With that said, I AM sticking to the challenge as planned until July 15th (right after the cake is gone!). It continues to be a learning experience and I appreciate that part of the challenge. I just wish I could continue learning while eating chocolate Anyways, onto…

TODAY’S EATS

I was short on time this morning and wanted something warm and sweet. I reached into the freezer for a Food for Life sprouted grain english muffin (which I planned on having with some melty Barney Butter) but then I saw 3 boxes of Holey Donuts in the freezer. Mmm, yum! I went this morning with the jumbo blueberry cinnamon bun. I’ll refer to it as heaven going forward Made my fingers nice and sticky, but tasted oh so good with a huge mug of coffee.

[388 calories, incl. coffee]

Sun-maid, I think I love you

[130 calories]

Leftover summer squash gratin:

[389 calories]

[160 calories]

[60 calories]

Dinner was the above referenced sandwich. We had some ham in the fridge that needed to be used up, so I made a croque monsier by following Kath’s recipe.

[389 calories]

The sandwich was pretty good. A little too much egg, so it got slightly soggy. It was also NOTHING like the Croque Madame from Shiller’s. That’s pretty much the best thing ever. Not healthy though, so you know, I’m not about to pour a bag of shredded cheese over my fried sandwich to replicate that beau.

And then there was MORE WEDDING CAKE! I honestly don’t even feel guilty over it. I feel like I should be, but I don’t. I promise this is the last time you’re seeing it though. The boys we are hosting at our house tonight did not finish it, so I’m bringing the rest to work tomorrow. Say good bye to the best wedding cake ever. Oh I’m going to miss you, cake, but my hips won’t

Total calories consumed today: 1711 (includes unpictured sweet cherries and AK MAK crackers) + CAKE

How was your Wednesday? I’m in a fantastic mood despite work being crazy. I “blame” some exercise endorphins for this… gotta love ‘em!

I can’t decide how I feel about the challenge. As expected, it’s teaching me a lot. It’s also prevented me from randomly shoving sweets into my mouth during a busy time at work. Very good. I really like that part of the challenge, but sometimes this girl just needs some good old fashioned chocolate. Just a little piece… pretty please? The lesson here is that a chocolate free life is just not for me, but I did discover that medjool dates and turkish dried apricots taste like candy Oh yeah, and then there is this beauty (my new favorite nighttime treat)… 1/2 Food for Life english muffin with cacao bliss:

Chocolatey coconuty goodness. Oh yes, life is good again I’m currently enjoying it with yogi green tea

[129 calories]

How else have I been keeping my sweet tooth at bay? With some roasted beets and raisins! Yep, you heard me right!

Kelly, does this look familiar? I asked you guys in this post what to do with some root veggies I got at the farmers market the other day, and you gave me so many yummy ideas. The common thread was to roast them, and then have them with some goat cheese. Oh yeah, I think you really can’t beat that combo! Kelly recommended trying a recipe she just recently sampled: swiss chard with beets, goat cheese and raisins. I followed the link to the recipe from her blog, and after browsing through it realized I even had all the ingredients on hand! Awesome! Adam was NOT excited for this one, but I had high hopes that I could turn his beet hating ways around with this one. It just sounded amazing, and we had plan B for him – a frozen burrito. Yup, that’s how we roll (it’s organic at least! haha). Take a peak inside

I used the leaves from the beets instead of swiss chard, omitted the onions and only used 1T of EVOO (although the rest of the proportions were kind of random too – 1/3 of the raisins, 1/2 of the beet leaves, 1/3-1/2 of the beets… I couldn’t remember how much they weighed and I mistakenly threw away the piece of paper where I wrote it down). I also added some sliced ham to make it a little more man-friendly. Adam hasn’t been too happy with my meals this week. I’ve been pushing his envelope a little too far with my vegetarian creations Long story short, he LOVED IT!!!!!!! I of course loved it, but that was no surprise, but my husband loving a dish centered around beets and beet greens and goat cheese (something he just recently started liking) is pretty amazing. He made me so happy. I love beets. Hope that means they can become a more frequent ingredient in our kitchen. I’m making beet chips next!

OTHER EATS

Oikos, 1/2 mango, pb puffins, turkish dried apricots (seriously these taste like candy!!!) + raw almonds. I love you yogurt (not as much as chocolate but I can’t live without you either!)… what’s up with me talking to my food today?

[356 calories]

+ 2 unpictured AK MAK crackers = 107 calories (I didn’t eat the whole apple… it was a little soft for my liking)

Leftover ww pasta with pistachio basil pesto + cauliflower, laughing cow cheese (awesome addition! – made everything super creamy) + pistachios:

[394 calories]

[220 calories - ended up eating the whole thing... it's just too yummy ]

Today was a really great food day! They’re not always this good, but today was noteworthy. I like note-worthy food days! Total calories eaten: 1546

I also took an abs class, then a spin class and finished off by solid 5 minutes of jump rope. A great workout! ~550 calories burnt. I haven’t sweat like this in forever! I think it made everything better. I feel cleansed

I’m off to relax with the new issue of Self magazine I picked up yesterday. I hope Jillian can inspire me to be a better me

1. Zesty’s chicken asparagus pesto quesadilla made for a great easy lunch

2. Lara sent me this recipe for wheat germ whole-wheat buttermilk pancakes after reading my post on Clinton St. Baking Co pancakes. These made for a healthy CLC-approved Saturday morning breakfast. Fresh raspberries from the farmers market (picked just the day before!) + yogurt and maple syrup made for amazing topping

These are great as a snack with my new love (see below)

3. When I saw Lauren’s veggie stromboli, I couldn’t wait to make it! Some farmer’s market broccoli wanted to be the star of the show, so I used lots of it + some chicken in this recipe. I also used TJ’s ww pizza dough (it had some soybean oil but I still bought it), added some spinach to the broccoli when steaming it, and used 0.75 cups of organic part skim mozzarella. This was such a fun alternative to pizza, although I’ve decided that after the challenge I’m going to start buying white pizza dough – it just tastes more like the real thing

My top 3 foods (and many others below) were all inspired by bloggers. Bloggers rule! My food would be so much more boring without you

4. I had some beautiful basil from the farmers market smelling up my apartment, so on Saturday afternoon when Adam was out, I decided to combine it with a few other random things in my fridge: ww couscous, fresh tomato (also from the farmers market… I told you I went to town on my last trip! ), black olives, pine nuts, hummus + goat cheese. I warmed up the couscous and then just threw the rest of the ingredients into the bowl, and finished it off with a few ribbons of the fresh basil. The result was a mediteranian inspired creamy and delicious dish! I’d definitely recommend recreating this

5. And that’s my new food love – Artisana Cacao Bliss! OMG – SO good! It tastes like coconut infused chocolate and I just can’t get enough of this stuff! It goes great on ww english muffins, pancakes (see above), ww tortillas, and straight out of the jar Speaking of straight out of the jar, looking at the picture below makes me realize I’ve had a little too much of it lately (the picture was taken late last week and my jar does not look like this today), but it’s SO GOOD!!

An all natural (sugar free) ingredients list:

So these are my top 5! Now let’s get to the rest of the eats…

Happy Tuesday

What I did have a chance to do, though, is check out Boston’s Health and Fitness Expo yesterday. I’ve been reading about these types of events on blogs for what seems like ages now. I was imagining larabar and goo samples everywhere, polar and garmin coupons and I don’t know what else… maybe booths with fancy performance socks or something Unfortunately, this particular event was kind of lame (just lots of hospitals and a few ghetto products sprinkled in)… until Katy spotted the Biggest Loser guys. Where? Oh yeah… that’s Mike and Ron!!! I am a HUGE fan of the show, and seeing those guys (ok Mike) kind of brought the 16 year old in me. I really wanted to talk to him, but there was a huge line to do just that and I had to get to work. Boo to adult responsibilities I did get a chance to snap a few photos (from a weird angle)… here is the best one:

They looked just like on the show! So so cool. Helen was there earlier, but I don’t really like her much so I’m not upset I missed her. Some lady told us that Mike’s brother lost 60 lbs already. That’s so great. Maybe they should bring him in for the next season. Ok ok, I’m done rambling. Maybe this is only exciting for me. I went back to work, and once in a while was thinking about this little celebrity sighting. I was thinking about what I’d say to them if I did stand in that line? I think I’d want to ask them if they were hungry standing there for hours? Are you a fan of the Biggest Loser? What would you say to Mike and Ron if you met them?

Yesterday’s eats included some vegan berry pie for breakfast, and then this…

Egg white omelet with mushroom, spinach, canadian bacon, light on the cheese, light on the oil + dry whole wheat toast at the Trident Cafe:

The Healthy Chocolate at the Expo (just acai berries – no sugar)… yeah, tasted like fake chocolate. No surprise there.

For dinner I made an amazing summer squash gratin from 101 cookbooks. This was pretty labor intensive (it took me probably close to an hour to slice and dice everything, make the breadcrumbs, make the sauce) but it was worth it in my opinion. I used fresh basil to make the sauce, halved the amount of oil (and added a little bit of water to the sauce instead) and only used 1.5 T of butter for the breadcrumbs instead of 4.  So many complex flavors. I really loved it! Can’t wait to have it for lunch today again. Unfortunately Adam said there was too much squash there for his liking so I froze his leftovers for a dinner in the future. We’ll see how it keeps

I also ate my last chocolate macaroon

Perfect way to end the weekend (ha, that’s lobsters on the tv – we were watching food shows)!

Oh wait, last question… I went crazy buying everything in sight at the farmers market on Friday and now have a whole bunch of root vegetables (beets, turnips). I went through lots of old Cooking Light and Eating Well magazines for inspiration on how to use these up but the best I could come up with was just roasting these babies and adding them to sandwiches, salads or over some ww grains. Any ideas from you guys? Thanks!

Yesterday, however, I was invited to a Mary Kay party and wanted to bring some dessert. I search for recipes all morning, trying to find the perfect white sugar/white flour free recipe to bring, and finally decided on trying my hand at a chocolate/strawberry dessert number (using the same trick I used while making the amazing black bean brownies… i.e. starting with unsweetened chocolate and sweetening it with agave nectar). I didn’t have most of the ingredients on hand, so I walked to Whole Foods. This is where I kind of broke down, I think. The trip took a while, they didn’t have all the ingredients I needed (and I didn’t really have a plan B recipe) so I started going through their baked goods section and reading all the ingredients lists. It was hard – mostly everything had either sugar, white flour or soy.  It took me FOREVER to finally find a vegan cherry blackberry pie that complied with all the challenge rules (it used whole wheat flour and was sweetened with evaporated cane sugar and fruit juice). I bought it for backup, but I still didn’t like the idea of not bringing a homemade dessert so I went to another grocery store in an attempt to find the rest of the ingredients for my project. Nope – no luck there either. And then, by the time I got home, I basically didn’t have much time to make anything anyway. I felt so defeated So when my friend, Katy, mentioned that she made a (CLC non-compliant) lime cake I just said screw it – I’m going to have some. For the first time, I was tired of the challenge. I wasted most of my Saturday thinking and trying to comply with it. I was done! What didn’t help is that another guest brought the most amazing chocolate cake from a local bakery, so yeah – I pretty much had to have some of that as well.

Here is how you break a 12-day streak:

And then you go back for seconds after a few hours oops:

I woke up early this morning to workout, but I have a food hangover! I’m hungry, yet bloated. I’m jittery from all the sugar. I feel sick. Exercise is just truly not an option right now. I’m going to have to get my butt to the gym later in the day, but I also HAVE TO continue with the challenge. At the beginning of this post I mentioned that I haven’t felt this good in months, since starting the challenge. I’ve been feeling so much more in control, so much more at peace with my body and how I’m taking care of it. I want that feeling back! How do you handle the day after an excessive food splurge?

P.S. – the vegan berry pie from Whole Foods is awesome!

So yeah, given my love for chocolate and an upcoming blogger potluck dinner, I went searching my favorite blogs and magazines for some inspiration. Most sugarless desserts sounded boring for this chocoholic… until I stumbled upon a recipe for amazing black bean brownies I’ve saved a long time ago. The recipe is originally from Baking with Agave Nectar by Ania Catalano, and after tasting these guys, I need to get my hands on this cookbook. Yes, need. The copy from my library mysteriously disappeared (I’m not even kidding, the records say “missing”) and honestly I can’t blame whomever took it.  Actually I can blame them (sneaky thieves!) but you know what I mean…

Aside from being white sugar and white flour free (yay for staying on top of the CLC), these were fantastic! The brownies have some instant coffee in the batter, and the coffee really intensified the chocolate flavor. The texture was fudge-like, like a creamy flourless chocolate cake. My mouth is watering just thinking about these brownies (alas, they’re all gone). I halved the recipe, and the only substitution I made was using almond slivers instead of walnuts (one of my party attending friends, Katy, is allergic to walnuts). I think walnuts would have been excellent in these. Next time. Oh and no, you can’t taste the black beans

Progress pics galore…

All the ingredients:

Melt butter + unsweetened chocolate in the microwave

Do not taste this! Yup, I did… unsweetened choc + butter = gross

Pulse some almonds, black beans + a little bit of the choc mixture. If the batter is too dry, add a little more chocolate.

Combine choc mixture, remaining almonds (or walnuts) + ground coffee

Beat eggs

Add agave nectar

Combine the chocolate/coffee mixture with the black bean/almond mixture

Add eggs/agave mixture, saving a little (as per recipe), and mix well

Pour into the pan

Add some fluffy eggs on top (looks funny but it turned out great!)

Bake + cool (I refrigerated mine overnight)

Cut into squares or triangles. I cut mine into 12 triangles (that’s for the half recipe) but these are quite rich so I’d probably cut into smaller squares next time.

Serve!

Closeups… mmm

My first brownie. I may have had one for breakfast

The whole recipe is 5,012 calories (makes 24-45 brownies, depending on size).

Enjoy! This recipe is a winner!!

Oh you wanted pictures too? Here is a lot of the food I’ve eaten over these past 8 days. As mentioned there were also a few meals out I’d like to dedicate separate posts to (more restaurant reviews coming up) and a special blogger potluck dinner I hosted, which was a great success and will also become an entry of it’s own. I’ve labeled all the pictures. Let me know if you have any questions/comments about any of them. See you tomorrow with a sweet post

Yesterday was a great 2nd day of the challenge. I wasn’t going to blog about it since I blogged about our NYC trip last night, but it was such a good day, I just had to share (NYC recaps will continue over the next few days).  I feel like I’m eating so much fresher. Despite a busy day at work I was able to eat wholesome foods. Yay! I’m keeping this short and letting the pictures talk for themselves (if they don’t talk loudly enough, scroll over for descriptions )

[308, incl. coffee]

[125 calories]

[46 calories]

[400 calories]

This guy is confusing so I’ll explain. I made one of my favorite sides the other day with dinner – mashed plantains from this recipe for jerk chicken with plaintains in Cooking Light (the jerk chicken in the recipe is nothing to write home about but the plaintains are delicious. I cut the butter in the recipe by 1/2). With the leftovers, I made little patties, rolled them in some whole wheat bread crumbs and pan fried them. They were kind of mushy, but still delicious… and made for a great snack in the very late afternoon.

[173 calories]

Dinner requires a tiny bit of an explanation as well. Ever since I saw Kelly use langoustines as a lobster substitute, I knew I had to find me some of these jewels at TJ’s and put them to good use. Last night after a long work day, I did just that and as I was passing by a frozen package of polenta Provencale (balls) with spinach and peas in a creamy spicy sauce, I remembered I had it in my freezer at home. This is where the idea for a quick and satisfying dinner came. I added some fresh broccoli to the pan, together with the polenta mix, while defrosting some langostino tails under cold water in the sink. After a few minutes they were ready to be added to the rest of the mix, and voila – dinner was ready in less than 10 minutes.

Mmm, lobster (almost )

[342 calories]

[106 calories?]

Total calories consumed during the day: ~1499

WORKOUT

I knew it was going to be another long night at work, so I made sure to squeeze in a workout during lunch. I was craving running (I think I’m back to prefering the treadmill over outside running but maybe that will change with nicer weather). I started with a 0.20 mile walk at 4.7 mph, stretched, and then ran 5 miles at 6.9-7.0 mph, breaking it up by 0.25 mile intervals and changing inclines (0-2.0). After a 0.2 mile cooldown walk, I completed the 60 minutes with 11 minutes on the elliptical. I burnt about 570 calories, I think, and was ready to get back to work and crank out that project of mine

Great day! Let’s hope today is just as good Happy Humpday!

I’m an all-or-nothing person. Period. About 2.5-3 years ago, I came across a calorie tracking website and this sparked an interest in losing weight this way. I put my heart into it. I decided on a 1200-1400 calorie range and really stuck to it. I only ate at restaurants that provided nutritional information (except for an occasional salad I got at a random NY deli, when I could kind of estimate calories). It was not fun but I lost about 15 pounds. Then I moved to Boston and had intense studying for the CFA exam for about a month. During that month I decided that it was ok to eat whatever I wanted because I had no time to worry about food (and for the second part of that month, exercise too). Eating whatever I wanted resulted in a nearly 10 lb gain (in 1 month!), which took me over a year to lose again. This time I was trying to lose the weight for my upcoming wedding. I had a lot on my plate, but of course looking good for my wedding really helped me stick to my plan. It also provided a great excuse when people tired to convince me to go out and eat or drink foods with unknown (or known and scary) amounts of calories. I ate 1200-1500 calories/day six times a week, and really let loose on the seventh “rest day.” The rest day was also my exercise rest day (counterproductive, right?). On that 7th day, I ate everything in sight, canceling out most of my hard work during the week, but it still worked. I slowly lost that 10 lbs and was pretty happy with how I looked on my wedding day. I was not at my goal weight, but I felt strong and toned. In the process I also acquired a passion for cooking healthy and creative meals, so I felt confident that I could keep going with my weight loss even after the wedding.

On the honeymoon, we 100% enjoyed ourselves. That means dinners out, lots of pizza and gelato (we went to Italy) and some mandatory weight gain. I didn’t mind, though. Like I said, I’m an all or nothing person so I knew that as soon as we got back, I’d be back to healthy eating and the weight would come right off. I was right! I lost weight very fast after that, and was even about 3 lbs below my wedding weight for a little while. This was last July (maybe August). Since then I’ve slowly gained weight. I just lost that spark for weight loss. The problem is I never lost the desire to lose weight. I don’t want to be rigid with calorie counting anymore (going out to dinners with my husband to restaurants that don’t provide nutritional info is very important to both of us, for sanity purposes) but that’s the only way I know how to do it. Every time I try to “be flexible” I end up overdoing it. This is where being an all-or-nothing person really bites me in the ass. I need rules.

Anyways, fast forward to this past month, I’ve been feeling completely out of control. I get super motivated to be healthy, and I am healthy for 1, 2, even 5 days, until I just randomly start eating uncontrollably. It is NOT because I’m hungry or deprived during the previous days and meals. It’s often because of stress, anxiety or boredom, and despite knowing this even while I do this, I can’t seem to stop. It’s like a roller coaster every.single.time and I need to stop it, but somehow I keep going through the same motions over and over. And now we get to the reason of why I want to do this challenge. I NEED a goal to work towards and I love challenges. I think the challenge will provide me with flexibility to live my life (I can still go out to dinners and not know my exact calorie count for the day) while establishing some guidelines. Eliminating white flour and white sugar (most key rules to this challenge) will also automatically eliminate some “trigger foods.” These forbidden foods over the next 30 days will not be forbidden forever, but hopefully I’ll be able to reset my body, refocus, and set myself straight. I often randomly grab treats at the office when I don’t even really want them. I’m afraid that if I don’t, then I’ll feel deprived later on. Honestly, that’s just stupid logic but somehow I talk myself into it nearly every time. Other days when I’m stressed at work, I go out and buy myself a cookie “to make myself feel better.” Does it solve my work overload problem? No. Am I still stressed after eating a cookie? Even more so because now I’m worried about gaining weight too. Makes sense right now, but somehow I forget about this feeling every time. Worse yet, many times after these random indulges, I feel like I already had an “off day” so I give myself the green light to continue eating without counting. This challenge will prevent these random trips to the bakery. Lastly (and this is not why I originally decided to do this) it will teach me more about what’s truly in my food.  I already know whether there is sugar, white flour or hidden soy in all my favorite bars, cereals and granolas – they are all 100% natural so I didn’t have to worry about artificial sweeteners. I should know by heart by the end of the 30 days, which fruits and vegetable are most pesticide absorbing and which ones are ok to buy non-organic. I will also stop consuming hormones through my intake of dairy. I never really thought about it until recently, but I try to buy organic fruits and vegetables but never really cared about dairy, but it’s the same thing! If the cows eat grass with pesticides, then my yogurt and milk will have it too. Duh! All right, I hope this kind of clears it up if anyone actually read through this Feel free to comment. Please never be afraid to comment, unless you’re just trying to be plain mean (which luckily hasn’t happened yet) and in that case, don’t

Onto today eats…

Plain chobani, fresh blueberries, 1/2 kiwi, dried Turkish apricots, Kashi autumn wheat:

[292 calories]

TJ’s whole wheat bagel, 1 laughing cow light cheese wedge, 1/4 avocado, 1.5 oz lox, broccoli stalk sticks, baby carrots:

1/2 Pure chocolate brownie bar:

[lunch, incl. pure bar dessert = 516 calories]

[81 calories]

[100 calories]

2 TJ’s low carb tortillas, pasta sauce, 1/4 avocado, light mexican cheese, black beans:

[283 calories]

One Lucky Duck chocolate macaroon (= sugarless/flourless heaven, review to come!)

[calories = no clue! Does anyone have an estimate or the recipe for these guys? I'm assuming 106 calories because that's what Archway macaroons are. These could be more or less. I guess I don't necessary care as long as I stick to only 1 per day]

Total calories for the day: ~1377 (kind of light because I just wasn’t very hungry)

Lessons learned:

• I’m really used to having something sweet after lunch. An adora disc sometimes used to do the trick but given that it has sugar today it wasn’t an option. I had 1/2 pure bar and that was good.
• I want chocolate when I’m stressed. Today I was stressed at work, but chocolate was not an option given it’s sugar content. I had an apple instead and was happy to be healthy.
• I don’t know much about natural sugar substitutes. Is beet sugar ok? Is evaporated cane sugar ok?

I’m still learning! This is going to be good for me. I know that. I’ll report periodically on how I do. NY trip highlights coming soon!

Now, before I get into today’s eats, let’s cover a few things I wanted to mention….

1) I joined Annabel’s This Ain’t No Freshman 15, this is the Final 10 Challenge. I’d like to lose more than 10 lbs but honestly I’ve been trying to stay away from the scale. I know when I’m being good (I see results in my body, not just on the scale) and I know very well when I’m being bad. I would really really love to lose 10 lbs by August 1st, but instead of concentrating on the number I chose a different goal – I decided to stop my mindless eating and bingeing as part of the challenge. I just think if I get rid of this nasty habit, everything else will just really fall into place. I truly love exercise and I love healthy eating (in general) so the weight eventually would have to come off. Well, I’m sorry to report I already fell off the wagon! That means I’ll have to donate $50 to a charity of my choice (because I didn’t meet my goal) but that does not mean that I’m going to give up on it! I will continue with the challenge and report back here. I am motivated to stop this horrendous cycle!

2) Reading about Heather’s Cleaner Life Challenge also inspired me today. At first I was like: “Oh I could never go for 30 days without sugar and white flour without blowing my brains out!” but then I thought about it. I mean, really thought about it… and I think I want to try! I am going to NYC this weekend and I plan on enjoying it to its fullest, so the challenge will begin on Monday, June 15 (hey I kind of like this round number ) and will go on for 30 days. Here are my rules – they are much looser than Heather’s but it’s still going to be a challenge for me. Baby steps.

• No tofu, less soy in general
• Organic dairy after I run out of the stuff we already have at home (I just stocked up on chobani – which is not organic!).
• Organic meat to the extent possible. *Organic meat is crazy expensive and my husband likes meat most nights with dinner (and I cook for both of us the same thing). Once I run out of the stuff we already have, I will try to find a way to eat organic meat.
• No artificial sweetener, except for gum. I already cut out artificial sweetener out of my diet (except for a very rare diet coke here and there) but I really like chewing gum and unfortunately it contains artificial sweeteners. I don’t think this small amount will kill me.
• No white sugar!!!!!!!! Ok this is by FAR the hardest part of the challenge! I will allow myself up to 1 Holey Donut a day. I just put a purchase in that will arrive next Tuesday. I was really looking forward to them and I know I will go crazy if they are in my freezer, mocking me. I think having a treat waiting for me at home will also help with avoiding other treats with white sugar in the ingredients list. Let’s hope
• No white flour (second hardest challenge) – again 1 Holey Donut a day is the exception.
• No white rice or white pasta
• When purchasing produce, consult the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides. If it’s in the top 20, only buy if it’s organic. Otherwise, try to buy organic whenever possible. If it’s not organic, it should be at least local.
• Avoid highly processed foods.
• Continue to replace conventional cleaning products with environment friendly counterparts
• Replace current body products (lotions, washes, etc.) with 100% natural products, with the exception of my prescription acne medication

Oh and I should mention there are a few very special occasions happening over the next 30 days, including my first year wedding anniversary (!!!), my dad’s birthday, the 4th of July, and potentially a special dinner with my parents. On those days/meals, I will allow myself to fully enjoy myself and that will inevitably lead to some white sugar consumption. Yep, I’m a junkie but I’ve been waiting for nearly a year to eat the top of our wedding cake, and I will not wait 1 extra day to do it!

I think that will do it for this challenge Does anyone want to join my less hardcore challenge? Thanks, Heather, again for inspiring me!

3) I’m hosting a potluck dinner for bloggers and readers on June 21st. Does anyone want to join us? Comment here or shoot me an email if you’re in the Boston area and are available. It’s going to be a small crowd so far, but I’m sure it will be a lot of fun

Ok, now that we’re done with “business” let’s take a look at today’s food, shall we?

BREAKFAST

I started the morning on the right foot with this green monster. This was the best batch so far… I’m getting good at this

[316 calories]

Looks like every other monster, but this guy had 1 frozen banana, 1/4 avocado, 2T ground flaxseed, 1/2 cup soy milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 scoop of vanilla Whey Protein (key!!), a bunch of ice and a bunch of baby spinach (maybe 3 cups?). It was so creamy and delicious. It was definitely the Whey Protein. I think it may have junk ingredients, though. It’s really old so I just decided to use some up because I wanted this breakfast to last me through the morning without other solid foods. It did! It will likely not qualify for the Cleaner Life challenge though.

LUNCH

Oh my – this was such a delicious sandwich. I bought some fresh mozzarella at the farmers market the other day (it was made that morning! SO cool!!) and used up the leftovers in this yummy sammie with prosciutto and balsamic vinegar on TJ’s sourdough bread. I also packed up an organic fuji apple, which I ended up eating as an afternoon snack.

[384 calories]

SNACKS

[189 calories]

[100 calories]

DINNER

Dinner was the perfect way to end the day! I made pasta with zucchini and toasted almonds using this recipe from Cooking Light. This was from Cooking Light’s 20-minute meals section, which I’ve loved in the past and this meal once again blew me away. Fresh pasta with zucchini, grape tomatoes, garlic, cheese and almonds… I mean how could I NOT love it? Adam bought his pasta and it wasn’t whole wheat, but boy was it delicious! Once in a while regular pasta is ok, I think. I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow when I get to eat the rest of the leftovers

[~325 calories - I used 2.5 tsp less of EVOO than Cooking Light]

Total calories for the day: 1344

No exercise today – I worked for 11 hours straight instead. I feel good, though, because with my recent love/hate relationship with food, it’s good to be in love again Happy humpday! Did you enter my Holey Donuts giveaway yet?