100 Days of Real Food--Day 49

OK, so it's been a while (again) since I posted about my 100 Days of Real Food.  Darned holiday season!

Here are some of the real food meals that I've made in the past couple of weeks, as well as a grocery store/farmer's market haul:

Fish taco. 

Mushroom fettuccine Alfredo.

Crunchy spiced chickpeas.

Root vegetable stew.

Shrimp wontons.

Detox salad (from Oh She Glows). Yum and easy!

Grocery haul.

Take-out!  It was delicious.

Home-made Holy Crap cereal topper.

First breakfast sandwich attempt. Yummo!

Today's breakfast sandwich.  Too much food!  One is enough.

During my time of the month (sorry guys) this time around, I found myself slipping.  That was last week.  I haven't gone bat-shit or anything, but I found my oomph was waning.  My get up and go got up and went.

I knew it was happening, and did what I had to to mitigate it.  Now I'm on the other side, and I've survived.  Not as sparkly clean as my first round, but still OK.  Today is a new day (well, everyday is LOL) and this is about permanent change so I'm not beating myself up over it.

2 days ago was my work Christmas party, and I didn't attend this year.  Why?  Because there wasn't anything that they were serving which would have been in-line with what I'm trying to accomplish.  If there had been something I could have eaten,  I would have attended, but there was nothing, so there was no point.  Other years it was a traditional Christmas dinner, which would probably have been pretty safe other than the dessert, but this year it was a 50's theme, which sound like fun, but the food was things like burgers, sundae's, iced cream floats...  Needless to say, there was noting.  It sounded like a lot of fun, but honestly I'm not going to pay $40 for a meal I can't even eat!

The "seasonal hot drinks" have been a little hard to stay away from.  I made the mistake last year

of trying one for the first time (in past years they didn't really call to me) and this year I did so again...  Well, lets's say I had more than one, and I'm now clamping down on it.  I looked up what one small one included, and let me tell you it's so not worth it!  Not worth the ingredients, or the cost.  They were tasty, but in the end are they worth the drawbacks?  No, to my mind they're not.  Mind you, they sure seem worth it when I'm drinking them! ;)

So today is December 8th, which means that I have about 3 weeks until the end of December, and the end of the holiday season.  I'm not too stressed about getting through this season being "good", because I've been, and will continue to pick and choose which events I'll be attending.  Many times I'm having a meal out with friends, and am able to vote for places to go.  My department's Christmas lunch is going to be at a very nice place that I've been wanting to visit, which I'm sure has some choices which are in-line or very close to my real-food goals. 2 other dinners with friends are much the same--my friends don't like attending crappy restaurants, so there will be good options.  On Tuesday I'm going for sushi for lunch, and I know what I am to eat and what not.  Nothing deep-fried (no hand rolls!  Boo!), but other than that I'm pretty safe.

On another note, I've started to include a lot more activity in my day.  I purchased the Sparkpeople Activity Tracker  and it's really encouraged me to get my butt moving!  I have a challenge to walk 50 miles/80 kms in December, and guess what?  I'm already at 48% and today is only December 8th!!  Next month is to get 2,014 exercise minutes...  Oi.  That will be more of a challenge I think!  You can see in the image below what my exercise minutes have been since I got the tracker:

*the days after November 27th where it shows little or no minutes, it was because I was at home all day, and of course don't wear shoes indoors.  And since the tracker is on my shoe, it showed as nothing.*

To my mind, eating real food is very important, but it's also important to move!!  Not just for a weight standpoint, but for energy, and as we age.  Every year after age 40 we lose muscle and bone mass, and it's important to keep them from wasting.  I don't want to be one of those people who are 65 years old and hardly able to lift my grand children!  I want to be as fit as possible as I get older, because it means not only a longer life, but a BETTER life.

I also know how I feel if I've been too sedentary one day: tired, achy, grouchy!  If I have an active day, I feel more energetic, more youthful, and happier.  And others are happier around me too!  I also find that I eat better.  Not sure why, but it's consistently true, so that's certainly a motivator!

Today is the last day of the first half of this journey.  Tomorrow I leave behind any challenges and "failures", and move forward having learned from my stumbles and mistakes.  I'm working on a plan for after these 100 days are over, but for now I'm focusing on the task at hand!