Cookies Are My Mantra

O, haiii, beauties! Glad y’all enjoying the peanut butter popsicle porn in mah my last post. You’ll be happy to hear that I hit up that very Asian market yesterday (for my Canadian peeps – it’s T&T Supermarket, which theres apparently several of in Ontario, Alberta and BC) and snatched up s’more ramen noodles, tofu, PEANUT BUTTER POPSICLES and Pocky. Have you ever had Pocky? Chyeeah.

Today, I’m headed out with my girls for the day. Super convenient, seeing as I got paid from job numero uno last night and upon checking my chequing account 10 minutes ago, job numero dos (??help Spanish??) paid up as well. I think it’s a sign from God to spend it all shopping, don’t you agree?? ;)

Because I’ll be out for the whole day, I’m gonna use today as an experiment to see how well I can intuitively eat whilst being out, having very little fallback on the safeness of the food in my cupboards; my scale; my measuring cups.

Not proud to admit it, but oftentimes, if I go out with my friends, I’ll skip breakfast (GAAAAAAAASP), or eat an unacceptably small one to “allow” myself more “indulgences” (sugar-free, fat-free, flavour-free fro-yo anyone?) during the day.

However, this morning I awoke and was, LEGIT, hungry. No, not even hungry – hungraaaay. Like, if-I-don’t-get-food-in-there-soon-my-stomach-will-eat-itself hunger. No clue where this came from, but it wasn’t pretty. Soo, I cooked up a little bowl of love:

[[ Good ol' Quaker Oats with Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Hot Cereal, cooked in Almond Breeze with strawbs, a whole uber-ripe nanner and flaxmeal. Topped with melty Maranatha AB and E.D. Smith Triple Berry jam. ]]

There there, my precious. It’s all better now.

I’m actually eating the reminants of this right now. And guess what? I don’t feel the least bit guilty. I don’t free like I should eat less because my friends probably didn’t eat breakfast. I eat a hellllllluva lot more than this each day. Why would this make me guilty?

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As I mentioned in my last post, I had my weigh in. Thankfully, I didn’t lose any. However, my weight nearly plateaued to the last time I weighed myself, so I upped my calories, again. I’m still a litte uncomfortable with this right now. However, I know it’s just the first few days. I know the fullness and the slight feeling of “guilt” will pass. I have way too much experience with this, clearly.

I came across this website over the past few days, and I actually printed out the page and stuck it next to my mirror. Here’s the page. It defines normal eating – basically the “intuitive eating” that I am building towards. It talks about not feeling guilty about having “forbidden foods”; about eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full; about having the occational day of overeating, and knowing that tomorrow you’ll wake up and feel better and continue with a normal life. Favourite selection? “It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful.” I kiinda wanna get that tattooed somewhere on my body (…which I won’t, obv, seeing as it would appear backwards in my reflection and just confuse me everytime I’d look in the mirror).

So this is my mantra for the day. Hopefully it works and will allow me to have that sticky Cinnabon I have deprived myself of for years, or that friend rice from that sketch Asian place outside the mall. (So sketch that they won’t even allow them to sell their food in the mall – that, my friends, is where it’s at)

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All that deep schnitzel aside, it’s been a chill week for me. Still working my booty off. I do kind of like that I have little pockets of free time during the day. A lot of the time, I’m stuck working the early morning (opening) shift at Starbizzle, then the late, late night shift at my other job. Happy to say I’ve arranged it so that I don’t end at 11PM and have to be at work at 5:30AM the next morning (factor in commuting, etc…oy). So what do I do with my little bursts of free time?…

This is not your healthy, natural, organic cereal. Nope, it’s just plain, amazing, run-of-the-mill, sugary sweet supermarket goodness. And just as the box reads, it’s -

Just. Bunches.

Okay, the ingredients aren’t the worst, by me anyway, but they’re certainly not a “clean” or “safe” food. (No HFCS, or fructose-glucose! :$)

Whatevs. I took this awesomeness and made it even awesomer by incorporating it into a yoghurtmess.

[[ A sugar ice cream bowl stuffed with Just Bunches, topped with yoghurt and fresh strawbs ]]

Mind you, these bowls are small and can’t fit nearly as much fruit + yoghurt while maintaining their aesthetic appeal. So post shoot, I fugged this baby up by plopping it on a plate and topping it with more strawbs

and more yoghurt and cereal.

Fin.

[[ Couscous and TVP, cooked in chicken broth with everything but the kicthen sink - or, corn, carrot, red pepper, asparagus and broccoli ]]

It’s so freaking good in anything! Who knew?! Also my first time EVER having couscous! It’s much airy-er than quinoa, but DEFS yummy. New addition to my grain-rotation!

I have been OD-ing on smoothies and soft serve these past few days. (I blame it on the heat ;P) Lemme tell y’all, guar gum makes all the difference in them! I opted for guar gum over xanthan gum simply because it’s cheaper, and though many bloggies use a mix of the two, I find that guar gum works juuust fine. Esspec with some protein powder or frozen nanner. They taste exactly like Wendy’s Frosties!!!

Orrr liquified like a milkshake

In my Starbizzle insulated cup with AB on millet.as a post work I’m-feeling-lazy-I-just-want-food-fast-type snack.

Mixed with obsession numero dos, OBV.

[[ Spinach fetuccinni with homemade basil pesto with TVP, cornand topped with more walnuts ]]

Or, again, liquified…

Ramen noodles in chicken broth with julienned (that’s what it’s called, yes??!) carrots

and multi-grain bread topped with tomater sauce, orange pepper and another obession – CHEEEESE!

Also with this new lime-flavoured tonic water, over ice.

SO I realize I may have just overloaded your server with pictures. My bad. I’m wondering how many of these obsessions will stick around next month. I expect that cheese will remain, as it has these past few weeks, but the rest…time will tell. Till then, though, I’ll enjoy them in abundance ;)

Off to run this town with my mah girls gurrls.

Have a fantastic day, beauties!