Wow, I really fell off the bandwagon. I was all gung-ho about training for this 10-miler, then snow days (or non-snow days in our case) happened, work got busy, just excuse after excuse. And here we are less than 3 months away from this possible 10-miler and I just have to admit, I am not going to be ready. So when my race training motivator suggested something shorter and maybe even later in the year, I didn’t hesitate to agree. If training for a race becomes too stressful for me, then it’s not worth it in my opinion.
So I’m restarting….again. Not just with exercise, but with my eating habits as well.
You know when you’re watching your weight, and you start to creep up, pound by pound? You may start at 1X5 lbs, then you creep up to 1X6. You may even get up to 1X9 and STILL be okay with it. But then the day comes when you step on the scale and 1X9 becomes 1(X+1)0, you know what I mean? 119 becomes 120, or 129 becomes 130, or 139 becomes 140…you get the picture? Well that happened to me the other day and it was like a punch in the gut. How could I have let the pounds pile on like that?! I guess working out only a couple times a week and not watching what I eat really did effect me. There was a time when it wouldn’t, but ever since I turned 40, it hasn’t been as easy.
My friend of Kelly Nelson Photography recently mentioned starting to track her diet and exercise with the MyFItnessPal app. When I read her blog post, that app rang a very faint bell with me. When I looked through my previously downloaded apps, there it was! It was a little dusty and cobwebbed, but I put it back on my phone. I don’t know if I’ll keep up with it, but I’m going to give it a try. At least forcing myself to record what I eat will give me some sort of accountability, as long as I remain honest with myself!
And one of the diet changes I am re-implementing is the mason jar salad. Why does this work for me? Because it’s pre-made and sitting in my fridge staring at me, for one.
When I open the fridge to figure out what I’m eating for lunch, it’s so easy to pull out this jar, dump its contents in a bowl, pour on a little dressing, and eat while I work. But the key for me is finding a mix I like. And anything that starts with something like this:
is sure to be good!
Mixed Berries Antioxidant Salad
If you want to add dressing to the jar, just add that as the bottom layer. I used a little balsamic vinegar on this salad and it was the perfect addition. You could also change it up with a different type of seed, chia seed or pumpkin seed, for example.
And another I tried and liked:
Waldorf Salad in a Jar
This one I didn’t like as much as the mixed berries salad but I think it was because of the dressing I used. Typical waldorf salad dressing calls for sugar, but I was trying to find one without it and didn’t like the recipe I used. Next time I may use the typical recipe but substitute the sugar with honey or something. But the base of this salad was a good, crunchy combo and I will definitely be adding this to my fridge.
The weekdays are always packed with work and errands, so having something quick on hand just makes life easier. And success at eating healthy I believe has a lot to do with prepping and planning. The mason jars help keep the salad fresh for up to a week so you can make enough at the beginning of the week to have a daily salad waiting for you every time you open the fridge if you like!
