There are many days that I sort of just trudge through. I wish it were different but right now it’s not. There is a lot of mundane and routine around here that goes quite a bit against my nature.
The day starts the same and ends the same everyday and the middle is pretty similar each day also. I like to think that my kids don’t know how drudgery the days sometimes are for me as I try my best to be as enthusiastic as possible for them despite how I feel.
To combat this I try to find little things that are just for myself to get excited about and have as a little treat, a little pick me up throughout the day if you will.
A few months ago I somehow stumbled into the glorious treat of steaming vegetables and melting grass fed butter on them. I had read in various places around the internet that grass fed butter is really healthy for us and that we absorb more of the nutrients of our vegetables if we eat them with a healthy fat such as….grass fed butter.
It sounded really good and freeing to be able to guiltlessly enjoy vegetables with butter and that they could be good for me that way. So I uncharacteristically threw caution to the wind, simply believed what I read and began voraciously indulging in my new treat of vegetables with butter. And wow are they delicious!
I have never been much of a vegetable eater because I never made it enjoyable for myself. I was of the mindset that if I am going to eat vegetables I am going to eat them pure, no salt, no butter, no cooking them, no enjoying them.
I had no idea all that I had been missing by doing this to myself. I now find myself craving steamed vegetables and butter and I eat them almost everyday. Instead of chips (for the most part) I am now asking my husband to pick me up some brussel sprouts and asparagus on his way home.
I’m finding that this new treat of mine is really a great pick me up in the middle of the day. Not only does it taste delicious, is quick to make, and gives me a good boost of energy but it’s also very empowering to know I am doing something so good for myself by going to town on some vegetables.
If I was instead indulging in a sugary treat (as I have definitely done numerous times) I know I would just wind up with even less energy, would be feeling bad about eating unhealthy again and I would be adding it to my list of things I torment myself with that I am doing wrong (working on this.)
Therefore eating vegetables and butter (sometimes smothered in butter) as a snack has been great not just for my physical health but for my mental health as well.
It feels good to treat myself and not feel guilty and bad about myself as a result of that treat.
And as much as I really really want my vegetable treat to be just that, my treat alone to the point where I want to enjoy it in hiding and keep it all to myself (I’m finding it that good), I would be amiss not to share the benefits with my kids. I can’t help but think it’s good for them to see me regularly preparing and eating vegetables and enthusiastically enjoying them myself. I would love for both of them (I really believe my son will eat by mouth one day) to grow to be veggie lovers too.
I know it seems odd but eating vegetables has really taught me a lot.
I’ve missed out on a lot of time that I could’ve been benefiting from and enjoying vegetables because I was too uptight about them.
I made eating them into a bigger deal than they needed to be.
I had read so much about the right way to eat them: don’t cook them too much, raw is best, don’t put anything on them, you only get the benefits if you eat them this way and on and on the information can go.
I’ve found since I’ve relaxed, loosened up a bit, gone ahead and just put some butter on them I’m finding myself enjoying and benefiting from what was once so elusive to me, even if I may not be going about it the exact perfect way.
I have a feeling there’s quite a few enjoyable beneficial things in life that have been eluding me as a result of my tendency to really over think things. To over think things to the point of doing nothing but researching, discussing my decision (or lack of) and being exhausted from all the analyzing and thinking that I just wind up doing nothing.
Eating vegetables with butter has really taught me that I need to just go ahead and live a little, and I might actually find I enjoy it.
So what if what I researched is completely wrong and grass fed butters not as healthy as the Internet claims it to be? I am now regularly enjoying vegetables and I know the benefits I’m getting from them with a little butter are way more than when I was so uptight about they way they had to be eaten that I just didn’t eat them at all.
So now as I enjoy my vegetables I find myself looking forward to finding other wonderful things in life I’ve been missing out on as a result of my inclination to over think things.
How exciting is to think (not too much though!) about all the other delicious treats of life out there just waiting to be savored!
I’d love to hear from you, do you tend to over think like me or are you more in the middle or throw caution to the wind side? Have you ever missed out on something really beneficial because of over thinking? Also if you regularly eat veggies how do you enjoy them? I’d love to hear your ideas of different ways to partake of them!
