31 Days of Clean Foods: Day 1

Today is my first day back to work after 5 days off, the first day of December, and the first day of my self proposed 31 days (I changed it to 31 days to be the full month of December) of clean foods.

Here’s my criteria for what constitutes as “clean” :

• All produce
• All unprocessed frozen fruits and veggies
• Organic deli meat (This is more for convenience because of my schedule and I won’t eat this everyday)
• Any animal protein
• all RAW ingredients – for instance: if it comes from the isle sections at the super market – it should have only one or two ingredients. (this has been a tough one and it’s only day 1!!)
• I will allow myself to have an occasional Quest bar as it is “clean” to an extent but this might change (for now I will have one on hand in case I’m starving and it will keep me out of the vending machine at work)
• I will take Metabolic Nutrition C.G.P. every morning before my workout
• I will take a multivitamin daily
• I will take L-arginine in the morning and before bed (until I find research that tells me this is incorrect usage)
• I will continue to drink Advocare’s Spark before my workouts
• I will continue to drink Advocare’s Slam when I really need a boost
• I will continue to take Advocare’s Thermoplus until I no longer have any and then I may or may not reorder
• I will continue to drink Metabolic Nutrition whey protein shakes as part of my overall health plan

I will continue to add/subtract from my criteria as the month goes on and I learn more about what eating clean really means.

Moving on…

Today was neither hard nor easy. I woke up at 5:30am and took – what seemed like – forever to get ready. I had to feed the dogs, feed the tree (this silly Christmas Tree is like another child! Why did I say okay to getting a real tree??) I couldn’t find my pants so I made my husband get out of bed to help me, and finally got out of the house at 6:45am! The plan was to get out of the house by 6:15, to the gym by 6:30, and be done with my cardio by 7:15 so I had plenty of time to shower and get ready for work so I could make and eat my breakfast and get to work on time. This clearly did not happen. I was in the gym by 6:55, on the stairmill by 7:00 and finished at 7:45am. I ran out of the shower and got to work at 8:04am to find out that two of the drop off patients were there waiting for me! Yikes! This meant not a lot of time for food – or anything at all – welcome back to work!

I finally got a chance to drink my protein shake at 8:45am which is much later than I’d have like to! I’m really trying to eat something within 15-30 minutes of my fasted cardio – the longer I’m fasted the more opportunity my body has to take it’s energy from my muscles – in essence breaking down the wrong macronutrient since I want it to break down fat – which it will do with the fasted cardio at no longer than 45 minutes! Anyway, after this the rest of the day went pretty well.

At around 11am I had about 1/4 cup of raw almonds – I would have liked to make this a more complete snack but I didn’t have a whole lot of time (this would have been a prime time for a quest bar). And at 1:30 I had lunch. For lunch I had about 1 cup of jasmine rice, about 2 cups of iceberg lettuce, 1oz chopped hazelnuts (they were in my bag and looked like they’d taste good as an extra added fat source), 4oz of baked chicken breast, and 6 cut up organic grape tomatoes. I had no idea how good this would be, I tend to just mix all different things together with a total disregard for flavor, but this was really good! I was surprised by how full I was – I wasn’t over full, but I was satisfied and I was satisfied for over 5 hours!! That is almost unheard of in my world!

At around 6pm I started to get a little hungry and it was almost time to leave, so I decided I’d finish up with what I was doing with work and then I’d eat my snack on my way home. The next time I looked up it was already 6:45 and oooo boy was my stomach grumbling. It’s important that I don’t let myself get too hungry because this has been a binge eating trigger in the past. I decided it was about time to leave work so I grabbed my medium honeycrisp apple (my all time favorite, I really wish they were all year round kind of apples) and 2 oz of organic deli turkey for the road.

I don’t really like eating in my car because it has become a bad habit – and a place where I can eat where no one can see me – which in turn has been a binge eating trigger as well, but I decided I had to go to the bank and pick up some meat for dinner so this was my best bet – plus I didn’t have any other food with me so I was pretty safe.

I headed to the bank and then to the supermarket. While at the supermarket I picked up some thinly sliced chicken breast and some thin sliced flank steak. I also picked up a few quest bars and an organic chocolate milk that literally had whole milk and cocoa powder as ingredients. I don’t usually do dairy but I was really craving chocolate and decided that this was probably my best bet – plus chocolate milk is a great recovery drink after a tough workout so I thought maybe I can add it to my shake tomorrow or Wednesday?! (So, maybe the chocolate milk wasn’t the “cleanest” of foods but, I’m still human and this is a work in progress – plus I promised that I would be honest and document everything!

When I got home I took care of the pups, and I cooked the flank steak and baked a sweet potato. I also decided it was a good idea to have two eggs and about 1 cup of green beans. Again, I don’t think about flavor, I just put things together! This meal was actually pretty darned good and I had it at about 8:45/9pm.

After 5 days of being home, Charlie was not happy that I left him all day. Definitely taking some time to cuddle with my poopsy – this is good for the mental health!!

Knowing that I will probably be asleep by 10pm I don’t have plans on eating anything else – but I will be honest, know that those quest bars are there is troubling me a bit – but I have to be strong. I will leave them and eat them when I’m actually hungry.

Oh, I should also mention that I have had 1 gallon of water today and I was chewing a piece of Orbit gum between lunch and my late afternoon snack.

SO far I think Day 1 has gone well. I’m a bit nervous about scheduling in the next few weeks because my schedule at work is about to get really crazy – I’m pulling in extra shifts which is going to throw off my training, which means I’m actually really glad that I’m going to be doing this but it also means that I’m going to have to be strong and really stick to the plan!

What are some of your tips/tricks for eating clean? Do you find that recipes can sometimes be overwhelming? What’s your favorite go-to meal while eating clean?

Hopefully at the end of the month I’ll be able to answer more of these questions!! Stay tuned to find out!