Whole30 and Adventure!

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Day 24 - Wednesday

Breakfast: Eggs and broccoli

Lunch: Salad with leftover spicy shredded chicken, and strawberries

Supper: Ugh. Got off work late and didn't want to bother with anything. So I got out the last of the beef stir fry to heat up, but it turned out I'd already eaten all the beef out of it and there was actually only a little over a cup of it anyway. So I tossed in some left over kale and a couple eggs. It was ... not appetizing. I only ate a few bites. But I also have only enough protein sources left to make it to payday, so  I couldn't make anything else without shorting a meal tomorrow or Friday. Fortunately (I suppose) I'm feeling a bit under the weather anyway so food doesn't sound all that appealing.

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Day 25 - Thursday

Okay, today has not been a good day. It's been one of those days. The kind where your hair is a frizzy mess and you trip over things and drop things and can't find things. I was going to have salmon and broccoflower for breakfast. I put the salmon in the oven, then forgot to turn the oven on. Finally realized my mistake, cooked the salmon, took it out of the oven ... this was the fattiest, grayest, squishiest piece of salmon I have ever seen. I noticed it was a bit ... odd ... when I took it out of the package, but it was not until it was cooked that its true grossness became revealed. I could not eat that thing. But I was out of eggs and didn't have time to thaw chicken. So I stopped by my little local grocery store, bypassing what I really wanted (an entire box of bakery danish) and got a banana, a single-serving packet of almond butter (my grocery, for being so little, has an odd selection of random products), and a pecan larabar. (I know, I know, I was going to stay away from them.) This was not a template meal at all, but at least it was better than a four pack of cheese danish. They did have boiled eggs, but - I know this sounds whiney - I really hate boiled eggs. I don't mind them made into egg salad or even deviled eggs, but just a plain boiled egg ... yuck. It's the texture of the yolk; I hate it.

Lunch: Also picked up some eggs this morning (my change jar is now officially out of quarters), so I will probably run home and scramble some eggs with a vegetable of some kind for lunch. And throw a piece of chicken that I got out of the freezer this morning into the crockpot for supper. It will have plenty of time to cook even if it isn't completely thawed; I have a late meeting and won't get supper until probably 7:30. One of those days, I'm tellin' ya.

 

Ended up having potatoes with lunch and supper, but I felt SO MUCH BETTER afterward. Apparently I was really need something starchy.

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Day 26 - Friday

Breakfast: Same as yesterday. I held out for a long time, but winter is getting to me. Ordinarily, sometime around January 2nd, I stop caring about anything and everything. I don't want to cook, exersize, contact people - even read. I just want to sleep, eat, and watch tv. I think my Whole30 adventure helped a lot, but the cold and the dark are starting to drag me down. I ask myself this every winter, but why can't humans hibernate? Or alternately, why wasn't I born a bear? I think I'd make a really great bear.

Lunch: Chicken, potatoes, gravy, and green beans

Supper:

 

Today is not kill all the things but more like, just get all the things away from me. The things can exist and live their lives ... just not here. Make them go away.

I feel like the last week of my Whole30 is far more difficult than any other week. Nothing really bothered me until now. Although I'd imagine PMS is playing its role in my cravings/bad mood.

I'm also a little annoyed that I'll be working a second job next week, so I feel like I should continue whole30 until I have the time and mental energy to properly do reintro. It's not like 4 extra days of strict whole30 are going to kill me or anything ... I just hate it when I have to adjust my plan.

Also, I think that while intellectually I am committed to eating in a healthy way long term, there has still been a part of me that doesn't believe it, and has been thinking of this as temporary. Funny how your mind can think two completely different things at the same time. There's definitely a small voice in my head saying, "Whew, nearly done. Hey, I know, let's order a pizza and then eat as much chocolate as possible on Day 31!" And when I correct this small voice, it says, "Okay, sure, healthy eating ... but not really, right? I mean, not every day or anything. Like, Tuesday will be healthy eating day or something." The small voice is not listening to me. Kinda feels like I have a toddler in my head.

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Day 27 - Saturday

Went a little crazy today.

Breakfast: Eggs and peppers. So far so good.

Lunch: Leftover tuna croquettes and green beans. Still fine.

Supper: Beef stir fry. And a nectarine. And another nectarine. (They were really small nectarines.) And an apple with almond butter. More sugary fruit than I should have had. On the other hand, this time of the month I would ordinarily be mainlining chocolate by the pound. So it could be worse.

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Day 28 - Sunday

Breakfast: Eggs and Broccoli, an orange

Lunch: Left over beef stir fry

Supper: Chicken shepherd's pie, some blueberries

 

Was really wanting some chocolate (really really really), so I mixed some cacao nibs into a spoonful of almond butter. While I wouldn't precisely say it tasted good (cacao nibs are too bitter for my taste), it actually did fulfill the craving for chocolate. 

 

Day 29 - Monday

Breakfast: Eggs, broccoli and an orange

Lunch: leftover chicken shepherd's pie, some strawberries (yes, once again, I am going overboard on fruit)

Supper: Beef stew

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Day 30 - Tuesday

Last day of my official Whole 30! Even though I am continuing for another 4 days.

Breakfast - Eggs and cauliflower

Lunch - left over beef stew, an orange

Supper - salad and tuna salad

 

Even though technically I'm done with Whole30 today, I'm going to try to bring my fruit consumption back into reasonable bounds - my sugar dragon is far from dead.

 

Benefits of Whole30 that I've noticed:

My skin is clearer. (Sadly, Whole30 didn't do a thing about the acne scars ... not that I was expecting it to.)

My slightly too tight clothes are now my slightly too loose clothes.

I haven't had one of my nasty psuedo migraines in weeks. (I've had headaches for so long, it's kind of weird not having them. Once in a while I think - I feel kinda strange ... what's wrong ... oh, I don't have a headache, that's what it is.)

My energy levels are more consistent and a little higher.

I know that I can do without chocolate, baked goods, pasta ... they aren't as necessary to my life and happiness as I sometimes thought.

 

Things I haven't noticed:

No tiger blood. Oh well.

No major improvements in sleep. Not that my sleep patterns were that bad before.

No life changing oh my gosh I feel so much better. I take this to mean I don't have any really significant food intolerances.

 

Despite the fact that my results were not overwhelmingly fantastic, I definitely think it was worth doing. I think possibly the greatest benefit (aside from the disappearance of a low level headache/intense headache that I've had as long as I can remember and actually got so used to I didn't even think about it as pain ... and feel a little odd without) is the change in thinking. I always tried to have a vegetable with a meal once a day. Now the idea of breakfast without veggies is strange. Why was I going without those all these years? I don't even dislike vegetables, so why was I eating entire meals of nothing but grains and cheese? And being so hungry mid-afternoon even though I'd eaten a portions-wise large enough lunch, when all I had to do to stay satiated until supper was add more protein and good fat in place of the cookies and bread. Not to mention putting on real clothes and shoes, scraping the ice off the car and going to the store at 10 pm because I was out of chocolate - horror! - and had to have some. I feel like I am more in control of what I eat, rather than having my plans dictated to me by the food.