Getting Ready for Kaia

I spent my day preparing for Kaia F.I.T. tomorrow morning. I was going to eat my last cous cous for 6 weeks, but I ran out. So I started an evening early.

I was happy to find out that my meal plans now mostly are Kaia-compatible. I had to make a few adjustments, but nothing major. In my meal plans over the past 6 months I have been willing to accept some artificial ingredients. I certainly don't eat as much as I used to, so I was fine accepting a little. Here are the adjustments I made today:

Yogurt: I usually buy the Sunnyside Farms Light Vanilla Yogurt. It does have artificial sweetener so I picked up a plain organic light yogurt at Raleys that is also non-gmo. This is a change I might feel good about keeping after the 6 week program since it fits into my value system currently (given that the new yogurt scheme is just as delicious as the artificial stuff.) I'll give it a go and see.

Garlic Chile Sauce: There are 2 ingredients in this sauce that I had to find substitutes for. I'm going to have to play around with this to find a happy medium. This will not be a permanent change. I can really taste a difference in the sauce. One change was the mirrin. I'm not sure if "no alcohol" applies to tiny quantities of cooking alcohols, so I replaced it with rice vinegar. The other replacement was honey. I know sugar is the devil, but really? Honey? I usually use a teaspoon in the sauce. I made a replacement sweet-goo out of chia, tea, and purevia. I was trying to replace the sweetness and consistency. The sauce now tastes artifical. There really is not a replacement for that honey in the sauce. Only 6 weeks.

Cous Cous: Replaced one for one with quinoa. I'm ok with that. I like quinoa and had enough organic quiona to make enough for the week.

I know I'll have to replace the mirrin and honey in the miso glaze. That is going to be a VERY chia heavy sauce. I already have chia as a thickener in the sauce... We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. My veggie sautee is the same-- and I love it. I'm so glad to have my swiss chard back. Those collard greens just weren't cutting it for me. My sautee is now back to full yumminess. I baked chicken for the next several days salads and started hydrating for tomorrow morning.

Ok the sauce isn't that bad... but I miss the honey anyhow.

I was happy to discover that I lost 5 pounds in the month of December despite all of the family and friends eating episodes. I'm glad I kept up with the workouts while I traveled! Saved my butt.

I expect to be sore tomorrow. I expect my blisters to annoy me if we run or anything. I expect to feel irritated and uncomfortable at feeling like I don't belong in a group. I expect to have fun. I expect to be cold. And I expect to have to remind myself at least 10 times to be aware and nonjudgmental of myself and others. Compassion Carmen.