Challenge Accepted: Week 1

Week one of the 22 Day Revolution has been full of ups and downs. I suppose that is to be expected when trying anything new. I went grocery shopping the day before starting the plan. The shopping list provided in the book is terrible. It asks for different types of the same ingredient (cherry, grape, AND full size tomatoes? Why?). There are ingredients that aren’t mentioned in any recipes, and incorrect portions for everything else.

For example, the shopping list says only one banana is needed, but bananas are mentioned in at least three recipes. There’s also a rogue grapefruit on the list and no recipe for it. There were also a lot of specialty ingredients, which I didn’t appreciate. When it was all said and done, I’d gone to three different stores and still didn’t have everything. As someone who HATES grocery shopping, this was a problem. Even with the inconsistencies, I was still eager to begin.

Day 1: I weighed in Sunday morning for the first time in about 3 years. As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t like the weigh in cycle because I become obsessed. Alas, seeing the number did give me the realization that I’m not quite where I want to be. Perhaps after this challenge is over, I could create a healthier weigh in schedule, instead of omitting it altogether.

Breakfast- Oatmeal with Banana and Blueberries: I usually prefer savory breakfasts, but I’ll eat oatmeal in a pinch. For this meal I added the same cinnamon and nutmeg I always do, just nixed the sugar. Surprisingly, it was still good. Then again, how can you mess up oatmeal?
Lunch-Quinoa Salad with Lentils: While the idea of the meal was great, and it smelled delicious, this one was lacking in the flavor department. Also, the recipe calls for 1 cup quinoa and 1 cup lentils which each yield 3 cooked cups. It’s confusing when the breakfast was clearly a serving for 1. Upon further investigation, I learned that none of the recipes have consistent serving sizes. They range from 1-4 servings and there’s a pdf that has how many servings is in each recipe. It’s even crazier that there isn’t any consistency in servings when each meal is meant to only be eaten once.
Dinner-Raw Walnut Tacos: My first impression was “how can walnuts possibly be made into a taco?” After tasting the walnut filling, I was quickly impressed. These are delicious. Since I haven’t eaten beef in three years that definitely made me much more accepting than an omnivore would have been. No complaints here!

Day 2: Forgot to weigh in but I did make it to the gym!

Breakfast-Lean Green Juice: Very good. I do the JJ Smith smoothie detox a few times a year. That has made me appreciate meal replacement smoothies. I was full until lunch.
Lunch-Artichoke, Tomato, and Avocado Salad: This meal was absolutely disgusting. When people say things like “vegan food is nasty. I don’t know how you do it” this is the meal they’re talking about. I know for an absolute fact that Beyoncé isn’t eating this crap. I’m not sure how he thought some paprika was going to make canned artichoke palatable, but I took 3 bites and threw the rest away. I ended up getting a black bean wrap from the cafe at work. It had cheese. Sue me.
Dinner- Walnut tacos again. Delicious.

Day 3: Three pounds down. Decided to make the rest of the week simpler for myself.

Breakfast- Back to oatmeal.
Lunch- Leftover quinoa and lentils from Monday. Except I added salsa and hot sauce. That added flavor boost was exactly what this meal needed.
Dinner- Walnut tacos

Day 4: 4th of July

Breakfast- Was actually more like brunch. I bought Gardein’s meatless pepperoni pockets and decided to give those a try. They are delicious!
Dinner- I indulged with corn, crab legs and grilled shrimp. It wasn’t vegan, but it was protein packed. More importantly, I didn’t have ANY alcohol! I’m definitely considering that a success.

The Weekend: Day 5 was a repeat of day 3. I celebrated my birthday on days 6-7. I had late lunches which consisted of Gardein pockets and fruit. My dinners were vegan burgers one day and hibachi the other. I also went wine tasting for the first time, which was really fun. I highly recommend it. Even with straying away from the plan, I managed to lose 3 more pounds over the weekend!

Take Away: Shopping for a million recipes was expensive. I did appreciate the ease of the recipes. Each one only took about 10 mins to prep. The recipes are hit or miss. Even with the setbacks, I did see some results. Next week, I’ll have a better plan of action.