Tonight, I made my smoothie with 1c fresh watermelon chunks, 1c frozen strawberries, and 2c spinach and 1c soy protein powder. Delish!

Behold! Best Brussels Sprouts and Baked Red Yams with nut butter and toasted pecans.

I’m still having a hard time controlling hunger while remaining vegan, so I upped the protein with the pecans/nut butter. 

I like to serve the brussells sprouts in their own little separate container to preserve the sweet and spicy apple cider vinegar syrup that it is cooked in. YUM.

I haven’t had a soda in 6 days…which is amazing. But, I am  not sleeping any better.

I also do not feel more energy at the gym, which is a bummer. I am going to look into some vegan proteins to help me out–so far, beans, peanut butter, and nuts just seem to contribute a lot more calories than their meat counterparts. I typically have turkey or chicken or fish during the day with salad and feel much more satisfied.

Positives–beautiful glowing skin…but some tiny breakouts remain as my body continues to detox I guess.

Recipe : 1c frozen mango chunks, banana, 1/2 c frozen berries, 2c romaine.

The taste was lighter than the mixtures with more berries–likely due to less fiber. It wasn’t as filling and I was hungry all afternoon in spite of a large green salad with broccoli and a scoop of the leftover bulgur stew–served chilled. 

I don’t seem to miss the soda until late afternoon when I am just dead tired. I do think that I am more energetic during the day but doubt that I am getting sufficient protein before dinner because I have been a bit ravenous in the evening. I dropped 1 lb of body weight the second day of the challenge and my weight has stayed constant since then.

My skin looks a bit clearer! Hurrah!  I did not meet my activity goal today–I chased my two year old around…so hopefully that counts for something.

I drank the smoothie at my desk while checking emails and did just fine without the soda. It’s funny–I miss the fizz, but that is about all. I have a cup of coffee in the morning and that is it for the caffeine for me.  I hope it will eventually help my insomnia, but so far no change.

Staying Vegan at lunch turned out to be easier than I had predicted as well. Since I’m basically a stay at home mom that works only 10-12 hours per month, I can usually control my food environment during the day. Being at the office introduces temptation because part of the fun is eating out.  Today, I suggested a local deli to my girl friend that serves great salads. I chose a trio of edamame salad, mixed greens, and fresh fruit. Delicious!

Today’s lunch consisted of Bulgur, Peas, Tomato, and Olive Stew from Debra Wasserman’s cookbook “Conveniently Vegan”.  The dish is very filling–which helps in the transition away from meat–and keeps well over a few days. I used to make a batch for the week when I was working full time and it always reheated very well.

I also had a delicious mixed green salad with a home made Brown Sugar Cider Viniagrette (Recipe from Southern Living Magazine) I know that I am supposed to be avoiding sugar for my Green Smoothie Challenge, but I had made the Vinaigrette over the weekend and hate for it to go to waste. There are 3 tbs total sugar in the recipe–which makes a good cup of dressing, so it isn’t so awful!

I try to make homemade dressings whenever I can to avoid high fructose corn syrup and excess sugar. Coating a salad in a gloppy mixture of preservatives and refined sugars just seems to defeat much of the purpose in consuming a healthful salad. The handy container is something that I picked up from Pampered Chef. My friend LeAnne is a sales rep for them and I always get excited about new gadgets and toys! The plunger makes it easy to mix dressings on the spot as well as redistribute the oil after it’s been chilled.  There are recipes printed on the container as well but I think I have only made the Italian dressing.