Eating Clean: Prep and Start

So it is Tuesday, which means I have made it through ONE DAY of eating clean so far. I'm not gonna lie, it hasn't been easy! But, to be fair...I have had extenuating circumstances. On Sunday night I got a migraine which stayed with me all through Monday (day 1). For whatever reason when I have a migraine I always feel like if I eat something it will be better (it almost never works FYI) so I did have an extra desire to eat all day but other than that...I did okay. I actually had more than enough food and it was all good. However, Monday night I took Migraine medicine. It didn't work so, still fighting with the migraine today (day 2) AND now fighting with the heavily medicated feeling I always get after taking that kind of medicine. What do I usually do? Kill my body with sugar....literally...I eat so much it shocks me back to normal. So I am struggling today to not give in and do that. But...I haven't and I refuse to. I will just be over here feeling like crap...I am sure it will pass! The truth is I knew this would be the hard part. When I am sick is when I eat the worst and care the least. If I can do it now...I can do it anytime!

So...here is the skinny on what I did....

I actually went shopping on Saturday night, which was a good idea. Shopping is tough on me and always wears me out so it was good to do that one day, and the cooking the next. I will have to remember that for future weekends. I was NOT happy at how much everything COST. No wonder people who eat "clean" are skinny...it's b/c they can't afford enough food! That wasn't a great start to my journey BUT I did have to admit that I bought more than just food. I also had to invest in a cutting board, some new knives, some Tupperware etc. so hopefully in the future it won't be AS bad. Here is my very small amount of groceries for way too big of a bill!

 

I sound very disgruntled. I was actually pretty excited about it all. Very colorful and pretty! I was ready to go on Sunday afternoon!

Sunday - first things first....I cut up a million veggies. I am NOT a  good cutter. I had to look up what kind of knife to use to cut what things. Some of the things I had to guess the correct way to cut them. I am fairly certain I probably guessed wrong on some of them. Might need some lessons with my sister-in-law and/or Sylvia sometime soon!  Here is the proof I did it though....and to be honest, it was a blast! :) Also here is my pretty new cutting board from Big Lots. I love it!

So I decided to make two main dishes for dinners. One was a chicken/veggie bake and the other was a whole wheat pasta with veggies. They both were super easy. Here are pictures and a link to the recipes I used to make them. (the pasta is almost nothing like what I ended up doing though, I sort of just used her idea and improvised with what I had/liked...)

 

                                      Chicken/Veggie Bake                            Pasta w/ Veggies

 I really kind of wanted to dive right in and eat them immediately, especially the Chicken Bake but I stuck to the plan and (after a taste test obviously) I doled them out into dinner containers. I ended up with ten ready made meals for my future! 

See how the one bowl on top of the red ones is different? That would be b/c my 4th red bowl had a HOLE in it and all the juice ran out of it onto my floor before I realized it! Agggh!

I am not going to lie, I was praying for 14, but I was also scared to death I would end up with 7 so...10 was a good compromise. I cleaned everything up - froze all the veggies I didn't use (except the ones I planned to eat for lunches through this week) and called Sunday done!

Monday, as I said, was a rough day, but really it wasn't about the diet. I followed the plan of breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and lots of water though the day, plus I had 2 cups of my organic hot tea thrown in and I was very satisfied hunger wise. And it was all very good!!

 

So in case you are worried, no I am not going to post like this every day. It would be ridiculous since I will pretty much be eating the same thing every day (well my dinners will alternate every other day). BUT, I might post when I try new recipes on Sundays. I don't know yet. I do know I found the blogs of people who had done it before to be very helpful so, if I can help others, I might do it. We shall see. No Internet at home does make it harder. I had to do this post on my lunch break at work (yes I am eating my veggies as I type!)

Overall....day 1 a success! If I can make it through this migraine I think this week will be a cinch!