Day 8

I've noticed that after initially feeling AWESOME by day 3 of this challenge, I'm not feeling quite the same today. On day 3 I noticed a significant decrease in my belly bloat, this however, was likely because my body was able to rid itself of most of the crap I'd ingested at Disney World. I'm not feeling "bad" just a little heavy. I'm wondering if this is the result of a significant increase in my fat intake. As previously stated, I'm not weighing in for another week so I'll be curious to see what the numbers say. As a way to compensate for not having sweets I think I've over done it a bit with nut butter, so I'm thinking of limiting myself to no more than 1 serving/day. Easier said than done... cashew butter is delicious!

For breakfast today I had the usual minus the sausage because I ran out. For lunch I packed a big salad topped with chicken breast, hot carrots, avocado, and salsa. I also packed a "cashew cookie" larabar to snack on. Now I love larabars but I generally stay away from them because they have a high sugar content (granted it is all natural). I got home from clinic around 5:30 and was stumped on what to make for dinner. God love him, Chad is pretty picky. There are literally only 5 veggies he will eat so its hard to add variety. I think I'm going to spend time tomorrow finding some new recipes to try. Tonight I ended up chopping up a bell pepper, zucchini, onion, and some asparagus, and stir frying everything in coconut oil. I really like to make dishes inspired by Asian flavors but they work best if you have fresh herbs. I improvised tonight and made my cashew sauce minus the fresh lime juice. Next time I make it I want to add lime, Thai basil, and a little cilantro. I had some cooked chicken thighs ready in the fridge, so I chopped them up and added them to the cooked veggies. I added the cashew sauce and some fresh baby spinach. I topped mine with broccoli/carrot slaw. Another quick and easy dinner.

I've been carefully tracking my grocery budget over the last week and its definitely going to be more than anticipated. I'm heading back to Wholefoods and Trader Joe's tomorrow!