After getting home from the Fitbloggin conference Sunday afternoon, I quickly determined we had NO groceries. Promptly following that realization, I stated the obvious that I did not feel like grocery shopping and wanted to enjoy a low-key evening with la familia. Enter a pizza dinner out with my loved ones.

 

And I was eyeing the pizza like Baby B was eyeing that bottle of mommy milk!

Sometimes plain cheese is all you need for satissfying pizza. As long as it gets doused in red pepper flakes. I like some heat with my pizza!

While this dinner out with the family certainly tasted delicious, I could feel the effects of eating quite a few meals out and different than my normal choices starting to impact my body. I knew the only thing to do would be to jump right back into my normal eats the very next meal. Healthy eating can taste just as good, after all! Over the last couple of days I have crammed in the healthy and delicious goods as much as possible.

Breakfasts

oats with strawberries, raisins, and natural peanut butter

 
oats featuring coconut, dried cherries from Choose Cherries, and peanut butter 

Lunches

black bean wrap (with cheese, salsa, spinach, & tomato), carrots + hummus, and my free sample chocolate probiotic bar from Attune

 
sandwich (whole egg, spinach, tomato, Laughing Cow blue cheese), carrots + hummus, and a sliced apple

Snacks

 
yogurt bowl featuring Chobani peach, Erewhon Mixed Berry Crispy Brown Rice Cereal, and almonds

green smoothie (almond milk, frozen banana, spinach) and blueberry muffin Larabar

Dinners 

egg scramble (with mushrooms + onion + goat cheese) and sweet potato

delicious salad – details coming later 

After just two days I already feel so much better. I am so thankful that I now recognize how much quality fuel does for my body. I want to get back to eating foods like I show above…and not because I “should” or to “diet”. I used to have a really, really difficult time going back to healthier eats after a vacation or any time where I would “fall off the wagon” of whatever restrictions I had set on myself. I viewed eating in such a manner as a chore and not something to enjoy. I wouldn’t want to give up my “fun foods” and so I would often end up in an extra week or two of binging.

Now, just feeling the difference in my body motivates me to break out the spinach and oatmeal. And happily. Eating in this manner truly pleases me. It is no longer an issue to return to better-for-my-health meals (I hate using the term “good” or “bad”).  I credit that ease to finding ways to prepare meals so they taste good and working hard over the years to get more in tune with my body. Plus, it also helps knowing I don’t have to deny myself things like pizza for forever either…because each meal is just that – one meal. Dining habits don’t have to turn into a chain of overeating from going outside of standard meals for a couple days. I just remember that each meal is a choice. And I choose to eat what leave me feeling good – physically, mentally, and tastily.

• Is it difficult for you to jump back into healthier habits after being away from them for any length of time?
• What foods do you CRAVE when you get back to normal eats?

Tags: breakfast, dinner, healthy eating, lunch, snacks