Cravings and grocery stores!

Day 3 and it seems like it's been longer! Who knew that when you had 5 meals a day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner) that being gluten free for the last 15 meals would make it feel much longer than 3 days!!

Sarah helped me make my tasty smoothie this morning. Her description: "tastes like I've been working in the garden, gotten dirt all over my hands, wiped my mouth, and licked my lips" (i.e., the beet was too much for her!). I didn't get it myself, but several of my co-workers agreed with her! I still think it's tasty!

My body was craving sugar today...it took a lot of willpower not to eat a silly Dum Dum lollipop! I think it took even more willpower to resist taking a bite of the king cake in the break room! I mean, seriously, who doesn't enjoy cinnamon rolls covered with colored sugar?!?!

Lunch consisted of a large salad with steak tips from last night! I'm thankful for those La Croix drinks...if you haven't tried them yet, they are a good alternative when you are tired of water, or when you are craving soda or something with flavor. Pick one of these up...it's sparkling water! Sarah and I like the grapefruit flavor (tastes like Fresca) and the berry flavor!

If you are looking for a healthy chip alternative (but want to avoid corn chips because they are not really good for you), try these chips: http://www.beanitos.com/ They are made out of black beans and pinto beans! There are several different flavors, and I didn't realize until tonight when I was looking for the link that they are located here in Austin! That's an even better reason to eat them :) I plan on making some hummus tomorrow to incorporate into snack time with these chips!

I had to go to the grocery store before dinner, which is always a bad idea when you are hungry, but when you are trying to be more aware of your food, it's an even worse idea! I wanted every processed item in that store! Thankfully I walked out with the three items on my list and nothing more!

Dinner was a new adventure on many levels! I'm sure most people try one new element at a time BUT that Vitamix blender makes it so hard not to try new things all the time :-) I took two different recipes from the Vitamix recipe book and created my own tomato pasta sauce! Oh boy, was it so tasty! AND relatively healthy! I combined 12 roma tomatoes, tomato paste, half an onion, several cloves of garlic, a handful of kale, a handful of baby carrots (shh don't tell the kids!), basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and a couple tablespoons of low fat cream cheese! That cream cheese addition is what makes it only 'relatively' healthy  :-) It was sooooo good and you could tell that it was fresh! I can't wait until next time to add some bell peppers as well! Can't believe it only took a minute in that little mixer of ours :-) *KENDRA YOU NEED TO GO BUY IT ASAP!*

We browned some ground turkey and tossed it in the sauce, which we placed over some rice pasta. It was surprisingly tasty! If someone didn't tell me it was gluten free and just gave me this dish, I would not have guessed it was gluten free!

It does not look super appetizing, but it hit the spot!! As I was writing this blog, I rewarded myself with a gluten free donut, which is not the healthiest thing I've ever eaten. It was a nice reward for a long day of  resisting the temptation to eat some very gluten-y things!

Only a couple more days to go until I start the Bikram 60 day Challenge! Trying to get better at going to bed earlier since I plan on doing the 545am class!! Tonight: not so successful. Oh well, there's always tomorrow!