Day 9- The best part of cooler 1 in the fall is the SOUP!!!

Well I am happy to report that apparently ranting to the universe pays off because this morning when I got on my scale FINALLY I lost some weight! Thus began a great day :)  Well pretty much nothing can tarnish Wednesdays in my view since I only teach 2 periods in the morning (yes I am only 68%) so that means I do have time off school.  Today after school I rushed to the yoga studio and did a hot class, then browsed the Chapters looking for some cute Halloween books for my kids, then it was back home for some lunch. After a very late lunch I got to go on a fantastic bike ride because the weather was absolutely perfect for it!  I rode up North of my place and the fall leaves are just stunning, yes the route north is uphill, but damn if it isn't worth the ride to see the sights. Plus what goes up must come down, my ride back home was easy-peasy.  Did I mention the temp was in the 20's!!!! So yes today was awesome!  So anyway here are my eats...

Breakfast
1/2 cup GF oats
3 tbsp hemp hearts
1tbps almond butter
1 tbsp ground flax
4 strawberries
unsweetened almond milk
water
decaf coffee with soy milk (because that's what they have at Strabucks- I know I'm working towards quitting)

Snack
3/4 of an orange pepper
2 cups of carrot ginger chick pea soup
water

Lunch: (this was slightly warmed up)
can of tuna (low sodium)
1/2 cup of salsa
1 large tomato diced
water
decaf coffee with unsweetened almond milk

snack (before bike ride)
brown rice cake (lundenburg)
water

Diner:
tomato tempeh soup drizzled with olive oil
green juice (collards, zucchini, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 apple, 2 carrots, 3 green tomatoes and mint)
water
tea with almond milk

Ok so yes tomato soup with tempeh is strange... but it worked because it's all blended up together!  And come on who doesn't like, tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil???? 

I sort of just threw a bunch of tomatoes from our garden about 7 or 8 in a pot
with a jar of Mark's tomato's sauce
lots of garlic
1 onion
1 carrot
some broccoli stems
about 2/3 of a pack of tempeh (plain, no salt, no flavour)
some dried basil and parsley
a dash of cinnamon
water

Day 6- really that's it?

Honestly I feel like I haven't had a refined carb in sooo long! I miss the crunch of rice chips, the warm crust on my little GF vegan diner rolls...umm with their soft chewy centers...ahhhhh  Oh and scoops of natural peanut butter right out of the jar...ohhhh  And the worst part is I think I'm not going to lose any weight!  This morning the scale told me I went up???  really!! Come on... I've only been cheating a bit, but I wonder if because I'm feeling so hungry I'm in fact eating more calories? sigh** I guess I'll keep going and give it a few more days before actually throwing my hands up in defeat.  So here's what I had to eat today! 

Breakfast:
1/2cup GF oats
4 strawberries
1 tbsp raw almond butter
3tbsp hemp hearts
1 tbsp chia seeds
unsweetened almond milk
water
decaf coffee with soy milk (I know..I know I have to give this up!)

snack:
- 1 cup of sweet potato curry humus
- 5-6 stalks of celery
-1/3 cucumber
- 1 roma tomato
-water

Lunch:
-pack of Norri (seaweed paper)
- med. apple
- cup of carrot/chick pea ginger soup (see pic)
- decaf tea and water

snack: (or second lunch)
- 4 kale leaves (chopped)
- 4 romaine leaves (chopped)
- 1/4 cup salsa sauce
- can of tuna
- 2 tbsp of humus
-decaf tea and water

Diner: (see pics)
- asparagus stalks (about 8)
- broccoli florets (about 5)
- small onion
- garlic
- 3 slices of tempeh
-sauce made of 2 tbsp carrot soup and 2 tbsp humus
-decaf tea and water

So here are the pics for the carrot ginger chick pea soup...

 

Just your basic carrot soup recipe: simmer till soft then add chick peas and ginger and blend!
1.5 lbs of carrots
couple of stalks of celery
an onion
a clove or two of garlic
1/2 sweet potato
1/4 zucchini (bc it was left over from the other day)

These aren't organic and they probably have BPA in them but they have no salt and were available in a pinch!



The chick peas make this soups so thick!  It's amazing.

 

 It was amazing outside today so I had this on the back deck, with my book and hot tea!

And for diner because I'm obsessed with this humus and can't stop eating it with nearly every meal, I found a way to add it to my soup and used it as a sauce for my "power bowl" 



 

Day 4... the day I cheated.. or treated myself...

Friday are never easy when you are on a strict diet plan.  I figured if I could just make it till night time and then I would reward myself with a small treat.  I wasn't sure what I was planning yet but I did manage well all day! 

Breakfast
1/2 cup GF oats
1/3 cup strawberries
3 tbsp hemp hearts
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp raw almond butter
unsweetened almond milk
water
decaf coffee with unsweetened almond milk

snack
leftover homemade hummus
orange pepper
cucumbers
sundried tomatoes in olive oil
water
decaf tea with unsweetened almond milk

lunch
2 cup spinach leaves
can of tuna
1 tbsp olive oil
1tsp apple cider vinegar
garden tomato
raw zucchini
water
decaf tea with unsweetened almond milk

snack:
couple handfuls of dried peas
a small handful of dried veggies
protein shake:unsweetened almond milk, handful of strawberries, veg.protein powder, wheat grass powder, 1000mg vitamin C, probiotics (acidopholous) and ice

diner (apple curry stir fry)
athletes mix (about 1 cup)
serving of tempeh (is about 18g of protein)
curry sauce
an onion
a garden tomato (fist size)
an apple diced (actually made this really savory)
water
decaf pumpkin spice tea with almond milk

My reward for making it till today! 
 a grande decaf soy misto with a pump of pumpkin spice!  (Mark bought it for me as a "romantic gesture") I couldn't possibly tell him to bring me home a bunch of asparagus. 

So I'm not really expecting much from the scale tomorrow.  I was happy with what I did read today, so yes partially I'm doing this to lose the last couple of lbs, but I am doing this because I just needed to force a REBOOT!  You know, I was feeling sick and frumpy!  I'm already feeling much better. Headaches are gone, I'm not feeling nearly as sick as I was and no dizzyness or shaky feeling today! However that could be because I added strawberries this morning (extra sugar) and clearly ate more!

Second day of cooler1- a la GF sort of vegan style

Day 2 of post thanksgiving detox.  No dizziness, at least, but a faint annoying headache all day.  I managed to get more protein in today. Tomorrow I still need more.  I had a funny teaching day, it is Wednesday but I had my Monday schedule so I didn't start teaching until 1:55 in the afternoon.  So I had a lovely morning.  I had my breakfast, then went to the gym for a 30min CXworks class (I didn't think I would be ready for a double just yet).  I surprised myself because I wasn't as out of shape as I thought I was.  Anyway after that I stopped at the grocery store to pick up my coffee and some produce to get me through the day. Then I met with Mark at one of the early years centres to play with kid #3 and kid #4 (aka, Patrick and Ellie-Lynne).  Then home, lunch, cooking food and off to work!  Here are my eats.

Breakfast:
1/2 GF oats
3 tbsp hemp hearts
1 tbsp raw almond butter
1 tbps chia seeds
2 tbps apple sauce
1 tsp cinnamon
unsweetened almond milk poured over
water

snack:
field cucumber
decaf americano with a bit of soy milk(I'm trying to cut it out, I only had about an inch today)

Lunch:
zucchini noodles(most of a small zucchini)  - see pic bellow
a cup of homemade pasta sauce
tempeh (about the size of a deck of cards)
water

snack:
1.5 cups of homemade roasted red pepper (rrp) soup - see pic bellow
3 tbps hemp hearts
decaf coffee with unsweetened almond milk

Diner:
a can of tuna with olive oil drizzled over it
a mug of rrp soup
water

rooibos tea with unsweetened almond milk

Sliced zucchini so it has the look of pasta! I kept it raw.

Tempeh cooked in the pasta sauce Mark made for me last month!


Soup:
3 red peppers roasted on BBQ - skin peeled off (or most of it)
1 onion
1 celery stalk
1 carrot
1 small sweet potato
1 tetra pack of no salt added veg broth
a bit of chili pepper to flavour



After attacking it with my hand blender!

 

The food I ate today!

The food I eat in a day... are you curious?  I hope I can remember everything I ate actually.  Today was a long day. 


Breakfast:
1/2 GF Oats
1tbs raw almond butter
small peach (cut into chuncks)
a dash of cinnamon for flavour
2 tsp chia seeds

coffee
water

and because I wasn't satisfied with this I made some turkey sausages on the bbq, and made a salad. 

Snack1 - salad
1.5 turkey sausages
a handful of cherry tomatoes (my cute daughter picked them for me)
cucumber cubed
herbs from the garden (basil/parsley/oregano)
flax seed oil
apple cider vinegar

water
coffee with almond milk and ice

Lunch- stir fry
tempeh
green beans
broccoli
spinach
onions
a splash of curry sauce (no salt added)

Snack
vega chocolate smoothy in unsweetened almond milk
water with electrolyte pack (I'm using Nuun right now, mostly just because I have them)

I did a 90minute hot yoga at this point so I had another nuun water

Post workout snack (not healthy but I felt like I earned a treat)
Bumblebee bar
apple

Diner
sliced browned tempeh (with a tiny bit of coconut oil in my cast iron pan)
giant spinach salad
onions
cucumbers
1/4 apple sliced in it
a handful of GF Food Should Taste Good Chips (the multi-grain ones)
2 tbsp hemp hearts
dressing: 1/2 pack of vega tropical smoothy mixed with apple cider vinegar, flax seed oil and water
a handful of grapes for desert

water
1 can of Growers dry apple cider

snack-
1/3 cup popcorn (made a-la brown paper bag method)
1tbsp melted coconut cream (it is less refined than the oil and has a stronger coconut/sweet taste)
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp of chili powder 
a pinch of salt (some good stuff because I rarely use it) = mix the oils, chili powder and salt together first then drizzle over popcorn -then mix it up to coat

more water

ps. every time I write water I am consuming about 700ml of water (it's the 20oz (venti) starbucks water bottle)

All in all not a bad day for eating clean, I did watch Forks Over Knives today and am wondering if I'm getting bloated because of the meat I'm eating.  Otherwise I feel amazing! I basically eat like this most days, I'm getting most of my protein from vegetable sources (either tempeh/vegetarian protein powder/vega -One or smoothy/lentils/legumes).  But I do still have poultry in my diet and fish.  I've cut out completely gluten (that's been a while) eggs, red meats and dairy.  Interesting to note, my mom has an egg intolerance. ???  And now I have discovered that my son breaks out into a rash when he has dairy.  We had him off for a while and the rash cleared up but this week he stole some ice cream out of the freezer when we weren't looking and hoovered a ton of it and Voila rash on his face is back!  Well we have since found the freezer key and looked the freezer.  Casein...  I must really do some more research on this protein! 

Raw Asparagus Salad!

So we all know what BBQ season means!  Tons of meat grilled with lots of extra grams of saturated fat (in the beef burgers). But I challenge you to try something different this year.  When everyone is grabbing stuff to throw on the grill why no go raw instead!  You will feel so good about it!!!  Have you ever eaten raw asparagus?  Well assuming it's the good stuff either from a farmer's market (local and organic) or from your own garden like mine, it is amazing raw! The tender white center is so sweet, sort of like the tender inside a broccoli stem!  (Please tell me you don't compost this part, it is sooo good, just peel away the tough outside and the inside is delicious)

 This salad has massaged kale and spinach (in olive oil), asparagus, red peppers, carrots (I got these at Organic Garage, the kids love how they are pre-cut), tempeh, humus and beanitos.