Day 12 of 30. Preparations

I had a great day!  At this point, I realize I’m largely craving free.  Would a piece of pizza be nice?  Sure!  Would inhaling the sweet, magical aroma of a cup of coffee as I brought it to my lips be spectacular?  YES!  But, I think about it, and then it’s gone.  I don’t find myself dwelling on any of it.  At all.  It’s a very freeing feeling.  It really makes this whole experience easier to look at food as my fuel rather than everything but that.  It needs to taste good, but it doesn’t have to be junk.

Today, I made my favorite shakes to-date.

• 50/50 Arbonne Vanilla and Chocolate Protein Shake Mix
• Arbonne Daily Fiber Boost
• Frozen Strawberries
• 50/50 Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and water

They were really tasty and smooth.  Very berry-licious, which I wasn’t getting when using blueberries.

Dinner was not a winner today.  I, apparently, do not like dirty rice.  I thought about taking a picture to share, but I figured it tried to ruin my day, so I refused to give it a spotlight in my post.  I’m sure if I ordered this in a restaurant it would be a different experience, and this is one recipe I’m happy to leave in the chef’s hands.  My son and dad liked it a lot, so we let them have it and raided the leftovers from this week.  There isn’t a lot left over from any meal we’ve made this week, so we just ate a little of this and a little of that.  It was an interesting mix, but still good.

After dinner, mom and I sat down and went through all of the recipes we have.  Rather than picking a full, one-week menu and shopping list, we hand-picked seven recipes from all of the menus we have, treating it more like a cookbook this time.  We set up our shopping list like Arbonne’s, with sections – meat, produce, and pantry.  This sounds like basic stuff.  I know this, but I needed the guidance of the previous two weeks to figure out how to put a shopping list together based on recipes and not randomly.  I, in all of my years adulting, have never sat down, chosen the recipes for the week, and compiled a shopping list from them.  Then stuck to the list.  And not purchased ANY extras.  This has taught me how to create less waste.  How many times have you gone to the store, thought, “Yeah… Salad.”, bought all kinds of veggies and good stuff to put in it, then ate maybe just a little and threw the rest out?  Yup.  Me too.

So, it’s off to the same stores tomorrow!  We have a bit of a routine down, so I’m thinking it’ll go a little faster this time.  PLUS – we’re going to Chipotle for lunch (!!!), since I’m a dunderhead and didn’t go last Saturday.  Steak, salsa, and guac, oh my!

Full details coming tomorrow 🙂

P.S. I’ve heard it’s not easy to leave a comment on my posts, so I’m going to try to figure that out tomorrow.