Sausage and Sunburn: The reasons I don't want either

I did something this morning I'm not very proud of. It's one of those things that I really try hard not to do and I'm always a little ashamed and sick to my stomach after I do it. Why, why would I put myself through that? I could list a million reasons, justifications, excuses for my actions, but it all comes up the same. I was being lazy and I knew better.

I ate a Sausage, Egg and Cheese Sizzli from Wawa.

They look so innocuous

Oh, the humanity! I know I shouldn't beat myself up over it. It's hard to eat a healthy breakfast every morning. It requires effort and energy and planning. But this breakfast was a wake-up call (get it?) to really put in the time to eat cleaner and healthier. Besides the fact that there is very little nutrition in my breakfast sandwich, there is very little real FOOD. Just preservatives and salt and fat. Yummm.

Looks a little grayer in person

The thing is, I don't want to just avoid foods like this. I want to be disgusted by them BEFORE I eat them. On my long term to-do list is make all of my own food from scratch. I know that is more or less impossible, some things will always be in some way prepared by someone else. But I think it is a good goal to work towards. And cutting out processed-beyond-recognition fast-food like this is definitely the first step.

I am a product of my commercial, fast-paced, instant-gratification environment, though, and I don't do well hungry. So, instead of eating the granola bar I had in my purse (not that that is a great meal, either) I caved when someone was making a Wawa run. Karma caught up fast with me though, when I requested bacon and they only had sausage. I don't even LIKE breakfast sausage, but I ate it. And I felt lousy for it. Why do we do these things to ourselves?

Time to move on. I am making sure I go to bed early enough tonight to wake up with time to make a healthy, filling breakfast and packing good snacks for while I'm at work. Otherwise I end up eating the white, nutrition-free rolls with honey butter like I did today for lunch. Did I forget to mention that I ate white bread covered in butter and honey and called that lunch?

Another contributing factor to today's diet de-railment? I've been a little miserable the past two days. Why you ask? Sunburn. Like, whoa.

And this is an improvement over yesterday!

I went tubing with my nephew on Tuesday. I was good! I wore a light, long sleeved shirt! I put on my sunscreen! I swear! But I didn't put it on as evenly as I should have (see next picture), I didn't wear a hat and I didn't think about the fact that my feet were in the water, washing away all that skin-saving lotion. So, my hairline and eyelids (yes, eyelids) are burnt. Random splotches on my legs are burnt. And worst of all, the tops of my feet are SCORCHED.

Do you know what it's like to have a job where you work on your feet all day in dress shoes with sunburnt feet? I hope you don't because it sucks. Today is a little better, but yesterday my feet were throbbing all day, especially while I was running around at work. With every step I felt the regret of pale skin inadequately protected from the hot fury of the sun.

Note the difference between the pale legs and the red feet and knees

So I got a little sunburned. What's the big deal? Besides the excruciating pain of yesterday and the mild annoyances of the next few days to come, the big deal is long-term skin protection. My skin ain't as young as it used to be, but I don't need anyone else knowing that. Not to mention that my discomfort led me to over a day of being less productive than I otherwise would have been and to making bad food choices because I didn't feel well and therefore didn't care. A lousy reason for both, especially considering how easily avoided this whole situation could have been.

I suppose the point of all this is, I want to be more mindful about my body. All the time. I want it to be second nature to remember to slather sunscreen all over and apply touch ups. I want to get up when my alarm goes off knowing I set it for a good reason. I want it to be inconcievable that I would ever get a fast-food breakfast sandwich. I want my body to be happy that I am it's operator.

My apology to my body for the breakfast I imposed on it

My to-do list is to start by planning my meals better. I need more easy, filling recipes that I enjoy both preparing and eating. I'm trying to keep myself going for a long, long time and I need the right fuel to do that.

Also on my to-do list: sunscreen. Every time I'm in the sun. It's annoying to put on, but skin cancer and wrinkles are probably more annoying. Just a hunch.

YOUR to-do list, valued reader, is to share any of your favorite healthy recipes! Any recipes, even if you know me and know I wouldn't like them, maybe someone else reading would. And I'll have you know, I have been eating a much wider variety of foods lately. Yesterday, I ate beets. Beets! Who'd a thought? They weren't bad either. I still don't like olives. I'm sorry, I've been trying. They are gross.

If you have any insight on healthy body or mind, share it. I get motivation by reading what other people do to stay in a good, healthy mindset. I also get motivated by sharing my ideas. Hence, this blog. So, thanks for the motivation!

Cod, roast potatoes, asian stir-fryed vegetables, salad, tea

Healthy can be pretty!