Week 1, Friday (Day 5)

I want to start by saying I can't believe how many hits I've gotten over the past 24 hours.  I'm glad to be promoting a healthy, clean lifestyle.  Feel free to comment or follow my blog and try stuff out on your own.


Breakfast: 1 oz ham, 2 egg whites, 1 Tablespoon Mexican Cheese blend; 1 slice rye toast; 6 oz orange juice


I really enjoy having eggs for breakfast.  I never really cooked breakfast before this new meal plan, but cooking up liquid egg whites is so fast and easy.  This morning I made an egg white omelet - using 2 tablespoons of cheese and no ham.  I ate it on the toasted pumpernickel rye bread as an open-faced sandwich.  Pretty good start to the day.   Except I never bought orange juice.  I've seriously gone to the grocery store 7 times now.  Seven!  For 5 days of food.  I refuse to go an 8th time just for orange juice.  I really need to re-do the shopping for week 2.  I replaced the orange juice with non-fat milk.  No harm, no foul.


Snack 1: 1 Banana, 2 Tablespoons almond butter (Friday's Snack 2)


The almond butter was calling my name, so I replaced today's snack with Friday's snack.  I also haven't had a banana all week.  This snack was delicious - but it is so hard to eat almond butter without having a glass of milk!  
By the way, I haven't mentioned that this whole time I've only been drinking water unless otherwise indicated.  That's right - I haven't had any coffee this week! (Except my vanilla frap on Monday, but is that really coffee?)


Lunch: Turkey Sandwich (3 oz turkey, 1 slice tomato, 1 oz jarlsberg cheese, 1/8 avocado, 2 slices wheat bread); apple; 1 tablespoon natural almond butter


Today I went to a gym class during lunch, which gave me extra energy to get through the day - and postponed when I ate each meal/snack, which left me less hungry come dinner time.


I was so excited to finally eat a "normal" lunch!  A normal lunch that required my 7th trip to the grocery store to get another avocado.  I replaced the slice of cheese with another 1/8 of avocado.  I love avocado and find that it completes a sandwich very well and you don't even need a condiment to make it taste good!  I also ate an apple, but since I had almond butter for my snack, I replace it with..... you guessed it... an almond butter cookie.  No surprise there.  I'm a sucker for cookies and will do whatever possible to add them into my meals.


Snack 2: 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt; 1 cup sliced strawberries


Tricked me again, Clean Eating Editors.  You told me to get low-fat plain yogurt for this week, and then on Monday you made me put it all in a smoothie.  There is no yogurt left to eat today.  I swap it out for my remaining Greek Yogurt.  I added sliced strawberries and the 5 leftover raspberries I hadn't eaten yet.  They really don't taste that good with the greek yogurt.  I guess I just don't like greek yogurt that much.  Oh well.


Dinner: Light and Healthy Chicken "Fried" Rice; Coconut Chai Chocolate Cake (Thursday's Dinner) 


I was very excited for this dinner - essentially its a lot of veggies in a home made "fried" rice that isn't fried.  You make the brown rice first, and then being the intelligent, planning woman that I am, I scooped out the 1/2 cup rice that I will need for lunch on Sunday.  My boyfriend kindly labeled it "Julie's little b!tch cup of rice."  Thanks for rubbing it in, dear.  
I cooked up broccoli, onion, peas, carrots, red pepper, scallions, and zucchini.  We need a bigger wok!  The recipe says it makes 8 bowls, and even though there are only two of us, I don't like cutting down veggies, so I made it all.  Also, my produce is going bad.  It was now or never, so I picked now.  
You cook the chicken, then cook all the veggies, add the rice and then push them aside to cook up some eggs to get that "fried" rice taste.  Did I mention we need a bigger wok?  


The final product looked - and tasted - delicious.  It was hard to resist taking more than 1/8th of the dish, so I ended up eating another spoonful.  Boyfriend devoured at least 3 servings.  But then he did ALL the dishes, so I instantly forgave him.  I mean there were a lot of dishes.  Did I mention I have the best boyfriend?  I think a huge part of living a healthy lifestyle is having a great support system.  I don't think I would have made it past the original shopping list if my boyfriend wasn't encouraging and supportive - and eating this stuff with me.  If you are thinking about trying this out, make sure you have some support - even if that's an online blog!  But seriously, thank you boyfriend!  


Finally, tonight's meal calls for dessert.  But I'm living a normal lifestyle, so tonight we're meeting friends out at a bar.  I skip the dessert in lieu of my pending alcohol calories.


At the bar everyone ordered beer.  But not I!  I ordered Vodka Gimlet - vodka on the rocks with a splash of rose's lime juice.  I got compliments on my sophisticated "adult" order.  I can't seem to locate a good calorie counter online to tell you how many calories that is - but I think the vodka is 64 and the lime juice is 13.  Not too shabby.  When we left the bar some people wanted to get pizza.  I made the smart choice and just went home.  I'm really proud of myself for being able to go out and keep making healthy choices.  Maybe this won't be too bad after all.