Hey guys! I’ve really enjoyed reading about what you though my carrot resembled today. I’ve decided that I should have saved the carrot and said it looked like Lady Gaga and sold it on ebay! Someone totally would have bought it 
Today has been a pretty great day! Even though the weather is lackluster, I have some fun stuff planned for the weekend and I’m excited for it to get here.
I must be psychic, because I packed some homemade bean soup that I had frozen a long time ago for lunch today. And, lo and behold, today is National Homemade Soup Day (according to Janetha B) :)
Along with my soup I had a plate of haphazardly placed veggies. I didn’t eat lunch until around 1 p.m. due to getting in a zone at work (I love when that happens) so I was just concerned with getting the food in my mouth and not so much about presentation.
I also had another organic apple sauce cup. These were an impulse buy at the grocery store, but they’ve been wonderful “lunch desserts” this week. They’re Leroux Creek brand, in case anyone was wondering. And today, I ate it with a spoon like a normal person.
I really need to stop eating lunch at my desk every day, but it’s just so convenient, and it gives me time to catch up on blogs 
I think once I get this proposal finished, I’m going to have to start forcing myself to get out of the office during my lunch break. The fresh air makes the day a lot more invigorating. I used to go and run and errand or go to Panera and have coffee every day, but since the weather has turned cold I’ve stopped. Next week I’m making it a goal to get out and smell the roses
Later on I had an EAS Myoplex Lite shake.
I got some comments on the Clif Builder’s bar I had the other day that contained 20 grams of protein, so I thought I’d take a second to address them. First of all, I love any and all comments and I can totally relate to any creepiness that someone might feel about 20 grams of protein being stuffed into a little bar. I used to be the exact same way!
There are some people who think protein is extremely important and some that could care less about it. I now fall somewhere in between, but up until recently I was one who just didn’t give a crap about protein.
Back story: About 8 months ago, I “went vegetarian”. I did it for many reasons, but mainly because I just don’t enjoy meat that much. Since then, I’ve removed the vegetarian label from my life and I now eat fish a couple times a month or so and have eaten actual meat a handful of times when I really and truly wanted it. However, I rarely eat it, because I just don’t enjoy it.
So, this mostly meat-free lifestyle obviously resulted in me eating a lot less protein than I used to (even though I still eat dairy). A little over a month ago, I started noticing that I had been feeling really off. I couldn’t pin point exactly what it was, but things just didn’t feel right. After examining a lot of factors, I decided to try adding more protein back into my meals just to see if it would make a difference. Plus, it was around this time that I started strength training more regularly, and thought it wouldn’t hurt there either.
(sorry, this just keeps going and going!)
In the past when I have decided to make major adjustments to the way I eat, usually in an effort to lose weight, I have done exactly what typical diet media (books, commerials, etc.) tell you to do.
I remember going on and off of countless diets because I thought I had to eat exactly what every other dieter was eating – i.e. grilled chicken breasts and steamed veggies and maybe a salad with fat free dressing. Or a whole wheat wrap with turkey deli meat. Or whatever else Atkins, or South Beach or the Mayo Clinic was telling me to eat. I was always miserable when doing this because I was stuffing food I didn’t enjoy down my throat and pining for the foods I loved.
It wasn’t until I started this blog that I realized that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you have to eat the foods that you like. It sounds so simple, but that honestly really never clicked for me until then.
If you eat foods you hate (which for me are mainly meat-centered things), you will not succeed at whatever goal you are trying to accomplish. So, I learned to make foods that I loved in a more healthful way, and I lost weight without all the aggravation.
Now that I’m trying to increase my protein a bit, I dont want to force myself to eat things I hate just to get more protein. I know that if I do that, I will fail. So for now, I’m eating a lot of protein-fortified (read: processed) things to accomplish the goal. It’s not ideal, and I’m constantly trying to find ways to improve it, but it’s where I’m at right now.
Life is just too short to eat things you don’t enjoy.
And, just for the record, since I’ve increased my protein intake I have returned to feeling more or less “normal” and I’ve noticed that I tend to snack a lot less because I feel a greater sense of satiety throughout the day. However, I am absolutely not saying that anyone else out there should increase their protein. It’s just where I’m at right now. Two weeks, two months or two years from now, that could definitely change.
Wow, I am so so sorry for rambling on about that for so long. I hope that made some sort of sense. I really had not intended to really talk about the protein thing on the blog much, but I feel better now that I’ve gotten it out there If you made it through that then I owe you my first born. Seriously.
Have a good night guys. Tomorrow’s the big day!
What are your thoughts about protein?
Apparently they fell out of my coat pocket at the restaurant. No worries though, I just drove back and got them and then came home and got down to business.
