Weekends Off -- No More

So, right now I'm not feeling the best about giving an update on all our healthy eating because I just got off a 3-day weekend. (For those of you who want to skip ahead -- this post includes a super energy chunk recipe. I'm going to drone on about my eating this weekend. So feel free to ignore me!) And, like I've mentioned before, I tend to take weekends off. This one was no exception . . . and though I can't pinpoint exactly where it went wrong, it did. I'm happy to say I didn't go eat tons of processed foods/sugars, but I did eat quite a bit of bread -- most of it homemade whole wheat-flax pizza dough in either pizza or garlic knot form. Going from eating mostly rice, quinoa, and couscous during the week to eating heaping helpings of bread on the weekend . . . kind of shocked my system. It made me feel overly full, sluggish, and gross. This isn't to say bread if banished from our household.

But THAT much bread . . . ? No, no, no. Must reconsider.

I also feel I drank too much over the weekend. For me, that's two drinks a day. I know it's not much, but paired with less water consumption (because I'm not running back and forth from the water cooler all day), I was pretty headache-y -- especially in the morning.



Friday night we ate homemade veggie pizza. We're planning to make the pie a weekly tradition -- but make less dough from now on (we have been using the second dough round to make garlic knots for Saturday lunch). I had a smoothie for breakfast Saturday, and we went to Moosewood for dinner with our friends Lindsey and John.





A few drinks here and there. I had Peanut Butter Bumpers (cereal) for breakfast on Sunday. Then somewhat skipped lunch while we organized the kitchen (drank some champagne to celebrate after taking photos for the kitchen tour). Made pizza again for dinner. Again, had a leftover dough round. Monday started with a big helping of vegan coconut-carob pie. That's right -- you read it . . . I ate dessert for breakfast. And then skipped REAL breakfast, had MORE garlic knots, and made a vegetarian behemoth for dinner: the (never home)makers versus food, sandwich edition. (More to come about that later in the week.)

Oh, boy. Why am I sharing all of this? Because I'm excited to get back at it today. I don't feel guilty about anything I consumed this weekend . . . I just realize I need to perhaps give myself SOME guidelines for weekend eating. Seems like "weekends off" isn't quite working for me. And it's not because of what I ate. It's from how I feel right now. We scurried around last night making our healthy crackers and energy chunks. So, I have a new, improved energy chunk recipe to share with you.

(PS: Here's a recipe for similar chunks: Cocoa-Nut Butter Energy Chunks and Coconut and Carob "cookies)


What you'll need . . .

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup steel-cut oats
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup coconut
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• Handful or two vegan chocolate chips
• Handful or two dried cranberries

Method . . .

1. Put everything except the chocolate chips and cranberries in a food processor and pulse until well mixed and moistened (you may need to add more maple syrup if it isn't wet enough).
2. Turn over into a medium mixing bowl. Mix in the chocolate chips and cranberries by hand.
3. Line a large cookie sheet with wax paper and scoop heaping tablespoon amounts onto it. I find it helpful to really press the dough into the tablespoon -- makes everything stick together.
4. Refrigerate -- will help them firm up. Then enjoy!

Anyone else have a weekend like mine? What are you doing to get back on track? Just FYI -- I was reading through Glamour Magazine (I have no idea why, but I have a random subscription that just kind of appeared one day), and this month's issue features a week-long detox. Claims you can lose up to five pounds in one week (which I find difficult to believe, but!). HOWEVER, it's very, very similar to what we've been following. It encourages you to EAT. But eat the "right foods" -- stay away from processed stuff. Lots of fruit and veggies. Drink tea. Etc. Anyway, that made me feel legit.

Last thing: If you haven't checked out the kitchen tour -- head over there now! We're excited about the work we did this weekend organizing and polishing it to share with you all :)



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