Challenge Day 11
The day I couldn’t stop thinking about food
Some of you may think it’s out of sheer laziness that my blogs are beginning to be fewer and far between, but really, it’s because the challenge is getting easier, more routine, and there are less things for me to whinge about! When I started, I did a complete 360 when it came to both my food and exercise habits, and while the exercise side of it isn’t necessarily getting any easier (believe me, I can bearely clench my fists this today after an EPIC boxing session last night with over 1100 punches thrown), the food side of things kind of is. I still ask Trace and Corrine a BILLION questions (no exaggerations what so ever) everytime I see them about diet, but I’m slowly starting to get the hang of what I can and can’t eat, when to eat it, how much to eat and how to eat it. Sooo, I decided I’d devote this entire blog today to one of my favourite things in the whole entire world … FOOD!
I love food. Especially anything that has carbs in it (shock horror! I bet you didn’t already know that). I knew when I started this challenge that cutting out carbs would be number 1 on top of the rules list, and I also knew that would be the hardest thing in the world for me to do. I love carbs. And I don’t discriminate either – rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry. Pile my plate up with carbs and I’m one happy woman. Recently, it even got the point were I was eating carbs WITH carbs. Pasta salad on toast, hot chips sandwich. And while I do miss eating my ritualistic toast in the mornings or having a nice thick slice of café style fruit Ioaf lathered with apricot jam (oh my gosh, I am drooling just writing about it) I have learnt to eat other foods which (most of the time anyway) taste just as good but are 100 times better for me.
1 – My breakfast.
Berry bircher muesli with fresh strawberries, seeds and almond milk.
Not as bad as it sounds. When I first bought the almond milk, I 100% hesitated when I went to open the UHT carton. It took me days to find it in the shops. In the end, I found it in a health food shop in the city. They charged me $12/L for it! I tried very hard to hide the shock on my face though I'm sure the sales girl saw me flinch when I saw the price tag. That day, I told myself I HAD to drink it all but at the same time had convinced myself that it would taste like 5 day old baby poo. I opened it, smelled it, and poured it into my bowl. Verdict – it has no smell, no taste, and looks like calomine lotion. Mix some strawberries in, and all I can taste is muesli and berries. Not that bad at all. Now I eat it almost every morning.
2 – My dinner.
Well, one of my dinners. I made this for the first time 1 week ago, after my sister and I had just come back from a long walk around the lakes and I forgot to take meat out of the freezer for dinner before we left (I hate microwave defrosted meat. Yuck!). This was the best I could could up with in a short amount of time and it tastes amazing! This is homemade pizza on wholegrain tortilla bread with a tomato base, tomato, bacon (though it can be left completely vego), sweet potato (zapped in the microwave for 1 minute first), bocconcini cheese (very high in protein) and spinach leaves. I think I’m going to have this for dinner tonight as well with either prawns or chicken (these are the tough decisions in my life at the moment).
3 – My other dinner.
4 – A drink.
One of my biggest problems so far has been my lack of pretein intake. I’m finding it somewhat difficult to be eating the recommended daily amount of protein. I just don’t know how to eat as much as I need to. During one of my last health kicks (one of the many) I invested in some protein powder which I had completely forgotten about. For the last 9 months I had actually been using it as a door stop (how embarrassing!) and have now revitalised it again. It’s a berry flavoured one formuated especially for women, but it still tastes like crap. I hate protein shakes, so I had to come up with a viable way of drinking them. VWA-LA! A protein berry smoothie. I can’t even taste the protein powder!
5 – A snack.
Protein jelly
Another great way of masking the protein powder and boosting my protein intake is PROTEIN JELLY!! How genius is this?! I am fascinated. I made this batch last night and enjoyed it as my morning snack today. It tastes awesome, and it makes me feel like I’m eating something naughty when really I’m not. I am definitely a fan.
6 – Another snack.
This one I didn’t enjoy as much, protein mousse. I used the berry protein again to make this one but all I could really taste is the egg whites. Perhaps this is best with chocolate flavoured powder, and I may have overcooked it a little as it was as tough as old boots, but I’m not in a massive rush to try this one again any time soon.
If anyone has any other great recipe ideas or awesome ways to mask the stupid protein powder flavour I would love to hear them! Give me a bit of inspiration to mix up my diet a little.
Mel x.
Another great reading! You should write a book!
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say, that all these foods do taste good! You might be cooking for the whole family soon - and i am not even kidding!
Great work! I actually picked up a recipe magazine the other day 'Australian Healthy Food Guide' it is the September 2011 issue and has so many recipes I want to try. Of course it'll all wait til our next food shop, like I said, this week I have just focused on my portion control and limit how much I eat to try and shrink my stomach a little because I have quite a big appetite usually. Pick up this magazine for sure!
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