Kindly Accepting: A New Way Of Doing

What is:

1) Due to other choices (avoiding 2 hour commutes and getting up at 5 AM), I eat breakfast and lunch at my desk

2) Eating at my desk leads to mindless eating as I'm working while I eat.

What I want:

To mindfully eat most of the time and not worry about tracking, measuring, etc.

Hmm.  What I want and what is my reality right now don't exactly mesh.  And it's causing stress in my body and mind.  A new way of doing is in order and I've decided on a compromise.  I generally take my breakfast, lunch and snacks with me to work.  I will continue to do that - except I will begin portion control.  I will take just what I need with me.  And after 30+ years of dieting, I actually do know what a real portion is.  I will focus on the first and last bites of  my breakfast and lunch - eating them mindfully.  For my dinner, I will eat mindfully.  The entire meal.  I generally eat too much dinner.  It's good.  The dinner, I  mean - not the eating too much.  I will concentrate on gratitude for the food, enjoying the food and paying very close attention to my body.  I'll strive for conscious decisions to stop eating when I am just full.

So - because I like bullet points, to wrap things up:

My New Way Of Doing

• Mindful first and last bites of portion controlled healthy breakfast and lunches
• Mindfulness throughout the entire dinner meal - with conscious decisions to stop eating when I am just full.

Birthday list

My 50th birthday is next Saturday and I've been thinking about making a Birthday List for the next year. Things I want to do that will give me joy, challenge me, nurture me, etc. Yeah, it's about ME. The one thing that won't be on the list is "lose weight"

So far, I'm thinking about categories:

Knitting - a sweater, 12 pairs of mittens (fingerless) to give to a shelter

Reading - not sure what. More fiction. No weight loss books.

Make new friends or reconnect with old ones. I'm sorely lacking in this department. Part of it is because I'm such an introvert and part of is is that I'm a homebody at heart. But - I know I need more friends in my life.

Keep a gratitude journal.

Learn about raised bed gardening.

Establish technology free days

If you have any ideas that are more about nurturing than weight loss, I'd love to hear them!









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Home

So, vacation was fairly low-key.

Saturday: raked leaves

Sunday: moved leaves

Monday: defeated by hard mountain soil - hired cute young man to till the area where I'll plant my daffodil's next time.   Finally ate lunch at Yonah Burger.  Yum and thank goodness it's too far away to become a weekly or even monthly habit.

Tuesday: drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway - beautiful.  No pics, though.

Wednesday: down day - I did some knitting, some reading and some thinking.  And some posting on this blog.  Committed to moving the line closer to my happy health

Thursday: still pretty much a down day - went to the local yarn  store that is "going out of business" (it's really just changing owners) and scored on some great yarn

Friday:  still pretty much a down day.  Lots of knitting

Saturday:  time to come home

Today - slowly getting back into the grove of things.   We went to Whole Foods for lunch.    Expensive but good.  And then some shopping: kale, wild rice, trail mix, cashews, lettuce, an apple for me, peanut butter (I LOVE their 365 brand - it has two ingredients: peanuts and salt).  Some ground beef and a chicken breast, and some butternut squash soup.

In a little while, I plan to do some cooking for the week:

Roast some peanuts for D
Make some healthier muffins for D (they aren't low fat or high fiber, but they are better than a pop-tart)
Make some salad for me (steamed broccoli, hard boiled egg, frozen english peas, and chopped lettuce, lightly tossed with an herbed vinaigrette that I made this morning)
Make some chicken and rice soup for me.

Lots of cooking - but I'm in the mood for it.  Fall does that for me.

About that line - so far, I'm keeping true to my commitment to log every day.  I LOVE the iPhone App I bought over the week.  It's free form on the food so that takes a while, but amounts are not necessary.  Instead what the app has helped me to do so far, is to start stopping when the food no longer has an appeal to me.  It reminds me to stay focused on eating. To eat slowly and taste the food.

As I've mentioned before, I have a tough time with the stopping part when it comes to mindful eating.  I almost always wait until I'm hungry to eat.  But in the past, I have almost always cleaned my plate regardless of my satiation levels.   This app changed how I look satiation.  It suggested looking at the pleasure I derive from the food.  And I have noticed that food starts to lose it's appeal when I'm becoming satiated.  And thinking of it as I'm no longer enjoying this so I'm going to stop is working for me.

The app - very simply called MindfulEating  by ViaLean

The result: I came home from vacation weighing 2 lbs less than I did the Tuesday before we left.   And I enjoyed some great food - chocolate cheese cake, carrot cake, a yummy hamburger (with mayo, but no cheese), home made potato chips, fried shrimp, shrimp bisque, roast pork, chili, etc.  The key this week, is that I didn't eat too much of anything and I stopped eating when the food no longer held any appeal.

A Rainy Day and Some Reflection

So a couple of posts ago, I said I was going to be working on getting my mind back to it's right place.

And through raking I can't begin to tell you how many leaves and then moving those same leave, and learning my plan to naturalize daffodils in the perfect spot was not viable, I started to get there.  And yesterday on the Blue Ridge Parkway helped me get there a bit more.

I think keeping the mind in the right place is a daily exercise.  One I haven't really been doing for about three years.  Various reason, perhaps more excuses than reasons.  But the bottom line is that I let my mind get almost all the way back to "Old Maura."

Almost.  But there are some "Old Maura" patterns that I have successfully refused to fall back to: McDonald's for breakfast and lunch,  bowls of rice, grits or pasta for dinner.  Not no, but hell no.  So, right now, this very minute - I'm giving myself a pat on the back.  I have successfully drawn a line in the sand and not crossed it.

It's now time to move that line a little bit closer to where I ultimately want it to be.

And here's where the mind comes into play.  Relaxing as I have over the past few days, I've realized that a good bit of mind work is actually the result of doing, not thinking.  Oh boy howdy - do I love to think!  I'll think about my next plan to lose weight.  I'll think about my next plan to work out.  I'll think it. Say it. And then stop.

The line doesn't get moved back to where it needs to be for me to be healthy, happy and fit.  And I beat myself up.  I eat.  Rinse and repeat.

I've learned a lot in the past few years.  Set goals.  Exercise.  Acknowledge Success.  Be Grateful.  Practice Discipline.  Do everything mindfully.

And I've done none of it consistently.  I get bored or distracted or to be honest, just plain forget.  Then say Oh damn!

I have an appointment with an endocrinologist week after next.  I mentioned to my husband that I am truly hopeful she is going to be able to help me get rid of the hair on my face. (One of the symptoms of PCOS) His response was "I hope she can help you manage your weight.  You don't eat enough in my presence to weigh what you do."   Dear husband has promised to go with me to the doctor when I go to hear the results of the blood work.  At that time, I think he'll learn that hamburgers and hot dogs and pizza more than once or twice a year just won't work for me.  And he may also learn that white rice, bread and pasta are poison to someone with PCOS.  I've told him.  He doesn't believe it.  But that's another issue.

I decided that if the doc was going to be able to help me with my weight (and I hope that too), then she's going to need to know what I typically eat.   Ugh - a food log.

Yep.  A food log.   Here's me doing: I am committing to keeping a food journal from now until November 2nd.   I downloaded an app today - it's not a calorie counter app. It's a log to help me also keep track of hunger levels and how mindfully I eat.  I am committing to keeping my food journal in this app from now until November 2nd.

Hubby won't like it.  He doesn't like most weight management tools. But tough.  I took out my iPhone and took a pic of  my lunch today:  1/2 a grilled turkey and swiss on whole wheat with a cup of home made chicken noodle soup.  Lots of chicken, not so many noodles. Yum.

So, this post has been rambling.  I'll try to some it up here.  Getting the mind in the right place and keeping it there takes daily diligence.  I choose to practice that diligence now by keeping a food log every day.  And on the days I can - a few minutes of quiet introspection.

I sense the woman who gave me the advice recently has given up on me.  I am sorry about that if it's the case.  However, I'm not doing this for her or anyone else.  I'm doing this for me.  And dammit - I'm gonna do it my way.  And I'm going to succeed.

OK - I only slowed down the runaway train

Yesterday didn't go as planned.  I ate some cake.

And it also hit me that my work environment is probably my biggest challenge.  At my old job, I was not an administrative assistant (ie, someone who deals with lunch orders for meetings) nor was there that much food brought in for lunch.  It was officially frowned upon.  Not so much where I work now.  And because I'm an admin, I have to deal with the food.

And I have this thing about food, if I see it and it looks good, I want to eat it.  Hungry or not.

I'm on vacation next week and will have some downtime and I plan to explore ways to 1) limit my exposure to the food in the office and more importantly 2) remember to follow my own guidelines when it comes to eating:  only when I'm truly hungry and only until I am no longer truly hungry.

I've finally accepted the fact that at almost 50 years of age, I have to learn how to eat.

And I'm going to do so - because I deserve to be my best self.

Decisions

I made a decision about exercise this week and posted it to the Ten in Ten group.  The decision is that I'm no longer going to stress about how I'm going to fit it in.  When I can, I will.

This decision raised concerns  - that were very kindly expressed - that I was practicing self-sabotage.  I've been thinking about that for a few days here's my response:

My decision to not make a commitment to exercise was the result of the stress I was feeling whenever I would set an exercise schedule and almost invariably, I got stuck at work or in traffic and didn't get home in time to get my workout in.  Right now, I don't have an answer to this road block so instead of continuing to keep adding that stress, I'm simply removing it.

Thru my experience with weight loss, and maintenance and then gaining, I've come to the conclusion that exercise should never be made critical to weight loss and maintenance.  Life throws crap at you at times (illness, injury, work, etc) that prevents consistent exercise.  This is not ideal, of course, but it happens.  And when exercise is critical to weight management and that crap happens, then losing or maintaining becomes almost impossible.  

Instead weight management really is about healthy choices about what to eat and how much to eat.  That, no matter what life throws at you can be more consistently practiced.

I'm not saying that exercise is not critical to overall good physical and mental health. It is.  And when I can, I will exercise.  I'll even, when I can, shift things so that I can get some extra movement in.  I'm just no longer going to stress about it.

Today's exercise:  over an hour of Kundalini yoga.  And OMG - I had not idea how breathing a certain way can raise the heart rate.  I'm half way tempted to wear my heart rate monitor the next time I do the practice just to see how the much my heart rate did get elevated.  There was definitely a "cardio" aspect to the practice, even though it was very gentle and slow.

I'm not giving up on me - just taking a slightly different approach than I have in the past because what I did in the past is no longer working

I truly appreciate the comments - they made me think about what I'm doing.  And that is always a good thing.

Dear Maura

Dear Maura,

This is your psyche and body talking to you together.

Thank you for taking Sandrelle's challenge!  Already, we feel lighter and cared for.

Thank you for paying attention to your mantra of eating between the 2's.  By doing so, we got enough food, but not too much.

Thank you for not taking a path of deprivation to get turned around so we can move towards health and vibrancy.  By not being deprived, it will be easier to stay on the path and not be distracted by pretend food.

Thank you for not giving up.

Sincerely,
Your psyche and body

Ten in Ten

Oh my - I've surprised myself and joined a challenge!  Not just any challenge, but one lead by one of my favorite weight management bloggers - Sandrelle.

The goal is to lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks.  Well, for me - that's the result I am to achieve after reaching these goals I've set for myself:

1. Regain my positive attitude about weight management
2. Learn to listen to my body and eat only when I'm hungry and stop eating the second I'm no longer hungry
3. Establish healthy and kind intentional movement practices (walking, pilates, yoga)
4. Feel stronger, healthier and more vibrant
5. Lose 10 lbs

My first step will be to focus on the second goal: Learn to listen to my body.  My goal is to eat between the two's  - an eating guideline advised by Brooke Castillo in If I'm So Smart, Why Can't I Lose Weight.

I know this goal will be difficult - I'm mostly OK with the first part - but stopping when I'm no longer hungry if there is food left is very very hard for me.  I need to learn to sit with the discomfort.  I know it will pass.

That's it for now.

Honoring Myself

I started this self-care list after reading a great newsletter from Christine Inge in which she discusses the importance of putting self-care first.  It was a great reminder.  Then I read a great blog post from Karen Anderson about what the really BIG goals are and I decided that the big goals actually go on my self care list.

Here's the original list.

1)  1 hour each day to journal

2)  1 hour each day to exercise/stretch

3)  Always have good manicures & pedicures

4) Time to defuzz my neck and face 

5) Time to enjoy a cup of tea

6) Monthly Massages

7) Quarterly facials

Here's a revised list  - which I'm changing the name to Honoring Myself

1.  Stay true to myself

How:  

Keep my commitments to myself:

Spend time each day just being still

Spend time each day writing/journaling to center myself

Spend time each day taking care of my body with kind movement 

2.  Do things that truly make me smile

How:

Remember I enjoy reading - and make time for it

Remember I enjoy having pretty toes and fingers - take time to make that happen

Remember I enjoy knitting with fine yarn - and save my pennies for it

Remember I enjoy how great it feels after I've played in the dirt - and make time for it

I'll be adding to this list as I learn to honor myself.

Dear Maura

I'm making this post a permanent page - so it's easy for me to come back to.

I woke up at 3 something this morning and the mind started racing.  One of the thoughts that came is that I needed to write a letter.  Better yet, let my body and psyche write the letter.   And here's what came out...


Dear Maura,

This is your body writing to acknowledge your efforts to take better care of me.

• I appreciate that you are learning that excess weight for so many years took it's toll on my joints and that you are learning to be more gentle with me when you deliberately "take me out for a walk"
  
• I appreciate that you are striving to listen to me when it comes to feeding me - feeding me when I am not hungry makes me feel tired and sluggish.  Feeding me nothing but crap makes me feel bloated and gross and completely undesirable.
  
  But when you feed me nourishing foods when I am hungry and stop feeding me when I am satisfied, I feel energized and loved.  Thank you for striving to do that.
  

Dear Maura,

This is your psyche writing to acknowledge your efforts to take better care of me.

• I appreciate that you are striving to stop hating me - that you are striving to think good things about me instead of hateful things.
  
• I appreciate that you are striving to stay with me through all the emotions you feel instead of numbing me with food.  When you stay with me through the emotions, light gets in and I thrive on the light.
  
• I appreciate that you are striving to nourish me by returning to a spiritual practice.  It helps keep me centered and available for that light.

Consistency & Retuning

I see myself following the same old patterns - doing well and then forgetting.   The past few days I've felt bloated and heavy.  Not as light as I had been feeling.  But I'm aware - and retuning* to asking the important question "is this going to make me feel heavy or is this going to make me feel light?"

* I meant to type returning but I actually like retuning.  All musical instruments need to be tuned and retuned and in my case - so does my mind.   And I can retune without guilt.

I got up and worked out this morning - first time in a while.  And for the first time in well over a year, I wore my heart rate monitor.  I had a goal for wearing it - I wanted to make sure I didn't push myself too hard.  I used to push hard and harder and even harder - looking for the calorie burn.  I know for a fact that my completely giving up exercise and healthy movement is a backlash from abusing my body that way.  So, I did get above range a few times - used that as a cue to retune (gees, I love this analogy) and reduce my intensity.  The result - I have an average heart rate of 139 bpm for 58 minutes.  And I don't feel wiped out and icky.

I'm still working on Noaa's blanket - it's really quite easy now that I'm getting the hang of it. I've never picked up stitches before - and I know it's not perfect.  But Noaa is not going to care.

And I'm reading The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas and the complex characters have definitely intrigued me.  So much that I'm about to sign off writing here and pick up the iPad to return to reading.

But before I do - does anyone have any suggestions for cooking swiss chard?  I have the recipe for my first ever tasting of this beautiful green.  I am hoping I love it for it's taste as much as I do for it's color - and if I do, then I think I shall be wanting to cook it quite often.

An Awe-filled weekend

Today is my husband's birthday and to celebrate, we spent to extra days at our haven in North Georgia.  We splashed around in the swimming pool - and I experienced a first: I skinny dipped.  I now understand the appeal and plan to be butt naked in my swimming pool as often as possible.  Thankfully where we live is very secluded!

As I sipped my coffee each morning, I watched hummingbird wargames at their feeder.  My goodness those little buggers are fast.  It's hard to believe how this beautiful little bird whose image is often used to invoke tranquility can be so very aggressive!  It must have something to do with getting all the energy necessary to make their annual flight across the Gulf of Mexico.   Until then, I'll enjoy watching their wargames.

And then there was Baby.  Baby is a black bear.  About 250 lbs of black bear and he (we think & hope) has a major penchant for sunflower seeds.  And if you haven't guessed already, D and I feed the birds - black sunflower seeds.  We figured he was a nocturnal to dawn thief and didn't think anything at all about traipsing off our porch to go get a bite to eat.  We had one surprised bear, 2 surprised humans and one very dead bird feeder.  We'll find another bird feeder - one that is hopefully a bit more bear proof.   I don't care if Baby noshes our birdseed as long as he remembers to run away when we surprise him.  The image of this incredibly powerful animal trotting off to the border of our yard, every once and a while looking to see if we were still there, will be forever with me.  I am in in total awe of Baby.

This is not Baby - but you can get the picture...

And at this moment, I'm in awe of myself too.  For the past few days, I have actually listened to my body and paid it attention.  I put my fork down.  More than once.

It is my hope that as D and I spend more and more time with the bears, hummingbirds, deer, and frogs, that I will never lose the awe I have of them.

Slow Down, Eat and Be Kind Tuesdays

For the next 8 weeks,  I’m going to focus on an aspect of Marc David’s  The Slow Down Diet – incorporating wisdom form Geneen Roth’s Women, Food and God and Jean Fain’s The Self Compassion Diet.   Though diet is in the title of David’s and Fain’s books – they are not diet books.  They are books filled with information and suggestions on how to reach a healthy weight without the stress most standard diets produce.  The suggestions they provide are more about creating peace with oneself which opens up the mind to possibilities of eating for nourishment.

Wildlife

D and I spent a relaxing weekend at our mountain retreat - lots of time to knit,  and knit and knit.  And when I wasn't knitting - I spent time pretending to wage war on weeds.

Lots of baby steps today

I left work sort of on time for once.  And when I got home, I announced to D that I was going to do something novel: workout.   A real, honest to God, sweat-making workout.

For the first time since I started losing weight, Leslie Sansone was hard. And I feel really good about sticking with it and getting two miles in.  Stupid pedometer only registered 3 miles.

And I made a decision about journaling.  It's gonna be a bit too hard to start a regular practice each morning.  So - I will journal on the weekends and do sun salutations every morning.  That's my plan and I start tomorrow morning.

Acknowledgements of what I did well today:

1.  Ate more slowly
2.  Paid more attention
3.  Reminded myself I could be hungry for an hour
4.  Worked out
5.  Really enjoyed 2 Godiva gems. (dark chocolate, of course)

Gut Wisdom

I'm slowly plodding through Marc David's The Slow Down Diet and one of the exercises was to quiet yourself with some deep breaths and then take an inventory of what foods work.  Not in term of what the nutrition label says - but in terms of how you feel thinking about the foods, eating the foods and after eating the foods.

Stinking Thinking

I've spent the last three years beating myself up and living in the future.  Why?  The elusive goal.  If I'm not busy hating myself for not making goal while I was on OPTIFAST, I've been projecting "I'll do this when I reach goal."  What's the result?  An unhappy, stagnant, and sometimes frantic Maura.

I say I want balance in my life.  It just hit me - that balance starts with my thinking. I've been so obsessed with failing to meet my goal that I haven't given myself credit for what I have accomplished - losing almost 70 lbs and more importantly - maintaining that loss.  To lose sight of what I have done and focusing on what I have failed to do only sets up that cycle that helped me eat my way to obesity to begin with: I eat for comfort.  The difference today is that at least, I burn off a good number of calories through added exercise.

I posted about my partner's concern over my "all or nothing" crazy thinking when it comes to exercise - or even keeping up with posts on MyFoodDiary.com.  His concern was that other people's neuroses were rubbing off on me and feeding my own addictions.  This time away (sort of) from MyFoodDiary, has helped me see that I've done a pretty good job at protecting myself from other people's 'stinking thinking', but I have completely polluted my own life with my perverted and hateful thinking about myself.

It just hit me that in the last 1 1/2 years, I've made three major changes in my life.  Prior to OPTIFAST, I would have easily gained at least 30 lbs through stress-eating my way through these changes.  I've gained 8 lbs.  Instead of focusing on how much more healthfully I generally cope with stress, I've been obsessing over the 8 lbs and causing myself much more stress.  I've not allowed myself to fully rejoice in the the positive changes I've made - all because I've slipped a little and because I've not met goal.

I need to think some more about what goal means to me and why I keep making sure it's elusive. But more urgently, I need to make sure that my fitness activities and eating restraint come from a place of peace and balance, not a frantic all or nothing, last-ditch effort - to lose 10 lbs.  I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing that, but I think asking myself "why" and "how will doing this? (or eating this?) engender peace and balance in my life?"

Enough for now.

An old nemesis is back

It's been a very long time since my back has acted up so much I considered not going to work.   But here I am.  I'm at work with a nagging pain in my hip and all of my food for the day already eaten.  It's only 11:30 AM.  I'm not physically hungry, but the desire to eat is huge.  Eating is a comfort activity for me and when I'm in pain I want to eat.   I'll be OK - I will stick to my boundary of not eating anything I haven't brought from home.  My partner (who works for the same company) has some home-made oatmeal raisin cookies in his office.  I'll grab two later on this afternoon - if I need them.

Recognizing this hunger and the cause is enlightening.  I don't have an alternative activity.  Sleep would be good.  Being at home would be good.  Neither are options right now.  I haven't had this eating response since I came off of OPTIFAST and it's definitely thrown me for a bit of a loop.  What kind of alternative activities can I practice when I want to eat because of physical pain?

Along with the bad back comes another stress - I can't work out.  Not with this back.   In fact, I think the back pain is a cumulative result of a week's worth of jarring my body by doing low-impact aerobics on a cement floor.  

The good news - the cushioned floor mats have been ordered.   I am hoping they'll be here sometime next week.  In the meantime, I get to reduce my eating to accommodate reduced activity and soon as I'm able I will re-start my strength training and walk in the neighborhood (weather permitting).

Remembering to be kind to myself

I dole out tons of advice on the forums @ MyFoodDiary.com and often sound like a broken record with this one particular bit: Be Kind To Yourself.

I thought I had developed an exercise schedule that would be challenging enough yet allow me to be kind to myself.   I'm beginning to have doubts.   Last night, I felt ill and achy after my workout. And today, rather sullen and moody.  I decided I didn't want to workout tonight.  At least I didn't want to spend 42 minutes huffing and puffing on the NordicTerrorist, oops, I mean NordicTrack.  I decided to give myself a break and instead did the yoga practice I should have gotten up to do this morning, but didn't.  Normally I'd feel guilty about this.  I need my cardio.  I also need the breathing and stretching and mental focus of yoga.  And I also need strength training.  Most importantly, I must find the right balance so that I am being kind to myself.

There'll be more on this topic.  

No Time is Not an Excuse

I've been seeing a lot of questions about how to eat healthfully when you 'don't have time' to plan, shop and prepare your food.  I am not a mother and I don't have 3 active teen-agers and a husband to feed.  I, did, however, grow-up in that environment.  My mother and father worked full time.  My brothers and I held part-time jobs and were very active in school.  And we sat down together and ate dinner together as a family.   The dinner table figures heavily in my childhood memories and I believe that one family activity helped shape me more than almost anything else we did.   For we're southerners and if there's food and people in the same place, there's going to be talk.  And talk we did.   I learned to shape my thoughts and debate ideas with my parents.  I'm not classically educated, but today, I hold my own with many people who are.  I know how to think and I thank my parents for that.

But I digress.  Back to the time thing.  I think that in many areas of this country we're busier than we were 30 years ago.  I don't think that's a good thing, but it is our reality.  The "food" industry as capitalized on that and as they've increased their profits by shrinking the quality of what they sell as "food" our waistlines have expanded.  When I was growing up, we ate vegetables that had been harvested from our garden and canned for winter consumption.   We didn't eat this way because we were food snobs, but out of necessity.   There was a recession going on and food was expensive.   My parents, while working full time, planned and planted and nurtured a garden big enough to feed five people during the growing months as well as provide enough produce for preservation for the winter months.  My father did the gardening - prepping the soil, planting, etc.  We ALL did the harvesting.  And my mother, with my "assistance" preserved the food - either canning or freezing hundreds of quarts of tomatoes, green beens, english peas, corn, squash, beets, pickles, peaches, fig preserves, pear honey, blackberry jam.  And more.  When did she do this?  At night, after dinner, she'd fire up the pressure-cooker and go to town.   Did she complain "I don't have time?"  No.  She did what she needed to do to provide real food to her family.   

I'm not suggesting we plow up our yards and grow our own veggies - but if you can, do.  I am suggesting, however, that we need to rethink our priorities and put healthy food back at the top of the list.  And we know we can't trust Con-Agra to sell us real, healthy food.  We need to buy base ingredients as locally as possible and then prepare it ourselves.   Since most of us are busy, we need to plan how we're going to accomplish this.

Here's my plan for the week:   This weekend, I made yogurt for myself and baked sweet potatoes to enjoy this week.  Last night, I took leftovers from a meal last week and added some steamed broccoli from last night's dinner and portioned out two lunches.  Tonight, after dinner, I'll cut celery and carrots and prepare a yogurt dip for snack variety.   Yes, I'll be tired after working all day, then working out and then cleaning the kitchen after dinner.  But - I'm worth the effort of making sure I have a healthy snack of real food instead of risking what the food industry wants me to buy from the vending machine.

And that's the point - I'm worth the time and effort it takes to eat real, healthy food.  So are you and so are your children.  Re-think things.  What can you do in 15 minutes today to have a healthy snack tomorrow?  

When I was single and super busy, I did take some shortcuts:  Amy's or other high quality frozen dinners if I didn't have anything else for dinner.  That's preferable to McDonald's.  In fact, a peanut butter sandwich is preferable to McDonald's - if you're not allergic to peanuts.  Stonyfield plain yogurt with granola or Kashi is preferable to Pop-Tarts and takes about 2 seconds longer.  Not everything we eat has to take a long time to prepare.  Think about what you can eat that requires minimal effort.  

Try, if you can to block some time on the weekends to cook for the weekend.  It doesn't have to be gourmet:  plain baked chicken or turkey, sweet potatoes and broccoli.   All told these dishes will take about 1 hour to prepare and you've got lunch for a week.  

Please don't misunderstand.  I recognize we're all super busy.  My time-constraints are far less than most people's and I appreciate that.  I also think that busy or not, with some planning and taking advantage of nature's own fast foods (fruits, nuts and veggies), we can eat healthfully.

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