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Eating Clean and Feeling Great – A Week of Dinners

If you’ve been reading my blog, then you know I started a new diet at the beginning of January, on the 2nd to be exact.  I am feeling great.  The thought that my body hasn’t had sugar, oil or processed food is wonderful.  It’s the journey I have been longing for and it’s even effecting the scale.  I’ve lost a total of 17.8 pounds.

One thing that I’ve noticed over my 30 years of trying to lose weight, is how much attention we give to the number that’s on the scale.  If it’s not moving downwards then we get discouraged and give up.  I’ve been a victim of that.  I once exercised for 5 months straight, 5 times a week for one hour and didn’t see any difference in the number on the scale.  I decided it wasn’t worth the effort and gave up.  When the scale isn’t budging, it’s important to look at the other positive things that are happening within you.  For me, although the scale is going down, I do celebrate my “non-scale” victories.  For example, I have so much more energy then I had before I started eating clean.  Also, last weekend my sister and I went to visit my parents in upstate New York.  They live near a casino and we had plans of going to bingo a few times during our stay.  We stayed on plan the whole time, no cheating from the two of us.  We met my parents at bingo and my mom packed us each a salad with grilled chicken.  We both packed some “approved” foods from our eating plan so we were prepared.  I brought in my homemade Honey Mustard Dressing and BBQ Sauce to put on our salads.  For dinner we went to the restaurant and asked what vegetables they had as a side, none of them were what we could eat.  My sister asked if they had access to any asparagus and the waitress replied that the neighboring restaurant had some.  She ran next door and picked us up two side orders to go with the 8oz sirloin steak that we split.  Unfortunately the asparagus wasn’t very much but my sister had packed a cucumber with her and I had packed my food scale.  We weighed out the asparagus and supplemented with the cucumber.  It felt so good to be successful by being prepared.

So, two tips for today:  Celebrate the Non-Scale Victories and Be Prepared.

Here’s what I ate this week:

 
Chicken Curry
 
4oz chicken sliced thinly (easy to do if it’s semi-frozen)
2oz onion, big slices
2oz celery, bite size pieces
curry powder, to your liking
chicken broth
 
In a medium sized pan, add in your onions and celery and saute with a splash of chicken broth for about 2 minutes.  Toss your chicken pieces in the curry powder and add them to the pan.  Add additional chicken broth to help cook the vegetables and keep the chicken from sticking to the pan.  Cook until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked throughout, about 10 minutes.
 
Curried Beef and Spinach
 
4oz ground beef
4oz spinach
curry powder
 
Cook the hamburg in a pot with a splash of beef broth.  Cook until cooked through.  Add 1/2 cup of additional beef broth and add in the spinach and curry powder (to taste).  Cook for about 2-3 minutes or until the spinach is wilted.
 
Curried Chicken and Cabbage 
(see a theme going here this week)
 
4oz chicken
4oz cabbage
curry powder
 
Cook chicken in a pot with a splash of water or chicken broth.  When no longer pink, add in your cabbage and a little more broth to help cook the cabbage down.  Toss in the curry powder and mix well.  Add sea salt and pepper and serve.
 
Here’s the meal we got from the restaurant at the casino.  We took it to go so we could eat it during our bingo session.
 
 
Roasted Radishes
 
4oz radishes
sea salt and pepper
braggs aminos in a spray bottle
 
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper,  place the radishes on the baking sheet and spray with the Braggs Aminos.  Dust with salt and pepper.  Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.  Keep an eye on them and check for doneness.
Italian Grilled Chicken with Radishes and Spinach
 
 
Which one is your favorite from my menu this week?

Couch to 5K

Yup, you read that title right.  Couch to 5k.  I have taken the plunge and jumped on the bandwagon for training for a 5k.  I’ve never been a runner and really didn’t think I’d join this phenomenon, until yesterday.  I downloaded the app for my phone, threw on my sneakers and jumped on my treadmill.  I passed the time by watching this week’s DVR’d Sons of Anarchy episode.  When I heard the app tell me to stop running and walk for a 5 minute cool down, I was so proud of myself for sticking with the whole 25 minutes and actually running for the periods of running.  Four years ago I tried to do the couch to 5k but never could get beyond the first week, day one.  I struggle with catching my breath and keeping it under control.  For some reason, it was a little easier this time – not easy – but easier.

This morning I woke up and threw on my work out clothes for day 2.  The motivation wasn’t there like it was yesterday so I drank a cup of coffee, read a few emails and then told myself I needed to “Just Do It’, like Nike says.  That’s exactly what I did and I proudly finished day 2.

Tomorrow I’ll be taking the day off from running and I’ll be strength training and doing some yoga before running my husband to the doctors.  He’s been getting pain-relief injections into his spine. Horrible pain he deals with.

Menu for the day:
Breakfast – Smoothie with frozen berries, plain low-fat greek yogurt, almond milk, kale, protein powder and green tea macha.

 
So smooth and creamy
 
I use Wyman’s of Maine frozen mixed berries for my smoothies.
 
Ingredients:  Strawberries, Blueberries, Red Raspberries and Blackberries.  What is not listed?  Sugar, chemicals or other words that you can’t pronounce.  They use just straight-up fresh berries.  Love it!
and look at these piece.  Nice whole pieces.

Lunch – Leftover Tex-Mex Lasagna (recipe coming)

Dinner – Vegetable Curry with Cauliflower Rice

I didn’t take a photo of my dinner tonight but this is from another time I made it.  Although this time around I served it with Cauliflower Rice from the Forks over Knives book.

Snack – Coconut Custard Pie made with Swerve (a new sugar substitute made with fruits and vegetables and it’s GMO-free) (recipe coming on this one also)

 
Tonight I entertained my in-laws for dinner.  My mother-in-law made a comment about all the vegetables and prep work that it took to make dinner.  It’s become so regular now that I don’t realize how much longer it can take to eat plant-based foods – unprocessed.  It takes time to slice all of the vegetables that went into tonight’s Vegetarian Curry – but the pay off is soooo worth it.  Worth it for me and worth it for the family I cook for.
 
Disclaimer:  I was provided a coupon for a free bag of Wyman’s frozen fruit.