Archives for plant-based eating

Plant-Based Eating :: Volume II Day 10

Day 10 Volume II

The time has come… today is the last day of my food journaling. I figured 10 days was a good round number and besides, we need to start getting ready for our cross country trip in our RV! Lots and lots of food prep and planning for the week ahead! I hope you have enjoyed the journey as much as I have. Knowing people were “watching” what I was eating forced me to be more creative with my food and I really enjoyed that! Hopefully I will still carry that with me tomorrow, when I’m not going to be blogging it. 😉 As promised in yesterday’s post, I did get 9.5 hours of sleep, and then an hour long nap on the couch. I LOVE Sundays! No workouts. No work. Just some relaxation, reading and watching the History Channel.

I had a Shakeology smoothie for breakfast this morning, cause I had lots of fun stuff to get done! It was water, 1/2 a banana, 1/4 cup of frozen cherries, 10 raw almonds, 1/4 cup fresh blueberries, ice and of course a packet of vanilla Shakeology! Tasted great and lasted me about 3 hours! (264 calories, 36 carbs, 7 g fat, 18 g protein)
IMG_3112

For lunch I simply cooked carrots, onions, kale, celery, squash and some egg whites. Mr. Zucchini Runner made some amazing breakfast-style potatoes as well. So good!! (336 calories, 60 carbs, 0 fat, 25 g protein)IMG_3153Not pictured, are 8 dark chocolate covered almonds I ate when I woke up from a nap! (153 calories, 15 carbs, 10 g fat, 3 g protein) I had a healthier snack when I was more awake… apple with cinnamon, chia seeds, lemon juice and some pecans. (158 calories, 19 carbs, 10 g fat, 2 g protein)

IMG_3157

Shockingly, I had an Envirokids bar. 😉 (120 calories, 18 carbs, 5 g fat, 2 g protein)

IMG_3158For dinner I wanted to do something a little more “fancy” and opted to attempt a veggie Mexican lasagna. After all, we did still have 2 more giant zucchini’s to use up… they have just been sitting around, waiting to be productive. IMG_2843

These were locally grown by our friends Melissa and Adam and generously given to us (3 of them, to be exact) while we were at their daughter’s birthday party! SCORE!! I can’t think of anything better for Zucchini Runner to have and enjoy… and have a little fun with… !IMG_3114

I’m sensing my new profile pic for social media… 😉zucchini_runnerZucchini, cashew cream, salsa, mashed kidney beans mixed with some cumin and tomatillo salsa, topped off with corn all layered in a baking dish. (284 calories, 46 carbs, 8 g fat, 12 g protein)

IMG_3164And for my “free” treat of the week? Mr. Zucchini Runner just created one of these for each of us! He is GREAT at throwing things together and making them delicious! It is dark chocolate, Annie’s Cinnamon Bunnies (ground up) and homemade peanut butter – sounds like good run fuel for tomorrow morning!IMG_3170

Thanks for following along on this journey! Now I can add two new recipes I’ve been wanting to add. 🙂

Grand totals for the 10th and final day (not including my free dessert!):

Calories: 1,315

Carbs: 194

Fat: 40 g

Protein: 62 g

Sugars: 72 g

 

 

 

Plant-Based Eating :: Volume II Day 9

Day 9 Volume II

This morning I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and could barely open my eyes. I kept blinking in the hopes that my vision would get clearer… eventually it worked. If I didn’t have two friends showing up in 45 minutes, I most certainly would have crawled back into bed and put off my run until tomorrow and then feel guilty all day for doing so. Thank goodness for the buddy system. By the time Dana and Amy showed up, I was about half awake and a few more brain cells had charged up. Running is incredible, because as soon as we were out the door and hitting our feet to the ground, I felt fine. No more foggy head, no more sleepiness and I forgot all about my crazy week and lack of sleep every night. It was cooler this morning than it has been, but very humid! We did a shorter run than normal for a Saturday (5.5 miles), because we all wanted to head to head over to a local 5k where we knew a lot of the people racing; we joked about bandit-ing the course, paying for registration if they’d let us and just running around the park. We stretched for 2.5 seconds and then got in our cars and headed to the 5k!

Oh yeah, before my run I ate a piece of toast, but due to my hazy head, I forgot to take a picture of it… so here is the package. 🙂 (65 calories, 11 carbs, 2 g fat, 2 g protein)
IMG_3041Knowing my appetite, I grabbed half a banana for the car ride to the 5k – again – no picture because we were in a hurry! (26 calories, 7 carbs, 0 fat, 0 protein)

We arrived in plenty of time to pay for registration, only it was cash or check only and none of us had planned THAT far ahead.;-) We succumbed to simply running 2 miles and timed it so we could be at the finish when the first runners crossed the line. It was great to see so many familiar faces – all excellent runners too! From left to right, Derek Delancey of Parents On The Run (finally got to meet Allison!), Priscilla Schultz of Going Running Mommy and Rob Byers who doesn’t have a blog, but I’m going to plug his painting business, ACP Contracting. 😉

IMG_3087

After the race, Amy and I went to breakfast at a local restaurant. Look at the size of that protein pancake! I’m proud to say I ate almost the entire thing! (I had to totally guess on this one… 440 calories, 88 carbs, 7 g fat, 11 protein – sure, why not…)corine_protein_pancake

We split ONE ORDER, which contained TWO of these suckers! So much flour. Geez.
IMG_3055
I came home, took care of all the pets and decided I wasn’t done running for the day. I hopped on the treadmill and ran 4.3 miles while listening to an audiobook! That made a huge difference in passing the time. Total estimated calorie burn for the day: 1,195, but who really knows.

IMG_3077I’ve been waiting for this next moment, anxiously for about 3 days now… my first taste of Shakeology. If you haven’t heard of Shakeology, it is a meal replacement powder (or in my case, a snack) produced by Beachbody. Great. Who is Beachbody? They are the company behind P90X, Insanity and the newly released T25 home workouts and many, many more. I’ve been extremely curious about Shakeology for a long time, but never wanted to invest the money to try it. Thanks to the beauty of social media, I have “met” a few Beachbody Coaches and one in particular stood out to me, especially with his approach to the Vanilla Shakeology giveaway and just his overall approach to coaching and motivation. Thanks Coach Eric!

Along with the packets, he sent a recipe for me to try. I modified it slightly based on the ingredients I had available: water, vanilla Shakeology, half a banana, 1/2 cup of mixed frozen berries, 12 raw almonds and ice. (271 calories, 33 carbs, 9 g fat, 20 g protein) Have you tried Shakeology? If so, what did/do you think?

IMG_3085

I was really impressed with the ingredient list and I know the vegan ones are even better, since all the nutrients come from whole foods which are more readily absorbed in the body. I have two more samples to use up and then I will decide if ordering the vegan chocolate is a GO! 
IMG_3086The smoothie filled me up, but didn’t last very long since I had burned so many calories already… so I ate a Envirokids bar while I iced my feet and calves. It actually only has 6 g of added sugar, so I felt ok eating it after all my sugar research yesterday! (120 calories, 18 carbs, 5 g fat, 2 g protein)

IMG_3088Once my legs defrosted, I made myself a healthy but filling lunch! Baked yukon gold potato drizzled with some grapeseed oil and a little salt, topped with pan seared brussels sprouts, carrots, garlic, dill and walnuts. Really tasty! (423 calories, 61 carbs, 18 g fat, 16 g protein)

IMG_3094

I’ve had a hard time rehydrating today and a big glass of ice cold water with fresh cucumber and lemon sounded so good! You can witness firsthand the humidity in the air in the desert right now, from the perspiration on the glass!
IMG_3097

For dinner Mr. Zucchini Runner and I went to Pomegranate Cafe… our favorite vegan place! We started out splitting their Blood Builder juice which has red & golden beet, carrot, orange juice and pineapple. (~135 calories, 31 carbs, 0 fat, 2 g protein) I LOVE that flower! Does anyone know what it’s called?IMG_3099

For my final meal of the day, I ordered their Green Bandito Burrito: grilled spinach wrap stuffed with broccoli, spinach, quinoa, vegan cheese, Baja sauce, and seasoned tofu. (560 calories, 63 carbs, 24 g fat, 23 g protein) S T U F F E D. IMG_3100

On our drive home our monsoon season brought us some beautiful clouds and an amazing sunset. 🙂IMG_3101

Grand totals for the day:

I had room for more of everything according to My Fitness Pal, but I was pretty darn close. I am still stuffed as I’m typing this up and I’m heading to bed to sleep for probably 10 hours. I’m not even joking. Saturday night is my catch up on sleep night!

Calories: 2,080

Carbs: 312

Fat: 70 g

Protein: 76

Sugar: 99 g (this is mostly intrinsic sugars…)