Prepare for Hunger!

My brother always uses a motto when we start in on a family weight loss competition.  "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."  I take that to heart -- especially since I know that once a craving has shown its nasty little face, I will crash and burn.  So, I do plan out a lot of our meals.  (Click here to see my March 24, 2014 post, where you'll see how I plan weekly meals.  Sometimes.)

In addition to planning dinners, I am also very serious about breakfasts and lunches on school days.  This week was no exception.  In between laundry and grading papers, grocery shopping and Mother's Day festivities, I began to prep some healthy foods to take with me to work.  

I'm not a morning person, but my job requires that I am.  I just can't eat breakfast first thing.  I need a cup of tea and the chance to get used to the new day.  About 9:00 or so, I feel hungry, so I pack my breakfast to have then.

So back to this weekend.  I chopped carrots and celery, as I always do, and boiled a dozen eggs.  I bagged up the carrots and celery, and then bagged up some grapes, too.  Then I prepared a great Tabbouleh salad with cauliflower instead of bulgur wheat.  I made a crock of slow-cooker oatmeal and portioned out fresh blueberries to put on top.  Finally, I whipped up a week's worth of blueberry & kale smoothies.

Now, you're probably already thinking what I should have been thinking.  That's an awful lot of food for one day at work -- and it didn't include dinner!  Well, the picture above shows what I took to work with me and the picture below shows what I brought home.  Yup, a bit too much food.  But at least I had healthy choices to get me through the day.  I may try drinking the smoothie on my way to work so that I get the vitamins from the nutrient-heavy blueberries and kale early on.  Later on I can have my oatmeal -- after tea.

Oh, speaking of tea -- I have given up coffee for the most part.  I still enjoy a cup now and then (especially on the weekends), but I have grown to love my cup of green tea with peppermint, spiked with a few drops of peppermint essential oil.  The peppermint helps with digestion and inhaling it helps my sinuses - big time!  After the tea is gone, I drink water with a few drops of grapefruit and lemon oils.  Delicious!

So, tomorrow I will probably pack the same lunch and breakfast, but I will be at work much later due to play rehearsal.  If I don't eat it for lunch, it can be part of my dinner.  I still think the more prepared I am, the better I will eat and the healthier I will be.  You are what you digest!