Whole30 diet

Whole30 #2: Days 16-18 Recap

April 25, 2015

I am documenting my second Whole 30 journey to help me see how far I’ve come from my first Whole30 (Feb 2015) to this one (April 2015). Plus, I don’t want to fall into any food ruts. Hopefully this will 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. Check out all my Whole30 related posts HERE from why I did my first Whole30, why I am doing this one, and food diaries.

{Day 16}

Thursday, April 16th, 2015

I can’t think of anything special to report about today related to cravings or victories or whatever. I am still craving chocolate chip cookies. I’d like to eat a slice of pizza or a plate of nachos, but that seems like a constant.

BUT! my skin seems so much clearer, especially my forehead. Victory!

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs with 1/2 of a baked sweet potato, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

I used to love scrambled eggs as a kid, but I really don’t care for them anymore, especially without cream. ha! But the sweet potato was nice for breakfast.

Lunch

Curried and Grilled Avocado Kale Salad from B.Good

My friend Megan and I went out to lunch to talk over wedding music. We went to B.Good, which has AWESOME burgers and baked sweet potato fries. I probably could have made a burger on a lettuce bun work for me but I just decided to go for a salad. I talked to the staff about the ingredients and they were so helpful. I picked the Curried and Grilled Avocado Kale & Grain bowl. I omitted the quinoa (sad face), peas, and the mint- yogurt sauce, but added tomatoes. I was tempted to add chicken or steak but I didn’t want to risk any non-compliant issues related to oils, which might have been an issue with the veggies but I did the best I could.

Snack

Cashew Cookie Lara Bar

Big Surprise…

Dinner

Steak with roasted vegetables- fennel, baby zucchini, grape tomatoes

Mom came for a weekend visit so this was an introduction to the Whole30 foods that we eat. Thankfully she loved it. Steak is always a winner.

Dessert

Banana, Apple, Almond Butter

“I’m pretending this is an ice cream sundae”- Price. HAHAHAHAHA!!!

We shared this plate of fruit and almond butter. It was yummy.

{Day 17}

Friday, April 17th, 2015

It was a busy day with work in the morning in Burlington and then working more at home. It was nice to have mom around though at home for the day. Plus, it’s nice getting to cook for more than just me and Price. And show her that Whole30 is great.

Lunch

Banana with almond butter

I was so hungry as I skipped breakfast to get to my project site so this banana was awesome. It feels good to enjoy bananas, really enjoy them, not just eat it. Not sure if that makes sense, but it does for me.

Dinner

Pork Cutlets with Roasted Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts

Mom was really excited about the brussels sprouts that we got at Haymarket so I made them for dinner. I used to be so nervous about cooking pork but now I feel more confident about not drying it out. Plus, I’m actually enjoying eating it now too.

{Day 18}

Saturday, April 18th, 2015

Today was busy and our eating routine was off- didn’t do breakfast at home, late lunch, etc. I was really jealous that Autumn had a croissant for breakfast. I really miss weekend breakfasts. Damn, I miss it a lot.

Breakfast

Kale Storm- banana, mango, spinach, kale, lemon juice, apple juice

Mom and I were out running errands early in the morning, so I didn’t make breakfast at home. I grabbed this smoothie from The Juicery and shared some with with Autumn.

Lunch

Salad- romaine, broccoli slaw, sprouts, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, toasted slivered almonds, homemade ranch, prosciutto

It’s nice having my mom visit as she compliments all of my cooking, even if it’s just a big salad. ha! But I do agree, it was awesome.

Snack

Trader Joe’s Apple and Coconut Fruit Bar

I ate this at the end of the check out. I have no shame. My favorite Trader Joe’s Fruit bar. I am going to skip getting the others as this was so good.

Dinner

Grilled chicken breasts and grilled veggies, topped off with mustard

Price grilled our dinner. I love when we work together to make dinner, I did the prep & he did the grilling.

Dessert

Fresh Berries with vanilla coconut cream

I just got vanilla beans (from Amazon) so I scraped half of one and put that in the coconut cream. The berries were so fresh and so good. Loved it.

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What are your favorite Whole30 recipes? Please share!

Are you considering doing Whole30? Give it a try!

Whole30 #2: Days 10-12 Recap

April 16, 2015

{Day 10}

Friday, April 10th 2015

I went to the gym in the morning. It felt good to go. I signed up for the abs class but got a more in depth training session with the trainer as I was the only one who showed up. Yay me! It felt good getting a lesson on arms and abs. And then I was sore.

Breakfast

2 over-easy eggs with homemade bacon and guac (store-bought), then a clementine & some berries at work

Friday’s are tough as it’s Pod Breakfast Day at work and it’s typically a sea of bagels, muffins, and donuts. Thankfully, I made breakfast at home and found some fruit to snack on once I got at work.

Lunch

Watercress and Fig Salad from Cocobeet, Kale Chips from Cocobeet

I love Cocobeet!! They are $$$ but the quality of their juices and food is so damn good. I miss going for their breakfast bowls when I wanted to treat myself to a healthy, hearty breakfast. (I miss you quinoa!!) And their Chia Pudding is the best. THE BEST.

But I found a few things that are whole30 complaint. I grabbed one of their salads and boxes of kale chips. It was my first time trying kale chips & nutritional yeast- so good!

Dinner

Aidell’s Chicken and Apple Sausage with roasted broccoli, served with mustard

I was tempted to make a meat and mushroom sauce over butternut squash noodles but I was burned out. So it was a simple dinner kind of night. I cut up 2 crowns of broccoli and tossed them with some olive oil, garlic, and salt & pepper on a baking sheet. I tossed it under the broiler. After a few minutes I added the sausage links that I sliced up on a diagonal. A few minutes later it was all done. Divide up and drizzle with mustard. Done!

{Day 11}

Saturday, April 11th 2015

I spent a good chunk of the day at work catching up on things there while Price and Autumn ran lots of errands. They even planted flowers. So cute. It was a good day, not much to say…

Breakfast

Eggs with potatoes and bacon

When I was growing up my dad would make ‘potatoes and eggs’ on the weekends. I loved it. I like my do my potatoes the same way but slicing them on a mandoline and putting them in a skillet to ‘fry’ up. I only used about a tablespoon of oil on the whole batch of potatoes- not too bad! It just another way of making home fries.

‘Lunch ‘

Kale Chips & some pistachios

I finished off the kale chips while I was at work for the afternoon. I wasn’t really hungry from the big breakfast.

Dinner

Meaty mushroom sauce on butternut squash noodles

Our butternut squash was a dud! It was soft in the middle (like seeds in the long part, weird) so we had to chop it up to spiralize it. It made our noodles tiny and annoying, but dinner was good overall.

Dessert

Cocoa packed chia pudding (chia, compliant coconut milk, cocoa powder)

I wanted to try something new so I made this chia pudding quickly on Friday night. It was a big dud as the cocoa made it pretty bitter and thickened it up too much. Blah. Live and learn.

{Day 12}

Sunday, April 12th 2015

The weekends are so hard for me to stick to Whole30. I just want to make waffles to enjoy and to get food while out running errands. Or get take out. I’m starting to feel less committed to this Whole30, as compared to the first one, and Price feels the same way. We will stick it out to accomplish it but my heart isn’t into it like the first one. Hoping that feeling changes soon.

Breakfast

Eggs with potatoes and bacon

I’m getting tired of eggs.

Lunch

Cashew Cookie Lara Bar (1pm) & salad (3pm) made with mixed greens, romaine, sprouts, tomatoes, cucumber, and almonds with a homemade ranch dressing

I grabbed the Lara Bar while I was shopping at Trader Joe’s. I was so hungry after our busy morning together shopping so I inhaled it in the car. It tasted like it was was best food on earth. ha!!

Once we got back home and I got Autumn down for a nap I made Price and I salad that we enjoyed sitting on the back porch. I can’t wait to get our patio table up to use!

Dinner

Chicken (Organic, free range) with roasted tiny potatoes and broccolini (8.30pm)

Dinner was awesome. I loved the tiny potatos and broccolini. I’m already thinking about my next Trader Joe’s trip and when I can get more.

I’ve been having a FB msging convo with Rachel about quality of chicken. While we would love to buy organic free range chicken (and other meats) for our families we’re running into a budget problem. It’s so easy to grab store brand chicken at $2.49 a pound compared to $6.99 a pound (like what I bought a trader joe’s). So we have been talking quality in terms of taste and processing. I did notice that I really enjoyed some air chilled chicken that I recently bought. I need to remember the brand and where I got it (Market Basket?) to get it again, and check and see if it was organic or not and how much it was a pound.

Dessert

Chia pudding (complaint coconut milk, cocoa powder) with a sprinkling of unsweetened shredded coconut

I was so excited about the unsweetened shredded coconut that I picked up from Trader Joe’s. The chia pudding was still blah, but the coconut was a nice add to it to jazz it up.

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What are your favorite Whole30 recipes? Please share!

Are you considering doing Whole30? Give it a try!

Whole30: Days 4-6 Recap

February 10, 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 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.

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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…