Megan's Whole30 Accountability

[vancy31]

Hi superchigirl!

 

I like it a lot as a cool, different way to use spaghetti squash. I have always just used it in place of traditional spaghetti with tomato sauce and meatballs on top. So a new use for spaghetti squash is fun. I also really like the combination of flavors, but truthfully there's no fooling that this is not pad thai. Don't get me wrong, I will definitely make this again and I would recommend it to friends, but only as a unique and fast dinner idea for chicken, egg, and spaghetti squash. It won't really satisfy a craving for real Thai food if that's what you intend to use it for.

[vancy31]

Yesterday I ended up working later than usual, and I was having some really bad cramps when I got home so I decided not to workout. The fence in our backyard that we're having built was just finished yesterday so I took my dog out back and ran around with her for a little while. Not a "workout" by any means, but it was a little spurt of activity that I don't normally do.

 

Speaking of cramps, I always have some pretty unpleasant symptoms each month when my time comes. This time, however, my symptoms are worse than normal. I'm hoping the cramps and other issues subside soon and really only affect me this month since I just started making these dietary changes. I really hope this isn't the new norm for me because it's extremely unpleasant! I guess I'll find out next month...

 

Tonight I have a meeting after work so I won't get home until later than usual. In fact, the people in my meeting will probably hear my stomach growling since it'll be dinnertime while we're in there! In the event I am super hungry when I get home, I may have more stew and cauliflower rice, but I'm hoping to switch it up and have something different. 

 

Day 10!

Can't believe it's day 10 already! I'm super excited to be 1/3 of the way through after today!

 

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs with a chopped up sausage patty, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, and 1/2 and avocado on top

Lunch - Mulligatawny stew with cauliflower rice, and a banana

Afternoon Snack - small portion of leftover carnitas with pineapple salsa, scooped up with hollowed out mini bell peppers (I didn't end up having this yesterday for a snack so it's waiting for me today if I need it)

Dinner - either more stew and cauli rice, or if my stomach can wait an extra ~30 minutes we'll grill up some chicken thighs and have them with leftover coconut-creamed spinach and probably some cauli rice if I need it

[sarahrose619]

Happy Day 10!! 

[vancy31]

Happy Day 10 (well Day 11 now) to you too!

 

All things considered, yesterday went pretty well. My cramps and digestive upset continued through the day yesterday, but I'm pleased to say that this morning they have subsided. Sign of relief! But just as I'd anticipated, my husband and I were too hungry when we finally got home from our meeting last night that we were most interested in heating up leftovers for time and convenience factors. I ended up having pulled pork carnitas with cauliflower rice and pineapple/cucumber salsa, scooped up with mini bell peppers. I love that meal! I only have 1 small snack-size portion left, but I'll be excited to make it again before my 30 days is up!

 

I was chatting with my husband this morning about my Whole30, and where we go from here. He actually said he'd be happy to continue eating like this after I've completed my 30 days! I almost fell out of my seat! I was so happy to hear him say that - I think he likes the meals I've been making. His only concern was that when I eat something not Whole30-approved, that I would beat myself up with guilt and feel like a failure. That's definitely a challenge I'm going to have to work on beginning on day 31, and I realize it could take more than one Whole30 for me to really get there, but it's a goal. I'm just really happy that my husband is so supportive of this new healthy eating lifestyle!

 

Day 11

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs with a chopped up sausage patty, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper cooked in coconut oil, and 1/2 an avocado on top

Tea - I have at least 1 cup of tea everyday, but I keep forgetting to log it. I never add anything to my cup of tea, it's always just a tea bag with water. Today's is ginger green tea.

Lunch - Mulligatawny stew with cauliflower rice, and a banana

I haven't eaten an afternoon snack all week, so I don't think I'm going to plan on having one anymore!

Dinner - finally using the grill! Grilled chicken thighs, grilled asparagus, side of coconut-creamed spinach, and probably a slice of grilled pineapple, yum

[vancy31]

Yikes, I can't believe I went 3 days without updating. The weekend kept me away from the computer, which I'm pretty happy about. Just a couple of notes - Sunday felt like I was back in the "Kill all the things" phase. I was a grouch all day   The past few mornings I've been more tired than normal. I'm getting consistently 8 hours of sleep, so it's not that. But I wake up tired, and have to drag myself out of bed to get the day started. Maybe some more workouts will help...? Maybe?

 

Day 12 (Friday)

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs with a chopped up sausage patty, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper cooked in coconut oil, and 1/2 an avocado on top 

Lunch - Mulligatawny stew with cauliflower rice

Dinner - I think I had a chicken thigh with cauliflower rice and probably some sautéed jicama/onions with a dollop of homemade ketchup on top but I'm struggling to remember

 

Day 13 (Saturday)

Breakfast -  2 fried eggs, sausage patty, pile of coconut-creamed spinach

Lunch - Gyoza meatballs and sesame cucumber noodles

Dinner - Meatza! topped with sautéed bell peppers and onions, some grape tomatoes and a couple chunks of pineapple

 

Day 14 (Easter Sunday)

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, 2 strips of compliant bacon (yay I found bacon!!) and some sautéed jicama & onions with a little homemade ketchup

Lunch/Dinner* - Salmon patty with homemade avocado mayo smeared on top, 1/2 chicken/spinach sausage, grilled asparagus, roasted Brussels sprouts 

*It was a late Easter lunch or early dinner, and it was late enough that I didn't need to eat dinner before bed

 

I made enough of Sunday's food to last all week so these are going to be reoccurring meals. Plus my husband is on travel so the food stretches much further when it's just me for the week!

 

Day 15 (today!!)

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, 3 salmon patties with avocado mayo

Lunch - protein salad with grilled chicken, lots of veggies (cleaning out the fridge!), a few grapes, and some homemade mayo as binder, grilled asparagus on the side if I need it

Dinner - chicken/spinach sausage with cauliflower rice and roasted brussel sprouts

[vancy31]

Yesterday turned out to be the most difficult day of the program for me so far. My alarm went off and I again wanted to smash it to pieces. I felt so exhausted but got right around 8 solid hours of uninterrupted sleep, maybe even a little more than 8. I considered taking a "mental health day" and just calling out from work, but I am about a month and a half out from planned vacation so I don't have the extra leave on the books to use before I'll need it in May. So I dragged myself out of bed. I yawned all day long, and at about 1:30pm the cravings started attacking. It wasn't so bad while I was at work because there was nothing for me to really sabotage myself with, other than the small candies at the receptionist desk. That's not what I wanted though - I wanted chicken nuggets, and a huge piece of chocolate cake, and tortilla chips with cheese sauce. The biggest problem was when I got home and all sorts of bad foods were all right there calling my name, loudly... To combat my desire to sabotage my progress thus far, I ate dinner early. It was Whole30 approved and quite delicious, but after about 2.5 hours my stomach started growling. I drank a cup of tea, downed a glass of water and still the growling persisted. I ended up having a banana to try to stop the growling, knowing that if I didn't eat something, anything I would end up diving face first into a bag of chocolate chips, or tortilla chips, or any other temptations awaiting in my pantry. The banana seemed to do the trick, but I looking back now I'm not really proud of myself for immediately going to a carb-heavy, sweet fruit as a craving-stopper. I have plenty of protein and veggies at hand, so if nothing else it was a good learning opportunity. Hopefully, if this happens again I will have enough wits about me to make a smarter snack choice, particularly right before bedtime.

 

I'm really happy I've made it through 15 complete days now. Although I feel like I'm moving backwards with my progress. Yes, I am sleeping better so that's a huge NSV, but otherwise being grouchy, feeling exhausted even though I get enough sleep, and now these persistent cravings are overshadowing my 15 days of success. Here's to hoping I grow out of this phase soon!

 

Day 16

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, 3 salmon patties with avocado mayo

Lunch - protein salad with grilled chicken, lots of veggies, a few grapes, and homemade mayo as binder, with grilled asparagus on the side

Dinner - leftover gyoza meatballs, sesame cucumber noodles, slice of pineapple

[vancy31]

Yesterday was much better than Monday, which was full of struggles and cravings. I had a good day and felt in control of my appetite. I was even quite active when I got home after work. This morning, however, I am having a little bit of a struggle. Had to drag myself out of bed again (and I didn't sleep quite as well as the past few nights...it wasn't a bad night of sleep just not as great as previous nights). Then when I got to work I realized someone else in the office threw away my little baby container of homemade mayo that I'd left in the office fridge after my lunch yesterday. I have to eat my protein salad today at lunch with no mayo (hint - I am *not* a happy camper about someone throwing my stuff away without cause!)

 

Day 17

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, 2 salmon patties with avocado mayo, slice of pineapple (trying to eat the rest before it goes bad)

Lunch - bowl with grilled chicken, carrots, peppers, grape tomatoes, and a few grapes, with grilled asparagus on the side

Dinner - it's a "cleaning out the fridge" dinner tonight: last 1/2 of chicken/spinach sausage with mustard, a few gyoza meatballs, and some leftover roasted brussel sprouts

[vancy31]

I'm a little slow posting today, but hey it's day 18 already! I had a serious realization last night of just how far I've come in the past 18 days. My husband (I'm going to just start calling him J so I don't have to keep typing out "my husband" over and over) is on travel this week. We had our usual evening call to say hi and he asked how my evening had been. I was happy to say it'd been productive. I told him "I even made dinner for myself tonight." He laughed because I always make dinner when he's home, but I'd gotten in the habit when he was on travel to stop by the grocery store and get myself a pint of ice cream for dinner nearly every night he was out. Talk about some serious sugar addiction... The fact that I have stuck with the Whole30 for 2 weekends AND a week of J being out of the house, is huge progress for me. Of course the true test will be how I do when I'm not on the Whole30 anymore, but that's a beast I'm not going to worry about just yet.

 

After much thought, reflection, discussion with J, and reading up around the Whole9 site, I have decided to extend my Whole30 into a Whole55. I know, at first glance it seems silly not to go for 60 days but if I did a full 60 days I wouldn't be able to do the reintroduction phase properly and would end up rushing or not reintroducing all the groups before I go on vacation. So I backed it down to 55 days to be sure to fit in the full fast track reintroduction phase.

 

Truly, the *only* challenge I foresee with extending from 30 days to 55, is I will still want to jump on the scale on day 31. I might have J hide it from me so as not to test my strength that morning!

 

Day 18

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, 2 salmon patties with only a little avocado mayo, 1 piece of compliant bacon, slice of pineapple (trying to eat the rest before it goes bad)

Lunch - protein salad with grilled chicken, veggies, grapes, and homemade mayo as binder, with grilled asparagus on the side

 

I'll need to update with my dinner plans later. I have a plethora of food available, I just need to figure out how to make it into a cohesive dinner. Maybe a Well Fed hot plate or something.

[joleybelle]

Let me know how your mayo and/or ranch making goes!

 

Day 2

For only my second day in, I'd say it went pretty well. After reading the timeline, I was expecting to feel slow yesterday but it turned out to be a pretty upbeat day. I did have some digestive issues but I know it's going to take awhile for those to start fading away. I also was feeling tempted by sweets - every time I walked past the receptionist's desk I was fixating on the bowl of individually wrapped chocolates. Not like they are good chocolates, just something sweet to grab. Trust me, I've grabbed plenty of those little chocolates when I'd walked by before I started my W30. Yesterday they were definitely calling out to me, but I just kept on walking. Small personal victory...one day at a time!

 

So without further ado, here was my food log from yesterday. You may notice it looks a lot like Day 1's log, just because that's what I'd planned. Variety is coming

 

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, roasted sweet potatoes and sprouts with balsamic reduction (the recipe in the book says it's 2 servings but it's just too much food so I've made it into 4 servings...this probably goes back to my habit of eating every few hours so I'm used to eating smaller meals instead of larger ones) I also had a cup of black tea, no additions

 

Morning Snack - banana and some raw almonds, after my cravings set in I grabbed a cup of peppermint tea

 

Lunch - harvest salad (greens, green apple, raisins, avocado, grilled chicken, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper) with citrus vinaigrette (W30 book recipe)

 

Afternoon Snack - 1 hard-cooked egg and a small-ish bowl of Melissa's sweet potato/chicken hash

 

Dinner - Shepard's pie (W30 book recipe)

 

I was excited to try the hash recipe but actually I was a little disappointed with it. I am not a big fan of spicy foods, so I omitted the red pepper flakes. I'm now wishing I'd added just a touch. The balance is off with the version I made so I'm going to try doctoring it up next time I eat some. Maybe a little more ACV, maybe a tiny sprinkle of cayenne, maybe something else that jumps out at me when I open my spice drawer. Suggestions always welcome!

 

How was the Sheppard's pie? I start my W30 tomorrow and that was something that I wanted to try in my second week (because my first weeks meals are already planned out., lol).

[vancy31]

Hi Joleybelle! It was really good! I can't remember if I made it with ground beef or lamb, but both my husband and I gobbled it down. Really yummy...in fact since you just reminded me how yummy it is, maybe I'll make that for dinner tonight!

 

Cheers and best wishes on your Whole30 journey!

[vancy31]

Day 19 (but also Day 1 of the April 1 group I'm joining)

I've committed to the Whole30 for the entire month of April, but also into the first week in May. My Whole55 will take me up through May 7. When I was looking at the calendar I realized Mother's Day is the following day, and I always make some sort of cake or treat for my mom. It's going to be interesting as I get closer to the end of my 55 days to see what I can come up with to treat my mom. Maybe I'll make her a cake as usual and use J as my taste-tester. He sure would enjoy the job!

 

J almost committed to joining me for a Whole30 round when we get back from vacation, but when I told him no milk in his coffee he got cold feet. I have managed to encourage him to read the book, if nothing more than for him to understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I have explained my whys a couple of times but he just can't seem to wrap his head around it. Reading the book should help and may even inspire him to tackle a round with me! Although for now, he still eats the same lunches and dinners as I do when he's home (he eats without restrictions when he's on travel). So I guess he's about 50+% doing the Whole30 now.

 

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, last 2 salmon patties with only a little avocado mayo, last 2 pieces of compliant bacon

Lunch - leftover Shepherd's pie...yum!

Dinner - I saw a recipe in the latest Food Network magazine for butter chicken so I think I'm going to tweak the recipe to make it Whole30 compliant (coconut cream in place of heavy cream, omit the naan, etc). I'll also sauté up some spinach probably with more Indian spices to complete the meal!

[superchigirl]

Hey vancy31. PaleOMG has a butter chicken recipe on her blog. Maybe itll save you some time and effort

http://paleomg.com/indian-butter-chicken/

[jessieg]

Thanks Sarah - what is it about almond butter? Almonds by themselves are yummy but turn them into a spread and boom they are elevated to a whole new world of delcisiousness! Anyway, I'm glad I'm not the only one with almond butter issues!

 

I can totally relate on the almond butter front.  It is a bit of a slippery slope for me.  I have a container of freshly ground almond butter in my cupboard but I find myself dipping my celery stick in it *just one more time.  Buying the single serving Justin Almond Butter packets seems to help with over-indulging.  From reading other logs, I am leaning towards maybe cutting out nut butter entirely (at least for the first couple of weeks) so I don't use it to satisfy my sugar dragon...

[vancy31]

Superchigirl - great, thanks so much for the link! I'll check it out

 

Hi jessieg! I'm right there with you. I've pretty much taken the stance of not eating any nut butters, at least for the time being. Once I reestablish a bit more control over my sugar dragon, I'll start to reincorporate it. But for now, I'm best off not tempting myself with it. I hope you're a stronger woman than I am, and can stick with the individual packets if you choose not to ban them! Yummm

[vancy31]

It's been a great weekend, particularly food-wise. I used to go into the weekends when I was on diets thinking there was no way I wasn't going to "cheat." Now with my 3rd Whole30 weekend nearly under my belt, I am amazed with my ability to seek out and want compliant foods and not the junk. I still have a ways to go but I'm making progress. I was standing in the checkout line at Lowe's, and of all things I could smell the pink bubble gum through it's container. I haven't had that crap since I was a child, but the sweetness of it actually smelled good to me. So gross that I would think that smelled good! Then I came home and made a delicious lunch and completely forgot about sugar until now. So progress is definitely happening!

 

My attempt at butter chicken went wrong somewhere but I ended up creating some sort of new dish. It was like a thick stew with warm, delicious Indian spices. My husband didn't like it as much as I did, but that's fine because I've been happy to eat the leftovers.

 

Day 20

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, leftover Indian stew

Lunch - last piece of Shepherd's pie, roasted brussel sprouts

Dinner - grilled sausage with mustard, sweet potato fritters (took leftover masked potatoes and plopped spoonfuls into a hot pan with coconut oil to crisp them up), and a side salad with mixed greens, cilantro, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, 1/4 of an avocado, a sprinkle of ground flaxseeds, and avocado lime cilantro dressing

 

Day 21

Breakfast - 1/2 sausage, 2 fried eggs, leftover sweet potato fritter, and leftover sautéed spinach

Lunch - Another salad (same as dinner the previous night), and a bowl of cauliflower rice with Indian stew

Dinner - grilled lamb burger topped with mustard, homemade ketchup, lettuce, tomato, and a couple slices of avocado, grilled peppers and onions, and steamed broccoli with a bit of clarified butter

 

I can't believe it's already been over 20 days! I'm astonished   Though I don't feel like my pants are any looser, J and my mom keep telling me they see a difference. I'll definitely know my waist is shrinking when my coworkers who don't know I'm doing the Whole30 notice a difference, too. But I am still happy that I'm sleeping really well consistently each night, and the majority of my digestive issues have cleared up! There are still some lingering symptoms, but I've made leaps and bounds progress already. I'm really happy with my NSVs already!

[vancy31]

Last night's dinner was amazing! I didn't think I'd be a big fan of a burger without a bun, but it was seriously delicious. J said about 35 times just how good it was too...the only problem is that I woke up this morning with a huge bloated belly and my whole face was red. I was devastated to say the least. Feeling like I'm taking steps backwards is really quite demoralizing. That, and I'm still struggling to get out of bed in the mornings. I'm still getting between 7 1/2 - 8 hours of sleep, but when the alarm goes off I just can't find the energy or motivation to move. I'm ready for that Whole30 energy and morning happiness to kick in. I need to change something apparently in order to get it.

 

So after last night's dinner, I have 3 ideas of what the culprits could be. 1. the broccoli could have been what made me all bloated. It has a track record of (TMI ALERT) giving me gas. Maybe nothing's changed. I'm going to experiment in the next couple of days with eating it again to see if it's causing digestive distress. 2. the homemade ketchup is Well Fed's recipe and is sweetened with a date. I've done pretty well in the past few days of removing all fruits until I had the ketchup last night. I don't think it's likely that such a small amount of ketchup could be to blame, but again I'm not ruling it out and I plan on experimenting to see if it's to blame. 3. it was 3 full weeks into my Whole30, yes that's right 3 whole weeks in, and I just made clarified butter yesterday. I've been living off coconut oil and lard as my cooking fats. Until yesterday. I used the clarified butter both to toss with the peppers/onions, and I put some on the steamed broccoli. Yes, I did clarify it myself but I'm also 100% confident that I clarified it correctly and there are no lingering milk solids. Just like the other 2 potential culprits, I'm going to experiment to see if the butter is contributing to my issues.

 

I did my weekly cookup yesterday not realizing that I was going to wake up this morning with issues, so I have more broccoli planned for this week. I really hope broccoli isn't to blame for the bloat (but then again I'm also hoping it wasn't the date or the butter either!) because I honestly love broccoli simply steamed with some butter and a sprinkle of salt on it. Mmmmm so good! And I got a huge bag of it from BJ's over the weekend so I'd really like to use it all up. Anyway, enough rambling...

 

Day 22

Breakfast - 1/2 sausage, 2 fried eggs, leftover grilled onions/peppers

Lunch - leftover cauli rice and Indian stew, with a side salad and avocado lime dressing

Dinner - leftover lamb burger (no ketchup) with mustard, tomato, avocado, lettuce, leftover steamed broccoli with clarified butter. I'm intentionally only removing 1 of the suspected culprits in the hopes of determining which one is to blame. If I wake up bloated again tomorrow, I'll definitely know the broccoli and/or butter is to blame!

[vancy31]

I woke up this morning determined to be in a happy mood. I did a pretty good job of forcing the happiness even though I still did not want to drag myself out of bed. I had to get up in the middle of the night for the restroom, but it took me a little while to actually get back to sleep. Not enough that it should have made me drag so badly though. I'm going to do some yoga stretches before I go to bed and probably after I wake up tomorrow to see if that helps put a little spring in my step.

 

I've made a goal this week to make sure I get my full recommended amount of water intake. I did good yesterday but ended up downing a large amount of water a little too late in the evening (hence why I had to get up at 1:40am). I noticed a difference yesterday - no head rushes when I stood up, and feeling fuller all day long. Even to the point that I felt like I didn't need to eat as much.

 

This morning I still had a little bit of a bloated feeling, but no redness on my face. I'm ashamed to admit that when it came time for dinner, I still spooned the ketchup on my burger, and I still put a tab of ghee on my broccoli. So I didn't change anything but didn't have any facial redness. Strange, I wonder if it was a freak thing...? I'll continue to monitor and see if a trend emerges though.

 

Day 23

Breakfast - 2 eggs, chicken/spinach sausage, pile of broccoli (no ghee)

Lunch - leftover cauli rice and Indian stew, with a side salad and avocado lime dressing

Dinner - Chicken chowder (Whole30 book recipe)

[vancy31]

Woke up this morning feeling pretty good...definitely not tiger blood good, but good enough to do a 5 minute yoga sun salutation routine. I did 10 minutes before bed last night. Either that helped or I was super tired because I conked out almost immediately. I'm liking this yoga before/after bed thing so I'm going to continue it and see if some more changes appear.

 

I realized I'm a little over 40 days away from going on vacation. A beach vacation. With swim suits. I need to workout some more. My second goal for this week now is to do a minimum of 2 workouts in the next 5 days. (Recap - my first goal of the week was to get in my full recommended amount of water. Success so far.) Hopefully I feel inspired enough to do 3 workouts or more, but to make a realistic goal, a minimum of 2 is a good starting point.

 

The chicken chowder last night was really good. I enjoyed it, but even better was that J *raved* about it! I was a bit lazy with my food prep and didn't chop the sweet potatoes small enough, so truly his only complaint with the soup was that the potatoes were too large. That's pretty good, if I do say so myself! Unfortunately, I really do think it's the broccoli that's made me so bloated. We have another round of chowder (made with broccoli) and one more serving to have with tomorrow's breakfast but then I'm going to avoid it for a few weeks. Let my body move on from it and see if my bloat goes away. Then in a few weeks I may experiment and add a little back in to see what happens.

 

Day 24

Breakfast - 2 eggs, chicken/pepper sausage, pile of broccoli (with ghee)

Lunch - last serving of leftover cauli rice and Indian stew, with a side salad and avocado lime dressing

Dinner - Well Fed's shrimp rice-less soy-less sushi rolls, cold thai salad on the side (recipe from Whole30 book)...yes I know I'm mixing Japanese and Thai inspired dishes, but J and I love both cuisines so we don't mind combining them into 1 meal

[vancy31]

IT IS DAY 25!! Ok sorry for yelling that, but I needed to make sure I accurately conveyed my excitement! I'm absolutely amazed that I've been so long without tortilla chips, cheese, or chocolate! Those are probably my three favorite food groups, and thus my absolute vices. I'm excited to conquer the next 30 days to round out my Whole55!

 

Ok with that being said, dinner last night to me was yummy. To J, he struggled through. I read once that women determine if a dish is worth making again and/or if it was actually good based on how much their husband liked it. Even though I enjoyed both the sushi and the cold thai salad, I probably won't make either again unless J is on travel.

 

Tonight I'm going to treat him though with some chicken tenders. He's a big kid at heart, and he already has a love for my homemade ketchup so dunking chicken strips into the ketchup with be a real treat for him. Well, for me too   Thanks Katieblue for the chicken tender recipe!!

 

DAY 25!

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, chicken/spinach sausage with mustard, leftover cold thai salad

Lunch - leftover chicken chowder

Dinner - chicken tenders with ketchup, roasted asparagus, and a small side salad

 

Cheers to the next 30 days of success!!

[vancy31]

Day 25 is in the bag! And it was a great day. Still not feeling like it was a tiger blood day, but positive and energetic for sure. Had some really great news at work which also meant more to accomplish so my workday flew by. Then when I got home I put in a little time getting my heart rate up. I'm still taking it kind of slow and working my way back into these workouts, but for someone who's been sedentary the past year (and only ran if someone said "free ice cream!!") just getting up and moving is a huge step in the right direction. I did 10 minutes of stretching, 15 minutes of light calisthenics, and 5+ minutes of sun salutations. Nothing to brag about, but again it was way better than just sitting on the sofa for that 1/2 hour.

 

Also, dinner yesterday was really good! The chicken fingers turned out really well. I oven-baked them instead of pan frying and they were still finger-licking good   My big kid husband said they brought back good memories of childhood comfort food. Although that wasn't what I was going for by making this dinner, from him that was a big compliment. It's a keeper recipe for sure!

 

Day 26

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, chicken/pepper sausage with mustard, last serving of steamed broccoli with a little ghee

Lunch - leftover chicken tenders with ketchup, roasted asparagus, and a small side salad

Dinner - egg roll in a bowl using ground turkey

[vancy31]

Day 27 (Saturday)

Breakfast - leftover egg roll in a bowl and last chicken sausage with mustard

Lunch - shrimp salad (made with Whole30 mayo, red bell pepper, cucumber, and a few spices) on a bed of greens

Dinner - beef Meatza with homemade tomato sauce and sautéed peppers, onions, and grape tomatoes

 

Day 28 (Sunday)

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, homemade pork sausage patty, sautéed onions and peppers in ghee

Lunch - last bit of chicken chowder

Afternoon nibbling on Kalua pork!

Dinner - beef burgers topped with lettuce, tomato, 1 piece of compliant bacon, and a dollop of guacamole, side of sweet potato, and side of grilled asparagus

 

Day 29 (Today!)

Breakfast - Sweet potato hash with Kalua pork, onions, and green bell pepper, topped with a fried egg

Lunch - Golden Cauliflower soup topped with a mound of some more Kalua pork, with a side of brussels sprout slaw & citrus Asian dressing

Dinner - shrimp salad (made with Whole30 mayo, whatever veggies I can get my hands on in the fridge, and a few spices) on a bed of greens

[vancy31]

Today is Day 30! And as a special treat, I was able to tighten a notch on my belt! I think that counts as a NSV (even though it's still technically weight/body composition related). To do a quick reflection on the past 30 days, I still have plenty of work cut out for me. I have noticed that I feel like a generally happier person, but I still haven't hit my tiger blood stride yet. I have faith it will come with continued perseverance though.

 

I've done a great job of getting my recommended amount of daily water, even starting my day with a 20 oz bottle of water right after I wake up.

I, however, have not done a great job of getting my workouts in. My original goal was to get 3-4 workouts in per week, but I'm only averaging 1 per week right now. For my final 3.5 weeks, I am going to make a slightly more realistic goal of 2 sweaty workouts per week, but fill in all the other days with either walks or stretching/yoga.

 

My stomach/digestion issues have completely cleared up! It will definitely be interesting during my reintroduction to find out what was wrecking so much havoc on my system. I do still have some skin issues, but one area of concern has completely cleared up. A few weeks before I started my Whole55, I developed some skin discoloration on my hip. It was seemingly benign (not raised, no bumps, no itching, etc.) but even after using apple cider vinegar and coconut oil to attempt to clear it up, it was still there. Two and a half weeks into my journey, I realized it was gone! I don't think it was coincidental or that it just went away on its own. I still have some of this skin discoloration on my sides (rib cage area) that I've started using ACV on again. I've successfully made it disappear using ACV in the past, so I'm hoping that with my great food choices and ACV I can make it go away again...and hopefully stay away for good!

 

DAY 30!

Breakfast - Sweet potato hash with Kalua pork, onions, and bell pepper, topped with a fried egg cooked in ghee

Lunch - Golden Cauliflower soup topped with a mound of some more Kalua pork, with a side of brussels sprout slaw & citrus Asian dressing

Dinner - leftover grilled beef burger with a piece of bacon, guacamole, lettuce, and tomato, with a side of some grilled asparagus, and a few sweet potato fries (probably dipped in some more of the guac!) 

[vancy31]

I successfully completed 30 days! I'm so proud of myself! It's amazing what you can do when you really set your mind to it   I had another treat this morning - my freshly dry-cleaned slacks that usually come back a little bit tight were actually loose this morning! I may only get a few more wears out of these plants before I need to pass them on to someone else. They don't have belt loops so they'll be too loose for me to continue wearing! What a fantastic problem to have!

 

Day 31!

Breakfast - Sweet potato hash with Kalua pork, onions, and bell pepper, topped with a fried egg cooked in coconut oil

Lunch - Golden Cauliflower soup topped with a mound of some more Kalua pork, with a side of brussels sprout slaw & citrus Asian dressing

Dinner - salad plate with a handful of greens, bell peppers, zucchini, carrots, grape tomatoes, 2 spicy tuna cakes, and sunshine sauce for veggie dipping

[vancy31]

Oops, I got so wrapped up in yesterday that I forgot to post here...no problem, here's the catch-up:

 

Day 32 (Thursday)

Breakfast - Sweet potato hash with Kalua pork, onions, and bell pepper, topped with a fried egg cooked in coconut oil...I LOVE this breakfast, so delish!

Lunch - Golden Cauliflower soup topped with a mound of some more Kalua pork, with a side of brussels sprout slaw & citrus Asian dressing

Dinner - kind of a smorgasbord of leftovers - 3 spicy tuna cakes, leftover grilled asparagus, last of the sweet potato fries dipped in fresh guac from 1/2 an avocado 

 

I was feeling a bit spunky this morning and felt like testing to see if my body composition is changing as much as I think it is. So I threw on a light sweater that I've been avoiding this season because it's normally been too tight in my flabby arm area. I also didn't like that it showcased my kangaroo pouch (aka flabby stomach). But I knew as soon as I put it on that it was not the same...or more like: I am not the same! It fits so well, and actually the first person who saw me at work this morning complimented me on it! Woohoo, talk about feelings of being on Cloud 9! As badly as I want to step on the scale, I am slightly less concerned about it. It doesn't really matter what the scale number is, because my body is becoming healthier no matter what! The desire to just know what my weight is hasn't completely gone away but I'm still feeling good about not knowing...at least for now

 

Day 33

Breakfast - Sweet potato hash with Kalua pork, onions, and bell pepper, topped with a fried egg cooked in coconut oil...I'm out of sweet potato until I go to the farmers market this weekend so this is my last hash for a little while

Lunch - 2 spicy tuna cakes, leftover sprout slaw, leftover grilled asparagus

Dinner - I saw a fajita recipe somewhere recently (maybe on Stupid Easy Paleo's site) so I'll find what I'm thinking of and do up some chicken fajitas, sautéed veggies, and top them with some sliced avocado

[vancy31]

First, to catch up the weekend:

 

Day 34 (Saturday):

Breakfast - I made a sweet-potato-less hash...haha it was just sautéed peppers and onions in coconut oil with some Kalua pork, and 1 fried egg. Still yummy but way better with the sweet potatoes!

Lunch - Leftover chicken fajita with salsa and 1/2 an avocado

Dinner - Last 2 spicy tuna cakes, pile of grilled asparagus

 

Day 35 (Sunday):

Breakfast - sautéed peppers and onions in coconut oil with the last morsels of the Kalua pork and 1 fried egg

Lunch - I was kind of all over the place at lunchtime so I ended up having a mound of the Brussels slaw (finished it off) and then 2 fried eggs in coconut oil...I didn't have any other protein ready to go and I needed to eat NOW

Dinner - grilled tandoori chicken, grilled asparagus, and a side salad with spring mix lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, and olive oil & rice vinegar vinaigrette

 

I'm worried that the rice vinegar used in the vinaigrette with dinner last night wasn't compliant...but I didn't realize it until after I finished my salad and I thought "wow that salad was so good, it almost tasted sweeter than normal." At the time, I just figured it was all the fresh new veggies, but then after thinking about it I wondered if it was the dressing. My husband made up the vinaigrette and I asked him what was in it (EVOO, the rice vinegar, S&P, and garlic powder). I specifically asked if there was any added honey or maple syrup, since he normally likes his dressings sweet and he confirmed there was not. Well it occurred to me as I was laying in bed about to go to sleep that he may have used the "seasoned" rice vinegar that's in our pantry. If he did, I'm pretty sure there are non-compliant ingredients in it. He's on travel for work again this week so by the time I have the chance to ask him, I know he won't remember what vinegar he used. At this point I'm going to try to let it go, but I'm fighting to keep back my feelings of unhappiness that I could have made it 35 days and then sabotaged my success by not really paying attention to what was going into the dressing...I also don't really want to even ask my husband what vinegar he used, because he'll feel so terrible if he feels like he's responsible for messing up my 35 day streak. Sigh, for now I'll attempt to get over it...I hope that even if it was a non-compliant vinegar that it was such a small amount that it wouldn't cause any detriment to my progress thus far. I hope.

 

Other than the one vinegar episode, I'm feeling great! I'm still struggling to get workouts in (I'm just making one excuse or another...usually that I don't have enough time), but I have been great about getting an hour+ walk in each day. Not a power walk but not a stroll either. It feels good to just walk briskly in the beautiful weather with my big fur baby (that would be my dog, not my husband )

 

Day 36

Breakfast - Shakshuka with 2 eggs (I made the base and then cooled it for storage. I'm frying up the eggs in the morning instead of poaching them in the sauce). Also cooked up some crumbled pork sausage to go with it. I guess it's a whole new dish and not really a true Shakshuka now but hey, it works!

Lunch - Tandoori chicken with the roasted cauliflower curry rice (this cauli rice is sooooooo good! I even omitted the pineapple and it's still amazing! I'll definitely be making it again!) and some grilled asparagus (can you tell I like to eat a lot of fresh asparagus in the spring?)

Dinner - 1/2 a roasted sweet potato with shredded chicken, small side salad on the side (with a NEW vinaigrette to go with it!)

Note about the shredded chicken recipe - I halved it and only used 1 date (unlike 5 dates!!! according to what the recipe halved would call for) and it is still plenty sweet!