Everyone's Journey

Well our Food Challenge was fun! A week is a long time to photograph the food that you eat and get it into a blog post. But I think it's a challenge that more people should try. Why? Well, reading and thinking about something never work as well as when you actually DO something.

The reason that I started this challenge was mainly some ideas. I sometimes feel like I am stuck in a rut when it comes to the food that I eat and so I thought it would be fun and inspiring to see what my cohorts go-to foods really are.

Well that wasn't the biggest thing I took away from this challenge. Yes, I did get some ideas (loved the parfaits, and I think I should really start enjoying the process and relaxation of sitting down to a cup of tea during my day.)

But the more surprising lessons came from putting my own food up for people to see.

One of the biggest thing's I knew before, but hit me in a new and inspiring way is that eating healthy is something we all must do. It's not a fat vs. thin thing. It's not some trial that I must trudge through because I have a weight problem. I don't get to look at the person beside me and ruefully wish that I had her metabolism so I didn't have to eat healthy. Because it's not about eating less so that I weigh less. But the work of eating healthy is universal across the fat to thin spectrum. Looking at my cohort's posts, they were purposing to put healthy foods into their mouths just as much as I was. Which bring me to lesson number two.

Eating healthy is work! That challenge was sure fun the 1st few days. It was exciting to take pretty pictures, the preparation was part of the fun, eating the dutifully prepared and pretty food was yummy. But somewhere around mid-week (probably right around that post of my sandwich in the car) it became a chore.

It's the same in life. It's fun at first! But when the newness wears off it becomes a chore. This challenge was a great micro-experiment, though, of the push to keep going even when you don't feel like it. Because, obviously, if my battle buddies and I are anything like the rest of the population. It get's old quick. Which leads me to my next point...

Why did we keep going? Because we had accountability. Accountability is SO key! It picks you up when you feel like faltering. It dusts you off and sets you back on that path when you have. It intimidates you from even flirting with that path of failure. And it propels you farther and faster, when your willing to just idle. I've said before that I'm a die hard Weight Watcher and that's the reason why.

So anyway, this challenge has reminded me, a new, of what it really takes to succeed. I'm not doomed to failure. I don't have a tougher road because of my propensity to eat too much. Everyone, thick or thin, should eat healthy. Everyone who does, has to work at it. And everyone needs some accountability to keep going strong. I'm not part of an unfortunate club the rest of the world doesn't need to join. This is not just my trial or even a trial at all. It's a journey, for me and everyone else.

Goose Grub Sunday-final day

Finally. This is the end of Goose's food in pictures.

My challenge for all three of us is to now put up posts on what we learned from this experiment, so that there was a point to it. hahaha

Coffee.

Total cereal with banana and skim milk.


45 min run outside.

water.

handful of almonds.


a prune.


Black Bean burger patty with salsa and squirt of fresh lime.


water.

Superbowl Spread.


During the first half of the game I ate two slices of cheese pizza. Veggies with a little ranch dip. A few tostidos with salsa. A few cheese cubes. A couple jalapeno stuffed olives. water. Kind of a lot, but could have been worse. I don't feel super good tonight, so I really didn't over-indulge.

Okay, there you go. I am considering some crunches and pushups during the last few minutes of the game while the Colts try to regain the lead.

It's been real. It's been fun. It's been real fun.

Gooooooose--Out.

Stream of Conciousness-Food Challenge Style

This is where I attempt to steal a blog post style from a famous blogger who shall remain nameless. Or maybe I'm trying to take an easy route because I feel too sick and miserable to even write this post. But again, I'm the one who came up with this challenge so I, at least, should be the one to keep going.

Saturday morning. Literally feels like forever ago.

That nights sleep had helped my sickness symptoms and so I decided to make up that workout that I had missed the day before. It was actually a pretty good workout and I ran for 45 minutes. When I got home, my parents, who were staying with us for the weekend to attend my son's birthday party, were standing around the stove making my famous Applesauce Oatmeal Pancakes. So when I walked in the door I was able to sit down and eat this. I can't tell you the treat it was to sit down, in my own home, to food that I didn't have to prepare myself. Amazing.

Unfortunately I got steadily sicker from that point on. I took a nap, drugged myself and was able to make it through the whole day. But I didn't care about the food I was eating. And I didn't want to photograph it. I did eat the left over pizza for lunch and had a taco bar for the supper portion for my son's birthday. But the other foods I ate are a haze of Chocolate Twizzlers (that are even that good) ice cream, Cheesy Salsa Dip, and even more scraps from the carving of the birthday cake.
And now it's Sunday morning, I didn't go to church. I sat downstairs while the rest of my family was off at church and ate cheesy dip and, yup, you guessed it, the last of the scraps of birthday cake.

This week has been interesting food experiment. I think I will write another post on what nuggets of insight and revelations this week had for me.

But that will be when I'm feeling better, and my ears are not plugged, and my lungs aren't burning, and my throat isn't sore, and my eyes aren't watering... Yup, I'll have to wait till then.

Iceman Out.

Two-fer

It's Sunday afternoon and I am still in my pajamas. I'm sick, worn out, and in general feeling yucky.

But in the interest of the contest that I started. I feel I must finish strong.

So not a lot of fancy wordsmithing, but here are the bare bones of what I ate Thursday and Friday. Thursday was a pretty good day. I had real food and didn't just snack my day away, which, *ahem*, may or may not have been what happened Friday....

Thursday was my day not to work out. And believe me, I took full advantage of that. But all in all it was a good day!



(Maverick do you recognize your Bean Enchilada's? Yes, I still make the recipe all these years later. What can I say, a classic never goes out of style)
(This was the treat tray that I brought for my bible study. I did really well until the drive home. Some cookies and quite a few strawberries went missing in that altercation)
________________________

Now Friday. I had been gone LATE (like 11-11:30pm) the night before and didn't get to bed till 12:00am. Not good if you want to wake up in five hours to go workout. Plus my 14 mo. old baby, who should know better, woke me up around 3am to nurse. He's sick right now too, and when his sickness wakes him up he is positive the only was to go back to sleep is to nurse.*sigh* so when that alarm clock went off... well you know.

Anyway, I had a full day of schooling, cleaning, and preparing food for my son's upcoming party. Plus I woke up with that dreaded feeling of, " I-Can't-Move" so... It was cereal for everyone for the third day in a row. Yeah, I'm a great Mom like that...

Then, with my completely sluggish body I started giving into temptation. This was eaten for lunch...
Some of the scraps were eaten throughout the day.
And then, for supper, I felt like I had "no time" so I asked my husband to bring home pizza. I ate 3 pieces, he ate 3 pieces. And these three were left over.
And then around 8pm I started to realize why I had been feeling that stuck-in-the-mud feeling all day. My nose started to run and my eyes started to water. I was getting sick...dun, dun, dun...

Goose's Grazing Saturday

This week in food pictures shows my crazy mood swings from day to day. After a gluttonous, foodie day yesterday, I hardly thought about food all day today, was not hungry at all, and had to remind myself to eat. But in other news, I got our taxes done! Yay, me...that finance degree comes in handy for something once a year.

Started off with coffee, not pictured.

Was dismayed at the cold rainy temps again which prevented me from getting out for a needed run. Instead I just did level 3 Shred and some additional ab crunches and push-ups.

Had a bowl of Total cereal with a cut up banana on top and skim milk, not pictured.

coffee.

Had some left over noodles with butter and parmesan and cottage cheese for lunch...


Had a few leftover sips of a delicious blueberry smoothie that Evie made after swimming, not pictured.

Went out and got an XL black hazelnut decaf at Dunkin Donuts, not pictured.

Licked some marshmallow fluff off a knife as I was cleaning up the kitchen.

Took a bite of a piece of buttered french bread left over on one of the girls plates.

For dinner I tried this Kashi frozen meal that I bought to see if it would be tasty for a quick lunch or dinner option on those busy days. It failed. It had heat but no flavor so I added a squirt of lime and some salsa. Still blah, won't buy again.


water. water. water., not pictured.

And that's all folks. Still think that nasty velveeta/salsa "queso" from last night is glued to my insides. Looking forward to a good run tomorrow after church.

Gooooose--Out.

Maverick's Meals, the final edition

OK this is it.  My final day of food presentation.

Friday morning I woke up with my period and no tampons in the entire house.  I also had no butter and no money.  Coupled with the fact that I wanted to get to my 9:45 body pump class I was feeling stressed.  I almost decided not to do body pump but instead decided it was the most important thing.  I found a pad that had come free with some box of tampons once-upon-a-time and headed to the Y with the necessary deposit that would allow me to go to the grocery store after my workout.  I did skip the 40 minutes on the eliptical I usually do afterward but I felt great to have gotten in my weight lifting.  In the mean time I was so rushed from my stressful morning that I only had one slice of toast with honey, no butter, for breakfast.

Once I got home from the grocery store with a few essentials I whipped up a yummy salad with the chicken I had cooked on Thursday night plus my favorite nut mix from trader joes, goat cheese and red onion.  Add my personal dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinager and dijon mustard and you have my version of bliss.

I was feeling snacky a few hours later so I decided to have a yogert:

I experimented with the white balance again on my camera to take the picture.  Which do you like better?  As the class instructor said, "photography is an art".  There is no right or wrong answer.

Isabelle was getting under foot a little too much so I decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and bundled her up and kicked her out of the house.  I actually expected her back inside within moments but she spent about 20 minutes out there just enjoying the fresh air.

Even when she looked over her shoulder and saw this:

She continued swinging and telling him that "mommy let me come outside".  Oh I so miss summer.  Parenting is much easier when they can go outside.

For dinner we made up more chicken, added some broccoli slaw and cooked up a little peanut sauce (peanut butter, sugar, oil, water, soy sauce).  Put it in a tortilla and you have thai chicken wraps.  A big hit at our house.  We only had enough tortillas for one each but I did scrape the left overs onto a plate and finish them off.

That evening my wonderful hubby made a bowl of pocorn and a pot of tea

I enjoyed them both but must confess that before that my son had been trolling for food and when he went for the frozen cookie dough I had him bring me a ball as well.

I did also manage to drink another pitcher of water.

It is making my body happy.

So that is a 3 day sample of my diet.  I think that is enough to get a feel.  I think that Iceman, who proposed this challenge, should now write a post on accountability and what happens when no one is looking. 

Goose Gluttony Friday

They said there'd be days like this...

Ugh. Today was HORRID. This is what I was talking about, Iceman, when I told you some of my food days can be so random. I can't believe I have to confess it in pictures to you!

The day started out pleasantly. Coffee of course.


My accidental trainer and partner in crime, H, was still recovering from her sickness and it was cold and rainy today, so I decided to have today be my exercise day off. Actually put on makeup and clothing other than workout gear for the first time all week.

I ate a quick banana...


Then The Goo and I headed to a morning playdate over at a friend and her daughter's that we hadn't seen in awhile. We had a great time visiting, and while there I was treated to my favorite XL black hazelnut decaf coffee from Dunkin Donuts, and some almonds. (a big shout-out "HI!!" to our potential new readers, my friend "K", and her sis in IL)


Later for lunch I had half a turkey and muenster cheese sandwich with stone ground mustard on whole wheat and cantalope with water.


So far, so good right?

Well, from this point on it all. goes. wrong. I just had a funky afternoon and it just all derails when I feel in a funk!

So. deep breath, here goes. I went for the chips. You know those Cape Cod Kettle potato chips left out on the counter the other day that I resisted? Yea, those. I ate them. And thats not all. I added the dark chocolate coconut granola bar and a Dove dark chocolate heart for some unknown reason that I can't explain.


Then later, for dinner, okay, seriously, I had this:


Shut Up. I know, right? I mean really. It wasn't even real queso! It was FAKE cheese. Velveeta. (shudder) and salsa. Tostido chips. One glass of wine. Oh, and for good measure, after I had thoroughly disgusted myself with the fake cheese dip and chips, I finished off the remnants of the popcorn bowl that the girls had eaten.

*SMACK* *SMACK*

Now I have a headache, my stomach feels yuck, I'm tired and my house is a mess. I am so lame that I fed my 3rd grader and her sleeping over friend each a microwaved lean pocket for dinner, and my 5th grader and her sleepover friend made themselves hotdogs. I'm not even sure what the younger two had...lollipops? I don't even know what to say for myself other than it was just a day, right? One day. Tomorrow is a new day and I will pull myself back together. I will hopefully run if its not raining and get my act together and eat normal, healthy foods.

For now I will finish off the day with a big glass of water and go to bed hoping the things that caused me a lot of stress and put me in a funk today will start getting fixed tomorrow, and just forget about today.

They said there'd be days like this....whoever "they" are.

Goooooose-Out

More meals of Maverick's

Well Goose is one step ahead of me because I have only photographed my food for two days and I am done already.  I may do a little photographing today but I make no promises for a detailed account of my friday food.

Today however I present to you my Thursday in food pictures...

I was in a rush to get to spin class after my blog post yesterday and so I made toast with butter and honey, grabbed a bottle of water and headed out the door.

When I got home from my hour long base ride in zone 2 I was very sweaty and hungry.  Decided the hunger out weighed my stench and made myself a salad.

Isabelle ate an entire package of mac and cheese.  I think it was because she doesn't like it when I save half and reheat it the next day so she was trying to eat it all in an effort to have a fresh bowl today.  It did work but I already threw half of todays box in the fridge before she could take it.

I also did kept my promise and filled my pitcher with water which I drank all of before dinner.

It was freshly filled here and looks a little cloudy.  I think we need to change our filters...

Then as I was busy working on a photo project for our basement Jake arrives home with 5 friends.  Very exciting as I often tell him to bring his friends over but unfortunately I was feeling like our cupboards were bare.  I told him to make popcorn and had a little myself.

Then Goose, upon reading of my predicament sent me an email telling me I should stock up on pizza rolls.  Suddenly I remember that I had done just that and had a huge bag of pizza rolls in a drawer in the freezer.  I asked them if they were still hungry enough for pizza rolls and one of his friends said, "we're teenagers.  we're always hungry."  So I made a bowl of pizza rolls for the as well.

I ate those two that fell out of the bowl.  And I always like a cup or so of tea in the afternoon.

herbal black cherry. 

It was tasty, I just wish I had been able to sit down and enjoy it but I ended up running one of his friends back to the school right after I made this pot. (I had said I would when they arrived, she could only stay a short amount of time.  I am nice like that.)

While I was vacuuming upstairs somehow they got ahold of my camera and I found several pictures like this:

Theater kids...

So then Thursday is date night and I had signed John and I up for a camera class that I thought started at 6pm.  I started dinner a little after 5.  Chicken which I had planned to serve with a little sauce and green beans.

(note it is not swimming in oil that is the water it let out because they were frozen when I put them in the pan.)

However I suddenly realized it was 5:45 and I did not have time to finish this meal.  John was still not home from a fire call he had gone to around 2pm (the guy stuck in the grain silo in Farmington.) and so I made this for my dinner:

And rushed off to the class in the snowy weather.  I sat alone in the classroom chatting with the teacher for quite a while wondering if anyone else would show up before I he made some comment that led me to realize the class actually started at 6:30.  Oh well, it happens.

After the class I went home to pick up my hubby for the rest of date night.  We headed over to our favorite hang out, Perkins, and had our usual:  Coffee for him, decalf tea for me and we split a double order of fries.  (Sometimes we split something with ice cream but fries have been our go to lately.)

I tried out some tricks for better lighting on my poor hubby.  Here is the auto setting. Ok but a little orange.

And with the adjusted white balance.  (I knew you wanted to see what I learned.)

But really you are reading to see this.  Our tea and coffee and waters.

And this, the empty plates of extra crispy fries.  Yum.

That was Maverick's Menu for Thursday.