2013 Whole30 - started in December

[GLC1968]

I started my second official Whole30 on December 29th. I returned from vacation on the 27th, gave myself a day to shop and I started officially on Saturday morning.

What I hadn't counted on was starting on the tail end of a stomach bug...ick! I thought I was feeling icky on Thursday night because I had been eating fairly off-track for a week and figured it had caught up to me. Wrong. I caught the bug that went around my whole office and even though I probably had good reason to put off my start date, I stuck to my commitment to myself. Of course, I'd already signed up for the Whole30 daily, so there was that incentive, too.

Anyway, day 1 and day 2 were a little odd due to an over-active digestive system. I think all the lovely vitamins and things I consumed were wasted as everything was making a speedy exit, but at least I was starting to feel better.

Today - day 3, my digestive system is MUCH better. Unfortunately, a wicked headache has settled in too, so that's fun.

Anyway, I have been keeping a list of my food (no amounts) and I'll update this post with what I have so far including a few observations. Lastly, the attached photo is what $350 worth of Whole30 compliant food looks like from Costco!

Let the healing begin!! (and yay for 2013!!)

[Callan]

So jealous of that shopping trip! You've totally got this - I'm looking forward to seeing your progress over the next month!

[GLC1968]

Day 1 - Happy to get started!

B: eggs w/ mushrooms and onions, bacon, black coffee

L: grass-fed burger patty on mixed greens with grape tomatoes, guacamole as 'dressing'

D: sausage w/ cabbage 'noodles'

S: clementines, sweet potato chews and pecans

Today was a little tough as my stomach was still not back to normal and I couldn't really tell hunger from upset-ness (hence the fruit and nut snacks). I weighed in and took photos, too. I haven't been on a scale since the end of my first Whole30 last summer, so it was kind of nervous about it. I knew about what I'd weigh based on how my clothes were fitting and I was pretty much spot on. As much as I don't like the actual number, I'm pleased that my 'instincts' were correct. That knowledge will set me up for a future free from the scale!

Mood-wise, I was pretty bleh all day. I know it's from coming off being sick though, so I'm not worried.

Day 2 - Grieving for the Sugar!

B: eggs with spinach and onions topped with avocado, blueberries/strawberries, bacon (see photo)

L: Salad - grilled chicken breast, avocado, hard boiled egg, tomatoes, various greens and olive oil and vinegar, 4 chicken wings, iced tea

D: marinated flank steak, roasted butternut squash, broccoli with olive oil and seasonings

S: handful of pecans, clementine

Today we were working on our house (replacing the flooring) and had to make two trips to Lowes/HD. I found myself frowning as we passed all the soda and candy displays. I felt sorry for myself because I knew I couldn't buy any of it. How pathetic! I did have the awareness to look forward to the day where I no longer crave these things (I've been there before!). Physically, I felt fine all day.

[GLC1968]

Day 3 - Ugh.

B: breakfast squash (sausage and egg baked into a half acorn squash), black coffee

L: sausage and cabbage 'noodles', banana, more black coffee

D: flank steak, roasted butternut squash, broccoli, apple with almond butter

S: one medjool date stuffed with walnut pieces

Today was a LONG day. I worked from 7 am to 7 pm and had zero breaks. I'm so incredibly thankful that I had that date/walnut in my bag or I would have been a raving bear by the time I got to home home! I also had a headache pretty much all day and only had time to do something about it in the late afternoon (take some Excedrin). Up until then, I was pretty miserable. I came home to find out that my husband (also doing this Whole30 with me) was feeling pretty much the same way.

I'm feeling surprisingly strong today though (strong will/commitment...not physical strength). Tomorrow starts my first formal exercise since starting this Whole30, so we'll see how that goes.

Tonight I have plans to prep some food - czech meatballs, chicken wings, etc but I may put it off until tomorrow and get in a little bit of relaxation this evening.

[GLC1968]

Day 4: Sleepy!

B: eggs with turkey sausage and mushrooms, berries, black coffee, roasted sweet potatoes

L: sausage with cabbage 'noodles', berries

D: salmon, mixed greens salad, baked sweet potato with clarified butter.

S: clementines, pecans

Today was rough. I felt very down all day, but I'm not sure if it's related to things going on in my life, or to my change in diet. Anyway, I was also very sleepy for quite a bit today and that's unusual since I had a really good night's sleep last night.

Looking forward to day 5! Happy New Year everyone!!

[Derval]

Happy new Year , hope tomorrow is a cheerier day

[GLC1968]

Hi Derval! Happy New Year to you, too!

Day 5: Crazy headache-laden day!

B: Czech meatballs, blueberries, sweet potato chews, black coffee

L: apple, raw mixed nuts, 2 meatballs

D: pork carnitas salad from Chipotle

Today was absolutely nuts at work. I took a real lunch with me but had zero time to eat it. Luckily, I'd tossed two of my breakfast meatballs in my lunch bag, so at least I had those to grab. I also had a headache all day that was obviously aggravated by the lack of food. Even excedrin didn't help. What is odd is that I'm pretty sure I didn't have headache issues until week two during my last Whole30. Anyway, I'm still feeling focused and motivated.

I'm really enjoying the Whole30 Daily emails. I didn't expect them to be so full of information, but they are great reading and I can just imagine how helpful they'll be as this month progresses.

[Special K]

GLC,

great posts! I'll be following you. Today was my first day and reading all of your meals is making me VERY hungry!!! I didn't eat enough on my first day because I ddin't have a chance to prep properly. Tomorrow will be devoted to meal planning and EATING!

Hope you are feeling better.

onward!

[GLC1968]

Hi K! Thanks for stopping by...do you have a log going now? I'll have to look around.

Day 6: Headache gone! Yay!

B: chicken apple sausage, roasted sweet potato, banana, black coffee

L: salmon, mixed veggies drizzled with olive oil, apple with almond butter

D: veggie/beef chili, pecans, roasted butternut squash

S: banana, dried apples

Oh what a relief it is to not have a headache all day today. I mean, it was a crazy day at work and under normal circumstances I might have had a headache anyway, but after the past two days, it was a huge relief to be mostly free of pain!

My husband and I did a run to TJ's after work. I went armed with a list I printed off of a post here ages ago and found most of the recommended items (and a few more) that were compliant. I think the best find was a few different spicy sausages that are compliant as my husband needed lunch items and loves the spicy stuff! Then I got home and baked a bunch of chicken wings (I drizzle them with my US Wellness bacon drippings and then season them with BBQ3000 from Penzy's and bake until crispy). I can't wait to eat them for lunch today!

One of my big motivators for doing another Whole30 was that I missed my sleep. When I did my first Whole30, I was shocked to all of a sudden be sleeping like the dead. I've always been a light sleeper and with three dogs and a cat in the house, that meant being perpetually sleep deprived.

I didn't expect it to happen so soon, but last night, I slept like the dead again. Once I was able to full awake (I had to get up extra early for work), I am amazed at how alert I feel. AWESOME!!

[Derval]

Sounds like it's all coming up roses

Those chicken wings sound yum.

[ladunn]

Your meals look awesome! I'm laughing to myself reading your descriptions of how you felt- with the headaches and all...sounds like we are having a similar experience with this. I'm looking forward to looking back after 30 days....and to keep this as a reminder that I don't want to eat crap again and go through all these headaches and what not.

Great job sticking it out!!!

[GLC1968]

Hi Derval and Ladunn!

The loveliness of day 7 has vanished. It's day 10 and my head is throbbing again. Ugh.

Days 7, 8, 9: Come on, magic!!

Seriously. Day 7 was nice, but days 8 and 9 were rough and today is not shaping up to be much better. I'm going to document this all here so that (like Ladunn), come day 30, I'll remember what I went through.

First of all, I've been a big huge mope. I don't know what it is, but I cannot shake this depression-like state that I'm in. I've never had issues with real depression, so I know it's a phase, but it sucks. I just feel like I'm always frowning and I really have to work hard to keep myself doing the things I need to do and not just vegging out in my house, curling up into a ball and crying. It's insane.

Secondly, my lower back hurts. This goes back years (literally) where I all of a sudden started having sharp lower back pain that would 'move', come and go and occasionally was fairly debilitating. Two years ago, I had a violent and scary bout of diarrhea while on vacation. It only lasted about 12 hours, so I didn't give it much though until I googled the symptoms. Bad idea. Anyway, a month after that trip, I went paleo and it initially helped with the pain so I kind of forgot about it. When I spent almost two weeks in FL with my parents eating decidedly un-paleo things, I thought for sure it would be worse. Oddly enough, it wasn't. It was actually better. But now, 10 days into my Whole30 and I'm miserable again. I have an appointment with a doctor tomorrow morning, so hopefully she'll be able to shed some light on this. I have my theories, but I don't like them. I'm hoping hers are less scary!

Thirdly - headaches. Again. I'm getting really tired of this (literally, as it woke me up this morning!).

On the good side of things, I've been 100% compliant and I'm pretty proud of that considering how crappy I feel. My inner fat girl is whining up something awful but I've managed to ignore her begging so far. She keeps insisting that since I've been good for a week, 8 days, 9 days, etc...that I deserve a 'treat'. Liar liar pants on fire...

This morning I created a surprisingly delicious breakfast and I find myself wondering if I can swing a run home at lunch to eat it again! It was so simple and when I cooked it, I honestly had to force myself to take the first bite because I was sure it was going to be blah. It wasn't! All I did was melt a little left over bacon fat in a pan, threw in two huge handfuls of a mix I bought at TJ's that is called something like "healthy 8" where it is diced broccoli, carrots, green cabbage, purple cabbage, jicama, green pepper, radishes and one more item that I can't remember. I sauteed that for a bit and then moved it to the sides of the pan and browned slices of chicken-apple sausage in the middle. Then I dumped the whole mess onto a plate and gobbled it up. I didn't even season it at all and it was YUM! Weird, huh? I guess it doesn't take much to get me excited about food.

I'm not going to continue to record my food because it's starting to make me want to rebel and I refuse to get into that mindset again. I'll occasionally record a day here and there but I'm confident that I can remain compliant without it.

Lastly, there is one piece to my Whole30 plans that I forgot to mention earlier. My goal is to stay on Whole30 until my first triathlon this year (May 11). The goal is to convince myself that I CAN do this for more than 30 days. The only exception will be my birthday where I will allow one serving of some type of grain-free desert. But just ONE...so I'll likely be inviting friends over so that whatever I make has no leftovers! That is in early Feb (after my initial 30 is over). I will NOT allow it to derail me though.

[GLC1968]

Wow, I need to post more consistently if for no other reason than if I don't, I have to search back 7 pages to find my log! It's great that so many people are doing Whole30's this month!!

OK. What day am I on? Oy. According to my Whole30 Daily, today is day 12.

Yesterday we were down to one car and wouldn't you know it, both my husband and I had appointments downtown. So what did we do? Carpooled! First we went to my doctor appointment where I spent an hour with a new internist who is a huge advocate of holistic health and her lobby was filled with books about celiac disease and the link between gut health and brain function. She knew of the paleo diet but had not heard of the Whole30, so of course, I referred her to ISWF. When I told her what I ate, she was impressed. Gotta love that! She ordered blood work for me and asked if there was anything I wanted to know. I mentioned that I hadn't had my cholesterol checked in over a year, so she added that to the order. I'll have to get that taken care of sometime next week.

After my doc appointment, I had to wait for my husband to finish his meeting, so I found a Starbucks and sipped an americano until he was done. Then we went to one of our favorite restaurants - it's called Dick's Kitchen and Dick is paleo so there is a lot of compliant stuff on his menu. The restaurant is basically a burger joint with a twist - all the fries are air-baked, not fried. All the burgers are grass-fed and some are pretty unique (like the Dork burger - half duck half pork). They make all their own dressings and condiments (their chipotle ketchup is to die for...but sadly, not whole30 compliant). They had a book full of the recipes for each of their items, so I was able to check out the dressings and ketchup. They didn't use bad oils (yay!), but they did use honey and tamari in a few things. Anyway, I had their thai burger bowl without the dressing and I had oil and vinegar instead and a few of their yam 'not fries'. Delicious!

Then I got to work for the afternoon and found out a few hours later that my boss needed to send me to our Texas site to help support a new system roll out there. I literally went home, packed my bags, and then hopped on a plane the next morning. So today I'm in Texas and doing everything in my power to remain 100% compliant while on the road. The first day went well. Breakfast was at home, lunch was in an airport where I bought a veggie cup full of bite sized veggies (grape tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, celery) and a hard boiled egg. I tossed out the ranch dressing, of course. That was my first ever hard-boiled egg and it wasn't half bad. I kind of gagged a little on the yolk texture, but I got past it enough to eat it. Then I had a banana and a cup of coffee. I did snack on water and some raw cashews on the airplane but I didn't over do it.

I was a little worried about dinner but as luck would have it, there is a Chipotle a block away from my hotel. I just finished a carnitas salad topped with guacamole and I'm feeling awfully virtuous this evening!

There is a restaurant in the hotel and I have free breakfast coupons, so I'll make due with whatever they can provide. Lunch will likely be a salad somewhere and then I'm going to hit the local Whole Foods for a few hotel room supplies. I will make this work!

This is actually good training because come February, there will be a lot of travel in my plans and I expect to still be Whole30 then, too.

[GLC1968]

Day 14: Yay!! I'm feeling SOOOO much better - I think I'm on the verge of 'magic' and if I weren't on the road, working long hours, sleeping in a hotel, two hours off on time zone and making due with what I can eat, I'd be feeling pretty fantastic right now.

Yesterday turned out OK. For breakfast I had a scramble with all the veggies they had an a little bacon. I'm sure the bacon wasn't compliant, but I used so little (just for flavor) that I'm not concerned. Then I had some melon and berries on the side and a cup of black coffee.

For lunch, I went with some coworkers to a deli and they chose it because it had a good salad bar (my request). The veggies were great but it was sorely lacking in protein. The only option was hard boiled eggs, so I ate three of them. By dinner time (which was late since we worked late) I was ravenous. I had a banana in my bag, so I ate that to hold me over while I ran to Whole Foods. I bought a few things, but it was the smallest and most poorly stocked Whole Foods I've ever seen! The produce was oK though so I bought an avocado and some berries. Then I went back to the hotel and ended up having lemon pepper chicken and steamed broccoli in the restaurant. It was oK....just really salty. The broccoli was clearly just steamed but there is no telling what the lemon pepper seasoning had in it. At least it was just grilled and I left the sauce on the place (of course).

Today I took half of one of those avocados with me to breakfast (I dumped it in a coffee cup to carry down there!) and put it on top of my eggs. I had no bacon this time, but figured that the avocado would help hold me over a little longer this time.

I don't know what is on the plan for breakfast or dinner, but I'll make the best of it, of course!

I had a dream last night where someone was making what I thought was big fat apple slices on a grill. They looked beautiful, so I asked for one but when she gave it to me, I could see it was breaded so I had to give it back. I felt soooo rude because she had told me that she'd made it specially for me! I woke up feeling guilty for it but happy that even in my dream, I stuck to my guns. Funny, huh?

[GLC1968]

I've been remiss about posting. Let me try to backtrack a bit here.

Day 14 turned out odd. I ended up not being hungry at all at lunch. I don't get it. I skipped it, had a small handful of raw almonds in the afternoon and an apple and was perfectly happy to wait for dinner. Weird. Anyway, for dinner I hit Chipotle again as I really wasn't in the mood to think about other options in the area and I was not impressed with my last dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Day 15 was a day on the road. For breakfast I had a banana with almond butter because that's all I had in the room and I had to leave for the airport before anything else was open. Oh, and I had black coffee, too. My flight would land at noon, so I figured that would hold me until I could get a real lunch. (It hadn't yet occurred to me that noon was 2 pm by my stomach's clock since I was travelling west. Oops). So, after I was at the gate awaiting my flight, they announced that our plane got diverted because of fog and we were now looking at a 2 hour delay. I knew I'd need to eat. So I combed the entire terminal and found very little that would work. While I like that most quick grab places have salads and fresh fruit now, why must all their salads be topped with cheese and why does everyone have only bananas for fruit?? What is up with that??

My best option was to order a breakfast sandwich from Au Bon Pain without the bread. I figured they were my best choice because at least they had some veggies I could choose from. I asked for a two egg with bacon breakfast sandwich with no cheese and no bread. Then I asked for spinach and avocado to be added to it. What I got was three round egg white patties in a little bowl. There was no avocado, so I asked to have it added. When I got to where I was going to eat it, I realized that they weren't just egg whites...they were also topped with melted cheese. And, there was no spinach or no bacon. Lovely. I scraped off the cheese, ate a couple of bites of the worst egg white I'd ever tasted and then finished off the avocado. Luckily, I'd also grabbed an apple, so I ate that too. Ugh. My stomach flipped and flopped for hours after that!

I finally got home around 3 pm (which was 5 pm by my stomach!) and I was pretty miserable. I don't know if my 'kill all things' mood was from my transition to Whole30 or just a frustrating travel day and hunger. Talk about 'hangry'!! When I got home, I tossed about two cups of diced veggies into a skillet and then added some chicken apple sausage. I felt better after I ate.

For dinner, I had a delicious steak and a big pile of roasted veggies. YUM!

Honestly, I was so glad when day 15 was done. It was a miserable day.

Day 16: We were up early to head out but we took time to scramble up some veggies and eggs for breakfast. Then we spent the morning at our old house painting. For lunch, we had the new salads off the 'hidden menu' at Panera and they were OK. Not something I'd crave, but it was a good option. We have zero food in our old house now, so it was our best bet. What we should have done was packed ourselves a lunch, but our fridge at home was fairly bare anyway. We hit a local specialty grocery (like Whole Foods) on the way back to our new house.

I spent the afternoon cooking. I made the citrus carnitas from Well Fed, I made mayo (and according to my picky husband...FINALLY got it right!), I hard boiled some eggs and I made a chili-lime marinade from Nom Nom Paleo that is currently doing it's magic on some chicken wings that we'll grill up for dinner today. I also did a run to the regular grocery store to pick up some other items for more pre-cooking for the week.

THEN....for whatever reason, I was up at 2:30 - 4:30am last night in severe stomach distress. I have no idea why! I hope it wasn't the carnitas. I'm thinking not since my husband ate more than I did and had no problem. Anyway, I'm still not ready to eat breakfast today, so hopefully my stomach will return to normal soon!

[GLC1968]

Day 17: Home is GOOD.

It's nice to be doing Whole30 from home. I'm really appreciating our plethora of delicious choices in our fridge right now! I guess a few days of travel makes one appreciate home. Anyway, today went as well as can be expected after the odd stomach upset last night. I ate a later breakfast since I was working from home in the morning (around 9 am) and that went down well (eggs with veggies and sausage). Then I had a quick lunch before heading into the office of more carnitas. An hour later, my stomach was upset again (though not as bad as last night). I guess this batch of carnitas isn't agreeing with me. My husband loves it though, so he can finish it I suppose. Bummer...because it's delicious!!

I ran to my CF box after work to get a bod pod test done. My weight was down quite a bit from the start of this Whole30 (like 9 lbs already!!), so I mentioned something about it to one of the coaches. She said it was about 5 lbs light for her, so that makes more sense. There is no way I'm down 9 lbs in two weeks. My BF was about 3-4 % pts higher than I would have guessed, but I forgot that I spent half a year non-weight bearing on one leg and saw quite a bit of atrophy. My LBM is about 5 lbs lower than it should be for my current weight, so that would explain the higher %. I've got some work to do! (I'm OK with that...I know I'm on the right track again, FINALLY).

Dinner was big salads and the chili lime wings that were marinating. Unfortunately, the wings took FOREVER to cook because they were still partially frozen. Next time, I'll defrost them completely and THEN marinate them. I loved them, but my H said they were only OK. He's not a big fan of subtle tastes (prefers super spicy or lots of heat), so I'm not all that surprised. That's ok, he can eat the carnitas and I'll eat the wings. Even steven! ;-)

Went to bed at 9 pm and fell asleep immediately. I was tired!

Day 18: Magic!!

I feel pretty spectacular today. I woke up 10 minutes before my 4:45 am alarm, got dressed, ate a hard boiled egg and headed to my first crossfit class in like a month. I had NO lower back pain when I got up, so that's a big deal for me.

Class was actually pretty easy. The coach had me working with a training bar and lower weight due to my back issues, but it left the workout overly easy. Oh well. I did try double-unders for the first time and was able to do only one. I just couldn't get the timing right, so I'm going to practice that at home on my own. I had forgotten how much I enjoy jump roping though (yes, I'm weird). Then the coach worked with me to find my 1RM for back squats so that I'll know it for the next time they come up (next week). All in all, a nice way to wake up and start the day.

Then buzzed home, walked the dogs, showered and then gobbled breakfast of left-over eggs/veggies topped with salsa while I packed my lunch (B.A.S. with tuna). I headed to work right on time. Yay!

I'm feeling super vibrant today, so I think the magic has kicked in. In fact, so that I can get in 3 CF classes this week (everyone will be at a competition on Sat so no class will be offered), I'm going to go again tomorrow (and then on Fri).

Whole30 on!

[Derval]

Enjoyed reading your catch up I think I would have had a "Falling Down" episode faced with that airport scenario!

[GLC1968]

LOL, Derval - I was definitely close!

Day 19: More magic!!

Last night we had dinner, went bowling and then I got home in time to clean up the kitchen, set out my clothes for the morning and then go to bed. I was up this morning, 10 minutes before my 4:45 am alarm again (weird!) and headed to crossfit.

It was a good class. Lots of total body work, which I really need right now. Then I scooted home to find that my husband had already walked the dogs for me. Yay!! I packed my lunch, took a shower, ate breakfast and then headed to work. I know that we are supposed to eat right after a workout, but honestly, my stomach often can't take it. Today, it was churning way too much when I first got home. Hopefully that will improve as I get back into shape. I don't feel like my workouts are so intense yet that it'll matter anyway (from a fueling perspective).

At work, a coworker who left last month took a bunch of us out to lunch at a local Mexican place. I opted for the fajita salad topped with chicken/onions, guacamole (compliant) and pico de gallo. It was quite tasty and a nice change of pace. Sitting there while everyone else munched on chips was tough, but I didn't long for any of their saucy, cheesey, or gluten-y meals at all. Plus, the lunch I packed for today can sit in the fridge for me for tomorrow!

Tonight I'm meeting my husband at our old house so that we can get in 3 or so hours of painting walls and doors and trim. Ugh. Prepping a house for sale is bad enough. Prepping an old, partially renovated farm house that we are no longer living in, is even harder! For dinner I'm going to grab us salads at Chipotle (with double meat!) that we can eat at the old house (where we have no food).

Overall I'm feeling great again today. I'm sore in a few spots from crossfit, but nothing unbearable and my mood is so good that I barely notice the DOMS. Oh, I did have some really weird cravings this morning. On the way back from crossfit while my stomach was still flip-flopping, I suddenly craved plain vanilla ice cream and then a few minutes later, cinnamon and sugar covered cake donuts. I get the vanilla ice cream thing as I love it and it kind of makes sense...but the donuts? 1) I hardly EVER eat donuts and even if I were to eat them, I sure as hell wouldn't have picked cinnamon/sugar ones! That is just so ODD.

Confession time: I had to weigh myself today. I did it after breakfast, totally clothed with my boots already on so that I wouldn't really know my true weight, but I needed to weigh a box (to mail) that was too big and heavy for our kitchen scale. The good news is that even with all the extra clothing/boots/food that went with me onto that scale, I'm still down 6 lbs from where I started. I'm really not surprised as I can clearly see it in my mid-section and I was able to wear a pair of work pants today that I couldn't even button in December.

[ladunn]

Hey!! Just wanted to check in and catch up on your posts. I'm so happy things have been magic for you the last few days and wow- I am IMPRESSED with how you handled your unexpected trip to Texas!!

I'm considering going past 30 days (I'm at day 21 now) and still not sure I feel the "magic," but I'm excited to see what these last 9 days bring for me.

[GLC1968]

Hi Ladunn! You know, when I did my first Whole30 I wasn't sure I was feeling the magic either. But now that I know what the whole thing feels like (and in comparison, know how lousy I felt for the first few weeks), I find it easier to call what I'm feeling now 'magic'. I consider it the stage where eating this way feels easy and almost second nature, where I sleep soundly (a big deal for me), when I feel energized and pain-free when I first wake up, when I am content to just eat at meal times and when I don't look longingly at non-compliant foods any more.

Day 20: Wicked DOMS! Ouch!

Today I woke up with a headache which really surprised me. I thought I was past that stage of my Whole30! I got up to take some excedrin and as I stretched out my body and got upright, I realized why my head hurt. I was SORE! Holy cow, my lats, pects, triceps and traps all hurt and I'm certain that was causing my headache. I took a couple of ibuprofen and tried to go back to sleep for a hour. No luck on the sleep, but my headache did go away.

I cooked a nice breakfast and then prepped a few things for tonight's dinner before getting ready for work and leaving.

Tonight we are having grass-fed beef burgers topped with home-made quacamole and roasted cumin sweet potatoes with a garlic-paleo-mayo dipping sauce. I can't wait! The sauce is a total experiment, but hopefully it'll be good. Everything else I'm making we've had before.

After dinner, I'll be heading over to the pool for a leisurely swim. It's been so long since I did laps that I'm afraid I'll have forgotten how! (ok, not really). I'm looking forward to it. I think it'll do my super sore upper body some real good!

[GLC1968]

Day 21: I can't believe there is only one 'official' week left!

And in some ways, I'm nervous. I have made the decision to continue my Whole30 until my first tri of the season in early May. The nervousness comes from the fact that Whole30 is relatively easy for me right now because my husband is on board too. But he only plans on 30 days and last time, refused to listen to me about his reintroduction. At least this time, he is reading the daily emails (sort of) but I can't get him to read ISWF at all. He figures why bother, since he already knows the rules. Anyway, I know it's going to be decidedly harder to stick to it when he's having pizza or ice cream or wanting to go out all the time.

In order to stick to it and still be able to go out with him, I'm probably not going to worry about bad oils or super hidden ingredients at restaurants. I'll cook Whole30 at home, of course, and I'll choose as compliantly as possible, but I'm not going to avoid certain places because they cook with soybean oil or anything.

Last night I skipped the swimming to watch the Lance Armstrong interview instead. Bad choice but it is what it is. We did so much upper body in crossfit this morning that I'm glad I was well rested anyway.

Class this morning was interesting. Some things were tough, others were easy. HSPU's were tough. I can kick up into one, but once up, I doubt I could do a push up, so I did them off a tall box instead. I stayed on my tippy toes and close to the box so that I was as close to vertical as possible and boy...that was tough. The rest of the workout wasn't too bad but I still can't do double unders and it frustrates me because I'm a coordinated person in general. I'll get it though. I'm tempted to buy a jump rope on my way home tonight so that I can practice this weekend.

I really need to figure out a good post workout food that I can eat in my car while I drive home (that won't make a mess). My stomach was knawing on my backbone by the time I got to eat this morning (after I drove home, walked and fed the dogs and made coffee, it was almost an hour post workout!). Other than that, today as gone well. I haven't planned anything for dinner but I do have chicken breasts defrosted so I'm sure we'll be eating those in some form or fashion. Ooh, and I think I want acorn squash, too....

[GLC1968]

Day 24!! - Fighting the sugar dragon...let's call her Smaug. ;-)

I am on day 24 but I admit that I had to go look at my daily email to remember what day I am on. I take that as a good sign. I am not counting the days until I feel better, until a headache goes away, or until I get to eat 'so and so'. I don't care what day it is and that's a fantastic feeling!!

But, it has been a tough couple of days. I was really struggling with wanting sugar all weekend and not just because it was the weekend or because there were any temptations in my path. In fact, it was a decidedly antisocial weekend (by choice) so food temptations were not a problem. I was honestly really confused until I got a zit and started having cramps. Ah HA! I don't know how I lost track but yes...it is fast approaching my time of the month. Once I realized that, I felt SOOOO much better. My sugar dragon (Smaug - since we saw the Hobbit this past weekend AND I played Smaug in a musical rendition of the story when I was in grade school) reared it's ugly head and I had to beat her down with an avocado. I will say that it got much easier once I knew what was causing the cravings. I don't remember a craving problem in my last week on my last Whole30, so I was confused.

My plan is business as usual. I've did a little cooking over the weekend and I'll do a little more tonight. We made a shopping trip a local store and even though it was a regular grocery store and we used to have good luck finding the things we wanted there pre Whole30, we walked out spending only $33 when we needed a LOT. I don't know why I noticed it this time, but there was NOTHING in that place that would qualify as real food! I mean, the produce was ok (organic was lamer than usual, but whatever) but they had zero high quality meat, almost nothing for plain frozen veggies, not a single unadorned nut, etc. I mean...it was all full of bad ingredients. Even every bag of raisins and every type of tuna. And then I stood there while we were checking out and stared at the entire aisle (I mean...the whole length of the store!!) of candy. It's not even Halloween. It makes me weep for this nation. It makes me want to run and hide.

Then we went to trader joes and spent $78 in less than 20 minutes. Gotta love a place chock full of good stuff (even if they don't carry a single unsweetened dried cranberry!)!

[GLC1968]

Day 25: Holy cramps, Batman!

Wow, I don't remember the last time I had cramps like this. I mean, I've had to pause and rest my head on my desk multiple times today to let a tough wave pass. What is up with that?? I think I was 15 the last time I felt this way!

Luckily, the pain has killed my appetite. I was ravenous most of the day today so I ate quite a bit (all compliant). I was a little concerned at first and then the cramps swooped in and reminded me why I was probably super hungry. And now my appetite is back to normal. All weird, huh?

I have another order of US Wellness bacon and stew meat scheduled to show up tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to a few more yummy crockpot meals.

OK, sorry for the super short post/update, but I just don't feel like writing more at the moment. I just want to curl up into a ball and moan. Yay.

[GLC1968]

Day 26: Keep Calm and Whole30 on!

Last night was a little rough. Thankfully, we had leftover chicken 'tortilla' soup (no tortillas, of course!) that I could reheat for my husband and avoid having to cook. I went to bed at 9 and then lay in bed moaning for a hour or so before falling asleep. Today, it's a little better, but I'm still feeling pretty distracted by the feeling that my body is trying to expel my uterus.

Due to my cramps, I wasn't hungry for dinner last night, so I had a small serving of leftover scrambled eggs and a handful of shredded sweet potato cooked in a skillet. I was hungrier for breakfast, so I did my usual pile of 'healthy 8' veggies from TJ's and a sliced chicken apple sausage cooked in a skillet. I also had a small handful of blueberries (the ones that I'd washed but that wouldn't fit into my little tupperware for lunch). I love blueberries!!

Lunch will be left over chicken 'tortilla' soup with avocado and more blueberries. I also have about a 1/3 serving of stir fried sausage and cabbage from two nights ago that I'll eat if I'm hungry enough for it.

I'm looking forward to dinner. I'm defrosting a couple of NY strip grass fed steaks (holy cow...those were expensive!) and I'm going to serve them with baked sweet potatoes and a big ole serving of sauteed veggies (something I haven't cooked in ages for some reason!). Hopefully, I'll be hungry for dinner!

I don't know if others find this to be true (I should spend some time reading other logs!) but I find that as my Whole30 goes on, I have less and less to write about. All the weird things our bodies do tend to go away after the first 2 or 3 weeks and day after day of writing that 'I'm feeling good' gets a bit old, right? I'm fairly certain that I'll just keep this log going as I continue on my WholeXX quest though. Maybe I should figure out exactly how many days my journey will be and then update the title of this log. OK, that was easier than I thought because my work calendar has a day of the year count. My tri is on day 131 but since I started this Whole30 on Dec 28th, that comes to 134 days total. I think I'll plan for this to be a Whole134. That's not too odd, is it? ;-)

[GLC1968]

Day 27: But not really....more like day ONE. Ugh!

Isn't it just fitting that 3 days before the end of a successful Whole30, I find out that I haven't been doing a Whole30 at all?? This morning, I was eating my breakfast with my fish oil gel cap bottle sitting in front of me. I was absentmindedly reading the label and even though the ingredients don't list it - a little further down on the label it says 'Contains: Fish (mackerel and sardine) and soy. SOY! Are you kidding me??? I am down to maybe the last 15 gel caps out of 400 and I only now see that they contain SOY?!? I've been using these stupid things for ages...three per day... And the thing is, I'm generally sensitive to soy (was even before I went paleo), so it probably IS affecting me. Hell, I took them every day during my last Whole30, too!!

I'd be entirely more pissed off if I wasn't planning on staying Whole30 for a few more months anyway, but I am a little discouraged. Obviously, this is my stupidity. And obviously, I won't be taking them anymore and I'll find a different version to use. Crap.

I will keep on, keeping on until I hit day 30. Then I'll try reintroduction on a few things that I never reintroduced before (stevia, for one). On my birthday, I will have some raw honey in a special treat my husband will make me (Feb 10) and then I'll be traveling from Feb 12 - Feb 22 and while I'll be as good as I possibly can, I'm sure there will be some unknowns out there.

My plan is now to start my first ever official and 100% compliant Whole30 on Saturday, Feb 23. I expect it to be a very easy transition because I will not be intentionally 'off-roading' between now and then except for my birthday treat (a single treat....not a whole cake/pie or a whole day of gluttony!).