Will Work Out For Food: Clean Eating: Day One!

Last week, while telling everyone I could possibly think of that I was going to start a healthy eating/work out regimen, my friend Erika and I had the idea of an "Email Support Group." Basically, every day we email back and forth about our goals, struggles, ideas, recipes, what we're eating, questions we have for each other, etc. There are four of us in the group at this point. It's a great way to keep ourselves accountable and motivated. We designated Wednesday as our "weigh in" day. We don't share our actual weight, but we share how much we gained or lost. This morning, with butterflies in my stomach, I stepped on the scale hoping for a loss to share with the group. I've lost 2.6 pounds!! I'm so happy for any loss, and it's encouraging to see the number on the scale drop after a week of hard work. I know that if I had worked out more last week, my loss probably would have been a little larger, so this week I'm really trying to step up the working out! I slept through my alarm this morning and didn't have time to go to the gym. I was really disappointed in myself and upset that I didn't get that work out in, but I tried to stay positive and focused on my other goal for the week: Clean Eating! Today was day one, and I think I did really well!

For breakfast, I had oatmeal with blueberries and a banana and my regular cup of green tea. I HATE oatmeal, so an old trainer of mine gave me this little trick to make it a little tastier. Just prepare regular oatmeal, then microwave 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries for one minute and mix them in! I add some Splenda to sweeten it, and this morning I decided to top it with the banana slices to make it extra filling. It's delicious!

Lunch was the hardest part of the day. I eat meat with almost every meal, so it was hard finding a substitute. I also hate most vegetables, so eating an entire meal made up of nothing but vegetables is unheard of. I bought a frozen veggie burger to try, and I was pleasantly surprised with how it tasted. I also made myself a salad with romaine lettuce, broccoli, baby carrots, snow peas, and golden raisins. Whenever the vegetable taste became too overwhelming, I would eat a golden raisin to cleanse my pallet. That helped me a lot.

I topped my salad with this wonderful dressing. I normally soak vegetables in ranch, but this was a tasty and more nutritious alternative. :)

In the middle of the day I got a text from one of my old trainers asking how my workout went this morning. I told her I had missed it and that I was disappointed. She gave me some great words of encouragement and gave me the motivation to work out when I got home instead of plopping down on the couch. I convinced Joel to come with me even though he was tired from work. It's always easier when you have someone there to talk to. I'm happy with my workout and proud of myself for actually doing it!

For dinner, I made black bean burgers from scratch! I got the recipe from N Her Shoes. Joel had baby carrots and broccoli with his. I opted for apple slices. We were both surprised at how well they turned out. There's no substitute for a real BEEF burger, but they were really good! (And much better for us.)