This and That

I'm happy with my food this week; warm and hearty dishes for cold days and nights. Plus the fresh crunchy broccoli salad at dinner is wonderful; it's delicious, takes a while to eat, and keeps me full. Win Win Win.

I was a little short on veggies this weekend so I roasted some extra onions and turnip when I got home today to add to the green beans I made on Sunday. I have three meals in the fridge, all with 4oz of green beans so I know I can add in 2oz of this new mix to top them all off. I seem to do better if I have a mixture of veggies with my meals instead of a single item anyway. How fortuitous that onions are on Fuhrman's top five list of nutritional foods. Another Win.

(b)  Triscuits, sausage, banana
(l)   Lasagna, apple
(d)  Meatballs, carnitas veggies, broccoli salad

I know I'm not writing out recipes, suffice it to say I usually cook my veggies either in the instant pot with my protein, or roasted in the oven. It keeps everything easy, and I know about how full a baking sheet has to be for three meals. Often I'll cook two trays at a time when roasting them in the oven, and I know to fill the instant pot as full as I can so I will have enough veggies for four meals.  Cooking them with a pound of meat, I know the protein will be slightly short on weight, but that's okay. I tend to side with the WHO for protein requirements which tends to be lower.

Chopping veggies can take it's toll, and each weekend I tend to overdo it a little bit. But I am committed and a few more ibuprofen after all I've taken the past dozen years shouldn't make a difference. What I really need to do is prep a veggies each day after work and pack them away in the fridge so that a couple of times a week I am ready to cook without the stress to my back.

Speaking of my back, I've wondered over the years since the injury (2004?) if losing weight would help. And I have often berated myself for that not being enough motivation to actually lose the weight.  Why can't our inner voices, our saboteurs, be constructive. Working with us towards optimal health instead of worrying about storing fat for a rainy day? We need one of those evolutionary leaps that takes ours brains past survival to thriving. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens to my activity and pain levels as I continue to lose weight.

My goal this week is to start moving away from animal protein. I know it's not good for me, or the planet, and it's been more on my mind the longer I am doing Bright Line Eating. I would like to get back to a WFPB diet, and I know there was a file of recipes in my boot camp material.

I'm wearing out; time to lay down and see who might beat Bobby Flay tonight.