Amy_Michigan

Day 18/ restart day 3 M1: compliant mixed nuts and cranberries and black coffee M2: Asian salad from health food store with romaine lettuce, chicken, red pepper, red cabbage, carrots, green onions, and sliced almonds. I used Noble Made Sriracha Tahini dressing and threw out the dressing with soy that came with the salad. M3: zucchini spaghetti and meat sauce, side of cucumbers

Oops almost forgot. I have also made hundreds of these in my life time. I would totally enjoy paleo recipes after your whole30 for a bit. Pumpkin Pucks: http://realeverything.com/pumpkin-pucks/

If I were you, I would be be hesitant to start my reintroduction because it doesn't seem like you were to the point yet that you formed a new lifestyle change of incorporating new whole foods into your diet. I would highly recommend trying "paleo" for at least a week- still not introducing grains, legumes, and dairy, but having more food variety because there are less limitations. This is how I learned to love to incorporate adding sweet potato, pumpkin, and all sorts of veggies into delicious meals. For breakfast, when you are paleo you can have banana pancakes. Or PUMPKIN pancakes, which I have LIVED off of. You can also make pizza egg muffins which are the bomb (although that might be allowed on whole30 already). My favorite paleo breakfasts: Banana Pancakes *I make the kind with a bit of almond flour*: https://www.marksdailyapple.com/paleo-pancakes-two-ways/ Pumpkin Pancakes *My favorite*: https://balancedbites.com/content/paleo-pumpkin-pancakes-from-practical-paleo/ Pumpkin Waffles: https://paleomg.com/the-paleo-kitchen-pumpkin-waffles/ Pizza Egg Muffins *My other favorite*: http://realeverything.com/mini-egg-pizzas/ Other favorite paleo treats: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins *Yum*: https://paleomg.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/ Sweet Potato Chai Muffins *So much better than they sound!*: https://paleomg.com/sweet-potato-chai-muffins/ Sweet Potato Brownies: https://paleomg.com/sweet-potato-brownies/ I'm not a fan of veggies myself, but over a few years of paleo/whole30 eating, I learned that I actually love the taste of roasted broccoli, roasted carrots (carrot fries), roasted sweet potatoes (sweet potato fries), and figured out that I like cooked zucchini when it is covered in spaghetti sauce and meatballs (I'm too lazy for noodles so I just cut the zucchini in long strips after peeling the skin off). Or I just dip cucumbers and carrots in ranch...that's still eating my veggies! I'm not a great cook. When I am off of Whole30s I really enjoy Paleo Parents/Realeverything.com (if kids like it, I'm more likely to like it), Paleomg, and Well Fed/MelissaJoulwan.com

Hope you are having a good weekend @Emma. Remember that more than anything we are rooting for each other to make healthy choices, but we don't expect each other to be perfect. We need to do what we need to do, and then hop back on the healthy lifestyle bus when the time is right.

Log Day 17 cont. Restarted Whole30- Day 2 cont. M3: Didn’t get to the store for zucchini, so I tried to make Brussels sprouts that were yummy, but failed, but I still ate about a third of them that were on my plate. Also made a beef/mushroom burger and a scrambled egg in ghee.

Log Day 17 Restarted Whole30- Day 2 M1: sweet potato basil soup with chicken M2: lettuce and cucumber salad with Primal Kitchen ranch, and a cup of frozen strawberries I haven’t been very good with meal 3s. Maybe I will get some zucchini today and make some spaghetti and meat sauce.

Log Day 16 Restarted Whole30- Day 1 M1: sweet potato basil soup with chicken M2: taco salad

Day 15- Messed up!!!! I stayed up WAY TOO LATE for the second night in a row. Last night I blame the Starz show, Outlander. They were having a red carpet and panels live on Facebook around 11 PM-12 PM and then the Season 5 premiered for a Valentine's day surprise RIGHT after the panel at midnight. So I HAD to watch the episode that became available. I am a little Outlander obsessed because I've read some of the books and I've listen to some of them on audiobooks and I just really like losing myself in that world. There is so much love, honor, integrity, adventure, and Sam Heughan of course. I haven't had a crush on an actor like this since Paul Walker! And before that JTT ! lol Anyway, just feeling the lack of sleep today mixed with the temptation of wanting to "replace" Valentines day snacks with healthier paleo versions created a monster and here were my meals today: 1) "Meal 1" - 88% Dark Chocolate with a banana 2) "Meal 2" - I went to the health food store to look for a salad and all of them had Kale (GAG) so I looked around for awhile and ended up leaving with Chocolate covered Almonds and Chocolate covered date balls. I put them together in my mouth and it was better than a Larabar. WAY better. I knew I had cheated, but at this point I felt like it would be okay to just go on with my whole30 because there was minimal added sugar in my food choices (<5 grams) and the rest of the ingredients were compliant. 3) After getting back to my office, I realized that I could not survive without eating anything REAL today except a banana. I went into my emergency drawer in my office and pulled out Amy's Organic Chunky Vegetable Soup. I was going to eat it, but avoid the corn kernals. However, it seemed like half of the soup was non-compliant mushy peas and water logged corn kernels - so I couldn't avoid them. Not exactly the most scrumptious way to cheat. I guess the dessert lunch I had earlier sent me into a spiral. Hoping to just keep going and be more prepared with work lunches from now on. I feel quite embarrassed for having told @Emma that I was doing well avoiding chocolate on my Whole30. Then the next day I eat ALL the chocolate I can. lol. Oh well. Sorry for that post when you were going through some struggles. I'm not like @BabyBear who always know exactly the right thing to say to people! I tend to put my foot in my mouth sometimes.

It's hard to come and post after a screw up. The weird thing is- I ALSO messed up today and it is my Day 15. Crazy! I'm just going to keep going, though. Something about valentines day, and the weird half-way mark in the whole30. Ah- well. I'm not going to give up, and it doesn't seem like you are either.

Day 13 yesterday M3: roasted broccoli, sweet potato basil soup with chicken breast Day 14 today M1- skipped just because I had to rush out the door M2- egg protein box from starbucks (ate the 2 hardboiled eggs, apple slices, and very tiny mandarin orange). Didn't think this would fill me up so I also bought a squeeze pouch (strawberry banana). M3: Sweet potato basil soup with chicken breast. My husband made me roasted green beans, but I was in a rush to take my daughter to dance and he took them out of the oven right when we had to go. He quickly put them in a container I could take with me along with a half a banana (he is so sweet), but I still haven't had time to eat it and it is out in the car getting cold. I feel so bad that I didn't enjoy food he made for me while it was hot. I don't know why but at the moment I feel like that is the worst thing ever. My left knee is hurting which sucks. I usually dont have any knee pain so this is so weird and random. I stayed up really late last night and only got about 5 hours of sleep last night. That might have contributed. Usually I get at least 7.

If we have done it this long, I'm sure we can get to the end of the 30 days. Even if it doesn't seem like it, we are cruising towards the finish line! My clothes are feeling looser and I can't wait to take my measurements, but I'm going to wait to do that until the whole30 is over. I am a dark chocolate addict, but this time around, somehow I have passed on all forms of chocolate- even compliant bars with cocoa powder! It was a personal choice to challenge myself and release the control that chocolate has over me. Last July, I was always getting the kids Rx bar with chocolate chips for my whole30. Maybe this time I will save that for after the 30 days when I want a treat. Anyway, I know all of the treats at the store look delicious, but the fact that we are passing on them today is huge- we are making so much progress!

Thanks! I know I feel less like a lump now that I'm more than a week into my whole30. I want to continue feeling good like this for as long as possible. Also, my pants are looser. I kind of want to sign up for a "get rented clothes in the mail" subscription so that I never have to buy clothes again that only fit me for a few months. I checked, though, and the one I found through Express Style Trial and Infitity Loft are $50-60 dollars per box at whatever frequency, and I think it is only 3-4 clothing pieces - not enough for even a week. You can keep pieces as long as you want, though...so it's like gradually building your closet over time. You wear them, wash them, and just have to return them undamaged when you do return them. lol, not trying to advertise...but I am going to look for a clothes rental subscription where I can get more clothes to start out with- if it exists. Then it might be worth it. They are used clothes, but laundered before they are sent to you. Kind of weird, but might be kind of cool?

I've quite enjoyed reading @Brewer5 and @Emma's metaphor posts on this log. It stretches my brain a little and makes me re-read sometimes, but I appreciate learning/looking at things in a different way. Thanks for the idea about the jobs website. I heard about it from my web-designer brother in law once, but I completely forgot about it. Would love working from home in my comfy space. And don't worry. I think we all are doing these logs for ourselves- our own personal reflection to help us get through the ups and downs of the whole30 and life in general. If people happen to read them, it provides an extra connection we might have for motivation to keep coming back on the days we need it, but not the true intention of the log. That's the way I feel anyway.

Day 13 cont. Figured out meal 2: Asian salad from health food store with romaine lettuce, chicken, red pepper, red cabbage, carrots, green onions, and sliced almonds. I also bought Noble Made Sriracha Tahini dressing and threw out the dressing with soy that came with the salad.

Day 13 Getting close to the halfway mark! I have been way less motivated to cook this week. I don't know why. I think it is all the other stuff going on in my life right now. I finished up my chicken nuggets this morning and had a banana to finish off meal 1. Yay- I won't be munching on those for every meal now that they are gone. I will have to eat my sweet potato soup for M3 today. M2 is still up in the air because I didn't bring anything with me to work. I have dressing at work so I might go out and look for a compliant salad. Or get applebees again- this time staying away from the steak. We'll see...