Juicing...It gives you clarity

Ummm. I must be the only person on the planet who didn't reap the benefits of juicing. You know, the increased energy, clarity, decreased desire for sugar, blah blah blah..

I've tried a juice fast on 2 occasions only to find myself hangry and uber lightheaded during my workouts. So guess what? I'm going to eat food.

I think a freshly pressed juice is great for a snack, but for me, I'm too active (burning 700-1000 calories per workout) to just drink juice all day, every day for 7 days or more.

Have you juiced? Do you want to juice? Why are you planning to juice? Those are the questions!

I Want That And I Want It Now

Howdy All. Is anyone still out there waiting for me to update this languishing blog?

It's been ages since I've posted, I know. No excuses other than I haven't really had much to say.  But I do have something to ponder.

Grab your tea and sit for a spell. If you have a minute, can we talk a moment about cravings?  Cravings, not habits.

To me, a habit is something that you do regularly like exercise, brush you teeth, shower, coffee and something sweet around 3pm.

That was my habit from January through March-April every working day. I hit that 3pm slump and wanted coffee with a pastry. That was a habit I had to break because it was adding unnecessary calories into my diet. I broke the habit by substituting tea and yogurt at 3pm instead (not an easy swap, but a necessary one) and now I usually skip right over the snack break or make sure to have something healthy on hand.

The debate today is about cravings. I WANT CHIPS. And it will come at odd times, normally late evening or weekends when I'm home doing absolutely nothing. I know the easy answer to that is - don't have chips in the house. Well, The Fella lives with me so we have chips and at times cookies. I can go for stretches and the chips won't call my name at 1am, but then there are times like now where I wake up and want chips for breakfast. We could try the out of sight, out of mind technique, but I'm running out of pantry space.

I am thinking of pulling the popcorn out of the cabinet so it sits in plain view like the chips and let that be my substitute. However, a good friend of mine thinks that subbing only continues to feed the craving. I have determined this is truly a specific craving for chips, not a salty, crunchy craving so I'm a little torn as to what to do about the issue.

If you have any thoughts, feel free to share in the comments below.

Photo from: NASA.gov

You're fired...

Well, maybe not fired but the appointment has been cancelled. After receiving feedback on last week's meal tracking from the nutritionist stating that we need to work on weight loss, I knew it was time to go.

Um, that's why I went to see the woman in the first place.

Granted, I'm not the best when it comes to tracking my food (and I was upfront about it).  Yes, I know I need to pay attention to what I put down my throat. No, I'm not ready to give up wine and cheese.  I might consider backing off the little bread that I do eat.

So I am back to square one and tinkering with the idea, yet again, with WW.  But for the moment, I am using SparkPeople to track my food in addition to my workouts.

So let's see what happens next.

It's French for Chicken

I am not Julia Child by any stretch of the imagination.  Heck, when I lived in NYC I had to call my mom to ask her how to make dirty rice.  But I've been itching to make something warm and yummy in my crock pot - something easy using items I normally buy.

Viola! Coq au Vin. It's sounds more fru-fru when you say it all French-y.

I used this recipe. I need to tweak this if I plan to make it again.  I used dark meat chicken - not a good thing since you don't drain off the fat - grrr. I also used a Cab-Sav for the wine base. It wasn't as warm as I expected. I was told next time to use a free range French hen (um yeah, I will have it imported), but I will probably use lean chicken breast and as for a warmer wine - I will probably use Egri Merlot.

Have you made Coq au Vin in the crock pot?  Any additional suggestions?

Recommitment Shopping List

Okie dokie...here's the shopping list (no deviation from my normal list). Hopefully, this will keep me from rolling through Taco Hell.

Spinach
Fresh fruit (apples, oranges, cantalope, kiwi)
Kale
Celery
2% milk
Bananas
Sweet potatoes
Mushrooms
Sugar peas (fresh)

Oatmeal
Laughing cow cheese
Tomatoes

Already purchased
Frozen fruit
Frozen veggies
Chobani yogurt

Am I missing anything?  Of course I have staples (eggs, peanut butter).

I am planning to make quinoa with mushrooms, kale and sweet potatoes over the weekend. I will substitute  couscous for the quinoa because I already have a mountain of couscous cooked!

Meal plan to be posted tomorrow - baby steps working over here!

Cardboard and Wood Shavings

Ever wonder who thought that power bars, protein bars, low-cal crackers, or other "healthy" foods such as one certain company's oatmeal always taste like cardboard mixed with wood shavings? Maybe this is reason that trying to eat healthy is a challenge for some.

I am officially done with protein bars and will give away my Kashi oatmeal.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy other Kashi produts (especially the pizzas), but their oatmeal was not a winner. It didn't help that my office is near our cafeteria and yesterday they were cooking up a storm of bacon. Ummm bacon...