The Not Starving Novelist

June 10, 2017June 10, 2017

21 Day Fix: Day 2

I am sore. Oh my God, so sore… Like the kind where it hurts to lower myself into a chair or squat down to pick up dog poop.

Even my neck muscles are sore.

So yeah… That first workout yesterday was killer.

So today’s eating started out well. Ray loves oatmeal, so last night I made overnight oats.

My breakfast today was one yellow (oatmeal), one red (2% Greek yoghurt), and 1/4 orange (1 teaspoon of chia seeds, hemp hearts, and coconut flakes).

For lunch I had a shakeology (vegan strawberry) mixed with water.

For a snack when I got home, I had three grays (1 t of almond butter, 2 t of tahini) and two yellows (white beans).

I puréed the white beans with the tahini, thinned it with water and fresh squeezed lemon juice until I got the consistency I wanted, added salt for seasoning, and then heated it because it’s raining and I felt like I wanted something warm.

I’m going to go do my workout and then have fun in the kitchen!

My workout was not as good as yesterday’s. I haven’t bought the weights yet, so I just did the motions with cans of beans in my hand for weight… Not very effective.

However, there were tons of push-ups in one minute planks and ab work, so at least I got those done with integrity.

I am buying the weights tomorrow.

For dinner, I used 2 greens (water sautéed Swiss chard), 1 red (chopped chicken breast), 1 blue (feta cheese), and 1 gray (1 t olive oil). I squeezed a fresh lemon over it to heighten all the flavors.

After my walk with the dogs, I made a really decadent smoothie: 1 red (protein powder), 2 purple (mixed berries), and 3/4s orange (coconut and ground flax seed). To be honest, it felt a little too indulgent and it made a LOT of smoothie … So now I am too full and feel like I cheated, and not in the fun kind of way where I got away with something.

Today I still had 2 greens left over.

Oh well– tomorrow is another day, right?

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017

21 Day Fix: Day 1

I woke up this morning excited about this experiment in portion control.

For breakfast, I carefully measured out a red container (3/4s of a cup) of yoghurt (Greek, 2%) and a purple container (1cup) of mixed berries. I then took a teaspoon and topped it with a mix of coconut, hemp hearts, and chia seeds (1/4 of an orange, I believe).

It was delicious and quite filling. Ray and I sat in our sunroom and sipped coffee and Bird stared at us longingly from his spot outside on the patio until we let him in and gave him breakfast.
I didn’t adequately food prep and this morning was busy, so around noon I drank a chocolate shakeology (red) with plain water.

I came home hungry, but I wanted to get my first workout in. Total body cardio with Autumn.

I’m still shaking.

I did all the exercises for the full time Autumn said to while I focused on pushing myself while keeping my form. I need to get the weights they recommend. Even without weights it was still hard, though. I was definitely sweating, breathing hard, and I couldn’t talk.
After my workout, I made dinner.

This dish is two reds (chopped chicken breast), two greens (bok Choy, green onion and garlic), 1/4 orange (1 t sesame seeds), and 2 grays (2 t oil).

I sautéed the green onions and garlic in 1 t olive oil after water sautéing the bok choy. I seasoned it with 1 t sesame oil, 1 t sesame seeds, 2 t fish sauce, and 2 t rice wine vinegar. In hindsight, I wish I had toasted the sesame seeds.
I swept the house while talking to my friend Melissa (who is also doing beach body), and I finally unpacked from my girls’ weekend (this week has been so crazy)!

7:30 Snack: my final gray (1 t almond butter) and 1 purple (cherries)

Now I’m going to walk a bored and petulant Bird and listen to a podcast.

Update: After my walk, I had a snack of blackberries (1 purple), feta cheese (1 blue), and a teaspoon of chia seeds, coconut, and hemp hearts (1/4 orange).

Then I had 4 ounces of red wine (a yellow) which you can do 3 times a week.

So if I have done my math right for the Plan B diet, I still have

2 greens (so two servings veg)
2 yellows (2 servings of carbs)

I hope I’m doing this right!

I also have a lot of water to drink before bed– I need to have about 10 cups to meet my quota.

I’ve also got some massive food prep to do. We have a ton of vegetables that must be eaten– it’s CSA season!

All in all, a great day 1.

June 5, 2017June 5, 2017

21 Day Fix: Day 0

Today’s blog post is pretty much a note to self.

I am looking forward to getting started on the 21 day fix offered by beach body tomorrow. I have several friends who have done it, and I have a few friends who are coaches… And I’ve heard enough about it at this point to know that it will help me achieve some long-term health and fitness goals.

More about those later. Promise. So many stories!
For starters, however, I want to put on the record that I wanted to start today… But there were many forces to overcome, and I did not navigate them successfully.

So today will be the pregame warm-up.

The different colored containers you use to measure out your food for the day will arrive tomorrow, and I just can’t wait to start using them to teach myself portion control.

Beach body is very strict about portion control, so they have a set of color-coded containers that guide you to see exactly how much you should be eating of the different kinds of foods on the plan. Portion control has always been a huge issue for me, so I am excited to internalize this over the next 21 days.

More about the containers later.

While I was waiting for the coffee to brew, I had a spoonful of coconut oil. I did not measure it. However, I wanted to have a feeling of satiety that hopefully would kick start my day the right way. I left the house before 7 AM this morning for a work meeting in Seattle and I will be gone until probably 10 PM. It’s a really long day, and so I’m feeling anxious about that.

For breakfast, I had a piece of frittata with kale, onions, ground sausage, chopped peppers… And of course, eggs! It’s hard to know how much of the containers this would take up in terms of vegetables, protein, and healthy fats. I think Ray used coconut oil when he made it, but I can’t be sure.

Because I am eating homemade foods with different ingredients in them, and I am new to the program, I can’t really estimate how much of certain kinds of foods I am eating today. I’m just going to be at peace with that. Once I am more familiar with the containers, hopefully I will be able to look back at this post and figure out how much I ate!
As I mentioned, I’ll probably be gone about 13 hours today, so I definitely don’t have the ideal amount of food for lunch and dinner and snacks… But I at least have enough food to get me through.

I packed a big spinach salad with a whole avocado, one lime, and fresh cilantro… And I poured a tablespoon of olive oil into a container to dress it. My daily allowance of avocado on the plan is 1/3, so this is definitely overdoing it!

That’s why today is day zero. The Avocado.

I also packed some of those baby colored peppers for snacking.

I made some salmon cakes using a whole 30 recipe a while ago and put them in the freezer, so I also packed three of them. They have canned salmon, sweet potato, butter… I will enjoy these, but again, it’s hard to know how these measure out in terms of the containers.

I also packed a packet of shakeology that my friend Melissa gave me yesterday… And I also have a shake packet formulated by Mark Sisson of the primal blueprint.

So I will just eat all this food throughout the day and not worry about it too much. If I am hungry tonight, we have plenty of vegetables and some homemade pumpkin soup in the fridge.

Because I will be gone so long today, I don’t think I’ll be able to get in a workout. But I am looking forward to starting with the 21 day fix exercise program tomorrow.

So now I’m going to enjoy a cup of coffee and settle in to what will be a great but very intense day! I hope I made the right choice is to fuel myself.

I am looking forward to a forensic analysis later once I understand how the whole portioning thing works!