On the Whole30 diet that I did in January, I felt like I was starving all the time for the first couple of weeks. I'm surprisingly "fine" on this diet. I didn't wake up very hungry on day 4, so I made a smoothie.

Half pineapple juiced with carrots and ginger then put in a blender with spinach. Ta-da! Not pretty but it tasted nice.

Lunch was roasted broccoli (like, the whole head) and onion with leftover rice and black beans.

Snack - Grapefruit

Dinner was an experiment in sauteed portabella mushrooms and onions on a salad of spinach, carrots and beansprouts. I won't lie, I used a tiny bit of salad dressing that was not compliant. No more than a teaspoon but still. The non-compliant ingredients were soybean oil, sugar and apple cider vinegar. The salad in general, even with cheater-dressing, was not a culinary delight but it did it's job. I threw the dressing away after dinner to prevent anymore cheats.

Now that we're back to school and my toddler sometimes goes to daycare so I can work, I don't have a lot of energy at the end of the day for writing steemit posts. Today, I'm combining days 4 and 5 for that reason.

On day five..

I loved the smoothie from yesterday so much that I made it again. I tried getting fancy and layering it for "the shoot" but with a frosted pint glass and a little blender foam - not exactly taking Stock Photos here. It tasted good though, trust me. 😊

Second breakfast. Oatmeal with 1/2 cup Silk Almond milk (that has cane sugar in it so I'm not buying more after this carton), maple syrup and walnuts. I barely miss butter and brown sugar. This isn't bad at all. Needs raisins maybe.

I was working a long shift today and had to use my lunch break to bring my daughter home from daycare. The afternoon was a juggle of trying to get her to nap and working. Which means: lunch was walnuts. I was worried about losing weight during this diet (I know, what a problem huh?) but with the amount of nuts I'm eating a day I'm really not noticing much weight loss. Which I appreciate. I was already 5'9" and 125lbs starting out. This diet isn't meant to help me lose weight, it's meant to heal and rest my elimination system from inflammatory irritation foods so I can raise my overall health and energy levels.

I roasted chicken for the kids but (even though it's blood-type A compliant) since I'm TRYING to stay vegan for 40 days to raise my energetic vibration I didn't partake. Juggling their dinner and mine means I didn't get around to fixing myself beans. Oh well. My dreams have yet to mention any problems with my diet (and they WILL if there are any) so I guess I'm doing fine.

There is half an avocado in that salad. The dressing is a cilantro-lime dressing I made from scratch (olive oil, cilantro, honey/agave, fresh lime juice, I'm just now realizing that I forgot to add garlic). This execution didn't blow my mind but I'd try it again. I definitely had more rice and roasted green beans than is pictured here.

Later in the evening I shared this grapefruit with my toddler. Also a little kiwi.

This is something that I take a few nights a week before bed - when I remember. For me, it does everything advertised on the label and I love it. Before I began trying to heal my elimination system and looking for the right foods for MY body, it took food an average of 5 days to leave my system after I ate it. That's way too long. I drink this and psyllium husk (not at the same time) a few times a week. I should probably remember to do it on a daily basis.

Ahhh, now I'm off to day 6. I have to say, even though I miss not having as many options for eating out - this isn't that hard.

Thanks for following my diet journey!