Day 3&4: Compromise, But Not Too Much

I have maintained eating a plant-based diet, and I met some of my new goals with exercise. Today, and yesterday I walked for the full hour over my lunch break. It was invigorating, and I was happier after. In fact I even felt more productive at work!

But after I got home, and helped my partner through a difficult day, I spent an hour making a salsa from scratch, sour no-cream (tofu), pitted and sliced two avocados, and shredded pepper jack almond cheese. And then, because I had forgotten to preheat the oven, I microwaved two bake potatoes to put all of my toppings on. After I did, I took a big bite… and almost threw up. It tasted disgusting. I thought, at first, it was the sour cream. Then, I took a bite of the potato, and realized it was the potato. It was totally disgusting. It was too late to take it back to the grocery store, so I didn’t really have anything to eat.

Then I looked around at my food, and realized I had nothing to eat. Because of the tight financial situation I’m in, I can’t afford to keep any extra food around. I also don’t have any quick food. I realized that I disagree with cutting everything out of my diet. I have lost weight in the past, I just had to keep track of my calories, not be too indulgent, stay vegetarian, and EXERCISE!

I believe that I have to alter what I’m eating, that there are healthy ways of eating vegetarian, and not necessarily vegan for every meal. If I eat some vegan meals, and some vegetarian, it will still be healthy. This ties in to the money, and lack of “easy” food, because if I decide to keep some goat cheese and cucumbers around, I can make a quick “snack” that will at least be better than nothing. (Or what I ate tonight… half an avocado, a little salsa, and a glass of wine.)

Walking over my lunch break for an extra hour will be excellent exercise. I will get in 1 hour and 40 minutes of walking every day. I will also exercise doing step-ups and mixing it up with my Nike exercises and working on the Farm.

The conversation with my partner was very similar to the conversation he had with me about determination, strength in weak moments, remembering to stay the course. Remembering that it’s the long run result that’s going to make eveything worth it. It’s amazing how sometimes an idea can really be put into practice with many different problems. His frustrations are so different than mine, but I’m so glad that we’re able to help remind one another that our long term goals will help us so issues like the one’s we’re having now are less likely to happen. It’s why I love him.

I’ll end with this picture of a statement I found while checking out the Engine 2 Diet’s Facebook page.