One of my big weight-loss philosophies is that you can't eat everything you like, but you should like everything you eat. I've learned this about myself: if I'm not happy about my food plan, I'm far more likely to stray from it. To that end, I've spent loads of time combing the net and my 4 healthy magazine subscriptions to build myself an ever-growing solid arsenal of go-to recipes that give me a good rotation of options to mix and match indefinitely. Meal planning and preparation take up a HUGE amount of time for me, but they're essential components of success. After all...
...and so on.
Adhering to my "like everything you eat" philosophy sometimes gets tricky when layered in among my efforts to try new things (which often means more than once -- some new flavors can be acquired tastes), not overload one meal with the bulk of my day's calories, get enough nutritional variety, and stay within my daily macros. It's a time-consuming puzzle to put together my weekly meal plans, but it's usually fun for me. However, there are times when I remember the hard way that there are certain things I really just don't enjoy eating or am sick of at the moment. I can usually put the distaste aside, scrunch up my nose, and eat the thing I've forced upon myself, especially when it's paired with something I really do enjoy. Prime example: I'm still not exactly bananas over bananas, but they're transportable and I've come to not mind them, so I usually schedule them as a snack with some yummy almond butter or yogurt. This week, I had a miss: I threw in some grape tomatoes, which has reminded me that I borderline hate them -- and I made the unfortunate mistake of coupling them with a lunch it turns out I'm not wild about right now. The only positive is that I'm hungry enough at lunch time that I'll eat just about anything, and I'm OK with the split-pea soup, it just doesn't hit the spot, ya know?
My mismanaged menu (re)taught me two key things:
- It's fine to include a few items I find OK, as long as there's something I really like to balance it out.
- I'm fickle. The odds are 50/50 that I'll have changed my mind on something I haven't had in a while, for the better or the worse, or that I still like/dislike it just as much as before. (I'm looking at you, grape tomatoes.) That is, if I can remember how I felt about it in the first place. (I'm looking at you, split-pea soup.) So, when I'm not sure, I need to not group two questionable items together in the same feeding. I just need to be a bit more thoughtful during menu prep.
I like souping in the winter, even when the temperature varies wildly between single digits and the high fifties, so I'm making up for this week's soup miss with a soup for next week I'm already craving: classic matzo ball soup... with whole-grain matzo meal. Uh, yeah. I'm jealous of myself.
TGIF -- this week's menu misfire is over! Happy weekend, kids :)
P.S. No, I didn't go off plan in spite of not loving my choices for the week. Bam! #NSV