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.