Fit Friday: Clean Eater

So almost 2 weeks down of my journey to optimal health, fitness, wellness… and it’s going well so far!

I told you here that my plan was:

Until the doc says I can work out I’m going to just focus on:

1. Drinking as much water as is humanly possible each day 
   
2. Making my snack choices healthier
3. Replacing my morning snack or first meal with a shake
4. Not eating/snacking/grazing after 9pm

Well I’ve been doing great with it except for #4. I’m drinking 4-6 bottles of water a day, having a shake instead of dessert or having a shake instead of a sweet snack, and I’ve replaced all the junk with healthier choices – not 100% clean, but no where near dirty! 🙂 I’m eating after 9pm though. Even as late as midnight. My schedule is all kooky with the newborn running the show.

Overall my eating has been way cleaner. The shakes help curb my cravings for the sweet stuff, and keep me full for a few hours. Plus they’re fast to make and guzzle down. I’m a grazer and really only eat two “real” meals. I have breakfast and dinner, and then just eat snacks about every hour in between LOL.  I’ve always been a grazer, but now that I’m making the effort to focus on nutrition I really realize just how much I am chomping away on foods.

Good thing the choices are healthier. We took all the junk food out of the house and John makes weekly runs to the grocery store to re-up on fruits/veggies and other good stuff.

I’ve replaced some of my staples:

• breakfast waffles with butter and syrup —> whole wheat toast with peanut butter and raisins
• chex mix/chips —> string cheese and wheat thins OR sliced bell pepper dipped in hummus
• cookies/puddings/random sweet treats —> grapes, plums, shakeology, raisins, oranges, apple with peanut butter, greek yogurt

I’ve tried to force myself to have a “real” lunch, and I grill a bunch of chicken breasts for John and I twice a week. I use them in salads for lunch….and just for random grazing when I wanna chomp on something.

Eventually I will be actually planning ahead and creating a meal plan for myself and doing more meal prep besides just the chicken breasts…. But I honestly don’t see that happening until a bit later on.  I’m taking baby steps here so I ensure they stick. The next baby step I’m going to take is to boil a batch of eggs to have on hand for a few days to grab for grazing and for adding to salads.

WINS:

1. John ordered Indian food and I only ordered a green salad and grilled lamb with grilled veggies, no sauce. (Normally I’d be stuffed with Naan and chicken tikka masala and 5011 lamb samosas.)
2. I didn’t even think about touching the ice cream John got for his carb day, even though it literally reached it’s arms out to me when I opened the freezer.

LOSSES:

1. When John ordered Chinese…I couldn’t resist. I did order a better meal than I normally would though: Beef and Broccoli (no rice, no noodles, no egg roll) but I did get a wonton soup which has noodles in it.
2. I’m eating late at night, even if the choices are healthier, it isn’t good for digestion (or weight management) to eat almost 24 hrs a day.

I’m happy to say that the cleaner eating plan is a lot easier than I expected. I am glad since this is how I intend on eating for the rest of my life. The only thing I miss is sweet juices/sweet tea. I also miss working out and running. Im so looking forward to my May 5th Challenge Group so I can get back to feelin’ tha burn and get fit again!

What have you been up to for your health these days?