Sunday: Church, Sports, Politics and Friday the 13th

Sundays are weird. I like schedule and patterns and Sundays don't have either. 

In 321 emperor Constantine established a seven day week and designated Sunday as the beginning of the week (i guess i should blame him). The days to follow were called Moon’s-day, Mars’s-day, Mercury’s-day, Jupiter’s-day, Venus’-day, and Saturn’s-day.

So Sunday is the start of a new week, the day over 40% of Americans attend church (yes i looked up that statistic),when most NFL football games are played, the day golf tournaments traditionally end, the day all national and regional elections in Peru and Belgium are held (voting is mandatory in these two countries), the Sunday paper is always more detailed and includes a magazine, color comics and coupons and last but not least any month that starts with a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th. 

See Sundays are weird. 

My Sunday was filled with none of these traditional Sunday activities. Even though I would like to start attending Church again. I haven't found my niche yet and therefore have not attended church regularly for over 4 years (a little thing called college kept seeming to sneak up and get in the way. not sure what the excuse is now.)

Today I cleaned, bought a reusable coffee cup, reusable plastic water cup with straw and batteries, went grocery shopping, did some early spring cleaning and cooked. Finally the scary unregimented Sunday is over and we can happily continue on with our precisely planned Monday. 

Recipes: 

Dinner: Ginger-Chicken Soup with Cashew Butter, Sweet Potatoes and Greens with a Side of Fresh Mangos and Pears 

Snack Bars 

Photos from Past Recipes:

Fruit and Nut Snack Bars

Carob Avocado Pudding with Grapes, Dried Cranberries and Sunflower Seeds

Starting Fresh

Valentine's day for me this year is about learning how to love myself. love love love myself. so how am i going to show myself i care? flowers? chocolate candies? a bubble bath? No I've decided to go with a week of no processed foods, no gluten, no dairy (which I do anyway), no legumes (main staple of my diet right now), no apples, no citrus no alcohol (already received three emails confirming the plans for our valentine martini's tonight...hhmm..maybe not a good day to choose this challenge to begin) and no yeast products. I am doing a version of the elimination diet/caveman diet.

Last year i challenged myself by training for my first marathon. half way through the training i decided to eliminate dairy just to see how i was affected (big shock to my roommates. they had watched me down huge glasses of milk in one sitting for the past four years). to my surprise i had more energy, less grouchy and just felt all around better during my runs. Well a year later i still don't miss milk or milk products. so why not try some other  food groups and see if I can make myself feel like a super star.

So far so good. I feel GREAT! but, you might ask what they heck am i eating? well i'm taking it 1 day at a time (and since this weekend is my mini-college reunion in charleston, i will not be following..so this first phase is somewhat of a 5 day "detox".) and it is a big possibility that i will have run out of ideas by tomorrow (and have cheated with a large glass of wine tonight (quite possibly out of this glass http://i.imgur.com/bLzIx.jpg)) 

But here is the food log/plan for the day:
Breakfast: Banana, raw almonds and almond milk, coffee (it is recommended to eliminate caffine, but that is not happening this VDAY, maybe next year?)
Snack: Carrots
Lunch: Tuna w/ olive oil, red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard (don't think this is a recommended item for the diet, but i couldn't handle the tuna without it) and roasted onions, eggplant and broccoli
Snack: more almond milk, grapes, strawberries and almonds, green tea
Dinner: tilapia with roasted beets, onions and Brussels sprouts


Que te vaya bien!