This week was my first week back in the classroom, and unlike other semesters when I make a super long list of impossible and sometimes contradictory goals, this time I decided to be realistic and loving. Here are my goals for this semester.
- Eat breakfast every day.
- Take my vitamins after breakfast.
- Bring lunch to work.
When I get stressed at work, the first habit I stop is eating regularly. I get so caught up with preparing for class that it's nothing for me to skip breakfast and lunch. When I do this, I'm more susceptible to headaches, fatigue, and overall grouchiness, and for me this leads to choosing take out over cooking at home. Now I don't feel that homemade food is necessarily better than fast food, but in my case, I wind up spending a lot of energy deciding what to have and procuring the food. This time adds more pressure to an already packed schedule, especially when I go out for lunch, and having decreased energy makes my work take longer. I don't like feeling this way.
It's also a concern because while my eating can be sporadic, I never stop working out. When I exercise without eating regularly, I don't do my best. Who needs all that? Not me! I want more balance in this area, so here's what I tried this week.
I decided to experiment with having breakfast and lunch look like one another.
Tuesday's breakfast was steak and onions on a tortilla. Lunch was canned tortilla soup. I brought some crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese in a bag to throw on top. I forgot to take pictures, but they were gorgeous. Trust me!
Wednesday's lunch was a piece of leftover banana bread from Tuesday. Boy was it tasty, but it wasn't very filling. oh well. The good thing about kind eating is that I always get another chance at it. No need to stress or beat myself up. For lunch, I baked a few chicken thighs that morning and put some chopped chicken on a bagged Caesar salad.
On Thursday, I had a repeat of Wednesday's chicken. For breakfast, I browned an onion and heated up some chopped chicken thighs with it. I threw it on a tortilla with spinach. Lunch was the same chicken and onion mixture on spinach. This time I put some berries with it, and that made it taste like a fancy handheld salad.
Surprisingly good! |
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Pineapples, mango, blackberries, and blueberries. |
Looks like a teeny taco! |
A handful of lunch! |
This week's lessons!
- Everyone knows I adore spinach, but even I was surprised at how often I eat it. It's so great!
- I found it easy to bake chicken in the morning while doing other things. I used to think that meal prep had to happen at night or on the weekends.
- I don't like leftovers, but warming up leftover meat in browned onions made them taste special. I'll keep that up!
- Remixing a few staples was a better fit for my schedule than imagining new dishes every day, but having a bit of variety kept me from feeling bored.
- Iced tea is a delicious and inexpensive lunch drink.
- I really like having colorful lunches!
- I love eating with my hands.
On to Week 2!!
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