Good morning everyone! And happy DAY 3! How are you all doing? Write in and let me know 🙂

Before I start, I’d like to note that last night I also ate a plum, apple, and a peach in between 5-10pm (no pictures, but I wanted to record it and make sure to tell you guys!) 🙂

This morning I made a delicious fruit salad for breakfast! I woke up with a headache after almost 12 HOURS of sleep, and felt like 2 things: coffee, and refreshing fruit!

So, thats what I made! I took one banana, one green apple, one asian pear, one peach, and one kiwi, cut them all up and mixed them together

Then, I took half of it out, and put it in a container, which my Mom ended up snagging for her breakfast 🙂 She’s doing the diet too! And today is her 3rd day strong with me! It really makes me happy to have her join me 🙂

Next, I took one good sized spoonful of Greek Yogurt, and mixed it all together

Then, I put it all in a bowl, and sprinkled one tbsp. of flaxseed meal over the top. This is a great thing to add to yogurt, because it is rich in fiber and omega-3 fats! So good for you!

Next, I put some cranberries and toasted coconut on top!

And there you have it! My delicious nutritious breakfast! It was so good, so filling, and so refreshing. My headache is almost gone, and I’m ready to get to my Saturday BBQ with the fam! My cousin Haley is in town from college! Woohoo! Hi Haley! 🙂

Before I end this post, I wanted to talk about one thing 🙂

Don’t be too hard on yourself during this challenge. Know your guildlines, and the reasons why you’re doing it. 

Maybe it will help if I tell you my reasons for doing this challenge:

1. I did it once before, and it made me feel fabulous

2. This diet is the reason I now have a healthy mindset about eating

3. This is my ‘reset’ button in the eating world, and it reminds me how many healthy nutritious foods are out there

4. I feel so healthy and great about the foods I am putting into my body

5. It teaches me how to balance, by allowing me a break from foods that are normally just ‘additions’

-to me, cheese and sugar are always a treat, and sometimes I forget that

-grains on the other hand, I feel different about, because I love having oatmeal, high fiber cereal, and the occasional sandwich (these past few weeks it got more than occasional, hehe).

This diet allows me to take a break from all of these foods, and makes eating wholesome, nutritious, high protein foods, a staple in my diet. I love that about it!

It is safe to say from all of my reasons, that for me, this diet is all about my Mindset with food

With that being said, I want to point out that I am NOT being overly obsessive about ingredients. I AM being careful, and when I shop, I am avoiding things with sugar and grains, and always cheese, but many things have SOME sugar in them, and you can’t escape it. SOME sugar is a good thing! You know how much sugar our brains are using/burning off ALL the time? Crazy amounts! We NEED some sugar! Some = good, too much = bad. Simple.

I have run into this problem in my cubbord. I am avoiding everything that is obviously a grain or a sugar, but some things like coconut, cranberries, raisins, and sweet potato fries, have small amounts of either a grain or sugar in them. Now, I wouldn’t go to the store and buy these things, but I am not going to just go out and buy NEW coconut and cranberries because they have a little bit of sugar on them, when I already have the items at home. I’m simply going to use them, and next time I go to the store, I’ll get the unsweetened kind. And for the sweet potato fries, they have very small amount of rice flour coating them. So, last night AFTER I ate them, I realized that and decided since the bag was gone, next time I will just make my own. This morning, I used coconut and cranberries and saw that they had sugar, and just decided that next time, I’ll just buy unsweetened.

The point is, as long as you’re not eating the obvious things, please don’t freak out. 6-8 weeks is a long time, and this really is all about your mindset. Ultimately, it’s more about learning how to EAT HEALTHY rather than learning how to avoid grains, sugar, and cheese. You see what I am saying?

I want you to all enjoy this as much as I did! I’ll let you in on a secret. Last time, I felt GREAT and it 100% gave me the best relationship with food that I NEVER had before. I absolutely became in love with healthy eating, and FORGOT about counting calories. This time, looking at my list, I realized that even during that time I ate things with sugar or grains that I didn’t even realize had those ingredients until this time. For example: boca burgers (grains), sweet potato fries (grains), crispy green beans (grains), cranberries (sugar), coconut (sugar), balsamic vinaigrette (sugar)…. and so on. Even though I ate those things, they were not junk food, nor did they make me feel bad. They had such small amounts of grains/sugar, I didn’t worry about it!

You want to know another thing? Last time, I gave myself an exception! That was whenever friends or family would ask me to go get frozen yogurt, I WOULD! I would just always get plain tart, and only fruit & nuts. In 6-8 weeks, I would have missed out on several, fun, frozen yogurt trips if I wouldn’t have allowed that.

You have to keep life going, and keep things fun! Don’t freak out if you mess up. Always remember this is a mindset diet to get YOU healthy and on the right track. This is no one else’s diet, just yours! Do what YOU’RE body is okay with! No matter what, HAVE FUN! 🙂

I hope this was relieving to some of you! I hope you all have a wonderful day! I’m taking a study break today and going to a family BBQ where I’ll enjoy, mostly, tons of company! Love to you all 🙂