After a busy weekend away I’m back and ready to go; as a bonus, I gained an hour if only for a day!

I took time to catch up on chores and writing for my business today but I didn’t let my intentions get lost in the shuffle. I had a healthy breakfast of 2 eggs and pumpernickel toast; I could have done without the toast but I didn’t. I ate a small lunch-a sandwich, that means 2 more slices of bread and I drank a good amount of water all day. You’re waiting for my dinner confessions right? Ah well, nothing bad there, I stuffed boneless chicken breasts with chopped parsley, chopped dried apricots and crumbled Brie, baked them with potatoes and steamed Brussels sprouts. I had one small portion of all except the sprouts.

I’m planning on having a simple chicken veggie soup for lunch and with dinner for the rest of the week. I’m also planning on doing a detox as promised to you and myself; join me or ask how you can do a simple detox, I can guide you.

Smile, share some love!

We’ve all heard it so many times through the news, magazines, radio, the internet, pretty much anywhere weight, cravings, overeating and food in general is talked about; what I’m referring to is the common knowledge that we tend to eat when we’re bored.

Why do we eat when we know we’re not hungry? And more, why can’t we stop ourselves when we know that we’re foraging through the cabinets and refrigerator just because we have nothing better to do? In my opinion and personal experience, it has a lot to do with lack of motivation. So, why aren’t we motivated? Because we don’t have to be? Well, why not? What will it take to find motivation? This entire line of thought is quickly snowballing into many questions, aka excuses, and a mission to find the answers.

Let me address boredom first. When I feel bored, I want to nibble on something, anything; food is always on my mind. When I decide to care enough about not eating when I’m not hungry, I do know for a fact that I can always find something around the house or work that needs to be done and through talking with friends, family and clients, this is the case with them as well. The key is doing it. Either find the motivation or the discipline to get your mind and body in motion. Yes, definitely easier said than done…most times. But you will soon realize that when you set your mind to do that dreaded chore, you feel so good about your tiny (or major) achievement. You end up not feeling so bad about rewarding yourself with a snack and in my experience, that snack ends up being a healthier choice than you might have made if you ate out of boredom.

How can you get motivated? It’s not easy, I know it’s not, but it is important. Motivation is complex. It stumps me. Motivation can be gained in many different ways. Sometimes we’re motivated by getting a reward afterwards, sometimes we’re motivated by talking to, listening to or working beside someone who inspires us, other times we find motivation within ourselves-often because we just don’t like the way things are anymore. We are motivated by the desire for change.

Motivation comes from inspiration, inspiration comes from ourselves, others, and life itself. It’s necessary to keep our hearts and minds open to inspiration and motivation.

When you want change in your life you have to inspire change. I believe Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”, I agree, I need to and you need to stop complaining about things not being as we wish they were and start working toward making things as we wish they were.

Let’s Be As We Can Be!

I didn’t post much about the foods I ate yesterday but not to worry, I’m not hiding anything! I ate a healthy breakfast of 1 scrambled egg, a slice of turkey and baby spinach between two slices of rye with seeds (seeds are healthy for you – you know!). Remember I mentioned that I think I should create a sandwich diet? This is why! and yesterday, my oldest son defended the good ole sandwich by making a statement something like, ‘ what’s wrong with that? I love sandwiches’- I think we were talking about making sandwiches with uncommon sandwich ingredients though I cannot recall what they were.

I skipped lunch :/ I know, bad choice against the advise I give. I think I had a few rice crackers and garlic dip leftover from our Oktoberfest party last weekend; I don’t believe that I have mentioned yet that I love dips too (sorry Dale, no pun intended, you’re definitely not a dip   )! I usually try to make healthy dips such as ones with a bean base and fresh herbs and veggies mixed in so that I can keep with the healthy eating and feel like I’m indulging. On a happy note, I learned this weekend that my cousin also has a weakness for dips (sorry Bryon, no pun intended, you’re absolutely not a dip either ) teeheehee! And boy did she make a pretty fabulous pumpkin dip for ginger snaps!

Onto today. So far, so good but then again it’s only 11:30am. I made a delicious 2 egg omelet stuffed with about 1 cup of baby spinach, 1 thin slice of ham and a slice of Swiss. I served it atop even more baby spinach(after I took the picture) so it would wilt a little. Adding so much spinach means that I’ve gotten at least 2 servings of vegetables in today! The eggs I use come from a mile down the street, thank you farmer Clem! Any more local and they would be from my own back yard, which both of my brothers do; I doubt I will – though one never knows!

Though it’s not lunch time yet, I plan to have some of my leftover homemade chicken soup. It has a lot of veggies, not much sodium and it’s fresh!

My dinner plan is meatloaf. I usually add a lot of chopped (very tiny) vegetables like carrots, onion, celery, shredded cabbage, butternut squash, and any other veggie that I think would hold up inside a meatloaf well; I also add 2 eggs and ground flax seeds instead of breadcrumbs and sometimes crushed walnuts and apples & cranberries. We look forward to leftovers….yup, meatloaf sandwiches!

It’s never too late in the day to set an intention, even if you only have 2 more hours left in your day you could intend on no more snacking or one more glass of water even if it means a middle of the night bathroom run. My intentions for today – #1 drink water! 2, 3, and 4? 2-no bread today, 3-no sweets (no hard feat for me), 4-portion control

Follow your heart to reach your dream <3

Today I tried to stick diligently to my intentions of more water, less bread and more vegetables today. I usually do very well with lots of vegetables and today was no different, For the most part my meals were portion perfect but my love for carbs won. I didn’t eat a lot of bread but I did have a few crackers and a  small handful of potato sticks, something I typically don’t even have in the house.

Carbohydrate cravings are very similar to sugar cravings and addiction. I do have a carb addiction unfortunately. My cravings are rarely ever sweet, they’re actually almost never sweets but are always simple carbs; bread and pasta are first in line-I Love them!

Am I upset with myself for not doing as well as I planned today? Not at all. I’m more aware though of my weaknesses and can work to address them.

In the event that my example of dinner might help you find dinner ideas I’ll share with you. I roasted a chicken, I simmered peas, baked garnet yams and made a huge Ceasar salad. My personal chicken portion was only about the size of my palm, one small yam, about 1 cup of peas and a large bowl of salad. Simple to prepare since the oven does all the work.

Tonight’s not over, but I have a good handle on things (even while watching game 1 in the world series with my Red Sox sweatshirt on) snack later? Maybe but not necessary at this point.