Annie's W30- take 2

[annabel]

Despite my successful April W30, I've gone off the rails a bit in the last six weeks.  Nothing that I reintroduced gave me immediate problems, but after six weeks of eating gluten I'm sleeping poorly again and am exhausted most days. 

 

The plan for this W30:

• Eat more kale and other leafy greens
• Write a weekly meal plan
• Limit tea to two cups a day
• Start writing daily & weekly to-do lists
• Lift weights 3x a week and run 4x a week

Potential difficulties:

My husband is working nights right now (12-hour shifts, 6:30pm-6:30am) so I struggle to keep myself entertained at night without resorting to snacks.  And my eating times and portions are a bit out of whack from trying to eat the occasional meal with him.  Also, we've gotten rid of our car, so my shopping is confined to what I can carry from the shops.

 

I don't intend on going for a full 30 days as I'd like to have a nice meal out with my husband once he's finished with nights (which could be any time in the next month, it just depends when the work's done), but other than that I plan on eating W30 style until I go away on holiday towards the end of August

[annabel]

Day 4 already

 

Today's Food:

• Breakfast: 3 fried eggs with sliced greens and cherry tomatoes
• Lunch: steak (flavoured with cocoa, chili and lime), sweet potato and broccoli
• Dinner: thai curry soup (1/2 cup coconut milk, 1 cup chicken stock, red curry paste kale, cherry tomatoes, zucchini & carrot "noodles" and chicken

The good:

• I've been a lot better organised in the kitchen this week and have loads of great options in the fridge and freezer which is definitely making things easier.
• Cleaned the bathroom yesterday. Dusted and hoovered this morning and mopped the kitchen floor tonight. Need to remember to add the things I don't fancy doing as much to my list. 
• On track with the exercise, but I tend to lose steam towards the end of the week
• I resisted the temptation of our latest batch of cider

 

The bad:

• The biggest problem with meal planning is that I can't rely on things being in the supermarket.  One day I can buy kale, then there isn't anymore for the next few days; some days the spinach looks lovely, other times it's starting to rot already. And I can only really justify buying whatever meat is on offer (Prices fluctuate a lot here and the stores raise prices so that they can later put them on "offer" My favourite was that Pringles were £1 a can for ages and then one week  a can was £3 and they were buy 1 get 2 free.) So I'm still trying to figure out how to best do a meal plan.

 

 

[loubee]

Hi there.  Weird that the supply is so bad.  I'm an obsessional meal planner (think colour coded spreadsheets!) so I would not like that. 

Maybe you could try to keep a list of recipes and their non store cupboard ingredients - i.e. Well Fed moroccan meatballs for me only needs ground lamb - and then start in the meal aisle, look for the best offers and buy the rest of the ingredients.  Hard though if the rest is then not in stock. 

Also could you shop the meat in advance and then freeze it and meal plan around what you have? 

[annabel]

Ooh, Loubee, I'd like to hear more about you colour coded spreadsheets. 

 

I think I'm going to go more with just meat & veg this W30 and not try to make too many recipes.  The method you suggested is what I do now, I was just hoping to figure out a way to better streamline the whole shopping and cooking process.

 

I wish I had an American style fridge freezer.  I can barely fit my precooked meals into the freezer. It doesn't help that we need to keep two loaves of bread in there as my husband eats 6 slices of bread minimum each day.

[annabel]

Day 5

 

Breakfast: (8:00) chocolate chili, sliced greens, sweet potato and half an avocado.

Lunch: (12:15) salad with leftover steak, cucumber, tomato, peppers, carrot and olives

Dinner: (7:00) salad with omelette (cooked in coconut oil)

 

Exercise: 3 mile run (way too hot to be running in the afternoon) & weights this evening

Cups of tea: 2 (green tea in the morning and lemon-ginger in the afternoon)

 

I've had a bit of a headache all day today and my run was a bit of a struggle, but at least hay fever is subsiding.

 

My digestion seems better this W30 than the last one and the only real changes I've made are adding in kombucha and coconut oil and excluding ghee.  (The ghee wasn't intentional, the supermarket just doesn't carry it anymore)

 

Unfortunately, I'm nearly out of kombucha and can't justify the £5 ($7.60) on train fare into town to buy a £7.50 bottle of it. I've ordered a scoby and a continuous brewing container so I'll be able to get my own started as soon as they get here.

[annabel]

Day 6:

 

Breakfast: thai pork salad (with fresh mint from the garden)

Lunch: sweet potato, greens, sweet potato, 2 fried eggs and ham

Dinner: spinach, roast veg (courgette, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers) and sausages

 

Cups of tea: 2

Exercise: none (planned day off)

[annabel]

Day 7

 

Breakfast: thai pork salad

Pre-WO: hard boiled egg

Lunch: thai curry soup (with courgette, carrot, onion and tomato)

Dinner: soft-boiled eggs, sausages and purple sprouting broccoli

 

Cups of Tea: 1

Exercise: 6 mile run (should have gone longer, but my hay fever was acting up and it was far too hot), planning to do weights tonight too

 

First time every trying the purple sprouting broccoli and it was lush  I could have eaten an entire plate of it.