Doin it, and doin it, and doin it well

[AlaskaCasey]

I'm so glad I found this forum in which to journal! I'm brand new to the Whole30 and today is Day 4.

I'm going to do a couple posts to play catch-up. So here's a blog I wrote about Day 1:

Today I finally took the plunge and jumped head first into the Whole30. If you haven’t learned much about it, the Whole30 is a 30-day commitment to eat whole foods such as meats, vegetables, and fruit, and cut out common ingredients that cause inflammation (sugar, legumes, dairy, gluten, alcohol, and grains).

I’ve been suffering from some serious health issues for years. I find that my energy levels and mood are closely linked to the food I eat. I recently ended up in the doctor’s office feeling nauseous, constant headaches, and fluctuating energy levels that I couldn’t control.  My energy is high in the morning and then plummets after lunch, leaving me feeling like I need a nap. By the time I get home in the evenings I sometimes I just crawl into bed without eating dinner. My husband was really worried about me and encouraged me to go to the doctor. It wasn’t until I woke up one morning with two huge inflamed lymph nodes in my neck that I was catalyzed into action.

After listening to my symptoms my doctor recommended that I find a way to relieve stress and cut out dairy, since it’s the most common food intolerance.

I went home that day and looked up a yoga studio near my office and declared that I was now “dairy free”.

For the last month things have felt like they are improving. I’ve been losing weight going to yoga every morning and feeling physically stronger, but my energy levels have still been a bit wild. One afternoon I ate a donut in my office before biking home and by the time I got home I felt so sick and lightheaded I thought I was going to throw up. As a person who’s in pretty good shape, a 20-minute bike ride home should not be putting me over the edge.

I am doing the Whole30 because my friends who have completed it have raved about their energy levels, their waistlines, and feeling better all around. My goal with the next 30 days is to reach a point where I have consistent energy throughout the day, my moods level out, and I am more focused.

I spent this weekend researching the Whole30, reading the book The Whole 30: A 30-day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom, and planning out recipes. Every blog I’ve read has emphasized that preparation is key so I created a Google doc where I can plan meals, keep recipes, and create shopping lists. If you want to follow along you can find the Google Doc here: https://goo.gl/i0PsT2

As you can see in Google Doc, I created an epic-shopping list. My plan is to buy a bunch of stuff in bulk at Costco so that I don’t need to shop every day. I head to yoga at 5:30AM every morning and then usually head straight to work where I am until 6 or 7PM every night. I also try to commute on my bike as much as possible so that doesn’t leave me a lot of time or space to do large grocery runs.

So on this rainy Sunday afternoon I enlisted the help of my husband and we headed to Costco to see what we could find. Luckily, Costco has done a lot to expand their offerings of organic and natural foods. I was able to get organic grass fed ground beef, organic chicken, organic eggs, and a lot of bulk produce like bags of onions, avocados, and bell peppers.

I was really happy to find that most of the food at Costco is Whole30 compliant. The one mistake I did make was not reading the label on some smoked salmon I got, it has brown sugar.

I stuck strictly to my shopping list and was able to get out of Costco for a little less than $400, which is pretty good considering how much meat I bought. Like, weeks of meat.

For things that Costco didn’t have I stopped in at Gus’s Market on 17^th and Harrison St. For those of you in San Francisco who haven’t checked out Gus’s yet, I highly recommend it. They have the best produce of any grocery store in the city. I think the owners work directly with local farmers to get fresh produce delivered daily.

Unfortunately, Gus’s isn’t such a steal as Costco and I made it out of there spending a little more than $100, $36 of that was for the four salmon filets I bought (don’t tell my husband).

My total out of pocket expenses to jump-start my Whole30 was $511. I know that sounds like an astronomical amount, but I bought a lot of bulk meat, a big bag of almonds, and big containers of olive oil, avocado oil, and balsamic vinegar. Stuff that is shelf stable and will last a long time.

I have taken a lot of the advice to heart and I came home and immediately started preparing some staples to keep on hand for the week. I spent a half hour clarifying butter and then, while my Chicken Cacciatore cooked on the stove, I prepped the food needed to make beef short rib tomorrow night.

My game plan at this point is to eat leftovers from the night before as breakfast and lunch the next day. Hopefully, I don’t get too sick of any one dish.

 

It is now the end of day 1 and I am feeling pretty chuffed with myself. A week’s worth of meal planning, shopping, and a good amount of food prep under my belt, I feel like I’m off to a good start.

 

Feel free to follow me to watch me unravel and recover multiple times over the next 30 days!

[AlaskaCasey]

Day 2

Doing pretty well.

 

Breakfast: ate a banana with almond butter

Lunch – leftover chicken cacciatore, of course it’s the one day that lunch is late and my team decides to go to SOMA StrEat Food Park where there was a dumpling truck! I absolutely love dumplings, so I was a bit bummed that I couldn’t partake, but I held firm, sat with the team while they ate, and then came back to the office and ate my lunch.

About 20 minutes after eating lunch I had a total crash where I could barely keep my eyes open and really wanted to lie down and take a nap. I drank a cup of Earl Gray tea and the warm liquid seemed to help. It's usually about 3PM in the afternoon when I go down to the work kitchen and nibble on some snacks, but I didn't really feel any cravings to snack. 

Dinner - Short ribs stuffed bell peppers from the Whole30: 30 Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom

Normally I go to yoga and then go straight to work, but the short ribs needed to be seared and put into the crockpot in the morning so I came back and did that.

My husband was a total champ and baked the bell peppers and portabello mushroom caps so that by the time I came home all I needed to do was shred the beef short ribs cut everything up. The recipe calls for this to be an antipasto platter, but I just mixed all the ingredients together and then the idea of trying to stuff the bell peppers seemed like way too much work so we just put them down on the plate and spooned the filling on top, kind of like a taco salad.

Dinner was delish and I felt really good afterwards. I think I slept pretty well. One thing I noticed was that my energy level was pretty consistent up until I went to bed. My husband did complain that he didn't think we were eating enough leafy greens so I made a point to include them in all our meals going forward.

 

[AlaskaCasey]

22 minutes ago, AlaskaCasey said:

 

Day 2

Doing pretty well.

Breakfast: ate a banana with almond butter

Lunch – leftover chicken cacciatore, of course it’s the one day that lunch is late and my team decides to go to SOMA StrEat Food Park where there was a dumpling truck! I absolutely love dumplings, so I was a bit bummed that I couldn’t partake, but I held firm, sat with the team while they ate, and then came back to the office and ate my lunch.

About 20 minutes after eating lunch I had a total crash where I could barely keep my eyes open and really wanted to lie down and take a nap. I drank a cup of Earl Gray tea and the warm liquid seemed to help. I did get a craving for sweets so I made a small cup of raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries and grabbed a wholly guacamole mini cup around 4pm and ate it with a spoon because I hadn't brought any carrot sticks with me and the work fridge was out of them. I know we aren't supposed to snack on the Whole30, but I'm pretty active and don't usually eat dinner until 7PM or 8PM so I think the 3-4PM stretch is a good time for me to eat a snack and make sure I stay on-plan.

Dinner - Short ribs stuffed bell peppers from the Whole30: 30 Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom

Normally I go to yoga and then go straight to work, but the short ribs needed to be seared and put into the crockpot in the morning so I came back and did that.

My husband was a total champ and baked the bell peppers and portabello mushroom caps so that by the time I came home all I needed to do was shred the beef short ribs cut everything up. The recipe calls for this to be an antipasto platter, but I just mixed all the ingredients together and then the idea of trying to stuff the bell peppers seemed like way too much work so we just put them down on the plate and spooned the filling on top, kind of like a taco salad.

Dinner was delish and I felt really good afterwards. I think I slept pretty well. One thing I noticed was that my energy level was pretty consistent up until I went to bed. My husband did complain that he didn't think we were eating enough leafy greens so I made a point to include them in all our meals going forward.