Soy-sational

This is getting really ridiculous accumulating posts like this, I know. What I don't know is why it's so hard for me to just upload a few pictures every day. The written part is (usually) curent. ARGH!

I guess I'll break the post up between reintroducing soy and reintroducing gluten to at least have some separation.
Day 22:

Woke up and drank hot water with lemon & cayenne

Trying to make it a habit!

I also drank some MRM Driven mixed berry powder in water right before & during my workout. It's supposed to give you energy to power through. You're supposed to drink it 30-35 min beforehand, but I go to the gym immediately after I wake up. It still really worked! I was going faster and yet felt less tired. Love it! It does contain xylitol, which can be made from corn, ugh, but I couldn't find out for sure (it can also be made from birch), so I drank it anyway.

36 min elliptical, supppper light stretching (I can finally touch my toes again when I stretch! My hamstrings have been sooo tight, but they're getting better)

I'm also trying to bring back the Outfit of the Day. Only have a couple so far, including today.

I also wore a black blazer some of the day. Sorry for the cut off head :-P

I brought back the shake: half coconut milk, half almond milk, about 1/3 of a scoop of chia, chocolate sunwarrior, 1/2 a teaspoon sunflower seed butter, frozen strawberries. It was a little watery, but fine.

As I said the other day: Now that I tell myself I can eat whenever, I'm still never hungry. Wonder if that's mental or physical, hmm.

For a late lunch I had a turkey sandwich on brown rice toast with organic mixed greens, avocado, and spicy mustard.

This sat a little heavy in my stomach, maybe because the bread is so dense, but no big deal. Just making a note.

For a snack awhile later I had pistachios and a pear.

Since we needed a soy meal as part of re-introducing potential allergens/intolerances in Cycle 2, I made a stir fry type dish using 1 small diced up chicken thigh, about 1/3 of a block of diced tofu, a last minute addition of shrimp my dad brought over, broccoli, onion, almonds, brown rice noodles, and sesame seeds cooked with a little sesame oil, braggs liquid (soy) aminos, and sriracha!

I thought it would taste lackluster like the similar shrimp rice bowl I made last week, but this was GREAT! Loved my dads suggestion to use noodles instead of plain brown rice too. Yum.

For dessert I took the chocolate protein apple concept, but applied it to strawberries and blackberries. They were UH-MAZING. My dad said he could live without another "real" dessert again for his whole life if he could eat healthy desserts like this all the time. Big compliment!  And he doesn't even like strawberries.  Obviously not realistic to never have a sugar-based dessert, but hey. Good to know we can have awesome desserts that taste good and are good body fuel too!

Day 23:

Had to take my cat to the vet, so no workout, no lemon water, and shake slurped down asap--around 8 am.

Left for work way over an hour early since the vet didn't take as long as expected, but got stuck in traffic for 40 minutes. Still made it early and probably didn't bring enough food to sustain us for the day since we got an early start, but we will make do.

I decided to make a little coffee and I felt fine after. I think I'm right that I just can't handle it daily. Bummer, but relief that I can still drink it.

For lunch (which I also ate early--for me. 12:30), I had a turkey sandwich on brown rice toast with spicy mustard and organic mixed greens.

Had a snack of mixed nuts & a clementine. No pic.

It's American Idol night, so off to my parents I went. I ate another clementine and a half plus some more almonds. Finally, I was hungry. But too snacky!

For dinner I made (brown rice) tortilla pizzas again. This time with onion, broccoli, roasted red pepper, daiya faux-mozza, pizza sauce and....soy chorizo! I also made a small simple salad. Good dinner, but I ate it way too fast because the rude dogs were surrounding me!

I was DYING for chocolate, especially my new fave healthy fruit-covered chocolate! Buttttt I didn't get home 'til after 10 and didn't want to eat that late so I went without.

Day 24:

My morning hot lemon water idea is not panning out thus far. Will keep on trying to make the time/effort. :-x

I was still yearning for chocolate and in a more decadent form than a protein shake, so I made chocolate strawberry coconut oatmeal. It was AMAZE. I cooked 1/4 a cup of gf oats in some water, then when they were almost done I mixed in frozen organic strawberries, cocoa powder, just shy of a scoop of chocolate sunwarrior, a few drops of vanilla stevia and a tbsp of coconut oil. It was a little on the small side, but so good.

It was a HECTIC morning. I won't go into deets, but between running around like a crazy person getting everything prepared for the day, I got hungry again pretty quickly. 1/2 a cup of oats is too much for me, but maybe I should give 1/3 a cup a try next time for more staying power.

I didn't even get to the office today until 11, but once I did I made a mug of green tea with a clementine.

For lunch I had a salad with organic mixed greens, broccoli, turkey lunch meat, raw almonds, and evoo/balsamic. It was pretty good but also not a large enough portion.

Had an organic apple for a snack.

Ran an errand on the way home and ended up eating a bunch of strawberries in the car plus 2 small bites of pineapple. I think I also ate a bunch of almonds and more strawberries when I got home, but I can't really remember. I should have had a bigger lunch (and breakfast, looking back) and avoided the bottomless pit! Poor planning in my rush to get out the door.

For dinner I made grass fed beef that I marinated in soy (braggs liquid aminos) which I added to a bowl of  brown rice (that I added more aminos to) and peas. It was ok. I gave my brother some of the beef and he LOVED it. I thought it was a little tough.

Day 25:

I got to take off today since I'm working Saturday--woohoo!

I started off with 3 slices of nitrite-free turkey bacon, organic fake-cheerio cereal with berries and coconut milk, and southern pecan flavored coffee with vanilla stevia and coconut milk. I definitely prefer almond milk to coconut milk with cereal, but it was alright. I would have only had 1-2 slices of bacon, but there was only 3 left in the package, so I took it as a sign I needed them all! C'mon, it makes sense.

For lunch my Mom and I went to Red Lobster at the last second. I figured there would be tons of fresh-fish options for me to choose from, but not really the case. I almost didn't eat to be safe, but my mom would have felt bad, so I had redfish that I asked to be broiled with no butter or seasonings, a side salad with no croutons (oil & vinegar), and 2 sides of plain, steamed broccoli. Sounds boring, but it was actually pretty tasty, especially with lemon, sea salt, and pepper. I felt ridiculous asking for all these modifications and then having to send the salad back when it came with croutons. Yet, even after all that I still felt like CRAP after. But then again so did my mom, so who knows why?

I wasn't hungry again the rest of the day, but still ate dinner:

grassfed beef burger on gluten free english muffin with daiya fake cheese, organic spring mix, tomato, saurkraut, and mustard with curry sweet potato fries dipped in a lil ketchup. Delish!

Had to get our last dose of soy in, so I made tofu pudding with cocoa powder, stevia, and almond butter. It was ok...pretty good. I topped it with a little extra almond butter + warmed up berries and stevia. It was really hard to whip up on the Vitamix for some reason though. I don't get it. But eventually it all came together as I planned.

I still felt kinda crappy. My throat/esophogus had a full feeling? And I just felt weighed down. It's weird. I wonder if even though they're gluten free, my body can't process so many grains? Or maybe it is the soy reacting? I was fine the first 2 days we added soy back, but the last 2 I felt weird. Hmmm. So many possibilities! I also had a stomach cramp type feeling under my right side rib, like when you run and get a stitch, but I was just sitting. My Dad said he got the same feeling, but in his lower side. Huh!

At least I got to snuggle this lil guy!

Day 26:

I had to be at work around 8:45 for new groups that we had starting. I usually don't work 'til 10 or 10:30! It wasn't too rough, luckily. Probably because I took yesterday off instead. Good call! 

OOTD:

I had a shake made with a sample of a chocolate protein powder I had plus coconut milk and berries. It took me soooooooooo long to drink. IDK why. I guess because I forgot to bring a straw to the office. It was also really thick and parts didn't blend well. Vitamix, I miss you! I have a magic bullet at work, but usually it does a good job! Oh well

Actually, I was so slow drinking it, I still had about half left when lunchtime came around. So I had both at once. Ridic. For my lunch I finished off leftovers from Red Lobster. I didn't get sick this time. Strange, but good.

After work I ran food-related errands. It was supposed to be my off day with coffee, but on the way to Trader Joe's I got hit with a headache, so at TJ's I snagged two sample cups of the black stuff. I always wonder if I'm becoming caffeine-dependent, but usually I'm fine when I skip. Today, however, I was not. Luckily, that little bit seemed to do the trick.

For dinner I made brown rice spaghetti with lean turkey meat mushroom marinara and a side salad.

For dessert I made TrulyJess' protein chocolate chocolate (with almonds, in our case). Delish! My Dad and I HIGHLY approve.

Day 27:

I made a late weekend brunch of pumpkin pancakes made with gf oats, coconut flour, almond meal, pumpkin, a chia egg, cinnamon, and coconut milk topped with almond butter and "jam" (frozen blackberries and strawberries heated up with stevia and a teeny bit of coconut oil and protein powder). I forgot to put the protein powder in the pancake batter, but I guess the jam made up for it. Plus, we had protein from my new obsession: turkey bacon!

I decided to take another day off from coffee, even though I only had the samples yesterday, so I made a pumpkin chai tea latte with almond milk. Delish.

I had a late-late lunch/early dinner of a deconstructured stuffed pepper made using: grilled chicken thighs, brown rice, and grilled green pepper mixed up in a bowl tossed with hot sauce. I also made half of a grilled acorn squash drizzled with coconut butter (and a drop of stevia). Grilling squash works great, fyi.

 I kept sampling the food as I made it, so by the time I sat down to eat I only managed maybe half. To drink, I had a grapefruit Zevia. I tried the grape, but saved it for my Dad. It tasted like robbitussin. Yuck! It has awesome reviews online--weirdos!

Zevia's were half-off at Sprouts, so my Dad and I each went a little crazy. And this was us holding back. I considered multiple packs of my most coveted flavors, but refrained.

I also had a little over half a serving of protein chocolate almond bark.

Then, I made these gluten free muffins I had picked up from a box when we first started the diet. I only later noticed they asked you to add sugar, egg, and oil. My bad. I added a little stevia, a chia egg, and oil. On their own they're pretty bland, but topped with coconut spread they're a-ok. I wouldn't buy the mix again, but I will certainly finish them off.

I was too full to eat anything else, save for the last of the protein choc. And then, only because it was there and I didn't know if it would keep.

Day 28:

Gym time! I made the MRM Driven mixed with water and did 31 min on the elliptical and light stretching. I moved up in resistance, so I guess the supplement does work.

Strawberry-blackberry protein shake with almond butter to start.

It kept me full for awhile this time. I don't get it, I did nothing different, but I'll take it.

I did get a small stomachache, not sure if it was from the shake or the MRM powder.

For lunch I turned leftovers into a salad: organic greens, tomato, grilled chicken, grilled pepper, grilled squash, brown rice, kalamata olives, and saurkraut with evoo/balsamic. I meant to add avocado, but ended up saving it for dinner.

I also intended to to bring a Kombucha, but left it at home. Boo.

For a snack I had a green tea "latte" (warmed coconut milk--not frothed) with 2 mini gf muffins with coconut spread.

FYI: I have coconut oil, coconut butter, and coconut spread. The oil and the butter are pure coconut, but the spread (made by earth balance) is a mix of coconut, palm, and canola oil. It has a light coconut flavor, but is more comparable to (dairy) butter otherwise.

When I went to pick up my pup (my Mom watches her for me while I'm at work--doggie daycare!), I ate about 3 handfuls of almonds that promptly spoiled my appetite.

But alas, I pushed through and ate dinner anyway. As seems common theme 'round these parts lately. I was going to make a slightly more elaborate meal, but in the end turkey burgers on gf english muffins won. Topped with organic mixed greens, tomato, onion, saurkraut, organic ketchup, and mustard. For a quick side I made brussels sprouts with a little coconut spread. And strawberry Zevia. I had only tried that flavor once before and thought it was okay, but it's really growing on me.

For dessert we had, what else, protein almond bark!

Up next? Bread! Pizza! Gluuuuuuuten.

xo,
Amanda

Cycle 1-COMPLETE!

YIKES delayed post what! Sorry! I bet you thought you lost me again, huh? Can't get rid of me that easily :)

Day 16:

Ate one of those baby size apples before the gym

25 minutes elliptical 9 minutes treadmill with light stretching


Instead of a shake for breakfast, I used similar ingredients I'd put in a shake and put it in (gluten free) oatmeal instead: 1/2 a cup oats, 1 cup coconut milk, a big shake of cinnamon, pumpkin, sunbutter, and a heaping scoop of protein powder. I also put a few drops of vanilla stevia on top after it cooked. Hate to say it, but I think I'd have rather had the shake.  I only made it about 2/3 through the bowl before I got too full and put the rest away. I also had half a cup of gingerbread coffee with coconut milk & vanilla stevia (took the other half to-go).

I brought the messiest lunch ever. Just assembling it took forever. I couldn't go on a reality show, if only because I'd be humiliated by the way I eat lunch at work. It's very savage-like, shoving big bites in my mouth--I'm a real mess. Anyway. I digress. I made organic romaine lettuce wraps which I filled with turkey lunch meat, roasted red pepper hummus, avocado, spicy mustard (not pictured), and tomato. You will see 3 pictured here, but I actually ate 5. A little excessive, yes. And all I could taste was the hummus. But it got the job done. I also had a few raw almonds & pecans.  Take that, late night! I won't be starving all day this time.

I'm going to my parents tonight to watch American Idol (I have too many shows recording at my house #firstworldproblems), but they don't have anything my Dad or I can eat, so we have to stop by the store on the way home. I love how I keep ALL of the food we can eat even though he kinda needs to eat too and we don't live in the same house anymore. Eh, I feed him most meals anyway at work or at my house--he doesn't need it! ;) I send him home with ingredients for a breakfast shake each night, bring his lunch to work, and he eats at my place most nights for dinner. I'd say he's fine. BTW he lost another 1.5 lbs this week. Total 11.5. CRAY.

Dinner wasn't as tasty as I imagined, but I made do: shrimp bowl with brown rice and veggies. I put a lil olive oil and lots of green tobasco for a sauce. Uh, I kind of forgot green hot sauce has corn (cornstarch) in it (the label of my old one fell off and I just replaced it today). The red kind doesn't! Ugh, fail. I hid it away for now. Hopefully it didn't eff things up too much...I highly doubt it, but JJ Virgin would probably say otherwise. Especially for me, who has already been told previously I was super sensitive to corn. Live & learn....

When I got home I freaked out thinking I had no protein for lunch the following day, so I threw a couple pieces of steelhead trout to make a salad out of in the toaster oven. Then I remembered I had turkey lunch meat, but hey-now I had lunch and dinner for the next day. Perfect! The fish came out perfect too.

Oh yeah!

Day 17:

Random workout times (as usual, I guess!): 21 min elliptical, 10 min stationary bike, 5 min treadmill, light stretching

pb&j (well almond butter and berry) shake + coffee.

Salad for lunch made with organic mixed greens, roasted red peppers, 1 kalamata olive (haha my last one), turkey lunch meat, avocado, almonds, pecans, olive oil, & balsamic. I also had a pear.

Somehow I forgot to upload this pic & I've already deleted it off my phone. Will check my trash bin in iPhoto on my desktop later, but I doubt it's there. Imagination time!

Usually I work a little past 7 on Thursdays, but I left about 5:30 to take my pup to get his annual vaccines. We were only oh, probably 7-9 months behind. He did such a good job! There was an ADORABLE maltese puppy (9 weeks!) in front of us, who of course people said was cute, but they FAWNED over Buster. Probably partially because he had a polo shirt on haha, but mostly they just kept saying how cute his face was. DUH. One dog food representative kept coming over to hug him and give him treats. Ladies man!

Dinner was the afformentioned fish, so I just had to heat it up. I was at my parents again to watch Idol. My Mom made her own dinner, so I stole a little of her (basmati) rice. I usually only eat brown and probably am only supposed to eat brown on the diet, but whatevs. I also had black beans with salsa. At the last minute I added a million strawberries. This dinner was SO SO good. About half way through I knew (and said aloud) I was probably too full to keep eating, yet for some DUMB reason I finished it. I felt sickly full all night. I HATE WHEN I DO THAT! But it was so good, did I mention that? Haha. Simple too!

Somehow I forgot to upload this pic & I've already deleted it, too...blah blah blah. At least you got to see the fish deliciousness up above!

January 18

Breakfast shake. These are pretty good now, I hate to admit! Not that I'd want them every day for life, but they're no longer powdered torture like in the beginning

My dad and I were about to head out to the gym, but he had checked his blood sugar and it was really high for him (he technically has diabetes, but his blood sugar is usually only about 10 points or so over "normal" if that which isn't bad. In this case, it was over 100 points higher! Still not necessarily scary-emergency-bad, but it certainly freaked us out)--so he left my house and we quickly got ready for work instead and he rushed back to get me (we go into work together), and rushed to his doctor. His doctor said he'll be fine, but he's lost too much weight too quickly and isn't eating enough sugar (even healthy sugar in fruit, etc), so his body thought he was starving and started dumping sugar in his blood to compensate. He didn't change his medicine or act terribly concerned, so that's good. Crazy how certain dietary changes can affect the body that much and that quickly.

I guess even though JJ Virgin says to eat every 4-6 hours (and she says this diet is great for those with diabetes), his dr. said diabetics need to eat something closer to every 2 hours! I'm glad he's ok! He's still planning to follow the diet (he's under 200 lbs now! I don't think he has been in YEARS), but he has to add in snacks and just compensate with smaller meals. IMO probably healthier anyway, as I've kinda been saying all along.

For lunch I had a salad with organic mixed greens, blueberries, turkey lunch meat, avocado, pecans, almonds, & olive oil/lemon juice dressing. I also had an apple.

My brother came over to spend the night so we could watch movies, but I kept falling asleep! That always happens, but only with him for some reason. Sorry Ryan! It was only 10 pm! We made it through about half of Gremlins 2 (his pick...). I go to bed earlier on weekends than week days. Bad!

For dinner I made baked chicken (it was like a quarter leg chicken thing...I guess a leg attached to a thigh?) with baked sweet potato fries. It was good.

I also made a dessert! It wasn't the best in the world, but it was tasty enough. They were kind of cookie-like, but more crumbly. I just combined gf oats, 2 diced squares of 90% dark chocolate (cocoa powder would have worked--I intended to have chunks in the cookies but they melted into the batter), sunbutter, coconut oil, I think some almond butter?, a little flax seed, a little coconut flour, stevia...mixed together & baked for a few min at 350 degrees. Not bad, not bad.

January 19

Again, I cheated and didn't have a shake. Sue me. I was starving and I know shakes are fast, but this was faster. I had a bowl of knock off organic cherrios with almond milk & blueberries + the last 3 slices of turkey lunch meat for protein.

I also cheated and had a snack 2 hours later. Screw the meal timing. I concede with that. I had 1 brown rice rice cake topped with sunbutter & "jam" (heated frozen strawberries in the micro for 1 min and mashed them together...good, but next time I may add a pinch of stevia) and the rest of some hazelnut coffee from earlier.

I think I need to stop drinking coffee so many days in a row. I seem to do fine with it some days and feel meh some days. If I spread it out, even every other day, I think it would be better than say, 4 days off 3 days on. We shall see, I s'pose! Diet experiments within the diet experiment....gotta love it.

For lunch I had 10 minutes to come up with something while a repair man was at my parents house and my Dad could only break away for a second to pick food up, so I had to think fast and creatively! I quickly threw together a butternut squash soup (the squash + almond milk, chicken broth, salt, pepper, cinnamon, paprika) + a salad with leftover chicken on top and avocado + evoo/balsamic/pink salt/pepper. Pretty good!

I can't believe I'm almost through with Cycle 1 of the plan! 2 more days!

I assumed the gym would just be skipped today, but just after I got in the bath my Dad called and asked if I wanted to join him around 6 pm. I still considered it--and definitely said yes after I, sadly, realized I had never washed the tub out after I bathed my dogs in it a couple weeks ago. GROSS. I REALLY didn't want to workout, but if I had to shower anyway I really had no excuse not to go!

I think I did 35 minutes elliptical,  5 minutes stair stepper, 5 minutes treadmill, and light stretching? May have been 30 min elliptical, 10 min stepper.

B-T-Dubs: Now that I've told myself I can eat when I'm hungry, I'm not really hungry. Imagine that.

Had to run to the grocery store for dinner after working out and didn't even have dinner made until after 9 and I STILL wasn't hungry. But I ate anyway to refuel my muscles...or something like that. Forget that I did cardio...

Turkey burger with rice cheese, saurkraut, organic mixed greens, and mustard on a gluten free english muffin + strawberries. SO GOOD!

January 20:

I had an idea for protein pancakes using a chia egg. I wasn't sure if they'd bind together, but I wanted to check it out. I mixed gf oats, a chia egg, vanilla sunwarrior, pumpkin, almond milk, coconut oil, and sunflower seed butter together. They crumbled a little when I flipped them, but I think that was more due to me using a pan than the actual ingredients (usually I use a griddle, but mine burnt out recently). I topped them with almond butter and strawberry jam (frozen strawberries heated in the microwave and mashed with a lil vanilla stevia added). I also made nitrite-free turkey bacon. FINALLY. I've been craving it for a week. My dad and I both LOVED this breakfast. He kept raving about it all day. He had hazelnutcoffee, but I gave my stomach a rest and went with english breakfast tea with almond milk & stevia. Close enough.

I was fine right after eating, but got a minor stomachache an hour or so later. May have been the tea?

My Dad had made my mom nitrite-free pork bacon and I wanted to try one. It was kind of ok, but still not my thing. Phew.

We had a good family & business talk and then off to grocery shopping all afternoon. Took much longer than expected. I also randomly bought a mini trampoline. I love those things. Who knows if I'll actually use it, but I envision myself jumping while watching tv lol.

For lunch (2:30) I quickly put together tortilla pizzas made with brown rice tortillas, pizza sauce, daiya "mozzerella," garlic chicken sausage, roasted red peppers, broccoli, fresh basil, and onion. OH pizza! FINALLY! We loved it.

For dinner I tried out this red curry. I used a Thai Kitchen paste as the base. It said to use 2 tablespoons worth mixed with a can of lite coconut milk, BUT luckily I had read online (unfortunately AFTER I bought it), that this product used to be amazing, but is now bland and you need to use the entire container to get it to taste even semi-flavorful. I started out with just the 2 tbsps, but quickly realized the whole bottle would be needed after all. I also squirted in a bunch of sriaricha. Then, I added shrimp, an entire head of broccoli diced up, and the last of the frozen peas I had on hand.

I've only ever had Thai yellow curry, never red, but this was pretty good. I don't think I'd buy this product again, but I would order red curry sometime at a restaurant or perhaps try another brand. Maybe. I just love yellow so much! But I can see red being good. Okay, you get it.

I also made dessert! I saw TrulyJess' vlog about her protein apple and gave it a try. You can go to her website/youtube page if you want the recipe, but I really liked it. I want to swirl in some almond butter next time (let's be honest, probably tomorrow night). I also want to try making the chocolate protein part into candy bars, sans apples. We'll see. So many ideas.

I got a little overzealous with the first half, so the last half didn't get quite covered enough.

Day 21:

We made it!! After tonight, cycle one is complete! Holla.

Tomorrow we get to add soy back in for 4 days to see how/if we react. To be honest, it feels anticlimatic so far. Number one, I don't really feel much diferent (read: better) health-wise. And two, I'm not especially missing soy anyway. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy soy sauce, tofu, edamame, soy milk, etc. as much as the next person, but I'm not dying over it. I'd much rather be able to add goat cheese to a salad or have a runny egg for breakfast. 


25 min elliptical, 7 min treadmill, light stretching

What are shakes, again? :-x. For breakfast (9 am) I finished off the extra protein pancakes from yesterday, but I made up a protein jam to go on top! It's kind of a mix between protein frostings that all health bloggers seem to use & my healthy jam. I warmed up the frozen strawberries with about a teaspoon of coconut oil, mashed that together with a few drops of vanilla stevia, and mixed in about 1/3-1/2 of a scoop of vanilla sunwarrior protein powder--enough until it became a paste/icing with chunks of strawberries peeking through. That sounds kind of disgusting the way I wrote it, but it was pretty good! Who knew coconut oil and protein powder go SO well together? I bet pumpkin would work well too in place of the strawbs!

Oh yeah, I had turkey bacon too. Obsessed.

 I tried to convince Dad-Boss that it was un-American of him to make me work on Inauguration Day (nevermind Martin Luther King Jr. Day!), but he didn't bite. I did get to (sort of) watch via live streams, but I was pretty distracted.  Such a proud day!

On the (sort of) plus side, we realized we have to work almost a full day Saturday (6 hours) due to new groups beginning and a few other things, so I asked if I could have 1 day off this week and he agreed. I get to leave "early" (5:30 or so pm, not exactly early for most, but we usually leave at 7:30) on Thursday and then take off Friday. WOOHOO.

I ate lunch a little after 1 pm. Leftover shrimp and veggie red curry. Kind of wished I'd brought a turkey sandwich instead, but it was good. 

For dinner we used up a Groupon that was going to expire next week. We had a mediterranean buffet at this place called Dimassi's. It's really good, but I totally overdid it. You can't tell by my massive plate topped with meat, but I did mostly eat veggies/hummus/baba ganoush. I also had 1 or 2 vegetarian dolmas and 1 piece of eggplant (that did have molasses as an ingredient), a few bites of rice, and a sample of the lentil soup. Obviously the meat was HIGHLY unlikely grass fed, but I only had about 3 bites of beef, 1 piece of lamb gryo, and then a couple bites of fish. I drank iced unsweetened iced tea. It wasn't a perfect meal, and far too much (though I left some), but moving on!

I REALLY wanted some coffee with hazelnut creamer and a small piece of baklava, but I skipped those :-P.

NO MORE FOOD for the rest of the day. I think you can tell why. But aside from being a little too full I didn't feel sick or anything.

Cycle One: CHECK!

xo,
Amanda

Over The Past Week

Day 8:

Breakfast shake. Shocker! I also had blueberry coffee with almond milk and vanilla stevia.

Lunch was similar to yesterday, but I had leftover roast beef from dinner last night instead of lunch meat. Yay more tough beef. I prefer to only eat red meat 1x/week max, yet my last 3 meals have been beef. Whoops. At least it's grass fed? Better nutritional profile. JJ Virgin's book says to eat grass-fed red meat 3-4x/week, but that still seems excessive. I'll try to stick to 1-2?

Oh. So lunch. Yes. Around 2 or 3 pm, I forget which, I had a roast beef wrap with organic greens and mustard, mixed nuts (pistachios, pecans, and raw almonds), + blackberries. I'm going to turn into a blackberry pretty soon.

I didn't get home from work until late (what else is new?), so I didn't eat dinner until, I don't know, 8:30? 8:45? Lunch did a nice job of holding me over. Imagine that? Real food works better with satiety than shakes? Whoulda thunk...

I did space out and completely forget to make the ground turkey for the spaghetti sauce. After I plated up dinner (spaghetti and salad) I had to scoop the spaghetti back into the pot, cook the meat, and mix it all together again (well not the salad-obvi). DER!! I never would have noticed if my dad didn't ask where the "meatballs" were. I said I made meat sauce, looked at our plates, and OHHHH. No, No I did not. Whoops!

I also had to make the sauce "from scratch"....the only jar I had used soybean oil. Ugh! I took a can of organic diced tomatoes, added basil (fresh and dried), oregano, garlic, garlic gold, onion powder, crushed red pepper flakes, and went to town. After I added the meat I had to add one of those lil 5 oz or w/e cans of plain tomato sauce, but mostly because I like my sauce more....well, saucy, than meaty. I prefer jarred still haha, but my Dad approved. Oh, and we ate brown rice noodles, but I always only use those even when I'm not gluten-free, so no big change there.

Day 9:

15 minute elliptical, 15 minute treadmill, extra light stretching to start the day off right.

Breakfast shake and STRONG black coffee around 9:45 am. No pic, but that shake was GOOD. I don't know what I did differently, but I liked it, I liked it a lot. It had spinach AND kale in it too. Now that's the kind of shake I could get behind every morning. I had enough to save for my shake tomorrow, too. Let's hope it keeps well!

Lunch around 3:45 pm was leftover spaghetti. I didn't feel like packing a salad too, so I just wilted a bunch of spinach and mixed it in that way (I had already added a bit of spinach and kale to the sauce last night too, forgot to mention that).

We run a group from 6:00-7:00 on Wednesday nights (used to be 5:30-6:30, but the group voted to move to 6. WHY????) and they like to stay and chat a bit after, so I always get home super late. At least this time they ended and left mostly on time. Sometimes it can take 30+ min to get out of here. We had errands to run on the way home too, but my Dad was nice (or maybe just hungry haha), so after we picked up 1 thing, he dropped me off at home to start dinner. It came together suuuuper quickly, so I was rude and ate without him. :-x.

At his request I made fish (flounder--first bag I saw in the freezer that wasn't salmon lol) with old bay seasoning and olive tapenade + I topped mine with a bunch of hot sauce. We also had more butternut squash mash and salad with avocado. & I had a few handfuls of cashews and pecans while it cooked.

 After I ate I was still a littttttle hungry, but assumed if I just waited it out I'd be fine. You know, the whole pesky  it takes your brain 20 minutes to register being full thing. But then I remembered I had toasted up brown rice tortillas in the oven. And forgot about them. Oops. They were more like a giant cracker at that point, but I liked it! I ate it since I did still have a little hunger feeling. BAD MOVE. I don't know if it was the tortilla, slightly overeating in general that night, or something specifically I ate, but my stomach felt uncomfortable all night. I didn't feel nauseas or anything-- just like I had a rock in my stomach that was weighing me down. I vaugley remember waking up in the middle of the night with a weird stomach feeling too.

Part of my problem with this plan, which I've mentioned time and time again, is the meal timing (speaking of time...ha). It's a little better now that I'm having a real lunch too, but I still kinda feel like I have to stuff my face during dinner to not be hungry later on, since I know I "can't" eat. I'm sure it will either level off once my body gets used to it or I'll switch things up and listen to my body's needs-- not a silly plan, but somehow I have to do away with that mentality and not overstuff myself at night! I've never been someone who could eat too much at a time. I'm the person that ALWAYS takes food home at a restaurant. I prefer to eat off salad plates (stacked high, but still) as opposed to a dinner plate. Yet now I'm using my big dinner plates, stuffing them to the brim, and nearly licking the plate clean. No bueno!

Maybe this is why I'm only down a pound. I know I wasn't doing this for weight loss, but if I'm going to be hungry all the time it might as well be a perk! And I don't feel particularly better yet either. I'm giving it time, but argh. Aside from not getting horrible stomachaches in the mornings (especially on weekends), which I'm already aware is likely due to both eggs and excessive amounts of coffee, I feel more or less the same in every way....or worse, since the candida die-off is reignited. Which, admittedly, does mean dietary change was something necessary (particularly in regards to sugar), but certainly not pleasant.

Day 10:

Breakfast shake success. The leftovers turned the shake into more of a pudding-like consistency, but the taste stayed the same. Nom Nom. Now if only I could replicate it.... 

For lunch I had rice crackers that were really gross with "chicken salad" (baked chicken shredded up and mixed with roasted red pepper hummus), blackberries, and mixed nuts (pecans, cashews, and raw almonds). It was filling but the crackers ruined it. I was so looking forward to approved crackers too! Bummer. The search continues!

Lunch held me over awhile. Good thing since Thursday is another late night. As is becoming a pattern, I had dinner close to 9. I wanted more chicken but my Dad wanted fish. I was going to just bake both, no biggie, but I saw we only had 2 pieces of orange roughy left and went with that for us both. I topped it with garlic gold herb blend, made simple salads with mixed greens/evoo/lemon juice/blueberries, and nuked sweet potatoes and filled them with almond butter. Good stuff. My Dad had never had a sweet potato with almond butter before--he approves. I was full but not stuffed. I even gave my Dad both the bigger potato and piece of fish, whereas earlier in the week I would have hoarded at least one if not both for myself. Baby steps!

I forgot my brother was coming over to watch Big Bang Theory. He eats nothing of nutritional value and I had dumped all my Ryan-approved foods over at his house when I started this plan. I had to think fast! I had some leftover shrimp cocktail, so I took some flour out of its hiding place (lol I took everything out of my pantry that I can't currently eat--out of sight out of mind!) and made him fried shrimp & heated up leftover potatoes from Monday. Crisis averted.

Day 11:

Hey, look at that. Double digits and still going strong! I'm also down another pound. It's about time.

Breakfast shake was good today. Not great like the last two days, but enjoyable. I'm getting the hang of this! I still drank it way way too slow. I had been getting better with that, but backtracked when I took it with me to work. Must slurp faster at home! :-P I had it with (almond) milky black tea instead of coffee.

Lunch (2:30 pm) I had baked chicken, green beans, blackberries, & mixed nuts. Was relatively tasty, but didn't hold me over long. Super hungry before the end of the work day, which luckily happens to be NOT a late night.

I didn't blog at all over the weekend, obviously. Going by pics and memory again.

For dinner I had an organic beef burger topped with cheddar rice "cheese," lettuce, mustard, I think that's all, on brown rice toast served with steamed broccoli & a side salad with evoo & balsamic.

I usually grill burgers, but it was too dark for the real grill and I didn't feel like dragging out my giant Foreman, so these were made stove top and they were DAMN good. I had both my parents over and they agreed. We loved it! The bread was shit and the cheese wasn't exactly good, but y'know. All together it worked :). I used my toaster oven (like actual oven not just a toaster for bread) for the first time (got it for Christmas) and charred one side of the bread, but we still ate it.


Day 12:

Breakfast shake and butter toffee flavored k-cup coffee with almond milk and vanilla stevia. I've wanted to try that flavor ever since I got a keurig, but never had! It smelled like popcorn. Tasted ok. Not very toffee-y, but they rarely taste heavily flavored. Backtracking a little-- I used cherries in the shake this time. I'm only noting that because although it could have been the coffee, I had a pretty bad stomachache all after noon after breakfast. Ugh! Will try cherries again (it was one of the foods the homeopath said I was allergic too, but I've eaten them every summer in copious amounts and thought I was ok--just want to further test them out to see--next time without coffee).

Lunch was pretty quick & easy: the last of the flounder with half a brow rice tortilla crisped up like a chip again + trader joe's zucchini/eggplant side dish that was really good! Not very substantial, but I think I was full enough. More than I expected to be. Yay for fiber.

For dinner I made lemon dill chicken with tricolor quinoa and a simple salad. I don't think I rinse the quinoa enough, but it's hard to drain it since they're so small and not have all the grains go down the drain too! Maybe I'll use my lil steamer next time? It has smaller holes.

Pretty low-key weekend. Just hung out with my Mom and watched movies and tv. I did take an errand break during the day to stock up on more food, but I skipped the office (was going to briefly check in) and gym.

I'm also down another lb. Nothing big yet, but I'll take slow and steady if it keeps on keeping on.  Although 3 lbs in 12 days isn't that slow I guess. :-x But no 7 lbs in 7 days or anything like that either...


Day 13:

Breakfast shake with caramel vanilla coffee with almond (or was it coconut?) milk with vanilla stevia. I think I had a small stomachache? But nothing major.



For lunch I made what I thought was a big salad, but I should have made it even bigger because I was really hungry 2 hours later. It included organic mixed greens, organic kale, kalamata olives, cashews, blueberries, and evoo with lemon juice (massaged into the kale with a lil more drizzled on top), and broiled steelhead trout that looks and tastes like salmon. I forgot I added the olives or I probably wouldn't have added the blueberries too, but they were both great with the other ingredients--as long as I didn't eat them together lol. I just wished I could have had some goat feta!!

I started getting weak and dizzy when I stood up, so I said eff it and made a snack 2ish hours later. I diced up an apple and sauteed it in a little coconut oil with a few chopped pecans. It was really good! I had that with some chai tea with almond milk (or was it coconut? I never remember if I don't write it down immediately!).

For dinner I wanted to grill chicken legs, but they were frozen solid. Whoops. Plan B! I used up the last of the chicken tenderloins. I dipped them in coconut milk and then dipped them again in a gluten free seasoning blend (kind of like a shake and bake made from rice flour and herbs) to oven fry them. I dipped mine in mustard--kinda weird, but I looove mustard, so it was okay. I also made kale and mashed sweet potatoes. It was a really good dinner! Loved the chicken.

I also made a dessert *gasp.* I mixed together pumpkin, (melted) coconut butter, (melted) coconut oil, cocoa powder, vanilla stevia, a tiny bit of vanilla sunwarrior protein powder--mixed it all up & topped that with a lil almond butter and froze it. Not bad. Kind of like an ice creamy fudge.

Day 14:

20 minute ellipical, 10 minute treadmill. 

Shake. No coffee. Ate late  (10:30)

I'm still doing HORRIBLE getting enough fluids. MUST work on that.

Lunch around 2:30. Turkey sandwich made with brown rice toast, rice "cheese," roasted red pepper hummus, mixed greens, a little piece of tomato, and mustard. I heated up the cheese with the bread, which formed a glue-like substance, therefore I couldn't add in the turkey and toppings and had to eat those on top. Weird. Also had half a serving of pistachios and half a pint of blackberries.

For dinner I decided to grill outside--in the cold--when it was dark outside. Yeah, I totally burned the chicken black. I couldn't see! Better than last time I did this when I though the burgers were plenty done and they turned out to be raw in the middle. Whoops! Luckily, the inside of the chicken was still awesome and I don't eat the skin anyway, so my Dad scraped as many burnt parts of as he could. Team work! I also made some broccoli with coconut oil & simple side salads.

 I was still hungry, so I kept dipping in the knock-off organic cherrios, almond butter, and sunbutter & also had 1 square of 90% dark chocolate topped with almond butter. Technically I don't think you're supposed to have that until Cycle 3 and I'm still in 1 :-x, but to be fair, 1 square is less than 1 gram of sugar--come ON. A low-sugar tomato sauce has 6 grams! Not that 90% dark choc is that tasty. It's alright, I'm sure it would be great with a glass of red wine lol, but I'm more of a 70% kind of chocolate eater.

I had a weird, SHARP stomach/right side pain while lying down in bed watching tv. I was hoping it wasn't appendicitis! Luckily, after I peed (tmi?) it went away. Bizarre!! Still no idea what that was.

Day 15:

I know I shouldn't make daily weigh-in's a habit, but I did today anyway and was down another lb. Weird, but I'll take it. Looks like weeks 2 and 3 were better to me than week 1. Unusual, but hopefully that means it's not water weight. Hmm. 

I made an apple-pumpkin pie shake for breakfast. Not sure why I didn't think to add pumpkin before! I didn't want pumpkin and berries, so I diced up an apple, threw that in the blender with vanilla sunwarrior, a couple tablespoons of pumpkin, a squirt of vanilla stevia, almond milk, coconut milk, and almond butter. Pumpkin pie in a glass!  Good stuff.

Still got hungry 2 hours later though. C'mon, shake power!

Around noon I got a headache. I wonder if it's caffeine related? Though I didn't have any caffeine yesterday either (well, a cup of tea, but late late in the afternoon) and was fine. I took 3 advil, but I'll make a cuppa tea too. Trying to cut back on coffee every day and just have it some days.

My stomach/even side again sort of hurt/feel off today too. Not horrific sharp pains like last night, just a bit uncomfortable.

I ate lunch at 2:15-ish, but kept it small. Turkey sandwich on brown rice bread with roasted red pepper hummus, organic romaine leaves, tomato, and spicy brown mustard. We're finally out of that crappy bread. Oh, darn!

I had also brought a pear and pistachios, but decided to save those for another time. 


Stomach still felt about the same after I ate, maybe even a bit weirder. I was pretty tired too, even though I slept a good 8+ hours last night.


SO SO much going on at work. It's hard to do actual work, ironically, because my brain is trying to keep so many to-do lists in order! Ahhh. I guess being too busy is a good thing, though.

I felt fine hunger-wise until about 6 when I started to get really hungry. Which would be fine/right on target, except I was still at the office.

All I could dream about was fruity pebbles, reeses cups, kit kats, and red + pink mike and ike's. I thought cravings were supposed to be the worst the few few days?I'm also dying for turkey bacon & chicken sausage. I hate bacon and sausage of all kinds, so not sure why that is!


I probably ate dinner somewhere between 8 and 8:30? I grilled (foreman this time...) steaks, made mashed cauliflower, and side salads.

Can you tell we like mashed cauliflower? I put some nooch and coconut oil in this time. Tasted like coconutty cheese. I promise it was more appetizing than that sounds.....


Also had another nut butter covered 90% dark chocolate square. I wanted a glass of wine with this sooooo badly. And a real reeses, but y'know. 

Maybe I'll get lucky and dream about mike n ike's tonight. One can (errr) dream!


xo,
Amanda