21 Day Fix- Round 2, Day 1

OK I am a little late in posting this, but I am going to try and catch up! My parents were visiting, starting on day one this round, so while I was pretty good at staying on track, I wasn't really spending much time on the computer, hence my skipping the first post! 

I started the morning with my exercise DVD. I did it around 5:30am. Yes, I get up waaaay too early! But my kids are usually up between 6-7am and I like to have my exercise and shower out of the way before they are up so I can be done with that part of my day and move on! I needed to make my exercise and shower time (self care!) more of a priority in my life, and I have found that getting up early is the easiest way for me to do that.  

On Fridays I usually do the Cardio Fix. 30 minutes of straight up cardio. No weights or mats necessary! I have a love-hate relationship with this program, but I did it anyway! 

I usually eat breakfast with the kids sometime between 7:30-8am. Here is what I ate for breakfast. 

1 green container of mixed veggies (today I had broccoli, kale, asparagus, and zucchini) mixed into 2 scrambled eggs (equal to one red container), a purple container of mixed berries, a slice of toast (equal to one yellow container) and a tsp. of coconut oil. I also had a cup of coffee with 1 Tbsp. of milk. Yes, you can have coffee with milk in it on this meal plan. Woohoo! 

I almost always have snack around 10:30am. Usually I would make Shakeology (especially on Cardio day!!) but on this day I think I was still waiting for my shipment to arrive. I made the mistake of ordering my new bag too late and I let myself run out! So instead I had this.

One red container of nonfat plain greek yogurt with one purple container of fresh pineapple! Typically I use canned pineapple but I got this one on sale, and I LOVE fresh pineapple!!

One of the things about the 21 day fix is that you get to eat a lot of veggies, but you are only allotted one orange container per day for salad dressing. You can have unlimited lemon and lime juice, seasonings and spices, among other delicious things. You can also have 1/2 of an orange container at a time (so sometimes I split it between lunch and dinner if I plan on having salads for both). But for me, it doesn't leave me a lot of room for extra dressing to dip carrots and celery in, for example. Then I came across this recipe for "ranch" dressing which is actually made from cottage cheese, so it counts as a red container (protein) instead of an orange container like most dressings. I decided to make it today! 

It was super easy to make. And I had to use the whole container of cottage cheese, so of course that means I had extra! I put it in the fridge, we will see how long it lasts ;) 

I usually try to have lunch around 12:30 or 1pm. If I wait much longer than that I tend to get cranky :(   I think today it was earlier though- more like 11:30/12. Here is my lunch today. 

I had a 2 green containers filled with garden salad (lettuce, kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, celery and green onion), 2 Tbsp. of my cottage cheese "ranch," and 1 red container of taco seasoned ground turkey (leftovers from dinner earlier in the week).

I had a snack around 2pm. Normally it would be more like 3/3:30pm but since I had an early lunch, it meant I needed an early snack! 

My afternoon snack was a green container of celery, a piece of bread (equivalent to one yellow container) and 2 tsp. of peanut butter. 

My parents came in from Oregon to visit this weekend. They showed up around 3:30pm that day. We decided to go out for dinner, and my husband wanted to check out a local Italian restaurant. I wasn't extremely hungry so I just ordered soup and salad. I also ate the bread that they give you to much on while you are waiting. I tried really hard to only have 1 serving size of bread so that I could still have an extra yellow container. On the 21 day fix, you can exchange 1 yellow container for a "treat" 3 times per week. I got a glass of wine with dinner! My family also ordered dessert. I thought about not having any, since I had already had a glass of wine, but I decided to go ahead and have some, I just didn't have too much ;) 

Sorry I didn't get a picture of my dinner! It was a garden salad (1 green container) with balsamic dressing (1 orange container), 1 cup of tomato soup (1 purple container), bread (1 yellow container) and a glass of wine (1 yellow container). 

After I got the kids to bed, I realized I didn't have any protein with dinner like I usually do, and I was hungry! So I found some leftover fajita chicken I had made the night before and portioned it into a red container. I also measured out a blue container of avocado. My mom made the comment of how small the containers looked, but once I measured and transferred it to a plate she saw how much it really was! Sometimes our perception of how much food we should have can be so warped!

So here was my final tally for the day- 5 greens, 3 purples, 3.5 reds, 4 yellows, 1 blue, 1 orange, and 4 tsp. I fell short on reds (I am allotted 5 per day) and 1 tsp. (I am also allotted 5 per day, which I am sure I made up for with the restaurant dinner food!) Overall it was a great day for nutrition, especially considering we went to a restaurant. It just goes to show you that you don't have to say, "screw it!" to your program if you want to go out to eat. I am all about making this a lifestyle change and not calling it a diet! It's a habit breaker. It's an eye opener. I am learning how to balance my food groups, because I was not doing it as well as I thought I was before!!