Sunday, February 9, 2014

Day 7: Wow! 7 Days Already!!

Oh my goodness, it's already the 7th day of the Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge! Even though I still crave pizza and chicken, I'm definitely noticing how good my body feels. After I eat, I feel satisfied and full but not stuffed and bloated. I would get this disgusting feeling in my stomach and intestines many times a week after eating...which usually led to me spending the rest of my night lounging around with little energy or motivation. 

I guess that's the vicious cycle of comfort food. I'd eat it if I had a bad day, then lay around all night then have to scramble the next day to get done what I should have the night before. Then I'd get stressed and eat more comfort food. Then my pants were getting too tight, which bummed me out...and when I felt bummed out, I'd reach for more comfort food. Anyway, not indulging on frozen pizza, fast food burritos, candy bars and cheese samples at the store makes my stomach feel better. Yay!

Ok, enough about that, let me tell you what I had for breakfast. I saw that Cascadian Farms Raisin Bran was E2 approved...but it was a bit out of my budget. So, I bought 365 brand Bran Flakes (that have less sugar than Cascadian Farms Raisin Bran) and then just added some raisins and sliced almonds! I ate it with my favorite unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Mmm!



I snacked on a Granny Smith apple at snack time. I forget to include that in my blogs, but I typically have one apple and at least one clementine a day. 

I didn't really plan ahead for lunch so made an impromtu lunch that would make Elvis drool...a peanut butter and banana wrap! I used the Engine 2 Sprouted Grains tortilla and spread my no salt or oil added peanut butter on it. I topped it off with sliced banana and rolled it up. Easy peasy and super good!



It really was good! Perfect if you forgot to plan lunch! I ate it with a garlic kale salad. I'll include a photo tomorrow!

After work, I snacked on some dried unsweetened mango slices. Yum! They're like candy. 

Since I had comfort food on the brain, I decided to make an E2 version of some Southern comfort food...hot fried chicken!

Mine, of course was baked, not fried, and tofu, not chicken. I also baked thinly sliced sweet potato chips that were so so delicious!! Here's the recipe:

Heather Jean's Hot Baked Tofu
1/4 block of extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp liquid aminos
5 tbsp water

Mix the dry ingredients (breading) together in one small bowl. Mix the liquid ingredients together in another bowl.

Dip the tofu cubes into the liquid and then into the breading bowl. Shake the tofu around in the breading until completely covered. Place the tofu cube on a baking pan lined with parchment paper (to avoid sticking.) Repeat this process until all the tofu cubes are breaded and placed on the pan.

Next, scrub the skin of a sweet potato until clean. Dry the potato and thinly slice it into chips (with skin on.) I used a half of a small sweet potato for one meal for myself. Once the chips were placed on the pan (same pan as the tofu), I poured one drop of liquid aminos on each chip and rubbed it in with my finger. I then sprinkled each chip with ground cumin. I baked the tofu and chips for 15 minutes at 350, then increased the heat to 425 and baked for another 8 minutes. I increased the heat to crisp up the tofu and chips after they were cooked through.

I ate this meal with the Muir Glen Organic Ketchup and a little low sodium mustard. Gosh, it was so good!! I was pretty pleased with my cooking!


Before I sign off, let me get back to the other two diseases most likely to kill Americans. Type 2 Diabetes and the Obesity Crisis. Rip told us that 1 in 3 people born after the year 2000 will develop Type 2 Diabetes. Rip also said that 76% of Americans are overweight or obese and 35% are considered obese. He also said 1 in 5 children are overweight. Rip informed us that salt, sugar and oil are appetite stimulants making people crave more and more. So the 28 Day Challenge is a way to help you stop craving these things.


Well I'm hoping to get to the YMCA tomorrow (provided I'm pretty much all better from my cold) and then I can weigh myself! I'm hoping I will have lost a few lbs. I feel like I may have, but it's hard to tell. I do think my progress photo looks like I'd made some progress on my stomach area, so that's awesome!

Thanks for reading guys! 21Days!

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