Bianca Phillips's Blog, page 31

30-Day NEURO Plan, Day 17

Tuesday was Day 17 on the 30-Day NEURO Plan for brain health! On Tuesday mornings, I've been attending a morning bootcamp class at my gym, so I got up at 4:30 am, did yoga, and snacked on a Cashew Cookie Larabar. And then I headed to my class.

After class, I refueled with this Strawberry Rosewater Chia Pudding from the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution book. This base has blended strawberries with almond milk, chia seeds, monkfruit sweetener, and rosewater. I made the rosewater myself by boiled dried rose petals. The recipe doesn't call for protein, but I added some Complement Protein since this was my post-workout.

Morning snack was dried apricots and almonds. And lunch was leftover Chickpea Barley Soup. In mid-afternoon, I had some Lilly's stevia-sweetened dark chocolate at my desk.

Dinner was awesome! I made the Tempeh Farro Bowl from the book. This has farro (another favorite underused grain!!), kale, broccoli and cauliflower, pan-seared sweet potato slices, and marinated tempeh slices, plus avocado. The recipe didn't call for a sauce, but I may use my leftover almond-chipotle sauce from last week over my leftover farro bowl tonight! Oh, and I also had a glass of red wine. Just one!

30-Day NEURO Plan, Days 15-16

Ooooh-ooooh, we're halfway there! Ohhh-ohhhh, livin' on a prayer! Sorry, I can't help but sing because I've surpassed the halfway point on the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution NEURO Plan. Since January 2, I've been avoiding processed foods and (mostly) avoiding sugar, working on increasing my meditation time, running and doing yoga EVERY SINGLE DAY, learning basic Spanish, playing word games, learning chess (!!), and attempting to get restorative sleep — all in an effort to set myself up for a good year of healthy habits aimed at preventing dementia. I'm using Dean and Ayesha Sherzai's 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution book for the 30-day plan and recipes. 

On Sunday (Day 15), I slept in and then woke up to a Chickpea Omelet with mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes with a side salad and homemade hummus. I've always loved a good chickpea omelet, and this one was fantastic!

I had an afternoon 3K race as part of the annual Memphis Runners Track Club Winter Off-Road Series 3K, so rather than have a big lunch, I had a bowl of Fruit Salad with Peanut Butter Tahini Energy Bites (from the book). Fruit and nuts are the perfect pre-race fuel. The energy bite is made with PB, tahini, oat flour, monkfruit, and cinnamon. They're really good. They're soft and don't really hold their shape well, so I've been stashing them in the freezer.

At 2 pm, I met my friend Megan at Overton Park for the 3K race. A 3K is just 1.8 miles, so this was a quick race. It was all on trail, and we had a snow dusting Saturday night, so we got VERY muddy!

After my run, I had some Protein Plant Bites (from Complement). And for dinner, I turned my Plantastic Neuroplastic Meatballs from Friday into a burger on a sprouted Ezekiel bun with sweet potato fries! The burger was made with sweet potato, quinoa, beets, spinach, and cilantro.

I washed that down with an n/a Juicy IPA from Untitled Art. So far, Untitled Art has the best n/a beers I've tried!

I was off work for MLK Day on Monday, so slept in again. And then I made a Cherry Matcha Smoothie as my pre-run fuel. I'm avoiding sugar on this plan, but I did add some agave to this since it was pre-run. Sugar breaks down for quick energy, so I'm counting workout nutrition in my no-sugar rule.

After my 6-miler, I had a Chickpea & Seeds Sandwich with a side salad.

And dinner was Chickpea Barley Soup with Cashew Cream! This hearty soup has pearled barley, collards, chickpeas, mushrooms carrots, celery, and leeks, and it really warmed me up on this cold night! I love the texture of barley. It's probably my favorite grain, but I so rarely cook with it. This was a reminder that I need more barley in my life.

30-Day NEURO Plan, Days 11-14

I'm still chugging ahead with the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution NEURO Plan! Today (Monday) is day 16, so I'm past the halfway mark. Yay! But here's a recap of days 11-14. 
Day 11 was Wednesday, and I started the morning with a hill work run and a mango berry protein smoothie. Snack was veggies and hummus, and my lunch was a leftover Spicy Cauli Tofu Bowl. Dinner was the last of the Mushroom & Radicchio Pasta Bake. No pics since it was all leftovers.
Day 12 (Thursday) was another day of leftovers. I had the last of Zucchini Chickpea Pancakes for breakfast, a snack of dried apricots and almonds, the last of the Spicy Cauli Tofu Bowl for lunch, and a post-bootcamp bowl of oatmeal with almond butter and berries for dinner. Oatmeal has become my standard late-night dinner when I have to eat an hour before bed (due to my workout schedule and early bedtime).
Day 13 was Friday! When I made the Golden Waffles on Day 1, I saved one in the freezer. So I toasted that waffle in the toaster and topped with sugar-free homemade strawberry sauce, fresh berries, and tahini. Yum!

Back when  Paul was in the hospital in November, I made a batch of Blueberry Muffins from Dean and Ayesha Sherzai's first book, The Alzheimer's Solution. The 30-Day book that I'm using now is a complement to that original book, which has a few recipes (including these muffins). I froze some leftovers back then, and I enjoyed one as a snack on Friday. They're sweetened with stevia.

Lunch was Chickpea & Seeds on a sandwich with air-fried tortilla chips and salsa. This chickpea salad has a "mayo" base made from sunflower seeds, and it's so yummy!

For dinner, I made the Plantastic Neuroplastic Meatballs to serve over whole wheat spaghetti with homemade marinara. I had my long run on Saturday, so I wanted carbs! These meatballs are made with quinoa, sweet potato, beets, spinach, and cilantro. They were really good! I froze some for next Friday! Oh, and I also had a Brewdog Hazy AF alcohol-free beer.

On Saturday, I woke up early to get my long run done before the cold rain. I had a bowl of white rice with toasted sesame seeds before my run. And during my 8 miles, I had one snack of Cherry-Date Plant Bites (an all-fruit run fuel snack).
Post-run, I made the Mighty Smoothie Bowl from the book. This has a base of banana, mango, Complement Protein, and kale, and it's topped with kiwi, blueberries, apples, and walnuts. It was pretty cold during my run, and I shivered as I ate this bowl. But it was good!!

The rest of the day was leftover snacks, and I had the Plantastic Meatballs over pasta again for dinner with a glass of red wine. I'm having limited alcohol on this plan, and the authors recommend sticking with red wine.

30-Day NEURO Plan, Days 9-10

I don't have a lot to share for Days 9 and 10 on my 30-Day NEURO Plan! I mostly ate leftovers on Monday, so I have zero pics for Day 9. But I can tell you that I started Monday with a banana with almond butter and coffee before my 4-mile run. After my run, I had a cherry almond butter smoothie.

Lunch was leftover mushroom and swiss chard pasta, and dinner was leftover split pea soup. I had a community development meeting Monday night, so I was glad to have leftovers for a quick meal.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up and had coffee and a Larabar before heading to my body burn class at the gym. Afterward, I had some leftover Zucchini Chickpea Pancakes topped with spicy green hummus, salad greens, salsa, and tomatoes. An excellent breakfast!

Lunch was the last of the leftover split pea soup, and dinner was this amazing Spicy Tofu Cauli Bowl from The 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution. This has a base of brown rice, topped with sauteed cauliflower, kale, pinto beans, and smoky-cumin tofu, plus an almond-chipotle sauce that was to die for! So glad this recipe made enough for a few days. This may be my favorite meal from the book so far!

Leftovers are crucial for me surviving a meal plan! I don't have time to cook every day, so I often need to have a couple of meals batch-cooked for the week!

30-Day NEURO Plan, Days 7-8

Here's a recap of my first weekend on the 30-Day NEURO plan from The 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution book. This plan is all about unprocessed, whole plant foods, no sugar, limited booze, restorative sleep, meditation and yoga, and brain challenges.

On Saturday morning, I had a 10-mile run on the training plan, so I woke up and had coffee and a bowl of white rice with Bragg's and sesame seeds. They Sherzais, the authors of the plan, don't recommend white rice (they prefer whole, intact grains like brown rice). But I'm making exceptions for pre- and post-run fuel. Simple carbs, like white rice, offer quick energy and are easier to digest before hitting the road. 

During my run, I fueled with Plant Bites, which are made with just fruit! So that was plan-friendly. And after my run, I had this Berry Amaranth Smoothie Bowl from the book. The base has cooked amaranth, mixed berries, almond milk, chia, orange zest, and cacao, plus I added some Complement Protein. It's topped with puffed amaranth (which I popped myself!), sunflower seeds, and fresh strawberries.

That smoothie bowl was my lunch, so I didn't eat again until dinner, when I heated up some of the leftover Creamy Mushroom & Radicchio Pasta Bake with some steamed kale. Sorry for the crappy pic! These are the kind of pics food bloggers don't want you to see. But real talk ... this is just what the plate looks like sometimes. 

Although I'm allowed a little red wine on this plan (they don't recommend drinking but say you can have some red wine if you must), I'm attempting to avoid booze as long as I can. If a social situation calls for it, I may have a glass. But for now, I'm experimenting with n/a craft beers. I found a good selection of them at Joe's Liquors. This Well-Being Sports Brew was really good! N/A beers have come a long way!

On Sunday morning, I got my one-mile run in for my run streak on the treadmill because it was rainy. I don't mind running in the rain, but I didn't want to shower right after. So I stayed dry by running inside. Afterward, I had some Zucchini Chickpea Pancakes from the book. These were like pudla! Made with chickpea flour, shredded zucchini, and chopped jalapenos. I served them with Spicy Green Hummus and avocado.

I had a late breakfast, and Paul wanted to go see the new Spider-Man movie in the theater. So for "lunch," I made a big bowl of popcorn and snuck it into the theater! I popped it with olive oil because the plan doesn't allow for coconut oil (due to the saturated fat).

When we got home, I whipped up a big bot of Spicy Yellow Split Pea Soup with Pomegranate and Spinach from the book. This was as tasty as it looks!! It was a beautiful dish, and it tasted that way too!

30-Day NEURO Plan, Days 5-6

Here's a quick recap of Thursday and Friday of last week on the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution NEURO plan for brain health! 

On Thursday morning, I did my Yoga with Adriene video and then had some leftover Mediterranean Tofu Scramble with Sprouted Grain Toast spread with Spicy Green Hummus. The hummus recipe is in the book, and it is loaded with cilantro and jalapenos!

Morning snack was Apricots and Almonds.

And lunch was a big salad with leftover Taco Quinoa.

I had an evening workout class at my gym downtown, so I got home kinda late for dinner. In the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution book, they say that you shouldn't eat within a couple hours of bedtime for optimal sleep. But if you must eat late, avoid high-energy foods. They suggested oatmeal because it's easy on the digestive system and promotes good sleeop. So I had a bowl of protein oats (with Complement Protein) for dinner!

On Friday, morning, I did another yoga video (plus my one-mile run for my January run streak) and then had the last of the scramble for breakfast. 

Morning snack was Blackberries & Almonds.

And lunch was another salad topped with the green hummus!

I typically have a glass of wine after work on Fridays to kick off the weekend, but I'm trying to avoid alcohol on this plan, so I found this Simple Truth Zero Sugar Kombucha! I had no idea that was even possible! I'm also avoiding sugar on this plan, so this was a great find. It tasted great! It was sweetened with erythritol, which is all-natural and my favorite sugar-free sweetener so far. 

Dinner was fun! I had my long run planned for Saturday, so I selected a pasta dish from the book for carb-loading. I made the Creamy Mushroom & Radicchio Pasta Bake. But I couldn't find radicchio anywhere (looked in three stores!), so I subbed Belgian endive. This also has mushrooms, chard, and a tasty nooch sauce.

I'll check in with Saturday and Sunday eats tomorrow.

30-Day NEURO Plan, Day 4

Wednesday was my fourth day on the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution NEURO Plan. I started my morning with coffee (sweetened with monkfruit!), a bowl of pineapple, and a handful of walnuts. Then I did a Yoga with Adriene yoga video (I'm doing her 30 January challenge), followed by a 5-mile tempo run.

After my run, I had a Berry Cocoa Green Smoothie. This has unsweetened almond milk, strawberries, banana, cocoa powder, flax, spinach, monkfruit powder, and Complement protein. Not a pretty color but tasty!

Morning snack at work was a handful of Dried Apricots and Raw Almonds. 

And lunch was the last of my leftover Pinto Bean Quesadillas with Steamed Kale. The quesadillas were stuffed with pintos, bell peppers, corn, spinach, red cabbage, and cashew queso. I'm sad to be out of quesadilla filling.

In the afternoon, I had more Dark Chocolate Orange Pistachio Truffles. And then dinner was more leftovers! I had some leftover Taco Quinoa on a salad.

Not as exciting of a food day, but it was definitely an easier day in the kitchen since my meals were based around leftovers. I'm trying to make sure I have enough of each dish to last for a few days because, in the past, I've done meal plans where I was cooking new dishes every night, and that was exhausting. I also go to bed so early now (8:30 pm) that there isn't much time to cook or meal prep on weeknights.

This challenge is not just about the food though. It's also focused on exercise, unwinding, restorative sleep, and optimizing the brain. For the unwinding part, I'm working on increasing my time in meditation. I've meditated for five minutes a day for several years. But I'd like to get up to 10 minutes before this challenge is over. So each week, I'll be increasing my meditation time a bit. I'm also committing to putting my phone away during meal times. Instead of scrolling through Instagram, I'm reading magazines or books during my meals.

The sleep portion is still a struggle. I get to bed most nights at 8:30 pm (and wake up between 4:30 and 5 am), so I'm working on putting my phone away 30 minutes before bed. I'd also like to invest in a better white noise machine. Right now, we use Alexa for fan sounds at night, but my wifi is crappy, and it typically cuts out for a few seconds in the middle of the night and shuts Alexa off. That always wakes me up. Definitely something I need to look into!

30-Day NEURO Plan, Day 3

I'm 3 full days (and then some) into the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution NEURO Plan! Here's what I ate yesterday, on day 3, on this whole foods, plant-based, sugar-free meal plan. 

My gym just started offering morning classes again for the first time since March 2020! They moved to virtual during the "stay home" part of the pandemic, and they started doing outdoor evening classes. And lately, we've been doing evening classes indoors, but they finally added a morning class! I much prefer morning workouts. So I went to the first 6:15 am body burn class at on Tuesday morning (fueled by a cashew cookie Larabar). After the gym, I came home to this beautiful Mediterranean Tofu Scramble that I prepared the night before (with a side of almond butter toast).

The scramble is from the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution book, and it's amazing! It has sundried tomatoes and green olives, so it's not lots of great umami flavor. I'm glad the recipe made enough for a few more days!

Morning snack (back at work!) was a bowl of berries and walnuts and a second coffee from French Truck Coffee. The Sherzais, the authors of the book/plan, say coffee is brain-boosting, but they just don't recommend drinking it after 2 pm because it affects sleep. Because I go to bed so early (8:30 pm), I try to avoid caffeine after noon.

Lunch was a salad topped with leftover Taco Quinoa and some leftover South of the Border salad topping (black beans, sweet potatoes, corn, bell pepper) with leftover avocado dressing.

I had some more Dark Chocolate Orange Pistachio Truffles for my afternoon dessert/snack.

And then dinner was another Pinto Bean Quesadilla stuffed with pintos, bell pepper, spinach, corn, red cabbage, and cashew cheese. So far, I've managed to eat avocado daily (sometimes twice a day) on this plan, so I'm digging that!

30-Day NEURO Plan, Day 2

Monday was my second day on the NEURO plan from the 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution book. You can read more about that plan here, but the basics are whole foods, no sugar, daily exercise, meditation and breathwork, restorative sleep, and brain challenges. Here's a recap of Day 2. I woke up and had some pineapple and walnuts before my 5-mile run. I've been fueling my runs with high-glycemic fruits lately, and it's been working well. 

After my run, I had a Mango Banana Protein Smoothie with almond milk, banana, mango, flax seeds, stevia, turmeric, and Complement Protein powder. Although protein powder would probably be considered a processed food, Complement makes the cleanest protein, and I feel like it's important for me to have that post-run protein.

For my morning snack, I had Strawberries, Blackberries, and Almonds (plus, green tea, which the plan recommends daily). I enjoyed this at my desk at home because we got a surprise "work from home" day on Monday while our organization figured out how to deal with Omicron. Was hoping we'd be working from home again for the long term, but we were back in the office today with some new safety protocols. Oh well. I REALLY enjoy working from home.

Lunch was another South of the Border Salad with avocado dressing. I had this on Sunday for lunch, and the recipe made plenty for leftovers. It has black beans, sweet potato, bell pepper, and corn, plus a garlicky avo dressing.

I had some more Dark Chocolate Orange Pistachio Truffles for my afternoon snack with a cup of moringa tea. You can see those in yesterday's post.

Dinner was Taco Quinoa with Steamed Kale, Pinto Beans, Baked Corn Chips, Guacamole, and Salsa. The taco quinoa recipe is from the book, and it's so yummy! You boil and then bake the quinoa so it gets a little crunchy, and it has lots of chipotle, nooch, and chili powder. The recipes in this book are so flavorful! For the chips, I just air-fried from corn tortilla wedges. 

That's it for day two! So far, I'm feeling great on this plan. I don't miss sugar at all (but I was never a daily sweets eater), and the recipes have been so tasty. I did notice that I've gravitated to mostly Mexican-inspired dishes so far, but there are many other types of dishes in the book. That's just what sounded good when I was meal planning!

30-Day NEURO Plan, Day 1

It's been a couple years since I've done a January reset. I used to do a meal plan every January to get back on track after the holiday onslaught of processed foods, desserts, and booze. But after doing the No Meat Athlete 80/20 Plants plan a few years back, I finally found a nice balance between healthy, whole foods and vegan junk foods. And to be honest, I was doing great with that until the week of Christmas. So I really didn't need a reset, but they're fun! And I've been really into the work of vegan neurologists Dean and Ayesha Sherzai lately, so I wanted to try their 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution NEURO plan. 

I read their first book, The Alzheimer's Solution, back in November, and I got their cookbook/plan, The 30-Day Alzheimer's Solution, for Christmas. Alzheimer's and dementia run in my family, and I'm determined to not let that happen to me! The NEURO Plan is 30 days of whole foods (nothing processed) with zero sugar. The Sherzais say sugar is one the worst things you can eat if you're trying to prevent dementia. I'd already been limiting sugar after reading their first book, and I'm not giving it up entirely (you'll never pry my donuts away!), but for 30 days, I'm doing this sugar-free thing.

I started the NEURO Plan on Sunday with these Golden Waffles with Strawberry Sauce from the book. Can you believe these are sugar-free? They are! The waffles don't have any sweetener, and the strawberry syrup is sweetened with monkfruit. Monkfruit is their healthy sweetener of choice, and I like it!

Lunch was the South of the Border Salad. This has black beans, roasted sweet potatoes, corn, bell peppers, cilantro, and spring mix with an avocado dressing. A very hearty salad!

Dinner was Pinto Bean Quesadillas with Chipotle Cashew Queso. This was my favorite meal of the day! The filling is made with pintos, spinach, corn, and bell peppers, and it's seasoned with a smoky cashew cheese sauce. They recommend sprouted grain tortillas, so I used Ezekiel wraps. They don't wrap well at all, but they're great for quesadillas. I made some awesome guac, and I used some of my dad's homemade salsa for topping. I had some steamed kale on the side because they say you should get 3 servings of green leafies a day.

There's even dessert on the plan! I made a big batch of these Dark Chocolate Orange Pistachio Truffles to enjoy throughout the week. These are made with Lilly's stevia-sweetened dark chocolate, orange zest, almond flour, almond butter, and monkfruit sweetener. They are so good, and you'd never know they were sugar-free!

NEURO stands for nutrition, exercise, unwind, restore, and optimize, so there's more to this plan than food. They recommend daily exercise (I'm doing a running streak in January, and I'm doing Yoga with Adriene's 30-day MOVE plan). For unwinding, they suggest meditation, breathwork, and journaling, and the restore part focuses on sleep hygiene (they recommend 7-8 hours a night). Optimize is actually the hardest part for me. In that section, they say you should spend a little time doing a brain-challenging activity. I've decided I'm going to try to learn Spanish, so I've started a basic Spanish podcast, and I'm practicing with flash cards. 

I'll be blogging about the NEURO plan for the next 29 days! Wish me luck!