Our 30-Day Eating Challenge | Week 3 Plus, Smoothies!

Spring is really, really, really here!  It's 70 degrees and GLORIOUS out!  And do you know what that makes me want?  Both ice cream and sugar-laden iced coffee beverages.  That.

Anyways, here's our eating challenge update:

The Plan, updated:  The original idea was to follow the Whole30, which entails cutting

• added sugar
• legumes
• dairy
• grains
• alcohol

out of your diet.  Our plan is to {mostly} cut these out of our diet for 30 days.  As I mentioned last week, we adapted our plan a bit to include some whole grains.  My injury has been feeling a little better, so maybe that was a good choice.  So far my grain intake has been limited to quinoa and brown rice.  

 This week was also the week we had built in the most days for parties/trips/etc., so we weren't exactly perfect (or even close), but we are still on plan.  

Lessons Learned and Favorite Foods:

• As I mentioned, even with a cheat ice cream trip AND a built-in ice cream trip, I'm still hard-core craving ice cream.  And sugary coffee beverages, just of the chilled variety now. 
• Still eating crazy amounts of carrots and nuts for snacks.  These sweet and spicy nuts (without the sugar and with olive oil instead of butter) have been an awesome snack.  We brought them to a party this weekend, and even the people who could eat anything liked them! 
• I forgot to get eggs this weekend, so I'm currently down to one lonesome egg.  I need to rectify that situation asap. 
• I discovered carne guisada last night!   It was great because it was a stew thickened with veggies (woo!) so I didn't have to fight with flour substitutes or anything.  I made half the recipe and we finished it all.  I also added some lime juice at the end.  I also totally forgot to take any pictures.  Oops. 
• Baking for other people is 100% impossible if you plan to not cheat at all.  Oh. my. goodness.  I never wanted to sit and eat a whole bowl of cupcake batter before this week.  Needless to say, there was finger licking going on.  

Again, I have to say we aren't feeling the amazing results I thought we would.  I'm still tired, although the crashing before bedtime seems to be over.  I feel like moods have finally evened out, which is nice, but by this point, we're both just tired of the whole proposition.  That led us to cheat yesterday (especially now that the weather's good), and might become more of a problem this week.  That being said, I do feel like this style of eating has become habit.  Besides ice cream and sweet beverages, I haven't been super craving cheese or wanting to go get meals that don't comply.  Maybe that's because the end is in sight, or maybe it's because a habit is forming.  Day 30, here we come.

But now, smoothies!  Smoothies are not disallowed during the Whole 30 program, but they are somewhat frowned upon, since drinking food registers differently from eating it.  I've always felt that way, so I've always paired a smoothie with a small granola bar, hard boiled egg or something similar to make a meal.  I've been using smoothies either (1) as breakfast (with a hard boiled egg) when I'm out of/don't have time to make fresh eggs or (2) as part of my post-swim meal.  

Breakfast smoothies have centered around bananas.  Post-swim smoothies have centered around a fun, new recipe I found online for an avocado-based smoothie  that I've tweaked a little bit.  Next time, I might even try to add some kale!  Who am I?

Anyway, go and smoothie!

Banana-Almond Butter Smoothie 

1 banana, cut in chunks and frozen

1/2 fresh banana, in chunks

1 tbsp. almond butter

almond milk to cover the banana pieces

Add all ingredients to a blender, and blend till smooth.

Nutty Berry Avocado Smoothie

Adapted from Greatist

1 cup almond milk

1 tbsp. chia seeds

1 tbsp. almond butter

1/4 avocado

3-4 pitted dried plums

1/2 cup frozen berries 

1/2 banana

Add all ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth!