Well today was GREAT.  I began the day feeling exhausted and grumpy but realized I hadn’t drank any water.  After drinking four or five glasses I felt much better.

I was surprised that I didn’t encounter any foods I didn’t like today, even though I tried several new ones.

I had so much energy in the after noon that I spent at least 4 hours cleaning my house.  How embarrassing that it was so dirty that I could spend 4 hours cleaning it!?  I did spend about half of that time folding clothes though.  I LOVE cleaning!! 😀

So here is my review of the foods:

Breakfast:
fruit and nut crunch bar – this tasted way better than I anticipated.  Most fruit and nut bars are a bit dry and somewhat tasteless with the fruits being mostly apples. However this bar tasted a lot like a marshmallow bar and had much more fruit flavor in the fruit pieces than most bars do.  Loved it!

Mid-Morning Snack:
Oatmeal raisin crunch bar – this also tasted totally different than I expected.  I generally do not like oatmeal raisin things but this was great.  The texture was perfect and the flavor was so much better than any other “oatmeal raisin” flavored things!!

Lunch:
Banana Cream Pudding Shake – I realized that I was eating a lot of the bars and I don’t want to run out of them before the end of the month so I decided to try a new idea.  I mixed HALF a package of banana cream pudding with HALF a package of banana cream shake and blended it with ice to make a thick milky shake.  It wasn’t awesome and definitely did NOT taste like banana cream PIE but it was good.

Mid-Afternoon Snack:
Peanut Butter Crunch bar – I intended to eat less bars but I was REALLY craving sugar so I decided to eat something I knew was sweet.  I made myself savor it and it lasted 30 minutes!  I’m proud of myself for making a four inch bar last 30 minutes.  I prolonged it by cutting the bar into eight pieces and then sucking on them instead of chewing them. YUM!

Dinner: Lean and Green (details below)

Evening Snack:
Swiss Mocha (Shake) “ice cream” – This was super yummy.  I blended the shake ahead of time and tasted it a little at dinner so I knew what it tasted like.  Then I put a lid on the “magic bullet” jar and put it in the freezer.  Three hours later I took it out, ran it under hot water just to loosen it from the sides and then re-blended it to make a sort of ice cream.  It was REALLY good and way better this way.  I was glad I tasted it before and after so I could compare the difference.  Its amazing how much difference it makes when it is cold or frozen.

Lean and Green Details:
I had something similar to the other night with the Tomato Basil Pizza Burger from Morning Star Farms.  I chopped up mushrooms and cooked them a little in garlic and water (no oil or butter).  Then I removed the mushrooms being very careful to leave the water and garlic in the pan.  I then used the left-over yellow pepper from last night (1/2 cup) and cooked it in the same pan to give the pepper a little garlic taste.  The best part about that was that after I was finished there was still water in the pan that tasted like garlic, peppers and mushrooms.  I mixed that water with 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar.  (I really need to buy more vinegar because that’s the only kind I have right now!  I prefer white or apple cider.)  This made a sort of dressing and after refrigerating it a bit to cool it down I used it as my salad dressing.  It was much better than I expected and I will definitely be experimenting with ways of using a sort of flavored water as a dressing.  It would be less fat, taste good and moisten my lettuce. (I HATE a dry salad!!)
Next I sliced my grape tomatoes and chopped the lettuce and made a salad.  I refrigerated my peppers and mushrooms a bit and later wished I hadn’t but I didn’t want them to wilt my lettuce.  I cooked the patty and chopped it up.  I mixed it all together with the dressing and 1/2 cup of finely shredded cheese.  It was a very good salad but I preferred having a tomato dressing like the last time.  I will have to figure out how to make a sort of tomato vinaigrette using mostly water. hmm…

When I logged the meal it was a little over on the green which was to be expected since I used four veggies instead of three but I was going for variety.  I think next time I may try 1/4 c of peppers and tomatoes instead.  I want to be able to use more types of veggies but smaller amounts.  I wonder if that is allowed…

Well it was a great day and I am so very grateful I started this diet.  I would recommend it to anyone!!  But I imagine the first few days are way harder for people who usually eat more meat and uppers.  I am just missing my sugar a bit…

xox