Clean(er) Eating

I am in love with food, and just want to taste anything and everything I can. I'm constantly watching the Food Network, and am in love with reading food blogs. After going off the meal plan on campus two years ago, I decided I wanted to cook as much as I could- while still maintaining school and other life obligations. And I've succeeded for the most part on those counts, by perfecting certain dishes and working on newer and more exciting palettes.

However, there's a discrepancy in what I eat, and how I lead my life. As someone who isn't the most active person, I tend to eat tons of junk food. If I can put cheese in a meal, I probably will. Pasta dishes are a weekly- even daily- occurrence. And we won't discuss cookies. (I'm practically the cookie monster.) It's definitely difficult to eat healthier, especially when a lot of the things I enjoy eating are more appealing to my really unhealthy eating habits.

(This is an all too common occurrence...)

I've never been a big fan of going on diets. While I say I can live off of salad, I really truly can't, and find myself reaching for a bag of potato chips maybe an hour after a salad. This being said, I think I've slowly started to transition to healthier/cleaner eating habits. Incorporating salads as a side to a meal, cutting back on baking cookies, and simply having more fruit has helped a ton.

However, I feel that since I'm training for a small run, and will soon be incorporating more running into my daily life, eating like I have been will not be suitable. (I mean, how many runners do you know will douse their cheesecake in whipped cream?) So while this change will be difficult, it'll be for the good in the long run.

Ideally, I would definitely follow a clean eating model, where you eat a ton of fresh and non-processed food, that lifestyle is too intense for me. I need my chocolate cookies, and Ben and Jerry's ice cream for those nights where I put off writing a history paper. I want to be able to eat healthier, without sacrificing too much of what I already eat. I've decided to work with portioning, and resizing meals. So if I'm going to make a pasta dish, I will make sure that I have double the size of salad I eat than the amount of pasta I eat. I won't eat chips and dip while marathoning How I Met Your Mother. (The struggle will be very real.) Small changes in my life will help me get into a healthier state. So naturally I typed them up, and signed my name (and made my roommate do it too).

(Framed in neon pink tape, and posted on Instagram for more serious guidance?) 

Let's see how long this lasts right? (It'll last I'm sure.)
Sheilly