Lately I have been on auto-pilot because other things in life require my attention at the moment. In some ways I am amazed that I haven't gained any weight back in the month it's been since I was really heavy-duty focused on my mission. I reached my goal of 160lbs and that's where my body seems to be staying. It could be any number of factors from occasional bingeing (even though it's healthy food, too much is too much) to anxiety and/or stress. Things got overwhelming pretty quickly and soon many things were moved to the back burner. I didn't have the brain capacity left to care too deeply. Eating is still an activity that I have linked in my head as a way to cope with both stress and anxiety. When I am feeling overly anxious, I may eat because it gives me a tasty distraction. When I am stressed, certain foods are a mental comfort and make me temporarily not stressed.
I don't feel as much addiction to food like I used to. I usually choose nuts or fruit for a snack. I'd love to snack on more vegetables but the only one I really like raw and without anything to dip them is when it's a complete salad. For me, veggies are good in combination with other veggies... but not all of them are super good alone. Like too much spinach is pretty gross in my opinion. But spinach in a salad is mandatory to balance the flavors. The same goes for onions. I don't mind them in a salad, but I prefer them cooked.
It occurred to me that I've always loved peanuts and peanut butter. It's kind of my... jam! Eh? ...eh??
There are several nuts that are quite good and of course they're always more palatable with salt. My husband said he would like to cut out salt whenever possible, so we started getting unsalted. It was a rough snack to want to eat, even when hungry. Talk about dry mouth! But it turns out that we both really like a mixture of unsalted nuts and raisins. We've tried different combinations and I thought I'd share my latest mixture, which is super simple and only includes 4 varieties of nuts and, of course, raisins.
I choose to make enormous mixtures at a time because I'd rather only have to do it once every 2 months or so. It's one less thing to have to deal with and that way a snack is always available to pick up and eat.
- Cashew Pieces (1.86lbs) $17.84
- Roasted Peanuts (2.68lbs) $6.94
- Walnuts (1.9lbs) $20.88
- Pecan Halves (1.89lbs) $24.55
- Raisins (2.02lbs) $8.14
TOTAL: $78.35
Hope everyone has a lovely week!