Summer of Self Love Menu

It has started, my summer of self love {big smile.} There has been so much to happen this year that has kind of shaken me to my core, including experiencing my first earthquake. Oh my God, I don't know how people experience those on a regular. For me, I like to ground myself via walking bare feet in my place and preferably on some good ole soil, the ground. But when it's moving, sweet baby Jesus, it's hard to feel grounded.

As I travel deeper within with my self love practices, one major thing I have to return to are my eating habits. I've done ok and much better than before. The old me could easily kill a pint of ice cream in day or one sitting, now it may take me a week. And while I eat in moderation, I just have not been getting in my fruits and vegetables the way I should. To help me get back on track I'm returning to my rice bowls of old. As one of my jobs as a personal assistant, one of my clients would have me make them these rice bowls to make sure they were getting in enough grains, proteins and vegetables. I used their method in my 30's when my cholesterol was high to help me get it down without any medication. Changing what I ate along with exercise as a lifestyle change versus just diet, completely changed my life. I've since adopted the lifestyle and my cholesterol numbers have been great and normal for about 15 year now. I haven't decided if I'll do my rice bowls for the entire summer or just for the month to kind of reprogram myself so to speak. Within the last 15 years I've returned to the rice bowls only once. I'm not mad at myself AT ALL for having to return to them for a bit this year. Perhaps it has not been a doozy for everyone, but whew Jesus, some parts of 2020 has been a bit much for me.

So my starting point for my rice bowls have always been MyPlatePlan. By sharing my age, weight, sex and daily minutes spent exercising, the plan shares suggestions on how much I should eat from each food group. It has pretty much stayed the same since I first started using it, however I just like to check before starting "anew." After I take a look at My Plate Plan, I prepare I rice bowls for 5 days, having one each of those 5 days for lunch and dinner. My rice bowls contain all of my vegetables, grains and protein minus 1/2 cup which I reserve for the protein I consume for breakfast. I don't pre make my breakfast as I don't have a big appetite in the mornings. Breakfast is when I have the 1/2 cup protein source that's not in my rice bowls. It's typically a hand full of nuts or 1/2 cup yogurt. I'll enjoy the yogurt or nuts with a piece of fruit or 1 cup of orange juice. Regarding my intake of fruit, I'll enjoy 1 cup for breakfast and another cup sometime throughout the day as a snack or dessert. The suggested amount of fruits for me is 2 cups daily.

When it comes to the weekends, I eat whatever I like instead of the rice bowls. I still eat in moderation and make sure I get in enough from each food group. However I usually enjoy one good ole southern girl breakfast with my honey bunny. But I still don't overeat. It's often 2 ounces of meat like chicken sausage and on occasion a slice or two of bacon, grits and if I have cheese I do count it toward my intake of protein for the day. I may have an egg, like just 1 that also counts as a source of protein and one eggs tends to always weigh one ounce. And I'll enjoy a couple of slices of tomatoes and some spinach. And we go out for breakfast which hasn't happened much at all this year, I don't bother to measure food, that's too stressful. I'll just simply share a meal with my honey.

That's pretty much my Summer of Self Love menu.

Cooking the food takes about 45 minutes. Assembling the rice bowls via measuring out the ingredients takes about 30 minutes and cleaning the kitchen takes like 15 minutes. So after 90 minutes I have lunch and dinner for 5 days. I don't know if it is, but it feels like such a HUGE time saver. I very rarely use my microwave so when it's time to eat, I'll heat up a bowl on the stove, first adding a very small amount of olive oil, about 1 tsp, some fresh garlic and a tad bit of sea salt for taste. When I cook all of the ingredients I do so without any seasonings and just add the salt to taste and the garlic is just some extra flavor and yummy that I like. ANNNND if ever I catch a cold which thank God is so rare, the rice bowl ingredients make a GREAT soup and I add onions as well.

Lastly, during my summer of love I will cut my coffee back to one day per week instead of having it daily. I enjoy instead hot green tea with lemon juice, filtered water and sparkling water. On Saturday's and Sunday's I may have sugar in my tea or a half cup of organic red wine. Other than that no sugar on all other days and no bread.

 Rice bowls = Wild or Brown Rice, Spinach, Kale, Cabbage and/or Bell Peppers,

Black Beans and Chicken