What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW) - January edition with 21 Day Jump Start

Welcome to my first WIAW blog post! First things first... what is WIAW? It stands for "What I Ate Wednesdays," first discovered on Laura's blog (Sprint 2 the Table). A person dishes on the meals (and sometimes activities too) from one day of their week. I've been wanting to participate in this forever because I'm a blogger deep down to the core. My personalized version will also add tasty nibbles and thoughts throughout the month.

The month of January has been interesting, to say the least. Laura challenged her readers to a 21 Day Jump Start, which I foolishly joined for fun. The best way to describe this meal plan is a detox of sorts to cut out foods that are allergens. The available foods were Whole30-like without grains, dairy, nuts, or eggs. A FB group provided meal ideas and support while we kept track of our own meals in a journal. I enjoyed experimenting with new recipes such as the above Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Quinoa (from Sprint2theTable). The first half was completely meatless but on Day 11, we added lean proteins! 

Here's how day 11 went down:

Breakfast: I was running late to work and missed breakfast (oops). Instead, I'll share my breakfast from the prior day: Sweet Potato Protein Breakfast Bowl from Fit Mitten Kitchen. The bowl was easy to customize by picking your favorite fruits, throwing on hemp seeds (a tasty discovery from this diet), and adding plant protein to fill you up. Results were the perfect amount of sweetness without added sugars!

Lunch: At work, there were catered sandwiches from Which Wich but at least I was able to swipe some plain salad! I topped it with Zucchini Hummus dressing and plated this Quinoa Stuffed Sweet Potato from Simply Quinoa. The tahini dressing was absolutely addicting!

Dinner: My first official "lean protein" was this amazing Greek-Style Baked Cod from The Mediterranean Dish. Pan frying gave it a nice crisp edge and the additional lemon butter on top paired nicely with the quinoa kale mix. On the side was Thai Coconut Soup. We loved the cod so much that we made it again a few nights later!

Snacks: I really enjoyed having crisp veggies like red bell pepper and carrots dipped in zucchini hummus.

There were two pre-planned cheat meals in my schedule. Day 12 had a wedding where I went too wild, eating everything in sight, causing major regret with my overfilled belly.

The second was a SDRW media dinner on day 15 at SoleLuna Cafe. I intended to take sample bites of each item but couldn't resist eating normal portions while there.

Thoughts:

I tried morning shakes the first couple of days but these were too much to finish in the morning. The hungriest times were when I didn't pack any acceptable snacks for work. At least my natural energy (no caffeine needed) stayed up to par throughout. Cooking is one of my passions so testing new recipes suggested by the support group was fun. Quinoa and sweet potatoes were my best friends plus I ate so many veggies! I even dropped a few pounds.

At the finish, I could add in one food group (such as grains, dairy, cheese, etc) at a time to check for reactions. This choice was hard because I didn't have any cravings... Eggs seemed easiest for breakfast and I went with my original plan of grains for lunch at Souplantation. I think my energy level has dropped a little since I went off this plan but it could be due to not getting enough rest. If I could do it all over again (very likely in the future), I'd find alternatives to the wedding food and perhaps skipped the media meal to fully kick this diet's butt! Thanks to Laura for being the head cheerleader and providing a way to reset my body positively through this 21 Day Jump Start! Check out other WIAW through this LINK

Have you challenged yourself with a popular food plan before? Was it a success?