Melody's Whole30 (start 1/2)

[melody]

Hi all,

So I decided in November to start this once I had cleared out my house of non-complaiant foods--with the rule that starting that day I would only buy new foods that were Whole30. I still have some things left, (flours, canned goods) but I didn't want to put off forever! First day was on Wednesday:

1/2/13 - Day 1 - With each meal I had water with fresh squeezed lemon juice

Breakfast: 1/4 onion, 2 portabella stuffing mushrooms, 2 carrots all chopped up and pan-fried in coconut oil with 1 egg.

Lunch: I had planned to make spaghetti squash, but didn't start soon enough and was starving. Took canned chicken (read lables, safe), about 1 tbs chopped onion, salt & pepper, balsamic vinegar, 3-4 cherries, and handful of pistachoes and mixed together and served on bed of lettuce

Dinner: The 1/3 of the spaghetti squash (had half of the seeds as a snack while it was cooking), baked with coconut oil, served with tomato sauce (label safe), and topped with cashews.

Snack: Handful of pomegrante seeds.

1/3/12- Day 2

Breakfast: shake in vitamix made with a huge handful of spinach, frozen mixed berries, 1 banana, nutritual yeast, small handful of cashews, thumb-sized bit of fresh ginger, and 365 coconut milk watered down a bit.

Lunch: 1/3 of the spaghetti squash with tomato sauce & cashews & lemon water

Dinner: Had planned to try cooking fish for the first time ever, but didn't read the package and it has to defrost for a long time. Cooked up 2 eggs with a huge handful of spinach, onions, 2 portabella stuffing mushrooms, grape tomatoes, coconut oil, and salt & pepper.

A few times today I was really feeling it--head-achey and craving. I know this whole thing is about taming the suger beast but I figured snacking on fruit was better than abadoning ship. Snacked on pomegrante seeds & cherries a few times throughout the day (totaling about 1cup of each) and had 1/2 cup of pistachoes (with shells) when I was really wanting something else as a late-night-snack.

[SarahEmily]

Goodluck!

[Tom Denham]

It sounds like you need to double your protein intake and probably triple it. Like 3 eggs instead of 1. You may be surprised how cravings for sugar disappear when you eat a substantial portion of protein at EVERY meal with a good amount of fat.

[kshacklett]

Once you get the hang of cooking fish, it's really easy and very much worth it! My husband and I embarked on a mission to eat fish at least once a week last year - now some of our favorite go-to meals are fish. And I just learned to cook shrimp last week - also a great, easy choice! This recipe is our absolute favorite - just leave out the yogurt sauce and it's whole30 compliant.

[melody]

Thanks guys. Tom, I had planned to eat more eggs on day 1, but there was only 1 left and I didn't realized it until I was making breakfast!

Today I wasn't very hungry at all. I totally forgot about breakfast until around 12:30pm when I realized I should get something into me. Wasn't hugnry but ate a big spoonful of raw coconut butter.

Lunch- the rest of the spaghetti squash along with a sauce I made from about 2cups of grape tomatos, big handful of cashews, about 1/3 cup of coconut milk and a dash of balsamic vingar. The vinegar was not a good addition.

For dinner I cooked fish for the first time ever. I never liked fish to begin with and before October I had been a vegetarian since 2003, with one of those years as a vegan, so this is kind of a big deal for me. Eating meat at all is still kind of gross and weird, but I developed a gluten intolrance (perhaps from all the setain?) and was finding that I was not eating enough protien and decided to try including meat again in small doses. Still don't think I'm going to do red meat though.

Back to the fish: wild sablefish (black cod) from Trader Joe's, I let it defrost overnight in the fridge. Then I coated it with the receipe TJs had on the container (minus honey and soy sauce):

BALSAMIC ORANGE GINGER GLAZED SABLEFISH

salt & pepper the fish

mix togehter:

2 tbs oil (I used olive)

1 tbs of balsamic vinegar

orange zest

1 tbs of orange juice (I squeezed in the juice of one whole organic navel orange and ate the pulp. It was a bit more than 1tbs but added a bit of sweetness to make up for the missing honey)

1 inch of ginger, peeled and minced

I coated the fish and vacumed sealed it and put it in the sous vide for 40minutes at 135F.

When it came out, it kind of fell apart in the pan it was so soft. I pan fried it in coconut oil for a few minutes, at this point instead of being a fillet it was more of chopped cod. But it good enough that my husband (who also doesn't like fish) said he would try it again. So kshacklett, I'll have to try your recipe!

Along with the fish I had some cherries, 1/2 cup of pistacho nuts & 1 teaspoon of raw coconut butter. I had meant to make creamed parnsips as well, but I had gotten the timing of the fish wrong and by the time I finished eating that I wasn't hungry for anything else.

I'm a little tired but not hungry at all (which is odd, usually I am hungry at night) and thinking of just going to bed early.

[melody]

Day 4. I was tested many times today, and glad to say I didn't cave!

Breakfast: 4 egg muffins (grape tomato, spinach & onion flavored), pomegranate seeds and 5 cherries.

Late-Morning: Had a meeting at a cafe that did not offer much safe stuff on their the menu but they did have quiche so I asked if it would be possible to just get a hard boiled egg. Had the egg and a glass of fresh squeezed oj.

Lunch: Was in a rush. Had a handful of Marcona almonds, handful of pistachios, 2 dates and a handful of cherries.

Snack: Was hungry for dinner but was stuck at an event for work. There were so many tempting dishes--I won't go into detail--but was super proud that I only had carrots, guac, and seltzer.

Dinner: It was pretty late when I got home but had a recipe planned and I managed not to snack while making it.

Coconut chicken with mango slaw from this site:

http://aspoonfuloffa...and-mango-slaw/

I had thick chicken thighs and not tenders so I cooked them in the oven instead of pan frying. Good idea because they took 30mintues to cook and the coconut was a little burned in the oven. Every time that I eat chicken I'm reminded again of why I became vegetarian in the first place...Even when it's pretty good, and I'm starving, I don't really like how meat tastes. The slaw was delicious.

[melody]

Day 5. I wanted to include photos of my meals today but I can't seem to figure out how to do that...Anyone know how??

I stayed up way too late last night and then allowed myself to sleep in way too late today. While I've been pretty good staying on track with my Whole30 goals, I haven't been as good with my Whole9 goals. Getting to bed earlier being #1.

Slept through breakfast.

Lunch- 4 egg muffins (tomato, spinach & onion), handful of pomegranate seeds, 3 dates, handful of marcona almonds (TJs skin on with olive oil & sea salt), lemon water

Dinner- caramelized shiitake mushrooms with arame, adapted from the recipe in Terry Walters "Clean Food" cookbook. Instead of mirin I used a little apple cider vinegar and instead of tamari I used water & salt. It was really good!

I really wasn't hungry for anything else but am concerned that I did not eat enough calories today. Since I'm not counting I'm not sure how many I consumed but it doesn't seem like a lot. I had 2 more dates, another handful of marcona amonds and the last of the pomegranate seeds. (2 whole pomegranates lasted me 5 days).

[Derval]

You can use instagram/webstagram or photobucket

[melody]

Day 6. When I made the coconut chicken the other night, I had 2 extra that instead of cooking I refrigerated. So this morning I popped them in the oven while I took my shower and breakfast was ready when I got out! I had one of the coconut chickens and 1/3 of a salad that I made from:

Breakfast Salad

1/2 head of green leaf lettuce, 1/2 cup fresh spinach, 1 apple, handful of pistachios, small handful of dried cranberries (sweetened with fruit juice--I tried to find some unsweetened but no luck), a big handful of grape tomatoes sliced in half, and some homemade mayo mixed with balsamic vinegar for dressing.

Lunch: 1 egg muffin (need to make more!), about 1 cup of marcona almonds, 3 dates, 1/2 of some gingerberry kombucha (drank the 1st half last night).

Dinner: snacking on the rest of the breakfast salad as a first course while cooking the rest of it.

1 whole sweet potato, thinly sliced and tossed with coconut oil, salt, pepper, and pumpkin pie spice. I usually drown my fries in ketchup, but the pumpkin pie spice does a great job of highlighting the natural sweetness of the potato. I've either got an especially sweet potato or my taste buds are already changing because it tastes like a dessert.

While those were cooking (350 for 10-12 minutes on each side), I made raw tomato basil soup in the vitamix from this recipe:

http://lindawagner.net/blog/2012/01/raw-tomato-basil-soup-recipe/

I added a squeeze of fresh lime to top off the soup, since unfortunately I only had dried basil and felt like it needed an extra kick. It's way better tasting than I thought it was going to be and super quick to make! I imagine that a cold version of this soup would be really good in the summertime too.

[melody]

Day 7!

Slept in late because I couldn't sleep last night. Can't wait for normalized sleep schedule...

Breakfast: So yum. 1/2 red onion cooked in coconut oil for about 3 minutes with some powdered garlic, then added 4 eggs. At the end of cooking, added in 1/2 avocado. Served with some canned pineapple along with the juice in the can and some fresh squeezed lime.

Lunch: Had planned to make butternut squash soup but forgot to cook the butternut squash. Instead had 1 carrot, 1 kiwi, 1/4 cup of marcona almonds, 1/4 cup of pistachios. Not the best, not the worst.

Dinner: Cooking it right now. Cooking swordfish for the first time ever! In the sous vide again. Forgot to defrost the fish this morning, so had to do it under cold running water.

Found this recipe for swordfish with avocado salsa:

http://svkitchen.com/?p=2250

(substituted the sherry with vinegar)

And this one for mashed cauliflower:

http://detoxinista.com/2012/11/mashed-cauliflower-vegan-paleo/

okay, food's done, going to eat!

[melody]

My kitchen is spreading an amazing aroma of butternut squash baking in a coating of pumpkin pie spice and salt. Dinner tonight is going to be amazing. So much else that I should be doing, but decided that it being day 8, I'm going to take a moment to look back at week 1:

Week 1 Successes

I mentally prepared myself for a month that I was not allow to stray off track and it worked: I ate Whole30 for a week

I went a whole week without any dark chocolate

When I was tempted to go off course on day 2, I allowed myself a snack of fruit and nuts

Since then, I've been able to eat enough at meals not to need to snack

I've cooked fish twice in my life now, both times successfully

I've found a recipe for one of my favorite Indian dishes so that I can try cooking it compliantly this month

I achieved one of my fitness goals for the week

Even though I missed my 2nd fitness goal for most of the week, I started up towards the end of the week

I've been about 80% good with my stress management goal (set attainable goals for work each week and follow them)

I've been much better regarding my temperance goal and not allowing it to time suck as much

An ongoing health issue that prompted me to adjust my diet seems to finally have resolved itself (it was supposed to with enough time anyway, but I'm sure clean eating didn't hurt matters!)

I had a massage and bought myself a copy of ISWF & Well Fed as rewards for completing week 1

Week 1 Areas for Improvement

I was really hoping that Whole30 would magically make me feel tired & I would fall asleep at a reasonable hour. So far, no go.

I need to be better about turning off electronics earlier each night. It's a challenge because that's when I get some of my most productive work done.

In addition to setting weekly goals, I need to acknowledge that there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish them all and prioritize accordingly.

I need to continue experimenting with protein sources to make sure I'm eating well at every meal

I need to look at my meal plan for the day each morning and take the necessary steps (i.e., take fish out of freezer if I'm eating it that night).

While I've been good about my specific temperance goal, I need to be aware of other time sucks (like internet forms & never ending email)

I need to continue to make exercise a priority and not allow set-backs or skipping a day throw me off course

I need to be aware of budget for food when making weekly menu choices. While trying to eat seasonal & sale products has been a good start, I need to watch for times when I am splurging as a "treat" (expensive meat/fruit/nuts/olive oil).

Plan For Week 2

SMART goals were very helpful, but I think rather than just monthly goals I may try weekly SMART goals to be even more accountable

For work, I may try my own weekly version of SMART goals to help address the never ending to-do list. (I swear, as soon as 5 things are crossed off, 10 more get added)

Even if I'm not tired, I need to come up with a better plan for bedtime. Perhaps I'll try reading this week instead of doing work when I can't sleep.

My exercise goals last week were pretty low bar, so I have no excuses to skip this week.

As I become more used to Whole30, I need to be smarter about the amount of time that I'm spending in the kitchen. While I find cooking really fun and enjoyable, eating dinner at 9 or 10pm is not helping bedtime.

I may need to set specific time limits for social media/this forum this week

[melody]

Day 8.

Brunch was sous vide swordfish (I prepared two last night so it was quick and easy to just heat), the rest of the pineapple-avocado salsa, and cauliflower mash.

Brunch because I once again was wide awake and super late to bed last night and so with the goal of still getting 8hrs a night, I was late to rise.

Had a raspberry chia kombucha but wasn't hungry again until dinner time.

Made butternut squash soup.

ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

1 whole butternut squash, cubed and coated with coconut oil, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Bake at 350F until soft. Allow to cool.

1-2 tablespoons of red onion

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup water

1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon of salt

Mix everything together in a vitamix until smooth and creamy. Either use the "soup" setting or transfer to a pot to heat up.

Mine came out with the thickness of baby food, so next time I'd add more water.

I poured it over about a tablespoon of chopped fresh apple and topped with cashew nuts.

Served with a side of finely sliced turnips and garlic cloves that were also cooked in coconut oil at 350F for 12minutes on each side.

Because I'm really trying to get a bit more protein in at each meal, and my husband was eating pork for his dinner, I added some chunks of pork to my bowl of soup. It was okay. The consistency (like baby food) made this a total comfort meal.

Had a handful of pomegranate seeds right after dinner as I was peeling two to keep in this fridge for this week.

I went for a 20minute walk tonight. Overall it was a good day. Even though I only ate two meals today, I'm not hungry for a 3rd. Since I was pretty sedentary for most of the day, hopefully this is okay.

It's such a shift for me because the past few winters I've been non-stop hungry in the evening time, always fighting an urge to make mac-n-cheese late at night.

[melody]

Day 9. Made myself wake up early today, even though I was wide awake again last night. Trying to turn this sleep thing around.

Breakfast: leftover butternut squash soup with some ground turkey added in and a handful of pomegranate sees

Lunch: 4 Thanksgiving cups, almonds, pomegranate seeds

Snack (at dinner time but not hungry and running out the door): 1 Thanksgiving cup

Dinner: 9:30pm home & hungry so decided to make it a light meal being kind of late. 2 Thanksgiving cups, cup of butternut squash soup topped with cashews, pomegranate seeds (put some in my water & some in my soup), fresh lime water

Made some detox lemon tea after dinner while my husband was foraging the kitchen for food. Two weeks ago I would have joined in his snacking even if I wasn't hungry for it.

Here's a link to the Thanksgiving cup recipe: http://brunchphilly.blogspot.com/2013/01/whole-30-day-9-thanksgiving-cups.html

I only got in an 8minute walk today, but at least it was something.

[melody]

Day 10!

Today was a rough day. Gloomy with on-and-off rain. Was just overall cranky and had a feeling of....trying to describe it....unease? grumpiness? Not unhappy but not happy.

I had to use a lot of self-control this evening when I was in a neighborhood (for work) that had 4 of my favorite places to buy treats all within a 3-block radius of where I was. The one place is a shop that also sells veggies and healthy things and for a moment I considered going in to look at the other stuff they had, but knew that wasn't really a good idea since the only things I've EVER bought there are treats. Also when I have a workday like today's, I usually buy myself at least one treat for the day. But I told myself going into this thing, there's no quitting so breaking the rules means going back to day 1. That manta keeps me strong.

Breakfast: Leftover butternut squash soup and turkey

Lunch: Wasn't hungry, but knew I would crash later if I didn't consume something when I had the time to eat. Made a shake (are these allowed? my understanding is that they are but that at the same time "liquid food" is not ideal) with: banana, nutritional yeast, celery, carrot, frozen strawberries, coconut milk, cashews. Wanted to add some leafy greens but I need to go shopping.

Dinner: Packed 4 Thanksgiving cups, about 1/2 cup of macadamia nuts & almonds, 2 dates, about 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds, and a cranberry kombucha.

Late night: Having a cup of herbal tea as I unwind before bed.

[melody]

DAY 11

Today went pretty well, until just now. When my husband decided to eat some of my leftover chicken salad and made a sandwich on GF bread. It smells amazing and is making me want some. :-/

Breakfast: Fried egg, 2mini zucchinis', about 6 small portabella mushrooms, all cooked together in coconut oil with salt & pepper. After a bit I got kind of grossed out by the egg and had to wait a few hours to finish the veggies.

Lunch: Finished the rest of the veggies from breakfast. Wasn't hungry for anything else.

Dinner: Chicken salad with homemade mayonnaise, celery, onion, dried cranberries, pepper on a big bed of lettuce. Served with 1 small tomato and 1 blood orange. Lemon water.

I'm trying to work out if I'm actually hungry right now or just tempted by the smells. This is the first time I've been really tempted to eat something not approved! And it's not even chocolate, haha.

[melody]

DAY 12

Was going to brunch but didn't want to wait a super long to eat, so I had a heaping tablespoon of chicken salad and 2 handfuls of pomegranate seeds first thing.

Brunch: Dined out with a bunch of people I that I don't know very well. Ended up in a good conversation with someone there who said she eats at out of boredom at work and while we were talking she decided that next time she's at work and bored she will go out for a short walk instead (as she put it, "the smokers all get 5-6 breaks a day so why can't I?"). Menu was more unfriendly than I was expecting but the server was amazing! I told him I could not have dairy, gluten or sugar and asked if the vinaigrette served with the smoked salmon salad had sugar in it. He came back and let me know that the vinaigrette was fine but that the salmon was actually cured with sugar! Ended up ordering a modified omelet dish--egg, spinach, and a side salad in place of potatoes. He was so receptive he even asked "do you want the egg cooked in oil instead of butter?" I asked for olive oil and feel pretty good that this meal was fully compliant! Also proud because they had amazing cheese & desserts, not sure I would have been so resolved a week ago.

Snack: 1 clementine (ate more because it was there and other people were eating, but thought about it for a bit first and decided that I wanted it but that I would just have one and enjoy it)

Dinner: Chicken salad on greens with tomato again but this time with 1 whole mango sprinkled with chia seeds and topped with coconut butter.

[melody]

Day 13

Went to bed a decent hour last night and didn't toss and turn for hours!

Breakfast: turkey, turnips, garlic, pomegranate seeds

Snack: 30minutes after breakfast. Thanksgiving cup (had to have one fresh out of the oven)

Lunch: 2 Thanksgiving cups, about 1/4 cup each of macadamia nuts & pomegranate seeds

Snack: Apple & two handfuls of pistachio nuts

Dinner: chicken breast that I cooked in a coating of homemade mayonnaise, slivered almonds, and lemon juice. Served with some acorn squash (topped with frozen berries & pumpkin pie spice), Brad's leafy kale, and creamed cauliflower.

Went for about 15minute walk.

[melody]

Day 14

Breakfast: 3 Thanksgiving cups (aka egg muffins w/turkey, cranberries & pumpkin pie spice)

"Snack" - sipped on raspberry chia kombucha

Lunch: 1/4 acorn squash with frozen berries, cauliflower mash

It's 7pm now and I'm not really motivated or hungry for dinner. I just munched on some kale chips and really know I should make something more substantial but feeling uninspired and not particularly hungry. Hoping for that lightening bolt of inspiration.

[melody]

Day 14 Con't

Dinner: Went for walk and then made chicken coated with a mixture of fruit juice sweetened raspberry jam & lemon juice and cauliflower mash.

[melody]

Day 15

Feeling really grumpy, which is just not like me pre-whole30.

Breakfast: 3 eggs, tomato slices, avocado, scrambled in coconut oil

Lunch: Not hungry. Irritated by this whole thing. Knew I should eat. 1 Thanksgiving egg muffin, 1/2 mango with coconut butter, pomegranate seeds.

20minute walk

Snack: Not sure why I needed to eat, probably because my lunch wasn't that big. Three small handfuls of pistachio nuts.

6:00pm. I know I should just make dinner but I don't know what to make. Went to store and bought prosciutto, hoping that I'd like it. It was nasty (my husband --who loves prosciutto agreed and said I should bring it back). So maybe I will like good prosciutto?

Ate a bunch of marcona almonds & the rest of the pomegranate seeds with it. Know I should make some kind of meat for dinner and it's depressing me.

[melody]

Day 15 Con't

Made the "raw" tomato soup recipe again (although given the temp that the vitamix cooked it to, it could hardly be called raw). Added half a can of crab meat to it, which kind of ruined it. 1 sweet potato with spices, and the other half of the mango with coconut butter.

I'm still grumpy but I think week one, I had a good 3-days out planning for meals. This week I've been a bit looser and I think it's gotten me into a bit of a rut meat-wise. Going to stick this out. Will be sitting down and planning again, hopefully that will help.

[melody]

DAY 16

Doing a bit better today.

Breakfast: egg scrambled with acorn squash and onions in coconut oil

30minute walk

Lunch: 3 Thanksgiving egg muffins & a kiwi

Dinner: 2 lobster tails -total success! Wish I could afford to eat it more often! Served with green beans cooked with garlic, frozen raspberries and almond slivers, and cauliflower mash. Lemon water & two dates stuffed with marcona almonds. I made a really yummy sauce to dip the lobster in:

Lemon Herb Lobster Sauce

juice from 1/2 of large lemon

1 tablespoon of lemon pepper (TJs)

dash of red pepper

dash of garlic power

dash of onion power

1/4 cup of light coconut milk (TJs)

Mix everything together and set in bowl next to the stove burner to heat up.

[melody]

Day 17

Breakfast: 2 egg thanksgiving muffins & acorn squash topped with frozen raspberries (heated up)

Lunch: 3 dates and 3 handfuls of marcona almonds. Light lunch, so was surprised that I didn't feel the need for a snack.

Dinner: Salmon -- I tried baking it and ended up over cooking it by 20degrees. Sous vide again for next time!

I took the leftover lemon herb sauce and added a tablespoon of fruit sweetened raspberry jam to it and covered the salmon in it and topped with slivered almonds.

Served with the last of the cauliflower mash and orange-garlic snow peas (steamed). Missing my daily email. I really hope tomorrow's comes!

[melody]

Day 18

Pre & post walk: Handful of marcona almonds & 1 date

Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled with the rest of the canned crab (will not be buying again), onions, and grape tomatoes in coconut oil.

Lunch: The rest of the garlic-orange snow peas, pomegranate seeds, almonds.

Snack: Trilogy kombucha

Dinner: 2 chicken sausages from TJs, 2 carrots sliced, mustard, pomegranate seeds.

After-dinner: tea but added some frozen raspberries to it to cool down.

[melody]

Day 19 (not that I'm counting or anything... ;-)

Pre-walk: 1 spicy Italian chicken sausage

30minute walk

Breakfast: Pumpkin Breakfast pie (canned pumpkin, 1 c coconut milk, 3 eggs, 4 tbs coconut flour, 1 banana, tbs of pumpkin pie spice) and 1 spicy Italian chicken sausage. I was going to add the sausage direcly into the pie so it would all bake together, but sausage wasn't ready when it was time to cook the pumpkin so I ate it together for similar effect.

Lunch: Not really hungry. More pumpkin, coconut milk & 1/2 cup pistachios.

Dinner: chicken salad (canned chicken, homemade mayo, dried cranberries, pistachios, celery, onion) on lettuce with mustard and blood orange. Pomegranate seeds.