What a Cheat!

These cheat meals are something else! I have definitely been taking maximum advantage of them. While I have only been allowing myself two cheat meals a week, they have all been HUGE calorie bombs. 

My brother came to spend the night Friday, and we debated over a number of different places, but decided to just keep it easy and pick up some Pizza Hut from down the street.  So, we each had a couple of slices of pizza plus at least one Pizza Slider.

Saturday is where it gets really bad. To be fair, we started off with a healthy-ish breakfast of 'Spring Eggs Benedict'.

After breakfast, we headed out to Indianapolis. My brother had texted earlier in the week and asked, "if I do come down this weekend, how about Indy/Cheeseburger in Paradise?" My immediate response was "wow, way to wreck my diet!". So, we started a day with a little bit of shopping then it was on to what was almost certainly the most unhealthy meal of our healthy days. Complete with an appetizer, entree, and 1.5 drinks.     

Onion Strings: Shared 3 ways

Francisco and I split the (veggie) burger!

  

My drink next to Franciscos' - very cute and super tasty!

House Pina Colada

We each had our own pretty drink, and then shared the pina colada since it was on special that day. 

My brother got a lucky bonus - they were out of the beer he had ordered, so the waiter brought him a sample of 5 different beers to choose from.  

Homemade Burgers & Bacon

I think one of the problems with eating healthy is it can get BORING. So, we've tried to mix it up by trying new recipes.  This weekend we made homemade veggie burgers using a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. 

Here are all the ingredients:

Cooking:

Yummy veggie burger: 

We also made some homemade sweet potato fries:

 

I don't even like sweet potatoes usually, but these weren't half-bad. The burger was good when we made it Saturday, but we were going to have the leftovers for dinner on Monday, and it just wasn't tasting good to me.  Tasted fine to Francisco though. I opted for a TLT - similar to a BLT with Tempeh bacon subbed in. 

We had made homemade tempeh bacon to have for breakfast Sunday. I had it with a poached egg and some grapes. I think the flavor was a little overpowering when it's served by itself, but in a sandwich, the flavors mellow out and meld together. The jury's still out on whether I like tempeh or not; I guess it really just depends on how it's prepared. 

I also gave in and decided to have my second cheat meal on Sunday afternoon.  We ordered Indian and tried the Malai Kofta with Paneer Naan.  Both items I've never tried before, and both were very yummy!  Our order wasn't ready on time, so they threw in an order of Gulab Jamun. 

(Not) A Lovely Day for a Road Trip

Ah, what a lovely day for a road trip - not!  Our trip to Michigan took us across Indiana, briefly into Ohio, and then up to Ann Arbor in Michigan. I don't think we saw the sun once. It was an overcast, cold day. Of course, this wasn't supposed to be a fun trip anyway - we were headed up for the husband's on-site job interview.

The day started out healthily enough - I still got up early (I actually got to sleep in till 6:30, ha!) and worked out. I had some coffee, but I definitely should have brought more for the road. We did pack healthy snacks, so I munched on kiwi and grapes (and a carrot raisin muffin) until we pulled into Fort Wayne around 10:30.  

We had built in a stop here to get an early lunch at the Pembroke Bakery & Cafe, which specializes in vegan options.  I had the Creole Tofu sandwich, and Francisco had the Mediterranean Tofu.  

After the interview later in the day, we headed a little deeper into Michigan to check out a restaurant in Ann Arbor. Along the way, we passed what may be my favorite highway sign ever: Prison Area Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers. This sign always amuses me! Although it was a little discomforting to know that Francisco might be working so close to a prison... 

My plan for dinner was that this would be my cheat meal and it would span multiple states because there was another restaurant in Fort Wayne I was hoping to stop at on the way home.

This plan started out really well with some amazing food at Seva. We shared a mushroom slider, which was a yummy start to the meal. 

Francisco had the Ravioli with Artichoke Sauce, and I had the Seva Club. My club came with tofurky, smoked coconut, avocado, lettuce, tomatoes, and vegan aioli on toasted avalon pullman bread. We left with half of our entrees in boxes so we would have room for the next stop.    

Sadly, the restaurant we had wanted to visit was just closing up for the night when we pulled up, so we did not get to eat there. There was a Dairy Queen a few stores over, so we ended the night with a Caramel Cheesequake Royal Shake...and a 2.5 hour drive still to go! 

So...not the best day for a road trip, but at least there was some decent food involved to help make up for it.  And...I mostly consider dessert to be part of dinner, so the DQ rolls into our dinner for a single cheat meal for Friday. ;-)

Day 4 - Healthy Planning Keeps the Junk Food Away?

Breakfast has mostly consisted of fresh fruit this week, although today I had some Greek yogurt with caramelized almonds.

I think this yogurt is really yummy - the almonds are amazing. I really like how high in protein Greek yogurt is compared to regular yogurt.  I didn't really even like Greek yogurt when I first tried it, but now I couldn't even tell you the last time I ate regular yogurt.  That boost in protein is definitely appreciated; being vegetarian, I need to be more mindful about getting protein in my diet more regularly.

So far, so good on being healthy.

But here's the problem. Tomorrow I'm driving up to Michigan.  And it's going to be an 8-hour drive round-trip. What is my favorite thing to do during road trips? Well, besides sing along to the radio, I would have to say eat. And the bad kind of eat, like grabbing some cheese sticks at Arby's or a Frappucino at Starbucks. Plus, I already have a list of like three restaurants I want to stop at along the way. The plan is to bring a cooler so that leftovers won't be an issue and I won't feel pressured to eat more than I need to. I think I will definitely need to plan ahead to make sure I have healthy snacks on hand, but I'm thinking this trip is definitely going to have me tapping into my cheat meal (or meals!).  

Day 1 - Missing the Weekend Already

Wow, one day in and I already feel like I'm starving!  I did have a really fat weekend though. Which consisted of this giant calzone from Three Wise Men Brewing Company while visiting a friend in Indy. 

This was seriously like a large pizza folded in half.

Dessert was another calorie bomb when we stopped at Parcha Sweets and I had a Blueberry Streusel cupcake and a Cuatro Leches dessert.  I love Tres Leches cake, so I was excited to try this.  It was soooo good!

OK, so that is a far cry from my meals on Monday. I had some papaya and Greek yogurt for breakfast.

We got a fresh papaya when we stopped at Whole Foods over the weekend. These things look um...less than appetizing...on the inside.  

I was supposed to be limiting processed foods...but that's not like an OFFICIAL rule...so I had this vegetable lasagna for lunch. 

I

I generally take a multi-vitamin along with a flaxseed oil supplement during lunch.

I know that I regularly take less than recommended - I usually just pop a pill or two - but I stopped to read the serving size to take the actual recommended amount. 2 flaxseed oil supplements...which isn't so bad, but SIX of these little guys. That's a lot to swallow!  Ugh, I might need to explore other brands when it's time to buy new vitamins - but it is so hard to find these supplements without gelatin!

Dinner consisted of way too many vegetables for my liking - potatoes, peppers, and green beans - and could have used a splash more flavor.

I had just enough calories for half a serving of homemade vegan strawberry shortcake.

Healthy Rules

I considered doing a cleanse, such as this Whole Living Action Plan that I read about in a magazine, but I decided to just build my own Get Healthy plan. This way I can customize it to my own needs (plus, I am worried I will feel like I'm STARVING if I do a cleanse. I think I might try it some other time though...).   

So, here are my rules for the Three Week Get Healthy Challenge! 

1. My daily calorie intake will average 1,200 calories. I consulted a few different websites, including this Healthy Weight Forum to get an idea of the number of calories I should consume. I decided I would set a goal of losing 3 lbs in 3 weeks, so this came out to just over 1,200 calories a day. 

2. I will eat 2 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables per day.

3. I will participate in 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week, including muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days per week. 

4. I will allow for 1-2 splurge meals each week. That will be a maximum of six cheat meals over a three-week period (although I'm hoping to get by with less!).

5. I will keep an exercise and food log regularly.

Those are the general rules. I am also going to try to avoid processed foods as much as possible.

Happy Healthy Days

Last week, while paying careful attention to a Service Center Costing webinar, I started jotting down some of my thoughts about what being healthy means to me. From those basic thoughts, I wanted to seek some additional guidance to make sure I was making the right healthy decisions. I think that everyone has their own specific idea of what 'being healthy' means and not everyone would agree with my decisions, but that's okay! Here's how I'm going to try to be healthier.

I'm not sure how well you can make out my hand-written list, but I'll discuss the relevant points below.

The CDC says that I should eat about 2 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables every day.  I'm probably lucky if I get one serving of each on a normal day. 

Exercise-related guidance was a little more confusing. The CDC offers several different options for getting the right amount of physical activity. I decided to keep it simple with their first suggestion for important health benefits, which indicates that adults need at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups.  This is in line with what I usually do. I generally work out for a half-hour in the morning before work, and it's usually a mix of cardio and strength training.  

So, where do cookies and french fries fit in to this plan? I know foods such as these regularly factor into my weekends...I find that I can do okay eating fairly healthy during the week, but Friday often kicks off a weekend of poor eating. So, forget about a cheat day, we're talking like 2.5 'cheat' days every week on a normal basis for me.  A cheat meal seems to be more of an accepted practice, maybe allowing for one or two splurges in a given week. 

I've read some conflicting things about whether vitamins and supplements are necessary or if they can be more harmful than good for you.  Given that I'm a vegetarian, I think I'm going to continue to take them to make sure I'm not missing out on any essential nutrients. 

As for some of my other notes, processed food, stress, and alcohol are all obviously bad, so I will try to avoid those as much as possible.