What I’ve Eaten (so far) This Week to Keep My Gut Flourishing

First, I must give a shoutout to my son, Clay, the graphic designer, for taking a stock photo and creating this awesome illustration! Thanks, bud!

I decided to do a little photo and food diary of everything I’ve eaten so far this week to see how I did in supporting my gut health. We learned all about our Gut Health on Monday. You can find that article here. The weekly goal for a healthy, diverse microbiome is to consume:

30+ various plant products: vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds
Foods containing Pre and ProBiotics
Clean and unprocessed foods
Minimal refined sugars

I really wanted to see if it was possible to eat 30+ different plant products. Let’s see how I’ve done so far.

Monday:

My Smoothie (here’s a link to my recipe)- don’t let the “gray gunge” color fool you! The color can vary depending on your combination of spinach and fruits. *I’ve also started adding a teaspoon of Spirulina on some days. This is delicious and checks off 7 varieties of fruits, veggies, and seeds: chia, hemp, fresh spinach, kiwi, blueberries, strawberries, Spirulina (a blue green algae that contains prebiotics, reduces inflammation, supports microbiome diversity, and promotes probiotics). Plus, Kefir (Fermented Milk)

Veggie Egg Bites – these are from Wednesday’s post (here)spinach, mushrooms, green onion, potato (3 new)

Protein Packed Blueberry Muffin – Oats, almond flour, blueberries (2 new). Plus, Greek Yogurt! (Recipe to come soon!)

P.S. It’s important to note that when we bake or cook with Greek Yogurt, the heat kills the probiotic bacteria that our gut loves. However, the protein content stays intact. So, it’s great for baking to get a lovely protein boost, but for a double-whammy protein plus probiotic boost, eat your Greek yogurt raw. Just a little something to keep in mind. 😉

We went out to dinner (Sauce on the Blue in Silverthorne) to celebrate G’s Birthday. I had this Eggplant Tower for my entree (plus a few bites of G’s chicken parm!!). So. Freaking. Delicious. Eggplant, Red Pepper, Mushrooms, and a beautiful Tomato Sauce.(4 new)

Four of us shared G’s Birthday Cannoli, and it was incredible! They make them in-house every day with the most delicious fresh ingredients. One was a tiramisu flavor and the other was an orange and pistachio flavor (superb). Technically speaking, no fruits or veggies here – lol!

Here’s a little debrief about eating the cannoli. I want us to remember that we are in this for the long haul! This is not a “diet”, nor is it an all-or-nothing approach to eating. Is this cannoli something I plan to eat daily? No. But I’m seeking a LIFE of BALANCE! So heck yeah I’m eating the Birthday Cannoli!

Monday’s Total of unique plant products: 16! What a little overachiever I was. Here’s the truth . . . day one is easy because it’s a fresh start and so every plant product I ate was unique for my tally. Let’s see how I do the rest of the week . . .

Tuesday

Smoothie . . . again. Super healthy and delicious, but no New Plant Products.

We headed down to Denver for the day. We took Clay to the airport . . . which is always bittersweet. We had lunch in our old neighborhood (Washington Park). We played with Daisy in the park, drove by our old house, and stopped at a neighborhood coffee spot to kill some time and get some work done before a meeting.

I had a fantabulous burger with bacon, brie, and warm onion apple jam and arugula. I’m not going to count the apple because . . . well first of all it was on a bacon cheeseburger, and second of all I don’t think jam counts. I’m counting the arugula, though! 1 new

As my side (instead of fries) I had thie warm kale salad with red cabbage and carrots, which was delicious, AND it gave me 3 new!

Dinner . . . well, let’s just say that’s when the wheels fell off. 😂 We had planned to head right back home Tuesday afternoon, but something made me look at the GPS. It should have been an hour-and-a-half drive up I-70, but my GPS was showing a 3-hour drive down towards Colorado Springs and up a back way via two different mountain passes. Turns out I-70 was shut down due to severe weather and multiple accidents. Sigh . . . this is the reality of living where we do.

We really didn’t want to go the back way, especially considering the weather up there. So, we hung out in one of Denver’s Western suburbs. I went to HomeGoods – always a treat! And we kept watching our phones. Coincidentally, our Boulder Besties were on their way up to the Aspen area, and got trapped in Georgetown for several hours, so we were keeping each other posted on what we knew . . . which wasn’t much.

We kept thinking that things would re-open at any moment. We were tired and ready to get home. So we went to Chick-fil-A and ate our feelings. Ha! So this is really just a long-winded way to report that I consumed no new veggies with my dinner . . . and that sometimes, life just happens.

Tuesday’s total of unique plant products: 4

I’ll fill you in on the rest of our harrowing journey in tomorrow’s “Hello Friday” post. Stay tuned.

Wednesday

Wednesday’s breakfast was cookie dough. Ha! If you haven’t looked at today’s 2nd post, you’re probably getting a little worried about me! Take a look at that post to read about my Gut-Healthy, Protein-Packed Cookie Dough. This has a nice serving of Greek Yogurt for microbiota-loving probiotics. Plus a tablespoon of organic natural peanut butter to add 1 new plant product to this meal.

For lunch I had a little left-over oven-fried chicken and rosemary roasted carrots, with some sliced cucumber. The oven-fried chicken has a nice amount of almond meal for another plant product. This meal gave me 2 new ones.

P.S. I’ll share the recipe for this chicken soon. I’ve been making this forever, and it’s everyone’s favorite!

Wednesday’s dinner was tacos made with ground chicken. Around here, we love an old-school ground meat taco on a crispy shell.

I made a batch of my favorite black beans, giving me 1 new veg for my tally.

To up the flavor and veggie content, I diced fresh onion, zucchini, and red bell pepper and added them to my taco meat. I also threw in some frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe’s. So this taco filling gave me 3 new ones.

Both the beans and the taco filling had some fresh garlic, and garlic is so good for us! 1 more! We topped the tacos with arugula, black olives, and fresh salsa. Since I already had arugula and tomato with other meals, I’m just giving myself credit for the serving of black olives. 1 more

Wednesday’s tally came to 8 new plant products.

So, how am I doing in my quest to feed my microbiome at least 30 different plant products in a week? Not too shabby! So far, I stand at 28, and I’m only halfway into the week. Just for fun, I’ll plan to continue tallying these fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and beans up through Sunday, and I’ll update you next week.

I’m happy to know that I can get a good number of new plant products without really having to try. I’m already thinking of the meals I have planned for the next few days, and I’m certain I can reach my goal.

Honorable Mention

I have to give a shout-out to my morning glass of cold-pressed vegetable juice. I chug one of these every morning with my vitamin supplements. I didn’t count it in my tally, but I just wanted to remind you guys that if you’re looking for ways to get a good veggie boost for your microbiota, this is a great option!

Thanks so much for reading along with me today! We can do this, friends! It’s not a big leap to incorporate the variety of foods that will help our gut health flourish. I’ll see you back here tomorrow!

What’s Your Gut Telling You?

March 3, 2025

In "Health & Wellness"

I’m About to Change Your Life

March 6, 2025

In "Nourish & Nosh"

A Synergistic Approach to Supplements

November 18, 2024

In "Health & Wellness"

Elevated Nesting

I’m Chris. I’m a fifty-something Nurse and Empty Nester living, working, and playing in the Colorado Rockies. Elevated Nesting is a relaxed space to share and learn about Healthy Aging and how we can flourish in this stage of life!