Health Made Simple, Day 15!

Yesterday, Day 15 of the 8-week Health Made Simple plan from No Meat Athlete, was the first full day of the meal plan. This whole foods, plant-based plan starts off with a week of only changing your breakfasts (to smoothies) and then there's a week of continued smoothies plus whole foods-based snacks. And on the third week (this one), we go all out with a planned breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks.

This plan goes until right before Thanksgiving and includes a private Facebook community and weekly live Q&A healthcasts with Matt Frazier of No Meat Athlete and Sid Garza-Hillman of Approaching the Natural. I've long been an NMA fangirl, and I didn't want to miss this! Plus, it's probably a good idea for me to adopt some healthy habits before the holidays arrive.

My days typically start with a pre-workout snack, and yesterday, that was a Larabar (one of the approved whole foods-based snacks on the plan). Sometimes, I follow that with a post-workout snack (a carb-heavy snack of banana or white rice) before breakfast, but that depends on my workout. Yesterday, I just went to yoga, so no post-workout needed.

Breakfast on Day 15 was a Strawberry Raspberry Smoothie, a repeat recipe from week one. I LOVE that this meal plan repeats recipes (and utilizes leftovers) so you don't end up spending a ton on groceries. I still had frozen strawberries and raspberries from that first week and needed to use them. This also has banana, spinach, and walnuts.

Morning snack was Bell Pepper Slices with Cashew Ranch. This homemade cashew ranch is Sid's recipe (and very similar to the recipe in the NMA Cookbook). Love, love, love it!

Lunch was a Veggie Wrap with Hummus & Kalamata Olives. I used an Ezekiel sprouted grain tortilla and stuffed with romaine, tomato, carrot, olives, and hummus. Really tasty and perfect for a rushed work lunch on the go. But I probably should have added a healthy side because I was still pretty hungry after I ate this.

A couple hours later, I snacked on a Fruit Bowl (plums, grapes, strawberries) at my desk. Every day, one of the two snacks is a mixed fruit bowl. Between the smoothie and fruit bowl, I'm consuming WAY more fruit than usual, and it's making me feel pretty great! I think I do well on a high-fruit diet. Love those healthy carbs!

I was pretty stoked for dinner because I'd eaten pretty lightly all day. And this big bowl of Hearty Chickpea Pasta soup hit the spot. It has chickpeas, whole wheat pasta, kale, onions, celery, and a tomato stock base. So awesome on an unseasonably cold October night (in the 40s!!!!). Every night on HMS, we're supposed to have a side salad with dinner. This one had romaine, tomato, cucumber, red cabbage, toasted pine nuts, and tahini dressing. 

This filled me up, but I stayed up later than usual since I was taking off work the next day (today) for my birthday. So I ended up snacking on some baby carrots and hummus while watching Netflix later in the evening. 

Alright, I'm off to celebrate my 38th birthday! Don't worry — I'm going off meal plan (on day two! ha!) for cake and birthday dinner and cocktails. Will post birthday eats tomorrow!