Week 3, Sunday (Day 30)

Today I had more readers in Canada than I did in the United States.  Perhaps I should start using more Canadian friendly language, eh?  
We've also expanded to Israel.  Shalom.


Breakfast: Strawberry, Chocolate Shake; 1 banana
Although Michael Jordan is not the weight gaining king, he is the reigning smoothie making champion of the household and was nice enough to whip up a yummy smoothie for me before work.  I saved my banana for a later snack, but Probably would have liked it more in the smoothie with strawberries for a snack. Oh well, you live and you learn.


Snack 1: 1 cup chopped cooked butternut squash, 1 tbsp chopped walnuts, 1/2 tsp sucanat, dash of cinnamon
Hmm.  I bought this butternut squash like you told me to, but it's not cooked.  And you're not telling me how to cook it.  I check the index.  There are two other butternut squash references in this Clean Eating cookbook.  One for a soup and one for a side dish.  Perfect.  It says bake the pieces in the oven for 30 minutes, turning half way.  Done.  But why do I have to put so much effort in to find that on my own?  Come on editors.


But YAY delicious snack.  The butternut squash was yummy and sweet with the sugar and cinnamon.  The walnuts were a nice touch.  I will definitely be adding this to my favorites list.  


Lunch: 5 whole wheat crackers dipped in leftover Spicy Black Bean Hummus (from Day 29); 1 cup low-sodium lentil soup; 1 orange
This is one of the few times where you actually eat your leftovers, and I am thrilled that I don't have 16 extra servings of bean dip sitting in my fridge.  Kudos, Editors.  
I find the thought of lentil soup slightly repulsive, so I picked a different type of low-sodium soup (chicken noodle) that was only 70 calories.  I will have to explore the healthy aisle of the grocery store to see if they have better, natural, healthy options.
My clementine had seeds, but you can't win em all, eh?


Snack 2: Mini Yogurt Parfait (8 oz low-fat greek yogurt, 1/2 sliced banana, 3/4 cup Post Shredded Wheat Spoon Size Original cereal)
This snack was very fun to make - and it came out pretty so I took a picture!

 Once again, I replaced the Shredded Wheat cereal with the Nature's Path Optimum cereal and swapped out the banana for some blueberries.  I mean, I already ate a banana for breakfast.  Two in one day is kind of overkill.  If I make this again I will try to get the layers of yogurt, fruit and cereal more evenly.


Dinner: 4 oz broiled cod (replaced with tilapia), 1 cup summer squash or zucchini, steamed; 1 white potato, sliced and baked

I have to be honest when I say this dish was prettier than it tasted.  Not that it tasted bad, but it was just regular old plain Jane in terms of flavor.  I used ketchup but MJ said it didn't really need anything.  What a sweet guy.  And a liar.  I did really enjoy the "potato chips" and will probably make them again.  As per usual, the meal plan didn't tell me a temperature for the potatoes or how long they needed to bake.  As per usual, I figured it out on my own.  Next time I would probably use one yellow squash and one green zucchini for more color.  Overall, a pretty successful day in the eating world.


Fitbit Stats: 1881 calories burned, 6,245 steps taken (2.69 miles traveled).  Boo not getting to 10,000 steps.  I'll have to walk more tomorrow to make up for it. I did figure out how to change my sleep monitor to "sensitive," so instead of sleeping for 7+ hours last night, I apparently only slept for 4 hours and 30 minutes (60% efficiency rate).  I really don't know if this makes sense either, but I was pretty tired today.  Guess I should hit the hay to optimize my sleep!