Monday, April 1, 2013

Clean Eating: Revisited

Ten million years ago, I wrote a post about Roman and me switching to a “clean” diet. Fine. It was only 7 months ago, and if you missed the post (or need a refresher) and would like to go check it out right quick, then here is the link so you don’t have to scroll down for a trillion years five minutes: click here to read the post
So here’s a run-down of what happened with all of that:
1) Roman and I started the clean-eating thing at the beginning of August
2) At the end of August we all of a sudden found a new place to live and moved
3) Throughout the moving process, lots of fast-food cheeseburgers and pizza was eaten because we couldn’t use our actual cooking appliances/we were too exhausted to attempt cooking
4) After we finally got settled in, we had already returned to our bad habits and never went back to the good ones we were trying to create
Shablam. Attempt #1 at clean eating = FAILURE. Ouch.
Here we are….seven months later (and a few pounds heavier…) and we have decided we are going to try this again. Except this time, we are making a few changes:
1) I’m not going to buy “organic meats”, mainly because we can’t afford them. The only place that sells truly “clean” chicken is Publix. Not only is it almost three times more expensive than Wal-Mart, but it’s also 45 miles away from my house. And even when they do put it on sale, it’s still not cheap enough for me to buy it in bulk. We eat chicken more than any other meat and it’s just not feasible for us to spend that kind of money. And besides, if we stick to the rest of the plan then I think we’ll be doing pretty dang good and the chicken won’t kill us (I mean that literally). Who knows? Maybe once I get this thing hammered down I can save enough money in our budget to justify buying organic meats, but for now we are passing on that one.
2) I’m not going to totally quit chocolate/soft drinks…at least, for now. Okay, here’s the deal. Even if we hadn’t moved in August, I am convinced that eventually we would have failed. Why? Because I am a rebel. Tell me that I can’t have chocolate anymore and I might comply for a little bit, but eventually my brain is going to be like “DON’T TELL ME HOW TO RUN MY LIFE, GIVE ME ALL OF THE CHOCOLATE IN WAL-MART!!!!” And I will go on a chocolate binge-eating fest for the next two weeks. (Not a joke.) So I’m going to do my best to only eat dark chocolate (which is actually good for you in moderation) and then slowly cut back on how much of it I eat. I’m hoping to only eat it every few days eventually. Oh yea, and I’m still going to have my morning cup of coffee, but I’m only going to drink a diet coke if Roman and I go out to eat somewhere….which leads me to numero three-o
3) No more fast food, but eating a meal at a nice restaurant is okay. This is going to be our “reward”. We don’t go out to eat at a restaurant like Olive Garden very often, but when we do we are going to give ourselves the freedom to order whatever we want from the menu. This includes soft drinks and desserts…so we’re only going to go out to eat when we have the funds to pay for all that, otherwise I’ll leave feeling cheated and demand chocolate from Wal-Mart. (Still not a joke.)

So basically, we are being a lot more flexible this time around. Honestly, with our crazy schedule, we have to be flexible anyways. The biggest thing we are trying to avoid is fast food and anything you buy from the store in a box or a can because those are the un-healthiest foods you can eat (even the low-calorie ones because of all of the chemicals used in processing). Here’s a peek at today’s menu:
Breakfast: Coffee and a banana (meant to eat some oatmeal, but I forgot…)
Lunch: Leftover (clean) Chicken Noodle Soup
Dinner: Trying out a new recipe for (clean) Lasagna
Snack: Almonds and an Orange

What made us decide to try this again? Well, first off we both have gained a little bit of weight recently. It’s no big deal with Roman because he actually wants to gain some weight, but for me it goes something like this: “If I have to turn around and buy a bigger jean size ONE MORE TIME then I’m just going to wear sweatpants to work forever.” But that is really the smaller issue here. The much larger issue is the fact that I am sick. Again. And I’ve been sick for over a week now with no signs of getting better in the immediate future. I’ve lost count of how many sinus infections/colds I’ve had since the start of 2012, but I think I’m up to seven or eight. So I’m basically coming down with something every other month. So this clean eating thing is a three part effort to a (hopefully) healthier me and a stronger immune system. Part one: clean eating, which includes incorporating lots more fruits and veggies to my diet to give my immune system the ammunition it needs to fight off infections. Part two: get more sleep at night…because no matter how healthy you are, if you’re sleep-deprived your body still won’t function like it’s supposed to. Part three: exercise more. I can’t do too much until after I recover from my knee surgery at the end of this month (surprise! I’m having knee surgery…more on that tomorrow), but research has proven time and again that regular exercise helps your body stay in health, which in turn helps it to fight off infections.
So there ya have it folks. Probably way too much information about all of this, but now that I’ve put it all on the Internetz, I’m more accountable to actually following through, right? RIGHT?!??
Here’s my favorite motivational picture for your viewing pleasure:

(Yes I’m strange, love me anyways.)
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” ~1 Corinthians 10:31

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