Happy New Year’s Eve! Looking back at last year’s resolutions, I am pretty happy with my accomplishments. For my “blog resolution” I had a goal to create a database of about 100 “quick and healthy dinner recipes”, which only ended up being about thirty recipes, but oh well. I’m actually still working on this so I haven’t given up. Here are some of my favorite quick and easy recipes from last year;
(**Note: Many of these were created before I was on the low FODMAPs diet, so garlic and onion will have to be omitted if you follow that diet. Also, these can all be found on the right column of my blog, under “Quick Meal Recipes” and also “More Simple and Healthy Recipes”**)
Tempeh Sloppy Joe’s
(Recipe adapted from Mari)
Turkey and Spinach Meatballs
(recipe adapted from Gluten Free Gidget)
Oat Bran Pizza Dough
Nutty Noodles
Sweet Potato Soup
Do you make new year’s resolutions? The key to making the best new year’s resolutions is to make them realistic. After all, what’s the point in making a goal/resolution for yourself that is unachievable, or which may be so difficult that it causes stress? This year’s resolutions stem a bit from last year’s but I also have some brand new ones;
Food/Nutrition: Continue to decrease my caffeine intake. This has been hard to kick because I started working at Market District where employees get free coffee all day long, whenever, wherever, no joke. Right now I’m averaging 400 mg caffeine per day. My goal is to get down to 300 mg. Last year at this time I was consuming around 600mg per day, and do you know why?! It’s because I had not yet discovered the low FODMAPs diet, and I was malabsorbing half of my nutrients! Therefore I was chronically fatigued and there wasn’t enough caffeine in the world to get me going. It’s sad when I think about it, but oh well, I’m happy to have discovered a diet that is really saving my life, physically and mentally.
While I do have a goal to decrease my caffeine intake, I’m not incredibly worried about it. I don’t have high blood pressure (in fact mine is low!) and I don’t get anxiety from drinking caffeine, nor do I get a rapid increase in heart rate. This is not to mention all of the benefits that have been discussed in the news this year about consuming caffeine. Do you want to know the real reason I am so adamant about decreasing my caffeine intake? I want to be prepared for pregnancy!! I’m not planning on getting pregnant for at least 4 or 5 years, but while pregnant I will only be allowed 200 mg caffeine MAX. It will be a lot easier for me to do this if I am already consuming a small amount of caffeine. Yeah, I know, I’m crazy to be thinking so far ahead, but it’s also important for me to not have to be dependent on caffeine….as much…
Work: I get a lot of questions about the homeopathic supplements we sell where I work. I’m always completely honest with the customers and tell them I don’t know much about these products. This year I want to learn more about homeopathic medicine/supplements, starting with a free online course offered by one of the companies (I will focus on the unbiased objective information, not the biased subjective information provided by the company!).
Mental health: I’m still working hard on living in the moment, and not always going through the million things I “have to do” in my head. I’m training myself to be better at this, and while it’s a slow process, it’s working well.
I’m also working on not nagging so much. I tend to nag, as I’m told by Nick, and I realize it gets me no where. Anyone else have a problem with this? I have noticed the more I nag, the less receptive Nick is to my requests, so in fact it has the opposite effect.
We bought a house this year and we also both switched jobs. There have been a lot of stressful moments but I refuse to let stress cause our relationship any harm. I’ve seen relationships fall apart due to nagging, or one partner trying to control the other, and that’s just not something I want to see happen with Nick and I. We work really well together and I plan on being with him for the rest of my life (which brings me to another new year’s resolution…get engaged!! hehe, we’ll see, I think this may be the year!).
Question: I gotta ask, what’s one new year’s resolution that you have this year?
Any fun plans for the evening? Nick and I are going to dinner with some of his friends and their girlfriends, then having people over to our house. Hopefully it’s low key, but fun.
