Too Many Sweets? Never!

When I was in downtown Denver over the weekend for the Oprah tour I decided to double-dip. There are very few vegan places nearer to me, so whenever I’m downtown for anything I also try and check out the vegan places.

I’ve done VooDoo Donuts, Nooch Vegan Market, Beet Box and now Make Believe Bakery, it was like a mile away from the Pepsi Center. I circled and circled the bakery until I could figure out where to park, I was determined! Next time I want to try savory food at City, O’ City right next door to the bakery. There’s also a Vegan Van that we just missed one time, they were closing for the day that I really wanna try, they have comfort food.

I’ve only gotten sweets, donuts, soft serve, and desserts, lol. Because I was just passing through, grab and go 🙂 Plus we’ve had to be frugal, so we rarely eat out except for special occasions, like when we have visitors or like when we first arrived here and after we finished bankruptcy court, lmao! We like Toast in downtown Littleton and there’s a bakery that has a few vegan items Born2Bake, had some yummy cake there! We also have had sushi which is within walking distance from us, Okinawa Sushi, nom nom.

We went out to eat a lot when relatives visited over the summer, it was so much fun! I loved the Blackbird Cafe and Tavern in Evergreen, our wonderful cousin Amy found it through Yelp. It’s in the mountains on a creek, so lovely and the wait staff was so friendly, they loved Uncle Rory!

It was so nice how when we were at the Thai place Uncle Michi ordered tofu for his meal so I could take home the leftovers. They’re always concerned about me getting enough food because I’m vegan and usually there are limited choices. I’m so fortunate they’re so loving and supportive! Everyone was teasing Uncle Masa because he always gets noodles and man he can pack away the food, so hearty and healthy in his 80’s!

Anyway, I love baked desserts and am too lazy to cook them for myself so I love to indulge when a vegan source is convenient because it’s such an infrequent occurrence. And that’s a good thing! Or else I’d be eating waaay too many sweets, maybe? ?

I get so wide-eyed and excited about choosing the pastries, so carried away! I’ll have one of those, 2 of these, “what do you recommend?” I breathlessly ask the clerk. I ended up getting 2 cupcakes, 2 sweet rolls, 2 whoopie cookies, 2 little cookies, paid for them, then noticed they had soft serve, so I got a swirl and began eating it as I walked back to the car, heh. I was thinking… I just left Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour which also featured WW(weight watchers), what was I doing? Ha! I laughed and thought, “Treat yourself!” I could hear the characters from Parks and Recreation in my head 😀

I have no reservations now about enjoying food and am easy about my nutrition. Most of the time I eat really healthily so when I do indulge, I know it’s okay.

From my teens, up until my thirties, I fought with myself about food. This is typical I believe for most women. When I had kids I became more focused on being healthy. So I researched, read and put into practice what I learned. I relaxed my restrictions on myself and this helped most of all. I began to eat more intuitively and this worked. I have Geneen Roth and Martha Beck to thank for this.

I don’t stress anymore, I just eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts/nut butter and some treats too. I also typically get adequate exercise. I don’t obsess or beat myself up. It’s so liberating! I love it! I get to buy and nom all those pastries without a shred of guilt and all the joy.

Nom nom nom. I polished off the last bit of vegan sweet goodness (I ate it all except for one whoopie cookie Drue managed to claw away before I annihilated the rest) after I ate a huge ass salad tonight while watching an episode of The Durrells in Corfu. Treat yourself 🙂 My new refrain ?

I’m doing Steve Pavlina’s Stature course and in one of the lessons today he described treating aspects of your life that you’re evolving and growing with as a relationship. Instead of trying to change or control a thing or a person, like money, food or your partner, you focus on how you relate to them. This works much better, don’t you think? You focus on having a healthier relationship with life which is all about changing your mindset.

I’m so glad I changed my mind about food. It’s not the enemy anymore. I’m not the enemy anymore. It feels so good! Yay! 😀