28 day challenge time

The new year brings a reminder of all the good times that were had last year!  A few too many good times and now my pants are getting a little tight!  It's a good time to get back on track with healthy living.  Every year I like to do something in January to get back into shape after the holidays.  This year I knew I wanted to go vegan but I feel like I need to kick it up a bit more than that.  During a regular visit to one of my favorite places, the library I skimmed the "diet" aisle remembering that I hate diets.  Then it came to me, I heard about these guys and even tried some of their food - The Engine 2 Diet!  I checked this book out and knew I could do this 28 day challenge.  The premise is plant power; no dairy, eggs, meat, oil, processed foods, refined sugars, processed grains along with no food with 2.5 grams fat per 100 calories.  I'm already vegetarian and was excited to cut back on the sugar crashing I've been doing lately.  The universe seemed to be on my side, after reading the book Whole Foods sent me an email that they were doing an Engine No 2 Challenge.  Sign up and get a coupon for their food.  I was excited to do this and scheduled it to end right before my birthday.

I was looking forward to making the recipes in the book but ended up with a busy week and not making it to the store.  I had many approved foods in the cupboards so I was going to make do with brown rice, beans and the random fruits and veggies I had in the fridge.  Along with the food change the challenge recommends 10 minutes of exercise 5x week which I have been slacking on as well.

My first few days were not as bad as I expected but not great.  My meals were a little bland and it encouraged me to plan better so I did make a list and get to the store.  I'll post the food highlights that are helping me through.  My only craving has been for a swift drink but I'm trying to avoid alcohol as well.  I'm also using myfitnesspal to help track calories.  I'm finding with all these cut backs I want to make sure I'm keeping up with my goal of getting enough protein.  I've found that I'm actually not eating enough calories so I got more hearty things that I can eat to help.  The foods I was eating were not very filling so I was getting hungry about every 3 hours.  One day I broke down at Walgreens I was so hungry I needed food!...  I got a giant bag of plain Blue Diamond almonds to keep in my car for snack emergencies!
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Reading food labels has been exhausting so I'm trying to focus on natural foods that I know what they are and get back to cooking.  Check here on the recipes section for some tasty approved good eats!

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