I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Since I don’t have any family in this country, I was fortunate and grateful to spend the day with a friend and part of her family. The food was really good, too, but as most of you know, it’s always a little tricky to eat anything that has been prepared by other people, even if it is mostly made from scratch. Something I usually don’t do though, despite all my limitations, is to send a list to the gracious hosts a few weeks in advance to indicate all the food sensitivities I have to deal with. I usually go by “if in doubt, I won’t touch it” instead of making it a pain for the host to cook around my needs.
I didn’t overeat during or even after Thanksgiving, but due to the four-day weekend I was a little less careful than I should have been. I went to Starbucks three out of four days , and also had some chocolate milk with mini marshmallows at home. Sunday morning, I woke up and knew that I had reached the point where I needed to scale back and do some sort of detox. The milk was getting to me, and also some of the food I had on Saturday while spending the day in D.C. with a friend.
Now, when I say “detox”, I do not mean days and days of juicing or just drinking water. That might work for some, but it has never really worked for me. Besides, there are so many fruits and veggies I can’t have that it’s pretty much pointless for me to juice stuff anyway, or buy an expensive juicer for that matter. So, here’s how I got my body back on track and got rid of the little annoyances such as a bloated belly from too much milk etc. If you are like me (that is not vegetarian, vegan, paleo … whatever else), then this might work for you as well).
Sunday:
I started out with a glass of warm water with some lemon to wake up my digestive system. It’s definitely not my favorite drink (and I made a face while drinking it, which was the cause for great amusement on my mom’s side as we were skyping at that time). Next, I made a big pitcher of ginger tea to have throughout the day. I always use fresh ginger and simply let it sit in hot water. I like it warm and cold, so it’s a win win. For breakfast, I had a banana. It’s amazing how much those little guys fill me up. Lunch was another banana … I had some that were getting dangerously close to the “too brown to eat” stage, and I don’t like to waste food, so it was the best option. When dinner time came around, I was finally hungry, so I had five ounces of beef tenderloin, green asparagus, and two ounces of quinoa pasta with tomato sauce (made from scratch). For dessert, I had two glorious dark cacao macaroons … so tasty! Throughout the day, I had plenty of water and ginger tea.
Monday:
Back to work! Luckily, we do not have too many celebrations going on this week, so I should be good. Of course, you never know what my co-workers bring in to share with others. The folks at my office travel a lot, so we get tons of goodies from all over the world. I can never resist baklava … sigh.
In any case, breakfast was two ounces of Greek yogurt with a banana and some chia seeds. For lunch, I had two ounces of whole wheat pasta with some crumbled feta cheese and a bit of green bean salad (basically just green beans with some vinegar, made the evening before … usually I put some onions in there, but of course I didn’t have any at hand that night). For dinner, I made a salad that consisted of mixed greens, a tomato, an orange bell pepper, some crumbled feta cheese and just a little bit of red wine vinegar. I also had a slice of Aldi’s Sunflower Bread with some cooked ham.
Some of you may know that I have been on WeightWatchers for a while; I have 26 points a day, which roughly amounts to 1200 calories. After the Monday meals, I still had 11 points left (believe it or not), but I was stuffed! Without any ice cream or chocolate in the house, what is a girl to do? I really did not feel like letting 440 calories go to waste (plus, who does not like to satisfy that sweet tooth if its within your calorie limit for the day?), so I had a Chocolate Chip Brownie LÄRABAR® (200 calories).
Tomorrow I plan on doing more of the same; breakfast will be yogurt with banana again, or maybe an orange, lunch will be the remaining green bean salad and maybe some peaches. I have yet to decide on dinner, but I am thinking salad with salmon.
So, there you have it. A little bit of everything, but mainly just fresh, clean food with a little bit of indulgence. Gets me right back on track … and I hope that it might prove useful for some of you guys as well.
A Journey Towards Health And Beauty 