CHASING AWAY THE BLUES

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

   “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
   the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”  Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

 And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Is. 6:1-8

Tonite in our bible study, we had a “free study” night.  There were only a few of us, so we decided to read our favorite passages of scripture.  Mine is Isaiah 6 1-8.  I love it because it starts off with Isaiah seeing the true power and glory of our Lord – He sees His splendor…he sees the the seraphim singing to Him and worshiping Him -singing Holy, Holy, Holy.  Then Isaiah sees his own shame, and says Oh Lord, I am so unclean.  So an angel touches his lips with a live coal, and he becomes cleansed.  Then God asks the question: who will go for us, and Isaiah says “here am I – send me!”  This is Isaiah’s response to God’s Glory – he becomes eager to become his servant – to represent him, to give his all for him. 

Our response to God’s Glory should also be to want to serve Him with all of our hearts.  But serving isn’t a burden, it’s a joy.  Sometimes I forget this and I have to be reminded again.  I have a history of depression, and I forget how that history was practically erased after I started serving the Lord. 

Yesterday I was feeling kind of blue, so I decided to do a little bit of extra service – a project that wasn’t part of my usual routine.  So, after church I hung out in my church’s warehouse and helped with the distribution of donated items to people who were victims of the fire on West Napoleon Avenue.  Soon, my spirits were lifted.  Not for the cliche reasons of “seeing people worse off than myself,” or because being “altruistic” feels good, but because I was having fun.  Serving is fun.  I had a great time, I met some people I didn’t know before, I got to know some other people better, and I got to serve.  

Sometimes, our joy can be lifted by doing little unexpected and unplanned service projects.  There are many ways we can find to serve every day – maybe the person sitting next to you right now needs help.  I’ve listed a few other suggestions below on how you can be a blessing and chase away the blues:

Jesus Miracle Power, an addiction rehab & halfway house, is in need of sheets and blankets for twin beds.  They can be dropped off at 8309 Apple Street in Hollygrove.  Or contact us and we will deliver them for you. 

Check out the Unified Singles Association facebook page – they have plans to go to the New Orleans Mission on the 8th of September, as well as other service opportunities. 

Go to prison during the Bill Glass Weekend of Champions on the weekend of October 13-15. You can sign up at www.billglass.org/events. 

Want to work with youth? Check out an organization new to the New Orleans area – First Priority – which teaches teens how to create and run Christian clubs in their schools.  More info can be found at www.fpnola.org. 

Want to serve people who are poor?  Go to NewOrleansMission.org and sign up to help serve meals, paint or do repairs there. 

Do something at church you’ve never done before – serve in the nursery, greet, go visit a member who is sick or in the hospital

Also,  please begin praying about our annual Christmas outreach – we may do 2 or more this year.  It’s time to start collecting hygiene items and food! Contact us at dallas@gatheringmagazine.com if you want to be involved. 

These are just a few opportunities, there are plenty more.  Look around wherever you are – and bring some joy into your life by blessing the lives of others. 

DAY 18 OF EATING HEALTHY IN THE MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

I didn’t eat anything new today, had scrambled eggs on wheat toast for brunch and leftover chicken veggie whole wheat pasta for dinner.  But I do have a recipe below for an Egg & Feta Cheese sandwich I fixed a couple of weeks ago.

There are only 12 days left in the Merry Merry Month of May.  Will I resort to my old eating habits on June 1st?  I hope not. Part of the reason for this blog is to learn and to explore, to go deeper, and to try to figure out how I got to where I am today.  So, today, I want to talk about why we form the eating habits that we have.  I think that understanding why we overeat or choose unhealthy food will help us to make wiser choices in the future.

Grief:  Around two years ago, we found out my sister, Tracy, had breast cancer.  During her time of treatment and hospitalizations, and then after she went to heaven, I found myself eating   a lot of comfort food: spaghetti and meatballs, fried chicken, Mexican food, all-you-can-eat buffets, poboys, french fries, fried shrimp – and that’s not even counting the desserts – like the ice cream I’d stop to buy on the way home to eat for dinner.  I found this food oddly comforting while I was handling the stress of watching my sister suffer and then grieving her loss.

Boredom:  I worked in an office that had three snack jars filled with different snacks every day.  Out of boredom, I would get up and walk away from my desk and walk straight to the kitchen to munch on Chex Mix, chocolate candy, pita chips, cookies, cheese puffs, cheez-its and whatever else they put in there.

Fun:  I am blessed with a lot of friends, and I love visitng with them over meals.  We also attend a lot of events – barbeques, fundraisers, church & business meetings – and most of them involve food.  I’m in Christian Motorcyclists Assn., and we go on a lot of long rides, and they always seem to involve eating.  One day when we were trying to think of a slogan for our chapter, one guy suggested it should be “No Buffet Too Far.”

Our Thinking Processes: Yesterday, when I was so hungry because I accidentally skipped lunch, my old self would have been thrilled to go to Tastee Donuts to get a Kastle burger and fries.  I would have felt justified eating them because I hadn’t eaten all day.  In fact, I’d have even found a way to pat myself on the back for skipping a meal, and therefore, I deserved the treat of the Kastle burger.  I’ve found that I’ve been thinking this way for years.  I starve myself between meals, and this gives me a perfect excuse to eat whatever I want for dinner, and then I overeat.  And I convince myself that it’s ok because I skipped a meal.

I love to cook and I love to eat. Nuff said.

Ok, so those are some reasons why I think I overeat.  Do you identify with any of these reasons?  Can you think of some more?  Knowing these things, how can I do things differently going forward?

Grief:  I think that to eat less during these times, we must share our feelings more.  Cry, get mad, talk to friends, vent, exercise.  We need to do things to get the feelings out so we don’t try to stuff them down with food.  We will eat out more often during these times, and people will bring us food, but we just have to exercise it off or make healthy choices.

Boredom:  We all need to walk away from our desks from time to time.  Instead of going to the kitchen or the snack kiosk, go for a walk around the block.  You’ll feel much better!

Fun:  Don’t stop having fun!  Even enjoy the occasional splurge.  But splurge when you want it, not just because it’s there.  If we find ourselves attending a lot of events, we just have to choose healthy options and sometimes forego the high fat choices.  For instance, at a barbeque, eat the meat, but not the bread and desserts.  At all-you-can-eat buffets, eat sushi and salad.  You’ll thank yourself later.

More dos and don’ts:

Don’t allow yourself to get hungry.  If you are starving, you will make bad choices.

Don’t watch TV or read while you’re eating.  If you aren’t aware you are eating, you will keep on eating even after you’re full and you won’t have enjoyed your food as much.

Don’t become a hermit.  Just because you are eating healthy, don’t stop going out, even if food will be there.  It will take a lot of willpower, but exercising our willpower is a good thing.  If we avoid going out while dieting, we will not know how to handle the temptations when we resume going out after our diet is “over.”  Instead, keep your life and practice eating wisely while living it.

Do eat small snacks (healthy ones) between meals.  My friend Sue told me today that she keeps a container of cashews in her car, so if she gets too hungry, she can eat a few nuts to tide her over.

Do be an encouragement to others.  Instead of relying on your friends and family to support you, be a good example for them.  A friend told me today that because she’s been reading my blog, her pants buttoned a little easier today.  Hearing that was a nice bonus.

Do make it fun.  Be creative with your meals and make them look appealing and colorful.  Enjoy every bite.

Can you think of some other dos and don’ts?

EGGIE FETA SPINACH WRAP

Simple and delicious!

Just mix it all together and wrap it up!

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DAY 17 OF EATING HEALTHY IN THE MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

Today was a good example of getting caught unawares.  Since I started this blog, I’ve been able to plan my days and to make sure I eat regularly so I don’t get overly hungry and slip up.  When I’ve eaten out, for the most part I’ve known in advance I was going, or I was able to find a restaurant that served healthy food.  And most restaurants do have healthy alternatives, but today I got caught up in unexpected circumstances, so I had to come home and regroup instead of staying out with my friends.  Oh well, it happens.  I did learn  a lesson from this.

It started this morning. I knew I’d have a busy day, so before my 10 a.m. appointment, I fixed a fruit salad (pic and recipe below).  I expected the appointment to last about an hour, then I was going to come home and eat a lite lunch, then get my motorcycle and ride it to an event.  The 700 Club was doing a story about a brother in CMA, and we were all going to meet at noon so that they could film us riding together, then they were going to interview Billy.  I didn’t have time after my appointment to eat, but I thought that we were just going to ride our bikes for a few miles and be filmed, and then we’d be done.  For the most part, that’s what happened, but some of us ended up hanging out.  Next thing I knew, it was 3:30 and I hadn’t eaten anything since the fruit in the morning.  I was in the hot sun for a lot of the day and I was really starting to feel hungry.  Finally, the crowd decided to go to Tastee Donuts.  I knew that there probably wasn’t anything at Tastee I could eat, so I decided to come home and cook a healthy meal.

While I missed spending additional time with my friends, I really don’t feel like I missed out on any food by not going to Tastee.  I love Kastle burgers and french fries, but I didn’t feel tempted to eat them today.  And, if I would have had some protein this morning, or if I’d have eaten a lite lunch, I’d have been perfectly happy to go with them and have a diet coke.  But since I needed to eat, I came home.

I got a little ambitious today – I fixed a pasta dish that was healthy and good.  It took less than 15 minutes to prepare, and it was very satisfying.  I needed that after I allowed myself to get so hungry.  Here is the recipe:

Chicken-Veggie-Whole Wheat Pasta

Whole wheat pasta (1/2 box, and I froze the leftovers for a future meal)

1 chopped chicken breast (I used my leftover chicken breast from yesterday, but you can also grill one on the George)

1/2 bag of frozen mixed veggies (I microwaved them)

Parsley

Chopped Onion

Parmesan Cheese

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Juice of 1 Lemon

I fixed the pasta as directed, then stirred everything in and added salt, pepper & garlic.  The lemon made it tangy, and it was really good.  If you prefer a creamier texture you can use Greek yogurt or lite Cream of Mushroom soup.

Here’s a picture of the fruit salad I had for breakfast.  It was strawberries, grapes and banana with plain Greek yogurt.  It probably looks like it has too much yogurt on it, but since the yogurt is healthy I did it on purpose.

Here’s our sea of motorcycles from this morning:

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DAY 16 OF EATING HEALTHY IN THE MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

Today was another busy day, so no exciting recipes, just some pictures.  I had lunch at Olive Garden – boy it smelled good in there, and I LOVE their pasta, but we only had the soup and salad.  The salad was really good, I was able to skip the bread, which was kind of hard to do, and I didn’t eat the croutons either – but I still enjoyed it.  For dinner I had a grilled chicken on wheat tortilla – boring, but I’ll share the recipe anyway below.

Tonite, after our Christian Motorcyclists Assn. meeting, we went out for coffee.  I’m somewhat saddened to report that this was what I had at Cafe du Monde:

…when everyone else had this:

I’m not too sad tho – I’d have been a lot sadder if we’d have been at Krispy Kreme, that would have been really hard for me to avoid.  I did ask whether inhaling the powdered sugar would count – but I managed to just drink my half empty glass of water.  All kidding aside, it really wasn’t that hard to say no – if I’d have really really wanted to have a beignet, I would have had one.  I remember one time when I was quitting smoking, I was about to cave in, and a good friend said – think about it – if you really really really want it, have it.  After thinking about it, I didn’t have it.  Sometimes we want something because it’s there, or because we can’t have it, but we don’t really really want it.

Here is the grilled chicken tortilla I had today with the recipe.  It was good and filling.  Tomorrow I hope to have a little bit of time to prepare something interesting.

1 wheat tortilla

Lite sour cream

Sliced tomato

Sliced avocado

1 tbsp shredded cheese

Mixed green leaf lettuce

1/2 chicken breast – I browned it in the skillet with orange flavored water and onion – it was ok, but I think I’ll stick with the lemon water recipe I did earlier – or my friend Sue said searing the chicken in light vegetable broth would be good too.

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DAY 15 OF EATING HEALTHY IN THE MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

We’re  halfway through May!  But what exactly does that mean? Does it mean that on June 1st I can run out and buy a bucket of fried chicken and a gallon of chocolate ice cream?  Does it mean I can resume ordering burgers & fries every time I eat out?  The good thing about doing something for a month is that there is an end in sight – the bad thing about eating healthy for a month is that there is an end in sight.  So, I’m going to make it through May (I hope), but I’m also going to try to make it through June too, and July, and 2011 and 2012.  I know at some point I’ll eat some fried chicken and ice cream, but hopefully not all at once!   I just keep thinking about how bad I felt when I was eating so much high-fat food, and I’m still enjoying feeling healthier and lighter.  I know someday I’ll eat something fried and/or sweet, but hopefully I’ll do it on rare occasions and then return to eating healthy most of the time.  That’s the ideal for all of us – to eat healthy and enjoy the occasional treat.

Today’s recipe is kind of boring, it’s tuna on a whole wheat tortilla.  I’ve been really busy this week, so I haven’t had time to prepare a fancy recipe, but I guess that’s one of the points of this blog – even if we’re super busy, we can still eat healthy.  I bought groceries for the week, I spent around $35 – that included chicken breast, greek yogurt (no sugar in it), a bag of mixed greens, some blue runner white beans, tomatoes, avocado, strawberries, bananas and oranges.  I’ll make some interesting concoctions with those items, and will also create a good pasta dish during the week.

Here’s the recipe for the tuna on the tortilla.  I have to say, I did enjoy it even though it was easy.  This was my brunch, for dinner I teach a bible study on Mondays at Piccadilly, and I got a veggie trio of cabbage, broccoli and black-eyed peas.  I didn’t get the bread because I had the tortillas earlier today.

TUNA TORTILLA

1 can tuna (I buy light now instead of albacore – it’s cheaper and I read that it has less mercury)

1 stalk celery

Avocado (now that I’m using less mayo, a soft avocado adds a creamy texture that is missing from not using as much mayo)

1 tablespoon parsley (I heard parsley was healthy, so I add to almost everything I eat now)

Diced onion

Chopped dill pickles (I chop my own)

1/2 tbsp mayo; 1/2 tbsp mustard

1 whole wheat tortilla

Just mix it all together, put it on the tortilla and roll it up; I added the mixed greens lettuce I had bought.  This makes 2 very filling meals.  Garnish with fruit for added color, texture and taste.

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WEEKEND 2 OF EATING HEALTHY IN THE  MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

I’ve made it through the 2nd weekend; my clothes are fitting a little better, and I’m definitely feeling more energetic and healthy.  Tomorrow will be the halfway point!  I had a few temptations over the weekend, but I’m still finding them kind of easy to overcome.  I think that two things that really keep me on track are 1) serving our community, and 2) spending time with friends who are supportive and loving.  I recommend thost two things highly! I got to do those things this weekend, and it was a true blessing.  I did eat out twice, and both times we chose McAllisters.  It’s close to my church (where I was all weekend) and they have a Veggie sandwich on whole wheat with fruit on the side. .It comes with some kind of ranch dressing, but I avoided that – I used  spicy brown mustard instead and it was pretty good.

MCALLISTERS VEGGIE ON WHOLE WHEAT HOAGIE

Today at the grocery store, I noticed a lady with a cart full of pre-packaged, boxed foods.  She had bottled coffees, hamburger helper, frozen pizza, and other things of that nature.  I didn’t see any fruit or veggies.  Boxed food is not good for us for a number of reasons.  First, it’s more expensive; second, it is full of preservatives and additives like sodium, sugar and food coloring.  Third, it’s not good for our environment; fourth, boxed food usually doesn’t taste as good as it looks on the box, and fifth, it usually contains a lot of calories.  It’s not that difficult to make those same dishes on our own, so we can avoid a lot of those pitfalls.  For instance, instead of hamburger helper, we can brown ground meat, add some broth, veggies and potatoes or rice, and simmer.  We can make our own mac & cheese by buying pasta and adding olive oil and parmesan cheese.  We can even make our own pizzas in a healthy way, by taking a whole wheat pita, adding veggies and cheese and putting it in the oven until the cheese melts.  In other words, when it comes to preparing our food, it’s time to “think outside the box!”  .

Other than my meals at McAllisters, I had a chicken breast with corn last night, and tonite I fixed a bean burrito.  I know I’ve already fixed bean burritos this month, but I like them – they are healthy and cheap.  I did change the ingredients a little.  This one had black beans, lite cheese, lite sour cream, salsa, avocado, lettuce and tomatoes.  I added fresh onions with the black beans to cook them down a little.  And a further hint – if you don’t like the taste of the canned black beans, you can rinse them out; this gets rid of some of the sodium too.  Here is a picture:

BLACK BEAN BURRITO

This weekend, at our church, we had tables set up spotlighting nonprofits and volunteer opportunities.  Since that is what Gathering Magazine is all about, we had a table.  A lot of people were excited about our mission and vision, and they were also eager to hear more about this Healthy U blog.  We received some great feedback, which we are thankful for. If you have any ideas, suggestions, recipes, or even if you don’t agree about something, be sure to let us know, we are always happy to hear from you.  You can email me at Dallas@gatheringmagazine.com.

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DAY 12 OF EATING HEALTHY IN THE MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

Today was a busy day.  In addition to working, I ate lunch out (again!) – Fridays are lunch with mom. Then I went to the Jefferson Chamber’s Crawfish Boil in the evening.  There were a lot of temptations in both places, and some of them looked really good, especially when, at Applebys, for $1 extra we could have gotten hot brownie bites.  Yum!  But I didn’t give in.  I was telling someone at the crawfish boil tonite that writing this blog helps me to say no.  Maybe it’s true what they say, that keeping a food diary keeps us from overeating.  Hmm – typing the word “overeating” makes me realize that I haven’t overeaten in almost 2 weeks!  I used to do it almost every day!  Boy I feel good!

Anyway, more about Applebys below, but I’ll share my easy dinner recipe first.  After that, you can compare what I had for lunch and what my mom had and you tell me what looks better.

TURKEY-CHEESE-MUSTARD WRAP

This is a wheat tortilla with mustard, turkey, the spinach I bought this week, and a sprinkling of low fat shredded cheese.  On the side I have the grapes, radishes and carrots I bought last week, and the celery I bought this week, along with some olives just to make it interesting.

Now – I’ve been talking about how interesting and fun healthy food can be — I thought I’d show a contrast.  Today at Applebys, I got the soup and salad, and my mom got a steak sandwich with onion straws and a side of onion rings.  You be the judge – which meal looks more pleasing?  I LOVE burgers and onion rings, but I think mine looked more appetizing – and I felt much better after I ate it – I wasn’t full – and bonus – I haven’t taken one of my Nexiums in over a week!  Here are the pictures:

     Versus

Bonus #2 – I got the lunch soup and salad with water, and my portion was $6 – my mom got the steak sandwich and iced tea, and her portion was $13 (altho I paid half, she IS my mom, after all).  So, eating healthy today was also budget-friendly.

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DAY 11 OF EATING HEALTHY IN THE MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

Well, it’s day 11.  I’m impatiently awaiting results.  It seems that feeling better starts right away, and that is good.  I do feel healthier now.  And, I can report, for whatever it’s worth, that my rings are loosening up!  It’s still not the end result I want, but it shows I’m making some kind of progress. And I’m thinking that my clothes are a little bit more comfortable than they were two weeks ago, but it will take more time until I’m walking around in baggy clothes.  But time does fly by – and we can either look back and say I wish I would have… or we can say I’m glad I did…  So, I’m glad I’m sticking to it!

When writing a daily blog about the same subject, you would think that a person would run out of things to say.  Sometimes I’ve wondered what to write about, but so far something has always come to mind.

That wasn’t a problem today though, I felt as though there was encouragement and divine inspiration all around.  First, I received some encouragement this morning when my friend Sue called and told me about everything she has accomplished in the past couple of days.  She got a lot done in her house, and while she was working she said she received some inspiraton from Healthy U – she thought, when cleaning, why not use it as an opportunity to get healthy?  While mopping, turn up the praise music and dance!  Way to go Sue, you got a lot done and turned a boring task into something fun and positive!

VOILA!  FROM FISH TACOS TO HEALTHY GRILLED FISH SALAD

Then, I attended our church’s Develop Her business ladies’ life group today at Sun Ray Grill.  We meet every week at noon; it has a pre-set menu, and we can choose from four items.  When I first saw this week’s menu, I was stumped.  I had to order something, but the only salad choice had peanut oil on it, and I didn’t think I would care for that. Everything else came either with chips or fries.  One item on the menu was fish tacos with guacamole and tortilla chips.  That was the closest thing to healthy I could find.  So I asked if I could substitute the guacamole and chips for lettuce and tomato.  Then, when I received my lunch, I removed the fish from the taco shells, and voila – grilled fish and salad.  It was surprisingly tasty and really healthy!

I’m happy that I can still do all of my activities and continue to eat healthy at the same time.  I enjoy meeting with our life group, where we are able to learn about growing in leadership while studying scripture.  I do believe that, even if we are trying to change our eating habits, it does not mean our lives should be interrupted.  We should still do everything we used to do – and if eating is involved, we should just learn how to turn something unhealthy into something healthier.  I know it can be done!  Tomorrow, I will face the same issue when I attend the Jefferson Chamber’s Networking Crawfish Boil, although for me, that probably won’t be much of an issue since I don’t like crawfish!

 OUR LIFE GROUP ENJOYING OUR LESSON

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DAY 10 OF EATING HEALTHY IN THE MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

Day 10 has arrived, double digits, yeah!  It’s not even two weeks yet and still I was hoping my clothes would be too loose.  I know I’m being impatient.  I realize I’m not even halfway through the month yet.  I also know that this healthy eating experiment has to last longer than 31 days.

Tonight on WWL’s Weight Loss Wednesday, they had a  young man on there who has lost 175 pounds on his own.  He hasn’t had a soda or other sweets in a very long time.  He looks great!  He said that he was addicted to food, just as a person is addicted to alcohol, so I wanted to explore the similarities and differences.  I know that if a person is addicted to alcohol, they can never have alcohol again once they quit.  If they have one drink, they probably won’t be able to stop.  We know that the same is true for food, but we can’t stop eating completely like an alcoholic has to stop drinking completely.  We do have to eat.  So, if we are addicted to food, sometimes, when we return to eating “normally,” we go right back to our old habits.

But I think there is a different way to look at it.  Recently, I was on a local TV show.  The lady who interviewed me was 71, but she looked like she was 40 to me.  She was thin and very healthy looking.  She told me that she came from a family that was overweight, so she always watched her weight, and 30 years ago, she stopped eating sugar.  I was astonished – I said you haven’t had a piece of candy or cake in 30 years? And she said, nope.  And she looked happy and content to me.

I wonder if people who are addicted to food do have to stop eating cold turkey – not healthy food, but unhealthy food.  I know that once I allow myself to eat sweets again, it will be very hard to control it.  So maybe I shouldn’t start eating sweets again.  Well, it’s a thought.  I think at this point, during the month of May, I’ll just stick with the old mantra “one day at a time” and go from there.

Today I had scrambled eggs on wheat toast for brunch.  For dinner I had tuna with celery, onions, pickles, cayenne pepper and equal parts of mayo and mustard (no bread or crackers).  I tried to take a picture of the tuna, but it didn’t come out too well; but I’m sure we’ve all seen tuna before. . But my light lunch was an interesting concoction – here is a picture.

LITE LUNCH HODGEPODGE

Eating healthy can be boring, but sometimes we can make our lunch interesting just by having a variety of different foods with different colors and textures on our plate.  Here, I started with sliced turkey and I rolled it up with some shredded low fat cheese inside.  I garnished with radishes and carrots I had left over from last week, and the celery, strawberries and grapes I bought this week.  I loved how every bite was completely different – the crunchy celery, the tangy radish, the sweet strawberries and the salty turkey.  And it took a long time to eat, which I like.  I found myself thinking that I enjoyed this a lot more than the greasy potato chips I would normally have with a turkey sandwich.

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DAY 9 OF HEALTHY EATING IN THE MERRY MERRY MONTH OF MAY

Day 9 has passed and I guess I’m at the ho-hum stage of eathing healthy.  I’m anxious to see results in how my clothes fit, but of course it’s much too soon for that.

You may have noticed that one thing I’ve been doing this month is a big no-no.  I’ve been skipping breakfast.  All experts say that we need to eat breakfast to get our metabolism moving.  I just can’t seem to be able to eat in the morning, but this morning I did have an early lunch, then a late afternoon snack and then dinner.  I do think it’s true that we need three meals per day, and I’m going to work on that.  I was creative three times today and I think you’ll like each of these recipes.

I’ll start with dinner first, because it was a hot meal, but easy to prepare.  I used the spinach and avocado I bought for this week, but I used the sour cream, tortillas, cheese and salsa I had from last week.

CHICKEN TORTILLA

1 chicken breast, seared in the frying pan with onions

1/2 avocado 

Shredded cheese

1 whole wheat tortilla

Sour Cream

Salsa

Fresh spinach

Just slice the cooked chicken breast and pile everything on.  It was good!  If I’d have had a lime, I’d have seared the chicken in lime juice, that would have added a real Mexican flair.

MID AFTERNOON SNACK – WALDORF SALAD

I don’t think I did justice with this picture, because this was really good.  It’s 1 apple, one celery stalk, and the cranberries & almonds I still had from last week, with a tiny bit of mayonnaise.  You can also use granola cereal.

BRUNCH – TURKEY ON OAT BREAD

This was sliced turkey, fresh spinach, tomato, avocado and fat free ranch dressing, with a side of the strawberries & grapes I bought this week.  I also added some olives for a different taste.

I feel quite full and satisfied today and I’m not craving any unhealthy food like I used to on past diets. Maybe it’s because I’m concentrating on feeling better instead of what I’m missing.  I also wasn’t faced with too many temptations today, since I worked at home.  I did go for a walk in the park too, and will try to do more exercise in the future.

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