Caitlin's January Whole30 Log

[caitpage]

Using this thread as a log/journal for my Whole30.

Today is day 1, but I want to make a few notes for myself about how I prepared. I signed up for Real Plans last Friday and made a meal list for week one. I chose to import the recipes I wanted to use, mostly from Nom Nom Paleo's website. For breakfasts I plan on eating eggs & veggies, and I will make a salad with chicken for lunches. I stuck to simple dinners so I don't overwhelm myself with complicated recipes. I marked two meals as leftover meals because I'm sure we will have some. On Sunday, my day zero, I got my groceries and since I just bought an Instant Pot and already made beef stew for day 1 dinner and made salsa shredded chicken for my lunch salads. I expect to freeze a few portions of the beef stew tonight and I have frozen butternut squash soup ready to go as well in case I can't cook one night. Main takeaways are - plan a menu, prep what I can for the week, pressure cooking is amazing, and the Real Plans shopping list is worth the subscription.

I'm planning on writing up a daily summary each evening to help me keep track and stay focused. I also signed up for a 5k on March 12th, so I will be starting the Couch to 5k program in the next couple of days and will probably summarize my progress here as well. 

Goals/expectations: 

-Lose weight - for me, at least for now, getting healthy = losing weight (doctor's orders!)

-Fix my sleep schedule - Wake up at 6/7 and get 7-9 hours each night. No snoozing!

-Try to incorporate turmeric and other anti-inflammatory foods!

-I expect week 2 to be the toughest, and then the last few days I will probably think "oh, good enough!"

 

Known Challenges: 

-I will have class on Tuesday nights starting week 2 so I need have meals ready to heat & eat (no cooking).

-I might go to Sacramento for work this month, which means living out of a hotel. Yikes.

-Book club - we usually eat & drink yummy things, so I'll have to eat ahead of time, bring some La Croix, and stay strong. 

-Not weighing myself. If I suspect I am losing weight, it will be tough to stay off the scale. 

 

 

 

[caitpage]

Day 1 - success!

Got up late (last day of vacation and all)... and ate breakfast later than I intended, but no big deal. 

M1- Double espresso (two ese pods), two fried eggs & sautéed spinach (ghee), cup o' steamed veggies, 1/2 avocado w/ hot sauce

M2- Salad with butter lettuce, carrot, cucumber, black olives, green onion & salsa shredded chicken, with Primal Kitchen Ranch-disgusting!!!! (was there any fat in this meal??)

M3- Beef stew (NomNomPaleo's pressure cooker recipe made last night) with potatoes and carrots

I had plenty of water and tea today, and took a melatonin with my vitamins at 9pm, and I'm very sleepy now at 10:30. I wanted to be in bed reading by 9, but Sherlock Holmes...

I ate too much stew and feel uncomfortably full, probably because I didn't need seconds and I ate a late lunch. Other than that, no issues. 

[thehappiest]

So far so good!  For your salad, my favorite dressing is just olive oil and lemon with plenty of salt and pepper.

Sherlock kept me up late too.

[caitpage]

Day 2 - success!

My meals were kind of a bust today, but no real issues. Although, I was cold all day at work (not normal) but everyone agreed it was abnormally cold.

Thank goodness I made my lunch ahead of time and had a dinner recipe ready to go. I tried to make a "paleo" ranch this evening and it was so bad. Let's just agree that ranch NEEDS dairy. End of story!

M1 - Double espresso (two ese pods), two fried eggs & sautéed spinach (ghee), black olives, cup o' steamed veggies, 1/2 avocado w/ hot sauce (this will probably never change)

M2 - Salad with butter lettuce, avocado, carrot, cucumber, black olives, green onion & Primal Kitchen Greek dressing (nope, don't love it) and I ate the salsa chicken separately. 

M3 - NomNomPaleo's Lemon Garlic Chicken packets. Meh... I should not have poured the marinade on the veggies... marinate chicken longer next time.

I used to make a standard salad dressing just like yours, thehappiest! Olive oil + lemon + salt + pepper, add oregano for greek! I need to just stop trying these bottled dressings. What a waste. The greek one might be good for marinating, but it's too strong for just a salad. The salsa chicken I hate too. Clearly I need to stack week 2 with tried and true recipes!!! Can't wait to eat beef stew leftovers tomorrow.

I drank a lot of water today and should be in bed by 10. Yay for me. 

Cranky much?

 

[caitpage]

Day 3 - success! (too lazy to post last night)

Today was roughhhhh. I ran out of espresso pods, so instead of 4 oz of espresso I had tea. Not quite the same. By mid morning I had a headache and I thought it was from the lack of caffeine, but when it had only gotten worse by 1pm I knew it was the "carb flu" right on time. I was miserable. I didn't have any medicine and I was stuck at work so I just kept drinking water and thinking about bed. When I got home I took some excedrin and went to bed right after dinner. Thankfully I planned to have leftovers because there was no way I was going to cook. 

M1- tea, two fried eggs & sautéed spinach (ghee), cup o' steamed veggies, 1/2 avocado 

M2- Salad with butter lettuce, avocado, carrot, cucumber, black olives, green onion & Primal Kitchen Greek dressing and salsa chicken

M3- Leftover beef stew from Monday's meal

 

[caitpage]

Day 4 - success!

Slept in today and considered skipping breakfast...but I didn't! I don't normally eat breakfast, so it's been a struggle to add an extra 15 minutes to my morning routine for this, but I know it's worth it. I'm full until a late lunch time instead of being famished by 10am and running out for a coffee and pastry. Headache from yesterday is gone, but I still felt "blah" all day. Didn't bother making lunch, so I went to Whole Foods for lunch and made a salad from the salad bar and used lemon juice and olive oil as a dressing. It was fine, but I'm looking forward to my OG salads that I'll make next week. 

M1 - two eggs pan fried in ghee, steamed veggies (poured olive oil on them for more fat)

snack - handful of green olives from the WF olive bar (meant to eat at breakfast, but forgot) 

M2 - WF salad bar with lettuce, red cabbage, cucumber, kalamata olives, green onions, lemon juice & olive oil, oh and a handful of diced chicken

M3- Nomnom's "cracklin chicken" aka thighs cooked in ghee and roasted brussels sprouts. I use Ina Garten's recipe - tossed in oil and heavily salted. I pour lemon juice over them when they are done. Non-whole 30 I add cut up bacon and it's amazing. It's a solid B+ veggie without the bacon

Off to bed at 8:45 to read... hoping tomorrow I will have a bit more energy.

 

[caitpage]

Day 5 success! 

I feel gross though - digestive issues since about 4pm today. I don't think it was anything I ate, so who knows. I drank some peppermint tea and took it easy tonight even though we'd planned to go see a movie.

M1 - Three scrambled eggs with 2 handfuls of peppers & onions cooked in ghee. Yeah yeah, too light on veggies. I was planning on going to the store Wednesday to get some more veggies and avocados for the last half of the week, but that headache stopped all plans. I actually looked in the fridge this morning and thought "well I guess I'm skipping breakfast" but that seemed ridiculous so I did what I could.

M2 - Beef stew leftovers, but a pretty small portion. I was hungry by 5pm and started on dinner as soon as I got home. I'm trying to really follow the program/meal template and not snack.

M3 - STEAK (rib eye), 1/2 sweet potato (instant pot steamed, with ghee, cinnamon & nutmeg), asparagus (roasted in EVOO S&P). I've been waiting for this meal all week. Notes - white flesh sweet potatoes are not nearly as good as "yams" 

Made a week 2 menu with Real Plans and week 1 knowledge - I know week 2 is going to be hard so I need to be extra prepared and only put meals I know I love on the menu. I need to prep lunches for all 5 days and cook up some emergency snacks like hard boiled eggs and almond butter/veggies. I will also make some sort of stew and freeze it all in 1 meal portions in case I don't want to cook one night. 

Was starved for dinner and now feel full. Sipping on herbal tea the rest of the night. 

[caitpage]

Day 6 - Success!  Went grocery shopping then saw a movie. Our movie theater is the super nice kind with waiters and full menus and cocktails. I ordered a hot green tea and brought my own seaweed snacks, larabar, and pistachios for snacks. 

M1 - Three scrambled eggs with 2 handfuls of peppers & onions cooked in ghee. Before the grocery shopping, so still low on veggies.

M2 - Big green salad with a mix of veggies and diced chicken (whole foods salad bar) - I made the lemon/oil dressing at home and added 1/2 an avocado

snack - lemon larabar, a few pistachios, seaweed (wasabi flavored) 

M3 - Beef chili from My Heart Beets - lots of veggies in it, but too spicy so I added 1/2 an avocado to tame the heat

Today was the first day I felt more energetic and alert, but I kind of regret all the snacking at the theater, but hey... it was all compliant! 

[caitpage]

Day 7 

I slept in UNTIL 1PM!!! So I obviously skipped breakfast. I got up at 7 and thought I would snooze a little more since it's Sunday and my only plans were laundry and cooking... haha. The good news is: my espresso pods came in the mail today!!! YAY!!!!!!

M1 - skipped

M2 - Big green salad w/ cucumber, carrots, black olives, chicken. Made the chicken in the instant pot, using my citrus vinagrette as a dressing. Made three salads for M-W lunches.

M3 - NomNomPaleo mexican beef with veggies. Meh. 

Feeling kind of bored with the flavors in these bloggers' recipes. I need to find real recipes from real chefs who know what they are doing. Meals for week 2 are already chosen, some from PaleOMG and My Heart Beets, so hopefully that will mix things up enough. 

[caitpage]

Day 8 (forgot to post last night)

Bad habits creeping back in... I slept in way too late and woke in a panic and rushed to get ready for work. It doesn't really matter what time I get in to work, but there's a limit! I didn't have time to cook so I skipped breakfast. UGH! Grabbed the rest of my pistachios from the movie snacks I had and ate those at work with my espresso. I was hungry all day, but managed to just eat my salad as planned and some leftovers for dinner. 

M1 - skipped/ small handful of pistachios

M2 - Big green salad w/ cucumber, carrots, black olives, sliced almonds, chicken. Citrus vinagrette as a dressing. 

M3 - Chili leftovers (my heart beets) + 1 avocado (to cut down on the spicy!

Need to get back on track and eat some breakfast. Probably need to make some egg muffins or something I can grab and eat, for days like this. Tuesday night (day 9) will be a challenge because I have class from 5:30-8:30, which means I either bring dinner or eat at 8:45...

OH! My biggest victory of the day was at the doc's office and I looked away from the scale when the nurse weighed me, so I have no idea what it said. So glad I was able to resist!

[caitpage]

Day 9 (again posting a day late, today is day 10)

Successful morning. I had a 7am conference call, so I was up for that, then made a yummy breakfast and headed into work. No issues with my drinks (water & tea) and salad for lunch. I ate lunch as late as I could stand it (about 1pm) because I had class last night from 5:30-8:30, although we got out early so I was eating dinner right about 8:15 when I got home. My stomach was grumbling at around 7pm, which is normally when I like to eat, so next week I'll have to pack a small protein/carb/fat snack for class. Glad I wasn't tempted by the vending machines! 

M1- Three eggs cooked in ghee along with a bunch of baby spinach, onions, and bell peppers.

M2-  Big green salad w/ cucumber, carrots, black olives, sliced almonds, chicken. Citrus vinagrette as a dressing.

M3- Chili leftovers (my heart beets) + 1/2 avocado 

I felt noticeably "empty" today, but in a good way... like my body wasn't constantly trying to process junk. I read someone else's post about how she liked the feeling of her body processing food as fuel instead of junk. 

[caitpage]

Day 10

GUESS WHAT I SKIPPED BREAKFAST AGAIN!! Ahhhhh I'm so annoyed. Need to make a frittata or something that I can grab and go. Otherwise, I'm doing alright. Days 10-11 are supposed to be the hardest but I still haven't had any major cravings, carb dreams, or other issues. It's just a mindset I think. I don't dwell on what I can't eat, I just focus on meeting the template every meal and not snacking. It's a bit sad to have to drink my espresso without any sugar... I do miss that one sweet part of my day.

M1 - skipped

M2 - Big green salad w/ cucumber, carrots, black olives, sliced almonds, chicken. Citrus vinagrette as a dressing. (my last pre-made one, going to take leftovers tomorrow and Friday I think)

M3 - White Chicken Chili (my heart beets) with 1/2 avocado and a strawberry kombucha - chili was ok, but just made me crave a chicken tortilla soup (minus the tortilla) so I found my old recipe (it's compliant) and I'll be making that asap. 

I'm making an excel chart tracking my days and how "well" I did... days like today where I skip a meal or don't follow the meal template are yellow, green is obviously good, and red is if I eat something non-compliant aka ending my whole 30. I like to visualize my progress!

Day 10 is exciting because it's 1/3 of the way there! No sweat!  

 

[caitpage]

[caitpage]

Day 11 

Had a rough morning. Spilled my espresso all over one of the white cloth dining chairs and ran late because of that. Chair is ruined and I had no caffeine. 

M1- three eggs, spinach (ghee)

M2- Big green salad w/ cucumber, carrots, black olives, sliced almonds, with citrus vinaigrette as a dressing. Had a cup or so of the chicken chili that is mostly chicken. 

M3- YUMMY Paleomg's fajitas over sweet potatos. I imported the recipe from her website and wow it was awesome. The beef was soooooo good. I ate the sweet potato on the side with ghee and cinnamon, but oh man. Cannot wait to eat the rest of the beef and veggies for lunch tomorrow. Might be the first meal in 11 days I have really loved. 

[caitpage]

Day 12 

Had a lot of energy this morning! I stupidly made a 7am dentist appointment (I normally wake UP at 7!), and I popped up right when my alarm went off at 5:30am. Didn't feel like I needed caffeine before I left! I went back home after the appt and made breakfast. Normally I would have skipped, but I'm really trying to prioritize eating three compliant meals. 

M1 - Three eggs & spinach all cooked in ghee, 2 cups steamed veggies. I get the broccoli/cauliflower/carrot mix in a bag and finally steamed some up last night. 

M2 - Leftover fajita beef and peppers/onions, and ~ 1 big cup of steamed veggies

Snack - handful of pistachios (see below on why)

M3 - (small portion) Kalua pig & cabbage - Nom Nom Paleo's instant pot recipe. HUGE FAIL, FRIENDS. I normally make her Kalua pig in the crockpot and it's amazing, but the instant pot recipe was way off. The pork was still way under cooked after the 90 minutes (put it back in for 15 more - not done, then 20 more - it's now 10pm and the pork isn't ready!!! UGH!! I took the pork out at 90 minutes to try and shred it, and cooked the cabbage in the instant pot for 4 min (as directed) and they came out slimy and almost dissolved. Put the pork back in and ate a small bowl of the pork that fell off the edges of the roast and the almost-liquid cabbage at 9:30 because I was so hungry. I swear to god this woman writes her instructions so differently than what she must actually do in the photos she posts. Third fail in two weeks from her recipes. I'm breaking up with her and her recipes for a while.

Anyhoo- I sat down and made my week three menu through Real Plans and put three AWESOME recipes I know I love in the mix. Can't wait. Also going to make frittatas and quiches for breakfasts to help me avoid skipping breakfast. 

OH! And I started couch to 5k today. It was awful, but I completed week 1 day 1. 

Setting my alarm so I don't sleep the day away again like last weekend. Heading to Whole Foods with my RP shopping list first thing. 

[caitpage]

Day 13 

Rough day for reasons unrelated to the Whole30. Went to Whole Foods with my shopping list, but I think I will print it out next time. Too annoying to have to grab my phone, unlock it, and search for the next item on the list. I was there for almost 1.5 hours. I want to get that down to 30 minutes in and out. Oh and they didn't have asparagus so I have to go to another store later in the week too. 

M1 - Three fried eggs in ghee, heaping piles of spinach that cooked down to about two cups & a handful of black olives

M2 - skipped.

M3 - Leftover chili (my heart beets) from the freezer. Glad I froze individual servings. I also ate a handful of kalamata olives. 

Exercise - 45 min walk in my neighborhood (BF got my bike ready to go too, so I can start riding that on days I'm not doing couch to 5k)

[caitpage]

Day 14 

Slept in and had "brunch" and I don't feel bad about it. Lazy day at home for the most part...no issues. I loved all the food I ate today, which is a first!! I also had fruit, which I rarely eat. I've just never been a huge fruit person, so this was a lot of fruit to me! According to the pic I saw, days 14 & 15 are energy and craving days, so maybe I was craving a little sweetness? 

M1 - Zucchini mushroom quiche (real plans) with sweet potato crust + 1/2 a pear - one of those fancy round asian ones - yum!

M2 - --

M3 - Chicken tortilla soup (obviously no tortillas) + 1/2 avocado- one of my fave recipes from years ago. Yum yum yum! 

Dessert - pink lady apple - yum!

Exercise - Couch to 5k Week1Day2 (not as bad as day one!)

Got a headache around dinner time so I took some excedrin... hoping it's gone by the morning. 

[KDiDom]

Hi Caitpage!  Thanks for posting where you got your recipes from!!  I can't wait to try some of these!! 

[caitpage]

Day 15 (a day late)

I had the day off for MLK day, so it was basically a repeat of day 14. Slept in, had brunch, ate chicken tortilla soup. 

M1 - three eggs & sweet potato hash (shredded sweet potatoes) all cooked in ghee

M2 - --

M3 - Chicken tortilla soup (paleo comfort foods) leftovers. Love this soup SO much I could eat it every day. So much easier to make in the instant pot too. I just sauteed the onions, added the garlic and peppers for a minute then added every other ingredient and did soup setting for 12 minutes, which was probably too much because my (huge) chicken breasts came out a bit dry. I shredded the chicken in the soup when it was done. Topped with 1/2 avocado. 

Dessert - pink lady apple

[caitpage]

Day 16 

Three day streak for skipping breakfast. Ugh! The frittata I made on Sunday looked absolutely disgusting this morning so I tossed it out and grabbed a kombucha instead. Oops. Naturally, I was starved by 11am so I went to Whole Foods and got a salad with chicken from the salad bar. Tuesday means class night, so I didn't end up eating dinner until about 9:30pm. That's too late... I need to bring a dinner or at least have one ready to go as SOON as I get home from class. 

M1 - --

M2 - Big ass salad with lots of veggies, olives, and chicken. Topped with olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, s&p. Probably needed more fat, should have grabbed an avocado too. 

M3 - Chicken tortilla soup leftovers (frozen so it took a while to defrost and actually eat!) + 1/2 avocado

Dessert - pink lady apple

Exercise - couch to 5k week 1, day 3 (my run average was 8min per mile, where as day 1 my run average was 14min per mile!) **5k on March 12th** UGH I hate running so much why did I agree to this!!!!!!

[caitpage]

Day 17... yessssss I was thinking it was day 16 all day! Hooray! 

I can feel myself slipping... I gave up on my menu and have just been eating leftover soup for dinner and not packing my lunches (which means an expensive trip to the Whole Foods salad bar) and obviously skipping breakfast... I still have two weeks from today! Two whole weeks! I made a salad for lunch tomorrow and WILL eat breakfast. 

M1- --

M2 - Chicken thighs, brussels sprouts, coleslaw - all from the paleo hot bar at Whole Foods 

M3 - Soup + 1 avocado (I also had about 10 pistachios while waiting for the soup to heat up)

I *almost* weighed myself today. I mean I spent a good 3 minutes debating the pros and cons. The cons won out. This time. 

[GoJo09]

6 minutes ago, caitpage said:

I *almost* weighed myself today. I mean I spent a good 3 minutes debating the pros and cons. The cons won out. This time. 

What exactly were your pros? 

[caitpage]

To know that giving up cheese and wine are worth it! LOL!

[caitpage]

Day 18

I DID eat breakfast yaaaaay! Meat I was going to use for dinner went bad (took it out of the freezer last week and forgot about it in the fridge). Went to Whole Foods for a salad and was smart enough to make two (one for lunch tomorrow). I also found a compliant salad dressing in a bottle that I don't hate. Just a balsamic vinaigrette, but I was needing a change from my standard lemon vinaigrette. 

M1 - two eggs in ghee (oops no veggies!)

M2 - Standard salad with two eggs instead of chicken. 

M3 - WF salad bar with chicken + 1/2 avocado + dressing (compliant)

Dessert - last of the pink lady apples 

Exercise: week 2 day 1 of couch to 5k.... not too bad! 5k is on 12 March... thinking of doing a whole 25 from 15 feb to 11 Mar to help with this...small break for a ski trip and Vday, then back at it. If I commit now I know I will stick with it rather than wait until 14 Feb to decide (whilst drunk on chocolate). 

I got a bit more of a pep in my step compared to the last few days of sluggishness. Oh, and I made a compromise that instead of cheating and looking on the scale I measured my waist - a whole 2.5 inches less than day 1! That's all the motivation I need to keep going  Even if the scale isn't a huge change, at least I know I'm heading in the right direction. Jeans felt a little looser today too - ones that were too uncomfortable to wear to work on day 7 felt ok this morning so I wore them all day! 

I want to make a note of the vitamins I've been taking because I have a horrible memory and might want to see this later:

• Vitman D
• Probiotic (primal brand)
• Omega/fish oil (primal brand)
• Biotin 
• Chelated Magnesium
• Melatonin (most week nights) 
• Primal Calm - just started this tonight
• NOT TAKING REGULARLY: B-12 sublingual drops.... bloodwork shows my B & D are low, but it's just so annoying to spend two minutes taking this stuff... but I should.

[caitpage]

Day 19 

Skipped breakfast and just drank an espresso (or three) instead. Clearly I'm not doing this right, but there's room for improvement next time.

M1 - --

M2 - WF salad bar with chicken + 1/2 avocado + dressing (compliant)

M3 - Chipotle Chicken & Green Beans (myheartbeets) OMG OMG OMG I totally forgot about this recipe and it's the bessssssst. If anyone reads this, just make it http://myheartbeets.com/chipotle-chicken-green-beans/ (use fresh beans, dry off the chicken before you put it in so it doesn't get too liquidy)

Just finished my Real Plans menu that I am actually going to follow next week! I didn't put my menu on the fridge last week and so of course out of sight out of mind. I wasted some good food. I made sure to put all the good recipes I know I like so I will at least be happy with the food I eat. 

Also trying to commit to a Whole39 since I have no reason to stop until I go on vacation... It's only day 19 though so maybe I should chill and try to get to day 31 before getting all high and mighty about extending...