An Extra Snacky Week + Weekly Eats

Oy.  My eating habits over the past couple of weeks haven’t been so “healthy living” blog-worthy.  Now, I don’t mean that I’ve eaten burgers and fries for every meal.  In fact, my weekday breakfasts, lunches, and dinners haven’t really changed much and have been right on par with my usual choices:

Eggplant casserole “mess”…

Grilled chicken and pear salad on greens with dried cranberries, slivered almonds, and goat cheese…

Pumpkin chicken white bean chili…

And tomato and veggie soup.

It’s just that my weekends have been full of social commitments and indulgences like pizzas (not homemade) and drinks and fall themed desserts.

And even more out of character for me is just how SNACKY I’ve been lately.  Don’t get me wrong, I love snacks, but normally I can contain my cravings by eating snacks in moderation or just keeping them out of the house all together.  However, last week I think I ate everything in sight!  And once I get going, it’s just so hard to stop.  For full blog disclosure, on Wednesday I came home from work and polished off a box of crackers.  Followed by eating about 12 pickle slices.  Then a slice of pepper jack cheese.  Then some chocolate chips.  THEN dinner (a bowl of the pumpkin chicken chili).  Then for the grand finale I concluded my night by eating the OUTSIDE of a candy apple… and throwing the actual apple away.  Really, Athena?

Don’t worry, I’m not pregnant.  But I am human.  And we all have snacky weeks like this – right?!  I have never claimed to only eat quinoa and carrot sticks all the time.  But when I have weeks like this, I choose to look at the positive and focus on the meals and snacks that I did eat that WERE healthy.  Actually to be honest, I first get grumpy about it.  Last Thursday morning I was SO PISSED after teaching my morning class because I felt so lethargic and gross and felt like I got a terrible workout.  Just ask Ashley.  She saw my mood in the locker room at 7am after my class was over.  Isn’t it crazy how what you put into your body affects your performance, whether it be during a workout or just your mood or energy levels during the day?!

So I guess I should say that after my initial annoyance, I try to focus on the positive.  My mom has a great strategy where she likes to remind herself that there are 21 meals in a week, give or take, and to not get hung up on the “bad” ones.  And then just move forward.  Like I wrote in last week’s Monday Motivation, it’s all about consistency.  And I don’t consistently eat like this all the time.  I don’t know if last week was off because I didn’t get to food prep or because of the time of the month (TMI?) or because I’ve been excessively worrying about so many things lately (a whole different story).

No matter what the reason, it’s not the end of the world, and this week I’m confident that I’ll be back to my usual habits.  I’m not going to let one bad day, or week, or month, get me off track in the long run.

How do you guys like to combat extra snacky days or weeks?