Well, I spent a good chunk of my day at an art show and followed that with another county fair. Neither of these places offered a lot of healthy options for eating. The thing I noticed though was that my diet changes in the last few years and the challenge got me to look for the healthy options and not just go mindlessly to the deep fried cheese curds and kettle corn.

At the art show I found a pretty tasty bacon-chicken ranch wrap with lettuce and tomato. So, I wasn’t completely vegetable deficient there. At the fair I opted to just keep walking. There just weren’t appealing options that had much nutritional value. I wound up getting pizza later.

So, I didn’t quite hit my six cups today. I think I was between 3 and 4. I did, however, get quite a bit of outdoor time and plenty of water. So, some things were good and healthy, some not so much. Still, I feel good. Right now I feel sleepy too. So good night to all!

I got myself to enter my food into my food journal. That’s the victory for today. I wanted to just forget about it. It just didn’t interest me today. But, I did it and I looked at my history of results briefly. I’m doing pretty good eating the way I should.

There are some things that aren’t great yet. I could use more iron and still less sugar. I was thinking just now that it would be interesting to look at my eating habits from a few years ago and how my nutrition has changed. I took some of my typical foods from three or more years ago and created a fake day on my food tracker. I started with some frosted mini-wheats for breakfast, Jimmy John’s for lunch, and spaghetti with marina sauce for dinner. I then looked at sugars, carbs, and overall calories in comparison to my average today.

Calories were about 200-300 higher than what I would have on high calorie day today, up to 700 higher than some days. Back then a day like the one I described would give me about 340 grams of carbohydrates and 150 of sugar.

Now, I’m usually below 200 grams of carbohydrates. Sugars generally stay between 50 and 100 though I can definitely get below 50 grams sometimes.

That’s something really powerful for me to see. I made a major change in my life and have stuck with it. I can only imagine how obese and unhealthy I would be if I hadn’t taken that leap. Instead, my health has gotten much better and while I could still lose a few pounds I just hit the overweight category and am no longer medically considered obese. I can actually look at myself in the mirror and say “doing pretty good.”

I ate out today. I had a California burger with some sweet potato fries and orange pop. That’s not a particularly healthy meal at all, but I still feel okay about it. Most of the time I am eating right. I am building my body, getting my fruits and veggies. I look back at what I used to eat and so much came out of a box or bag or can. It wasn’t real. I feel good about being able to recognize my food as food.

That’s what I would encourage others to do too. Care for your body like it is precious because it is. Feed yourself the best, real food and treat yourself gently.

Okay, so I forgot to write yesterday or at least I forgot until about 10 pm when I was laying in bed and wanting to sleep so I skipped it. It was only the second day that I missed writing since I’ve started this challenge, so I think I can cut myself a break. Besides, I ate pretty well and I drank a lot of water.

This afternoon I noticed something. I noticed that I was happy. I’ve not been really happy all that much in a while. I was at work today and had a bunch of meetings, all about projects that my office is likely to be a part of in the next two years and structural changes and such. Often in recent months this stuff has left me feeling drained with little energy to move forward because I’ve been looking for work back home in Wisconsin and not feeling connected or at home here. Yesterday, I got the notice that I didn’t get a second interview for a job I’d wanted. Strangely, I think I felt a little relief. I won’t have to move again or to start over again. I’ve lived in at least 20 different houses in my adult life. It’s nice not packing and unpacking.

Strange how sometimes disappointment isn’t all bad. Add to that drinking at least an additional 40 or so ounces of water and I wasn’t so dehydrated. I had a little more energy and that gave me some joy today.

So, today I kept drinking my water, along with a little Himalayan salt as recommended by a friend who’s a nurse practitioner and had a cranberry supplement to help my system a bit too. I did well getting in my veggies and fruits. I did also get some not so good for me foods, but it wasn’t bad. I feel good about it.

Okay, well I am going to count the fact that I didn’t eat any ice cream today as a victory. I need some sort of victory in today and I actually did want to have some ice cream. That’s unusual for me these days.

The first thoughts of it were when I was at the Grant County Fair. It’s a nice little fair. It has a lot of educational components, more than any other fairs I’ve seen this year. It also had an interesting mix of the typical fun fair stuff and some really sad displays. They had a wrecked truck on display that had belonged to a young man who’d died in a drunk driving accident. They also had a traveling display on 9/11. Both were powerful and good to be there. Personally, I think for a relaxing afternoon, I preferred the presentation from the two girls who did the live demonstration on how to milk a goat. For a moment, I thought it might be nice to have a goat. I let that thought go.

The ice cream though, I thought that might be nice, but the options were limited at the fair. I knew that if I were to have ice cream and the likely stomach ache afterward I wanted to have really good ice cream. So, I traveled on. Later, I took Buddy out to Benson to the dog park since the local park hasn’t opened yet. That drive meant going past Dairy Queen. That seemed a good option, but then I thought I’d rather have some Ben and Jerry’s. We went past the grocery store in Benson, but it looked like it might be closed, so I kept going with the thought that I’d be more likely to find Ben and Jerry’s in Morris anyway. Well, by the time we got home I convinced myself that just some banana with raspberries and cream would be just fine and that I didn’t want leftover ice cream in the freezer anyway.

So, I didn’t eat well today. I don’t think I quite hit my 6 cups of fruits and vegetables. I did eat fair food and pizza. But, I didn’t get ice cream and that was a good choice. I also felt good about just taking the day off and not worrying about it. Tomorrow I’ll be back on track and probably cleaning out my fridge to get a better sense of what I have and what I might make for meals this week.

I will count today as a success. I didn’t go out to eat. I wanted to for a bit, but picked up some fresh berries at the farmers market and a bit of cream at the grocery store and went home instead.

I was just exhausted today and decided finally to stop by urgent care to see what’s going on. It doesn’t seem to be anything of interest, maybe just getting over a virus and possibly just a bit dehydrated with all the heat. But, in any case any complicated food seemed a bit too much today. So, I’m not sure that everything I did was healthy, but I got my six cups with strawberries, raspberries, mango, and banana, as well as some mixed vegetables with lunch. I also roasted some chicken so had some really tasty meat with my lunch and some left for tomorrow too.

I will be eating out for a couple meals tomorrow. A co-worker and I are taking a crew of undergrads out to visit Dream of Wild Health and the organic gardens at the UM Twin Cities. It should be good fun and some interesting learning. Dream of Wild Health has been doing some wonderful work supporting Native youth and encouraging local and sustainable traditional eating.

I am hopeful that with laying low all day today and a good night’s sleep tonight I should be okay tomorrow. It will be nice to get out and have some fun with Mary Jo and the students.