One week later: some observations (and goals)

I feel like a juggler who is treading water. I don't feel like I'm drowning though. Yet.

I've barely had time to sleep, and blogging has definitely been pushed down the priority list, I'm sorry to say. So my apologies for taking a while to post since the diet wrapped up.

I kind of feel like this, except I don't know how to ride a unicycle. And I am not a blonde white lady.  

So even though times have been busy, I want to continue to blog regularly so that some of the observations and lessons I gleaned stay on my mind.

It's been only one week since we ended our rice and beans diet, and some of my indulgent meals since then included fried chicken, homemade spinach and bacon quiche, pasta, ice cream, pizza, potato chips, and fresh fruit (so aside from the fruit, lots of bad-for-you-but-awesome stuff). I tried to eat healthy food some days (and I packed my lunch a few times) but with the crazy week, my meals were often limited to what was available near my office or on the road - so that included options from the food court, nearby food trucks, and gas stations. I also ate out a couple times at nice restaurants due to family visits and work-related meetings.

I think after a week of some stress-eating and indulging on heavy food, I'm ready to dial back down to something more normalized, but not back down to only rice and beans (though I actually kind of miss having rice pudding for breakfast!). I've noticed that my initial post-diet cravings have died down, and that I've been more conscious about spending too much (even more than usual, as I'm a pretty frugal person anyway).

Another thing I realized is how much I rely on already prepared, partially prepared, or frozen meals. The week of the rice and beans diet was one of the first times where we actually cooked and prepared EVERY meal for the week. Matt and I both enjoy cooking, but it's sometimes hard to plan ahead, and we also sometimes just *think* cooking will take a lot of time, though it doesn't have to. So I think that is one of my goals moving forward, to cook more.

Now that the compassion diet week is concluded, we want to continue the blog in a similar vein. I am thinking we might also include some recipes from our team members (and possibly include guests posts?), lessons learned, general thoughts on poverty and theology, recommended recipes, and maybe even discuss current events or Nicaraguan culture. So don't forget to keep coming back, we will still be here posting.