The thing about feeding the body is it's always sending you messages about what you want, not necessarily what you need, and how you respond to those cues is paramount to how well your lifestyle of healthy living will be tolerated by it and you.
On a daily basis I'm trying to make choices as to how I can not only continue to stay on track, but how I can find more foods that will stimulate my palate and excite me when I'm at the dinner table. It's something that I've found to be a struggle at times—particularly as a mommy-on-a-budget.
Every two weeks I sit down and plan all of my meals individually, deciding my menu based on what's both cost efficient and convenient and, despite my desire to be creative, I still end up with the same basic items from the grocery store—tofo, soy, and beans. And while I've been able to be creative with those ingredients, it's still a grind because I've gone from offering myself a world of options (options that included as much meat, dairy, and sugar as I liked) to a much more limited one.
That said, I don't regret the decision to make those changes one bit. I feel and look better than I ever have and the increases in energy, stamina, and confidence are a definite plus. But, even with all of those positives, I have to continually find ways to be well-disciplined so that bad habits don't overwhelm my good senses.
For instance, there are days where I don't have time to prepare breakfast or lunch prior to the start of the day. That often leads to incessant snacking, at least in my case, because I am, literally, hungry all the time. That hunger, I know, is as a result of the calories I'm burning even while sitting completely still. So, to appease that hunger, I might take a bite of a muffin here, a piece of chocolate there, or pile on the carbs in hopes that I will find satiation in a hurry—and I often don't.
Sugar and carbs simply doesn't cut it for me and eventually, at least in my case, I cave to doing what I should have done at the start—prepare a wholesome meal to eat.
Being healthy has a lot to do with being disciplined and the one isn't truly possible without the other.
2 comments:
You are not alone, my friend! We are so much alike in this department. I've found that unless I plan to eat 5 small meals a day, I'll gravitate towards the first thing (and rarely ever a nutritional food) I see.
After Christmas I got back to bagging up 1 oz baggies of almonds, walnuts & pistachios to keep at the office, greek yogurt, blueberries, apples & pears, and parm cheese.
Jeff has to have variety in our dinners so I started rotating 4 sets of 2 week menus so we never have to eat the same thing within a 2 month period. That's has dramatically dropped the last minute decisions to order takeout or go out to eat. Translation = less empty calories & more $$ in the bank :)
Hope you're doing well doll!
Hey Ally!
It's so nice to see/hear from you again as the holidays saw me unplugging more often than usual (not an altogether bad thing, I might add).
I really need to get back to prepping my snack bags on Sunday afternoons and lining up my meals better than I do on a weekly basis. I've just been too distracted and overwhelmed with all the holiday madness to stay on-track.
I'm hoping to do a better job of that this year, though, as I'd hate to see all the hard work I do go to waste.
I will certainly be stealing your meal rotation idea for the kids and Doug, too. That's one thing that I often get frustrated with as well—diversity in meals. You can only prepare so much chicken before you just need something different.
Thanks for checking in, sweets! Hope you and Jeff are having a wonderfully blessed New Year so far :)
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