Starting Fresh

Apple, banana, kale, and ginger juice

So, I have finally decided to try and get my health in check. Weight loss is always a major goal for myself, but I tend to go to extremes with it by either hardly eating anything, or eating like crazy. I can never find middle ground. I have lost 30ish pounds so far this year, but the momentum has definitely plateaued. I need to find something that works for me that I can adopt as a lifestyle versus simply a diet.

This weekend I decided to do some research into my current issues that  plague me, the most serious one being my chronic fatigue. I am seriously always tired/low energy. I don't drink coffee, or much caffeine for that matter, but I do swear by 5 Hour Energy. Based on what I read, it seems like one of my main issues could be an over production of candida, which is a bacteria that lives in our stomachs and intestines. But over-growth of it is caused by high sugar consumption and it has many symptoms, including fatigue, skin problems, and acid reflux which are all major problems for me.

Long story short, I have decided to try to cut out sugar, sodium, and dairy from my diet. The sodium is because my doctor told me I had high sodium levels and need to cut back, which makes sense because I am definitely more into salty foods than sweets. (But I eat a lot of carbs which turn into sugar, which is obviously the candida problem.) As for the dairy, I have heard for awhile, mostly from vegans, that eliminating dairy from their diets helped a lot with skin and digestive issues. So I figured why not try it out?

So my new "lifestyle" is cutting back on sodium, trying to eliminate as much sugar as possible, avoiding dairy as much as possible (I LOVE YOU, CHEESE!), switching to whole wheat and grains versus white flour, and jucing! Yay juicing! I love that I feel like I'm making a witch's potion when I make a juice, because I just throw a bunch of stuff in and hope for the best! In order to try and hold myself accountable, I am going to start taking pictures of everything I eat/prepare. I don't want to eat anything that I'll be ashamed to post and this will also help me keep track of what I am eating.

So without further ado, today's food! Hurray!

Oh, for the record, I plan on starting my days out with tea and a juice at home in the morning. Then I am going to be bringing breakfast, lunch, and a snack to work with me and trying to eat every three hours.

Today's juice was spinach, carrots, apple, cherry with water added. Could have been a tad bit sweeter, but not bad.

For breakfast I brought steel cut oats that I made yesterday using half water and half almond milk. I topped it with agave syrup and blueberries. It was freaking delicious!

For lunch I made a salad with mixed greens, carrots, garbanzo beans, some broiled tomatoes (on the left) and a tuna cake with corn. Yay left overs! I brought a little container of honey dijon dressing for it.

For a snack I brought some plain hummus with carrots, pretzels, and veggie crisps for dipping. Now that I typed that I am craving my snack! DAMN YOU stomach!!

Allie brought me in some vegan chocolate zucchini bread that she made this weekend and it is AMAZING! You would never know it isn't straight- up chocolate bread/cake. 

I am going to attempt to be good and not eat any of it (aside from the small taste-test bite I took) until I get home. 

So that is my plan! Fingers crossed that I can stick with it, but also that it does make a difference in both my health and quality of life!