Trader Joe's: The Plan's Best Kept Secret

In my weeks post diet I’ve found that finding plan-specific food items can be a little costly. As a 25 year old actor, my funds are super limited and can’t be dropping my entire paycheck (if I even have a paycheck) in Whole Foods every other week.  But fret no more my girls on a budget! Trader Joe's is plan friendly HEAVEN with options that will slim your waistline and your credit card debt. Below features the best plan friendly options that I refuse to buy anywhere else!

Trader Joe's Raw Almond Butter

Remember when you searched your grocery store high and low for “raw” almond butter only to be completely disappointed. It seems the only place to find this staple is in specialty store’s designer peanut butter isle.. aka $8-$10 dollars a jar. Yikes. I will say this to you now. Only buy raw almond butter from Trader Joes.. it’s delicious and inexpensive. (Comes in crunchy and smooth)

Trader Joe's Roasted Flaxseed

This is my personal favorite. We all remember the struggle of when Lyn Genet asked us to roast our own flaxseed in the oven. The task seemed daunting and time consuming. Soak overnight? Too much. Ok.. so it’s not that much work, BUT for a busy person this is a great substitute.

Trader Joe's Sliced Goat’s Milk Dutch Cheese

I have to admit. I had an inappropriate reaction to this when I found it in the store and audibly screamed. Everyone around me slowly backed away. But anyone on the plan will understand my excitement with this one. I love putting these on veggie sandwiches.. even better when melted.

Trader Joe's Oh My Omega Trek Mix

This is another good one for a girl on the go. I keep these packets in my purse at all times (and of course my friends end up stealing them!). They’re a godsend when you’re feeling a bit blood sugary.

Happy shopping my plan friendly followers! 

Have any plan friendly Trader Joe's go to’s? Share it with us below!

Week 1 (Post Twenty Day Plan)

 

Weight: -1.7

Hello readers! It’s been a week since I’ve completed my twenty day plan and I’m still going strong. At first, I was really nervous about leaving such a perfectly planned daily schedule but now I can eat all of my favorite things when I want them! So far, I’ve tested Lamb, Cow’s cheese (Cheddar) and another restaurant.

I made lamb meatballs. My favorite type of flavoring for lamb meat is hands down Mediterranean. They always taste spicy and so fresh. I followed an online recipe http://www.chow.com/recipes/13432-lamb-meatballs-with-lemon-cumin-yogurt - Don’t stress if you don’t have all of the ingredients necessary, just throw in what you have in your spice cabinet. A couple meatball secrets: I like using an ice cream scooper to form my meatballs.. They make them consistent and appropriately portioned. I also like using an oven to cook them because again, it creates consistency. 

 I put my lamb meatballs over sautéed Kale, tomatoes and zucchini. I sort of threw this dinner together but it turned out SO WELL. Feel free to copy me on that one. 

Another success has been my homemade chia seed breakfast pudding. I know, I know.. that sounds kind of creepy and unappetizing but go with me on this one. It’s SO EASY and pretty damn good.

2 Tablespoons Chia Seeds, ½ Cup Coconut Milk, Splash of Vanilla Extract

Then mash your own non-reactive fruit. I used bananas since I’ve tested ok for them. But blueberries are another great and safe option. Put it in the fridge overnight and you’ve got yourself a plan free breakfast ready to go! And for those of us who can’t be bothered to lift a finger.. Whole Foods even carries a pre made Chia seed breakfast. (But please, this is such a simple thing to make.. don’t waste too much of your money on these.)

Day Twenty: Just The Beginning

 

Total Pounds Lost: -12.7

 

Wow, I cannot believe that I actually got through the twenty days. Not only that, I really followed these twenty days without cheating. That’s HUGE. Besides losing 12.7 pounds in twenty days (which is fantastic), there also been a couple of other noticeable improvements with my health while on this anti-diet.

1)   My skin has been consistently clear and perfectly balanced. I’m not saying I had horrible skin before- however, I do get a solid breakout from time to time (I have really difficult combination but sensitive skin). Since going on this diet, my skin looks smooth and clear. Fantastic perk if you ask me!

2)   I have the worst allergies known to man. All year round. Indoor, outdoor, I suffer. While on this diet, my allergies have calmed down a lot. Before starting my twenty days I was taking prescription medication, an over the counter daily pill AND a nasal spray. Can you imagine? And after these twenty days I’ve actually been surviving with just my prescribed allergy medicine. It’s a miracle!

Final Conclusion:

As far as where do I go from here.. I am absolutely going to try to continue on eating Plan Friendly foods and testing new ones to add balance into my diet and continue weight loss. I’m so excited to have a bunch of new foods and recipes in my arsenal. Before doing the twenty days my only go-to breakfast item was eggs and sausage and now I have so many more options! Same with bread- who knew I could actually eat white bread and lose weight? This diet changed A LOT of rules for me and thank god it did or I was going to continue down a path of being completely misinformed. I always knew that I was eating foods that were making me sick but I could never put my finger on what. This is by far the most effective diet I have ever done.  It’s not a quick fix, it’s not a fad, it’s a LIFE STYLE change. My eating life is changed and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Day Nineteen: New Vegetable Test

Weight: 0

 

It very obviously is a hormonal thing. Instead of getting upset and dwelling on it I’m going to finish out these last two days strong and happy!

Today’s challenge is a new vegetable. I chose mushrooms because I love them and would love to add them back into my diet. I made a delicious dinner of my favorite recipes from the past twenty days with Indian Spice Rub chicken and sautéed mushrooms and kale topped with the Spicy Coco Sauce. The dinner paired quite nicely with my spinach and pear salad.

Still working on my schedule for the next week since my twenty days will be completed as of tomorrow! I will post it once I’m done.

Day Eighteen: Test a Restaurant

Weight: 0

Where the hell did that come from? Went through my check list and defnietly didn’t do anything wrong. This is getting frustraiting all over again. My only thought is that it may be hormonal because I’ve been especially hungry today.  

Today’s test was to try out a restaurant. Unfortunately though, I had absolutely no reason to go to a restaurant by myself just for the sake of dieting so I chose to make my own meal at home. Instead of testing a new protein I decided to make a plan friendly pizza. Or what I thought was a plan friendly pizza. I used white pita bread, pesto, goat cheese, manchego, tomatoes, red onion and shiitake mushrooms along with a spinach salad. It was so delightful to finally have some pizza. But now my stomach is on FIRE. It’s been flip flopping and churning. It feels like all of the cheese I ate is curdling with the small glass of wine I had. So acidic. This is a complete over-share but at one point this evening I actually threw up in my mouth. Sweet.

The most annoying thing about this fun “plan friendly” meal is now it’s going to show up on the scale tomorrow. Stupid mistake.

Day Seventeen: Rest

Weight: -1.3

Wow.. see what a little water mishap did to my body? Insane. I haven’t seen that kind of weight loss since the first three detox days!

I’m working on a food plan post twenty days since I only have three more days to go! I’m basically compiling all of my favorite days/successful days into a weekly plan. Once I figure it all out hopefully I can post it to help future plan followers.

Day Sixteen: Two Proteins

 

Weight +.6

 

Ahhhhh! I made a diet whoopsie. I was really busy yesterday and totally forgot to drink my last two glasses of water. By the time 10:30pm rolled around I looked on the kitchen counter and there were my final two glasses of water.. sitting and completely full. I even had the glass in my hand and just failed to drink it! I was so thirsty- I finally just gave up and drank the damn thing. Clearly, I was a little distracted yesterday and I will attribute my gain to my late night water drinking (especially since it was a rest day).

Today’s test was two proteins in one day. Lyn-Genet says to pay attention and look for signs of fatigue in the afternoon after having protein for lunch. I didn’t notice any feeling of exhaustion- in fact I was very busy today cooking tomorrow’s lunch items and cleaning my room. Hopefully the scale will balance out- I do not want to wake up tomorrow and be anywhere near where I was today.

In other news, I think I have finally mastered broccoli. As you know, I HATE it. I’m sorry, it’s just not appealing at all. Every single time I make it by itself on this diet I barely get through it. Tonight I used part olive oil, part butter, then red pepper flakes and garlic powder and it made a world of a difference.