I love carbs. and carbs love my butt.

I love all things carb-filled. Cake, rolls, cupcakes, bread sticks, pretzels, basically anything that is full of flour and sugar, I crave. Unfortunately, loving carbs is keeping my big fat butt big and fat. I'm struggling with losing the last 10-15 pounds that I'd like to shed to reach my goal weight, and this week I decided to step up my healthy eating and cut out the processed carbs to see if that would help.

My goal weight is much more realistic than this. My bones are bigger now than when I was born, so I add on at least ten pounds to my birth weight.

So since Monday I've tried my hardest to avoid all processed food and carbs, with the exception of fruit. I did the low carb thing in high school and tried to cut out everything carby, including fruit, and it was miserable. Besides, if I'm choosing to eat watermelon instead of cake, I feel like I need a dang trophy and not guilt. Thanks anyway, Mr. Atkins. 

 

Going all unprocessed is actually kinda easy for me in the summer. I love to eat fresh fruit and veggies from the garden, so really all I have to do is replace all the unhealthy, bad stuff with all the good (and did I mention free, because I am a broke ass and the food from the parental's garden is for free). Plus my friends who are lucky enough to not constantly worry about what they are eating and if a piece of bread is going to make them gain ten pounds aren't in town, so my meals are for the most part up to me. 

No surprisingly, I have felt really, really great this week and I think I may have lost a few pounds (I don't own a scale on purpose because I really don't need one to obsess over).  I thought I'd share some of my favorite low carb and mostly unprocessed meals that i have eaten this week, in hopes that they would work for someone else!

My breakfast was fruit each day- specifically a banana. And coffee, which I know is bad but necessary when you're not a morning person yet forced to deal with humans in the morning. I don't use sugar (only Splenda) and no creamer in my coffee, so that helps a little. 

 

  Lunch was raw veggies. I know it doesn't sound very filling, and probably isn't the healthiest, but if you eat a lot of them and drink lots of water, it can really fill you up! I usually had a piece of fruit, too, if I was still hungry and needed something to help me avoid the office candy bowl. 

Mmm, tasty. It actually wasn't too bad, really. Cucumbers and peppers, straight from the garden with a little salt and pepper.

Dinner was where I got my protein. Plus, it gave me a chance to cook, which is something I really love to do. Monday night I had a "cleaning out the fridge" meal. It was going to be an omelet, but the egg stuck to the pan, so it became scrambled eggs with a side of sauteed mushrooms, peppers, and tomatoes. And some avocado, because it was in the fridge and I do love avocado. It was seriously really, really good. Random as can be, but still pretty tasty. And even better than that, I added no fat to any of it, no unnatural anything. Just eggs and veggies, and a little salt and pepper. 

It's like a fridge cleaning fiesta. 

Monday, I was super proud of myself because I didn't cheat one single time. Tuesday, not so successful. Mi madre came to Lex and we went out to dinner. I had sushi, and not the really healthy all raw, no rice kind...because it kinda scares me still. I suck, I know, but I'm getting there. Wednesday lunch I was a super cheater too because the office ate chicken salad, wheat thin chips, and fruit for lunch. My carb cravings were super intense that day, just from seeing and starring at the chips, so I had to give in and eat a few.

For dinner, though, I had some of my very favorite healthy food in the whole world- ground turkey. I also had (free!) cabbage from home, so I decided to go all intense and make cabbage rolls/stuffed cabbage. Seriously, if you're trying to eat healthier, you have got to try substituting ground turkey for hamburger. It's 97% fat free and really doesn't taste that much different. 

I made cabbage rolls! I may be an old lady, but I'm a good cookin' old lady.

Not surprisingly, I went to Pinterest and found a recipe for the cabbage rolls and then basically ignored it and did what I wanted instead. I boiled some cabbage leaves then filled them with a little bit of the turkey-filling mixture: turkey (obviously), egg, onion, garlic, seasonings, and some broken whole wheat spaghetti because I didn't have rice. I put them in a baking dish, covered them in tomato juice and some more spices and stuff, put aluminum foil over them, and baked them til they were done! And they really were tasty, with no added fat or carbs, aside from the spaghetti.   

Tonight, I used more turkey, but in a different way. I made mini turkey meatloaf muffins! These are some of my very favorite Pinterest-inspired recipes I've ever made: I just took turkey, a little splash of tomato juice, a splash of buttermilk (because I had it in my fridge and didn't have any more eggs since I dropped the last one on the kitchen floor last night- congrats Kelli, you suck), some more broken whole wheat spaghetti, onion, garlic, salt, and  pepper and mixed it all up. Then I spooned it into a muffin tin and baked them until they were brown! They are extra super delicious when you put barbeque sauce on top, but I didn't have any, so I cut up a tomato and pretended it was barbeque sauce instead (I can be very tricky with my mind and my belly when I try). 

I also cooked cabbage for the first time! My mom makes super tasty delicious boiled cabbage, and part of the reason it is so super tasty is all the bacon and other assorted salted pork products  and fat she cooks in with it. Mine was just water and cabbage and lots of salt and pepper: and it was really good! Mama would be so proud (after she got done thinking I was crazy for leaving out the fat).

Mini turkey meatloaf muffins! Yummmm

 Whether or not I've actually lost any weight this week or not (though I really feel like I have) I just feel so much better about myself. My body feels better without all that heavy, bad fat that is so unnecessary. Eating as clean as I can makes me feel skinnier, and really, that's almost as important to me as actually being skinnier.