All posts in category Unprocessed

No Dining in December

I have been giving into my lazy bones way too much lately when it comes to letting someone else make my dinner. I’m not really sure why I do this since most of the time I am a better cook?! :lol: What put me over the edge today was Costco chicken noodle soup that they make in-store. It sounded good, I’m sick, never had it before so why not? I could have just been not lazy and defrosted some chicken and stock and made my own, and I should have. That stuff was SO disgusting. It smelled off, or cheap, and I tasted it to make sure, and yes it was nasty. At that point I couldn’t have started over and made my own soup if I wanted to – too traumatized! I ended up just having a smoothie instead.

So I’m making it a personal goal to not eat out in any restaurant, or buy any ready-made food in the grocery store the entire month of December. Most of it has too many ‘extras’ in it anyway. I do like going out to eat, but most of the time it leaves something to be desired. Maybe it’s the places I like but its not like I’m going to Olive Garden or McDonald’s. Okay, I have been to McDonald’s in the last week. (And it sucked!) So enough is enough. Time to take control back and get the lazy bones back to work! And no I am not going to continue eating out until December comes

Leave a Comment

by Lauren on November 26, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Food, Goals, Life, Unprocessed

Posted by Lauren on November 26, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/no-dining-in-december/

Back to the Basics

Internets, my life is in need of a reboot. Not another juice fast, no. In trying to go back to ‘normal’ in regards to eating, drinking, balance, I find myself feeling less and less in control. Too many evenings filled with beer (or Vodka!). Too many meals out at restaurants, or pizza called in. This should all be fine and dandy, but hey – I’m ‘trying’ to lose weight! Apparently not very hard though! I have been reading Thin For Life, 10 keys to success from people who have lost weight and kept it off. One of the keys is Do it Your Way. So in thinking again about what worked and what didn’t work, I realized that maybe I do need that extra structure of my own making. Going back to the basics wouldn’t be all that bad. These simple things have really worked for me this year.

Eating real food
Not eating out
Not drinking
Eating balanced meals

I know that if I go back to doing these things that I will feel better and more in control, and weight will probably start to drop again. Maybe what I started out doing at the beginning of the year is My Way. And it was easy enough for sure! No counting of anything, just eating real food and not drinking. Can’t get easier than that! I just need to get back into the routine of having enough food in the fridge for there to always be something to eat without much hassle.

So yes. That is what I’m going to do. I have exactly 75 days until the Portland Marathon and it is important that I stay on track with my goals, to lose some more weight and keep on top of my training. There is no big fanfare when all you are doing is eating real food, but I am going to do somewhat of a countdown with my daily stuff until the marathon. I’ll be back later with Day 1!

Leave a Comment

by Lauren on July 24, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Diet, Exercise, Food, Goals, Happiness, Health, Life, Losing Weight, Unprocessed

Posted by Lauren on July 24, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/back-to-the-basics/

For Accountability

Okay, things have kind of gone downhill fast here! I am completely amazed at just how easy it is to fall into bad habits again. I haven’t been working out. I want to eat pizza every day I am being sucked back into the evils of potato chips! I am enjoying the wine, whiskey, and beer too much.

So what am I going to do about it??

I am going back to the real food rules AND no alcohol until we go to Portland in October.

Originally my plan was to have no alcohol this year and I caved on that, but I really do want to do good with my training plan so taking the temptation away is what I need to do. I want to be able to be lax about the rules but it isn’t working out so great for me right now. I’m starting tomorrow. It will be 151 days from then to October 7th. I know I can do it.

No more excuses!!!

Leave a Comment

by Lauren on May 8, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Diet, Goals, Happiness, Health, Life, Losing Weight, Marathon, Mind Games, Miskellaneous, Unprocessed

Posted by Lauren on May 8, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/for-accountability/

Food & Budget 3.24

Hey folks it’s that time again The budget is supposed to be $125 per week for food groceries. According to my spreadsheet (which I think may be wrong because it seemed like we spent more money??) we spent $81.93. No pics but here is what we bought:

PRODUCE

Avocados $4.99
Bananas $1.20
Bell peppers $.92
Carrots 5 pounds $5.49
Mushrooms $1.07
Onions $1.38
Oranges $1.60
Pears $1.23
Zucchini $1.00

OTHER STUFF

Cheese sampler $11.75
Eggs $5.98
Mahi Mahi from Costco frozen $24.99
Cashews $4.99
Olives $5.32
Sunflower seeds $3.63
Tomato paste $6.39

Hmm, I really thought we had bought more stuff! I guess not We didn’t buy a basket this week, and we went to the co-op market sale and Costco. I spent more than I wanted at Costco on unplanned stuff but hey, we were out of fish. We even went to Caputo’s and only bought olives, if you can believe it! I wasn’t going to buy fruit but it happened anyway. I guess this week was pretty good! I do want to amp up my veggie intake so I may start going to the store more often again. We’ll see. I hope we can do as well next week, though I doubt it. I plan on buying a conventional and organic basket on Monday, and we did the rounds today (which goes on the next update).

How about you? Did you have a good week as far as budget and groceries go?

Leave a Comment

by Lauren on March 24, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Budget, Diet, Food, Goals, Unprocessed

Posted by Lauren on March 24, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/food-budget-3-24/

Gearing up for an Unprocessed Challenge

We are going to do an Unprocessed Food Challenge, based on 100 Days of Real Food and the October Unprocessed!! We are going to start January 1, 2012. The Boyfriend and I are really excited about this! The Kiddo however, is not as excited. We may not do it perfectly but are going to give it our best. We are still discussing whether or not protein powder will still be used…and sugar is still an issue right now. Honey and maple syrup are kind of expensive, so I might just try and use evaporated cane juice or succanat instead of white sugar. Or maybe I should just go ahead and bite the bullet – we would probably bake a lot less without the sugars! I will also have to make an exception with the sugar thing in our home canned goods. We will still need to use the jams and jellies and such, but I won’t be buying or using any more plain old table sugar. If we have something in a package now, it will have to follow the 5 ingredient rule or we won’t use it during the challenge.

What we will eat

Whole foods = foods that grow and aren’t manufactured
Lots of fruit and vegetables
Dairy products, preferably locally produced and raw when possible
Lots of whole grains
Seafood – will try to do wild caught
Locally raised meat whenever possible
Occasionally protein powder for smoothie

What we won’t eat:

No refined grains (white flour, white rice)
Packaged food with more than 5 ingredients
No fast food
No deep fried foods
Oils other than animal fats and olive oil

So, we are gearing up and reducing our stores of processed stuff. The all-purpose flour is gone :-O !! Honestly I think that will be my biggest challenge, not using all-purpose flour We whittled down the Halloween candy to the most ‘important’ items and it will soon be gone. We will probably make a bunch of brittle to use up sugar and give it away for holiday gifts. We might do a couple of frying sessions to use up the peanut oil on hand I’ll have to look closely at the pantry and stored food items to see what else we may need to get rid of or use up.