Well, Phase 3 of #GCfit (aka week 3) is almost over and guess what? I’m still alive!! Better yet, I’ve lost TEN POUNDS!
This is a true testament to the amazing work of my nutritionist and trainer, Jessica Morris. It was only last Wednesday that she and I met after work for some mint tea to discuss how I can achieve my goals in such a short amount of time. She also gave my homemade detox plan a complete overhaul as you’ll see in my Phase 2 post.
Literally just days after meeting with Jess and changing how I was eating to follow what she recommended, I dropped 5 pounds. One week after meeting her, I had dropped a total of 10 pounds!
This might sound a bit extreme, and I guess it kind of is (please note Jess advised that what she was recommending to me was rather extreme since I was looking for extreme results in an extremely short amount of time), but, to be honest, I feel great, I’m full, and I have more energy than ever! Minus the sore muscles from working out 1-2x a day.
At this point you might be wondering what the heck I’ve been eating so here’s an idea:
Breakfast:
In the mornings I’ve been sticking with Jess’s recommendation of lemon water, followed by an all green smoothie with protein powder. Currently my smoothies have been including lettuce, spinach, lemon, vega one vanilla protein powder, a bit of matcha powder, and maca. I’ll add in celery and/or cucumber when I have it on hand. I’m also taking a multi vitamin, fish oil and priobiotic.
Lunches and Dinners:
Here are some of the things I’ve been eating (and loving!) this week.
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The (almost raw) Pad Thai
Now, the above picture certainly doesn’t do this delicious and refreshing lunch any justice. What you see here is a bed of lettuce, topped with kelp noodles, and sprinkled with chopped raw asparagus, cucumber, walnuts, sprouts, coriander, and some ground chicken that was cooked with sunflower butter, tamari and sesame oil. This is a Jessica-friendly meal because it is mainly green, very low in calories, and involves protein thanks to the chicken, walnuts and sunflower butter! Before digging in I would toss this “noodle” dish with a bit of dressing adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe found in her FEAST cookbook, here’s how to make it:
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Vietnamese-Style Dressing:
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 fresh long red chillies, deseeded and finely sliced (I used dried chilli flakes)
2 tablespoons finely minced ginger
4 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of 1 lime
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons of caster sugar (which I replaced with a few drops of Stevia to keep this diet friendly)
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The Vietnamese-Korean Bun Bap Bowl
Although I call my lunch the (almost raw) pad thai, I realized that it’s probably closer to the Vietnamese noodle dish, Bun — one of my favourites! Of course I can’t have the real thing during #GCfit because of the noodles, but my version with kelp noodles has been keeping me extremely satisfied. In fact, I’ve been loving it so much that I’ve been making different variations for dinner too. Here’s is my Vietnamese-Korean Bun Bap Bowl from last night that is a hybrid between the Vietnamese bun bowl and the signature Korean Bi Bim Bap dish. What’s great about the bowls is you can throw almost anything on top and it will be delicious. Plus it hardly takes any time at since most of it is raw and you don’t have to cook kelp noodles! Even my boyfriend now loves kelp noodles!
Here’s what’s in the super delicious Bun Bap Bowl: a bed of chopped lettuce, a pile of kelp noodles that I quickly tossed in a hot pan (because I wanted a warmer dish on a cold night), fresh coriander, chopped cucumber, green onion, kimchi, zucchini slices pan friend in ghee with black sesame seeds topped with a bit of sesame oil, the meat is some tasty chopped peking duck that I had in the freezer. Seriously, this could give one of Jamie Oliver‘s 15-minute meals a run for its money! Don’t forget to top with the Vietnamese-Style Dressing recipe from above before eating. You can serve it in a bowl with a spoon so each person can add as much or as little dressing as they’d like.
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Baked Tilapia and Asparagus with Chimichurri
This was another super tasty an EASY dinner that I was very happy with. Tilapia is a great super lean protein which is (thankfully) still a lot cheaper than other, more popular types of fish. I baked the fish for about 30 minutes in my toaster oven, topped with fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, and a few small dollops of ghee. After about 15-20 minutes I laid the asparagus on top of the fish and let it cook with the fish until the end. I loved that both main features of the meal could be made in one dish! The chimichurri sauce was quickly made in my nutribullet while things were cooking. I followed Hemsley + Hemsley‘s recipe, but there are tons on the internet you can follow, its easy to make! This dish was followed by a big leafy salad served with avocado and a tangy vinaigrette.
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The Stacked, Bun-Free Mega Burger
Whoa nelly! This bad boy is what I demolished after a day filled with two very intense workouts. I was ready to EAT and I wanted that red meat, baby. Jess says red meat is great because it’ll give me lots of energy! Obviously that doesn’t mean I’m eating every day. Here I basically took the Grilled Portobello Mushroom Burger with Sun Dried Tomato Kale-Hemp Pesto recipe from the Oh She Glows cookbook, and replaced the bun with a nice juicy beef burger. Obviously made from a good source of ground beef, not frozen and out of no-name box! Here you’re looking at a bed of raw spinach, topped with the marinated and grilled mushroom cap, smothered with the pesto, then the burger, topped with caramelized onions, fresh tomato slices and avocado. I made one extra and took it for lunch with extra greens — I just chopped everything up to make it easier to eat as a salad. Yum!
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Lovely Lamb with Leeks and Fennel
This is a recipe I picked up from my dad who is an amazing cook. I love making anything that involves throwing a bunch of stuff in a pot, letting it cook for hours, and then revealing something incredibly delicious at the end. For this dish you should heat some olive oil and sweat onions in your casserole dish, then lightly braise your lamb shanks on each side. Here I rammed four shanks into this pot, and then topped with sliced fennel and leeks. Season with salt and pepper, and then pour at least half a cup of white wine into the pot. Pop it into the oven at about 400 degrees (or lower depending on your oven, mine is crap) for 2.5 hours. After 2.5 hours (or so) remove the lid to let some liquid evaporate and brown the tops. You can also add a drizzle of olive oil to get it nice and crispy during that last half an hour. When you think it might be done poke a fork into one of the shanks and make sure the meat is fall-off-the-bone, if its not, keep cooking ’til it is!
So there you have it, this is what I’ve been eating for the past week, which, along with exercise, has helped me drop 10 pounds! Hope you enjoy these too and let me know if you do!
XO
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