Day 8? I'm pretty sure.

I skipped blogging a few days! I've been pretty busy and going to bed early (like I should be doing now).

We did have one slip-up when we had a little 5-person party and may have ordered pizza and ate a couple slices. Sorry we pizza'd under the influence! We are back on track though. I've not had another slip up, and we're finding meals that we enjoy, and easy, healthy meals.

I think I may grocery shop more often, maybe even daily, just to ensure that I feel like making and eating dinner that night, and that nothing goes forgotten and bad. Also our fridge is not nearly large enough for all the produce, plus our roommates food.

We'll make it to the end of the 6 weeks, but I imagine I'll have made some modifications to the diet, so we won't be perfect nutritarians. We will, however, have much better eating habits and be much healthier than we were when we started. And I think I'll probably stay vegan? Other than the pizza, avoiding dairy has been much easier than I expected it would be, and I don't miss meat even a little bit.

Day 5. Oh my gosh!

I was pretty busy these last 24 hours. I had an interview today, and spent most of yesterday getting ready for it. I got the job (yay!) it's a serving position, so I've spent most of today going over the menu for the restaurant I'll be working in.

Dinner yesterday was eggplant "parmesan," with tomatoes, onions, pasta sauce, nondairy mozzarella shreds, and nutritional yeast flakes, along with a big salad with lots of veggies in it.

Breakfast today was a big smoothie with blueberries, strawberries, banana, spinach, and a peach
We skipped lunch today, and as a result I think dinner was a lot more difficult as far as cravings went.
We had bean tacos with leftover avocado sauce because it seemed the easiest to make (we were pretty hungry) and it was HOT outside and in, so we didn't have to turn the oven/stove on.

We kind of felt that we might not be getting enough calories, but that could also be our bodies going through withdrawal (I'll go back to feeling suspiciously good please!) I dunno, if we're still feeling this way by the end of next week we may have to add something in. Any opinions on the balance between under-eating and over-eating?

It's a lot of mass to eat as much food as I'd like to (on this diet), and I don't know that my stomach is big enough for it? Of course maybe all of this was just caused by skipping lunch. I know I'm in no rush to not eat lunch again.

I am pretty excited I got the job though. I hope I get to the point pretty soon where I don't have to think so much about what I'm doing for every meal, that I can just make something quick on the spot. Relying on finding recipes and hoping you're in the mood for whatever is planned for each day is some work. Honestly I haven't been following the 7-day meal plan as laid out in the book for a couple days already. So I'm getting there!

Day 4

Breakfast today was oatmeal again, with blueberries. I just used water and missed the bit of sweetness that the pom juice gave it, but the blueberries helped.

My hand was hurting yesterday, I figured out it's from all of the vegetable chopping I've been doing! I guess I need to build some hand muscles lol.

Lunch will be a mixed green salad with blueberries and balsamic vinegar. I'm enjoying these simple clean lunches and breakfasts.

Dinner Day 3 - Black Bean Tacos

Alex was craving Taco Bell today, and honestly, a Crispy Potato Soft Taco sounded amazing. Never fear! We didn't cave, but I did go to Pinterest to find some vegan taco ideas.

Inspired by this post http://www.thegardengrazer.com/2014/05/black-bean-tacos-with-avocado-cilantro.html (I didn't use her recipe or make any measurements, but I did add jalapeno to the avocado sauce, and had jalapenos, tomatoes, and romaine on the side.

For our salad, we just used romaine and cut up two mangoes to dress it with, along with a little balsamic vinegar (I'm a fan of balsamic vinegar, which is surprising because I don't usually like vinegar much).

Considering all of the beans, and the avocado, I guess this was a higher fat meal overall than we should have regularly on the nutritarian diet, but it sure was a better choice (and better tasting!) than Taco Bell.

I've been filling up pretty quickly on each meal today, and didn't need an after work snack today. Interestingly, I had considerably more energy today than yesterday, I went to Randazzo's again (needed a few more things for the next few days and the jalapenos and avocado) and I mowed the lawn, AND cooked. I honestly usually have a hard time getting things done after I get home from work. Tomorrow I need to stop procrastinating washing the dishes, and I think I'll be motivated to do so!

Honestly, I've had a few cravings, but I'm already feeling pretty good. I'm almost worried, like I should probably display more withdrawal symptoms so maybe I'm not doing it right? I think I'm doing it pretty close to how it should be done though. It helps that I'm so excited to, and so invested in getting healthy, so the cravings aren't so bad. If only I could get so excited about quitting smoking, but I think that's going to have to wait for a little while - until I'm not so tempted to stress eat.

Anyways! Check out the recipe for the black bean tacos and avocado sauce, because they were amazing.

Day 3!

I had half a bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal with walnuts this morning. More interesting than that though, is that despite waking up with a bit of a headache, I felt much more alert than I normally would after just waking up. Normally too, my headaches are much worse when I have them.

Lunch today will be the same as yesterday, so I probably won't post again until after dinner.

Dinner Day 2

I water sauteed the vegetables below, and sprinkled them with lemon pepper and lemon juice and they were really good. Next time I may serve it over a half cup or so of quinoa to get a little more protein.

 It was the first time I'd ever had swiss chard and I really liked it. I may cook more with chard instead of spinach like I usually do. I also had a big kale and mixed spring greens salad with balsamic vinegar and strawberries, also very good.

My phone died before I could photograph dessert, but it was a strawberry peach apricot smoothie and it was SO GREAT. I'll definitely be making it again and I'll take pictures then. I'm going to post the recipe here though.

3 peaches, peeled if desired, pits removed
4-6 apricots, very cold ( I put mine in the freezer for an hour or so beforehand.)
4-6 strawberries
Around a half cup of almond milk
2-3 handfuls of ice

Blend until smooth enough to drink with a straw. Serves 2-3

I ate after work

In Eat to Live Dr. Fuhrman advises against eating more than 3 times a day, but I think I'm much more comfortable with a small snack/meal between lunch and dinner.

I had black bean hummus, toasted pita bread, and a whole bunch of raw vegetables for lunch at work, but after work I had my leftovers from breakfast.

I guess I'm already breaking rules, but I dunno. Do I really know what's best for me? I probably know better than a skinny doctor who's never met me. I did, at least, resist a piece of a cinnamon roll waffle that Ally and Travis made.

Side note. I'm pretty tired today. I didn't sleep much last night, which is probably why. I am, however, pretty clear headed, I mostly feel worn out like I exercised yesterday, but I did not. I wonder if that's my body working to detoxify already?

I can't decide if I should worry about an afternoon snack. Probably not?

Dinner Day 1 & Breakfast Day 2

For dinner last night we had a cauliflower cashew cream soup. Neither of us really like cauliflower but we did like the soup, but it was missing something. I think if I make it again, I'll add corn and some peppers. 

Breakfast this morning was a blueberry banana oatmeal with pomegranate juice, sunflower seeds, and cashews. I think we'll have this again, but with fresh blueberries instead of frozen, walnuts instead of cashews, and maybe some cinnamon. I couldn't finish breakfast again, I think it'll take some time to get used to so much food in the morning.

Lunch Day 1

No photo because I got distracted and was talking with my roommates while I ate, but lunch was a portobello red pepper pita recipe from Eat to Live with a big baby spring mix salad and Trader Joe's asian style spicy peanut vinigarette. Not a strictly nutritarian dressing, but I forgot to get balsamic vinegar and had the vinigarette already.
I'm used to eating one big meal a day, and just kind of snacking here or there throughout the day - it'll be interesting to see what my metabolism does with all of this good food 3 times a day.

Day 1, Breakfast!

An orange, a quarter cantaloupe and 5 or 6 strawberries each, sprinkled with ground flaxseeds. Turns out Alex doesn't like cantaloupe. I already knew he didn't like watermelon but it's a bummer he doesn't like cantaloupe - one of the dessert recipes in Eat to Live is a cantaloupe freeze. Oh well. Maybe we'll try honeydew! After that, I'll give up on trying to get him to eat melons.
We don't normally eat breakfast, so neither of us could finish ours today.

First Nutritarian Grocery Trip!

I went shopping yesterday, for about 3 days worth of food. I'm starting to think I way overpurchased for 3 days, but I think we'll be able to eat it all before it goes bad. I honestly don't know how many vegetables one really needs in a day to feel full - Maybe I should weigh out a pound of greens for each of us. After shopping for a couple of hours, I was too overwhelmed by all of the lettuce to take a nice picture of it, but I went a little fruit crazy, so here's the fruit bowl!

Bananas, mangoes, pears, apples, apricots, peaches, oranges, a cantaloupe in the corner of the photo and two pounds of strawberries in the fridge.

I'm lucky because there's a really great fruit market about a mile from my house and everything is super cheap. ($.99 for a pound of strawberries!) I got almost all of our produce for the next few days there, for about $45. I then went to Kroger to get some items that they didn't have at the fruit market, and some weird stuff - tahini, almond milk, flaxseeds, and a few other things and spent ANOTHER $45. Luckily the things I bought at Kroger should last me a while, but if I had to buy all of my produce at Kroger, I couldn't afford to do this diet.

So, to Joe Randazzo's, my fruit market, thank you for existing! Though you sometimes don't have everything I want, you have what I need; and some cool stuff I hadn't tried before, all for extremely reasonable prices.

I'm hoping to actually get out to the Eastern Market in Detroit pretty soon here, I just need a Saturday off work! (And to wake up early enough on said Saturday to make it before all  of the good stuff is gone.)

Hopefully grocery shopping will be a little easier next time, but if it wasn't so time consuming this time, I would've never tried apricots - would've just walked right past them - so I'm not too upset about it.

Becoming Nutritarian (for at least 6 weeks)

My boyfriend (Alex) and I finally hit a breaking point. We're both very overweight, and tired of it. We're only 22 so we've only damaged our bodies so much, but neither of us wants to have a heart attack at 30 (or ever, really). We want to feel good about ourselves, and feel good just in general.

I read Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live, and it made sense to me. I've never really gone on a diet before, just tried to eat healthier, because no diets ever seemed quite right to me. The nutritarian diet fits, I think.

The goals for daily consumption are:
1 pound of raw vegetables
1 pound of cooked vegetables
1 cup of beans
1 serving of whole grains
1 ounce of nuts and/or seeds or two ounces of avocado
At least 4 fruits

In Eat to Live, there's conveniently already one weeks worth of recipes and a meal plan for that first week. I think that by the end of the first week I should be able to create my own meals, or at least have a feel for what I should be eating every day.

I'm starting this blog mostly to use as motivation. If I'm obligated to you, good reader, (hi mom and dad!) I'm more likely to continue on for 6 weeks. My goal is to want to continue this diet after the six weeks have passed, that I'll feel so good, I don't crave the cheese and ice cream and chocolate as much.

Today, Friday July 18th, through August 29th expect food posts, feelings, and hopefully some awesomeness!