Okay, I’ll be the first to admit I am NOT the picture of nutrition, nor am I a nutritionist.  Most of you know I like the occasional sweet or 10.  🙂  But in the past few months I’ve tried to clean up my act a little.  Oh, I still indulge, and I don’t really believe in completely eliminating things – carbs, sugar, dairy… It’s all about balance. I believe that if you restrict yourself, you’re going to end up wanting that thing even more eventually.  Moderation, my friends, moderation.  

I love running to people in the grocery store – especially ones that you train.  They are always trying to sneak a peek into your basket to see what you have!  ”Is she secretly packing ice-cream in the bottom of her cart?”  ”Where’s the bad stuff?!” Oh, I do the same – don’t you worry!!  

So, you wanna know what’s in my cart?!?!?  

Recently a few people have asked me to make grocery lists for them.  That’s hard for me to do since I’m not a nutritionist (which by the way I know some great ones if you’re interested) but I randomly took a pic of my cart today at Trader Joe’s (my absolute favorite grocery store!) and then decided to share what I got!  There is a bunch of randoms in the mix today because I was thinking of trying a new roasted kale salad and an asparagus pizza…  Usually it’s a bit more simple than this, but you can do a lot with the ingredients below.  So, here goes –

-2 cartons of cherry tomatoes

-kale

-carrots

-zucchinni

-yellow squash

-mushrooms

-celery

-2 boxes of low sodium organic chicken broth

-asparagus 

-gluten free flour

-almond meal

-toasted coconut

-pre-cooked chicken

-bag of lemons

-apple crisps

-black rice

-applesauce 

-rolled oats

-garlic (already peeled)

-golden raisins

-spinach

-wheat pizza dough

-low fat mozzarella cheese

-parmasean cheese 

-quinoa 

-skim milk 

Coconut oil, olive oil and eggs are also staples you should have handy  🙂  Other proteins like turkey and fish are great to have too.  TJ’s has some awesome fish that you can defrost and cook up!  

Again, I don’t know too much about nutrition, but I do know fresh, organic, homemade food is the best for you because you KNOW where it’s coming from and what’s going in it.  Pack lunches when you can, cut out eating out as much, plan dinners and play with your food!  For foodies or people who love to eat -it’s fun to explore what is in your fridge and concoct something new!  Just go for it!! AND If I could tell you any 2 things that pertain to eating that I’ve learned recently to be muy importante – they would be:

1.  PROTEIN AND VEGGIES, PROTEIN AND VEGGIES, PROTEIN AND VEGGIES!!!  (Did I mention protein and veggies?!?!)

2.  Everything in moderation

I truly believe in trying to find ways to enjoy food while making it a lifestyle choice to eat healthy – a sustainable way to live. You can find healthy things that taste GREAT. Dieting, cutting this out and that out isn’t sustainable.  You want to be able to ENJOY life, ENJOY food…  I’ll leave you with a quote that says it all…

“I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.” 
― Rita Mae Brown

PS – many of you asked about me giving up sweets for a month.  Most of you thought I was talking about SUGAR.  No.  I didn’t give up sugar.  As I mentioned above I don’t believe in completely eliminating things from your diet (unless you have an allergy or function better without it in  your diet).  Some people generally function better wheat free, and I generally do gluten free most days.  But remember – God made all that stuff – we need a bit of everything!  I gave up things such as cake, cookies, chocolate, REFINED SUGAR…  I still used Stevia in my coffee and ate Quest bars.  I also found other means of “desserts” that weren’t the usual desserts I normally ate or craved.   There is always something out there that tastes just as good or almost as good that will curb your cravings – you just have to find it.  🙂  So, no, I didn’t completely give up the sweet stuff.  🙂 Just wanted to clear that up!