You are what you eat. I eat what I love. Thus I am what I love :o)

My friend and I successfully completed a full week of clean eating (the week ends at 2:00 pm Friday).  The most significant difference I noticed was my energy level.  Even with daylight savings time, I found myself waking up alert and ready to start the day.  This energy seemed to last the entire day.  Normally I'm beat by the end of the day and barely have the motivation to eat dinner.  I was still tired in the evenings, but not so tired that I couldn't talk myself into doing my night time tasks.  I could definitely feel a positive change.  I think it's important to note the positive changes you feel by healthy diet and exercise habits, not just what you see.  It's easy to focus on pounds lost and waist sizes, but if you focus on healthy choices and the instant benefits that come along, it's easier to stick to it while maintaining your sanity.  I think it creates a healthier outlook too.  Remember it's a journey, not a destination.  Thinking about it this way helps us create healthy, lasting lifestyle changes.

One way to make health changes permanent is to make sure the changes are sustainable.  Before starting a new routine we should ask ourselves, is this something I can do long term?  If the answer is no, we should probably think about finding another way to accomplish our goals.  It's great to have the motivation to work out twice a day, and of course we'll get the results we want more quickly.  But if we can't sustain that level of activity and revert back to old habits, we'll soon find ourselves back at our beginning body fat percentage, if not higher.  A better plan is to do things in moderation.  Aim to work out twice a day twice a week, or everyday for a week every two months.  This is much easier (mentally) to maintain :o).  This is the reason my clean eating goals do not include weekends lol. (In addition there is lots of research about spiking your metabolism with so-called "cheat meals."  Again the important thing is moderation.  We want to spike it, not send it off the page lol).

So several times last week my friend and I pondered over (fantasized about) what we would eat at the end of the week.  I love cheese so I knew my meal would be something cheesy lol.  The other weekend another friend of mine invited me to go to Mondola's.  It was my first time there, but I settled on ordering margherita pizza and IT. WAS. DE. LICIOUS!!  I decided that in breaking my "fast", I would have it again.  But then I had a better idea.  I decided to make it.  I once heard someone say that a good rule of thumb is to only eat junk food as often as your willing to make it :o).  Most of us would be fitness models if we stuck to that.

A perfectly peeled tomato.  Trickier than it looks!

I was a little nervous about trying to reproduce something so divine, but my recipe was simple enough (read: < $$$).  It called for crust, crushed tomatoes, olive oil, basil, and cheese.  I did not have the ambition to make the crust (as I child I baked a lot so I have enough experience to know that it can be difficult and that I'm out of practice lol), but I did want to "make" my own crushed tomatoes rather than buying canned.  This is more complicated than you might think.  You can't just mash up tomatoes, but instead you have to first peel them and then cook them til they are soft enough to be mashed.  I also seasoned them with garlic and herbs since this would essentially be the pizza sauce.

Fresh pizza sauce (Check out my running band on the counter! You might be a runner if... lol)

The most expensive part of the recipe was the cheese.  In addition to Mozzarella, it called for Parmigiano-Reggiano, and the cheapest wedge I could find was still over $6!  Total ingredients came to about $13.  This is about what I would have paid if I had just gone to Mondola's, but of course I have ingredients left over and things are always healthier when you (well, when I) make them at home.

Anyway the pizza turned out great!  I was completely satisfied, though I will get the mozzarella sliced a little thinner next time since it didn't spread as much as I thought it would.  It's been seven days since I ate in a restaurant.  Can I go seven more??