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!!

It's Not Easy Being Green (and Other Things That are Not Easy)

Good Morning Everyone!!  Today is going to be a good day!!  Just some quick thoughts before we head out today.

So, obviously, I'm trying to start every day on a positive step...which is a challenge for me, because I don't particularly enjoy waking up in the morning.  However, it's easy to be cheerful when you wake up, do your thing, get on the scale and see...SUCCESS...even if it's a minor change.  From when I got on the scale Monday (the day before we started in full gear) to when I got on it this morning - I've "lost" 7.8 lbs.  I put lost in quotation marks because I know that this is not really a loss in fat, but the flush of so much sodium, sugar and other processed junk from my system (to share, Kurt's loss has been +/-2 lb since he weighed himself a week ago Monday, but I bet that if he had weighed himself this last Monday, it would have been more).

So positive steps, every morning...which have become crazy and negative thoughts of giving up by bedtime.  I just want chocolate!!  Now, I made some brownies from the 100 Days of Real Food site - whole wheat flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, coconut oil and honey (about 1/2 cup) in an attempt to quell my want for sweets...but it really isn't a substitute for chocolate.  Neither is the apple or the slice of cheese that I tried last night in an attempt to stop begging Kurt for chocolate.Sugar withdrawal SUCKS!!  And now I can almost see why some say sugar should be regulated...almost.  It definitely was my drug.

And finally with the Green:

My new positive morning starter...the green smoothie.  So now for the part that makes me think that my brain is very weird and holds me back from doing some things.  I know its sweet - I've had the Odwalla Superfood, which is sweet regardless being green, and I've had this smoothie for two days now - and yet I still look at it and think "there is NO way I'm going to drink that".

So, I'm making an attempt to keep my brain out of the way when looking at recipes and am going to try hard to make/eat something and decide whether I like it instead of looking at its picture and saying...no - that looks awful.

I hope everyone enjoys their Friday and their weekend!!