Day three of the Clean Eating Project started off really well. I have been so pleased when I wake up during this project not feeling hungry. It is also a really nice thing to go to bed not feeling hungry. (Yes, these are certainly first world problems – I wish that no one had to think about being hungry, ever.)

For breakfast I made the same smoothie as yesterday. I also took 4 ounces of coffee with me to work. I was running late, so I did not remember to snap a photograph – but trust me, it looked the same.

I was definitely dreaming about a bagel as I drove to work and kept passing Dunkin’ Donuts and other coffee shops. If I had passed a Bruegger’s Bagels, I might have been in trouble – but hopefully my will power would have won over. I like to think that it would have.

I had a morning snack of a little less than a tablespoon of Whole Foods peanut butter and a small banana. I was scraping the bottom of my jar for the peanut butter and I made a mental note to go to Whole Foods after work to get more. I think it would be very difficult to get through the next two days without nut butter. I am only eating nut butters that have one or two ingredients (i.e. peanuts. Or peanuts and salt. I know I should get over my love of salt in nut butter, but it just tastes so much better. I feel lucky that I never had sugar in my nut butters growing up. (Although I resented my parents when I was younger.)

My morning snack looked like this:

(I had another small cup of coffee, too!)

At lunch today one of my friends and I went for a quick walk. We turned around and just a few minutes after we got back into the building the skies opened up. I was happy to be dry!

I did not heat up last night’s left overs – but I did put just a touch of hot sauce on the meal. (Is that clean? I don’t know. But it needed a little seasoning…) I was really pleased with this lunch:

(steamed broccoli, chicken, red pepper, red onion, garlic and mushrooms over 1/2 a cup of brown rice.)

To celebrate the Supreme Court’s decisions today, my office had pizza. I love pizza. I was so happy that I had taken the time last night to plan all of my food out so that I had a healthy and satisfying lunch to consume. The pizza sure did smell good!

At 2 o’clock everyone in the building met in one of the conference rooms to say good-bye to one of our colleagues. There was cake, soda, and lots of sugary things at the going away gathering. I wished my colleague well, and talked with a few friends before I went back to my desk and had my afternoon snack of crudités and hummus:

I’m not sure if it was the pizza and cake being around the office today or some other reason, but I was really hungry at 3:30 this afternoon. I had eaten all of my prepared food (including a small container of almonds, cranberries and pistachios). I drank some water and did more work. I was still hungry. So, I did something I am not sure I should have. I opened a Larabar:

The ingredients in Larabars are amazing and all natural. Dates, walnuts, unsweetened apples, cinnamon are pretty much the ingredients in this Larabar. I think it is the “cleanest” bar I could have eaten. I tried not to feel too badly about it. I really do not think I broke the “clean eating” pledge.

On my way home from work I stopped by Whole Foods. I bought apples, bananas, black beans, and peanut butter. I took a few minutes to look at other foods and their ingredients lists – but I tried not to linger too long near the foods I knew i couldn’t eat until Friday night. (I miss BREAD so much!)

When I got home I started prepping food for tomorrow. I decided to make Mark Bittman’s bean / veggie burgers. I diced an onion, some garlic, and threw all of the ingredients into the food processor:

I chilled the mixture and then started making a small salad for dinner. I added a hard boiled egg, avocado, cucumber, the last two carrots I have on hand, and two cherry tomatoes. The greens were spinach and arugula. I topped it with sunflower seeds, balsamic and a tiny bit of olive oil. I wanted a nice crusty hunk of sour dough bread to go with it! 🙂 But as I ate it I realized that it was still a satisfying meal:

It was a pretty small salad because I plan on having a small bean burger one I make the patties and cook them up! I’m going to sign off for now – but I will be back soon to write about my thoughts on the Clean Eating Project soon!