McJule's Post-Whole 30

[mcjule]

Wasn't as tired yesterday thankfully and was able to sleep until 6:30 am, although I woke up briefly at 5:30.  Getting better.  I forgot to restart my no sugar tally.  I'm on day 2 due to the anniversary caramel.  I'd like to make it all the way to Thanksgiving without sugar.  I'm a little concerned because we have several social events coming up over the next two weekends, but I can avoid the dessert right???  I'm doing less well on the no grains.  I really struggle with AF.  The Tuesday Tortilla Chip Incident was the worst but last night I allowed myself some rice with dinner.  

 

NS Day 2

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs w/kale, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk
Lunch:  leftover beef w/green beans and yellow squash

Dinner:  carrots and baba ganoush, chicken breast w/tomatoes, glass of wine 

Workout:  yoga, hopefully, I have an insane day at work

[mcjule]

So tonight I have a dinner party with girlfriends.  These events are super fun but also scare me because I don't have a clue what food will be served.  I'm sure there will be something I can eat but still a little nervous

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  leftover beef w/green beans and yellow squash

Dinner:  unknown

Workout:  sadly none unless I can squeeze in weight lifting between work and the dinner, which is unlikely

[pjena]

Your issues are different than mine, but this is what I'd do:

Try to make whatever I eat a template-ish meal rather than grazing

Limit myself to 1 or 2 glasses of wine

No dessert at all (because I can't have just a little)

 

Beyond that, I wouldn't worry about it and would just have a good time.

 

Have fun!!!!  Girls nights are the best!

[mcjule]

Weekend went well but I didn't have time to post.  I ate more dairy (i.e. cheese) than I probably should have on Friday night, but it was fun and there were still plenty of veggies and meat.  My eating on the weekend is never completely on-track but it wasn't terrible either.  This coming week is going to be absolutely crazy at work and compounded by my husband traveling for his job and my kids having no school tomorrow for Veteran's Day.  So I need to do a lot of deep breathing (I wish I could do midday yoga but the week is too crazy to fit that in unfortunately).  Our food situation isn't great but I'm going to shop tomorrow -- I'm taking part of the day off to stay home with the kids.

 

I've lost track of where I am with no sugar and no grains!  

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs w/kale, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  have to go out -- salad probably

Dinner:  unknown -- may have to order take-out

Workout:  probably none, I did weights yesterday and I'm a little sore

[mcjule]

So I knew this week was going to be crazy but it is exceeding my expectations.  For some silly reason I thought having part of the day off from work yesterday to stay home with my kids was going to make the day less insane -- ha ha!  It was so frenzied and busy that by 2 pm I hadn't had lunch and had to grab whatever I could find.  Not the best food choices.  Also I didn't get to the store until yesterday so my meal planning has been bad and I'm going to have to get take out for lunch again today.  Sigh.  

 

Yesterday:

 

Breakfast:  three eggs scrambled w/sausage, bites of granola (gluten-free), coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  shrimp sushi, tortilla chips (see what I mean about the choices??!!)

Dinner:  pan sauteed flounder, large salad

Workout: weights

 

Today:

 

Breakfast:  three egg scrambled w/kale, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  had to get take-out -- kale salad w/chicken, walnuts, and butternut squash (it was SOOO good!!!)

Dinner:  large salad w/pork tenderloin

Workout:  none

[pjena]

I hope things slow down soon.  I had the same breakfast as you today.   Well, most days, but exact today!

[mcjule]

It's a great breakfast.  I have been short on time lately and haven't been able to get in my kale but yesterday I realized too late that I forgotten to hard-boil any eggs so I just made scrambled ones.  So much better!

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs w/tomatoes, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut and almond milk

Lunch:  large salad w/pork tenderloin

Snack:  Lara bar

Dinner:  burger, salad, baby carrots w/guacamole

Workout:  none

[mcjule]

So apparently my lunch wasn't big enough yesterday and I ended up snacking on a Lara bar.  I'm not great at calculating my lunch needs.  I have noticed that I need to have a big breakfast and big lunch and then my dinner can be much smaller.  But if I skimp on breakfast or lunch I'll be starving all day.  Also, I have to go out to lunch again today.  I cannot remember another week since I started this job that I've gone out 4 of the 5 days!  I usually bring leftovers and even though I've been cooking, we're been having things that don't have leftovers.  Better luck next week I hope!  I would love any easy lunch ideas for days when I don't have leftovers . . . 

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs w/tomatoes, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/almond and coconut milk

Lunch:  cobb salad w/turkey (no cheese)

Dinner: ended up getting Thai take-out -- I had chicken and broccoli w/rice noodles

Workout:  try again on the weights . . . I've just been so exhausted this week!

[mcjule]

So tonight we have a fundraiser to go to . . . food unknown.  As always makes me a little nervous but I'll choose to believe there will be acceptable choices there!

 

Breakfast:  three scrambled eggs w/bacon, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/almond and coconut milk

Lunch:  leftover Thai food

Dinner:  unknown but I hope there are lots of veggies because I am really veggie deficient today!

Workout:  none

[mcjule]

Weekend was fine.  Fundraiser was a ton of fun and no food issues/temptations.  I'm sure they had it but we never even saw a dessert table.  My husband was much less happy about this!  My weekend eating is never quite as good as my weekday eating, but I stayed the course with no sugar.  I'm thinking that maybe I'll try to make my weekdays grain-free and allow myself some slack on the weekends.  I know some people do "cheat days" which doesn't appeal to me at all, but maybe I would do a better job keeping my non-gluten grain eating in check if I knew I could have some rice or corn on the weekend but not during the week.  Just a thought.

 

Also looking ahead to Thanksgiving.  As I believe I've mentioned I'm always in charge of the pies and happy to do that again this year.  I was going to make one of them gluten-free so I could enjoy it but now I'm thinking I won't do that.  I honestly don't need to eat pie for Thanksgiving.  I may sample the filling as I'm cooking it and maybe have a small bite of someone else's slice but I think I'll plan to forgo dessert at Thanksgiving.  

 

Home with a sick kid today.  Hoping to get some chores/errands done but that may be too hard.

 

Breakfast:  three scrambled eggs w/kale, sweet potato w/coconut milk, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  apple w/almond butter, carrots and guacamole

Dinner:  spaghetti squash w/meat sauce, salad

Workout:  none (it's pouring rain here)

[pjena]

Me, too!

 

On weekend eating not quite as good as weeday eating.

On not needing pie at Thanksgiving (but, I do probably need pumpkin butter bars...).  I'll have to see if I can gear myself up to just skip dessert with you.  I haven't really even cared about the sweets I've been making, so maybe I can skip this, too? 

 

I hope your kid feels better!

[mcjule]

I may be weak on Thanksgiving day Jen, so no promises!

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut and almond milk

Lunch:  leftover spaghetti squash w/meat sauce

Dinner:  slow cooker beef stew (can't wait for this -- I set it as I left the house!)

Workout:  yoga (so excited, couldn't make it last week)

[pjena]

Ha - no promises here, either.  I make a mean pumpkin butter bar! 

[mcjule]

I may need this pumpkin butter bar recipe!  I do LOVE pumpkin!

 

Stew last night was great.  We're having record cold temps so it was nice and warm!

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/almond and coconut milk

Lunch:  leftover stew

Dinner:  leftover tomato meat sauce (ran out of spaghetti squash so had the sauce on its own!), salad, red wine

Workout: none

[mcjule]

Yesterday ended up being a brutal day at work so I had wine and felt too tired for weights last night.  Not beating myself up, I needed it.  Can't wait for work to calm down post-Thanksgiving.

 

Breakfast:  three eggs scrambled w/kale, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/almond and coconut milk

Lunch:  leftover stew, avocado

Happy hour:  forgot I had a work happy hour, I had a couple shrimp and a glass of red wine

Dinner:  grilled chicken breasts w/roasted brussel sprouts and broccoli w/bacon

Workout:  yoga

[mcjule]

So I think I'm at NS 11 or so . . . 

 

I'm way too stressed at work.  I purposefully took a more flexible part-time job (I still work over 30 hours a week) instead of my crazy old job and I should not be this stressed.  Totally blame myself for letting stuff get to me.  My neck and shoulders are all tight all the time.  Ugh.  And it's leading me to drink more wine than I probably should (we're still talking one glass a few nights a week and I realize lots of people drink MUCH more than that, but I'd like it to be less).

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/almond and coconut milk
Lunch:  leftover chicken breast w/roasted brussel sprouts and broccoli

Dinner:  I think we're doing take-out or else leftover stew

Workout:  weights, maybe if I have the energy

[pjena]

I could have written that - stress, neck/shoulders and all.  Hang in there!  I'm trying to get a dr note to get a standing desk.  I'm hoping that will help with the neck/shoulders.  I hope you can decompress this weekend.  I, unfortunately, will be working.  Sigh.

[mcjule]

Goodness, it's been awhile since I posted!  Not surprisingly I ended up getting sick over the weekend. I definitely pushed too hard at work and not enough sleep, too much stress etc.  I didn't leave the house all day Saturday and then Sunday I went to Mass and that was it.  When I woke up today I was finally feeling a bit better -- still not 100% but getting there.  I guess it's just good that this happened before Thanksgiving because traveling while sick would not be fun!  Needless to say I didn't do anything active and I've just been trying to recover.  I'm back at work today.

 

Weight is actually pretty good -- I seem to fluctuate about three pounds these days and I'm at the lower end of that.  Still higher than I'd like but better than it could be!

 

I need to recount my no sugar days -- I think I underestimated them last week.

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut milk, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  leftover chicken curry with veggies

Dinner:  spaghetti squash w/meat sauce, large salad

Workout:  yoga 

[mcjule]

Today may be the end of my no sugar streak -- I'll bake my pies tonight.  Can't promise that I won't sample the filling!  

 

Trying to come up with a plan for Thanksgiving but it's hard when I'm not hosting and not exactly sure what the food will be.  I guess I can assume there will be turkey and vegetables that I can eat, rolls and stuffing that I can't eat, and some stuff that I'm not really fond of and will probably avoid -- cranberries and mashed potatoes.  I would love sweet potatoes but I doubt there will be any.  I'll be bringing some food supplies with me since we'll be there for several days.  Trying to mostly eat on track but will have some wine.  Still thinking I won't have a whole piece of pie for dessert -- maybe just a bite of someone's.

 

Breakfast:  three scrambled eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/almond and coconut milk

Lunch:  leftover curried chicken and vegetables

Dinner:  pork tenderloin, vegetables

Workout:  weights

[pjena]

Are you starting NS over with me?  My goal was 60 days of NS between Oct 27 and Dec 31 (that gave me 6 exceptions - Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day dinner and 3 others to be used for worth it indulgences only!).  I'm still on track.  I've only used my Thanksgiving exception, so I have 5 left.  I actually don't really plan on using them all, though.  We'll see.  Anyway, stick with me!

[mcjule]

Jen, I'm with you although I'm not sure I've been keeping track.  I think I've used three since then -- two at Thanksgiving and one was an accidental dessert eating at a party in early November (I was just stupid and forgot I was planning to avoid sugar!).  I'm SUPER worried about holiday parties so I do want to stay on track.  Two of the parties I've been invited to are dessert only (ah!).  It's like a nightmare.  But I'm plunging ahead!

 

So Thanksgiving was okay.  It's so hard for me not to be at home and not to have as much control over my food.  I know this is something I need to work on, but it's rough.  I did manage through Thanksgiving Day eating as planned, with a few bites of the pies (no crusts) and no actual slices.  For dinner I had turkey, green beans, salad, and mashed potatoes (would have LOVED sweet potatoes, but nobody made them -- so sad!).  Friday actually turned out to be harder because there were pastries for breakfast (I had leftover turkey and a few bites of pastries) and then an Italian dinner -- all pasta -- so again I had to eat turkey with a salad and was super hungry so I had some bites of the pasta (which of course made me sick and some chocolate post-dinner.  Don't blame my family at all -- not their job to cater to me.  Maybe I should have planned better or maybe I need to be more prepared for foods that I don't normally serve being served and resisting them.  Anyhow, I got back on the no sugar train on Saturday and no more wine either.  I did have probably too many non-gluten grains on Saturday and Sunday but that is over too.  My first holiday party is Friday, thankfully not one of the no dessert ones!, and I have family in town visiting over the weekend.

 

AF is here, which is kind of a blessing because it will keep me off the scale.

 

NS 3

 

Breakfast:  scrambled eggs, 1/2 sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  salad w/turkey

Dinner:  grilled chicken breasts, some kind of veggies (we are overwhelmed with veggies from our CSA!)

Workout:  weights (it was so cold and snowy over Thanksgiving that I did basically zero exercise)

[mcjule]

So AF isn't actually here (my body is so weird!) but still not weighing.

 

NS 4

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  leftover turkey w/coleslaw

Dinner:  Thai beef w/green beans (and a few bites of rice)

Workout:  yoga (hopefully!)

[mcjule]

Didn't update yesterday because I was traveling for work.  It was a nice change of pace to be out of the office but the driving was exhausting and I didn't get in a workout yesterday (although I did walk a lot).  Had a work luncheon and there were good food options although I'm sure the potatoes I ate had lots of butter and/or cream because they were tasty and gave me a stomachache.  

 

NS 6

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  leftover Thai beef w/green beans

Dinner:  leftover spaghetti squash w/meat sauce

Workout:  yoga

[mcjule]

First challenge tonight with a holiday party.  The host is gluten-free so the food will be too which is both good and bad for me!  

 

NS 7

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  beef stew

Dinner:  at party

Workout:  none

[mcjule]

Back from several days away and still on the no sugar train!  Yay!  I'm at NS 11.  I was so proud of myself Friday night.  I had my holiday party and I definitely ate a little more than I needed to and had more wine than I needed, but I did not have any dessert!  And I was gluten-free so extra kudos to me (the desserts with gluten are much easier for me to avoid because I know I'll feel terrible).  I had a busy weekend with family in town so there was more eating out and more wine than usual but things are back to normal today thank goodness!

 

This week has three holiday parties coming up (ah!) but I'm trying to stay strong!

 

Breakfast:  three hb eggs, sweet potato w/coconut butter, coffee w/coconut milk

Lunch:  beef stew

Dinner:  spaghetti squash w/meat sauce

Workout:  yoga