Conspiracy Theories

You know what I thought was one of the biggest eating better conspiracies was?  The things you loved before just don't taste as good when you have them again.  I'd like to say that I just wanted to test this theory, but I really just wanted some chocolate.


Last night we caved in for chocolate...and I wouldn't even call it caved in...it really was just more like we wanted some and thought a once in a while special treat is not going to hurt us.   Just a plain Hershey bar...and I'm pretty sure that I could live without one ever again.  It wasn't awful...but it DEFINITELY wasn't the same...DEFINITELY wasn't worth it.

So...it is theory no more!!

The funny thing was...I didn't feel guilty for eating it...I felt guilty by the thought of not posting it.  I think the reason why is we aren't doing this to cheat.  Hiding failures isn't going to get us anywhere...not that I consider this a failure.  We made the conscious decision to have a once in a while treat without feeling like we want to give up or have to start all over.

On another note, during last night's post I was a little distracted, so I forgot to talk about my new favorite app - Fooducate.  It scans bar codes and gives you a score based on its ingredients and then details based on what its ingredients are.

This app has been helping us a lot when we have to get certain things from the store that we can't make on our own or don't have the time/equipment to make.  Its a free app (there is a pay one too) so you should check it out.

Finally, we were looking for almond meal/flour at the store and found it in a 1 lb bag for just over $10.  That's insane!!  So we decided to make our own today.  I've found that roughly 8 oz of almonds makes about 2 cups of almond meal.  We used the flat blade on the magic bullet but many say that a coffee grinder works best.  It was a tedious project, blanched, removed skin, dried in the oven, ground and sifted, but at $3.88 a lb for almonds, I'd rather make my own.

We made apple muffins with the almond meal and they were good, but different.  I was looking to make something as a dessert, but they weren't very sweet.  The texture is not that off of wheat flour, but I think it will take a little getting used to.  I'll get it into the recipe section.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Excuses, Excuses!!

Good evening world!!

Busy busy week...we're finally (hopefully!!) starting to enter our busy season!  With that thought, our goal of one - 30 minute walk each day has fallen by the wayside - the first casualty to our not wanting to let our job overpower our life.  It is very difficult though, because time slips by so quickly. 

We found ourselves last night with our last meal in the house (minus breakfast) - knowing all this week that we had to get to the grocery store.  We had to make the conscious decision to go shopping for the week or face the reality of having to go pick up a "quick" meal - which is beginning to have less of an appeal to us.  However, it was hard to walk past all frozen foods remembering how easy it was to "make" a meal and the candy in all of its delicious goodness.

But then, I have to keep in mind that since weighing myself a week ago Monday, I have lost 11 lbs.  I know that there are two HUGE factors of it - 1. all the food we've been eating is minimally or not processed and 2. we are taking in far less calories than we were before.  Kurt, like I said before, didn't weigh himself prior to starting, but from his weighing before that, he has lost about 5 lbs (but I think he went up and then back down).

The pounds are nice, but better than that, we feel better.  I still don't enjoy waking up in the morning and I am still suffering a bit from "that 2:30 feeling" but I know that will change.  Feeling better is what excites us though!!

It's still challenging...everyday - the extra time making meals, which takes away from "relax" time, the temptations of all my favorite foods...but realistically, what are we missing? Weight....that's what!! :P

Anyway, I find myself very distracted while blogging this evening, so I wrap it up with tonight's meal:

Whole wheat pizza pocket with tomato sauce, bell pepper, mushroom, onion, garlic, ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan with a side of steamed broccoli.  Mmmmmmmm!! It was so good!! I'll put it up on the recipes page soon.

Ok...goodnight all!!

Challenge accepted!

Hello All!

Don't you find it frustrating when you think that you have everything worked out and then something comes along to mess it all up? That is what almost happened if it wasn't for my wonderful wife.

The lifestyle change that we are going through has been fairly easy once we started to get over the chocolate cravings of the first couple of days. I was even talking with Candace how relatively easy this has been and don't I feel silly for not starting this earlier.  Then yesterday happened.  I won't bore everyone with the nitty gritty details but suffice it to say it was a long day filled with difficult people and difficult circumstances.  It was one of those days where after it was over, you are thankful that all your days aren't like this.

The old us would of come home and stuffed ourselves with junk food and candy to make us "feel better" from our difficult day.  And both of us were sorely tempted to do so, and I even told Candace "we should get some candy and start over again tomorrow".  At first Candace agreed with me until she said something that stopped me going out the door. She said that is what we always used to do.  That made me think about my behavior and that of an alcoholic.  I am not saying that we are addicted to junk food but if we start making excuses and doing something that we know is bad and we can "justify" it then we are acting like an addict.  It was the hardest thing that I have come across so far.

Even though I did not leave the house to get junk food, that still didn't stop our craving for something. So instead Candace came up with ideas of muffins.  Normally that is not much better, but she found a recipe for Blueberry muffins that uses Whole Wheat and just a touch of honey.  We only had one and it was delicious! I am not saying that it satisfied my junk craving but it got my mind off the idea of junk food.

I am very proud of my wonderful wife that she stood up and said no. This was the first real hurdle that we had to overcome and we cleared it.  It was hard as hell to do so, but we did it.

That being said, because or day was very long and we have a bunch of work to do, we didn't make it out on our 30 minute walk. We are planning to go out tonight though, I will let you know how that goes tomorrow.  However since our day was so long, we did a tremendous amount of walking with our heavy gear up and down monster homes yesterday. I know, I know not the same as going on a walk, but it was not like we just shot one small package and came home and watched TV all day.

It will be interesting to see how proceed during our busy season but it we can avoid junk food on a crappy day like yesterday, then I know we will be successful through the crazy season that is coming.

Until next time!!

 

Great would be good...but amazing would be great!!

Easter...a time of new life and re-life.  I'd like to say that we timed this whole change in our life to run with the theme, but really, it timed itself.  :)

Week one (although not a full week, but I like to start my weeks on either a Sunday or a Monday) went off pretty darn well if you ask me.  It was a struggle, but we made it through.  No candy binges, no matter how much I begged Kurt, no fast food.  All meals since Tuesday have been prepared from scratch in our kitchen...and I have to say, once you start getting the hang of it, the whole process really isn't that tedious.  I won't call it easy, because it's still far from easy...it takes time, but also gets me/us away from the computer when a break is needed...or away from the TV and then, really - I think I had the time if I was just watching TV.

The goal for week to is to start incorporating a little more movement into our daily routine.  Our goal is at least one - 30 minute walk per day.  It's going to become more challenging as the week progresses, with the predicted weather later in the week, but that's what jackets are for.

Since we should have a little non-work time later this week, I'm going to play around with some new recipes and change up a few from the past week.  I've never been the biggest fan of whole-wheat and although I find it to be a livable substitute to my old bread, I'm going to play around with going "crustless" - change the quiche to a frittata, maybe experiment with some almond meal.

One thing I do have to complain about -

After talking about how great it was to have leftovers for lunch, of course, we forgot our food today.  So, we figure, maybe a lettuce roll-up with some mustard, cheese and deli meat.  DELI MEAT IS SO FULL OF CRAP IT IS RIDICULOUS!!  Nitrates and sugar and CARAMEL COLOR!!  Why on Earth does roast beef need to have caramel color as an ingredient.  We tried to pick the best we could (sliced smoked ham seemed to have the least amount of ingredients...you know...because ham needs to have more ingredients than just ham) but we are on the lookout for good lunch ideas in case of forgetfulness again.  We did receive a few suggestions, but we always welcome more.

Anyway, tonight's dinner is asparagus stuffed chicken breasts (a couple of you might know it as chicken stuffed asparagus :P ) with a side of cauliflower.  One of us will post about their success or failure...and if they're good, we'll put them up on the recipes.

I hope all had a good Easter, and we'll see you again,