Healthy

I’m finally trying to jump back on the bandwagon as far as healthy eating goes.

I’m attempting to be accountable not only to my coworker who’s helping me stay on track this time, but also to myself by blogging about it.

I figure if I can take nifty pictures of what I’m eating, and “journal” it, like so many others do, I’ll be more inclined to stick with it. But only Monday-Saturday. Sunday is gonna be my “freebie” day. 🙂

I should first mention that I’ve been on a ‘limited soda kick’ for about a month now. I’ve already seen drastic improvement; mostly in my middle section, which has been a problem area for me. When I say ‘limited’ I mean maybe one or at most two during the weekend, and none whatsoever during the week. I’ve avoided the caffeine migraines by drinking a combination of lemonade and sweet tea. My kidneys also seem to be much happier now. 🙂

So for starters, I made a banana-strawberry smoothie today, using a recipe from Jamba Juice (I knew my three month stint there would come in handy!). It’s somewhere between 8-12oz of soy milk, two scoops of frozen yogurt (fat free), two scoops of strawberries, and one scoop of bananas. Oh, and ice (note to self: pick up a bag of Sonic ice tonight!). I put more bananas in the smoothie than the recipe calls for, mostly because the strawberries are frozen and will last awhile, but they didn’t have frozen bananas at the store (sounds like yuck, I know), so I didn’t have much choice but to use the fresh ones.

Verdict: It was okay, a little sloshy, but considering that’s the first time I’ve made the Jamba Juice recipe in about four years, that’s pretty darn good for doing it from memory, I think. It just needed more ice (see ‘note to self!’) Drank the whole thing. I might have to invest in some granola and regular plain yogurt to make it a little more filling (besides, granola is yum!), because by noon I was starving.

And next came this creation for lunch:

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Taken with the oh-so-handy instagram, this colorful concoction is composed of romaine lettuce, mandarin oranges, roma tomatoes, grilled chicken, and off-camera, a small bowl of ranch dressing (I’ve been told that ‘dipping’ as opposed to ‘smothering’ is acceptable).

Sound tasty? I didn’t think so. I was told today that “mandarins and ranch” sounds like a “pickles and ice cream” combination.

But I like it just fine. I developed the mandarin/ranch combo some years ago. For some reason, it just sounded yummy, and I’ve been eating it ever since.

Verdict: Grilled chicken definitely tastes better hot, and not soggy. I should have patted down the washed lettuce with a paper towel to get the excess water off of it, because by the time I was about halfway done, I had about an inch of water in the bottom of the bowl, and my previously “hot” chicken was not so hot anymore. Besides that, it was pretty good. I feel like a rabbit when I eat lettuce lol. Hopefully I’ll start liking it more as this dieting thing goes on.

No ideas what to make for dinner tonight, especially since my kitchen sink is full of dirty dishes…but I might go back to the store and get some frozen veggies (which I meant to do yesterday) and make some combination of a meat and vegetable platter. I can’t decide if I want to throw in any potatoes or mac-and-cheese…I think I should definitely do some Pinterest research and see if I can find some healthy, yet tasty recipes for dinner.

I’ll update later with my decision.

In other news, Jake and Bear are both doing just fine. Jake was neutered a few weeks ago (hallelujah!) and while he’s not ‘mellow’ per se, he’s definitely calmed down some. Bear, surprisingly, has been behaving more poorly than the puppy. I’m worried about what his deal is, and considering that I might have to spend some more one-on-one time with him.

More later…

UDATE:

Well, my dinner meal wasn’t as healthy as it could have been: fajitas on wheat tortillas, but I definitely got my protein for the day! 🙂

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