Second Whole30(++) starting 7/18

[befabdaily]

DAY 16: I didn't really take pictures today. Oh well.

WOD: 2.5 mile walk. Yesterday, I relapsed a little. Seriously, my throat got sore again, I felt achy and tired, and my lungs got a little gloopy. Whatever this cold/infection is, it won't die. One of my grad students has had it for almost as long as I have so it's not just me being a wuss. It lays you low. I slept about 10 hours last night.

BREAKFAST: 3 fried eggs, avocado, blackberries and melon. Coffee with coconut milk.

LUNCH: Zoodle spaghetti with olives, grassfed ground beef, and roasted tomato sauce.

DINNER: Chicken with paleo mayo, blackberries, sliced tomato, Crio Bru with coconut milk.

[befabdaily]

Day 17: WOD: 3.3 mile walk, 3x50 vertical pulls (shoulder was OK), 3x10 split squats (different variations, for hip mobility)

BREAKFAST: 2 eggs, avocado, cantaloupe. Coffee with coconut milk.

LUNCH: yellow curry with chicken and yam, fresh, direct-from-the-coconut young coconut juice with coconut meat (this was lunch out at a local Vietnamese restaurant)

SNACK: crio bru with coconut milk

DINNER: huge cucumber and tomato salad, roasted chicken, paleo mayo

I am not 1,000 percent sure that lunch didn't contain some off-plan microingredient. I drank the coconut juice because it was fresh and not from a box/can. I'm going to call it on-track, because I managed to socialize with my co-workers, and eat a meal out that was Paleo Enough without letting it derail me. That's actually my biggest challenge -- it's not really a challenge to me to eat compliant alone at home.

[Derval]

I am not 1,000 percent sure that lunch didn't contain some off-plan microingredient. I drank the coconut juice because it was fresh and not from a box/can. I'm going to call it on-track, because I managed to socialize with my co-workers, and eat a meal out that was Paleo Enough without letting it derail me. That's actually my biggest challenge -- it's not really a challenge to me to eat compliant alone at home.

That's it isn't it? It is hard, maybe in 10 years there'll be some paleo restaraunts out there...

[befabdaily]

I think it's not too hard to get something paleo if you're going to steakhouses, or "new American" type restaurants or bistro style. We actually have a fair number of restaurants in Charlotte where I know I could get something that would work. But, it's expensive. My sad is that I can't eat at the cheap divey Mexican and Vietnamese restaurants near my house anymore. And I miss dim sum!

[befabdaily]

WOD: Zumba class, 1 mile walk in the sun

BREAKFAST: 3-egg/2 plum omelet, coffee with coconut milk

PWO: big cup of bone broth, macadamias

LUNCH: Avocado and tomato salad, sweet potato fritters, grassfed beef liver

SNACK: peach

DINNER: Bowl of zoodle spaghetti with grassfed ground beef

[befabdaily]

Day 19. Or Day 5, since I'm on the "30 in August" plan now.

WOD: 3.3 mile walk, 5 min. wall headstand, shoulderstand, 3 x 15 flat knee raises

BREAKFAST: 3 scrambled eggs, small avocado, coffee with coconut milk

LUNCH: cucumber and cantaloupe salad (with fresh basil and lemon! try it, kids!), pan-fried grassfed beef liver

SNACKFAIL: peach, some chicken. Bowl of figs with coconut cream. Bits of beef while I was cooking. 2 closed handfuls of cashews.

DINNER: chocolate chili a la Well Fed. Holy crap this is delicious.

So yeah, I had a huge snack attack while I was doing food prep this afternoon. Huge. I ate the peach, and then I thought "Oh I should at least have some protein with this" and ate the chicken. And then I had some figs because, well, they had to be eaten or they'd go bad. But I at least put some good fat on them. And the nuts.

But I'm calling a halt to eating now, well before bed.

[befabdaily]

Oh, and today -- I noticed something odd in the mirror. That is, my eyebrows, which have been patchy over the last couple of years, seem to be a little more present, all of a sudden. I didn't take pictures of my pre Whole30 eyebrows, so I can't prove that I'm not hallucinating this, but I swear there's more eyebrow there all of a sudden.

[Derval]

Congrats on your new lush eyebrows - you should go get them threaded at the end of your w30 as a reward

[befabdaily]

Ha, if they get "lush" maybe I'll try it. Right now they're just "not quite as bald".

DAY 20. OR DAY 6.

Something new happened today. I was hungry when I woke up. My usual M.O. has been, wake up about 6, have the coffee with coconut, walk, WOD, do things on the internet, shower, dress, then eat breakfast. I know, I know, bad, but I was never hungry right upon waking. This morning I was, and I went with it. Ate my breakfast immediately, then had the coffee, then walked. It had the benefit that I was ready to get out the door earlier, too, which is a good thing since the semester starts in 2 weeks and I have to get back on my "getting to work on time" game since they'll actually be paying me.

WOD: 2.5 mile walk. 2 x 35 short bridges. 4.5 min wall headstand, 4 min shoulderstand. My yoga teacher once told me inversions are good for the thyroid.

BREAKFAST: 3 eggs, avocado, coffee with coconut milk

POST-WOD: a couple of bites of chicken, blueberries with coconut cream

LUNCH: chocolate chili, big cucumber and cantaloupe salad

DINNER: steak, crio bru with coconut cream, big salad with beets, walnuts, grapefruit and spinach

Today I learned why people don't freeze cooked beets.

[befabdaily]

I totally failed to log yesterday, but I didn't fail to Whole30. Here's how today (Day 22/8) went:

6 a.m. -- breakfast: coffee with coconut milk, liver, sweet potato fritter, tomato

7 a.m. -- 2.5 mile walk

12:30 p.m. -- lunch: chocolate chili, blueberries with coconut milk

5:00 p.m. -- dinner #1: steak, crio bru with coconut milk, cherries

6:00 p.m. -- Zumba

7:30 p.m. -- dinner #2 (or PWO?): 2 eggs scrambled with olives and spinach

To me, this feels almost like I failed to eat proper meals, but I didn't want to stuff in a full-size dinner before Zumba, and I don't want to stuff a full size dinner in now either.

[Maeva]

I had never heard of Crio Bru before reading your posts. Some of that will be going in my mouth before too long.

[befabdaily]

It's Day 26 for me (or Day 12 since I'm going through the end of August), and I'm as compliant as ever. I just got bored with logging. I loaded up my cart with meat, fruit and veggies at Trader Joe's this morning, went to the Super G for 10 cans of Aroy-D, nori, and purple yams, and tonight I'm going to do a couple of 20/10s of food prep for the coming week.

Still loving the whole breathing through my nose thing. Now that I'm finally over the dreaded respiratory illness, I've stopped inhaiing steroids again. Still taking Claritin though.

16 Zumba classes left to go on my 20 before Sept. 20.

[befabdaily]

OK, here's what I ate today.

Meal 1: Almond crusted tilapia filet, pan-fried. Sweet potato. Nectarine. Coffee with coconut milk.

Meal 2: Roasted chicken. Strawberries with coconut milk.

Meal 3: Roasted chicken. A few cherries.

Meal 4: 3 eggs, avocado.

I think two days in a row of Zumba made me hungry. I'm also getting an energizer bunny level of energy. Today I did a lot of tasks around the house that needed doing, did all the shopping and all the laundry, walked, and I still feel like I could buzz around and do more stuff but I'm not going to, I'm going to get some quality sleep.

[befabdaily]

Day 27/Day 13:

Breakfast: pan-fried tilapia, red pepper slices, 1/2 avocado, coffee with coconut milk, one pan-fried chicken liver

WOD: 2.74 mile walk. I was going to Zumba tonight, but I have a grant deadline tomorrow and I'm feeling stressed.

Lunch: big-ass salad, roasted chicken, nectarine

Dinner: 3 egg plum omelet, a few macadamias

I am still hungry and am off to the kitchen to cook up a steak (mostly for tomorrow's lunch, but a little for now).

[befabdaily]

It's Day 30 already. Also Day 16, since I plan to go through until the end of August with the team. I'll check weight and measurements then, although I feel like I've only changed a little if at all. I did have to pull my favorite belt in another notch. Again, time just flew by.

[befabdaily]

Well, so. I was going to keep just going and going, with nary a blip. But when my colleague's +1 for a fancy party (in celebration of several of my friends getting tenure) bailed on her, she asked me to go. Hmm, do I want to go home, hide myself, and stay compliant, or do I want to go to a fancy party, that I haven't had any opportunity to plan in advance for, at a time when I'm already hungry for dinner?

Friends, i went to the party. I really did think about it and I decided that I would let myself have one celebratory meal where I didn't fret about the rules, before continuing onward.

I had: a glass of wine, a cocktail, a whole bunch of tasty grilled meat and salad that was probably reasonably compliant, and...ice cream. Boy was it good ice cream too. It tasted fantastic! So: sugar, alcohol, dairy, potentially some bad oils on the grilled stuff. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'm going to go on Whole30-ing along and not let this derail me completely.

In the long run, I want to be able to have a couple of off-plan things I enjoy when socializing or vacationing, but keep my house and my lunches brought to work compliant. So this is a test of the "get right back on track" system.

[befabdaily]

I'm still hanging in here, but today I accepted a less than perfect lunch. I went to a restaurant that I thought had a couple of decent options, with a blind date. I ordered a salmon salad and it came out drenched in creamy sauce. I guess my menu reading fu isn't mighty. So I just made the best of it -- ate the salmon and avocado, ate a little bit of salad with creamy sauce, left most of it on the plate, and ate a few corn chips. I actually told him about the whole 30 thing a bit, and that it was likely better for me to exclude dairy and wheat, so in case there is a second date we'll end up choosing more carefully. I'm definitely a little sniffly right now, too.

WOD: 2.7 mile walk, 3x25 one-armed vertical pulls, 2x25 wall push ups (and my shoulder handled that OK)

Breakfast: fried green tomatoes, 3 fried eggs, coffee with coconut milk

Lunch: salmon salad, a few corn chips with salsa

Dinner: Beet "home fries", roasted chicken, peach

This is sort of becoming the diary of "when I didn't stay on track". I have lots of good food made for the week though.

[befabdaily]

Well, my two little excursions didn't really seem to have much impact, healthwise. No headaches, maybe a bit of a sniffly feeling after that dairy-covered salad, but really, nothing noticeable. The last couple of days have been on track.

Yesterday: 1.7 mile walk, 3x12 supported squats, 3x12 knee tucks, evening Zumba

Breakfast: 3 eggs, avocado, sweet potato, coffee with coconut milk

Lunch: green curry langostinos with spinach, cup of asparagus, peach

Dinner: pan-fried liver, cucumber and tomato salad

Post-zumba: blueberries with coconut milk

I've been keeping an eye on the fruit in my fridge and really, I buy way too much of it. I end up eating fruit (like the berries last night) because it needs to be eaten, rather than having some other kind of snack. That's Not OK. Next week at the market I'm going to experiment with not buying fruit, or maybe only buying one kind.