  I focused on lots of vegetables and way too many grains and ended up scurrying around for protein.  This time I’ll know much better how to prepare.

In other news, I’ve entered into a step competition with a few friends via our Garmin devices ….  Can you say motivating?!?!  It’s not even that I want to win.  I just don’t want to fail, and if I don’t make my 10,000 steps each day, I fail.  This just offers great motivation!  Plus, I love seeing the totals add up for each of us every day.  😊

* Cube and toss sweet potatoes with a small amount of oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Bake at 325 for 25-35 minutes and enjoy heartily.       

 Blend one regular sized avocado, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, salt, and a small clove of garlic.  Add a tablespoon or two of plain yogurt if you want to get fancy.  This was nice as salad dressing and as a condiment/dip like you would use ranch.  But avocado flavored because you can’t escape that.  😉 

**Not that I need to justify it or anything, but I wasn’t just playing hooky and living it up at Panera with my report cards.  I also had a dr. Appt.  I just chose to focus on the best part of my day.  ❤️