What the Heck Did I Eat in January? Part IV
This is the post I’ve been most excited to write. It’s just going to be four simple lists: what I ate, what I didn’t, what I had when I slipped up, and what regrets I have about the experience.
What I Ate
- Chicken curry with peas
- Hummus
- Spinach dip
- Cilantro quinoa salad
- Sun-dried tomato breakfast couscous
- Black bean spread
- Smoothies with bananas, berries, tofu, spinach, peanut butter, oats, flax, cocoa, etc.
- Protein pancakes
- Omelette with broccoli slaw and cheese
- Oatmeal with berries
- Assorted vegetables
- Apples
- Dried apricots, raisins, currants
- Pizza (made my own dough!)
- Cottage cheese
- Bread
- Chicken and dumplings
- Cabbage rolls
- Zucchini chicken gnocchi with marinara
- Salsa turkey burgers
- Cherry pecan Larabars
- Almonds
- Tortillas (found NSA ones at Whole Foods)
- Chips & salsa
- Chili & cornbread
What I Didn’t Eat
This is what I would have had if it weren’t for this challenge – foods from specific occasions I know I chose not to eat.
- Countless diet soft drinks
- Splenda in my coffee every morning
- Dessert, rolls and suspect sauces/pasta dishes at several work meetings
- Lots of wine and beer
- Sweet treats at several ribbon cutting events (work)
- Sushi rolls drenched in tempura and mystery sauces
- Fried items at restaurants
- Brownies with peanut butter chips
- Jam and jellies
- Bread crumbs
- Prepared lunch meat
- Tortillas
- Celebration cake with my running club
- Bacon wrapped weenies and saucy meatballs
- Ice cream from one of my favorite local spots
My Cheats
- Sushi (I though I was being good by avoiding tempura and sauces, but I learned later that sugar is normally added to the sticky white rice.)
- Wine/beer on five occasions
- Crumbies from my brownies, a scoop of peanut butter chips
- A couple overdoses of almonds and dried berries, Larabars, and nut butters
- Vegetables and pork loin at a work function that had added sugar
- Pita bread, hummus, and spinach dip from unknown origins at a young professional social
- Salad dressing three times (I learned that parmesan cheese or shredded cheese is a great substitute.)
- 1/2 of a turkey reuben sammich
- Korean food – there had to be some sugar in that sweet sauce and bulgogi
- Sometimes I had more natural sugar per day than recommend, like an extra piece of fruit or extra dried crackberries, er, cranberries.
My Regrets
- Nothing! I don’t feel like I was deprived of anything. Rather, I feel like I had the extra support to stay disciplined and make good food choices.
- The little cheats I had, I was able to move on from them with more self-love because I knew I was so disciplined well over 90% of the time, and it was really great to reframe each day/situation into What Didn’t I Eat for a quick boost of positive reinforcement. It was way more encouraging to think of what I declined to eat than to think about the small slip ups.
Next post: What the Heck Will I Eat From Now On?
Just Harried 