Batya Chava Stuffs her Face with Meat and Veg

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Hello forum! I'm Batya Chava, underemployed teacher, CrossFitter, tea enthusiast, mother, afflicted with bipolar type II disorder, and sufferer of frequent migraines. 

Why I'm here:

• I lost 60lbs a couple years ago with exercise and calorie tracking, but since then I've found it hard to motivate myself to eat very healthy and not constantly "cheat." My diet isn't even close to as bad as it was when I lived off mostly pizza pops and Dr. Pepper, so I'm not really worried about being obese again, and I do hit the gym about six times a week, but the poutine and red velvet cake is holding me back athletically, and I don't feel like I have that "healthy relationship with food" that everyone's talking about. And my recovery sucks. DOMS lasts for days.
• The migraines. The medication for them is effective, but they happen way too often. 
• My mood disorder, on the other hand, has been very resistant to medication. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy helps, so does exercising regularly (seriously, it probably saved my life), but I'm still cycling. Like, I can hold down a job now, but I still spend months at a time depressed. I'm willing to try just about anything at this point. 

I consider myself quite well prepared. I bought some paleo ketchup, made bulk breakfast sausage, and put all the dried pasta and sugary salad dressings in a box in the basement.

Wish me luck!

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 1

So, last night I had not one, but two dreams about accidentally eating something non-compliant on the first day. Once it was a tub of yogurt that I ate without thinking, before looking down in horror. The other time I was eating an Eggo waffle. 

Meal 1: two eggs, scrambled with chives, three 1oz homemade sage and garlic bulk sausage, half an avocado, fruit salad

Pre-workout - one egg over easy with paleo ketchup

When I got to the gym the first thing that happened was the coach offering me cake. I said no. Sigh. My clean and jerk is getting better.

Post workout: pork, kobocha squash, shiitake mushroom thing that I threw into the slow cooker last week and meal prepped into Tupperware.

Meal 2: gumbo with half an avocado

Meal 3: butternut squash with kale and Swiss chard (from Whole30 book), roast beef, and Green Beast Dressing (from second Nom Nom Paleo book)

No snacks, unless you count the almonds I munched on while making the squash and greens.

NSV/Reflections: The first thing I noticed just looking over other people's logs, is that I seem to eat a lot more food than most. My massive quads and bulging biceps require fuel, I guess. I'm not happy with how I'm timing my meals vis a vis my workout. I had Meal 1 at 6am, then I didn't eat at all until the preworkout meal at 11:30ish. I was quite hungry by the time I got home to the eat post workout around 1:30-2, but only a little hungry when I ate Meal 2 at 3:30. I'm thinking of moving my workout to 9am, just to get around this, but that seems drastic.

No serious cravings, just idle "I should go to Tim Horton's" thoughts. But I just kind of thought "nope, can't" that same way I though it when I wanted a beer when I was pregnant. Not hard.

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 2

I slept kind of badly last night, but I think that was more because I knew I would have a stressful day at work. I kept waking up thinking I'd forgotten to do something.

Meal 1: 3 1oz garlic and sage bulk sausage, an apple with almond-hazelnut butter, half a glass on coconut milk. (I discovered in horror this morning that we had only three eggs left. I could have swore we had at least a carton more... I saved them for my son and had an extra large serving of nut butter, then tasked the man with buying, like six dozen eggs.)

Meal 2:  Leftover butternut squash with kale and Swiss chard, canned salmon, paleo ranch dressing. Orange. (This was my brown bagged lunch. I was really not into it and barely ate half.)

Meal 3: spinach arugula mix, three eggs over easy, tomato, green beast dressing. 

Snacks: Coconut Cream Lara bar, compliant kombucha, half a handful of almonds 

NSV/Reflections: Like I said, I had a stressful day at work and I managed to not get frustrated, even though no one had done their homework. (ugh!) I didn't particularly like anything I ate today, meal 3 probably came the closest. And that nut butter... yummy. I'm not sure if I understand the difference between a craving and a habit. My son had cut up a piece of bread and left half on the cutting board, and it didn't really look appealing in any way, but it was a struggle not to pick it up and eat it, just because that's what I would always have done.

[Nongermane]

2 minutes ago, BatyaChavaGeee said:

Day 1

I slept kind of badly last night, but I think that was more because I knew I would have a stressful day at work. I kept waking up thinking I'd forgotten to do something.

Meal 1: 3 1oz garlic and sage bulk sausage, an apple with almond-hazelnut butter, half a glass on coconut milk. (I discovered in horror this morning that we had only three eggs left. I could have swore we had at least a carton more... I saved them for my son and had an extra large serving of nut butter, then tasked the man with buying, like six dozen eggs.)

Meal 2:  Leftover butternut squash with kale and Swiss chard, canned salmon, paleo ranch dressing. Orange. (This was my brown bagged lunch. I was really not into it and barely ate half.)

Meal 3: spinach arugula mix, three eggs over easy, tomato, green beast dressing. 

Snacks: Coconut Cream Lara bar, compliant kombucha, half a handful of almonds 

NSV/Reflections: Like I said, I had a stressful day at work and I managed to not get frustrated, even though no one had done their homework. (ugh!) I didn't particularly like anything I ate today, meal 3 probably came the closest. And that nut butter... yummy. I'm not sure if I understand the difference between a craving and a habit. My son had cut up a piece of bread and left half on the cutting board, and it didn't really look appealing in any way, but it was a struggle not to pick it up and eat it, just because that's what I would always have done.

Oh my gosh! Yes! My sisters house has a bowl of M&Ms and I used to just grab some when I picked up my daughter after work (ima teacher too) and it’s kind of annoying when I can’t do that. 

Also, I do want beer- but we went 9 months once right? 

[Swamp Yankee]

15 hours ago, BatyaChavaGeee said:

 craving and a habit. My son had cut up a piece of bread and left half on the cutting board, and it didn't really look appealing in any way, but it was a struggle not to pick it up and eat it, just because that's what I would always have done.

I can relate to this - I have to still work on not eating something just because it is there.  if it gets tossed, it is better than me eating something I don't want nor do I need.  I am a work in progress.

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 3

Meal 1: Butternut squash, kale, and collard greens, 2 eggs over easy, half an avocado

Meal 2:  gumbo, half an avocado, homemade fruit salad, tropical nut butter

Meal 3: Green beans and butternut squash, roast chicken

I put the chicken in the slow cooker to roast, and when I came home and tried the lift in out it just totally fell apart. I ended up basically shredding it in the bowl thing then picking it out bit by bit. I but the bones back in there with some veggies to make broth. 

Snacks: Chocolate coconut RX bar, baby carrots and paleo ranch. (I put some carrots and dressing in a Tupperware thing in case I got hungry at work, but I only ended up eating a couple pieces. I need to make mayo and then proper ranch, because the consistency of the Primal Kitchen paleo ranch is very runny. Not my preference.)

NSV/Reflections: I knew my mother would be a primary stressor this month, because my mother is always a primary stressor, and today kind of proved it. I kind of wish I didn't love her and therefore didn't have to be so affected by everything she says and does to me. That sounds really horrible. Anyway, I'm kind of living in fear of "the sugar dragon" because he's yet to really show up. I think I'm having carb cravings (but when does anyone ever not want pizza?) but not giving into them isn't taking any emotional energy. I'm not feeling lethargic or unmotivated like Whole30 Day-by-Day says I might be either. Makes me a little nervous.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Roast duck time!

[Swamp Yankee]

16 hours ago, BatyaChavaGeee said:

NSV/Reflections: I knew my mother would be a primary stressor this month, because my mother is always a primary stressor, and today kind of proved it. I kind of wish I didn't love her and therefore didn't have to be so affected by everything she says and does to me. That sounds really horrible. Anyway, I'm kind of living in fear of "the sugar dragon" because he's yet to really show up. I think I'm having carb cravings (but when does anyone ever not want pizza?) but not giving into them isn't taking any emotional energy. I'm not feeling lethargic or unmotivated like Whole30 Day-by-Day says I might be either. Makes me a little nervous.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Roast duck time!

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving. 

RE:  Mothers - mine was on my case to just "do it", just lose weight.  I totally sympathize but have no advice. 

I don't get much of the sugar dragon cravings, I don't think I consume that much.  I am moving away from processed foods, dairy - read ice cream - and mindless eating due to boredom.  I did well at the work lunch today, chose wisely and avoided any dessert - flan! - or wine. 

ROAST DUCK LOVE!

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 4

This morning I woke up just a giant unmotivated grumpy pants. "Kill All The Things" I think they call it. I got into a screaming match with my mother over lending her a cord to charge her Blackberry. (Apparently, I was speaking to her in a patronizing tone.)

Meal 1: 3 scrambled eggs with chives, an orange. This wasn't nearly enough, so after an hour I also had an apple and some almond hazelnut butter. (So good!)

Pre-workout: egg muffin

Post-workout: butternut squash, kale, and Swiss chard with chicken

Meal 2: Trout with blueberries (so good! trust me.) Spinach and Green Beast dressing, more than a serving of walnuts

Around this time was when Kill All The Things turned into Eat All The Things, hence the generous helping of walnuts. It mostly worked, but I did eat an Rx bar in there somewhere. The blueberry flavour. I like blueberries today.

Meal 3:  Chicken, two tomatoes, and entire avocado (the whole damn thing, and not a small one), Frank's Red Hot chili and lime.

NSV/Reflections: Yeah, killing all the things. Even my coach today was, like, "you seem out of it." On the plus side, I made beautiful chicken bone broth, and a cran-cherry sauce (from the second Nom Nom Paleo book, but no honey) for Sunday. Apparently my grandma's making a cake. Sigh. 

Oh well, tomorrow I get to max out my front squat. 

Also, is anyone else just going through stupid amounts of eggs?

[Miriam71]

 I go through at least a dozen eggs a week just for me. And I pay between seven dollars and $7.75 per dozen. They are so good. 

[BatyaChavaGeee]

22 minutes ago, Miriam71 said:

 I go through at least a dozen eggs a week just for me. And I pay between seven dollars and $7.75 per dozen. They are so good. 

One dozen? That's cute.

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 5

Wow, this was a low day. I was so sleepy and didn't want to do anything. I forced myself to work then just watched Civ VI Let's Plays on YouTube when I got home. I'm feeling a little less grumpy now. I'm soaking cashews to make cashew cheese. Also, there were persimmons at the grocery store! Not quite ripe yet, but I'm so excited!

Meal 1: 3 1oz sage and garlic bulk sausage, 2 eggs over easy, butternut squash, kale, and Swiss chard, (the last of it, I promise.) Banana and tropical nut butter.

I ate a very big breakfast today after screwing that up yesterday.

Meal 2: Chicken and ratatouille (no recipe), Compliant kombucha, Rx bar.

Meal 3:  Trout and blueberries, almonds AND pistachios (I may have a thing for nuts (That's what she said.)) A banana.

NSV/Reflections: It's funny, I was beating myself up for eating so many nuts and for the fact that my meal 3 didn't have any vegetables, and then I read tonight's Whole30 Day-by-Day reading was all about how you should expect yourself to do this 100% perfect, and as far as you're compliant you're fine. I should really watch the nuts and Rx bars, though.

[jaramon]

I’m so afraid of eating too many nuts! I’m on day 5 also!

[Nongermane]

23 hours ago, BatyaChavaGeee said:

 

Meal 2: Chicken and ratatouille (no recipe), Compliant kombucha, Rx bar.

 

Do you like kombucha? I’ve never had it and don’t even know how to approach it. 

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 6

Whole30 Day-by-Day has given me permission to go to bed "toddler early" today, and I plan to, so I apologize if this post is a little more perfunctory than usual.

Meal 1: 2 eggs over easy, arugula and Green Beast Dressing, strawberries, almond-hazelnut nut butter

Meal 2: Chicken, parsley, and avocado, carrots, strawberries. (The some bowl that I didn't finish at breakfast, actually.)

Snack: Rx bar

Meal 3:  Chicken and ratatouille, an orange. 

NSV/Reflections: Really, so far this has been kind of easy. I do want to eat a giant ciabatta, no denying it, but it's not hard to resist the temptation or anything. And I've been enjoying the cooking. I've totally got this. I think my tummy's a little flatter. (Not that I thought it was not flat before...) Hopefully next week I'll have more energy to go to the gym like usual. 

[BatyaChavaGeee]

4 minutes ago, Nongermane said:

Do you like kombucha? I’ve never had it and don’t even know how to approach it. 

Yeah, I do like it. It's an acquired taste, though. Kind of tastes like feet. GT's is my favourite brand, but I'm not sure how widely available it is. And make sure you check for added sugar. 

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 7

I've really been enjoying sleeping in until 7am all weekend. I have tomorrow off too. I still feel dead by 6pm, though. (Who has two thumbs and is definitely a morning person?)

Meal 1: 3 eggs scrambled with harrisa, half an avocado, Larabar

Meal 2: Thanksgiving! Roast duck, can-cherry sauce (from second Nom Nom Paleo book), roasted asparagus, roasted potatoes with rosemary, mashed cauliflower (from Whole30 book) Brussels sprouts and bacon, (from a book called The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook by Mickey Trescott) Smashed Cucumber and Carrot Salad, poached pears with cashew cheese.

Okay, so I had a Whole30 Thanksgiving. It went smoothly. My mother bought a munch of non-compliant desserts for the Muggles, which, why would you do that? But the temptation was dealable. 

The roast duck was not a winner. Everyone said nice things but it tough and dry. How do you dry duck? I should of blanched the Brussels sprouts. They were a little hard for my 94-year-old grandma to eat. The cookbook didn't say to blanche them, but I should have known better. The biggest fail was the poached pears. The cashew cheese was fine, but it was savoury. Like, it had damn garlic in it. What was I thinking? Again, everyone said nice things.  

Meal 3:  Banana with almond hazelnut butter.

I was pretty full still.

NSV/Reflections: I haven't been talking or reflecting much on my mood, since I kind of expected this week to be a roller coaster, but I did really well today. I usually totally fall apart at family gatherings and turn into a total grumpy pants, but I was pretty steady this year, and with the added stress of having to cook everything. And the fails. 

[Nongermane]

12 minutes ago, BatyaChavaGeee said:

Day 7

I've really been enjoying sleeping in until 7am all weekend. I have tomorrow off too. I still feel dead by 6pm, though. (Who has two thumbs and is definitely a morning person?)

Meal 1: 3 eggs scrambled with harrisa, half an avocado, Larabar

Meal 2: Thanksgiving! Roast duck, can-cherry sauce (from second Nom Nom Paleo book), roasted asparagus, roasted potatoes with rosemary, mashed cauliflower (from Whole30 book) Brussels sprouts and bacon, (from a book called The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook by Mickey Trescott) Smashed Cucumber and Carrot Salad, poached pears with cashew cheese.

Okay, so I had a Whole30 Thanksgiving. It went smoothly. My mother bought a munch of non-compliant desserts for the Muggles, which, why would you do that? But the temptation was dealable. 

The roast duck was not a winner. Everyone said nice things but it tough and dry. How do you dry duck? I should of blanched the Brussels sprouts. They were a little hard for my 94-year-old grandma to eat. The cookbook didn't say to blanche them, but I should have known better. The biggest fail was the poached pears. The cashew cheese was fine, but it was savoury. Like, it had damn garlic in it. What was I thinking? Again, everyone said nice things.  

Meal 3:  Banana with almond hazelnut butter.

I was pretty full still.

NSV/Reflections: I haven't been talking or reflecting much on my mood, since I kind of expected this week to be a roller coaster, but I did really well today. I usually totally fall apart at family gatherings and turn into a total grumpy pants, but I was pretty steady this year, and with the added stress of having to cook everything. And the fails. 

Congrats on making it through a major family gathering. If I turn down  wine or dessert people tend to get offended and annoyed for a variety of reasons In my family. In fact, Halloween is this giant cook out neighborhood and family walk and I’ll be in the reintroduction phase by then- thank god. Not that I’m planning on going HAM in anyway but I won’t have to be as careful with labels. 

[BatyaChavaGeee]

17 hours ago, Nongermane said:

Congrats on making it through a major family gathering. If I turn down  wine or dessert people tend to get offended and annoyed for a variety of reasons In my family. In fact, Halloween is this giant cook out neighborhood and family walk and I’ll be in the reintroduction phase by then- thank god. Not that I’m planning on going HAM in anyway but I won’t have to be as careful with labels. 

Going HAM? What does that mean? My guess is running around like William Shatner of Star Trek in that episode where the transporter divides him into an evil half and a meek half. It's like that, right?

[Nongermane]

2 hours ago, BatyaChavaGeee said:

Going HAM? What does that mean? My guess is running around like William Shatner of Star Trek in that episode where the transporter divides him into an evil half and a meek half. It's like that, right?

Pretty much. My students say it’s from a Jay-Z song. It means Hard As a Mother******. 

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 8

Meal 1: 3 1oz Garlic and Sage bulk sausage, apple and almond-hazelnut butter

Post-workout: rosemary roasted potatoes, chicken. Persimmon. 

Meal 2: Duck soup, cashew cheese

Meal 3: In-Laws Thanksgiving! Turkey; cran-cherry sauce; mashed sweet potatoes; green beans; beet, orange, and avocado salad. Berries for dessert.

NSV/Reflections: My workout today involved 5 minutes of burpee box jump overs. Yikes. I guess that's what I get for taking three days off in a row.

My sister-in-law was super accommodating today. We wanted to have a very traditional Thanksgiving, since my father-in-law is terminally ill, and it will probably be his last one. But she made me special sweet potato mash, and made sure most of the sides and the turkey were alright. I just had to say no to the stuffing and and buttery mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. And I drank Perrier. Everyone had my cranberry sauce and agreed it was better. 

I wasn't as mellow today as I was yesterday. I had trouble being patient with everyone. 

Back to work tomorrow!

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 9

Meal 1: 3 eggs scrambled with harissa, spinach, 3 1oz garlic and sage sausage 

Post-workout: Duck Soup

Meal 2: canned salmon, green beans, mashed sweet potatoes. 

Meal 3: Pork chop, mashed sweet potatoes, caramelized onion

NSV/Reflections: I don't want to get excited, because it was only one day, but I think I'm starting to feel some of that magic. Not only did I set a personal record for my push jerk today, but I also hung from the bar without pain and ALMOST did 3 unbroken toes-to-bar. (I'm not counting it as unbroken because I had to do an extra kip in-between them, but there were 3 toes-to-bar in quick succession.) I've had this nagging bit of soreness in my right shoulder that only seems to manifest itself when I hang from the bar, and I got to say, if the Whole30 makes it go away, that might be reason enough to eat like this forever. It's keeping me from getting a pull-up and I will do anything to get a pull-up.

I packed a Lara Bar with me to work. For emergencies. I was pretty hungry by the time I finished teaching, but I decided NOT to eat it because I knew I would eat as soon as I got home. Go me. 

[Nongermane]

You’re almost to the double digits!! 

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 10

Meal 1: 3 eggs scrambled, cucumbers, grapefruit, banana and tropical nut butter

Snack: Lara bar, compliant kombucha

Meal 2: 2 tomatoes with olive oil and basil, duck soup

Meal 3: pork chop, sweet potato and Swiss chard, persimmon

NSV/Reflections: So apparently these next few days are when one is most likely to quit, and I can kind of see why. Not that I was ever tempted to quit, but I just felt pretty low motivation today. Add to that, we really should have gone food shopping two days ago. (We did after I came home from work at 8:30pm. I am now exhausted.) Everything I ate today was my third or forth choice in terms of what I wanted to eat at that moment, but I made it work, and that's all that matters. And I only have two portions of duck soup left. :-(

[BatyaChavaGeee]

Day 11

Meal 1: 3 eggs over easy, 2 pieces of bacon, baby carrots, an orange

Meal 2: chicken thigh (with the skin on, baby) pistachios, sweet potato and blueberry. (It IS very nice!)

Snack: Rx bar, walnuts, more walnuts

Meal 3: Leek and zucchini soup (From a book called Paleo Italian Cooking), duck leg, cran-cherry sauce, mashed cauliflower

NSV/Reflections: I had really low day. It look a lot of energy to do anything at all. The food was fine, and I even managed to get some veggies and chicken meal prepped, but wow was it a struggle to be actually productive. I did read quite a few cookbooks on Overdrive while I was procrastinating, though. 

Even this low I didn't really feel tempted to quite. I think this is already just how I eat.

[Nongermane]

1 hour ago, BatyaChavaGeee said:

 

Even this low I didn't really feel tempted to quite. I think this is already just how I eat.

I relate to this so hard. I will admit, it is a little tougher and I’m more aware of sugar. But, the food isn’t the struggle, it’s the Motivation  to meal prep and not just grab a protein box at Starbucks. Thus far, my biggest take away is me forcing me to take time and care about what I eat. I’m not used to even thinking about what I’ll eat, I just grab cliff bars and energy drinks and togo salads during the week.