MyPlate Diet Day #1: First impressions

Today is the first day I ever dieted, and (fortunately) I lived to blog about it. Following the meal plan wasn’t as bad as I expected. It was kind of nice to not have to think about what to make. We’ll see if I feel the same when I fly to Lake Tahoe to visit a friend this weekend – I suspect it won’t be quite so convenient. The weird thing is that the meal plan only lists ingredients, not recipes. I had to get creative and figure it out myself.

As far as the MyPlate meal plan goes, today was super carb-y and left me hankering for a little more protein. I had oatmeal w/brown sugar and raisins for breakfast, taco salad for lunch, and vegetarian spinach lasagna roll-ups (which the fiance RAVED about – I’ll post a recipe soon!) with a whole-wheat roll for dinner. Based on their recommendations I met my 5 1/2-ounce protein goal for the day, but I’m definitely over my 6 ounces of grains. One of my dietitian friends has always been critical of the high carbohydrate recommendations put out by the USDA. I will see if I can get him to do a guest spot about it in the next couple of weeks.

Sidenote: My meal plan calls for whole wheat dinner rolls throughout the week, so I made what a Pinterest post claimed were the softest whole wheat dinner rolls ever. And they are incredibly soft. The flavor isn’t quite as good as a regular white roll but with a spread on it I couldn’t even tell. Check out the recipes page if you want to try making them!