It wasn’t easy watching my son and his little friend eat their pasta last night. I served them ahead of me and Lauren, so not only did I get to see the ravenous varmints inhale the angel hair as if it contained life sustaining oxygen inside each slender strand, but I also was forced to do so on a pretty empty stomach.
Lauren decided, with 15 minutes left before our food was ready, to set out on an adventure to encounter the mystical (perhaps, mythical) avocado. Yes, we have several grocery stores in close proximity, and a Mexican grocer in our neighborhood. Yet, after what I can only imagine was a harrowing journey, she returned almost an hour later sans avocado.
While she was gone, in addition to feeding children, I paced. Lauren can tell you I’m a world-class pacer. In this case, my pacing kept taking me through the kitchen, which gave me perfect opportunities to perform ongoing quality control on the Thai-style green beans just sitting on the stove. Um, these were amazing. We substituted almond butter for the peanut butter and Coconut garlic aminos for the soy sauce. I ate these at my leisurely pace, and it helped me from caving and scarfing down the leftover pasta.
In addition to the green beans, we had brown rice with green curry chicken. It all made a very good meal. And we have eaten really well this week. For example, tuesday night I made omelets with black beans, bell peppers, and onions. A typical day for me will go like this:
A cup of tea upon waking up.
Protein shake for breakfast.
Snacks include fizz sticks (a great alternative to sodas), some almonds, and some veggies.
For lunch I have a big salad with different greens and veggies, and lemon juice based dressing.
Sometimes I will eat a small portion of leftovers from the previous dinner.
We eat a tasty and healthy dinner fairly early (unless avocado hunting).
And I drink plenty of water throughout the day.
I find that I’m not leaving myself too hungry. I think that is one of the things I like best about this plan. You eliminate certain foods but there is so much flavor that you can still experience.
Now that I feel like I have the food part of it down, it’s time to focus on some of the other aspects of the plan. I need to work on getting more sleep. I’m an insomniac who has turned into a morning person, which is a dangerous combination. I like to get up early and start my day but don’t sleep enough. Lauren works an early shift, so we are both trying to get better at going to sleep at a reasonable hour.
The other part of the plan that I have been neglecting so far is exercise. I know it’s an essential part of getting healthy and achieving my goal. To this end, I have revised one of my old half-marathon training plans to get myself out and running again. Kicks off tomorrow!
As part of the plan, Lauren and I measured ourselves, weighed ourselves, and took “before” pictures of each other. We will compare our progress with our starting points. I can’t wait to see how close I can get to my goal.
Comments
Those green beans sound amazing! I love the Lauren Quest for Mystical Items…. I feel like I have been on many of those, and probably the instigator of a few. Good for you all for getting back on track. Rico and I are trying to do the same. Our biggest issue is lack if exercise, but he has been better about getting out on the bike, and I joined the fitness center at work. It’s so much easier for me to workout during the workday or right after work. I’ve realized that if I have to get in my car to go work out, it’s not going to happen. When I get in my car at the end of the day, I just want to go home.
Author
We’re trying, Mel. I’m taking it easy by running shorter distances more often. But, motivation is definitely an issue. A fitness center at work is great, and I’m glad to hear that is working for you. Lauren has one of those too, which helped us make the decision to stop paying for the Y. Tell Rick to keep up the biking and I’ll gladly join him again the next time we see you!