Day 16

I went to the grocery story the other day & as I waited in line at the check-out line, I was surprised at what I saw..........healthy food!  I had somehow managed to buy a grocery cart full of fruits, veggies, healthy protein, and whole grains......with NO junk food & yes, if you know me.....I DID say veggies!  If Jillian Michaels had gotten a peek at my cart, I think she would have been impressed.......especially if she had seen my previous grocery carts.  I hope to keep it up.

In my A+ grocery cart the other day, I had an assortment of berries.  I have always had a hard time with berries staying fresh for long.  I found a tip on Pinterest for washing fruits & veggies and gave it a try.  It says to always soak them in a 1:4 ratio of vinegar and water to help remove toxins and pesticides. Leave them soaking for up to an hour, longer with non-organic apples. It works great, and so far all of my berries are still good. The pin claims that it will help them last up to 3 weeks.......we'll see. 

For years, one of my favorite cooking appliances has been my George Foreman grill.  The one I have had for years broke a while back, so I was delighted to get a new one for Christmas.  Unfortunately, even though the grill is larger and fancier.........it is still a HUGE PAIN to clean!  I grilled chicken breasts on it the other night and it took longer for me to clean the grill than it did to cook them!  Apparently I'm not the only one with this frustration.  I searched "clean George Foreman" grill on Pinterest and numerous pins popped up!  Most of them recommend covering the bottom of the grill and the drip pan with aluminum foil. Duh!  Why didn't I think of that!  I can't wait to try it out! 

Now that I am feeling better and everyone else is "healthy" in my house again, it's time to get back on track. With my busy schedule, I don't want to use the "I don't have time!" excuse anymore.  It is so easy to push exercise to the side after working all day, so I'm going to "attempt" to wake up early in the morning to get my exercise out of the way.  I read an article that gave a few tips on surviving an early morning workout.  It suggests getting 7-8 hours of sleep the night before, sleeping in your (clean) exercise clothes, not hitting the snooze button (yikes!), know exactly what you plan on doing to exercise, play some high energy music, and most importantly........Don't make it a choice!  No excuses.........When my alarm clock goes off at 5:30 a.m., I MUST remember......Everything 4:13!