Week one is in the books and we’re into week two. I’m writing this while prepping Brussels sprouts for tonight’s dinner, so let’s recap while the oven heats up.
First things first — the hunger question I raised last week. One week in and honestly? I haven’t really felt it. That surprised me. Between the breakfast, the snack, the lunch and the dinner, there’s enough variety and enough food that I haven’t been sitting around watching the clock waiting to eat. That’s already a better experience than the last time I tried to lose weight.
The variety has actually been one of the highlights. This week I made kung pao chicken and kung pao shrimp for the first time — I’ve had kung pao from restaurants plenty of times but never made it myself. I looked up the sauce recipe, kept the oil in check, used soy sauce and vinegar and some hot pepper, and it came out really good. The chicken with bok choy in a ginger garlic sauce was another standout. I found a good sauce recipe online and it was surprisingly simple and delicious.
Here’s something worth knowing about using an AI meal plan — it gives you the dishes and the shopping list, but it doesn’t always hand you a recipe. That part is on you. If you’re comfortable in the kitchen you’ll figure it out. If you’re not, this is a good time to start learning, because cooking at home is really the only way to stay in control of what goes into your food.
Not everything landed perfectly. The turkey meatballs with zucchini noodles — I thought they were fine, but happy healthy wife was not impressed. That one’s probably coming off the rotation.
On substitutions: the plan called for almond butter but I swapped it for natural peanut butter — the real kind, the kind you have to stir. Not the Jiffy, not the Skippy. Just peanuts. Simple swap, same idea, no problem. The meal plan is a framework, not a rulebook. You work with what makes sense for your household.
On weighing yourself — I haven’t really done it consistently yet, but one thing I do know from past experience is that you need to weigh yourself at the same time every day to get any meaningful reading. Right after you wake up, after the restroom, no clothes. That’s your real number. Everything else is just water moving around.
Week two is already underway. Come back next week for the review.
