Reboot Day 4

I stayed up till 3am and got up at 10:30am. That's what I get for sleeping away the afternoon.

BUT!!

I woke up with just the bare shadow of a headache, and by 11 IT WAS GONE BABY! Yes that's right, no more headache! I kept expecting it to come back, but it's now 4:30 and still not even a touch of it. My energy level has been excellent all day.  I actually managed to get my kitchen nice and clean along with my breakfast room, the family room, the living room, and most of the dining room.  I've done 3 loads of laundry, kept my 2 youngest away from my oldest so she could get school work done (for the record, she only does schoolwork on the weekends if she's been a little too slacking during the week and is behind..I'm not a slavedriver. Much.), and have also managed to keep my sanity.

I also weighed myself this morning. I will say nothing more on that until tomorrow since I had planned on only weighing myself every 5 days. This morning though the temptation was too overwhelming and I figured since I've resisted all the bad temptations, this was one I could slack on.

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Breakfast at 11 am
Tasty Tart Treat
1/2 Grapefruit
1 cup Pineapple
1 Orange cut into wedges
1 Kiwi
1/2 Mango, sliced
Fresh Mint
Mix together in a bowl. Enjoy! 

Calories: 80
Protein: 1 g
Fiber: 3 g

I'm so sad I forgot to add my pineapple. I also didn't have mango because somehow Kroger had none! I couldn't believe it. There's always a few there year round, but the 1 time I needed them, nada. Still not a bad breakfast overall and truth be told I only ate about 1/3 of it. I REALLY need to remember to halve all these recipes. I simply cannot eat a full serving of them. Also, I miss bacon.
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Mid-Morning Juice at 1pm
Mexican-Style Jugo
2 large Cucumbers
4 cups Cilantro, leaves and stems, roughly chopped and packed into the measuring cup
1 Lime
1 Poblano Pepper, ribs and seeds removed
1 Golden Delicious Apple
 
Calories: 200
Protein: 8 g
Fiber: 2 g 

Mehhhhhh. This was ok. I sort of likened it to an earthy limeade. I mostly tasted lime and cucumbers. Oddly though, it smelled mostly like cucumbers and that made wanna gag. I like cucumbers. I have nothing against them personally, but the smell of them just doesn't sit well with me for some strange reason. It's not even like that have a bad smell. I'm just weird like that.
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Lunch at 3pm
Refreshing Cucumber Salad
3 seedless Cucumbers
1 tsp Celtic or Sea Salt
1/2 a medium Red Onion
1/2 Tbsp. Ginger, finely minced
2 Tbsp. fresh Lime juice
2 Tbsp. fresh Dill, chopped
Dash of Cayenne Pepper, optional
 
Peel the cucumbers and slice in half lengthwise. Place the cucumber halves cut side down on a cutting board and slice into thin half moons, about 1/4 “ thick. Place in a medium sized bowl and toss with the salt. Allow the cucumbers to sit for 1 hour so that the cucumbers release some of their water. Strain the cucumbers and toss with the red onion, lime juice, ginger, cayenne pepper and fresh dill.
 
Calories: 138
Protein: 6 g
Fiber: 4.5 g
 
Sunset Blend Juice
1 large Sweet Potato
1 medium Carrot
1 Red Bell Pepper
2 large Red Beets
2 Golden Delicious Apples
1 Orange, optional
 
Calories: 436
Protein: 9 g
Fiber: 2 g 

The cucumber salad was quite tasty.  Again, couldn't eat it all. Really, I HAVE to start downsizing! However, this is one meal/snack that I boxed up and put in the fridge for later. Cucumber salads are yummy and usually even better after sitting for a while and letting flavors meld. I also backed off on the ginger a bit cause I'm honestly beginning to think this diet is trying to kill people with ginger. Seriously. It's almost ridiculous. I like ginger quite a bit, especially pickled ginger, but man.  By the time these 15 days are over I'm going to hate the stuff.

On that note.

I WILL NEVER EAT (or drink) BEETS AGAIN.

EVER.  NEVEREVEREVER.

I don't care if I'm offered $1,000,000  $10,000 $100. I now firmly believe that NOTHING can cover the taste of beets. Not even all the other ingredients in that drink could cover adequately or acceptably, or in the least bit at all, the taste of 2 very small beets. In the end it tasted like dirt with maybe some tiny bits of old apple rind ground in. Blech. Yuck. Pa-tooh. On the upside at least it wasn't blood red, just a very dark pink. I don't think that helped any.

So here's how I downed it. Most of it anyway. For as much as I hated the taste of this stuff, I knew it was pretty important for me to still get those calories and those vitamins and nutrients.  The only way that was possible, was by the good ol, closing of the eyes, holding the nose, and downing a kids size cup of the stuff. Ikea (God bless you Ikea also) has some kids plastic dishes they sell, and the cups are just the perfect size for anything you have to drink but don't like. Takes about 8-10 gulps to empty it.  Having my cucumber salad on the ready, I closed my eyes, held my nose, imagined I was drinking my delicious carrot apple juice, and chugged. Once emptied I turned immediately for the salad and still with nose held, shoved a forkful into my mouth, chewed, swallowed, and shoved another big bite in.  Only then did I allow myself a breath. It's possibl I would have turned a slight shade of blue somewhere in that time, but I think ingesting 2 days of red grossness evens that out somehow. 

So going with that method, I managed to get 2/3's of the juice down which, again, I tried and that counts for a lot. I've decided that I'm going back to the Reboot website and searching out other recipe replacements for any beet drinks from here on out.  I've already compiled my next 5 days of grocery supplies, and there are 5 beets on the list. No ma'am. Will not do it. 

Blech.

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Afternoon snack at never

Vegetable Soup (from Dinner day 3)
Calories: 185
Protein: 4 g
Fiber: 5.5 g 

Didn't happen.  Again.  I swear they give you enough food to not NEED all this other food. But I can't complain. At least I'm not starving.  Instead I'm eating dirt.
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Dinner at 7pm
Baked Zucchini with Tomatoes and Herbs
5 small Zucchini
4 Scallions, sliced, white and green parts separated
1 small Onion, chopped
2 Plum Tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 Tbsp. Celery Leaves (from inner stalks), chopped
4 Tbsp. Basil Leaves, chopped, plus extra for garnish
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground Black Pepper
 
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice the zucchini in half crosswise. Cut each half again lengthwise, and slice each of the halves into 4 equal, 1/2 inch pieces. They should look like sticks.
In a bowl, mix together the zucchini sticks with the white parts of the scallions, onion, tomatoes, celery leaves and basil. Mix in the olive oil, salt and pepper and toss to combine.
Pour into a 3 quart baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. Garnish with the sliced green tops of the scallions and the extra chopped basil.
Makes 4 servings
 
Per serving:
Calories: 153
Protein: 1.5 g
Fiber: 1.5 g
 
Sweet Potato and Carrot “Fries”
2 medium Sweet Potatoes
2 large Carrots
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. ground Cumin
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
 
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel the sweet potatoes and carrots. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, and slice each halve into 4 equal wedges. For the carrots, cut in half crosswise into two chunks. Slice each chunk lengthwise into 2 pieces, and cut each piece into 2 or 3 wedges, making them roughly the same size as the potatoes.
Put the potato and carrot wedges into a bowl and toss with the oil, cumin, pepper and salt. Arrange on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes or until the flesh is tender and the outside is lightly browned and the edges slightly crisp.
Note: You can substitute any combination of cinnamon/nutmeg, cayenne, rosemary or other spices for the cumin and Aleppo pepper.
 
Makes 2 servings
Per serving:
Calories: 278
Protein: 4 g
Fiber: 6 g 

    That is one hot mess of tastiness right there!

YUMMY!YUMMY!YUMMY!YUMMY!  *jumps around happily*
This was sooooooo goooooood! More than makes up for the fact that the hubby took the kids out to eat! What it doesn't make up for was him being a stinker and asking if I wanted him to bring me back a hot fudge sundae. *harumphs* Yes he was joking. He's in fact very supportive of me through this and does his best not to bring food around that he knows I like.  Just every once in awhile he likes to rib me a bit.  But just wait till HE'S doing this.  Oh yes my friends. *steeples fingers* It will be quiiiite interesting.  

So yes, the zucchini was absolutely scrumptious!  I even remembered to scale back the whole thing and only made 2 zucchini which was just enough to fill me up.  I also scaled down the fries to only 1 sweet potato and 1 carrot.  I couldn't finish those, sadly. 
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Tomorrow is the start of day 5. I've decided that shopping every 4-5 days would be the best bet since there's a lot to purchase for those 5 days, and the produce will go bad if you hold on to it for any longer.  I'm also hoping I can get some good deals on the produce since I don't want to spend another $120 on stuff. Still, in the long run it's worth it, but I think I would tell anyone else who's interested in this to try to do it in the summer when more produce is readily available, not in the middle of winter like I so intelligently did, when there's no produce at all. 

I R Smurt.