Can you believe what is going on in our world today? I know I cannot! Regardless of how you view life, you gotta admit this is a lot! Who would have ever thought an illness would take our country (and our world) by storm? Well, Bill Gates called it back in 2015, but I’m talking about normal people.  Seriously, let’s talk about eating Healthy in isolation. 

I am NOT eating healthy in isolation. 

In the first place, not only am I making bad choices, but my eating has been OFF THE RAILS!!!

I will not say the “Q”  word (we hear that enough, but, I will say it is wreaking havoc on my Weight Watchers journey. 

To be completely honest, my middle-aged weight loss journey was touch-and-go at best LONG before this all happened. 

Dude! I got into the bad habit of not tracking my Food and that is always mistake number 1. 

I don’t know about you, but when I don’t track what I’m eating, it’s easy for me to just go smooth crazy with my intake. 

For instance, I’ll devour a piece of cake because I had forgotten I ate 12 cookies a few hours prior. Ugh. 

Since we’re talking cookies, Vienna Fingers  are the cookies to which I’m referring. They are my “comfort” cookie. I only have them when life is kicking my patootie.  Do you have a specific comfort food? 

Weight Watcher Question: Why in Sam Hill did I buy like two packages of them the first week this all went down? Oh well. I did.

Yet, I digress.

The purpose of this post is to talk about what I’ve been eating during shutdown and how I want to turn it around. 

It’s not too late to begin eating healthy in isolation. I was focused once and I will be again. 

Let me tell you, first, how snacking is happening around my “isolation” home. 

Again… it ain’t pretty. 

After I share that with you,  I’m even going to include a few snack ideas  to keep us all on track while being isolated at home.

How are you doing with isolation?

Before I begin, tell me:  is this
isolation driving you crazy or
invigorating you in some way?

I’ll be completely honest, I am not hating it! I hate people being sick and others being in danger. That part of all this makes me cry. But, being inside is not really depressing me. 

I am getting so much done. 

Right now, I do work from home and find my creativity is hampered, but I will say I’ve cleared out my drive,  cleaned out my inbox and I’m getting a lot done.

Notwithstanding, I am an analytical introvert for the most part. This may be one reason eating healthy in isolation is a challenge.

Most people [who know me] would say that I am an ambivert but the truth of the matter is I lean more toward the introversion end of the spectrum. 

Anyhoo, let me know how is this affecting you and how you’re eating?

Confession time: what I’m actually eating while isolated…

It’s sad. I am eating horribly. 

If you didn’t see me and had to discern my age by my food choices, you would swear I was a kindergartener by the immature food selectionsI’m making.

Some of it has to do with the fact that I am slightly stressed. Who is it right now?

Being a stress eater is not a good thing at all while dealing with a world-wide epidemic. 

Food is EVERYWHERE!!!!

Like most people, we stockpiled snacks and food. I don’t mean we’ve stockpiled them in the way people have toilet paper. Idiots. I mean we stocked up.

 The inner kindergartener inside me wants to eat ALLof the snacks within reach…without tracking, that is!  

Let the record reflect that I have eaten them for the most part. Fortunately, my husband goes out and buys me other snacks and the grocery delivery services have become my best friend.

Okay no more filibustering or avoiding the topic of eating healthy in isolation.

Here’s what I’m doing with my life and, again,  it is not pretty. 

I am binging on chocolate. I mean a lot of chocolate!

 One of my favorite people in the world sent me a whole bunch of these. Well, actually she likely sent these for me and my son. 

However, I know I put a dent in the supply. *chuckle* 

No, I did not track. Who needs that kind of aggravation in the middle of what we’re going through?

I’m a flop at eating healthy in isolation

Along the same lines, I have been living off of chips. All kinds of chips!

My husband bought a crazy supply of chips for the house. I mean we have probably a hundred and fifty little bags of chips in a myriad of varieties. It’s horrible having them around, but I love them so much!

 I’ve also been eating simply insane things like hot dogs wrapped in biscuits. Who does that? I guess I do. *sigh*

Have you had fried apples?  My grandma use to make them.  So, yes, I’ve also been frying apples. I’ve tried to use monk fruit as a sweetener, but honestly you’ll find I have sugar in here with lots of yummy spices.

I do try to make good choices.  I made a bubble up casserole.

I found a cool recipe off of the Chunky Chef. Com.   I ended up going rogue and made something of a the recipe with ground turkey covered with some cheese and lots of refrigerated biscuits sort.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, I made goulash too. It was okay. I think I forgot how to make it.

I will say I made a two-ingredient pizza with pepperoni. That’s a great choice for eating healthy in isolation.  I didn’t eat the whole thing either! That was yummy and fairly guilt-free.

What wasn’t a great idea were my homemade rolls. I made them and slathered them with butter and honey.  What was the point in tracking that foolishness? So, I didn’t.

Soup helped me to have a low-point meal in isolation.  

I made a veggie soup with lots of zero point ingredients. That was a good choice and it got me through several days.

For fear that I’d shock my body by eating healthy, I also made a spaghetti pie. 

Hey, I do have a 13 year old and he is able to eat whatever he wants for the most part.  Not health issues or terribly bad eating habits. 

For this reason, I don’t try to hinder his eating too much. 

I also don’t want him to look back on this time as being any worse than it was. That’s why  I really let him “go for it” and I make him lots of comforting yummy foods. 

Like this grilled cheese and bacon sandwich as well as his favorite, spaghetti pie.

 But that’s not it, I made chicken and dumplings in my Instant Pot and OMG it was insane I loved it so much.

 Not a few days later I made a lasagna. Of course, I did. *eye roll* 

My  half of the lasagna is made with fat-free cheese and mozzarella. My son’s side is covered with regular cheddar. OMG! Why doesn’t fat-free cheese melt like the  normal cheese? I really wonder. 

 On another day I just needed some warm, fuzzy comfort food and I needed it QUICKLY!

So I made boxed  stuffing and added gravy to it. Do you see what I mean when I say I’m a little out of control?

Don’t forget the sugary stuff!

 As for sweets, I was in the mood for a little Banana Split. That’s why I cut up the bananas instead of leaving it sliced.  I topped it with caramel sauce. You know the kind they make for sundaes.

 Now, let’s talk about some of the things I wish I had eaten

Starting today I am really going to try to turn this thing around. I am writing this post as a “new phase” in success. I hope that it inspires you too and also that it gives me a little accountability.

Also, I still am on Weight Watchers (Blue) and I was using the coaching sessions on the telephone.  It’s part of my WW package. 

Last week, I stopped scheduling them because this season has been incredibly stressful for me. 

In fact, someone from my church recently passed from it and it hurt me so incredibly deeply. 

With that reality, I didn’t care about theTwinkie (which I do have here in the house) intake. No, I was in a survival mode. 

I needed to allow myself to grieve a little and to  give myself a little leeway. I have so many others in my life that I’m still worried about. All of which are fighting this global illness right now. 

 All this to say, I didn’t need any extra stress or accountability, I needed some time to just “be.”

Taking care of myself shouldn’t go “on vacation”

It is, also, clear to me to remain healthy, I need to eat actual meals including vegetables and fruits. 

Our immune systems require us to eat somewhat healthy right now. That also is motivation for me to get back on track.

Tracking is definitely going to be a tool to keep me in a good place healthwise. As I stated prior, I really haven’t tracked in quite a long time. It’s time to turn that around.

I started today to eat healthy in my isolation period.

Today I woke up somewhat late, so I did not want to call this breakfast. 

It’s more like a brunch …yeah, that’s the ticket. 

I love Premier Protein. It’s only 2 Weight Watchers Points! Plus, it makes my coffee just how I like it – rich, creamy and yummy. You can order on Amazon!

What I have here are boiled eggs which are zero on the Weight Watchers Blue plan, a couple of pieces of crispy bacon. I actually only ate one piece of the bacon  – it was a little too crispy for even me. Left it in the air fryer just a little too long.

 You also see Wonder bread toast covered in “I Can’t Believe its Not Butter” spread.. 

As for the bread, the one that I usually like the Sara Lee 45 Calorie bread.  It’s fewer points and folks know it! I cannot find it in my area!!!!  

It’s ok because Wonder Bread is only 2 points for one slice. I decided to have only one slide instead of my normal two slices of toast.

I also plan to have some of my snacks – including chips (just not 2 bags in a row!)

I’m going to find some recipes for baked crispy chickpeas.  Another ‘go to” will be Greek yogurt with something yummy mixed inside (like Splenda, cocoa or vanilla).

Again, while I plan to limit how many chips I eat in a day. I’m going to face the music: with this many in the house, I will have some chips. That is the way it is.

Maybe I’ll eat like my hubby…for now

My husband is vegan. He has been for several months now. 

I’m going to start eating some of his food more often. 

My pattern has been to make wonderfully rich, healthy vegan meals for him only to eat a bag of chips myself and then go to bed.Insanity!

Here’s a perfect example! 

I don’t even know what to call this. I just know that there are a lot of veggies in this dish.  He loved it! My attempt was to make a vegan chili. Yeah, we’ll call it that. 

The musical fruit in my life…

I also plan to incorporate a lot more beans into my daily intake. It won’t be hard because I love beans! 

I love lima beans; I love kidney beans- I love black beans too! 

They’re filling  and have no points on the Blue plan.  This means I can also have a small piece of cornbread too. 

Welp.  That’s my life.  

Hopefully the next time I post, I will have lots of pictures of the good things I ate – things that  will contribute to my weight loss and keep me healthy.

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Follow me on Instagram and see my food choices.

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 With that, I need to hear from you. What are you guys eating? 

Am I the only one eating badly during this time?

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