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.”

bucket

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?

JAM packed Saturday!

Miss K was supposed to have a soccer tournament today, but with most of the fields still saturated the tourney was called off. So we decided to head up to Minnesota Fresh Farm, and handpick strawberries. Neither me or my daughter had ever picked berries before today, and it was on my goals to continue to fill up her memory bucket! After we take home our haul and make jam we’re headed out to the Minnesota Zoo with Jason’s brother Jeremiah and his girlfriend Amillie for a fun filled family day!

(Scroll down for all the pic’s)

20140621-105410-39250008.jpg

Woke up early and headed to the farm up the road! We’re going to make homemade jam today before we head out to the zoo!

20140621-105410-39250603.jpg

Me and my girl being strawberry pickers! We were the first ones to pick this year! (They don’t open for appointments until tomorrow, but they let us sneak in! ~ Thank You!)

20140621-105412-39252243.jpg

Working on getting lots of berries for homemade freezer jam!

20140621-105413-39253939.jpg

Look at that load! We have lots for jam and plenty to spare for a chicken strawberry salad tomorrow on Arugula and Kale!

20140621-105415-39255459.jpg

Destemed, slicked and now time to mash mash mash!

20140621-105417-39257102.jpg

Starting to look like jelly, or the beginning of strawberry wine!

20140621-105418-39258476.jpg

Time to stir in the sugar and pectin!

20140621-105419-39259770.jpg

And finally scoop all of that into jars. Let sit for 30 minutes, and then pop them into the freezer! Easy as… JAM!

Oxtail Soup

soup-pot-500x405

(source)

With Christmas coming to a close, and the constant getting together with family and friends, I thought now was as good of time as any to make soup. To me, there is nothing better on a cold winters night to eat than chili our soup and this soup is no exception. Hearty root vegetables are the real star of this dish along with the uncommon oxtail! This soup has been a family favorite for as long as I can remember. (small disclaimer – this soup takes all day to make, so don’t make any plans to do anything except chopping and peeling vegetables. I made this from 10am-5pm).

3-4 pounds of Stew Beef

1 Oxtail package

1 package of parsnips (peeled and chopped)

1 medium sized rutabaga (peeled and chopped)

2# of carrots (peeled and chopped)

6-8 potatoes (peeled and chopped)

1 medium onion (peeled and chopped)

1 head of cabbage (chopped)

Ketchup

Salt & Pepper to taste

Water

In an 8 or 12 quart stock pot fill with water 3” from the top.

Throw in the chopped onion, 2 bay leaves stew meat and oxtails and cook on medium to high heat covered.

Take out oxtails when stew is tender (approximately 3 hours later) and pick meat out of oxtails. Put back in stock pot.

Chop the head of cabbage, parsnips, rutabaga and carrots and add to stock pot. Cook for 25 minutes.

Chop potatoes and toss with salt then add to stock pot and cook an additional 25 minutes.

Add more pepper if needed to stock pot.

Add ketchup for color with vegetables.

Add salt & pepper to taste.

This will make about 5 gallons of soup, but its easily frozen and actually tastes better as time goes on.