2014-01-07
in
4 min read
Day 2 of the Virgin Diet was the first real world test case for me. The previous times I’ve tried it I’ve either been doing a little trial run or was home-bound. The real world test proved to be a bit more difficult, especially with no means of just “skipping” it for a moment and then going back to it again. During each of the diet experiment phases I’m going to try to have zero slip ups. I am not planning for cheat days, cheat meals or whatever. A slip up is bound to happen, but those should be accidents not on-purposes. With that in mind I was able to navigate the landscape but it definitely wasn’t completely carefree or pleasant.
The first thing that went slightly wrong was breakfast. I had to make my breakfast shake and then get on the road for work. I was going to drink it when I got to my desk, but that turned out to be almost an hour after I left. These shakes are supposed to be consumed immediately. Thankfully I forgot the one ingredient which really makes that rule more important: the chia seeds. I therefore was left at work with a kinda lukewarm, not so smooth smoothie with all the seeds having sunk to the bottom. It still tasted fine, but it was a bit rough working through the seeds.
Lunch wasn’t for another several hours still, and I was getting a bit hungry by then. I have a box of Nature Valley Peanut and Dark Chocolate Protein Bars on my desk that was always my go-to snack. Those were obviously doing nothing more than taunting me, as was the other little snack items that are in the office. I didn’t succumb to the temptations and managed to make it through to lunch which was yet another huge salad. As usual I had a big salad with lots of various elements: lettuce, raw spinach, carrots, raw mushrooms, broccoli, tomato, beets, canned tuna, olive oil and vinegar. It’s definitely filling but I was hungry a few hours later, which had me searching for snacks. The best I could do was an apple and a banana. I’ll have to break out my Paleo health bar recipes or start making hummus and planning my snacks a bit better.
Dinner was supposed to be a new experiment. As luck would have it I actually ran across a reference to quinoa pasta. Quinoa is allow so quinoa pasta would be great! Unfortunately all the store bought brands at my local grocery store have corn in it as well. Google was helpful in sending me to a website with a recipe for quinoa pasta that had no corn at all. It looked and sounded great on the website. Unfortunately things didn’t turn out well in execution. I had the same problem with the “well” breaking and me losing track of my liquids. I added “a little” bit back but that turned out to be too much. After that no matter how much quinoa flour I added I was never getting the firm dough like I did the time I made regular pasta. I tried to get through to the pasta making side but after several tries I gave up. That experiment will have to be fought another day, so it was a Virgin-diet approved Burrito Bowl from Chipotle of white rice, chicken, black beans, tomatoes, hot sauce, lettuce and guacamole. I was pretty hungry right after dinner but not within a half hour of that. I was still woefully under on calories so I had a small bowl of berries and mango to finish up the evening.
Considering I had my first total failure of a kitchen experiment, today went pretty crappy from a diet perspective. Add to that the other minor problems and I’ve survived but complaining a lot. Hopefully the third day goes more smoothly.