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[WARNING: This post contains pictures of delicious food (at least they’re delicious in my tummy’s opinion), so I’d advise you to not read any further if you’re extremely hungry!]
The best thing about the Jumpstart Diet is that it gives you a huge number of healthy options to incorporate into your everyday diet.
The only problem is that I’m kind of stickler when it comes to sticking with what I know, meaning I’ll find a meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner that I like, and I’ll eat it for days and days and days at a time. And even weeks at a time.
I’ve spent the past five weeks eating the same cup of cereal, cup of fat-free milk and chopped up banana for breakfast…every day. And I’ve spent the past five weeks eating the same turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with low-fat cheddar cheese, mustard and sliced avocado…every day.
Dinner has been a little bit more diverse, but not much. I’ve vacillated between eating another sandwich, a low-fat hot dog, a chicken breast and some sautéed veggies or a healthy choice TV dinner.
I wouldn’t say that I’m bored with my diet per say, but I’m definitely interested in mixing things up. And yesterday morning I woke up feeling adventurous, so I decided to live life on the wild side.
I set out to spice up my meal choices for every meal of the day. And you know what? It was tasty! And, it was refreshing to add some variety into my everyday diet.
I started the day off with two lightly toasted whole-wheat waffles, topped with a chopped up banana and a tablespoon of sugar-free syrup. I picked out this dish from one of the meal options that Jillian Michaels provides under the Jumpstart Diet, but I supplemented the honey and almond butter with syrup.
And if you’re not a waffles kind of person, or you don’t really like sweet things in the morning, there are a ton of other breakfast options that fall under the Jumpstart Diet. Check them out here.
For lunch, I stuck to my one piece of fruit and one veggie item as sides, but I changed up my main dish. I made myself a chicken Caesar salad wrap using a whole-wheat wrap, one cut-up grilled chicken breast, some iceberg lettuce and a tablespoon of fat-free Caesar dressing.
The wrap was delicious, and addicting. I fully plan on incorporating it into my everyday lunch for the rest of the week.
And finally, for dinner, I devised my own recipe to create a yummy bowl of chicken pasta salad.
Here is the recipe I invented:
Ingredients:
- 2 grilled chicken breast
- ½ box of whole wheat pasta
- veggies (I used cucumber and zucchini)
- 4 tablespoons of Kraft’s fat-free Italian Caesar dressing
Preparation:
- Grill chicken breast ahead of time
- Boil water and stir in pasta, let pasta cook until it is soft and tender
- Chop your vegetables and sauté them until lightly cooked. Spray vegetables with fat-free butter spray and lightly sprinkle some salt onto them while they’re sautéing.
- Chop grilled chicken breast into smaller pieces.
- Once pasta and vegetables are cooked, grab a big bowl and place cooked pasta, sautéed veggies and cut-up chicken breast inside.
- Pour 4 tablespoons of Kraft’s fat-free Italian Caesar dressing on top.
- Mix everything together!
- Cover pasta and let it sit in the refrigerator for one hour, or until nice and cold.
- Eat and enjoy!
Every meal that I made yesterday was super easy to prepare (because let’s be honest, I still can’t cook), and super tasty as well.
If you’re ever feeling complacent or bored with your diet, trying incorporating some variety into your everyday meals. Jillian Michaels covers an entire list of options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and her meals are definitely worth trying out.
If you’re adventurous enough to step outside of your food comfort zone, you never know what kind of recipes you may stumble upon or create for yourself, and you may find another delicious staple to add to your everyday diet!