My body hates me again. This time in a bad way.

Today was a cheat day.

Today was the mother of all cheat days: Bagels, cream cheese, hot chocolate, coffee with creamer, some Skittles, brownies, lemon bars, Old Chicago pizza, chocolate chip cookies, and Dr. Pepper.

Ugh, even reading it makes me cringe. How did I used to eat like this? My stomach is so tied up in knots and nauseous that I can't even stand straight. Pepto-Bismol isn't even touching my symptoms. I feel fuzzy, bloated, lethargic and downright awful.

Knowing what I know now, I would've eaten differently, even though I was really excited for a cheat day. Today was my last full day of advising SCSU's incoming students - a job I've held all summer. This  meant FREE celebratory food provided by the advising office. While I did help myself to several servings of fruit, I also helped myself to hot chocolate and a giant bagel. I love bagels....

But I digress. I stayed SANE at lunch with a salad a bun-less turkey burger. However, two hours later, my coworkers were munching on complimentary brownies and lemon bars. Because it was my cheat day, I grabbed one of each without blinking.

Once done with work, my boyfriend and I headed to a dinner/movie date to celebrate ten months together (Thanks for the support lately, babe!). He bought Skittles at the movie, and of course I indulged in a few. Next, I suggested we eat at Old Chicago because I'd never eaten there. I didn't even know it was a pizza joint until we got there, but I was pumped nonetheless; I've been craving pizza for days.

Let's just say this was not the smartest decision I've ever made. While delicious, the pizza was cheesy and greasy as all get-out. And even worse, the date-night special came with a warm "pizza" cookie in a pan. Ben and I had a great time together, and the whole day was a highly enjoyable experience.

Well, at least until my body started to process the food. I don't know how much longer I'm going to feel like this, but I hope it's not too long. I guess I'll chalk it up to another hard-learned lesson. This experience just confirms to me that putting crap in my body is not the way to go. I think it's time to go to bed and sleep it off. After all, I only got five hours of sleep last night... and the night before... aaaand the night before. The change in my work schedule on Tuesday really threw me off.

Hopefully I'll be back with some healthier tidings later in the week.

Update: Baking powder is a legitimate antacid. Who knew?

Back on track and armed with new recipes

Who knew that SANEity could look this good?

Okay, so the cheese on top wasn't that SANE, but other than that, this dish was a home run.

But before I give you my secret recipe, let me summarize the most recent part of my journey.

When most of you last heard from me, I was nearing the completion of my inSANE trip to Texas. The trip was good for my heart, and I loved seeing all my family (Hi, Dad!). However, it wasn't good for my eating habits. Even after returning to Minnesota, I was reluctant to get back on track. Eating whatever was so simple (and socially acceptable to boot).

 Only a few days after my return, I had another  mini-trip with my boyfriend to celebrate his mom's graduation. I didn't want to be complicated, so once again, I made myself vulnerable to bread, cheese, and chocolate cake. Uh oh, spaghettios.

Now I won't lie. I enjoyed that chocolate cake immensely. There's something so immediately gratifying about sugar, sweets, and flour. What I did not enjoy, however, was how terrible it made me feel about myself. Obviously, I didn't gain 25 pounds from those few days of binging, but I knew that eating it was showing disrespect towards my body. And the worst part was that my low self esteem led to emotional eating... which then led to even lower self esteem. What an awful cycle!

Shortly afterwards, I came home to near-bare cupboards and had to take control of my own eating habits again. For a few days, I rebelled; I existed on leftover frozen meals and hamburger helper, but when those ran out, it was time for the moment of truth - and what a hard moment it was! In the end, though, my willpower did win over my cravings. My pantries are once again stocked with veggies, protein,  nuts, and fruits.

Whew.

Now that I'm back on track, I feel much better. Naturally, I've gained more energy, but I've also gained some things that are less tangible: confidence, pride, self-esteem, etc. Yes, I do still get cravings, but I'm trying to take a utalitarianism approach, as suggested by SSoS's author: Seek the most pleasure. Avoid the most pain. Sweets do give me short-term pleasure, but eventually they will cause me pain through loss of self esteem and poor health. I expect SANEity to do the opposite.

Right now, exciting new recipes are the best weapon in my armory to keep myself SANE. The one pictured above (eggplant parmesan) was found while searching for "eggplant recipes." Everything in it was homemade to preserve the SANEity. The entire recipe can be found here: http://www.marthastewart.com/313564/baked-eggplant-parmesan.

For those of you who are trying eating like me, replace the breadcrumbs with flax seed and add ground turkey to the sauce for extra protein. To make it 100% sane, simply skip the cheese.

I've also been experimenting with Greek yogurt. Earlier today, I combined Greek yogurt with natural peanut butter, Stevia, vanilla whey protein powder, and vanilla extract. It's probably the most addictive sweet and SANE food I've made yet. It will definitely be a go-to snack when I have cravings.

If you want to see a few other recipes I've found, you can follow my SANE foods board on Pinterest. These recipes are all SANE or will be if some minor adjustments are made.

Enjoy!