How's it going, strangers?
No, really...how is your learning-to-love-more-veggies challenge going?
I am pleasantly surprised over here at my house.
We have gone kind-of-accidentally-mostly-vegetarian for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I say kind-of-accidentally because after the first few weeks of intentional changes, I slacked off for a couple weeks due to a super-tight budget, and somehow all of the cheap-o meals I gravitated to were mostly-vegetarian...which was not intentional.
While I haven't cut sugar & grains out of my life (and therefore still desire them), I do find that my body AND my mind now associate feeling good with eating well. I find myself desiring more vegetables in a meal, and it is less difficult to think about a meat-free week of meals. Even when we eat out, I've started looking for more "balanced" meals instead of pigging out on the junk.
Since beginning this in January, I've lost a small amount of weight--it fluctuates between 10-15 lbs, depending on how indulgent I've been over the past several evenings. (We have Valentine's Day, my husband's birthday, my daughter's birthday, and our wedding anniversary pretty much back-to-back in this household!) My husband remarked earlier today that he's pulling his belt one notch tighter. So we're making some consistent progress around here, which is always motivational!
Here's how I've structured my meals lately:
Breakfast: Until this week, we ate only fruit for breakfast. I feel like this worked really well for us, but we were all getting kind of bored with "the usual." (There's not a whole lot of fresh fruit choices in the dead of winter.) I made some homemade whole wheat bread this past week with some homemade peanut butter with honey added, and we ate that with apple slices. I hope to find four different things we all like eating for breakfast (preferably fruit-centric--I like the sweet stuff at breakfast time) and then rotate them (with variation) so we don't get sick of what we're eating. Fruit-only was the way to go, because think of how many calories we were slashing and vitamins and fiber we were adding! And we felt full until lunchtime, which was the potential deal-breaker--this surprised me how well it worked.
Lunch: In my opinion, this is the easiest meal to switch to meat-free. Salad, soup, or sandwiches are all easy (and portable) options. One of my favorite no-think lunches: a veggie sandwich. Take some whole wheat bread or pita bread and spread a thin layer of mayo, hummus, or pimento cheese. Pile on whatever lettuce/spinach I have on the fridge with any cut up veggies I have in the fridge. Serve it with carrots or some fruit.
Dinner: It's becoming easier for me to look for vegetarian or veggie-centric meals because my attention just gravitates toward them more in magazines and cookbooks. I'm going to share some with you this week!
Drinks: We don't really struggle with drinking sodas or juice at our house--we tend to save those as "special occasion" beverages. We used to drink milk every day, but it is now more like an "every now and then" snack--I can make a gallon for our family of 3 last for two weeks!
Snacks: Nuts & dark chocolate chips are our current go-to's. (Although my husband did bring home some mini black & white cookies on Valentine's Day...my WEAKNESS!) ;) True to my plan, I indulge when I want to. Mostly that means a sugary treat after we've tucked our kiddo in bed. There are mornings that I feel incredibly sluggish (more than my usual non-morning-person sluggish--ha), and I've started noticing it tends to be more often after I've had something extra junky that evening.
So, those just some some thoughts from my first six weeks. Guys, I really feel like this is making a positive difference in my body & budget. I'm sticking with it. If you haven't given it a fair shot yet, I really encourage you to! C'mon--it's the season of Lent and there's no big food holiday until Easter anyways, right? More vegetables, less everything else. Try new things, and learn to change what you like. Let's do it!
No, really...how is your learning-to-love-more-veggies challenge going?
I am pleasantly surprised over here at my house.
We have gone kind-of-accidentally-mostly-vegetarian for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I say kind-of-accidentally because after the first few weeks of intentional changes, I slacked off for a couple weeks due to a super-tight budget, and somehow all of the cheap-o meals I gravitated to were mostly-vegetarian...which was not intentional.
While I haven't cut sugar & grains out of my life (and therefore still desire them), I do find that my body AND my mind now associate feeling good with eating well. I find myself desiring more vegetables in a meal, and it is less difficult to think about a meat-free week of meals. Even when we eat out, I've started looking for more "balanced" meals instead of pigging out on the junk.
Since beginning this in January, I've lost a small amount of weight--it fluctuates between 10-15 lbs, depending on how indulgent I've been over the past several evenings. (We have Valentine's Day, my husband's birthday, my daughter's birthday, and our wedding anniversary pretty much back-to-back in this household!) My husband remarked earlier today that he's pulling his belt one notch tighter. So we're making some consistent progress around here, which is always motivational!
Here's how I've structured my meals lately:
Breakfast: Until this week, we ate only fruit for breakfast. I feel like this worked really well for us, but we were all getting kind of bored with "the usual." (There's not a whole lot of fresh fruit choices in the dead of winter.) I made some homemade whole wheat bread this past week with some homemade peanut butter with honey added, and we ate that with apple slices. I hope to find four different things we all like eating for breakfast (preferably fruit-centric--I like the sweet stuff at breakfast time) and then rotate them (with variation) so we don't get sick of what we're eating. Fruit-only was the way to go, because think of how many calories we were slashing and vitamins and fiber we were adding! And we felt full until lunchtime, which was the potential deal-breaker--this surprised me how well it worked.
Lunch: In my opinion, this is the easiest meal to switch to meat-free. Salad, soup, or sandwiches are all easy (and portable) options. One of my favorite no-think lunches: a veggie sandwich. Take some whole wheat bread or pita bread and spread a thin layer of mayo, hummus, or pimento cheese. Pile on whatever lettuce/spinach I have on the fridge with any cut up veggies I have in the fridge. Serve it with carrots or some fruit.
Dinner: It's becoming easier for me to look for vegetarian or veggie-centric meals because my attention just gravitates toward them more in magazines and cookbooks. I'm going to share some with you this week!
Drinks: We don't really struggle with drinking sodas or juice at our house--we tend to save those as "special occasion" beverages. We used to drink milk every day, but it is now more like an "every now and then" snack--I can make a gallon for our family of 3 last for two weeks!
Snacks: Nuts & dark chocolate chips are our current go-to's. (Although my husband did bring home some mini black & white cookies on Valentine's Day...my WEAKNESS!) ;) True to my plan, I indulge when I want to. Mostly that means a sugary treat after we've tucked our kiddo in bed. There are mornings that I feel incredibly sluggish (more than my usual non-morning-person sluggish--ha), and I've started noticing it tends to be more often after I've had something extra junky that evening.
So, those just some some thoughts from my first six weeks. Guys, I really feel like this is making a positive difference in my body & budget. I'm sticking with it. If you haven't given it a fair shot yet, I really encourage you to! C'mon--it's the season of Lent and there's no big food holiday until Easter anyways, right? More vegetables, less everything else. Try new things, and learn to change what you like. Let's do it!
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