In my previous post, I announced that I was going to try out a modified version of the 21 Day Fix nutrition plan. I didn’t post last week, but I wanted to share a little bit of what my meals have been like, how the meal planning is going, and How I feel about it so far.
So.. as posted previously.. this was my meal plan for week 1.
Week 1 Meal Plan
I filled in my projected plan for the weekend, but I knew it might not pan out because my mother-in-law was coming for a visit and I wasn’t sure how that would go food wise. In the end, it didn’t pan out too well, but more on that a little later.
For breakfast I had both a spinach/egg omelet (using one whole egg and two egg whites- not the two eggs the plan says to use for a serving of protein.) as well as some oatmeal that I spiced up with some cinnamon and a teaspoon of nut butter. I did put half and half in my coffee.. which isn’t allowed in the original 21 day fix plan… but I’m not drinking black coffee.. so screw that. One of my sources I used to look up the 21 day Fix food guidelines cited that a portion of carbohydrates was 2/3 cup. Later I read another site saying it was 1/2 cup. For my oatmeal, I kept the 2/3 cup portion- using 1/3 cup for the oats, and 1/3 cup for the almond milk. Overall breakfast was pretty tasty.
Spinach/egg omelet and cinnamon/PB oatmeal
For my lunch for the week, I made a chicken salad using shredded chicken, plain Greek yogurt, cucumbers from our garden, diced apples, and pumpkin seeds. I threw this on top of some salad greens and cut up some fresh tomatoes from our garden. It was pretty good.. but a little bland. I used half my protein portion for the chicken and half for the yogurt. This also included my seed portion and a fruit portion. I got the meal idea from Sublime Reflection.
Week 1 lunch- chicken salad
My snacks at work were a serving of fruit (cantaloupe or strawberries) and some cut up cucumber slices from our garden.
For dinner, I made a Quinoa taco bake recipe I got from Pinterest, and unfortunately, the link is no longer working (:() But OMG it was sooooo good. I have the recipe on MyFitnessPal HERE, and basically, you cook the ground turkey with the spices, add the zucchini (I shredded it before hand) and tomatoes/tomato sauce, followed by 1 serving of cheese and the quinoa servings. Place it in a glass casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Then bake at 350 for about 15 minutes (til the cheese is melted.) Soooo good. And 1 serving was 1/4 of the whole tray! This gave me a serving of protein, a serving of carbohydrates, 1 vegetable serving, and 1 fat serving.
Quinoa Taco bake… I made two so we could eat it during the week
YUM!
We ran out of the casserole by Wednesday. On Thursday I used some left-over shredded chicken and mixed it in with a serving of guacamole and served it on a black bean burger with salsa. Usually I use eggs as my protein for this quick meal, but since I had eggs that morning for breakfast, I didn’t want to repeat.
On Friday, we spent the day shopping for the week and cleaning our house for our visitor. She was getting in late, so I made a crock-pot meal of apple chicken and sweet potatoes (got the recipe from Megan Blinka) Didn’t get a picture of it, but it looked pretty much like the picture she has in her recipe post. The chicken was a little bland… but the apples in it were divine. I might just have to cook more apples by slow-cooker!
My mother-in-law had a little chicken and sweet potatoes, but wasn’t totally hungry for a meal (which was fine.. we were not sure what she was planning to do for food). My husband started getting hungry again, so we broke out some cheese and crackers and bagel chips we had bought for her to munch on. I had some… ok I had a lot. along with two glasses of wine. So.. not such a good start to the weekend taking in alcohol, extra fat servings, and processed carbs
On Saturday, we spent a lazy morning having breakfast (I had the same thing I’m having this week, so more on that later), drinking coffee, and later breaking out the cheese/crackers again, along with some pita chips and hummus. I partook on the munchies for a while, before switching to one of my left over chicken salads to get some real food in me. After lunch, we decided to go up to the waterfront town of Havre De Grace to walk the Promenade (a deck walkway on/along the Susquehanna river edge) and then to a driving range to hit some balls. When we got to HdG, we noticed there were a LOT of people around! Much more than usual. At the end of the Promenade, there was some sort of festival going on, and we soon found out it was the HdG Annual Seafood Festival. Figures that we don’t go up there that often, and there would be a huge event going on the day we did. We did not sample any of the food, but we did wander around the art vendors also set up there. Then we decided to walk a few blocks down the road to the local homemade candy and ice cream shops. Bomboy’s is a pretty popular stop in HdG, so.. when in Rome. We picked up a few treats at the candy shop, then headed across the street to the homemade ice cream parlor. I figured.. what the heck, I’ll get a little. I ordered their smallest “single” size in a cup.. and man.. it was not small at all! It was big.. and very yummy, and I ate it all. Mind you this was premium ice cream with peanut butter candy chunks in it. Ooops. On top of this, I also shared some truffles we bought at the candy store with my husband. Yeah, Saturday was full of bad decisions.
I felt pretty bad about the ice cream and candy. We Also went out to dinner later and I ordered a salad with quinoa, crab and blueberries- the lightest thing I could find. I also hadn’t had enough vegetables that day. But, I was decided not to dwell on the “cheats” and was determined to eat better on Sunday. (And I did!) I was scheduled to eat my egg/spinach/oatmeal Sunday morning, but I had made a yogurt parfait instead. It consisted on 6 oz vanilla Greek yogurt, 1 cup sliced strawberries, 12 chopped almonds, and 1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean cereal. This equates to 1 protein, 1 fruit, 1 fat and 1 carb serving.. and it’s good!
My breakfast yogurt parfait
Since I had the strawberries in the yogurt, and I was scheduled to have leftover apple chicken sweet potatoes for dinner, I didn’t eat my scheduled chicken salad which had a serving of fruit in it. I made a new chicken and egg salad (using 1 serving left-over shredded chicken, 1 hard boiled egg and plain Greek yogurt, and a little mustard), served it over salad greens with pumpkin seeds, tomatoes and cucumber. It was pretty good, and I got a double dose of protein (which I needed to reach my goal for the day)
I added a little balsamic vinegar to spruce it up a bit
Sunday, I managed to stick to my goals. Note that during the week, I also eat Quest bars for after-workout fuel. I also might sneak a little ice cream or chocolate here and there. The extra sugar is not in the plan, but it’s there. I’m getting better at not indulging, but my sweet tooth and habits are hard to overcome. Always striving for progress!
This week is Week 2, and I made a new meal plan.
Week 2 Meal Plan
For breakfast, I’ve been eating my parfait, and it’s been wonderful.
For lunch I cooked up some ground turkey and added some Francesco Rinaldi No-Salt-Added Pasta sauce to make a meat sauce. I then served 4 oz of that (3 oz for the turkey, 1 to account for the pasta sauce) over some spaghetti squash, green beans and spinach. I sprinkled a little parm cheese on top, but didn’t really count that as it wasn’t a lot.
Week 2 lunch!
For snacks, I’ve been pairing some fruit with some pumpkin seeds in the morning, and some cucumber and balsamic dressing in the afternoon. Today, I added a small home-grown tomato.. can’t wait to eat it later!
my snack waiting for me this afternoon!
For dinner, I made a simple stir fry. Monday I ate the last of the Apple chicken and sweet potatoes, but for the rest of the week I have stir fry. It’s basically chicken breast, zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers, spinach, and green beans, and brown rice, stir fried in coconut oil, with a dash of garlic and onion powders, red pepper flakes, soy sauce and agave nectar. SOOOO much yummier than I thought it would be. I was inspired by the recipe found on Kendra Fletcher Fitness.
chicken stir fry!
So that’s pretty much this week up to Saturday. This weekend we are going out of town, but I’m going to at least have my yogurt parfait for breakfast, and plan on taking some healthy veggies to munch on.. so we’ll see.
As far as this food plan goes.. I’m rather enjoying it. Despite some indiscretions and cheats here and there, I like that I’m able to plan my meals efficiently and am eating fairly clean. As for results, well I can’t really say yet. At times I feel like I’m losing, and other times I feel like nothing’s happening. I haven’t weighed myself because the program discourages that until the last day.. so I’m going with that. I also haven’t measured myself for that reason. But I feel good (for the most part!) about my food choices, and the portions are really bigger than you would think. That stir fry is a huge plate! And I had to use big containers for my chicken salads to fit it all in there. Calorie wise I’m right around where I need to eat. I’ll probably bump up to the next calorie bracket in the program for week 4 before starting my next round.. as they tell you to use that last week to eat your maintenance calories. I have been going a little over my target, but I get back under after workouts, and generally I break even. Looking forward to planning my next week!