In my last post, I shared how eating the wrong thing a couple times in the course of a week caused me to have to deal with food cravings I almost never have to these days. And when I realized I felt less than my usual annoyingly energetic self, *lol* I knew something immediately had to give.

I wanted to share how I personally recover from these slight challenges, getting specific about the actions I took today in order to get back to life as usual.

1) I pay attention to how I’m feeling and try to make a mental note of how lousy I feel, comparatively speaking, so there’s no motivation to stray the next time. Feeling “blah” is so 2005 for me. :) Good thing I like the 2009 me enough not to want to repeat sad, old patterns that kept me trapped in a life/body I hated.

2) I eat really healthfully to “renutrify” my body so that I feel great again as quickly as my body can heal. And by that, I mean I make sure to get plenty of greens, fruits high in antioxidants (berries, cherries, pomegranate) and stick to the basics that I know are best for my health.

Today’s meals included:

- Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal

- Sunshine Burgers with no-salt-added Dijon mustard

- A huge salad made mainly of organic mixed greens and organic baby arugula (cruciferous and therefore especially good for you!) topped with homemade Ranch/Caesar-like dressing (no dairy or unhealthy ingredients whatsoever — I’ll share soon) and beautiful little organic grape tomatoes

– A lovely fruit smoothie made of frozen strawberries, cherries, blueberries, flaxseed, pomegranate juice and (brace yourself) organic baby spinach — yes, spinach! Baby spinach is mild and a super simple way to add nutrition to a lovely smoothie! I’ll share my favorite smoothie recipe very soon!

And that ended up being all I was hungry for, though I’d planned to have a simple dinner of steamed veggies and some garbanzo beans. There’s no need to eat when you’re not hungry, after all, and tomorrow I’ll get in those veggies and beans that are clearly missing from today’s meals.

3) I remind myself that cravings are just that — crazy signals my body is sending out because I (unwittingly) mistreated it by eating something that I shouldn’t have — and ignore any urges to eat stuff I shouldn’t. If I were really challenged by this on a particular day (this hasn’t happened in years, but the first few months after I changed my way of eating I had some trouble), I’d avoid restaurants and grocery stores like the plague. As it were, today’s quick trip to Whole Foods netted only wholesome health foods because I don’t like my body to tell me what it thinks I should be eating! Once another day or two has passed, this cravings phase will be over, and I don’t plan to repeat it!