This week has gone by really quickly! It was another good day.
I worked this morning. It's been kind of weird because generally working in a restaurant has been a downfall for my diet. Mostly because just constantly being surrounded by good food is so tempting, and I can't resist ordering something at the end of most shifts. Or because it's not very rare for the kitchen to mess up something, and therefore - free food is offered to the servers. But for some reason it hasn't been an issue this time. I don't know why. Our food is good, and we have a few really good pastas, which is usually a major weakness for me. And we have bread that the managers have told us we are welcome to have whenever we want. AND, unlike any restaurant I've ever worked in, the kitchen staff makes a "family meal" at the beginning of each shift (lunch and dinner), which is available throughout the day for whoever wants it. Being that we are an Italian restaurant, it's usually pasta. This should be a huge temptation, but it's not. I haven't mentioned it before now because I never feel like it's much of a victory to pass it up because it's not that hard. But I think I should consider it a victory. I mean, if I wasn't dieting, I would definitely be eating the meal most days. So I guess I just felt like I should acknowledge it and commend myself.
After work, I came home and relaxed for a bit. Then went running. It was really chilly today and raining, and staying in bed sounded like a great idea. But there wasn't even a little part of me that felt like maybe I could just take the day off, so I'm pretty happy with myself about that. My workout was...quiet. I miss my iPod! Luckily it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, mostly it just felt weird to not have music playing. I remembered that my phone has a music player, so I guess I'm going to transfer my songs on to that tomorrow. I'm hoping it holds a decent amount. Then I need to buy some earbuds for it, because it's not a normal headphone jack. Better than having to buy a new iPod though! That should hold me over until Christmas at least.
Did well on my diet - Breakfast: an orange and a shake. Lunch: the rest of my sweet potato/carrot soup and some grilled squash and mushrooms and then some strawberries for a snack. I was planning to make a salad for dinner, but after my run in the rain, I needed something warm and comforting! I had some vegetable broth, so I used that and a few different vegetables (squash, mushrooms, carrots, and onions) and made a chicken soup. I was quite impressed with myself because I haven't ever made soup before (other than the sweet potato one). It came out really good. The whole recipe was less than 200 calories and it made a TON! So I have at least half of it left over for tomorrow! Had some fruit after that and a spoonful of peanut butter.
I realized on my run today that my mindset about my diet has completely changed. The first week I started I was focusing on trying to eat whole, unprocessed foods. But it was more of a temporary, quick jump-start type thing. This week I've realized I have a whole new outlook on it. I really like the way I've been eating this week. It makes me feel really good and the food has been delicious! It also encourages me to be creative and just makes me feel really healthy physically and mentally. Am I never going to eat processed food or fast food again? Definitely not. As bad as it may be, I like fast food and junk food (although I really haven't been craving either this week, which tends to happen when you are eating healthy foods). But, can I see myself eating in this fashion a lot of the time? Definitely. I can certainly eat fruit or vegetables as the majority of my snacks - I like them. Can I substitute squash 4 out of 5 times that I'm craving pasta? Definitely - it's a great tasting substitute! It doesn't mean I'm not going to incorporate more foods, and maybe some less-healthy ones. But I've definitely transitioned from thinking of this as a diet to thinking of it as a way of changing the way I eat. It doesn't mean for every meal or every snack, but if I can just do this the majority of the time, I know I'll be able to maintain my weight once I get where I want to be. And I'll feel so much healthier!
Anyway, I'm sure I've bored you all enough for tonight! I'm off to bed.
Yay! I'm super proud of you, Emily! You're doing a fantastic job :)
ReplyDeleteI would love your sweet potato soup recipe! I've been looking for a good soup recipe lately, but I feel like most of the ones that appeal to me have heavy cream and stuff in them.. you know, that delicious fattening stuff! lol
Thanks! :) I know what you mean about most soup recipes. That's the best thing about this one - it's all healthy stuff, other than maybe a little sodium in the vegetable broth. But I don't think the one I bought has too much. And there's only 1/2 a cup per serving. Anyway, here it is! Serves two.
ReplyDelete1 cup of vegetable broth
1/2 cup of water
1 sweet potato
1 cup of baby carrots
1/2 packet of Stevia Sweetener
Topping:
Pumpkin Pie Spice
Cinnamon
Bake the sweet potato till soft all the way through (I did it in the microwave). Cook carrots until soft (I just put them in a little bit of boiling water on the stove, but you can use the microwave or probably use microwaved frozen carrots, too). Put all ingredients, except topping spices, into a blender (no need to peel the sweet potato). Blend until thoroughly mixed. Then transfer to a pot and heat on stove (it doesn't take much because the carrots and sweet potato should already be hot).
I added the cinnamon and the pumpkin pie spice to taste once it was heating in the pot. I used more pumpkin pie spice than cinnamon, and the cinnamon isn't totally necessary if you don't already have it on hand, because there is cinnamon in the pumpkin pie spice already. Also, if you don't want to buy Stevia, I think you could probably omit it without much difference in taste.
The vegetable broth I used is only 5 calories for a cup. So the whole recipe is about 150-200 calories a serving, depending on the size of the sweet potato. I used a medium size, I suppose. It's great left-over, too! Let me know what you think! :)