The Plan, So Far

There's a saying, about the road to hell being paved with the best intentions. I think that sums up much of my life.

This past Sunday was to be the start of my following the Think and Grow Thin plan. I planned for it (but not very well), but Saturday night, I wound up with a stomach bug or some other sort of intestinal unpleasantness. So my Sunday was spent on the couch, sleeping, or running to the bathroom. My eating was nowhere near what I'd planned to do. I started out not eating very much at all (a sandwich, with about half the meat I normally do), or too much of the wrong stuff (potato chips! Lots of hummus! Stouffer's mac and cheese!) Sunday was just a no go kind of day.

As for Monday, I wasn't awake for breakfast. For lunch, I had a salad instead of the sandwich and chips I'd planned for (I actually had no allowed chips.) The rest of the day I did decently, having apples at snack times, dinner was almost perfect- you're supposed to have brown or long grain wild rice. I only had yellow. I did portion out a cup of it, so at least it's helping develop a habit. I even cooked two more chicken breasts for the next two nights. I like to work ahead sometimes :)

I can say, I'm thankful for the hiccup in my plan, because it reminded me, if something isn't flexible, it will break. I'm going to follow this plan, but with some tweaks that I think are more beneficial to me personally. My #1 trigger food is actually chips. So, despite the fact that I actually control myself fairly well when faced with a bag of baked Lay's, I've decided to have a mixed greens salad in place of the chips. Surely extra veggies won't hurt, right? Other than missing breakfast, having yellow rice and no chips at lunch, I was pretty much on point for everything else. My snacks were apples and yogurt (with chia seeds), my chicken was prepared without added fat or salt, and I actually measured my salad for dinner, instead of grabbing a couple of handfuls and calling it x-amount. I did have some peanut butter and some Fiber One and skim milk after dinner. I'm still about 800-plus calories under goal according to MyFitnessPal, so I think today was a vast improvement, even if it wasn't perfect.

A final note, if you are interested in following this plan and need ideas for seasoning your meats, or you are just looking for good fat/salt free options, I recommend Penzey's Spices. They offer many salt free varieties. I am currently using Sunny Spain, which is a lemon-pepper seasoning, which is great on chicken, tilapia, and would probably be just as tasty sprinkled on salads. Check them out here. And check back tomorrow (later today?) for a crazy-easy chicken recipe!