JCore Day 21

Hooray!  Today Phase 3 of the nutrition plan starts, which means there are some changes in the proportions of what I can eat.  First, and perhaps most importantly, I can have cheese again!  Hooray!  The JCore guidebook suggests that I should wait until about Day 26 to re-introduce bread, but since I didn't initially realize that things like crackers counted as bread, I think I'll extend this to about Day 31.  I'm also excited about getting an extra serving of fruit (so back up to 2 servings a day) and carbs (up to 5 a day).  This is balanced by having 1 fewer servings of protein, 1.5 fewer servings of vegetables, and going down to only 2 servings of fat per day.  The decrease in fat is the only thing that might be difficult; in Phase 2 I had relied on a fair amount of Justin's nut butter packs as snacks, but each pack is 3 servings of fat.  I guess I'll just have to find something to replace it - maybe cheese!

I did not go running today.  Instead I watched Food, Inc. and Fresh and Twin Peaks and the Twilight Zone. And I to prove I'm not completely lazy, I did some laundry as well.


Pre-breakfast: Starbucks Via latte.

I was hungry, but, as previously discussed, also lazy.  This held me over until I felt like cooking something.



Breakfast: Farro with mango, milk, an cinnamon. 

I used a pouch of pre-cooked farro that I got from Target and added in some sliced mango and a little milk.  I had thought that the grains would soak up the milk, but not so much as it turns out.  It still worked out, though, it was a little bit like just eating cereal.


Lunch: Kale salad with chicken, broccoli, and pomegranate arils.

This was another recipe that let me use up a bunch of things from the CSA box; this time the kale, some of the fresh thyme, and the other half of the lemon.  I found this website that describes how rubbing some olive oil into the kale leaves and letting them sit for a while allows the kale to soften up enough that it's okay to eat raw.  I also found this video online that teaches the best way to open up a pomegranate.  The salad was good, but I'm thinking that I might not really like raw kale.  I thought the flavor was a little strong, and even though the leaves had been softened by the oil they were still tougher than lettuce.  I don't know, maybe I just need to get used to it.


Snack 1: String cheese!

Hooray for cheese!


Dinner: Slow-cooker Asian beef with sweet peppers, sprouts, and whole grain medley.

Okay, everyone - this was SO GOOD.  Like, I was actually, genuinely impressed with myself, especially since it was something that didn't have a ton of forethought.  At around 4:30pm Kevin and I started musing about what we would have for dinner.  We had some uncooked beef stew meat that needed to be used up, but we didn't necessarily want any more stew.  After doing some Googling I came across this recipe for Asian beef and decided to go with it simply because we had most of the ingredients.  The recipe says to cook the beef on low for 6 hours but we did not have 6 hours, so instead we cooked it on high for 4 hours.   After it was done cooking, I came to the realization that I hadn't planned anything to go along with it, so I grabbed a bag of pre-cooked whole grain medley from Target (it's got stuff like brown rice and rye and barley and whatnot) and microwaved it.  Then, I made a really quick stir-fry using some sliced peppers and the sprouts we got in our CSA box, and put it all on a plate!  And it was great!  Like for real!  I made so many comments to Kevin about how good I thought it was.  Hooray for me :p!