Making it work

This new way of eating has become a fun challenge for me.  I have been enjoying how to make different things  or finding what to eat on a menu.  

I'm also finding that the emotional connection with food has changed. I still love food. It's feeling more like what good but healthy food can I fuel myself with?  The cravings for 'bad' food are gone.  Don't ask me how that happened but it's wonderful. I'm not craving meat, chips, ice cream, etc.  Although, I admit that losing the salt is proving to be challenging. Not so much me and the salt shaker but the amount in foods.  I've pulled up our favorite places and it's shocking how much sodium is in the food.  😔  One of our favorites that offers a burrito bowl hits you with 2300 mg of sodium.  I did email them about the sodium and they responded quickly saying that it is something that is on their radar. Crossing our fingers that they take care of that.  We've been on this new way of eating since mid October and even though it feels fairly easy most days.   One of the biggest challenges is what's offered when you go out. It's actually kind of sad how few choices there are to get 'real' food without all the extra fat or sodium.  We make it work. 

I was visiting in St. Louis back in November.  My oldest son wanted to go to Joe Clark's which is basically a tavern.  Bar food plus bar smoke. Eeeks  But he insisted that the food was great and that I HAD to try the Prison burger.  I knew from the name that it wasn't going to be a black bean veggie burger with baked sweet potato fries.  haha  I decided on a salad and pizza. It did throw the waitress off when I asked for veggies only, no cheese on this pizza.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my favorite thin crust with fresh veggies on top. I have to confess, I had to take a bite of Ryan's burger as the compromise.  But who knew a cheeseless pizza could be so tasty? Even Ryan thought it was good. 

Some of the responses we get from servers are funny.  

"Are you vegan or something?" (something, only worse lol)

"So, you don't want any meat or cheese on this sandwich?" 

"I have never had anyone order a pizza without cheese."  

I have yet to find myself in a situation that I could not figure something out.  Is it 100% compliant? Nope.  But we are in a much better place with our woe now than we were prior to mid October. 

We honestly thought we were eating  fairly healthy.  I had tried running (9 miles/week) then it was boot camp style workouts.  I would lose 2 lbs and feel so frustrated. I was avoiding potatoes, rice and whole grain bread.  I decided that I was just going to accept the fact that I was chunky with great blood work and blood pressure. So, that should be good enough, right? I will post separately on how this woe was the choice for me.  (and thankfully, Kevin)  I'm also enjoying potatoes again.  haha