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!