Clean Eating - accumulated random thoughts so far

I've been collecting all of these thoughts on Clean Eating for the last two months. Here you go. So far, my favorite lesson in this adventure has been the money saved from not going out to eat. Here we have a Clean Eating Muffaletta. I'll pause for the Clean Muff jokes. Go ahead. I can wait.

This clean eating gig has been interesting. Knowing my commitment to an entire year, I had challenges.

First there was that road trip, and then there was the Julie Cakes. I had no idea JulzHolla nor JulieCakes would tempt me so soon like this. I mean, really y'all - day three? DAY THREE and you're putting JulieCakes and me within a 1/2 mile radius? C'mon. But I did it! Had I only been eating clean for a week, I bet I would have snuck a cupcake, and then another. Maybe another for the road. But instead - I let Lucy have one, and then made her let me smell it. It smells really really good. And so far, I've been good. This will be a good year for me to prove to JulieCakes that although her cakes are like the best in the whole world. I'm not just using her for her cakes. Indeed, we can extend our friendship past delicious and supreme cakes and cupcakes. It's like cake abstinence. We're going to strengthen our relationship by abstaining. This'll be fabulous.

We picked a menu out of the magazine, that maybe I was a bit too eager or something. I had no idea I was such a picky eater. I always get a kick out of overweight picky eaters. And now I'm one of them.

I have a very small list of things I really don't like: soy milk, fish, shrimp (unless it's fried or dipped in butter). And then I have a list of things I absolutely refuse to eat: lamb, deer meat, goat cheese or milk.

Now I have a couple of others I'd like to add to the mix. It turns out, I'm not a big fan of scrambled eggs. WTF? All of the sudden, I'm against them. I get a little gag going on when I eat them. Remember when you were pregnant and you had that morning sickness gig. It's like that, except we all know I am NOT pregnant. That's a problem when they are on the menu 5 out of 6 breakfasts. The irony of the eggs and pregnancy comparisons hasn't escaped me.

Fish is nasty. The texture of fish, like the scrambled eggs, makes me gag. The taste of fish makes me feel like I've already thrown up. But I haven't.

I had a friend of mine call and say she was in town. She wanted to know if we could meet her for dinner. Uhm, someone doesn't read this awesome blog and her name rhymes with Pusan. That's what you get for not reading. Everyone else is avoiding dining with me like the plague. Even JulzHOLLA! is on a call only basis. Today's call went something like, "Did you say you've been chewing on a salad for an hour?"

Indeed, I had. The salads are huge. Lots of chewing going on here.

Anyway Pusan and company wanted to go out to eat. But really, it was just too soon. So, I offered to make them dinner. I failed to mention our Clean Eats endeavor. But went with a clean menu anyway with:
Steak Roll
Roasted Winter Vegetables
Edamame Salad
and my personal fave: Chocolate Banana Freezer Pie

I would have won her and her beau over had I not been super eager just to see her. I tried to will an early arrival by having dinner fixed early. I forgot to add in to the equation that Pusan is typically late - well, let's just say super laid back. And so I'd cooked the steak early, and keeping it warm dried it out. I also forgot the vanilla in the pie. I think that made the difference. There's always next time...if they come back.

As with any food lifestyle change, we are figuring this all out. What I loathe is all the cleaning. I love cooking in my kitchen. But I'm the first to acknowledge that I'll use every pot and pan and bowl and utensil in the process. Which leads to 2-3 loads of dishes every day. It's time consuming, but I don't mind that.

What I love about our clean eats is first of all, we just feel great. We're never hungry and we're never full. After our Texas tour of all things yummy and dirty-dirty - I felt like I needed a nap - for a week or so. Ricardo and I both have energy during the day, we sleep well at night, and we just feel good. I also love the fact that we're all eating together just about every night of the week. I was in a conversation with some pals the other day and one woman mentioned that they have one designated family dinner a week. And sometimes, they can't make that one. One? Let's be real here, about once a week, as Max and Lucy's schedule gets a little hairy, Ricardo have to divide and conquer, and we end up feeding the kids dinner before we taxi them off to their activities. Then when we get home, Ricardo and I have dinner together. But since eating out is not an option, all of us eating together has been fun. And necessary. I'm currently in a panic over dinner etiquette and it has nothing to do with which one is the salad fork and more like, "Please cut your steak instead of shoving the whole thing in your mouth." Or "Broccoli kind of sprays when you talk with your mouth full, honey." Or the fact that I had to make one of our newly published MomOnTheRocks Rules to be "Chew your food." It's a family rule. Know it. Love it.

My favorite surprise this far is our budget. I'd venture to say we are spending about $300 a week on groceries. Some of you are gasping at my frivolous bulk buying of broccoli and spinach and low sodium turkey breast, I'm sure. However, what we're not spending money on is going out to eat. I don't care how much you budget for eating out, it's ALWAYS underestimated. So, that we're not eating out at all - well, before you gasp at my frivolous groceryness - I guarantee you that you're spending more on your meals than me. $300 a week divided by 5 meals (Breakfast, morning snack, Lunch, Afternoon snack, dinner) 7 days a week, that's roughly $8.57 per meal for a family of four.

Sometimes the veggies go bad, especially if they are organic. I worry that I'm being wasteful. But then Ricardo reminds me of when we're out to eat and one of the kids balks on their choice for a meal. It's not what they thought it would be and they don't like it. So, they don't eat it. And then one of us eats it so as to, you know, not be wasteful and get all that we can out of the restaurant bill. The spinach that goes bad is $5 (it's a 1 pound gig, y'all). The meal that one of them refuses averages out to be $8. I got some use out of the spinach before it went bad. I can't say I got as much out of the restaurant.

What I'm saying is, more time and energy is put into preparing meals and emptying and loading the dishwasher. More money on groceries. Money saved on not going out to eat. We're eating around the table all the time. We're learning a lot about the food we eat. I don't feel sharper (Or is it more sharp?) yet. But I don't feel too full and talk myself out of my workouts either.

The only thing I really miss are the JulieCakes. But they smell divine.

That's how I roll.
Song of the Day: Good Feeling by Flo Rida