Day 1

Today:

I ate:
-Green smoothie (banana, orange, grapes, kiwi, mango, spinach)
-Wheat bagel with egg, swiss cheese, and raw onion, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, red and green bell peppers
-Tofu sauteed in random spices
-Spinach and spring mix salad with red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, onion, and cherry tomatoes
-Kashi whole wheat strawberry waffle with Tofutti cream cheese and 1 tsp brown sugar
-Banana
-Avacado, provolone, onion, sprout, romaine, tomato sandwich on wheat bread
-Portobello mushroom stuffed with moz cheese, sundried tomatoes, and spinach
-1 cup organic whole milk with chocolate Instant Breakfast

Exercise:
-1 hour walk on the beach
-Approx 1 hour of babywearing

Comments:

Overall I am feeling good. Honestly, I am MAJORLY craving some chocolate. But I have been craving chocolate since I first got pregnant. The difference is that today I didn't give in...minus the Instant Breakfast, which was my 'cheat' for the day. I plan on continuing to use that as a cheat for 3 reasons: 1) If I'm going to cheat, it might as well be a cheat that gives me a bunch of vitamins. This pretty much satisfies my chocolate craving while still giving me some nutrients. Although there is also a lot of carbs and sugar, and this is processed, I still think it's better then the box of Snowcaps I reallllly wanted to go buy today. 2) I recently bought two giant boxes with 30 packets each, and I can't waste that much. 3) When compared with the rest of my day, the Instant Breakfast is really a relatively small thing. I am going to pick my battles. I ate a TON of fruits, veggies, and protein today...so I refuse to feel guilty about the 25 or so grams of non-fruit sugar I got today. I also had a bit more processed stuff then I wanted today, and more grains, but they were all healthy grains, and as I move into this, do more research, and find more recipes, I'm hoping that I will be able to eat less and less of that stuff.

I think tomorrow I need to make a bigger smoothie...I am guessing I drank about 10-12 ounces today, so not a full 16 oz. I ate it at 6:30 and was starved by 8:00 or 8:15. I am hoping that it gets easier to resist my cravings over time...and I think it will. When I did low carb, the first few weeks were soooo hard, but after that, I got used to it. When I gave up Diet Coke, I longed for it hourly for a few weeks, and then when I tasted it again after a long time, it was really gross to me. I have started to develop this philosophy in life, after being pregnant, giving birth naturally, living a few very sleepless weeks with a newborn, etc: nothing is really as bad as you think it is going to be. When you think about it beforehand, or when you hear about it, you think "Geez, that sounds so horrible!" You just have to decide you're going to do it, and DO IT. And in the moment, you just do it, and it really isn't all that bad.

I am proud of myself for sticking to the challenge today, because I had both a mommy breakfast and then Cody, Samara and I had dinner with friends (didn't mean to plan two restaurant meals in one day) and yet I still managed to eat really healthy. I was in MELLOW MUSHROOM and I was able to turn down pizza. I really want to stick to this. I really want to feel good. I really want to become physically healthier. And most of all, I really want to learn healthier habits. I know I can do this, and the longer I do it, the more of a lifestyle it will become. These are the things I want to pass on to my daughter. I won't even have to tell her that it's good to eat healthy and exercise because I'll be leading by example. Whenever I thought about cheating today (which I did a few times!) I thought about Samara in 5 years. What do I want to be teaching her? Will I be teaching her to diet, lose weight, then eat crap and gain it all back, then try to diet again? Will I teach her to have a love-hate relationship with food? Will I teach her to feel guilty about what she eats, to feel sick after she eats, to be exhausted all of the time? Will I teach her that being active is a chore?

No! I will be teaching her that our bodies were meant to eat whole foods thats grow in the ground, and they were made to dance and run and play--healthy eating and being active are fundamentals of life. I will be teaching her that soda and candy aren't 'food'. They aren't a staple. They may be a very occasional treat, but overall, life FEELS better when you are living a healthy lifestyle. Because it DOES feel better. Yes, it takes more thought--it's way easier to get fast food or something from a box--but it feels so much better to make something yourself.

I think this is going to be an interesting journey for me. Food is such an emotional thing for me! Up until recently, I've had a pretty emotional, and like I said, love-hate relationship with food. I do feel like I've been on an emotional roller coaster today, and it's only Day 1! But the important thing is that I did it and I'll continue doing it.

Yay for the 30 Day Green Challenge!!!