whole 30

Whole30: Days 7-9 Recap

February 14, 2015

I am documenting my Whole 30 journey to help me see how far I’ve come and to keep me inspired through the whole process. I’m looking forward to the transformation in how I approach food, cook with it, and enjoy it. Read why taking on this challenging dietary adventure is so important to me HERE.

{Day 7}

Sunday, February 8th

Price had to go into work today to make up time time he had missed from taking Autumn to the Dr on Friday so it was mainly just Autumn and I hanging around. I prepped food for Price but I got to do whatever for my meals. So I basically did whatever, and whenever. Like lunch at 2.30, very unlike me. But sometimes things are just ‘meh’ when it comes to the day and food.

Breakfast

Spaghetti squash with steak and veggies.

I got ta late start to breakfast so I just morphed it into lunch food. I used up the spaghetti squash, TJ’s Cruciferous Crunch mix, mushrooms, and some steak. I didn’t like that I make it into stir fry since once I was done with it it just felt weird to eat it for breakfast so I picked at it and ate the steak and some of the rest.

Lunch

Waffled Hashbrowns with a fried egg and salsa

This made up for my lack luster breakfast. I’m loving my Waffle Wednesday posts so I was excited to make this. I need to make more and more and more of these hashbrowns.

Dinner

Beef Burger Patty with grilled pineapple, guac & cilantro. Side of sweet potato fries.

I was struggling to think of what to make for dinner and ended whipping this up. It worked but I miss buns and ketchup. I think I only use ketchup for burgers and fries which is a vast improvement from when I used to eat it with everything. So I miss it with meals like this. But it was still really, really good.

{Day 8}

Monday, February 9th

We were getting pummeled with snow and daycare was closed so I stayed home with Autumn. It felt great that is was a

Breakast

Potato and veggie hash with 2 fried eggs

Lunch

Shrimp scampi with zoodles and an apple with crunchy almond butter

This lunch felt like a treat but I felt like I needed a treat as I was home yet again with Autumn because of the snow. Shrimp for lunch is such a treat! And it was a very good lunch. I make it scampi style with some oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, and some ghee.

And an apple with almond butter never hurts anyone. So good.

Dinner

Chicken breasts with a kumquat relish on a bed of chard and mashed potatoes (Modified Blue Apron Meal)

This was a winner! We loved it. It was so flavorful and hearty.

I forgot to cancel Blue Apron this week so I just ended up modifying the ingredients to make it Whole30 compliant. I skipped the sugar in the relish recipe and I swapped out the freekah for the mashed potatoes made with vegetable broth. And I made a pan sauce with the drippings in the pan after I cooked the chicken, some veggie broth, and almond flour. I have to make this one again.

{Day 9}

Tuesday, February 10th

Yet another snow day. The MBTA was closed down so I had to work from home (unless I drove in), but daycare was closed so I had Autumn at home, so no real working, besides a conference call. Price had to get in so he drove in. So just me and Autumn again! 🙂

Anyway, I feel that the biggest progress in this process

Breakast

Scrambled eggs with veggies, salsa mixed an an avocado, and pineapple

Price was still home when I made this so I enjoyed the company. Autumn ended up eating quite a bit

Lunch

Chicken with swiss chard mashed potatoes and asparagus

I’m always so glad when I make a lot of food when cooking something as it makes the next meals come together quickly. As in this one as I got to enjoy leftover chicken and mashed potatoes from the night before. I just quickly made some asparagus in a skillet and ta-da, all done!

Dinner

Pork Cutlets with a Beet, Heirloom Carrot, and Hazelnut Salad (Modified Blue Apron Meal)

There was not much to modify about this recipe to make it Whole30 compliant, just ditch the butter and use ghee. Simple! And we ended up with a delicious, filling dinner. Plus, it just meant that I only needed to dirty a pot and a skillet. Next time, if I use prepared beets I’ll only need to dirty a skillet- such a win!!

____________________

I’m glad that I have stuck with Whole30 so far at this point without any slip ups. The strict restrictions have really helped me stay in check with what I was eating while at home, which is when I will most often snack on stuff like Ritz crackers or Goldfish crackers. It’s not about not even having them at home, since I have other similarly tempted things (chocolate pudding, cheese, etc), but more about controlling cravings. yay!

We had some great dinners so the repetitive nature of some of the foods so far is. I’m glad that I forgot to cancel the Blue Apron package as those dinners were fantastic!

Whole30: Days 4-6 Recap

February 10, 2015

{Day 4}

Thursday February 5th

Ugh, such a rough day. On Wednesday night, I was at work until 1.30 making up time from Monday’s snow day. It sucked. I loved chugging along working but it just make the week crazy, especially since I had to travel to Miami for work today.

Breakfast

Eggs with diced avocado

It’s so weird to me to eat before work. I don’t mind but it makes me super hungry by lunch time as 5 hours have past by then. I enjoy having it done and accomplished, but it’s still weird to me. Plus, it’s weird to me to eat so many eggs. I miss bagels and oatmeal.

Lunch

Salad with Steak (leftovers). Salad was made from romaine, sprouts, radishes, celery, mango, grape tomatoes. I used up the dressing I had made earlier in the week.

So good! I love getting to cook once and use the leftovers for lunch again. Plus, it was just so dang good.

Dinner

Fruit Cup (no picture)

I was traveling and not feeling great so I kept it pretty simple with a fruit cup that I picked up from Starbucks. On the flight I actually threw this, and lunch, up. Ugh. I wasn’t sure if it was a W30 issue, a food issue, or just a stomach bug. I ultimately found out on Friday morning that Autumn threw up a few times throughout the night. Poor Chicken! Poor Price! Poor me! Such a bummer not to feel well.

{Day 5}

Friday February 6th

I was traveling for work so the normal routine was thrown out the window. Plus, I wasn’t feeling well. I could have killed someone for some Saltines. But I just stuck with W30 and got through it. Thankfully I started to feel better as the day went on.

Breakfast

Fruit Cup & Green Tea

We met downstairs at our hotel to get breakfast prior to going to the job site. I grabbed an overpriced fruit cup and a large green tea. Although I wasn’t feeling great I was still jealous of Juli and Alexa for getting slices of spinach and feta quiche. I WANT CHEESE.

Lunch

Veggies (Carrots, broccoli, celery), salted pistachios, pear

I made traveling work the best that I could by a box of veggies and ranch dip and a bag of pistachios at the airport. I ditched the ranch dip immediately to avoid any temptation. I hadn’t had pistachios in a long time so I really enjoyed these, although they did cost me $8! I had brought the pear with me from work on Thursday to eat that night but I didn’t feel well enough to. I certainly enjoyed it for lunch.

Dinner

Sauteed fish with spinach and roasted fennel and tomatoes.

Man, it was good to be back home!!

Price had a crazy day taking Autumn to multiple Dr’s appointments so he didn’t get to eat on a normal schedule but I’m proud he stuck with W30 and didn’t cheat. I think that already seeing a different in how clothes wear on him helps.

Anyway, dinner was really good but I used a bit too much seasoning on the fish.

{Day 6}

Saturday, February 7th

We survived our first weekend day doing Whole30.

Breakfast

Potato hash, Adiell’s chicken & apple sausage with eggs, hot sauce.

Normally we do something like a bagel, waffles, or a cheese veggie omelet so this was sorta a change up. I miss cheese on eggs.

Lunch

Taco Salad- ground beef (85/15), romaine, radishes, mango, salsa, sprouts, fresh cilantro, avocado, TJ’s pico de galo

We managed to make it through food shopping at Trader Joe’s without diving head first into the display of cupcakes and fresh baked bread. ugh. Plus, fed Autumn 3 samples of portobello mushroom lasagna. So we were really hungry when we got home and chowed down on this yummy salad.

Dinner

Shrimp ‘pad thai’ made with Well Fed’s Sunshine Sauce, zoodles, 2 eggs, and TJ’s Cruciferous Crunch (bag mix)

This was so good. I hadn’t had Sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) before so it was fun to try. Plus, I made the Sunshine Sauce from Well Fed’s book, which was really good. Price suggested that I make it spicier next time.

My stomach felt a little funny afterwards but I don’t know if it was just something lingering from Thursday night.

____________________

Aside from being sick Thursday I have been feeling great. But I might kill someone for a cookie.

I asked Price how he was feeling and he felt great too. He was saying that his mood was better, less adjutated. He had joint pain in the beginning, but it has been lessening day by day. He has not been craving food like I still have been, but he misses that ‘full’ feeling that he has been used to.

On to Day 7 and so forth…

Whole 30: Days 1-3 Recap

February 7, 2015

{Day 1}

Monday, February 2nd:

Well, I worked at home today because of the stupid snow storm Linus. I had some extra flexibility as I was able to cook part of my lunch at lunch time, and not just reheat it then. I felt full throughout the day as I ate well and drank a lot of decaffeinated Lady Grey tea with lemon. I wanted a cookie at the end of the day.

Breakfast

A crustless quiche made with sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions. I added Franks Red Hot on top. And a few strawberries.

I prepped this Sunday night by cooking the mushrooms and onions, separately. I then beat 16 eggs in the morning and mixed the chilled mushrooms and onions into that. I put all of that in a pie plate that I generously coated with olive oil. Baked for 65 minutes at 350 degrees, cut 6 slices.

Lunch

A big salad with sauteed pork seasoned with Adobo. I used 1/2 a romaine heart, sprouts, about 2″ of English cucumber that I chopped up, little bit of broccoli, 1/2 of a tomato, and a few radishes I sliced very thinly.

I made the dressing with the juice from half a lemon, 1 heaping tablespoon of organic stone ground mustard, a generous pinch of cumin, champagne vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil. I made made enough for 3 salads.

Dinner

Thai pork burgers with roasted portobello mushrooms ‘buns’ with roasted broccoli.

I added some green curry paste to the 1lb of pork, and made 3 patties. I used 2 for our dinner and saved the other for Day 2 breakfast. I sprayed a bit of olive oil (using my Misto Olive Oil Sprayer) on the mushrooms and placed them under the broiler with the broccoli, which I also sprayed. I chopped up some cilantro and mixed it into 1/2 an avocado and put that on the cooked burgers. I sprinkled some Toasted Sesame Ginger spice blend and then squeezed some lemon over the broccoli.

The flavors were good but I don’t like to actually eat burgers portobelo buns… too messy!

{Day 2 }

Tuesday, February 3rd:

The day was a piece of cake. Honestly. I didn’t have any real cravings so yay! I felt great. Making breakfast is a pain as we juggle so much in the morning but worth it as it done with by when we leave for work.

Breakfast

Roasted butternut squash with fried eggs and bit of leftover ‘sausage’.

I just used the rest of the pork that we didn’t use at dinner as our meat for breakfast. I hope to make my own breakfast sausage one day.

Lunch

I had a big salad with leftover mushroom and caramelized onion quiche and a kiwi.

I love eating salads but I always stay so hungry afterwards, unless it is a monster salad like this one. I was hungry for a while afterwards but then it settled down for a bit.

Snack

Organic Spouted Mixed nuts.

My day started to get crazy and I was running around so I needed a little something. I ran down to the continence store in our office building and found they had a lot of Whole 30 compliant snacks. Woohoo!! These were really good, I could have had the whole bag easily but I had half.

Dinner

Turkey tenderloin with peppers and roasted red potatoes. Served with mustard.

I cooked 2 turkey tenderloins on a bed of peppers and on a separate baking sheet I cooked the potatoes. I seasoned everything with some olive oil, Goya Adobo, chili powder, and pepper. I saved half of the potatoes and a tenderloin for lunch the next day.

{Day 3}

Wednesday, February 4th:

Breakfast

The last bit of the mushroom and caramelized onion quiche with a ton of roasted butternut squash.

ugh I literally shoveled this into my mouth. I was rushing to get to the dentist and has about .2 seconds to eat before leaving the house at 6.30am to get to the dentist for 7am. Def not the ideal way to eat.

Morning Snackish

Fruit- pineapple, blueberries, strawberries, honeydew melon

We had a breakfast presentation at work so I grabbed some fruit. It helped me not reach for muffins and pastries. Plus it already had been 3 hours since I had eaten and I figured a bit of fruit would help carry me over to get to lunch, still 2.5 hours away.

Lunch

Leftover turkey tenderloin with roasted red potatoes with roasted broccoli and portobello mushrooms.

We had the Patriot’s parade go by my office so I stood at the window eating my lunch while I watched. Not ideal (duh!) , but at least it wasn’t while sitting at my desk scrolling through pinterest. #progress?

Dinner

Steak with steam carrots, organic spinach (Trader Joe’s), and some mango.

We hadn’t had steak in a while so it was so good to have some. It’s usually a summertime thing for us so it was nice to feel a bit of summer in the dead of a New England winter.

____________________

So far so good. I’ve completed 3 days out of 30 and it feels good to be (slowly) accomplishing something. I feel the same so I’m glad that I don’t feel that sugar withdrawal that I read could happen. Maybe it will hit soon, but ultimately, I think this process will be worth it in the end.

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Why I am doing Whole 30

February 3, 2015

Have you heard of Whole 30?

It’s a diet/detox/way to kick your bad eating habits to the curb.

I don’t know the best way to call it. It’s not a diet because the real intention is not to lose weight. Although that typically is a happy side effect. It’s a sugar detox to help you slay that ‘sugar dragon’. But most importantly, at least to me, it’s a way to reset your approach to eating in order to train yourself to pick the best for you foods.

Whole 30 was created by the husband and wife team behind the Whole 9 Life website and blog, which details their 9 factors to lead a whole life. Truthfully, I haven’t really checked that out as I have been more focused on Dallas and Melissa’s Whole 30 program. But… I’m sure their factors are well thought out as their Whole 30 program is.

Okay, okay, so what is Whole 30?

Well, I’ve been finding it best to explain it with “It is the Paleo diet + a few more restrictions + NO SUGAR. For 30 days.”

Why do I emphasize the NO SUGAR? Well, sugar is in everything! Okay, just about everything. No, they don’t say ‘ Apples have sugar… No apples!” No, it’s about cane sugar, white sugar, maple syrup, honey, stevia, High Fructose Corn Syrup, etc.

They purposefully have created this sugar restriction as sugar does some funky, funky stuff to your body. It’s all science-y and complex (and still a little over my head) but they do a good job of explaining it in their New York Time’s Best-Selling book It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways
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It Starts with Food spells out what happens in your body when you eat different things from apples to low-fat yogurt and steak to pasta. As a result of all their science-y investigating they developed the Whole 30 program. I could go on and on but their book is really good so if you are curious just get it and check it out as it was a big eye-opener for me. Especially, reading the testimonials of people who completed the program and noticed dramatic improvements in their health from the reduction of allergies, more energy, elimation in stomach issues, and much more. Pretty Cool.

So back to the WHY I am doing this?

Since having Autumn in November 2013, I’ve lost over 50 pounds. Woohoo! I hover around the 53-54 lb mark. And that’s not talking weight I gained while I was pregnant. I’m talking prepregancy weight – 53ish pounds.

I watched what I ate while pregnant, resulting in (thankfully) only gaining just shy of 15 pounds, and afterwards but I know that the majority of my weight loss was from breastfeeding. And now that I have wrapped that up after 14.5 months I need to not back slide. Plus, I’d absolutely love, love, love to lose another 15 pounds. And preferably by our June wedding. #nopressure.

So this is a way to reset my eating habits. But losing weight isn’t the only thing. I want to better my body over all so I can feel and look great without being so tired or moody or whatever. I don’t want to feel sore and drained for no real reason. I want to have great energy! I want to make smart food choices! I want a golden egg… oh wait, nevermind…

We have been eating more and more paleo style foods but ever since getting pregnant I’ve been craving sugar. Prior to my pregnancy I was a ‘salt’ person and perfectly fine without dessert but now I’m constantly thinking about chocolate chip cookies. Warm from the oven browned butter chocolate chip cookies with a sprinkling of sea salt on top. OMG.

I need to beat that constant voice in my head saying “You know, 2.30pm is the prefect time for a cup of tea. But you know what goes well with a cup of tea? A cookie! How about you go down to the cafe and get a mocha double chocolate chip cookie!!!!!! AMAZING IDEA, NO?!?!?!”

Thankfully, I say no most days but those mocha chocolate cookies make me weak in the knee and I do succumb to that little voice in my head more often that not. ugh/yay?!?!

I’ve been looking forward to this month-long challenge for a while now. I’ve cleaned the cabinets of non-complient foods (damn you Ritz crackers!), searched all over Pinterest for yummy foods, bought Paleo cookbooks, and given myself a big ol’ pep talk. Wish me luck 😉

I will be documenting the journey on the blog and on my Instagram account. I am also a member on the Whole 30 forum so find me there and say hi!

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