I can do this!!

[judybot]

I just had to come over to the forum when I got home, because I am pretty darn pleased with myself! It's a good day for self-restraint

Today is day #3 for me...I was a little nervous, because tonight was date night for the future hubs and me, since it's our 2 year anniversary. I am determined not to slip up this time around, so I knew I would have to ask the waitress a lot of questions about ingredients and request a few modifications. For some reason that made me slightly anxious. Generally, I *hate* being THAT person...but the Longhorn server totally made me feel okay about it. They apparently have people coming in that follow all sorts of diets, including gluten-free and paleo - which she named specifically. I was actually surprised to hear the "p" word come out of her mouth! I haven't come across anyone yet (in my neck of the woods) who follows this way of eating and my parents think I'm crazy, so it was starting to feel a little like a secret club!

So here's my eats for the day:

Breakfast:

5 scrambled eggs with cayenne, coriander, cilantro, turmeric, pepper (from my failed attempt at homemade mayo...no patience today! Had to cook it up then drain and blot off all the oil.)

Lunch - wasn't really hungry, so just had a snack:

Granny smith apple

a couple tbsp of homemade coconut/mac nut butter

handful of mac nuts

a few prunes

2 dates

black coffee

Dinner:

Outlaw ribeye from Longhorn, s&p only

garden salad with lemon juice, s&p

baked sweet potato

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I did today. Had a little more fruit/dried fruit than I'd like, but happy with the fact that I was able to ONLY have 2 dates, instead of a half pound of dates. Yay for small victories! I hope all you other W30-ers had a good day as well!

Tomorrow is Hershey Park. No idea how this will go, but we are bringing a cooler with us in case I have zero food options!

[judybot]

What a fun day! Spent the day at Hershey Park with my honey for our anniversary, and was very well prepared! Cooked up some sausage patties and chicken livers for breakfast, then we were out the door, cooler in tow. Brought along the rest of the sausage patties, carrot sticks, sugar snap peas, a mix of coconut flakes, almonds, mac nuts, and raisins, and also brought along some coconut water.

We ended up having lunch in the park, which for me was a burger party on top of a bowl of salad, all sprinkled with old bay. Surprisingly tasty-ish, for amusement park food. I started feeling a little dehydrated and loopy about an hour after lunch, so we went back to the car for some coconut water. This happened to be perfect timing, because as soon as we got to the car, the skies opened up and it started pouring!! That was perfectly fine with me...it was way too humid, and I was exhausted from the adrenaline and standing in the sun for hours. Took a little snoozer, while other patrons scrambled to their cars to leave (more coasters for me!). Woke a little while later to clearing skies and a double rainbow

After returning to the park, we stood in line for a ridiculous amount of time then finally rode Fahrenheit, which was totally awesome. Best ride in the park, i think. Then decided to call it a night and hit the chocolate tour at Chocolate World, enjoyed the smells, and got a couple small sample bags of chocolate! ...which I promptly handed off to my fiance. I think he was impressed by my will power..but then probably less-so when I asked him if it would be terrible to just chew it up and spit it out. Haha...oh well.

No trip ups today, and a nap to boot. I'll take it!

[Bridget]

We used to take the kids to Hershey every year before Christmas for their "Christmas in Hershey" event. SO fun and boy did that chocolate smell good !

[judybot]

My day 5! I totally forgot to post yesterday. It wasn't all that exciting, but I guess following the rules never really is

Yesterday:

Late Breakfast - 3 eggs with sauteed spinach onions and garlic

Snack - 3 dates & handfull of trail mix (almonds, mac nuts, raisins, coconut flakes)

Lunch - Forgot to eat

Dinner - Carnitas salad bowl from Chipotle, mild & medium salsa, guac, and extra lettuce on top (to keep the guac from getting stuck to the lid) then was still hungry, so also had 1/3 of a nuked yam, handful of trail mix, 3 dates

Not bad! My cravings are getting to be so much easier to manage! Thank goodness for that...

[judybot]

Not a bad day 6...things are getting better, and I just realized don't need a nap in the afternoons anymore! Now if I could only wake up just a little earlier in the morning. Still having a hard time getting to bed at a decent hour; I've always been a night owl.

Walked the dog, took a trip to the market, then came back and prepped some kale for tomorrow.

Had a lazy breakfast...about half cup of chicken liver pate with zucchini slices (1/2 zucchini) and a half a peach.

Equally lazy at lunch... had another half cup of pate with the other half of the zucchini, sliced, the 2nd half of my peach, and 3 dates.

Dinner was at my parents...so good. They made oxtail (I skipped the gravy - they had added a little HFCS ketchup), steamed long beans, and I made some sauteed cabbage with onion and garlic.

For dessert, while everyone else was having ice cream cones, I had some homemade asian pear butter. Le sigh.

When we got home, I had a cup of chamomile tea and 3 dates. It's not ice cream, but...it'll do!

Looking forward to making it out to the farmer's market tomorrow. On the hunt for some pork belly or sugar free bacon!

[judybot]

Day 7! Ahhh... I love the farmers market. We walked away with 12 lbs total of pastured pork: sausage, bacon (both for post-W30), pork chops, shoulder roast, and ground pork. No pork belly, though.

Breakfast: half of a 5 egg scramble with spinach, onions, garlic and spices (split it with my fiance), cup of earl gray tea

Lunch: 1/2 cup of chicken liver pate, banana/plantain bellinis (more for pate delivery, than SWYPO...I ran out of veggies to slice up and the fruit was getting a little iffy)

Snack: cup of earl gray tea and 4 dates

Dinner: half a can of wild salmon, cup of sauteed kale with onions and garlic, half an avocado. And half a peach. Yum

I think I'll go to sleep early tonight...

[judybot]

The last two days have been a total blur...I had been working on a portrait for a friend as a surprise for his wife, so my eating schedule has been all out of whack, sleep nearly non-existent, and I'm just glad that's over. Still recovering today. I slept 10 hours last night!

Let's see...Day 8, well back to Day 7 - instead of going to sleep early, I ended up working all night on the drawing, and finally went to bed at 5:30am and slept until about 10:30 when my dog started tearing up and down the stairs. Thanks, dog.

Day 8, slept in and breakfast was 2 bowls of homemade egg drop soup (yum!) and then was still stuffed at lunch (oops). For dinner, had a half a tuna steak and some sauteed zucchini with onion and garlic. I probably also had a couple dates throughout the day and maybe a half a peach at some point.

Worked through the night on the drawing AGAIN, taking occasional breaks to make tea, snag a couple dates, and ate the rest of the egg drop soup.

Day 9 - Scrambled to finish the portrait so I could drop it off before my doc appointment at 3. Finished at 12! Woohoo! Showered, grabbed a banana and dashed out the door. Picture delivered, then headed to my doc appointment, and finally ate my banana around 2:30. Napped from 4-7, then dinner was some of the newly acquired pork chops from over the weekend, seasoned with a little sausage seasoning and ate with some sauteed sweet potato "noodles" with onion in coconut oil. Again, probably had a couple dates throughout the day, and I know I had a peach at some point. I didn't eat nearly enough today, but well...I was so tired I didn't really care.

[LoriLifts]

You're doing great!

PS..I want some asian pear butter!

[judybot]

Thank you!! This forum is great for keeping me on track...just the physical act of checking in every day really makes me think about the choices I'm making, and what I'll have to own up to later!

The asian pear butter was almost too sweet! I had about a half cup and I almost couldn't finish it. Before W30, I never though I'd say something like that. Hehe..

[judybot]

Hard to believe that yesterday was already Day 10...a third of the way done! Feeling good today, despite somewhat crummy sleep. More on that later.

Breakfast - had a hankering for more egg drop soup, and found some frozen broth in the fridge...took the time to perfect my egg dropping skills. The batch I made over the weekend just wasn't quite right - it was chunky instead of beautiful and ribbony. I think I've got it down now! Now just need to figure out how to thicken it first, because all the egg ended up just floating to the top and cooking together :\ Anyone have any good ideas for what I can use to thicken? I thought I read somewhere that arrowroot is a no-no on W30, and obviously not going to use cornstarch...coconut flour makes it gritty, egg yolks didn't really do it for me. What else can I use? I thought I read somewhere that gelatin might work, but not really sure of the proportions.

Lunch - really boring, but I had the rest of my egg drop soup and half a sweet potato. Snore!

After, went out to the natural food store and got some goodies, and while unpacking, nibbled on a couple organic dried Turkish figs. And might have eaten about a cup of raw mac nuts

Dinner - so so so good...crock potted a grass-fed beef chuck roast, seasoned with some garam masala, coriander, cilantro, cumin, turmeric, ginger, coconut flakes, tomato, onion, and garlic. Ate it with some sauteed kale, onions, and garlic, and then made some sweet potato hash in coconut oil, onion powder, coriander, and cilantro. That meal definitely deserves a repeat!

Dinner was pretty filling, but a couple hours later I was hungry again! ...and also in bed. I was getting blood drawn this morning, so I couldn't really eat anything. Sad Judy. Just knowing that I couldn't eat anything made the hunger worse, and it totally ruined my sleep! I woke up at least a few times to my grumbly belly.

This morning, I went in around 9 to get blood drawn, and started feeling a little woozy, despite drinking some coconut water right after. Went to go lay down for a bit, and...woke up on the floor. Glad the nurses had been holding on to my arms, or I'd probably be a little banged up! Lesson learned. Get blood drawn while I'm laying down. Hah...I was so confused as to why they'd lay me down on the floor instead of a table, and started cracking up when I realized what happened. Whew. Not the kind of early-morning laugh I was expecting!

[judybot]

So Day 11 started out interesting enough...and for shame, for shame, I forgot to eat breakfast. I had coconut water in the am after I had blood drawn, but when I got home, I just kinda noshed while I cooked...mac nuts, a few dates, dried fig, more mac nuts, couple more dates. Yeah, not ideal but...it happens, and I guess it could have been a lot worse. I also drank a lot of Early Grey tea.

Started a batch of bone broth in the crock pot, then went out and got a few spices for the night's dinner. Oh, and some fat back, too

Came back, mixed up some spices for smoky chicken thighs a la "Practical Paleo", then prepped some baby bok choy, made some cucumber and zucchini noodles, and cleaned/trimmed/spiced up the thighs.

Kinda putzed around for the day when I should have been studying...but I was feeling kind of lazy, I guess all the excitement at the doctor had worn me out a little.

My honey came home, and I got the chicken in the oven after laying a couple strips of fat back across the tops of the meat. Sauteed up the baby bok choy with ginger, coriander, onions and garlic, then tossed the cuke and zucch noodles with some evoo, lime, herbs, s&p. Everything was so good! The crispy bits of fat back from the chicken were surprisingly addictive. Mmm...

Dessert was a half a frozen banana with a little unsweetened cocoa. Not bad...

Definitely some room for improvement, but I'm workin on it Oh, and I just ordered a juicer from Amazon today! Very excited!!! We'll be juicing and making veggie crisps in no time.

[judybot]

Let's see...Day 12. Almost half way!! Feeling good, but honestly can't say it's much different from how I felt before the W30. We ate pretty much the same, but back then I'd have a little less reservation about eating a bunch of dried fruit and there would be occasional dairy. I've been waking up earlier, but that could also be due to a more focused effort to get to sleep before 12 (night owl). I was up at 7 this morning, but I did get a little sluggish in the afternoon. I'm sure things will be fine after a bit of adjustment. I'll try to get to bed at a decent hour tonight.

I think the thing I'm loving the most so far is that since I'm more focused on my food choices, I am more apt to notice how certain foods make me feel. For example, tomatoes...I'm starting to think I have a problem with them. The last 3 times we had them as part of dinner, I was a little gassy. Now that I think about it, the last time I had bubble guts from eating at my parents house, I had eaten some (a lot of!) long beans and stewed tomatoes. I've had long beans by themselves without feeling like absolute garbage afterwards/paying for it the next day. I blamed it on the canola, but now I'm not really sure! It's way too early to tell, and obviously this is going to take a lot more time to figure out. The last time I had tomatoes, I also had baby bok choy for the first time in a long time, and it could easily have been that. And I mean...we've also been eating an awful lot of kale lately. Love the stuff!

Anywho...curious to know if I have some kind of nightshade issue. When I was little, I remember having a really strong aversion to the smell of cooked peppers, and a few years ago for a while I'd get really horrible cramps from eating them. It has gotten better since, but they still make me really gassy if I eat a lot of them. I never really noticed anything with tomatoes in particular, but lately I'm not so sure and I don't really eat them a lot to start with. I recently noticed an almost complete elimination of knee pain, even with a lot of sprinting/jumping exercises - pain free under those conditions was totally unheard of. I'd get a little tenderness with overuse, but none of the pain that used to make it impossible to stay asleep at night unless I was in a very specific position with a pillow between my knees. I had attributed the improvement to the elimination of grains in my diet, but I had knee pain last week (sans exercise, because fall semester just started back up) and it happened to be after I had tomatoes 4 times in a single week, which is a lot for me.

Sometimes the old me thinks I'm just reading too much into things, but the old me was also clueless about food sensitivities and thought gas after a meal was just one of those unavoidable things. I guess time will tell. I'll at least know to pay more attention now!

On to my food for the day, which was totally uninspired. Still super yummy, but we had a ton of chicken left over from yesterday.

Breakfast/lunch was 2 chicken thighs and a few macadamia nuts.

Dinner was another chicken thigh, along with some kale sauteed with fat back, onions and garlic. Also roasted some patty pan squash. It was all pretty tasty! I guess leftovers aren't all bad...

After dinner, I decided to crack into the young coconut I had in the fridge and made up a batch of raw coconut mac butter.

RI-DIC-U-LOUS. So much better than the batch I did with dried coconut flakes instead of fresh.

I've been pretty darn good today. No dried fruit! I totally overdid it yesterday, and I decided to skip anything fruit related today. It was a lot easier than I expected. I actually forgot about it. Go me! That cocomac nut butter, on the other hand...um...no comment

[judybot]

Day 13...Almost half way. So close!

Had my well woman checkup in the am, so I didn't eat until about 11am. Breakfast/lunch was MORE egg drop soup. I think that's my favorite new breakfast! I've been trying to work in a way to drink more broth, but it gets a little boring for me to just drink it straight, so this is working for me for now. Dinner was Chipotle Salad with double carnitas, mild and medium salsa, and guac. Yum!

While I was in the waiting room that morning, I got a call from my doc office letting me know that my blood work results were back. All normal! Maybe my parents will finally get off my back about all the fat I've been eating Oh! And my blood pressure is down. I've never had a prob with it, but it was starting to get a little higher than normal (for me). Prior to paleo, my average for the last couple years was about 130/80...now the last couple times I've had it checked this week, it was back down to a little less than about 120/70 (where it's been as long as I can remember)! The previous rise in diastolic bp was worrying me just a little bit, since there's heart disease on both sides of my family and one of my uncles and paternal grandfather had ruptured aortas (!). I'm really happy that it's back down. Lipid panel results were exciting too, considering I was half-expecting my numbers to be terrible, since I read somewhere that over the short term, a paleo diet can temporarily increase LDL.

Total cholesterol 201

Triglycerides 42

HDL 80

LDL, Calc 113

Total/HDL ratio 2.5

Non- HDL 121

Woo hoo!

My TSH was 0.4, within the lab range of 0.4-4.5...this was interesting to me, since this is the first time I've had this checked, and have dealt with many of the symptoms common to hyperthyroidism for most of my life. Is it worth asking my doc to do a full panel? My assumption is that since I technically scored normal, he won't be willing to do it...I considered ordering a test online, but apparently I can't buy one, since I'm in MD. My insurance only covers yearly exams, so a follow-up visit and any subsequent tests will be out of pocket. Any suggestions are welcome!

Vit D3 was "normal", but not as high as I'd like..so more walks with the dog during the day for me!

Woke up feeling pretty terrible this morning. Fiance bought a foam topper a couple weeks ago, and it has been airing out for more than a week and a half, and he got fed up and threw the old one away, and sort of decided on his own that he'd just go ahead and put the new one on...well the new one smells fairly strongly still, and if I try to sleep on it, there's a good chance I'll end up with a migraine...I'm pretty sensitive to chemical smells, even the smell of the inside of his car in the summer. When it's hot out, I usually have to wait until he gets in the car and puts the windows down before I get in, otherwise I start feeling carsick. So we slept on a hard mattress last night, and both woke up with headaches and achy backs. Tonight should be fun. Ugh.

[judybot]

It has been a long time since I've checked in! Yesterday was day 17. Almost there! To summarize my last few days, I've been having mostly egg drop soup breakfasts, lunch of usually small snacks of the previous night's leftovers, and lots of meat and kale and various veggies on our plates for dinner. Some days I'll have occasional snacks like a few dates, a piece of fruit, or handful of nuts/spoonful of nut butter if I'm feeling snacky. And lots and lots of tea. I think I might've had some dairy in the form of melted butter or some funky seasoning, because after dinner at my future in-laws', I was more gassy than I've been since the start of the year :[ No bueno.

I've always been a bit of a compulsive snacker and habitual overeater, so this has been a big last couple days for me. I've been watching a lot of episodes of Supersize vs Superskinny on Youtube, and it has really made me aware of the unhealthy eating habits I've had over the years: not planning my meals and thus forgetting to eat sometimes, eating faster than my body can adjust my hunger signals and eventually eating way too much, substituting drinks like coffee for breakfast, getting snacky to the point where I am uncomfortably full, or snacking as a means of procrastination.

Anyways, I have been a lot better about saying no to myself when I get snacky...on average, I'm in the mood for something at least a few times a day. I'm finally to the point where if I want a snack, I'll have some tea instead and maybe a little snack in the evening if I'm feeling good about the choices I made earlier in the day. As far as curbing overeating, I started really focusing on chewing really well, taking smaller bites, and really focusing on the taste and texture of the food and whatnot. It has really slowed me down, and I'm noticing that no matter HOW yummy the food is, I still enjoy it just as much, and since I'm eating it a bit slower, I am spending more time enjoying it, and when I get to the point where I'm satisfied, I'm bored of eating before I get a chance to overdo it. I think this is actually going to work for me! I've only been doing it for a couple days, so I guess time will tell.

It's so weird how I even acquired the habit of overeating (thankfully I've always been blessed with a fast metabolism). I distinctly remember our family going out to Chesapeake Bay Seafood House when I was young. I come from a family of overeaters. I've got one older brother, and I'm a total daddy's girl. Well...I remember my dad and brother practically trying to out-eat each other. There were times where I was ready to fall asleep in the booth, waiting to go home. As I got a little older, I started trying to keep up with them (I've always been a bit competitive). I think I've always known that that was where my problem started, and it seems obvious, but I never really consciously made the connection of eating slower to fix it until recently.

Yay for W30 revelations!

[judybot]

This morning is Day 20! I can't believe my W30 is 2/3 over...let's see...Days 18 & 19...both days I had a few eggs over easy with sweet potato hash and sauerkraut for breakfast, homemade beef/pork sausage meatballs with sauerkraut for lunch, then more meatballs with zucchini and meatballs with eggs over easy for dinner. Yeah, I was really slacking the last couple days. Wasn't really in the mood to cook! I did supplement my lack of veggies at mealtime with some fresh veggie juice, though! My new juicer and dehydrator came yesterday!! Love it. I got a little bit of a headache yesterday, but this morning i drank a whole cup and I was fine Juiced a carrot, stalk of celery, a leaf of lacinato kale, a small handful of cilantro, and a half a lime. Yesterday, I put some ginger in it, so I wonder if that's what caused the headache. Anyway, I love it!! Oh, and I already dried and ate a whole zucchini, and dried all the tomatoes my parents gave us that were starting to get questionable. Oh, and I'm making fruit leather out of the asian pear butter my mom made! Still deciding what I want to do with the juice pulp...I'm thinking dehydrator crackers, but not sure...I definitely don't want to waste it!

Yeah, I'm a little excitable and all over the place this morning. Can you tell? Haha...

AND I just got back from my first run in a loooong time, and no knee pain! It has plagued me for a long time, but once I cleaned up my diet, the inflammation just kind of...stopped. Now and then, I get a twinge with overuse, but never the full-blown, crippling, shooting pain through my knee. Life is good.

I've had a couple people ask me if I'm planning on continuing eating this way, and I can honestly say, yeah I might treat myself once in a while, but paleo and W30 will be permanent parts of my routine from here on out. I've never felt better!