Mistyfire

Soooo cold here in New England. Made a huge pot of chicken vegetable soup (well, it’s pretty thick, more like stew) that will take care of my lunches for the rest of the week. I work long hours so I love grab and go lunches!

Part of why I'm continuing on for a bit is that this weekend I kept thinking of the wine and chocolate that can once again be mine. Not feeling ready to start riding my bike again.

I'm thinking of extending. I have small patch left from my rosacea outbreak that pushed me to start this round. It's 90% better but I'm looking for even better. My downfall is dairy. I'm paying the price for those summertime iced coffees, ice cream, and more cheese events - I exceeded my "is it worth it" quotient. I have a few specific re-intro foods I want to test to see if they make my skin feel like it's burning my face off. So at least a W45, maybe a W60 for me. @Mau_hutch: There are lots of things I love: I'm eating up all the veggies in my fridge, so as a result, what I'm eating is quite lovely and fresh. I also have significantly fewer obsessive thoughts about food. I also absolutely adore the freedom from the scale. Very mentally healthy to be free of it. Yes, these are things I love, too. I haven't weighed my self since I did my first W30 2 years ago - just go by the fit of my clothes (which is better but not quite there yet). And I love having fresh food in my fridge! Meal prep is not always fun but most nights when I get home from work, I have something really good waiting for me as a leftover. Hope you can hang in there and do re-intros well; that's where the real learning starts!

Had one of those chuck-it -all and why bother days. Not really sure why but thankfully before I listened to that inner voice, I pulled it together. It was too much of a stretch to think about making it to day 30, so I started thinking about what I wanted to feel like a few hours away. Disappointed was not on that list! So now I sit, sipping a seltzer, waiting for a lovely batch of chicken cacciatore to finish cooking. The house smells wonderful and I feel motivated again. Hope everyone out there is doing well!

@Maylinway to go! Already a success story at day 17! I can't wait to hear your next chapter when you cross the 30 day mark. Enjoy the ride -it keeps getting better.

Two weeks down and one of my goals is in progress- I really do feel more energetic. I find myself plunging into things to get them done , rather than letting them pile up. I'm still appalled by how much food I have in my freezer and am working to eat that down before I buy more so my meals have been revolving around chicken and pork. Just buying fruit and vegs so grocery bill is down. Keeping it simple, cooking nothing fancy. Today I made emergency meatballs from Stupid Easy Paleo and will build a few meals around them: marina and meatballs over spaghetti squash, mashed up into scrambled eggs, and probably just straight up for the portable protein I take for breakfast. Anybody have any good things they're noticing?

First week down - hope everybody out there is doing ok! In keeping with my plan to do things simply, I focused my food prep today on proteins. In the space of 2 hours I roasted a chicken, cooked a pork roast in my Instant Pot, cooked up a batch of pork chops and hard boiled a dozen eggs. That 2 hours includes the cutting up and storing of the meats as well as the cleanup. While meats were cooking, I made a batch of mayo. When I was done with the chicken cutting, I threw the carcass with some vegs into my Instant Pot so I'd have a nice chicken broth when I got home. I'll cook my vegs as I go this week, supplemented with raw tomatoes, cucumber and carrots. So I think I'll be able to manage limited time in the kitchen this week. That's my goal anyway!

Still cruising along, staying committed to keeping things simple. Had some deboned with skin chicken thighs in my freezer and am making Nom Nom Paleo's cracklin' chicken. (http://nomnompaleo.com/post/74180911762/cracklin-chicken). Now roasting the rest of my broccoli. I pan fried some tilapia and will let it cool and make a talapia salad for lunch tomorrow. Eating cherry tomatoes and sliced cucumber for my easy breakfast veggies with leftover chicken . In addition to staying simple, I'm trying to empty my freezer of meats, fish and chicken that I bought on sale (and had such good intentions to eat but somehow never got to!). Keep on keepin' on!

Two pretty good days for me. These last two evenings have actually been a little chilly so oven roasted broccoli really hit the spot and warmed my kitchen! Tonight it's rainy so I found a package of leftover chocolate chili buried in my freezer. Half a can of tuna with a few cut up hard boiled eggs made for two easy meals. One of those was for breakfast. With my first W30, the thought of tuna for breakfast would have sent me running screaming from the room. Now it just feels like something easy. As does the homemade mayo. I think I've had just one fail in over 2 years and I just turned that into salad dressing. Always feels like a miracle when it turns all white and creamy. Suski, I find when I'm feeling hungrier than usual, adding some more fat really helps. Good luck everyone!

I was going to start with the September 1 group, but just this weekend thought "why wait?". So I'll start tomorrow. I did some shopping and cleaned out my fridge. I've done a few W30's so this is familiar territory. I just feel the need to clean up some habits I've slipped into - and to slip into a few pairs of jeans that have gotten tighter! I'm also looking for a bit of an energy boost. I really do feel so much better when I take care of myself with good food. A major goal is to do this simply. I don't buy a lot of specialty items: ghee, as it's a staple for me when I learned dairy is not my friend and coconut aminos, as I do love simple stir fries and the coconut aminos make them taste special. Oh, and I do like kombucha! Wishing you all the best!

Tonight I browned up some thick pork chops, put them on a rack, dumped a large jar of unsweetened applesauce on. Did pressure for 20 minutes, then a quick release. Perfect for an "I-don't-have-a-of-time-to-fuss-but-want-something-good" night.

Just amazing, isn't it? Yes, it's a journey, not a flash in the pan event.

I have a Braun immersion blender (that came with an s blade and a bowl) that I got 12 years ago and even with using it a few times a week, it's still a champ. It's in my top 3 kitchen gadgets.

I confess, I just love the flavor of Starbucks coffee. I drink it black, decaf and I just like the taste. When I'm looking for a cold drink, the cold brew even black is perfect. More confession, sometimes settling in there with my laptop and a coffee...well it's like a second office. Also agree it's a great meet up place. But mostly, I just really like the taste of a nice, black coffee.

Well done!