Directions and Changes

Many use the new year as a fresh outlook on the challenges and goals ahead.    We managed to jump start the change and goal part around October 2012 when a doctor's appointment enlightened my better half's eyes to the thought of starting the South Beach Diet.    The title just makes me cringe every time I say it because it sounds so gimmicky but we discussed, researched and took the plunge.

While we didn't eat terribly before, there was massive room for improvement - lots of eating out on weekends, occasional fast food and some processed food additives - I got lazy and started buying jarred pasta sauce.     This is a huge morph from the way I used to live off of the land where summers were spent stacking wood and canning the harvest.   To this day, I won't eat a beet because of the summer Grandma planted extra due to the previous year's failure....and they all grew.    No! More! Beets!
Ahem....Tiny tangent there....  

The SBD is pretty concise although some of the books are laid out in a funky way.    Through thrift store purchases and library sales, we've now gained three of them for our collection.   We also have the app installed on the tablet and I find that's my favorite as we can do a full meal plan a week at a time without trying to keep track of what recipe in is which book.    Looking ahead is mandatory and I can honestly say you will not succeed if you don't care for planning.  Even in the "simple recipe" book, there are many steps and/or ingredients that aren't going to just be hanging around in the refrigerator or pantry for a few weeks at a time.    Despite being on this program for almost threeish months (taking a bit of time off for the holidays), I do still reference the recipe for each dish just because of the measurements, calculations for portion sizes, etc.  I have to admit I miss just being able to whip up a meal without major mental faculties but that's the trade off - that which is easy to prepare isn't necessarily the healthiest for you to eat.    Before the diet, we'd easily get stuck in a particular dish rut (fall back = chicken!) but diversity of the has certainly come with the SBD and we now rotate through a new meat or fish each meal now!

This blog has gone neglected due to life stuff taking over but I hope to corral that issue and nail it down to sharing our journey on this path, crafts and house projects I've got going and the occasional sweets recipe.  

Thanks for visiting!  :)