Day 22

Made Mushroom-Barley Soup with Cannellini Beans and Cabbage for dinner.

I'm so listening to real hunger and gaining insight into the difference between toxic and true hunger. I literally didn't feel any true hunger all day long, until I think close to dinnertime. I know I definitely didn't feel any true hunger before about 5pm. After that I'm not sure. But I had a bowl of the soup and felt satisfied.

I subbed Great Northern beans for the Cannellini beans, because that's what I have and as of yet I can't tell the diff. I don't think Levi was real thrilled with this. But I think when I'm really hungry that anything nourishing tastes good. I liked it. So there. Kids ate their little bit of soup, and then had brown rice with Bragg's.

I also made Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole. I didn't eat any of this because I had filled up after the soup. Levi had some, but didn't say anything about it, so maybe he hated it. I will probably love it. When I made the breadcrumbs for this by toasting a piece of bread and putting it in the food processor, big chunks of the bread were obviously not toasty enough to turn into crumbs, and would not process, so I picked the chunks out of the food processor and tossed them into the sink, and just put the rest of the crumbs on top. This was kind of time intensive, and I get impatient easily, like waiting for the eggplant to be cool enough to handle to get the guts out after baking it. And I baked it for a long time, and then peeled the skins off like a sunburn, and the insides were soft but still in one piece, not completely mushy. I squoze out some of the water from them and chopped them up. That seemed to work well. It was fun. It's always fun to cook. Even though I feel bad that my kids are watching some stupid show or movie while I do it. They are getting a healthy dinner, so why should I guilt trip myself over it? A person can't do everything.

So yeah, I feel good now. Worked out today at the Y. The younger kid played in the babysitting place, and seemed to have enjoyed himself. I ran three glorious treadmill miles, much of it on a speed 6.5 or 7, which felt incredible. I feel like someone else when I run. I ran in my $8 water socks...my budget minimalist footwear. And then I did a couple weight machines. I feel all calm and nice now.