Yes I’m coming to your inbox on a Monday night, instead of Wednesday! I’m a pretty spontaneous gal when it comes to certain things, like my blog. Mr. Zucchini Runner and I just got home from a quick trip to Washington state visiting family. It was beautiful and wonderful, and we ate just about whatever we felt like eating.

We had quite a long wait for a ferry on a Friday afternoon.

There is no shortage of water — it was so beautiful and cool — a nice change from Phoenix.

In our opinions, not stressing about food is part of what you do on vacations. But we also always like to get back on track right away, so those high calorie/high sugar choices don’t suddenly start to become the norm. One way to do that, is to focus on really clean eating for about a week. (We also have a wedding to attend at the end of August, and of course we want to look extra svelte in our formal attire.)

In the past, I’ve tracked my journey during similar weeks (or months). Like when I focused on tracking my plant-based eating in Feb. 2013, and then again in July 2013. Then July 2015 I tracked my “no refined sugar, no white flour” or #nrsnwf on Instagram for a month. (You can search the hashtag on Instagram if you are interested in seeing more.) So, I thought why not share my experience again. (Apparently I have a pattern of sharing like this in July!)

So my goal for the next 5-7 days is to:

• focus on GREENS FIRST. PLANTS FIRST in every meal
• zero to very little anything processed; just the simple food from mother earth
• no eggs (because I do still eat eggs, even though my blog is completely vegan)
• minimal oil, if any at all
• no wheat; bread
• basically, get back to my basics of plant-based eating and where I ideally like to be

I will share my food daily through blog posts and keep track of macros for those of you that are curious. (I often hear that it’s hard to get enough protein on a vegan diet, or how people wish they could eat the portions I do.) Let me know if you have any questions, but most of the meals should be straight forward!

DAY 1 Food

Throughout the day I had 3 cups of white tea.

Veggies for juicing!

Started the morning off with 2 cups of green juice, with some maca powder, turmeric powder and 1 cup of frozen mixed organic berries, blended into a smoothie.

BREAKFAST: 240 calories, 48 g carbs, 5 g protein, 31 g sugar (I found a cool nutritional info, juice calculator. That’s when I found out my juice was also JAM PACKED with Vitamins A, C and K, Thiamin, Folate, Magnesium and Potassium.)

Salad toppings!

LUNCH: 300 calories, 25 g carbs, 21 g fat (from olive oil dressing, homemade), 5 g protein, 12 g sugar

Had some more berry blend…

SNACK: This was simply the berry blend and a tiny bit of frozen banana, blended in my Vitamix. I then topped it with almonds and a little bit of unsweetened coconut oil. 188 calories, 27 carbs, 8 g fat, 4 g protein, 14 g sugar

SNACK 2: Quick little snack before dinner; Chocolate Vegan Shakeology mixed with ice and water in the blender. 170 calories, 22 g carbs, 3 g fat, 16 g protein, 9 g sugar. I made the exception for “processed foods” with my Shakeology, because I’ve taken it for about 3 years now and it has only ever helped me feel BETTER. Never worse. I feel very nourished after drinking a shake.

DINNER: 2 cups of steamed broccoli, 1 c. wild rice, 1/2 c. black beans, 2 tbsp. salsa and 1/4 of an avocado (which I added after I took the picture). 444 calories, 79 g carbs, 8 g fat, 20 g protein, 6 g sugar

I feel good about day 1. Although, I didn’t want to eat that big of a dinner, that was how the day went. At least it was at 7 pm, so I’ll have plenty of time to digest before my 11:30 pm bedtime. 🙂 We also have plans to head out on a nice and leisurely bike ride. As before, I use My Fitness Pal to track my calories and macros.

Final numbers for today:

Macro breakdown for today:

So what do you think? Do whatever it takes to stay on track on vacation, or don’t stress and go with the food-flow?