Day 1

Today didn't start off as planned due to an awful pain in my neck - I blame couch sleeping and the drive to Cleveland so I went back to bed for a little bit after picking up Cooper with the heating pad. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason because my oatmeal turned out TERRIBLE! I am not sure if 1/2 cup of water is necessary for the steel-cut oats because it was almost inedible. I eventually just started picking out the raspberries. I am going to try it again Tuesday night for Wednesday's breakfast and use less water. 

(1 red, 1 yellow, 1 purple, cinnamon to taste)

After breakfast, I wanted to work on prepping stuff for the week. I had NO IDEA where to even begin. This is going to take a lot of getting used to I think. I went ahead and made turkey burgers out of the ground turkey we bought yesterday and got them in the freezer since I don't need them until later in the week and I didn't want them to go bad. 

(Each burger will be one red container)

Next I decided to work on the ranch dip (recipe). It's definitely a similar substitute for ranch dressing. After pulsing the cottage cheese in the blender it loses the curds so the texture isn't an issue. I didn't have parsley flakes so I used some cilantro, not sure if that's comparable or not but I did it. The great thing is that it counts as protein now! Like all dips, I'm thinking that it'll taste better once it sets and blends together. I had 1/2 of a red container with 10 baby carrots (green container) as a late morning snack. I think it could be very versatile - dip for chicken, condiment for sandwiches, wraps or turkey burgers. I think if I would thin it out it could be great on salads too. 

(I didn't end up eating all the dip from today, but it was 1/2 red and 1 green)

Lunch was pretty simple. See photo below. I ended up not eating my planned afternoon snack because I took a very long nap with the heating pad trying to get rid of this neck ache. (Not helpful) 

(2 yellow, 2 red, 1 purple, 1 green, mustard to taste)

For supper, I had chicken, quinoa and a spinach salad planned. See photo below. It was pretty good. I also prepared chicken for Tuesday and Wednesdays suppers. The last thing on my meal plan for today is an apple. Since I only used 1 teaspoon today (olive oil to bake chicken), I get to have 4 teaspoons of natural peanut butter with my apple. I'm very excited about this since it's the closest thing to dessert I'm going to get (I have a serious sweet tooth). 

(2 red, 1 yellow, 2 green, 1 blue, balsamic vinegar to taste)

I will definitely need to make some changes to my meal plan based off of how I ate today. So that will be in the works throughout the rest of this week. I am planning on doing my workout at 8:00pm. So then I can watch the Bachelor and fast forward through commercials. :) I'll let you all know how it went in my next post. 

Water intake: I'm only at around 4 glasses for today - this is something that I will focus more on tomorrow!

Today's inspiration: 

Amen! Insert arms raised in praise emoji here :)