Plant-Based Eating :: Volume II Day 4

Day 4 Volume II

Today was my first day back to work in 5 days; yes FIVE days! So I was back to “planning my meals ahead”… which I’m not very good at. 🙂 I will say I’ve resigned myself to the fact that convenience foods are better than no foods! In the past if I didn’t have enough time to prepare a lunch from scratch, I would either make due with tidbits (almonds, cereal, oatmeal, etc) hidden in my desk drawer or simply eat out. Neither of these options are what I would consider ideal. Too much eating out, no matter how healthy it is, seems to catch up with me eventually and I start to feel run down. Not eating enough food during the day, leads to a HUGE dinner at night. I’m a work in progress.

As I was trying to get myself out the door by a specific time this morning and failing miserably, I threw together an über healthy smoothie chockfull of broccoli, celery, zucchini, spinach, banana, water and a scoop of vanilla protein powder. Now, before I go on, ask yourself what was missing…

Give up? SOMETHING COLD. Not only was this smoothie warm because it had no ice and nothing frozen in it, but it was “spicy” (for lack of a better word). I’m not sure how or why, but it was. Look at the size of that thing!

I was bound and determined not to waste it, so I vowed to chug it down. I hopped in the car and along the way gulped down the green “goodness” (if I keep telling myself its good, it will be good, right?!). Plus, it always helps to take my morning vitamins with something besides water. 

By the time I had swallowed the last pill, my stomach wasn’t feeling so hot and my throat felt like I put pepper in the smoothie. What the?? Chemicals maybe? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. (This lead me to a lunchtime surf of the web, clicking on topics relevant to ‘Do’s and Dont’s for juicing/smoothies’. I learned a lot! And let me tell you, that smoothie is still in the fridge. I haven’t been brave enough to give it a second shot.)

The plus side to this morning, was that my cube was decorated by one of my co-workers as a belated birthday. Made me smile, despite the horrid smoothie.

Yes, those are army men, mixed with farm animals and dinosaurs… and glitter balloons.

I will keep it up for a couple days. 🙂

So, the smoothie was a bust and once my stomach settled down, I ate a Clif Bar (convenience food #1). MUCH BETTER. (240 calories, 40 carbs, 6 g fat, 11 g protein)

For lunch I had a pre-packaged salad from Trader Joe’s, called the Vegetable and Grain Country Salad. From my first bite, I fell in love. I think it’s because it has fresh dill in it! There is also cabbage hidden under all that bulgar. (convenience food #2… 400 calories, 52 carbs, 20 g fat, 10 g protein)

After lunch, I had some black tea with a little honey. 

Then, of course, there were some office treats! HOMEMADE. Thanks a lot Melissa! 🙂 I had a little chunk and it was incredible, as always! I estimated the nutrition information on this one… (125 calories, 17 carbs, 6 g fat, 2 g protein).

Late in the day, I had green peas and a frozen Trader Joe’s Veggie Burger as an early dinner. (convenience food #3, pulled from my newly purchased emergency frozen stash – I needed SOMETHING green in the emergency stash! See… making progress…)I didn’t get my workouts in this morning (I really needed sleep… I haven’t slept well in a couple weeks…) so I needed fuel before my workouts! (335 calories, 46 carbs, 12 g fat, 13 g protein)Still feeling exhausted, I came home from work and reluctantly got started on the P90X workout, Shoulders, Tris and Chest + Ab Ripper X. I LOVE to run, but really don’t like any other type of workout. I only do them so they will help me become a better runner. 😉 Shortly after finishing ab ripper, I stepped outside to get a short run in. Mr. Zucchini Runner worked on a second dinner for me and a first dinner for himself. It was a recipe I found on a blog earlier in the day for zucchini ribbons with a vegan alfredo sauce. Thank you Lisa’s Project: Vegan! Its a jellyfish! AH!!!!

Did I mention it was 102°F when I finally made it outside for 5k? No? Well, it was. Thank goodness for the volleyball courts having cooling sprinklers for the sand on them! A group playing basketball turned them on for outdoor A/C and I was able to run through them and cool off at the halfway point. I didn’t push nearly as hard as I normally do. Running in that kind of heat is a whole other type of running. I made sure my heart rate always felt comfortable and as a result I was able to cool down pretty quickly when I got home. I also had a 3/4 frozen water bottle with me to drink and squirt on my arms.

Dinner was waiting for me on the counter, since it was raw, it didn’t need to stay warm. It. Was. Amazing. LOVED it!! You should go check it out on Lisa’s blog. (176 calories, 13 carbs, 11 g fat, 6 g protein)

Final totals for the day:

Calories 1,276

Carbs 168

Fat 55

Protein 42

Sugar 52 g (getting better everyday!)

Well, because of my smoothie mishap I was way low on my calories for the day. Fortunately, I wasn’t hungry in between meals and there is always tomorrow to do better!

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