Healthy Start 7 // Day 3

Day three really felt like I was in the swing of things. After two days of quinoa as our main protein source I was still missing some things in my diet (taste-wise) that I was used to - yogurt for breakfast, tossing chicken in a salad at lunch, and of course...my whey protein after the gym. *sad face* The plus side was I found myself at the place mentally where I knew I was really committed to making it through the rest of the week.

A struggle I still found at this point was that I was still hungry at the end of the day. One of the habits I was hoping to abandon from doing this health fast was snacking late at night. I tend to eat healthy most of the day and then reward myself at night if I still feel hungry by eating something cheat-y. Not good! The reason is because I don't always get the calories (good ones) in that I need during the day.

Fortunately, I discovered two new recipes on this day that I wanted to eat lots of and I could because they were two healthy veggie recipes. Upping my intake of calories with an extra snack (a double dose of hummus with my carrots, or an extra handful of nuts) or just eating a portion and a half at meal times really helped this week work well for me and cut the late night cravings.

Lesson:: It's okay to feed your body when you're feeding it something good. Giving into the bad calories at night means you've got to up your healthy calories in the day time so you aren't left fighting off an icky craving for junk later!

::Breakfast::
Our meal plan suggested a smoothie, so we tried out the delicious Healthy Start 7 mango smoothie recipe. It was a hit. I almost always make my smoothies with berries for antioxidants so this was a nice change of pace for me. I added a drop of pineapple and extra coconut. It was tropical heaven goodness!

::Lunch::
Lunch was leftovers for me since we are only a family of two and many of these recipes are to feed at least four. Everything was awesome left over that we made, which is always a good thing in my opinion. Check out Day 1 and Day 2 to see some of the recipes we've made already.

::Dinner::

I opted to skip to Day 4's dinner...Sweet Potato with chili sauce and brussel sprouts. #1) because tonight called for salad with avocado and the avocados I had delivered were not good...so sad :( Avocados are such delicious yumminess unless you get a hard, watery one that isn't really ripe yet. Ick! What can I say? We are so spoiled with them year round here. My skin is so thankful.

Reason #2) because I was excited to make two veggies that I want to incorporate more in our diet:  Sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts.  I've always liked them they just weren't something I craved (unless of course you're talking sweet potato fries!). Plus I know how good they can be for you, so I want to eat them in a healthy way that tastes good. But what I was really excited for was to find a way to make them good to my husband. These were two veggies that were like dirty words to him. Not that brussel sprouts are everyone's favorite or anything...they definitely have a bad rap. But really, when done right, they are soooo good. And I'm happy to say I now have a way that I absolutely crave both of these Good Eats!!  Aaaannndd my husband actually said he "LIKED" these brussel sprouts and wants to eat them again. Victory.

You can view the Healthy Start 7 recipe for this tasty meal. And stay tuned for my yummy versions after our week of healthy eating posts! It's worth the wait.