I am an optimist. It has mostly served me well in my life. I say ‘mostly’ because I can think of a few instances where it hasn’t…like believing that people are always good, nobody will ever hurt me, and nothing bad could possibly happen. I’ve been wrong a few times about those things. But overall I’d say I’m right most of the time. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Actually, I have no choice. I’m a die-hard optimist.
I was thinking about this today in terms of health and nutrition. Here’s how an optimist looks at these particular goals: I like to think of what I CAN eat, as opposed to what I CAN’T. As you know I’m participating in this cleaner eating challenge, and when I look at the pictures I’m taking, I can’t help but think how pretty and delicious everything looks. It doesn’t seem like a sacrifice at all to me when I GET to eat all of that yummy food. I go to the store with a different mindset. I’m looking for what I can have, and not begrudging what I can not have. I come home with bags of fruits and veggies and other healthy foods. I get excited to cook new recipes and try new foods. Maybe I’m weird. Ya, probably. 😉
For exercise, I like to think of what I CAN do, and not what I CAN’T. Maybe not everyone can, or wants to try, to run. So, what CAN you do? Can you walk? I bet you can. Maybe not everyone has weights in their house. Can you do push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups (there are a lot of “ups” here that require only your body as weight) squats, lunges, etc? I bet you can. Maybe you can’t go to the gym, but do you own a DVD player? I’ve got some awesome workouts I could recommend to you. And they’re FUN, too! You see where I’m going here. Start with what you CAN do. Focus on what you CAN eat. Your mindset will change, and so will your habits. You’ll be on your way to eternal optimism. Well…maybe. 🙂
Who would think that they could start a new health and fitness business at 40?…Me! But this one was kind of a no-brainer for me. I love to workout. I enjoy eating healthy foods. And I LOVE to talk. That just about sums up my new job. These are things I most definitely CAN do. 🙂
So here are my weekend Clean Eating Challenge pictures and a couple of recipes:
Nothing remarkable on Day 5, except I learned how to make my own “almost” fat free coffee cream. Want the recipe? Click here: 
Oh, and the pretty green drink is a spinach, kale, strawberry, pineapple smoothie that was delicious! Seriously, don’t knock it til you try it.
Day 6 looked like this:
This was my “cheat” day, well sort of. I ate really clean during the day and then it was “Ladies Night Out”. So for dinner I splurged on 2 small pieces of veggie pizza and a salad with a little drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette dressing…oh…and 2 vodka tonics :o. Ladies night out doesn’t happen very often, so I forgave me.
Day 7 looked like this:
I had a big salad for lunch, with lots of veggies and 1/2 of a very lean turkey burger sliced on top. Raw almonds are an excellent snack to keep in the house. I had mine with half of a honey crisp apple and a tall glass of water and felt very full. Dinner was so yummy, I’ll have to share the recipe. I made a spinach, ricotta (low-fat), tomato frittata. It was delicious! Recipe here: 
(I added tomatoes to mine, but it wasn’t part of the original recipe).
So there you go! What CAN you do today?
