Coping with a busy schedule

Unprocessed clean eating has been anything but easy over the last week or so. I'm in the final push at my job, so I've been working some crazy long hours (including the weekends), so I've had very little time to cook for myself and prepare food for the week like I normally do. And with my fiance away on vacation (he just got home last night), I had no one to fall back on to ask for help. I tried to do my best... I ate all our veggies from our CSA,

made sure my snacks were clean (hard boiled eggs, nuts, homemade pickles/pickled eggs and popcorn), and when I did order/eat out I tried to make the best choices I could.

But then came Friday... I was at a friend's wedding and there was really nothing I could do about it. It also didn't help much that I had been so busy that day at work that I didn't really get a chance to eat. It's never a good combination walking into a place full of food you know you shouldn't eat on a completely empty stomach. I'll admit, I failed miserably... but as I've said from the beginning, this is a journey, a learning process, and I refuse to beat myself up over this.

After this week though my busy season will officially be over and I'll have all the time I need to prepare our meals. I even tried to do a little planning today before I had to head into work (yes it's sunday and I'm at work.) I made a quick stop at the co-op and grabbed some essentials that I thought would be easy to prep in advance, or have Nate cook for us. So I think I'll do ok this week... I've got sauteed veggies, brown rice, homemade granola (I'll make sure to post the recipe after I give it a try), fruit, whole fat grass fed yogurt, hard boiled eggs, various types of meat, almond butter, and sprouted bread. We also get our CSA share on Tuesday night... so I'll have a bunch of veggies for the rest of the week.

So that takes care of this week (except for tonight...if I'm being completely honest I have a confession to make... let me finish the first thought though)... now I have to start thinking about moving forward. I'm not necessarily a fan of "challenges" when it comes to the dieting world... that makes it sound like a fad... and this is far from that for me. BUT... in the Science of Skinny she gives a two week transition menu for those beginning on this journey. I haven't decided if I intend to follow it exactly, but I think it would be a good start and opportunity to try some new recipes. I'll let you know what I decide.

As for my big confession... I've decided I'm having one last really ridiculously unhealthy processed meal so I won't constantly be thinking about it once I make this transition. I also need to prove to myself and remind myself that there's really nothing that special about processed foods. Any processed meal I buy I need to remind and prove to myself that I can almost definitely make a clean unprocessed version that'll taste just as good. (One great example of this is my new unprocessed ice cream recipe - I'll post that later too.) So after I leave work tonight I'm going to go pick it up... one of my favorites from a local place... steak and cheese sub, curly fries and poppers. But yes, I do think ( or at least part of me thinks) I'm a bit of a hypocrite right now for going out and actively seeking out such a processed meal. I'll let you know how it goes.