Hi, My name is Laura and it has been 4 days since...

...I have eaten fast-food or had a Starbucks coffee. So far I haven't melted or turned into a pillar of salt or anything like that. I think its going well.

Today I had a real challenge because my bosses brought El Pollo Loco to work for our holiday meal. It smelled really nice and looked all yummy and chickenish, but, I stayed strong. At one point, I very nearly gave in, but I told myself that I would let myself have a piece of chicken if I ate my lunch first and then still wanted it. Guess what? After I ate my lunch, I didn't want it anymore! Amazing.

Let's start at the top. Breakfast was the next closest thing to revolting. I took a half cup of coconut milk, a half a banana, two figs, a half cup of water, a half tbspn of molasses and a half cup of ice and threw it into the blender along with 1/3 of a cup "Ultimate Meal Powder". It went from creamy and yellow to green in about 2 seconds. The powder that they gave me is supposed to be full of awesome nutrients. It has 23 ingredients. Things like: Flax seed, Quinoa, Amaranth, Millet, Yellow peas, Spirulina, Nettles and a bunch of stuff that sounds like its made from plants that you might find at Hogwarts. Here's a pic of the resulting concoction:

It was so bad, I don't think even chocolate could save it. If I was allowed to have chocolate anymore, I could test that theory. Luckily, my friends had suggestions for me. Everything from spike it with raspberries to chuck it and hit the vodka. Instead, I drank it through a straw. (Everybody knows that crap tastes better through a straw).

 

Breakfast did fill me up though, so that was a plus. After breakfast, it took me a good hour to prepare the rest of the day's meals. I won't bore you with the details, I'll just share pictures.

 

This was lunch. -Brown rice with lentils and vegetables.

 



And dinner- Salmon with baked yams and vegetables.

 

I enjoyed both of these meals immensely. Today was the first time that I have ever tried lentils. I highly reccomend them.

 

Still no headache. I'm fascinated by this part.  Each time I have quit caffeine previously, I have been absolutely debilitated. Maybe it just hasn't hit yet. Maybe I will wake up tomorrow in excruciating pain and beg my mr. coffee for a fix. I guess we'll see. It's still too soon to be seeing any kind of health benefits, I'll just trust that they're coming. The best thing that I can say so far is that I haven't felt hungry or deprived so far.

 

Yesterday I posted about the expense of my groceries. I was curious today about my past spending habits, so I checked my bank account statement for last month. Last month I spent $447 on food, both at the grocery store and at fast food/restaurants. I definitely plan to keep all of my receipts so that I can compare the costs of the two diets.

 

Shame time! I wanna be able to do a "before" and "after" picture, so I'm going to go ahead and post my current "before" pic.

 

At work.



After I left the hospital the last time, I had lost nearly 20 pounds in about 2 weeks. My butt looked completely different. I ate it back on, and I'm hoping I can get rid of it again.

 

Ok, the kidlet finally went to sleep, its time to shop for Christmas presents! Only 9 shopping days left!!!