Cracker Barrel menu vs. fast food is night and day. Cracker Barrel uses slow cooking methods for some dishes that us foodie enthusiasts appreciate! This homestyle burnt-top Cellantani and cheese (with a healthy option) recipe is below.
Homestyle burnt top baked macaroni and cheese reminds one of slow cooking, the Cracker Barrel restaurant, and the fond eating childhood memories. 🧡
In this post, you’ll get tips to lose weight from snacking, ordering off a Cracker Barrel menu, and how to make calories count! And how to to get the tasty burnt-top on your baked macaroni without drying out the pasta.
After your turkey feast has come and gone, what are the secrets to keep a healthy, trim body you aspire to? …I share my best tips below. And they don’t require giving up macaroni-n-cheese if that’s one of your favorites.
If you’re on the road, it’s easy to get off-balanced in your diet. I recommend the Cracker Barrel menu that’s loaded with options for a conscious calorie counter, where you can find a healthy meal for under a thousand calories. Real homey comfort food and not a frozen packaged one.
👇 You can get to my Cracker Barrrel menu selections if you scroll way below.
…But, as with most my blog articles, there is jam-packed meaty healthy inspiration and tips in between. So that’s where I’ll start… with my story.
My Food Life Lessons
I think I’m lucky because I have pretty much maintained the same ideal healthy weight since my late 20s (after some hairy years working around decadent catering food).
And yep, I’m a Vata so my genetics play a big, big part. I’m not a vain person, but I am self-conscious (another Vata trait we call sensitive). That could be you too.
We are all unique in that we have a different one-and-only body that’s given to us to maintain for our entire life. And that’s daily changing.
So we want to optimize our body and body image that’s relative to each of us. There are some tips that work for all of us females and humans. Some ideas that work better for some of us than others.
And you know your body better than anybody else.
For the lifestyle part, like everyone, I had to learn in life’s journey.
Early on I went into a testing phase and tried to listen to reliable sources about how to have a healthy body. I wanted to get more tone and slender so I tried the trendy health fad diets with so many others.
Back then, I focused on one diet in particular, where I counted calories. You can probably guess what happened?… I gained more weight during that season. I craved foods and especially pasta that I grew up eating and had given up.
I was also craving sweet foods I normally ate and gave up. If you have a sweet tooth (e.g. for Vatas that’s your middle name), bread just doesn’t cut it as a sweet if ya know what I mean.
That’s when I realized self-discipline and willpower produce backfiring results…
When I told myself “no” to certain foods, that just made me want them more. …sound familiar?
That’s because our minds, don’t actually hear “no.” Instead, your mind hears you’re putting energy towards that food item, so then you just want it more. English isn’t your mind and body’s first language. Your mind-body interprets words by your feelings and actions…hmmm.
…so I ended up essentially on a “yo-yo” diet, where I was below weight, gained it back, and then went over the weight that I started with as I got a taste of the foods I loved like mac-n-cheese.
These were years before Oprah was popular on television and we learned all about the yo-yo diet effects from her sharing journey to the masses.
And, weight and size are relative to each of our bodies. In my body size journey, I went down to a size 2 (from a size 6 at the time) and grew to a size 8.
I have fit into the same size clothing and maintained a size 4 since then (it’s funny how some clothing pieces have come back in style a few times and I can live them up again!). …OK, so before you judge or playfully roll your eyes at me, I KNOW what you’re thinking…
Oh my gosh, I would love to be a size 4 or 6 (if you are, you know what I’m talking about!)… Or maybe you prefer your ideal size whatever that is…
But the truth is, it doesn’t matter what your number, size, or weight is, as much as keeping overall balanced body proportions to your frame, where you like and feel better about yourself. When your feed your mind happiness, that shows up in a healthier body as body love (and NOT body shame).
That’s the ultimate goal (to feel good about ourselves and our self-image). We need to build up our self-esteem especially if it was beaten down in the past. You may have experienced PTSD or had a rocky childhood.
Or maybe you still need to heal from wounds, build self-confidence from insecurities, and develop an abundant mentality to replace the victim mentality. That’s common for most of us.
And like most personal growth goals, it’s up to you to make your choices along the way. That’s where replacing habits helps (plus, not denying yourself any one specific food or category to reach the goal).
Along my journey, these are a few tips I discovered in choices that I’ve found that make the biggest impact.
High acidic foods can wreak havoc on your daily gut-feeling life.
If you’re food shopping and trying to make choices for your grocery cart, adding a stomach-friendly GERD Ayurveda grocery list can enhance your eating life. Lowering stomach acidity and finding enhancing foods for balancing your body is fun, healthy, and sometimes what’s needed.
If you have a condition like high acid (or more severely GERD) in your stomach, whether you’re a Vata, Pitta, or Kapha (or have any of these imbalances), you’ll be interested in what you select for your refrigerator and pantry.
And, you’ve come to the right place for a list of safe foods to reduce GERD (or lower acidity) and increase balance (listed further below…)
Trees (even your favorite ones!) create pollen and can create fall allergies havoc, but you can naturally improve your allergy and sinus congestion life and prevent nasty sinus infections with tips below.
Fall allergies and sinus congestion can leave you confused. People wonder, “isn’t pollen relatively low in the fall?” This article is all about addressing this.
I have been a year-round allergy sufferer who only developed allergies about 5 years ago. Post-allergy life is a new normal. If you experience allergies, they don’t have to run (or ruin) your life.
You can also opt to take an allergy test from an allergist (where they can gently prick your arm or back) and find out if your situation is more complicated. I chose to do that and learned my symptoms were mostly external ones like watery eyes and annoying (but moderate) nasal congestion.
Allergy symptoms can last all day. Late afternoon and evenings can be worse than mornings (the opposite of spring grass allergies).
The gifts of imperfection are not found in holding onto perfection. I learned the hard way in and around the area I grew up in…
If the U.S. Capitol were a cake, it would have perfect lines, and these were the standards in the schools and household I grew up in.
If you change your perfection ways, you can discover the gifts of imperfection over perfection. You can achieve bigger and better things.
Perfection can create unwanted side effects like anxiety and self-pity (that you can overcome). If you’re an overachiever, you know how aiming for perfection can create performance anxiety.
Thankfully “progress over perfection” replaces “practice makes perfect” in our delicate world.
Because early on I wasn’t perfect in school. I attended the #1 highest ranking public high schools in America (in the DC suburbs) at the time, and that didn’t help my cause. Let’s say I ended up doing well, but that didn’t seem perfect or good enough at times especially when applying for top colleges.
At home, my dad was a high achiever, a hardworking Harvard architect who graduated at the top of his class, earned an impressive scholarship, and the whole nine yards. He had high ideals in life and I got the passed-on message about those ambitious expectations.
Perfection was a value and I was more like an Eton Mess than perfect.
You can make your own Eton Mess (steps on how to make below) to help you remind you that imperfection still creates a form of edible perfection that tastes great.
I didn’t always know what the expectations were but I knew I fell short, so I bagged the perfect model concept early on. The problem was I had nothing to replace with, like progress over perfection. Or fail forward means you’re trying.
But I kept going and so did you…
If you’ve carried perfectionist ideals along your journey, I know where you’re coming from. It’s not easy to shake off the past… with the good, bad and ugly.
And thing that did help me was knowing that no one on earth. There was only one and he’s no longer on earth.
So I decided that good meant keeping high standards and wanting to make achievements in life (and valuing the gifts of imperfection).
Naturally, you want to do your best but the wheels do fall off sometimes in our fallen world.
And when you become obsessive in the process of an outcome, that can be self-destructive and unhealthy.
Perfectionist behaviors can also negatively rub off on other people or into blame situations.
The ego or Imposter mind can be crafty and find coping ways to urgently nourish your soul and body if you let your mind run and ruin your life. Keeping your mind separate from you and your spirit can help your journey.
Re-defining and embracing imperfection is the healthier way to a happy life.
The Gifts of Imperfection at Work
Remind yourself that being imperfect is better. Maybe, that’s getting things done is better than none.
Remind yourself how you made imperfection work for you in the past. That people embraced your imperfect work.
…If you forgot to do something, as we all do, you’re no longer perfect so that helps you to rule out perfection as always. Our ego loves to use “always” and “never” when it’s usually more like “sometimes”, “often”, or “rarely.”
You may not even have missed out on this activity in any impactful way.
One of the best things you can do to let go is to fail at something and see that: 1) you survived, 2) you’re okay, and 3) something good came out of your scenario… maybe it was that you learned 1 and 2 and can repeat. Usually you can find a positive if you want to that helps your outlook and growth.
You can embrace: Good is good enough. When I embraced this mantra, it helped me to hit “send” and “publish.”
You get more done and are happier taking the stress and pressure off yourself. Because what will be, will be. So many factors are out of controls anyways.
Being imperfect sets you up to keep going, doing, and trying…. and eventually finding your purpose or destiny.
Catching and correcting written spelling and grammar mistakes is good but is different than making sure every word is perfect to your mind’s satisfaction. There’s a fine line between valuing your work and what you do, and obsessing over the quality because of what that would represent if you didn’t perform well in some way.
Your performance isn’t as important as those youu impact. That’s the lesson from the movie Burnt where Actor Bradley Cooper’s Type-A and chef character learns that letting go of his perfection for a calmer teamwork environment brings home the additional Michelin star success.
The supporting kitchen staff actors are empowered to do their jobs without feeling like they’re walking on eggshells in front of their boss.
You may have also learned this lesson as an employee working with others and working towards climbing the organization ladder.
And you may have found that those promoted weren’t necessarily the hardest workers who delivered flawless work. Some weren’t even as qualified as the person who should’ve gotten the promotional job, but they were trusted with their work given to them (as part of the gifts of imperfection).
Most importantly, they worked at building relationships and connections while others focused on producing the best work.
Building good rapport is a skill that’s valued and can be even more difficult than keeping the head down doing work. People want to work with those they know, like, and trust. So letting your guard down some and letting them know a personal side of you can help you win points.
It’s not just in what you say or how you say it. There’s an energy that you give off even when you’re sitting in front of your computer that you may not even know you’re giving off.
Everyone has a part they can play no matter what special personalities they display. Your non-judgment of others and focusing on their positives is what will create a good work environment for you…
Not necessarily being the person who does perfect work. Perfection is an illusion. What you do today, will be obsolete tomorrow or forgotten by most, years from now. Who you showed up as, and your progress contributions will be remembered.
So, what if you’re caught up in the perfectionist trap?
If you find yourself falling for perfectionist obsessive ways, being self-critical or beating yourself up, here are some smart steps to take:
Be perfect.
Whaaat? Yes, be perfect. It’s all in your mind. When you force yourself to NOT do something, you unintentionally end up doing that behavior. Because your subconscious brain doesn’t hear NOT.
It picks up that you are focusing energy towards that area. It’s not always helping you, and your eyeballs can even skip over the words “not,” as part of the process if you’re reading words on a page.
So you’re trying not to be perfect, can backfire. (I’ve deliberately highlighted the word “not” in several ways here to catch your attention).
Instead in self-awareness, catch yourself and realize that you don’t want to do that anymore. Because before you probably didn’t see it when you were acting that way, but now you’re aware.
So give yourself grace to take two steps forward and one step backward in growth.
In the beginning, it can be like an internal dance you’re trying to figure out. But you’ll get it because you’re trying to make it better than the old ways that didn’t work the way you hoped.
Your trying can shift over to your growing out of perfection instead of toward your output.
Imperfection takes less effort, and caring less sometimes is the answer if your mind is running the show.
Eventually the gifts of imperfection outweigh perfection with your desires and efforts.
But, there are exceptions and times when you do want to shine and be as perfect as possible. So you don’t want to lose all your perfection traits if that’s what comes naturally to you.
Like when you have a performance or presentation to give and want to wow the critics. Or you have a test or an interview to ace. The difference here is that these aren’t everyday occurrences and they’re solo acts you want to nail.
Back when I had school team presentations, several times I was disappointed when the group didn’t do the part they agreed to. Letting go of the idea that everyone was as dedicated, I learned later to do every piece of their part and mine, as though it were performed and turned in solely by me…
That was my backup plan.
If the team came through on their parts, then I would rely on them. And when they did, I realized that we had better information as I could chime in with additional insight in their areas and mine because the research was done.
I gave my best and that’s all I could do. And that’s the attitude to embrace for progress over perfection.
Stay Authentic
In make or break situations, stay authentic to your deeper, healthy self desires.
Let go of worries.
Striving for high standards is a better way of living.
Be happy with your imperfect message and letting your caring, human side come out.
You can come back and change your thoughts. You don’t have to nail every point flawlessly the first time. We think we never have a chance to do over.
That’s true only if you think it is. If you came across as serious before, you can come back as light-hearted or funny in a pivot around new audiences.
Be comfortable where you are and your confident energy will shine through. Keep showing up the way you want to be perceived.
You get to be who you want to be as human, not perfect (remembering the gifts of imperfection).
If you think these tips could help someone grow, please share with them.
And here’s how you can make your own Eton Mess dessert that could be a good metaphor to embracing your authentic creativity and imperfection inside you.
fruits (raspberries, blueberries, lychee, cantaloupe shown in photo)
Instructions
Shape meringue to liking on a baking sheet. Bake in oven on a low temperature around 250°F/120°C or less until marshmallowy soft but crisp. You'll be able to see when the edges are starting to toast.
Let the meringue cool and break off on your plate in a mess. Add and pile on fruits you would like to use to create a modern art dessert plate.
Vata body mind is a way to define a body and mind type. As a Vata, I know most of us are naturally thin and have worry tendencies.
Are you a Vata?
If so, this article post is all about you. And if you don’t know what a Vata is, you can discover more below.
You have several identities in this world. I’ll share a few of mine…
Some are fun. You know those personality tests you can take (to learn about yourself and your friends).
Well… in the self-taking Enneagram test, I’m most closely a 7. We’re the happy enthusiasts. …Hoo-ray!
Maybe that’s why I created this place for others to glean off of my happy aura 😊.
By the way, all the Enneagram types 1-9 are great (you’re still a complex individual and have potential traces of all the types). If you’re not familiar, Enneagrams are based on your general life motivations.
Any one enneagram type is not better than another, but I like to cheer mine on (and be happy for the happy type). As an Enneagram 7, we’re known to be the optimistic and positive people in this world.
This makes sense because I naturally gravitate without hesitation towards life’s pleasures enjoying beauty, fashion and gourmet foods.
…Which makes people that know me wonder, how I can be so deeply spiritual? I think of this combination as my superpower… being in this world, but not entirely of this world.
On the outside, like all of us, I’m just a person having a daily spiritual journey.
I found better answers inside from life’s challenges and life’s non-answers. In other words, in the silence.
I was actually born 90% Vata. “A who?”, you may ask if this is new to you.
That’s right, I identify as the Vata body-mind type in Ayurveda.
There are 3 types: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. We all possess traces in varying degrees of each of these types and any of us can get off balance (irritated, anxious, lethargic, etc.) from these types.
Today I’m just focusing on the Vata type…
As a Vata, most of us are naturally thin or slender. A Vata can eat and eat and eat, and gain little weight.
There are people you hate or envy because of this (not really… but you get my drift). On the flipside, Vatas have thin bones and usually a more sensitive body.
We can take a warm bath and still feel cold especially in the winter.
Each body type has special features.
Another for Vata is, we epitomize the saying, “cold hands, warm heart.”
Our skin and hair stay on the naturally dry side. We use deep moisturizers and conditioners. And adult eczema can arise that’s manageable.
Outside of appearances, the Vata body-mind type naturally holds onto worry and anxiety. An area that I did not care to hold onto so I learned to transform.
In pure Vata fashion, we naturally bounce from task to task (sometimes too much), as multi-taskers are our middle names. We also prefer variety as the spice of life.
We have or like more than one type of any product or food type.
Based on all these descriptions above, I’m 100% Vata.
You learn in life though, you adapt to situations and can balance or counterbalance any natural body type, especially with all the resources and great products we have in the world at our fingertips.
So why am I sharing all of this?…
Because I believe you have a choice to make changes in your life for the better.
I wanted to get up 10 times while writing this, but I forced myself to stay put. I also wanted to wonder what you would think reading this. I chose to not worry about anything that’s not helpful, and just be productive despite natural tendencies because I learned the better way.
But I still care about feelings and how I come across with thin skin, that I learned to toughen up over the years and through life’s situations.
There’s a part of me that still wants to be the reserved person who doesn’t want to share who she is, but I put myself out there anyway as I know I can help others.
I challenge myself to be fearless. Because I know that there’s no personal growth without bringing light to weaknesses, and places I’d rather suppress.
Then I see dynamic people in this world and I couldn’t even begin to do the things they do in their physical abilities and skills.
And I naturally want to believe they are happy.
But they’re not, inside. And despite all they have.
They weren’t wired that way. But I was.
They live on what they know and their comforts. That’s not better or worse, it just is.
They have a choice to change parts of their lives if they choose.
As we all have choices relative to our lives and opportunities.
As long as we support one another as humans, and don’t judge one another, we can learn from each other and grow.
And that can be the greater world we are becoming in collaboration efforts.
If you’re a Vata (or think you’re one from my description above), high five and a big hug to you. I get you.
We naturally have anxious tendencies that can show up in the form of overwhelming feelings, heart palpitations, or nervous butterflies in the stomach.
You don’t have to live that way, as a regular way of being based on your thoughts and situations you can’t control.
I know this from my own learned past experiences.
Without anxiety awareness, you’re putting on a band-aid to calm the symptoms.
Breathing deeply and drinking plenty of water are super important habits to help soothe anxiety.
If you think you have anxiety in your life, confirm with this quiz, and get quick restoring tips and ongoing healthy and happy life balancing tip advice.
You too can change what’s not fully working. (Let it be easy… why live another day not being or feeling like your whole self?).
We live in an evolving world that changes whether we want it to or not.
…And there are lots going on.
But, I believe each of us can get ahead of anxiety and learn to manage and prevent anxiety in a healthy way.
Each situation is a teacher and a chance to find a remedy.
The statistics show our depressed society is growing.
Most women in America and maybe the world, don’t currently do or take the time to learn how to live healthy and happy in life’s busyness, despite all the resources available.
And, that’s where I hope I can shed light with my positivity, encouraging vibes, and sharing self-transformation lessons to help in this cause.
I encourage (and challenge you) to be your change for your life’s happiness.
You can learn all about the Vata, Pitta, and Kapha in this in-depth balancing mind-body article which btw, as an example I’m dominant in Pitta mind (in addition to a Vata mind) to add fuel to the fire.
And very likely, you have more than one dominant mind type. That’s what makes each of us complex, unique, and alike in this life. It’s as simple and complicated as that. 😊
