Hit the Wall

Thirteen days in and I hit the wall. I knew it was bound to happen because I'm not eating enough greens. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of greens. I like spinach, celery (with peanut butter), steamed broccoli... that's about all I can think of. I've been putting spinach in my morning smoothies until I saw Chef AJ's video about smoothies not being optimal for weight loss - that's where I veered off course. I started focusing on weight loss again and got that defeated feeling that I compare to climbing Mt. Everest in shorts and sandals! I swore I wasn't going to focus on the weight. The journey seems insurmountable when I do that, but this old habit persona of mine that is addicted to S.O.S is very subtle and will abandon our pact in an instant to sniff out a carb!

I love Chef AJ and I thought I had found a wellness hack when I watched her video (see previous post), but then when I spoke to my plant-based nutrition coach she helped me put it in perspective which is I have to find what works for me. Smoothies are a good choice when transitioning away from the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.). Green smoothies are a great way to nourish your body especially if you aren't eating optimally. I have been eating a lot of calories from nuts, mostly walnuts because I love them, but they of course don't fill me up.

Today the electricity went out in our neighborhood and I had a houseful of family all saying they were hungry, so I stopped and got them pizza. Pizza is one of my favorite foods, but I committed to try the whole food plant-based unprocessed vegan lifestyle until at least July 4th. So, it was a stand off between the healthy girl and the junk food addict. The junk food addict has plenty of experience and cunning. She spoke up, in that sly fox voice, "You know Papa John's pizza crust is vegan!" Knockout! I know, it's not whole food, but it was right there in my face. It's like an alcoholic bellying up to the bar and ordering water. Very tough to do. I ended up tearing off the crust on a couple pizza slices and dipping them in the garlic sauce. Damn! I didn't want to do that, but I did and now instead of beating myself up about it, I'll just pick myself up and keep on moving on.

This incident proved to me that I am not ready to give up my smoothies just yet because at least it is nourishing me with the nutrients I need. I'm working on planning and preparing healthy and nutritious meals so I don't hit this wall again for a while. I've been at it for three years and do occasionally fall off track, but it gets easier each time to get back up again, dust myself off and keep on going. The glass walls still appear out of nowhere and I'm not quite to the place where I can bust right through them all yet, but after a few tries, I make it through to the next one. I know eventually those invisible walls will come down and I will achieve my dream of abundant health and energy!