Taking a Break

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This past week we had an awesome mini-vacation which landed us in Gloucester, MA. Its quintessential New England, historic flair warrants a longer stay next time we're in the area. The area has phenomenal, fresh seafood, and Gloucester itself is known as America's oldest sea port. Very cool.

While we were there, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner out to enjoy the local seafood. And I decided to suspend my power pantry guidelines and order what looked and sounded good on the menu. While Jen had the baked haddock, which was awesome, I got the fisherman's fried platter, with fresh, tender shrimp, clams, calamari and a haddock filet, all lightly breaded and deep fried. No plant-based choices or whole food concerns here. I have never had shrimp that were that tender, much less the clams and calamari... it was delicious, and although I didn't have a salad or veggies (beyond a little coleslaw), I thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

There's always time to make great power pantry choices in what we're eating and drinking, and there are times to set uber-healthy choices aside and enjoy a 'feast'. That's what we did on our trip... A great guide is an 80/20 approach: 80% of our food should be a good choice, ones our bodies benefit from nutritionally; the other 20% can be less intentional American fare. And the 20% isn't always a gooey, sugary dessert; maybe it's the fried platter... (I can't remember the last time I had ketchup, not that there's much wrong with ketchup, I just don't eat it anymore. On Wednesday night, I had ketchup with my fried seafood and fries... mmmmmm...)

So settle on your convictions to pursue great food and drink choices, focusing on nutritional density, and a plant-based diet. Then, here and there, be willing to take a break and enjoy something that sounds good, looks good, or comes highly recommended. Doing this helps us redouble our effort and conviction to make power pantry choices a majority of the time.

By the Way

Check out the post I did last year about an 80/20 approach to our wellness choices:
Go 80/20

This is a great guideline to help us organize and stock our power pantry and fridge for health-promoting choices.