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.
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.
3 Weight Loss Tips for Daily Menus
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