Day 22 — Feeling Good

Although my weigh-in was less than stellar, I still feel lighter, tighter and glad that I’ve dedicated myself to finish this diet out!  A warning to new nutritarians, just starting out on this road: the initial first week of weight loss is hard to duplicate in the following 3 weeks, as your body adjusts.

What I Ate:

Breakfast: 1 cup rolled oats, 1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk, 1 banana and 1 tbsp. raw creamy almond butter

Lunch: ate breakfast too late, so skipped lunch 🙁

Dinner: Mixed baby greens, 3 large strawberries, raw pistachios, grape tomatoes, cucumber, and garbanzo beans dressed with balsamic vinegar.  Kale, spinach, portabella mushrooms and tofu sauteed in veggie stock with minced garlic and onions.  3 clementine oranges.

Day 23 — What I Ate

Breakfast: 1/2 cup raw strawberries, 1/2 cup raw blueberries

Lunch: Mixed baby green salad with grape tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, baby Bella mushrooms, avocado and pistachios, dressed with balsamic vinegar.  Tofu with shitake mushrooms, red  peppers and kale (sauteed in veggie broth).

Dinner: Mixed baby greens, red onion, cucumber, raw pistachios, grape tomatoes, and apple slices with balsamic vinegar.  Red lentils with kale and chopped spinach, red peppers, and minced onion.

Day 24 — What I Ate

Breakfast: 1 cup steel cut oats, 1 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp. ground flaxseeds, 1/4 cup blueberries

Lunch: Mixed baby green salad with grape tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, baby Bella mushrooms, avocado and pistachios, dressed with balsamic vinegar.  Leftover red lentil stew from dinner.

Dinner:  Black bean “stew” with 2 cans Trader Joe’s organic black beans, 1 bag TJ’s organic frozen broccoli (thawed and chopped into bite-sized chunks), yellow onion and green bell pepper (finely chopped) and thickened with 1 can TJ’s fat-free re-fried beans.  Use veggie stock to cook the onions and green peppers then add the black beans, bring to a boil, then add the broccoli chunks, reduce heat and add the re-fried beans.

Day 25 — Letting Go of the Scale

I haven’t always been overweight.  If you were to call out an age 1-30, I could tell you with remarkable accuracy how much I weighed and if I didn’t know for sure I could look in one of several notebooks I have kept over the year with my weights and sometimes (mostly before I had kids) what I ate for that day.  If you haven’t guessed by now, I’ve always struggled with my weight going from large to small to super-sized to smaller and back again!

Even on this diet, I have this desire to weigh myself everyday, then hyper-analyze every meal I had the day before to see why I gained a little back or didn’t lose enough.  Well, I’m done with it.  I’m recommitting to only weighing myself on Mondays and letting the rest go.  This diet gains momentum with time and I’m going to let it do it’s thing from now on.

What I Ate:

Breakfast: 1 cup steel cut oats, 1 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp. ground flaxseeds, 1/4 cup blueberries

Lunch: Spinach salad with fresh veggies, sliced apples and no-salt pistachios.  Leftover black bean and broccoli “stew” with 1/2 cup frozen sweet corn.  1 banana

Dinner: Spinach salad with fresh veggies and strawberries dressed in balsamic vinegar.  Pink split lentils (find them at Trader Joe’s) cooked in low-sodium veggie broth with kale, frozen chopped spinach and diced tomatoes.

Day 26 — It’s Friday and I Want Sushi!

Today we went to the mall to buy our son some new jeans (it seems like he’s grown out of all his pants overnight!).  Being out at the mall on a Friday night reminded me of all those times we would go to the mall and eat at (one of my favorites) Cheesecake Factory.  And while I wasn’t craving Cheesecake Factory, my mind did keep turning to sushi.  It’s the first “cheat” meal I have planned when I’m done with these 6 weeks.  Something in my food-addicted mind kept trying to convince myself to go ahead and have my cheat day NOW!

Luckily my husband is my food-addicted-mind’s babysitter.  Just like when June Carter and her family babysat Johnny Cash when he was quitting pills and warded off drug dealers with 12-gauge shotguns (I’ve seen “Walk the Line” one too many times!); my husband protects me from deviating from my plan!  Fridays and weekends are hardest because we are just programmed to want to reward ourselves for another long and hard week under our belts!  Luckily, I had some hearty leftover lentil stew in the fridge, so all I had to do was chop up my salad, wolf it down and pop my beans in the microwave.

Even after 4 weeks, you can still struggle with your will power!

What I Ate:

Breakfast: 1 cup steel cut oatmeal with 1 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup blueberries, and 1 tbsp. ground flaxseed.  1 tbsp. raw creamy almond butter, 1/2 apple

Lunch: Mixed baby greens and spinach with beets, baby portabella mushrooms, 3 strawberries (sliced), edamame, raw sunflower seeds, cucumber and red bell pepper dressed with balsamic vinegar.  Leftover pink lentils with kale, spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Dinner: Mixed baby greens salad with carrots, mushrooms, strawberries, edamame, red bell pepper and cucumber dressed with balsamic vinegar.  Leftover lentil stew (see Lunch above).  Smoothie with 1 1/2 cup soy milk and frozen strawberries and blueberries.

Day 27 — What I Ate

Breakfast: 1 cup steel cut oats; 1 1/2 cups soy milk, 1 tbsp. flaxseed, 3 large strawberries, 1 tbsp. raw creamy almond butter

Lunch: This is the first meal I ate outside of the house.  I went to Whole Foods, where I first picked up Dr. Fuhrman’s book and made a mega-huge salad with mixed greens, white mushrooms, grape tomatoes, edamame, shredded carrots, and sunflower seeds, dressed with balsamic vinegar.  Fresh pineapple and strawberries.

Dinner: Finally went to Trader Joe’s (I put it off for longer than a week!).  Salad with mixed baby greens, garbanzo beans, red onion, cucumber, strawberries, and sliced raw almonds, dressed with balsamic vinegar.  Tofu sauteed in veggie broth, and finely chopped Crimini mushrooms, with minced onion, garlic and baby kale.  This is the same technique as the Simple Sauteed Kale recipe from my first week.

Day 28 — It’s the Oscars! (with Tofu Salad Rolls)

Today is the end of my 4th week!  I have been on the “Eat to Live” plan for a whole month without any cheating!  Not to say I haven’t wanted to (see Day 26), but I haven’t!  Tomorrow is my weigh in and I’m pretty optimistic that I’ve lost a good amount this week cause my clothes are fitting me SO much looser!  It was comforting seeing all the Hollywood vampires out at the Academy Awards, knowing they have been depriving themselves and eating like rabbits just like I have!

Another thing to note today is that I tried chia seeds for the first time.  My flaxseed ran out and I needed something with essential fatty acids in my breakfast cereal!  Chia seeds are delicious too!  They have a great hearty flavor and they expand in liquid, creating a nice mouth-feel.  I highly recommend them and wish I had started with them sooner!

What I Ate:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 cup soy milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1/2 cup blueberries

Lunch: 2 fresh tofu salad rolls with peanut dipping sauce!  Wrapped in brown rice paper.  I only could eat two of these, they were so filling!

Dinner: Salad with mixed baby greens, strawberries, cucumber, red onion, grape tomatoes, red pepper and sunflower seeds dressed with balsamic vinegar.  Leftover green lentils with kale, spinach and garlic.

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Weight Lost for Week #4: -3.4 lbs // Body Fat % Lost for Week #4: -.5%

TOTAL Weight Lost so far: -14.8 lbs // TOTAL Body Fat % Lost so far: -2.8%