WholeFamily Whole30 – Half Way

Day 15! Can you believe we made it?

I contemplated posting once-per-week, but I did that when I did a successful W30 back in 2016, and you can read all about it over here. Further, in order to achieve my 2019 goal of blogging more, I’m hoping to post twice a month on the 1st and 15th of each month going forward, instead of “all-the-sudden trying to climb a mountain that is too big” with posting weekly etc, so lets start with a realistic goal shall we? What do you think?

So, we’re I’m officially HALF WAY DONE with our “WholeFamily, Whole30”. (Spoiler Alert!)

Can I just tell you guys how lucky I am that my family is was doing this with me? When I did this on my own back in 2016, it was so hard! The fridge and cupboards were stocked with “non-compliant” food and I had to will power my way through it a few times.

The subsequential other times I tried doing a W30, back in January 2017, February 2018, and September 2018 I failed miserably despite wanting to succeed.  This time, since we only have Whole30 food in the house (upstairs anyway), there isn’t a real possibility to slip.

Jason: Ended up going off the program as of Friday the 11th, but agreed he’d stay W30 at home. I think this is a great compromise. He works construction, so his lunch choices were limited unless he wanted a salad for lunch, which he did not, and he wasn’t on Whole30 for himself, but rather in support for me. The amount of money we were spending in nuts, and compliant jerky/snacks was a pinch ridiculous for “sympathy eating”, and I could tell he was miserable, so I cut him off from feeling obligated anymore, and his mood lifted.

Kay: She is still on plan as of today. Her friends at school think she has some kind of medical condition. One kid at lunch thinks she must have diabetes if she can’t have any sugar anymore, and another kiddo commenting that “It’s just not natural to not have added sugar.”

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I think her lunches looked pretty darn good (and as you can tell by all the fruit, the girl is not lacking in the sugar department)!

Truth be told though, I think we’ll wean her off the program this Friday night, however. As a growing pre-teen, she needed more calories but just wanted fruit. The girl plowed through two pints of raspberries in one sitting. We decided her fruit addiction needed to stop, so as of the 18th – she’ll be in re-intro mode with some high-quality full fat, grass-fed dairy.  Hopefully, 18 days was long enough to get some stuff out of her system. I’m genuinely interested to know if she is dairy or gluten (or anything else) sensitive due to frequent complaints of tummy pain.

She did say, she still wanted home lunch however unless the school’s hot lunch was irresistible. Sounds 80/20 textbook Paleo to me! We shall see.

Me: I’m still going strong! (Don’t worry, I’m not bailing). This has been my best attempt yet. I feel in control, and not overly missing, “All the things”. The food choices I’ve prepared have been better, and I’m snacking a lot less which tells me my meals are balanced right. I’m also feeling – AMAZING. My painful heartburn, which plagued me nearly every day, along with bloating has completely gone away.

My ‘severe’ shoulder/back pain/inflammation that would nearly take my breath away, (that I blamed on our bed not being comfortable) all but disappeared. (Clearly, it’s not our bed, it was inflammatory foods.) Further, despite only getting an average of 6-hours of sleep I wake up in the morning completely refreshed. No more waking up in the middle of the night, tossing & turning while I process sugar from my nightcap(s) of wine and sugary snacks that went along with said wine. (Ahem pretzels/chips & salsa).

So – for the next 15 days I will continue to cook W30 dinners for my family, while also re-introducing foods for our daughter.

As for me – Cheers to the next 15 days!

Share:
– Do you have any resets that you’re doing in the month of January?
– Do you experience chronic inflammation such as upper back/shoulder pain, or acid reflux?

Have you ever tried paleo, or removing potentially inflammatory foods?

Living the Paleo Dream

Hey Guys,

Now that I’ve officially finished my Whole30 its time to re-introduce some of those foods to:

a.) see if it has any effect on me
b.) loosen the reigns a little bit.

I really wanted to give this section its due honor and not kick off my heels to much. I wanted to take each food group I spent the last month avoiding and evaluate it slowly. So that’s what I did over the past 10 days. Here are the categories, and how they affected me.

Wine:
As a glass + of wine per night girl, I was excited to jump back into a world of wine… My first wine back I had a Pinot Nior by Erath and it was DELICIOUS!   A sleep disturbance was definitely noticed. After just one glass of wine I was BUZZIN’! I also had a bad headache and felt crappy. Over the next week and half I enjoyed more wine on the weekends, and while I can say, I enjoy wine… I can also honestly say I no longer WANT wine every day…   Definitely part sugar, and part alcohol, this “food group” did a number on me, and this is why I’m limiting my wine consumption to just Friday-Saturday or special occasions! In some ways I felt like I was breaking up with wine, but we can still hang out… just on a limited basis… which is what I would want anyways.  I was very shocked that I could no longer “handle” my wine – even after abstaining for 9 months while pregnant with my daughter – after just 30 days I really experienced a major tolerance set back.. but I did some serious changes within my system detoxing of sugar, and my body definitely took notice. With that almost assuredly adding to (gulp) slightly tighter pants, and general feeling of sluggishness, brain fog etc, I do not want to affect my daily life anymore!

Additives:
Additives with too much sugar are definitely impacting my sleep. While I feel I can loosen the reigns a little bit with this one, its best to avoid when I can, and purchase (sugar free) when available… but I don’t think I’ll make homemade ketchup anymore. (Though I did find an amazing avocado mayo that is to die for!)

Peanut Butter | Legumes:
I enjoyed some PB with some apples, and tried some beans. The PB tasted creamy and almost chocolaty. I made a bean salad and noticed that I felt extremely full (uncomfortably so) after eating these. For this reason, I will skip beans in the future. On occasion I may have some peanut butter, but since I really do love my apples and almond butter it won’t be a common indulgence.

Non-Gluten Grains:
CORN: Finally – Taco Tuesday with the taco shell! But an hour or two after dinner I had knots in my tummy that didn’t feel good. Several days later I had a corn shell tortilla with no ill effect, so perhaps I will just limit them. I’m in the process of deciding to NOT do Tacos every Tuesday anymore!

QUIONA:
I hit this one with dairy for Sunday night homemade pizzas! Read below in my dairy response! Seemingly went alright!

Dairy: Had some homemade pizza on a quiona crust and I didn’t notice any side effects. I did end up with a bloody nose though later that night. Coincidence? I’ll have to play around occasionally with this one some more.

Gluten:
Dun-Dun-Dun – oh the “dreaded” gluten! I wasn’t even going to add this one back  based off several symptoms that have mysteriously disappeared over the past 40 days – that haven’t returned with adding in dairy, non-gluten grains, sugar etc I’m convinced now, more than ever that gluten was definitely a culprit to several of these symptoms! I won’t bore you with all of the details, but here are a few…

  • Daily nosebleeds
  • Keratosis Pilaris (which has gotten significantly better)
  • Iron-Deficiency anemia
  • Reflux
  • Dental issues, including canker sores
  • Extreme fatigue
  • Brain Fog (I would be in the middle of a sentence and forget what I was saying)
  • Scary dizzy spells
  • Dry Hair

Okay – that last one seems silly, but my hair was always extremely dry! I didn’t even realize this was abnormal until I went gluten free for 40 + days! So one of our planned meals out in the BWCA will have gluten in it… so I decided to jump back into gluten to make sure I didn’t have any ill effects…. no lie. Within 30-40 minutes I had searing pain in my neck and shoulder blades. Did a google search and found this, and this, and this,and this!

Now, I’m not claiming to be celiac, or even say I’m “gluten intolerant” at all – I haven’t had any tests done, or gone to the doctor whatsoever besides a 40 day elimination diet, and betterment of my Keratosis Pilaris which has plagued me for my entire life, no more dizziness or reflux, no canker sores, more energy and no shoulder/neck pain (that almost hurts with breathing) and then suddenly blearing shoulder/neck pain, bloating and complete brain fog? I’m not sayin’ – I’m just saying I think I can break up with the gluten.

The opposite of Addle’s Hello.

Goodbye Gluten….Its no longer me…..

They say that time’s supposed to heal yah – and I have DONE some healin’.

 

Sweets & Treats: I didn’t really hit this as hard as I thought I would. After loosing some weight, and returning to pre-baby weight, and a noticeably smaller tummy – I just don’t want to go back! With that said… an indulgence here and there (not daily) is something I don’t want to have handcuffs on for the rest of my life though. I’m glad to know I can exercise self control in this department!

Friday the 6th I had my first dabble in a pure sugary treat which was a mini s’more on a gluten free graham cracker. The marshmallow sent me in to sugar overdrive and I felt like I was going to puke! Haha. It was delicious though. This will definitely help with a “one bite” is enough. I guess technically with the milk chocolate I had dairy but didn’t notice any ill effects.

Final Conclusion? Have you tried the Whole30? If not, I definitely recommend that you give it a go. All in all it was a neat experience. It helped that I am a maniacal food planner to begin with. You don’t want to find yourself in the morning, staring down the fridge wondering what you’re going to eat for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner for that matter.

Plus – everyone complains about the amount of dishes they will now have to do, but I always go all out on my dinners, so that didn’t change one iota.

Find your grooves. I found I really, really LOVE baked eggs, or over hard eggs with cut up mini-peppers in them – EVERY DAY! I love this so much, that I don’t mind eating eggs every single day! I’m slightly cringing for our BWCA trip when I’ll be eating oatmeal every day, but it’s just 6-7 days and then I can go back to my beloved eggs! :). — Good thing I have my own chickens!

I also found a few favorites I made several times, such as this delicious shrimp skillet, that you’ll see I Instagramed several times, and Cracklin’ Chicken, which might take over as a weekly menu item like Taco Tuesday did!

It also helped that we butcher our own chickens, and deer/venison,and have purchased 1/4 cow, and 1/2 pig… and oh yeah did I mention we have our own chickens for my daily egg breakfast? Oh – okay… so I guess these things make Whole30 and a Paleo Lifestyle MUCH easier to obtain. I used to sell 75-80% of my eggs, and now I sell only 20%!

Without going overboard and developing orthorexia, I do plan to follow a “fairly strict” paleo diet. It honestly seems to suit me, and I’m working on finding my groove without breaking the bank! All of these amazing cookbooks I’ve come across like Nom Nom Paleo, Against All Grain, and Well Fed have me wanting to try all kinds of new recipes, but I know now I can make a simple yet delicious dinner with the very simple, meat, and two veggie side! Can you believe that my food budget has actually decreased?

While I won’t be as hardcore as the “Whole30” rules, and I may have wine DURING the week, and the occasional GF grain,  I realized in these 30 days that it IS possible to have self control, feel better, and gain perspective.

 

Whole30 – Week 4 and Conclusion

Hey Guys!
I am officially done with Whole30!

Firstly, I found out I could give up my beloved wine for an entire month, and don’t even miss pasta or rice, which was a mainstay (and definite over-consumption) in all of my meals!

Here’s how the final days went…

Friday April 22
B Two Eggs, baked over hard with peppers & coffee
L – Cold Tuna Salad
D – Sausage, Pepper & Onion

Finally got a good dose of Tiger Blood today! I had so much energy it was as if I had drank at least 2 pots of coffee! I think my co-workers were wondering…. 

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Saturday April 23
B – Skillet Breakfast
L – Snacks of Lara Bars, Cashews & Mango Jerkey
D – Apple Sausage, Pepper & Onion.

Tonight we got invited over to our friends house for dinner. Being so close on my journey I decided to bring my own dinner! I felt slightly awkward about it, but I didn’t get teased as much as I thought I would. The meal itself would have been fine on a regular “paleo” diet, but the spice rub did have some brown sugar in it, so for obvious reasons – its not Whole30 compliant.

Sunday April 24
B – Sweet Potato, Apple, Sausage & Egg Skillet
L – Snacks of Lara Bars, Cashews & Mango Jerkey
D – Hamburgers on the skillet

Spent the afternoon today (and yesterday) at seminars, so my lunches have been less than amazing, but I’m excited that I’ll have a nice clean paleo lunch for when we go up to the BWCA!

I’m in Love with lettuce wraps on hamburgers! I’m also becoming a total pro at making hamburgers on the cast iron skillet, (since i’m not hugely confident on our gas grill). I’m glad I’m able to make “grill” food without the hassle!

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Monday April 25
B: Two Eggs, baked over hard with peppers & coffee
L: Salad
D – Mexican Monday: Tacos

Decided to revert back to Tacos on Monday for this week! I’m excited to finally try corn-shells next week once I’m off Whole30!

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Tuesday April 26
B – Two Eggs, baked over hard with peppers & coffee
L – Salad
D – Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Walking through the house this afternoon smelled amazing! The parsnips were a good alternative to the standard potatoes that accompany most stews! I used sugar free chicken broth and thickened with some arrowroot.

Wednesday April 27
B – Coffee & Tea & my 2 eggs.
L – Frozen Vegetables, Orange, Mango Jerky & Cashews
D – Spice Thai Zoodle Salad

My zoodle salad sauce didn’t set quite right this time. It was strangely thick, but I did skip adding in the lime juice. I will definitely add that in next time!

I completely forgot my lunch at home today, but my co-worker surprised me with an Admin Professionals day including my FAVORITE Mango jerky!

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Thursday April 28
B – Two Eggs, baked over hard with peppers & coffee
L – Left over slow cooker beef stew
D – Shrimp & Sweet Potato Skillet

This is definitely a new family favorite! Its so quick and easy to make too! Comfort food at its best!

28

Friday April 29
B – Two Eggs, baked over hard with peppers & coffee
L – Cold Tuna Salad
D – Cold Tuna Salad

I’m loving my new Cold Tuna Salad! Its so delicious, that I don’t even miss the pasta in this dish!

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Saturday April 30 – FINAL DAY
B – Fried eggs over hard with peppers & coffee
L – Cold Tuna Salad
D – Cracklin’ Chicken

I made it – I made it – I made it!!!!! I feel like a kitty cat grabbin’ the unicorn by the neck with guns blazing!!!!

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Final Thoughts –
1. It was easier than I thought
2. It helped that I’m an obsessive meal planner to begin with
3. It helps that I cook huge meals and dirty my kitchen anyways
4. I plan to keep MOST of the “rules”/best practices of a Paleo lifestyle!
5. I lost 8lbs! This was awesome! I’m back down to my pre-kid weight and on the cusp of just out of the Navy weight.

I will add back in wine, but just on weekends. Strictly Friday-Sunday I’m very glad I can live without it for a month. I love the taste of wine, and wanted to make sure that it didn’t have a stronghold over my life. Sure… there were some meals along the way I thought, wow, this paired with a buttery chardonnay…. or sauv. blanc, cab… you get the idea… but I’m glad I can strongly say – I enjoy wine but not for emotional purposes

I do not plan to add back in gluten, specifically bread and pasta, since I absolutely LOVE my Zoodles. Maybe it was the lack of daily wine or bread, or pasta, rice and processed foods, but I’m definitely starting to see my “muffin top” fade away and I’ve been very pleased with that.

Re-Introduction….

Stay tuned for my next blog post!

Thanks for all the support. Have you tried a Whole30 yet? What are your thoughts on the whole processes?

 

Whole30 – Week 3

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone….

Friday April 15, 2016

Breakfast – Two eggs cracked, with peppers & onions and baked till done
Lunch – Final batch of left over chili
Dinner – The most amazing Spicy Thai Zoodle Salad

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I absolutely adore Pad Thai! The flavors and umami involved tantalize my taste buds, so when I found this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo I was very eager to try it! Since I’m now half way thru I treated myself to… the Nom Nom Paleo cookbook written by Michelle Tam & Henry Fong!

 

Saturday April 16, 2016

Breakfast – Adele Sausage over some Kale, onions & salsa
Lunch – Trail Snacks
Dinner – Pan Seared Salmon

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I’ve never really liked salmon, but a trip to Whole Foods to find dried porchini mushrooms had me passing by some yummy looking salmon so I decided to give it a final try! I’ve tried salmon on several occasions, but never really LOVED it. Today I found a yummy marinade involving balsamic vinegar, and rosemary. First I noticed the skin was still on the one side, so I decided to filet that off! I know some people cook with it on, but I was creeped out by it. My daughter wanted me to save the scales and sew her a mermaid costume, but I told her that wasn’t going to happen! HA. I pan seared it in some ghee to get a nice crust! I also whipped up a nice kale salad and some roasted tomatoes. It was fairly good, but I think my [short stayed] love affair with salmon has come to a close. There are so many other species of fish that I enjoy so much more!

 

Sunday April 17, 2016

Breakfast – Sweet Potato, Apple & Sausage skillet
Lunch – Salad
Dinner – Cracklin’ Chicken

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After subscribing to the Nom Nom Paleo podcast (do you see a trend here folks?) and hearing that Lil’ O started out not wanting to eat paleo I needed to find a POW WOW dinner to get my daughter on board! (She is for sure a sugar addict and I’m trying to help her quit that!) So I made Lil’ O’s favorite Cracklin’ Chicken! It is now also Lil’ K’s favorite as well! My daughter exclaimed, “Mom, I want you to make this again soon! But not regular soon – VERY VERY soon!” She also demanded that I pack it for her lunch the next day! I call that a win.

I also was so excited to eat this – that I forgot to snap a photo until after my meal was over, but I found this hilarious e-card which has described my relationship with Whole30 so far!

 

Monday April 18, 2016

Breakfast – Left over Sweet Potato, Apple & Sausage skillet
Lunch – Left over Cracklin’ Chicken
Dinner – Egg Drop Soup

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Tonight I had a meeting that would go from 6pm-8 or 9pm, so I threw a Lara Bar in my bag knowing I was going to make the ever so quick Egg Drop Soup. Last summer I was going through our freezer chest and found 5 chicken backs. For those of you who are new to my blog, our friends raise our chickens for us, and we help process them. They are humanely raised, and humanely processed, abx free {ranging} chickens! So what to do with chicken backs? They don’t really provide a lot of meat, so I took 5 days, my crockpot and lots of yummy herbs and veggies from my garden and made bone broth! Froze them into little batch bags, and forgot about them until today!

I ran down stairs, thawed a bag out real quick, whipped up some eggs, sliced a scallion, and jalapeno to crank up the heat, and topped with a little cilantro for a Thai tasting Egg Drop Soup! From start to finish I think it took me 10 minutes to whip this up. That’s what I call a week night or emergency dinner!

 

Tuesday April 19, 2016

Breakfast – Left over Sweet Potato, Apple & Sausage skillet
Lunch – Left over Egg Drop Soup
Dinner – Taco Tuesday of course on Romaine Boats

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Wednesday April 20, 2016

Breakfast – Two Eggs baked with peppers and scallions
Lunch – Taco Salad
Dinner –  Tacos

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Thursday April 21, 2016

Breakfast – Two Eggs baked with peppers and scallions
Lunch –  Two Eggs baked with peppers and scallions
Dinner – Cauliflower Pizza Bites & then Sausage in Marinara

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How I feel!

Mind My mind is pretty clear. Gone away is the brain fog that plagued me. I used to joke [shame on me] around pretty heavily that I probably had early onset Alzheimer’s because I could be in the middle of a conversation and completely forget what I was talking about. Or I would forget to do stuff that was pretty routine stuff.

 

BodyDo you know the muffin man? Well – for a long while (since my mid 20s at least) I’ve slowly been developing the dreaded “muffin top”! I’m noticing finally this week that ever so slowly that is trimming itself up! Its true what they say, “Abs are made in the kitchen”. Recent studies show that nutrition is nearly 90% important when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight vs. 10% exercise! While I don’t plan to be a strict “WholeLifer” I do plan (as of now) to maintain a fairly strict Paleo diet as my body seems to really like being treated this way. 

I’ve also been sleeping like a ROCK! Gone is my nighttime sugar rush rollercoaster which would ALWAYS wake me up nearly every night around 2-3 a.m. I now sleep soundly into the morning. I do still wake up tired, but that’s because I’m an infotainment addict, and love reading, and catching up on my social media outlets. I’m slowly getting better at that as well! My new bedtime is usually around 10:30pm!

 

Soul My soul is refreshed right now! Nearly 10 days ago I attended Outcry a Christian Worship concert that renewed the Holy Spirit in me and refreshed any parts of me that were growing dull, or complacent. My annual trip into the BWCA is coming up soon, and I’m looking forward to attending that as well! Obviously I know that God exists outside of the BWCA but something about really getting out into the wilderness amps up His energy in my life. When I tune out the static I can actually hear from Him! Funny how that works!

 

Overall things are good. Life is good! Its now coming into the last week on Whole30! I will wait to post until the 30th instead of next Thursday/Friday and close out this series. I will continue to post my journey, and I’m already thinking about how I want to carry these new healthy behaviors into my daily lifestyle. Towards the beginning I mentioned something to my husband about, “Well once this is over I can have xyz… “ and he says, “Wait a minute… after 30 days you’re just going to go back to what you used to do?…”

Even if I don’t have any yucky reactions to certain foods I think I’m going to carry most of this lifestyle on.  After all if I’m feeling this good on the program, why go back to unhealthy behaviors if I’m thriving without?

Until nextime.

Whole30 – Week 2

I’m pretty sure week 2 was supposed to be the hardest week, and I was like screw that – I’m going to make the most delicious food in the universe so that I can fly right thru this phase!

After all – I’m looking forward to the  Tiger Blood phase which will be coming up in a few more days!

Friday April 8, 2016
Breakfast – Mini Fritatas
Lunch – Chicken Salad
Dinner – Sweet Potato Kale & Shrimp Skillet

Friday

Saturday April 9, 2016
Breakfast – Fruit, almond butter & Black Coffee
Lunch – Meatloaf
Dinner – This AMAZING Chocolate Chili!

I did miss my standard cheese on top, and saltine crackers, but made it crunchy by adding raw onions and jalapenos to it! Not bad! Not bad.

Saturday

Sunday April 10, 2016
Breakfast – AMAZING Potato & Italian Sausage skillet
Lunch – Left over Chili
Dinner – Pork Ribs with potato and italian sausage and a side salad.

Sunday

Pan seared the pork ribs in some ghee for a nice crunch, and finished in the oven. These were so good, I only wish we had more.

Monday April 11, 2016
Breakfast – Left over Potato/Sausage skillet & Black Coffee
Lunch – Chili
Dinner – Whole Chicken in Crockpot, with multi-color carrots & salad

Monday

Added just a pinch of sugar free chicken broth to the bottom of my crock-pot, sprinkled both sides of the chicken with cinnamon, and zested some lemon over the top. The chicken was out of this world! 

Tuesday April 12, 2016
Breakfast – Left over Potato/Sausage skillet & Black Coffee
Lunch – Chicken Salad
Dinner – My first meal out in the world!

Tuesday

I was really concerned how I was going to handle this. My friend and I were headed to a concert, so I didn’t have time to go home and eat, and didn’t want to just bring my dinner to work, so I called ahead to Rusty Taco after seeing the ingredients on the Picadillo Taco – I was confident I could make it Whole30 compliant. I spoke to the chef about what ingredients they use in their seasoning for the beef/potatoes, and what if any oil they cook the beef in. To my delight all I had to do was ask for it sans taco shell, and I was good to go! I did sneak in my own salsa though.

Wednesday April 13, 2016
Breakfast – Eggs, peppers, black coffee
Lunch – Left over chili
Dinner – Chicken Stir Fry

Wednesday

Can you tell I love jalapenos? I threw all of this into a skillet (left over chicken from Monday) along with my favorite veggies, and stir fried them in some coconut aminos, and garlic. Topped with my favorite cilantro over cauliflower rice!

Thursday April 14, 2016
Breakfast -Eggs, peppers, black coffee
Lunch – Left over stir fry
Dinner –Sweet Potato Kale & Shrimp Skillet

Thursday

Made the Sweet Potato, Kale & Shrimp skillet again! This photo is so much better than last Friday’s photo! But I swear it was the same food, and looked the same in real life. This is a super quick and easy meal that is from fridge to plate in about 20 minutes! That’s what I call a week night meal!

All in all – week 2 went amazing. So far I’m digging this. Of course there are nights when I think a nice glass of wine would really compliment my meal, but I am also enjoying life with no alcohol. My sleep is certainly improved without the sugar peeks and crashes.

Finally on April 14th I was hungry for breakfast, which I never am… so that was pleasant. I’m thinking my cortisol levels are finally normalizing.

I tried my first two Lara Bars in life. Cashew Cookie, which was okay, and Carrot Cake which was much better and tastier. In the evening before bed while watching shows sometimes I have a little bowl of cashews, blackberries and apple slices. I think that also has been helping me too!

Excited for the Tiger Blood now!

Tiger

Whole30 – Week 1

So! I’ve been on Whole30 for an entire week!

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The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom

So far so good! I didn’t want to post prior to my one week milestone, or announce to anyone besides my husband really that I was going to do Whole30 during the month of April. Firstly… I didn’t want the pressure, and I wanted to make sure that I would actually make it a whole week!

My friend Abbey lent me her book, “It Starts with Food“, by Dallas & Melissa Hartwig, which is the axel of my eating style for the next month.  Eventually I’d like to get the book that is pictured above, but there are so many resources available on the internet (especially Pinterest).

The lead up I say would have to be the worst! I agonized for months about this – debating if I should or should not… after all my other co-worker eats whatever she wants and is really not much younger than I am, and is in fabulous shape! (Although she runs about 20-25 miles per week)…. but I needed a slap in the face wake up style approach to eating!

After two of my co-workers did Whole30 back in February and March I knew April would be my best shot to really give this a go and be ultimately successful!

I was worried though that I wouldn’t be able to give up my evening wine, or easy week night evening ingredients that are laced with sugar and potentially harmful chemicals. But its 30 days right? I can suck it up for THIRTY DAYS!

My co-worker Sara (a former Whole30 Survivor and champ) was headed to Trader Joes on Thursday March 31, so I told her if she see’s this awesome cauliflower rice (which is notoriously out of stock at the Shoreview, MN location) to pick me up a few bags!

I was in luck, and since it was only $1.99 I told her to get me 5 bags. Between mine and her own, she said she looked like a total addict at the checkout lane! I can imagine.

I decided to start on April 1 – which was a Friday – which seems like a weird day to start a diet/challenge, but I say – why save everything for Mondays? Any day is a good day for change – so I started on Friday April 1.

Afterwork I headed over to said Shoreview TJs and picked up some ingredients for the week, including Ghee!

Here’s what I ate:

April 1, 2016
Friday Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs & Black Coffee
Friday Lunch: Taco Salad
Friday Dinner: A spicy asian fusion – ground beef/pepper/onion/pineapple mix, over riced cauliflower.

Tonight was a little tricky! Tonight was my nieces play so I didn’t leave their city until 8:45pm and it’s a 20 minute ride home, so tonight I ate late!

When I arrived I had seen my daughter and husband had gotten Dominos pizza, and I LOVE pizza, but I forged ahead and kept on keeping on! I snapped a photo of my food because I thought it looked so yummy and posted it on Instragram… I guess the cats out of the bag!

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April 2, 2016
Saturday Breakfast: Mango Jerkey from Trader Joes, Cashews, strawberries & black coffee
Saturday Lunch:  Left over ground beef/pepper/onion etc meal
Saturday Dinner: Easy Homestyle Meatloaf

I was at the SD Convention [Politics] in my district (I sound like I live in the Hunger Games) all day so I brought with a travel snacky type breakfast, and packed a thermos of my left over dinner from the night before for lunch, since I knew my options were going to be severely limited!

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April 3, 2016
Sunday Breakfast: Chicken Sausage/Peppers & Onions & Black Coffee
Sunday Lunch: Chicken Sausage, Peppers & Onions
Sunday Dinner: Hamburgers (Mine of course with a lettuce wrap for the bun)

Ran: 4.01 Miles

Hamburger

April 4, 2016
Monday Breakfast: Hamburger, mashed sweet potatoes & Black Coffee
Monday Lunch: Finished off the rest of my Friday dinner left overs
Monday Dinner: Thai Basil Chicken

ThaiBasilChicken

April 5, 2016
Tuesday Breakfast: Mixed Fruit, cashews, sweet potato & Black Coffee
Tuesday Lunch: Chicken, Strawberry & Almond Salad
Tuesday Dinner: Since it was Taco Tuesday – I kept things mostly the same for my family, but just stocked up on Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Jalapeno, Cilantro, and homemade salsa.

Ran: 3.15 Miles

Tacos

Ran with co-workers over lunch! This was much needed. Though it was only 35 degrees and raining I went out in shorts anyways, and got some more mileage tucked under my belt!

Stayed up a little later tonight to prep a few things (Mini Fritatas and Spaghetti Squash) for the week!

April 6, 2016
Wednesday Breakfast: Mini Fritatas & Black Coffee
Wednesday Lunch: The most AMAZING spicy spagetti squash rosa
Wednesday Dinner: More Spaghetti Squash Rosa

I can’t even begin to explain how delicious my meals were today!

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April 7, 2016
Thursday Breakfast: Mini Fritatas & Black Coffee
Thursday Lunch: Meatloaf & fingerling potatoes
Thursday Dinner: Zoodle Bolognese

Ran: 3.15 Miles

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Thus far – I’m doing pretty good! I’ve only gotten hangry once, when my lunch was lacking seriously needed protien, but otherwise I am thriving so far!

So cheers [with my REI stainless steel cup full of ice water] to good health, and 24 days to go, perhaps next week I’ll make some stews for the weekend since its supposed to be chilly, and  grill during the week since the weather should be a pinch warmer!

Eat your heart out diet

I had found this cleanse/diet on Pinterest several weeks ago, and I thought – It sounded so crazy that I had to try it!

While it does promise to help you loose weight fast – I was using it more as a cleanse and a jump start to healthier eating.

Currently two of my co-workers are on the Whole 30 Diet, and many others are making healthy choices as well, so I started feeling a little with  guilty as I shoved my face full of tacos at warp speed and so much pasta and rice that could feed a whole slew of marathon runners.

While I would never consider myself “old” my metabolism has definitely slowed down to a snails pace… and while I wouldn’t consider myself “fat” I could definitely tell you that I could be more toned… so here I am jumping in with two feet.

Day One – Only fruit.
So far, this day has been easier than I thought considering I’m not a fruit person. I actually tried to do this cleanse a few weeks ago, but didn’t plan well enough so I ended up with fruits I barely like (sorry melons) so I grew bored and tired very quickly and quit by dinner time.

I did have some coffee with a tiny bit of creamer today, but wanted to avoid the inevitable headache that would come without. So – I figure I’ll slowly wean myself off that too.

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Lunch included heated apples in cinnamon and nutmeg, and some starfruit with crushed pepper on it.

 

For dinner I was dying for something more savory. So I scoured Pinterest with sadly no ideas. For some reason however the spice Curry and Cumin kept coming to mind… so I peeled and chopped up some apple, and sautéed with a tiny drizzle of olive oil, and a bit of cumin and curry, topped again with a tiny drizzle of sesame oil and some crushed red pepper!

Not even kidding…its delicious. I would definitely make this again with some chicken next time!

After dinner I was still a bit hungry so I made a smoothie with two oranges, strawberries, grapes, and a kiwi. It was so good, reminded me of a dreamsicle. I can’t wait to have this again on day three!

Later on in the evening by 8:30-9:00 p.m. I was dreaming of cookies, and crackers, and OMG – I was going to raid my pantry… but instead I went to bed and checked some Twitter!

Day Two – Veggie Day + a potato with butter?
Well let me tell you! Today was SIGNIFICANTLY more exciting than yesterday! Yesterday I felt like I had been eating candy ALL day long, so I was very happy and excited to switch over to veggies since I love nearly all of them.

I actually took no photos today – which is odd… but I’ll recap.

For Breakfast I had some spaghetti Squash that I had made the night before, and topped with a little seasoning (which is allowed). It was surprisingly filling, and delicious.

Lunch was some more spaghetti squash with Japanese stir fry vegetables, with the slightest sprittzle of sesame oil, and crushed red peppers. This too was actually quite good and left me feeling satisfied.

For dinner – we had tacos. I made my tacos with bib lettuce as the shell, and added on tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapeños and La Victoria taco sauce. I looked on with sheer envy about the cheese. I realized out of all things taco… the cheese is my kryptonite.

After dinner I had my potato, and then made rutabaga fries. I’m feeling full tonight, and my crazy passion for raiding the pantry has left me.

Day Three – Veggies + Fruit (no potato)
Today went really really well! For breakfast I enjoyed some BLACK coffee and some grapes.

Lunch I had spaghetti squash and stir fried vegetables

Dinner I made up some pineapple cauliflower fried rice! It was absolutely amazing, and with some chicken & eggs I’d absolutely make that again and again!

I was so full that I didn’t even have an evening snack.

Day Four – Banana’s + Milk (I told you it sounded crazy)
I had been dreading this day since the inception of this crazy adventure. I mean… I like bananas… but ALL DAY? Common!

Strangely though, I felt rather satisfied! I had two bananas early in the day and 3 cups of milk. I was feeling pretty darn well.

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Then I was sharing this crazy diet/cleanse with a co-worker and she let me know about one ingredient banana pancakes and ice cream, but I couldn’t find it online or on Pinterest. Everything  required eggs too. I was feeling annoyed and demoralized! This diet could not be healthy!!!

I finally gave in and straight up quit the craziness on the spot!

After contemplation I decided I would implement a paleo-esque, PFC approach to eating.

For dinner I had some quesadillas, but made with corn shells NOT drenched in canola oil. Yes. I had cheese… that’s why I call it paleo-esque!

Day Five – Chicken + Tomatoes

Breakfast:Had some grapes. I failed at adding any protien or fat on this go -round :(

Lunch: Had a “taco” salad. Lettuce, black beans (I know… not paleo), tomato, onion, jalapeno, and La Victoria taco sauce which IMHO is very good/healthy!

Dinner: For dinner I made banana pancakes and some chicken sausage! Oh my word to have some REAL PROTIEN!!!!!! To make the banana pancakes it takes one banana and two eggs.

I did find they were very difficult to “flip” but they did taste just like banana bread… so that was delicious!

Day Six – Chicken + Veggies

Breakfast: Very sadly missed breakfast as I had to work. Had plain black coffee.

Lunch: Quesadilla (same as day 4 dinner). YES I KNOW. Not a strict paleo. 🙂

Dinner: Tacos, pulled pork, serrano peppers, onions, and cilantro! YUM!

Day Seven – Miracle Soup 

 

In Summation

Firstly, did I loose the weight? Well… actually I have no idea… I did weigh myself mid-week and had lost 3lbs, but I believe that to be all water weight. I haven’t weighted myself since, and don’t plan to for a while. To me, it wasn’t about the weight. It was about feeling better.

Though in my mind I knew I could do it… I really couldn’t believe I didn’t eat any junk food (which had quite frankly probably gotten out of hand at work), any grains, or overly processed dairy  for four days(see ya soon Cheese). 

It taught me a lot about my actual needs, and what I crave, and when I crave it.

I’ve hardly had any heartburn, which I usually have quite regularly… so perhaps this has something to do with bread/pasta or something in a processed food, since I regularly drench  my food in crushed red pepper, and still have tomatoes with no effect.

Where from here you may ask? While I won’t lead it strictly (because… um hello Cheese… and hello corn shell tortillas, and hello wine….) I plan to go mostly Paleo/paleo-esque as I’d like to call it. As of February 8th, I’ve been creamer free in my coffee drinking only BLACK coffee…. and have enjoyed very little wheat products…  I mostly plan to eat meat, veggies & fruits with few grains or dairy…. We shall see how this goes, and I will check in from time to time. I’d really like to give it a go for the long haul to see what kind of long term results will ensue.

I don’t plan on ever repeating the original ‘diet/cleanse’. I think its absolute RUBBISH to avoid healthy fats and protiens for an entire week. I was basically getting all of my calories from SUGAR and that’s what broke me on day 4. The sheer insanity of it!

I couldn’t believe I had hardly any protein or fat for four days, and I really don’t believe in eliminating macro-nutrients from my diet.

I found that I can create really unique dishes or combinations I would have never thought of! One of my new favorites is Star fruit and hot cayenne pepper…. and apples lightly sauteed in EVOO with some curry and cumin! I’ll for sure make that again but with some chicken and onion!!! WOAH!

I will replace cauliflower rice for regular rice as I absolutely loved my tropical fried “rice” i had made, and will really read the labels on my sauces. If I have “pasta” I will try to use spaghetti squash or zoodles which are to die for by the way!!!

While I’m sure I’ll slip up from time to time, or indulge here and there, I plan to follow an 80/20 rule as much as possible. Eat this way 80% of the time, and if there is a meal or two, or snack that contains dairy, or wheat, or rotten ingredients  – so be it.

I’m still going to live life… but try through a healthier lens to eating!