Swap

Eating healthy is hard. We've been working at healthy lately, but life gets in the way sometimes. Still, it's baby steps right? One thing, then another, until it all snowballs and you can say you eat "healthy". Although I'm not perfect, I have noticed a huge change since we started focusing on our diets. My stomach has been problematic since my gallbladder was removed, but it's happy with fruits and veggies and a low fat diet. My energy has peaked and the germs I always catch from the kids at work that used to leave me sick for weeks have barely bothered me this winter. I think I spent all last winter with a cough and runny nose, so this is amazing. This week is the first time I feel like I'm fighting a cold in months...

Healthy swaps:

-I gave up soda! I no longer crave carbonation, and the last time I tried it, it was too sugary and syrupy. Yuck.
-I'm still a coffee lover though. I need some caffeine somewhere!

-I've cut way down on eating out. We try to eat dinner out only once or twice a week, and at least without soda I'm cutting down on calories. I try to stick to salads, subs, and healthier options for lunches too.

-Juice! We were juicing for a while and loved it, we even splurged on a nice juicer. But mornings are not my strong suit, and I quickly lost the motivation to prep and juice and clean each day. Then Jeff brought home Naked juice. That stuff is delicious, and not that different from our daily juice. We've switched to that for breakfast, and we'll get back into juicing when we have time. It's also super expensive over here because produce is more expensive than in the states. And rots or goes bad in about a day. I'd kill for a nice, fresh tomato.

-Snacking swaps. I've tried to stick with fresh fruits and veggies, canned fruits, and greek yogurt for my snacks. But sometimes, I need salty and crunchy. Since potato chips are just bad all around, I'm trying different options. I discovered these last week. I tried the sea salt first, and while they're not potato chips in any way, the crunch and salt make me happy. And once you get over the different taste than what you expect, it's pretty tasty. These sweet chili ones taste like Doritos to me...

 

-Less-processed. I'm trying to stick to less-processed foods. Getting most of our groceries from the edges of the grocery store and such. But I just don't have all the time in the world on my hands and I like short cuts. I found this pasta sauce last week and was surprised by the ingredients list. Pasta sauce isn't exactly brimming with odd ingredients, but this one is super easy. I could probably make it myself if I wanted to spend that extra time in the kitchen...

I'm getting better at sticking to my routines if somebody else knows about it. I can't slack off on working out and not feel guilty if someone asks me every day how my workout went. I get more excited and motivated about eating healthy if I share with other people trying to do similar. So this is my healthy update for the week :)