So this morning I was carrying my breakfast and camera out to the back porch to take a picture of a what has been a version of my breakfast for the last week or so.. it was quite pretty on top of being tasty.. then my camera slipped and in an attempt to prevent it from crashing to the tile floor, my breakfast also went flying, and the camera still hit the floor.. no breaks, but my lovely fall-inspired Yogurt mess of a breakfast, became a literal mess 
It just wasn’t meant to be captured.
It’s been a busy last few days. I haven’t started packing but I have been to multiple Yoga & Spin classes.. clearly I have moving priorities haha 
“Normal”
It took a few weeks, but I finally feel like I’m back to a “normal” place with nutrition. I spent the first couple weeks going a little crazy. After competition-dieting (even if I didn’t end up competing) I feel like all sense of eating based on hunger and health gets lost, and I have to basically re-teach myself how to eat when hungry and listen to what my body wants (good wholesome food in moderate quantities) and not what my mind says it wants after feeling deprived/restricted (sugar, bread, sugar, candy, chocolate, etc etc).
So this time around I tried a new approach. I let myself eat what I wanted to. Yup, I ate.. a lot. I doubt I’ll even be able to remember all the treats but there was one night with quite a bit of White Chocolate covered Popcorn, TJ’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (who was I kidding that I was really going to eat just one of those frozen goodies), late night homemade Cheese Quesadillas, homemade Pizza (yum!), oh and Carrot Cake and Coconut M&Ms. My usual way would be to eat one of those things, then feel horribly guilty and feel like I needed to go back to low-carb the next day. I’d do that a day, that ask myself ‘why am I doing this?,’ then go overboard with a different dessert or not-so-healthy item. This time was different. Not perfect. Not without hurdles. But better. I let myself enjoy the treats, then reminded myself that there was no need to go overboard because I could have it tomorrow, in a small portion, then the next day, if I wanted. For a week I did have treats everyday, sometimes multiple, but then those cravings drifted away, and all I wanted was a good salad. And that’s where I am now 
I’m not counting calories in any way, and just eating when hungry.. which as it turns out isn’t 8 times a day, more like 4, and usually just involves a light (for me) breakfast, medium lunch, salad, and modest dessert. I feel like a lot of the general public could read the above and just think ‘well yeah, what’s the big deal about that? Is that so hard?’.. well Yes! Yes it really is that hard when your whole system of how to gauge hunger and cravings is completely out of whack. It’s not an easy transition.. both physically and mentally. Habits die hard, but I feel like I’m moving in the right direction!
So there we go.. I really feel in a fantastic place with it. I can’t say what I’ve been eating has been particularly interesting, or had much variety for that matter, since I’m attempting to cut down on items in the pantry, but I’m completely ok with that. For example, dinner tonight was a random assortment of leftovers in the fridge: baby spinach, sweet potato, pinto beans and chicken breast..
Oh but check out the lovely Pizza I made before my Seattle trip.. I used TJ’s Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. On one side is Carmelized Onions, Chicken Apple Sausage and Gouda, on the other is Kale Pesto, fresh Tomatoes, Pine Nuts and Goat Cheese ..
Obsessions
I currently have two food obsessions:
1) Goat’s Milk Yogurt with Vanilla Extract & Stevia with Kashi Go Lean Crunch Honey Almond Flax with either Pumpkin or fresh Berries
I’d heard about Arctic Zero but was never willing to shell out the $ to pay for shipping, then I discovered it at my local Sprouts Farmer’s Market. So far I’ve tried the Chocolate Mint, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Maple Vanilla flavors.. haha.. wow, that sounds horrible when I actually write it out.. but no fear, each pint only has 150 calories.. yes 150 calories for the whole thing! And if you check out the nutrition facts, it’s basically just protein ice cream.. no scary ingredients. So far the Vanilla Maple is by far my favorite. The Mint Chocolate is pretty darn good too, but the PB Chocolate is meahh.. just doesn’t have enough PB flavor for my liking.
And know what makes Arctic Zero even better.. Bailey’s A couple scoops of Arctic Zero with 1/2 shot Bailey’s drizzled on top = a delicious indulgence that isn’t calorie crazy.. and oh so good!
Moving Forward
Today I had a couple clients and a few errands to run, so it was productive, but the next couple days will be all about getting packed up, getting in workouts & Yoga and hanging out with all the Phoenix folks I adore. I’m not one for goodbyes.. just ‘see you laters.’ I’ve moved enough at this point that I’m so fortunate to have friends all over the country, and I know I’ll be back to Phoenix to visit very soon. Not to say Thursday’s going-away festivities might not be a little emotional. In fact I hadn’t been emotional about the whole thing at all until at the end of Yoga yesterday I got this overwhelming feeling of gratitude for everything that’s happened and the people in my life the last two years and started getting all chocked up. Then as if reading my mind, the teacher talked about how Yoga opens up both the mind & body and lets us feel things we wouldn’t otherwise… so true and timely! I’m a luck girl 
Fun Links
I know exactly how you feel about hunger cues. I just recently stepped off of the "feed myself 6 times a day" thing. Now, I eat around 4 meals, sometimes 5, if I eat a morning and afternoon snack. I just always am prepared for hunger to strike (with a bar in my bag or something of the sort), but I only eat it if I am truly hungry. It has taken a while to get used to. For the first few days I would indulge too. I would overeat because I didn't know how to control myself and my eating. I was so used to restriction before that my body wanted anything and everything it could handle..or not handle, in my case. I was left bloated and felt horrible, in combination with my IBS related symptoms.
Anyways, I feel for ya! It takes time and I am glad that we are BOTH getting over the whole restriction stuff. Things like carrot cake are just too good to give up!
i am so glad that you are in a place that you are happy! I DO know what you mean by this…listening to your hunger cues and not eating just beacuse its time to eat, but eating when you are hungry. This does take some practice. I was somewhat the opposite, because when i first started my new eating plan (which really isnt THAT much different tha how I ate before) but is 100% NO processed foods, and much smaller portions more often, my body was SO NOT USED TO IT! it messed with my metabolism BIG time, hormones were out of whack, everything was really out of whack and i was starving all the time. it took m body about 2 weeks to adjust to this new way of eating. So although this way of eating is normal to most people, to me it wasn't
I cant wait to take hot yoga soon! i save it for winter time
I heard abotu that artic zero! there is a chocolate PB flavor too!! mm
xoxo
Nothing feels better than eating clean–BUT it IS nice to know that you CAN have those 'treats' in small portions and (hark!) you will NOT gain weight or a third hip!! LOL…really though, your outlook, once again, is great on this. Your pizza looks awesome. And nothing beats it the second day around, so I am sure those leftovers were great. I have seen the Arctic Zero here at a health food store, it's just KILLING me not to try it for the $6 they want for that wee little pint! I have to now though, especially since I LOVE all things maple!
Good luck w/ the move. Goodbyes are hard but I love how you look at them like "see you laters"! Good thinking
OK..I have had a couple Artic Zero's but not Maple. In fact they don't have that flavor here yet..GAH!
The pizza looking amazing. Do you ever make gluten free??
Cheers
Barbara
Mmmm your pizza looks fantastic! Its definitely challenging when you switch up eating patterns but you sound like you’ve got your body and hunger under control. Way to go girl
Hunger cues suck! Mine are all wack-o and I can't ever decipher them anymore. I hate it
And I'm jealous of that arctic zero! When I was down there i looked for it at sprouts but couldn't find it.. darn!
I am headed to Sprouts later this week & will be checking out that ice cream!!!!
Hope the camera is fine!!!! And the pics are pretty.. pretty yummy that is!
You and I seem to be on the same wave-length with diet lately. I've decided not to compete in November because of too many other conflicting issues, and so as much as I think I could still drop a few pounds, I don't feel the pressure to do so and have had more than a few indulgences in the sweets and drinks lately. The scale continues to rise. Anyway, I think I got that out of my system and am glad to eat a nice big spinach salad and some chicken breast now and start eating what I now consider "normal", my stomach really does not like sugar and carbs, it kills me for days.
Thanks for the ice cream tip, hope I can find it in my area, its exactly what I've been looking for all these years. Starting to think I should come up with these things myself and start marketing them, there are loads of people out there looking for things like that icecream, just not many companies making it.
Hey, I buy Arctic Zero on amazon and pay no shipping!
I am so jealous they have the Artic Zero by you! I refuse to pay for shipping too.
I am also kinda the same as you. I'm not counting calories, I'm allowing myself little treats here and there, wine with girlfriends, etc – and not going overboard. I'm not tryign to eat every three hours, I eat when hungry, and although I have put some weight back on, I'm happy to report I haven't 'ballooned'. I do miss the abs though…lol
Since I have discovered healthy food blogs, I have run into lots of competion dieters. Just like general restrictive dieting (which I am all too familiar with) there is a backlash of cravings. There was a study done during WII that may interest you. Basically men volunteered for an experimant in which they were starved and the results after months of starving then giving adequate food portions were documented. It is extremely hard to gauge hugner after restricting. IT took me years!!