{thankful for freezers}

I just wanted to take a brief moment to say that I'm so thankful for such a thing as a freezer! :) I generally take the time every weekend to prepare a cup or two of quinoa and get it ready for the next week {I make my quinoa porridge and then separate it into single serving baggies, yes baggies and stick it in the freezer}. As well, when I prepare multiple person meals as I have been {like my eggplant parmesan for instance}, I automatically separate some servings and freeze them since I know I won't be able to eat all of it before it goes bad. Plus, who wants to eat eggplant parmesan 7 days in a row anyways?! This week has been INCREDIBLY BUSY as far as work is concerned {I probably shouldn't even be taking time to blog...but I figured I'd take a couple minutes to write this while my food is heating up}. Since I've had little time to prepare 'fresh' foods, I've been using my frozen foods and it's been so helpful! I've been able to keep up my healthy eating and still be as busy as I've been! Before this experiment, I probably would have been at McD's letting them prepare my food for me...so I'm thankful I haven't resorted to that! Now I'm just ready for this busy-ness to be over!

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I didn't give this post a title because I don't know what to call it. I am having some WICKED huge sugar cravings today and I thought maybe if I blogged about it {and thereby felt a sense of 'accountability'}, I wouldn't give in to said temptation.  It's not that I haven't eaten any sugar - heck, I had some girl scout cookies last week...but I ate those when I wasn't 'having a craving'. My sister bought them and I made the choice to eat them. 

But with a 'craving', I feel differently about it.  I KNOW that I don't NEED this sugar and my body {brain?!} is just craving it {for some unknown reason}...so I strongly feel the desire to overcome this craving and not give in. Because I'm better than that. I WILL WIN! {I hope}.

{random thoughts}

I started a garden yesterday. Well, I planted my baby seeds in an egg carton. I only had enough room for 30 seeds, so I planted carrots and cucumbers. I'm hoping to plant more soon. I'm not sure how this 'experiment' is going to go. As bad as I am in the kitchen arena...I'm even worse at gardening. I planted some seeds last year and seriously treated those seeds like they were my babies...watered them every day, set them by the window to get sun...they were my little pretties. Then, they got knocked over one day. My beautiful babies! These tomatoes were about an inch tall, so I tried to save what I could and took them outside and planted them. My one-inch tall seedlings then died. It was a sad day. My grandma thinks maybe I moved them outside too early. I also know they're in a plot that gets a lot of shade {but that's where my brother-in-law put the plot and since he spent a LOT of time on it...I don't have the heart to ask him to move it!}...so we had absolutely no garden last year. I'm trying again...we'll see how this goes. Wish me luck!

Also, I started a fitness bootcamp yesterday. I only get 8 classes worth during the month {groupon deal} so it's not a ton of time...but 8 is better than nothing, right?! I can barely move today...it's ridiculous! But I'm hoping this well really help with this 'plateau' I have found myself on!

I've also noticed that I'm feeling a lot better lately. Maybe it's all in my mind...I don't know, but I've felt 'healthier, fresher, and lighter' since I've started this vegetarian thing. Maybe there is something to not eating meat. I considered trying the Paleo diet as I've heard a lot of good things about it {but this diet is the EXACT opposite of what I'm doing now - the main staple is meat in that diet!} The key to the paleo diet is that they want you to eat all grass-fed, cage-free meats...and unfortunately, I'm not sure my budget can afford that...so if I were to try this diet, it would probably be on regular store-bought meats and I'm not sure that's a good idea...so we'll have to see.