This week I decided to join my friend, who is a beach body coach and just in on a 5 day clean eating challenge. I figured I eat clean most of the time, but this will help to keep me accountable. I also have no idea if oatmeal for breakfast is considered “clean” but I think it is better than a sugary cereal. So the group is there to motivate me and provide recipe suggestions as well.
Today I am linking up with Jenn for WIAW to look at my 1st day of the clean eating challenge on Monday.
I got up shortly before 5am, ate a banana and headed to the gym for my workout. It may be hard to get up, but I am happy to get my workout done in the morning and then have time in the evening to walk, stretch or do yoga.
After I got back from the gym, I had some oats with chia seeds, a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon on top since I didn’t have any fruit to top it. And you can’t forget the side of bacon. 3 slices since I headed to the gym and needed some protein.
For a drink, I had some hot lemon water and plain water.
I was proud of myself at work as I passed up on the donuts and cupcakes someone brought in. It’s easy for me to pass up on donuts, because honestly the donuts at Dunkin don’t make me feel great when I eat them (homemade donuts are totally OK though), but the chocolate cupcakes were a bit harder to resist. At least I had a filling breakfast so I wasn’t really hungry.
Mid morning at work, usually between 10 and 11 I get hungry since I eat at 6am, so I packed some carrots and homemade cilantro hummus (the hummus came out a little thin this time, have to perfect the recipe eventually). This is where the clean eating challenge came into play for me as I usually snack on granola, though not terrible, I am trying to limit the amount of carbs.
For lunch I had my usual salad and I actually stopped using salad dressing when I bring my salads to work (more out of laziness because I haven’t found a little container I like, I used to use a container from take out and mix olive oil and dried basil for dressing, but with tomato and cucumber in my salad and turkey or ham, I am used to it without the dressing).
I also had some clementines because I found these at Trader Joes last week and was soooo excited!! I absolutely love clementines.
Next snack was a homemade protein granola bar using this recipe. I make these about every other week and cut into 12 bars and store them individually wrapped in a bag in the freezer. I use almond butter instead of peanut butter and have been loving my GNC protein powder I got at Glow Retreat.
I also was a bit hungry and keep these bean snacks in my cupboard at work for munching on. The ingredients are black beans and sunflower oil for the main ingredients so even though they are a processed food, the ingredient list is pretty clean and I was getting a bit hungry.
After work, I went out for a run/walk and then threw together some dinner. I cooked up some ground beef, sauteed some tomato and onion on Sunday and had it on lettuce. This was supposed to be a lettuce wrap, but the lettuce I got did not work too well for that. I also cooked up some broccoli for the side which was topped with a drizzle of olive oil and Italian seasoning.
For a sweet treat, I had half a banana topped with almond butter, which really hit the spot. Other than the chocolate chips in my granola bars, I am trying to stay away from chocolate this week too.
That sums up my clean eats for day 1. I think I did pretty well. Hopefully the rest of the week goes pretty smoothly. Oh and I forgot to mention, I drink water like it’s my job, attached to my water bottle so much and that is basically my only drink of the day.
A look at the week for meals – Most of the next days will be similar for breakfast and lunch. Dinner I am making some quinoa and chicken for a stir fry type meal one night and then I usually have a mint avocado smoothie with protein powder before I go to zumba one night (which will be Thursday this week) and as far as the other days, spiralized zucchini will definitely be a side dish and find some meat in the freezer.
I used to meal plan but then I would buy too much and not be hungry for it all, so I buy fresh veggies and use my current meat freezer stock for now.
Do you prefer to meal plan or wing it? I like to prepare roasted veggies in advance or a side dish, I have been winging it on the meat lately.
Have you ever done a clean eating challenge? This is my first, but I have cleaned up my eats a lot in the past 2 years from what they used to be.
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Yum! Your salad looks great. I really can’t wait for clementine season!