Yep

Jillian Michaels posted this on her Facebook timeline today. It spoke to me. 

So, what HAVE I been eating?

Again, nothing is out of bounds. But, with that said, my first thing was to eliminate processed food as much as possible.  So, I put away all my pasta recipes to start. I skipped the prepared food areas of the grocery store. I didn't even walk down the frozen food aisle. I finished up the last of my bottled balsamic vinaigrette, found a recipe and started making my own. I pulled out some of those frozen salmon filets that had been sitting in my freezer. Okay, good start.

I bought some salad kit bags as well as arugula (I love arugula). Gawd, everything goes bad so quickly though. But somewhere along the line I found out about this:

What a revelation! These containers keep my salad greens fresh for a long time. Good. Then I took a trip to Whole Foods and looked at the lovely, lovely produce and bought some red leaf lettuce, kale and spinach.

I can't eat big chunks of kale, and it also needs to be mixed up with other salad stuff for me, so I started chopping it up. Hell, let's chop up the lettuce and spinach too and mix it all together. Perfect.

Next time I went to Whole Foods, I add some swiss chard to my cart. Chopped this up and added it to my salad mix. Delish!

So, now I am buying my red leaf lettuce, kale, spinach and swiss chard on the weekend, chopping it all up on a Sunday and throwing it into the Rubbermaid containers. So, salad is easy all week long and it stays fresh. Oh, I gave up on the arugula. I can't keep it fresh enough.

The one concession to prepared foods that I am making is rotisserie chicken. Between the occasional rotisserie chicken that I pick up, and the chicken I cook for myself, there is always chicken in my fridge. I also always either have a piece of salmon or cod that I am defrosting in my fridge, or I have some that I cooked the night before. I almost always have a bag of brussel sprouts and/or asparagus that I've roasted up.

So, now I have all of this stuff. My go-to big meal of the day is a huge salad. My salad mix of red leaf lettuce, kale, spinach, swiss chard. Chicken (either rotisserie or some spiced chicken I cooked on the weekend) or baked salmon. Toss in some of the brussel sprouts or asparagus from my fridge. I then also throw in a handful of almonds (about 12), a bunch of sunflower seeds and a few cranberries. I am careful with the cranberries as they contain sugar. Top with a sprinkle of my homemade balsamic vinaigrette and it is a huge, satisfying and healthy meal. LOVE!

My big salad is usually lunch, my biggest meal of the day.

For dinner, I will have some chicken or salmon or cod, sometimes with some of the salad greens, or some sautéed spinach or similar, sometimes just the chicken or fish. Sometimes some baked falafel with tzatziki (I need to start making the falafel myself, haven't gotten that far yet). Sometimes some greek yogurt with some honey and blueberries. I usually make dinner my lightest meal of the day.

Breakfast? Well, I am actually not a big breakfast eater. Never have been. Occasionally I will have some yogurt with blueberries. A couple of times I have made an omelet. But more often, I don't have breakfast. Coffee with a bit of half & half and that's it. I typically eat lunch around 11 AM.

So, that is it in a nutshell. I feel that this is working for me. I feel more energetic, I am satisfied, I feel that I am making healthy choices. I am sleeping well, clothes are fitting better. Oddly, I am not really missing the food that I have eliminated. The first couple of weeks I did, but now, not so much. If I do feel a hankering for something, I will have it, but I haven't really wanted it lately. Maybe a passing yearning when I see something on TV, but it passes quickly.

I do think that maybe my plan is a bit too narrow at the moment. I don't mean it to be, but these are the foods that are easy for me to buy and prepare and deal with on a daily basis. I need to start breaking out and and finding other healthy choices and recipes to cycle into my plan. More on that as I move forward.

2018 - A Healthy Start

I woke up on January 1st, 2018 and knew that something needed to change. Okay, maybe it was January 5th, I don't know. But the important thing is, I knew that I couldn't continue on the way I had been. I have not been particularly unhealthy, really, but I have been on a path that does not bode well for a great quality of life, and especially as I get older.

Perhaps more importantly, I have not been particularly happy with myself. I feel restless, not content. I don't feel like I have been living my best life. I've just been coasting in a lot of ways. Okay, I'll admit it, there has been a good amount of self-loathing involved here. Actually, I have battled varying degrees of self-loathing for my entire life, but let's not go there right now.  Anyway, the bottomline is that I knew I had to change some stuff.

I started by deciding to immediately revamp my eating habits. I've been really loose-y-goose-y in this area for most of my life. I don't eat a ton of junk food, especially in recent years. I can't tell you the last time I went to a McDonalds/Burger King/Taco Bell/KFC. But I also have not been very careful about what I eat. My choices have trended towards the type of food that isn't the most conducive to optimal health, or even feeling that great. Think, a lot of pasta, bread, convenience food, steak, sugar, not much in the way of vegetables.

So, this is how I started:

• First, there are no rules. Nothing is off the table (ha, see what I did there?) I hate the word "diet". I wanted a sustainable eating plan, not a short-term diet. If I labeled a food as bad or not allowed, there is no way that I could be successful. So, I decided that I can eat or drink anything at any time. But, I want to ensure that I choose healthier options most of the time. If I decide that I want pizza and beer someday, I will have it.
• Vegetables are a priority. Think about what I like and figure out how to incorporate lots of them into my life. 
• Avoid processed food as much as you possibly can.
• I love fish, why am I not eating it more? Eat more fish. 
• Red meat is okay, but maybe it should be more of a once in a while thing. 
• Chicken. Lots of chicken. But blech on steamed, skinless chicken breasts. Make chicken (breasts and thighs) all kinds of ways. Find new ways!
• Fats are okay. But think about the quality of fats. 
• Be mindful. Don't make food choices based on what is easiest, or on a whim (like walking past the hot bar at the grocery store where the crispy wings smell so good). Think about what you're choosing. 
• Figure out where sugar is coming from and do everything you can to cut it out. 
• Cook at home/prepare food at home the majority of time. 
• Alcohol: Drink it! But think about it. Do you really want it on a week night? (usually the answer is "no"). Do you really need it on Friday night, just because you're not working tomorrow (usually the answer is "no"). 
• Diet Coke. Actually, this is bad. Don't drink it. 

I am still trying to figure out some other stuff. Some are around:

• Fitness
• Social 
• Work/Career
• Money
• Home
• Future (retirement)
• Feeling of Contentedness/Balance/Happiness (this is hard to define)

I will make future posts around how I am doing with my eating plan and some of these other areas of focus. For now, this is a start. 

Thinking of revamping my blog

With my heavy use of Facebook, Twitter and (to a lesser degree) Instagram, I have completely fallen off of writing blog posts. I am in the process now of trying to get out of a number of ruts (mostly eating and lifestyle-related), so I am considering taking over my blog again to track what I'm doing. First, I am looking for a name change for the blog, so I need to think about it a bit.

For now, I leave you with this picture of my silly dog, Panda: