As I stated in my earlier post, I want another shot at eating nutritiously. I think my mistake last week was that I didn't really have a plan or a clear objective, so I've come up with a nutritional focus, and some guidelines to follow within that focus.
My nutritional focus? I've decided to go vegetarian for the week. I'm actually really excited about this because I think it will force me to get creative in my cooking, and also to pay closer attention to nutrition labels and ingredient lists.
Next, I identified some of the problems I have in my day-to-day eating and meal-planning:
1. I've discovered that if I sit down and create a menu for a week, I only get through the first day or two before I give up and go with something easier or faster (too often it's Little Caesar's, which though I think it's gross, it's still only $5). This means two things: I'm not getting the nutritious meal I planned on, and the fresh food I bought goes to waste. Right now I have 3 bunches of radishes, 3 beets, 5 pounds of carrots, and a half a tub of spinach sitting in my fridge that I had every intention of using last week. And yet, there they still sit. So that's one problem I decided to address this week. I've decided to plan no more than two days at a time. Yes, this means more trips to the grocery store, but I'm out and about at least 3 days a week anyway, so it's not like I'm going to be losing gas money. The hope is to actually save money by not purchasing food that I won't be eating.
2. The second problem I've decided to address this week concerns the recipes I choose to make. Too often I choose a recipe because I have one of the main ingredients. I rarely look at the list of other ingredients until I'm making my shopping list and realize that I need to purchase 15 items just to make one recipe. Ridiculous, right? So this week, if I need to purchase more than three ingredients, I'm not making it. I've had enough of mile-long shopping lists.
3. The last problem I seem to have regularly is that I'm great at planning dinner. Not so much when it comes to breakfast and lunch. I often will grab just a Diet Coke before running out the door to take Jason to school. And while this doesn't go against any vegetarian rules, it's not exactly a healthy breakfast either. As for lunch, I usually skip it because I just can't be bothered to fix a meal for myself, and then by 4:00 I'm ravenous, so I start munching on whatever is close at hand (usually the kids snacks: granola bars, crackers and cheese, and the occasional PopTart). So this week, I'm going to start making extras at dinnertime so I can have leftovers for lunch. As for breakfast, I think I'm going to continue to do Green Smoothies or fresh juice (I do have all kinds of wonderful fruits and veggies in my fridge just waiting to be juiced, after all).
Hopefully, with at least a sort of plan in place, I won't so often resort to mindless munching and overdoing it because I'm starving. My only other concern in going vegetarian for a week is the reaction of my family. I haven't told them yet, and I don't think I'm going to. I'm just going to wait and see how they respond.
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