Before I get all ranty and rave-y, I need to share what I made for dinner tonight. It's the Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili from The Great American Detox Diet and it was delicious! The sweet potato adds just the right counterbalance to the cumin and the lime adds just that little bit of freshness it needed. I served it over brown rice, so it was really filling and I ate less. Between needing a smaller portion size, it also makes a ton so I have food for tomorrow. My meat-loving husband said this vegetarian recipe was a keeper and I found it pretty easy to make. The most time-consuming thing was cooking the rice, but all told it was done in about 50 minutes, even with my toddler "helping." Yay for trying new things!
Now to the ranty and rave-y:
Today was an interesting day. I'm still on Spring Break, so I have the luxury of a little extra time to do some learning about all of this and then some planning and shopping. I decided that today was going to be a learning day, and it really brought me to some interesting places emotionally.
High: I bought a bunch of Easter candy. I love candy, and Easter candy in particular. The pastels get me.
Low: Blue #5? Artificial flavors? What the heck? I thought I was going to do better than this.
High: This is a learning process and I can't change overnight. However, I can take half the candy back tomorrow and enjoy the other half. Everything in moderation, even Blue #5.
High: I found Food Rules by Michael Pollan and Food Matters by Mark Bittman at the bookstore today, so no waiting on the library holds list.
Low: Crap. I have more to read.
High: I felt virtuous sitting in the Barnes and Noble coffee shop, learning about healthful things.
Low: Crap. I have a lot to learn. Phytochemicals, antioxidants, and MSG, oh my! I'm making light of it now, but I got a little wound up about this. I'm someone that likes to lay everything on the table, learn as much as I can, and then synthesize it down into something I can read and understand. There's just a lot to learn.
High: Food Rules is really clearly written and totally pragmatic, which I appreciate. He's taken all the science and whittled it down into these "rules." If you want to read the science (which I do), you can read In Defense of Food or The Omnivore's Dilemma, both by him. I learned a ton and read about half the book in just 30 minutes. That's even with writing in the margins.
Low: Crap! What have I been doing all these years? Why have I been putting this junk in my body and feeding it to my kid, whom I love more than life itself? I'm a bad person!!! (This is where I got a little teary at the bistro table. Breakdown time, as much as I could in public.)
High: What's done is done, right? I can't go back, but I can go forward. I'm learning a ton and will put it into practice.
Low: Ain't nothing wrong with that feeling. This was my breakthrough.
It was time to pick Lauren up from daycare, so I went on my merry way. She and I stopped by the grocery store and there were a few highs and lows there too.
High: Lauren loves to shop and she's a good little helper.
Low: It takes forever to do anything with a toddler and add to that that I was having to figure out the organic vs. non-organic thing and how to get the best prices. If I'm going to do this, some streamlining is in order.
High: Lauren knows what a tomato is on sight and said, "Yay, broccoli!" when I was getting her out of the car to go in the store. I didn't even tell her to say that.
Low: None. That just feels good.
High: I felt virtuous when I watched all the nasty nasties roll down the conveyor belt of the patron in front of me. Not that I was judging what she was eating, but it made me feel good in comparison.
Low: I might just be a bad person for that. I'm not sure. I didn't say anything out loud, though.
Tomorrow I'm going shopping. On the blog side, I'm going to share some of the things I'm learning out of Food Rules. In the meantime, I'm also going to update my Goals and Checklists page (see under the banner) because I'm rethinking my approach to this.
Are you still drinking your water? Boy howdy, am I ever! It feels... floaty, but good.
I can so relate to a lot of this, I've been trying to eat cleaner for a while now and its a real struggle with my hubby dragging his feet, he's a fast food junkie!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're here! I wish I had some cool words of advice for you, but I don't. Luckily, my husband isn't really a junk food junkie, but only because he's too cheap. :) Maybe if you just started making meals as part of your everyday routine and packed the leftovers for lunch? That way, he doesn't need to buy anything else. Otherwise, just make him watch Super Size Me. :)
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