Grass-fed hamburger, sauteed onions, and goat cheese...need I say more?  This is the beauty of my diet; I've learned how to make creative and delicious food.  Served with roasted brussel sprouts and a side salad, this was exactly what I'd been craving after two days of deep cleansing (which means no eating except a small chocolate snack each day).  I'm grateful that I'm learning more about food and what is actually healthy.

So anyone that has been around me or talked to me in the last two weeks knows how much I've been craving Chinese food.  All of the other cravings have dwindled...but there's been a couple times when I have almost caved in and ordered orange chicken and cream cheese wontons.  Unfortunately, it's about as unhealthy as you can get.  So I set out to find a recipe that was healthy and Paleo-friendly, and tonight I made it happen.  It tasted amazing, and so did the curry roasted cauliflower!  I love cooking again, and getting creative with healthy cooking.  I lost my love for cooking in the divorce...but I'm finding it again.

 

It's so much more fun drink out of a mason jar!  Today's kitchen experiment was to infuse water with fruit and fresh herbs....resulting in cucumber/lime/mint, blueberry/lemon/mint, and strawberry/lemon/basil waters.  Drinking and eating healthy definitely takes a lot more time and patience than ordering Chinese from Panda Palace, but the results are worth it.

Yes, it's been a while since I posted...thank you to those who pointed it out.  So what have I been up to for the last 2 weeks?  Getting my new healthy lifestyle started with a nutritional cleanse that cuts out refined sugar, artificial sugars, wheat, alcohol, most caffeine, and processed foods.  It's taking some adjusting and a lot of willpower to withstand the cravings for foods that I've fed my body the last two years.  And I've realized that I've let food and alcohol fill some emotional voids, which has been the hardest to deal with.  But I've got more energy, lost some pounds, started cooking more, and been eating lots of fresh vegetables.  This week I got creative with the rhubarb plant I've got growing behind my apartment and made fresh rhubarb salsa.  It is spicy, sweet, and the perfect compliment to my fish tacos.  It's so much more satisfying to cook something healthy than to warm up a frozen pizza!

Since green tea is one of my only allowed caffeine sources during this nutritional cleanse, I have a new found love for it.  There's something about that little tea bag seeping its delicious nutrients into my water that makes me happy.  I even bought some new flavors....green chai, ginger peach matcha.  I'm grateful to be learning to enjoy new foods.

The nutritional cleanse I'm doing isn't only about my diet...it's about my lifestyle and making everything cleaner, simpler, more enjoyable.  I've been thinking that my apartment decorations feel a little cluttered.  This is my first step at changing that.  Just a interesting glass container with cherry blossoms really cheers up my little space.  I'm grateful for simple and pretty little things.

Water is life.  One of my biggest goals is to drink more water.  It seems so easy, but for someone that is used to coffee, Monster energy drinks, pop, and carbonated flavored waters, it's really hard to switch over to plain water.  I know the difference drinking more water can make in weight loss and overall health.  I'm grateful for lemons, cucumbers, and ice to make drinking water more palatable.