On and a lighter and more produce-filled note...

I'm always shocked to see the SMALL quanities of vegetables that people eat.  Tiny, maybe 1/2 cups of salads next to their meals, a few tablespoons of some steamed veggies, whatever.  Now, I know not everyone likes vegetables as me and wants to eat as many as me, but how could you stay full having such small amounts?  I'd be miserable and starving without bulking up on vegetables the way I do.

Of course, it depends on the vegetables, you really don't want to be eating 7 ears of corn or anything ; }. I'm talking about generally low-calorie and non-starchy veggies.  For me personally, a salad is a THING.  It's a LOT of leafy greens, not just a few sad leaves.  Homemade soup of any sort is LOADED UP with entire heads of cabbage and etc.  I don't skimp on my greens and I really think that has been one of my keys at maintaining and staying lean.

I'm a person that is all about VOLUME, I cannot eat tiny portions and feel ok.  It's just in my nature and I like to eat.  ;}  Volumetrics, or loading up on low-calories foods such as vegetables, helps me to stay fulfilled while seeing a lot of food in front of me and chewing a lot.  Sounds weird, maybe, but for me it's important.

Ok, so I'm going to go ahead and say a good majority of people will find this meal gross, haha.  That's ok.  I eat for myself and I don't generally try to make my food look very "pretty", it's just never been very important to me personally.  This plate of food is kind of screwed up and sloppy, I'll admit it, but I have a tendency to rush!  Anyways, this is a fairly typical dinner for me-I say fairly because I usually have my whole plate full of salad, but I must have been running low on this day.  ; } Also, please try to ignore my Mom's lovely late 80's silverware.  I know mauve silverware is really beautiful and all, but don't get yourself too distracted.

So there's some romaine, homemade hummus using chick peas, 1 tbsp of olive oil, lemon juice, and whatever herbs and spices I felt like (I love fresh dill, rosemary, and basil), a tomato, sauteed turnips with stone ground mustard (that was a little odd even for me, too zesty!), and a yam, perhaps with some Olivio butter spray, I can't remember.  When I feel like "going all out", I'll cut up the yam/sweet potato into fries and put them in the oven.  I am a simple eater, really.

I generally have some sort of variation of this meal everyday for dinner.  A large plate full of salad with some sort of beans or bean dip that I make myself, a sweet potato, and some other veggie if I feel like it or have it on hand- Very often mashed turnips.  Afterwards tends to be 100 calories worth of air-popped popcorn (2 tbsp) and a Cutie nectarine.  Breakfast and lunch are 99% of the time protein shakes (SPIRU-TEIN is my favorite) made with sugar-free almond milk, and less often hard boiled eggs or Greek yogurt; but I'll save all that for another post!