Melody's Whole30 (start 1/2)

[melody]

VENTING:

I ordered ISWF & Well Fed on Jan 8th and they *still* haven't shipped. :-/

[melody]

Day 20

Last night my husband was eating corn chips in the evening and I was really tempted. So I "cheated" and ate a bowl of blueberries with coconut milk, spice, and pistachios. I've never been a dieter, so the whole concept of cheating is a new thought pattern. I found myself beating myself up for the "cheat" last night. Not a good feeling.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with avocado, onions, coconut oil

Lunch: pumpkin breakfast pie with chicken salad

Snack: Chicken salad rolled in sandwich pickles (TJs has some good ones that are compliant!)

Dinner: Spaghetti squash, cashews, basil tomato sauce

[melody]

Day 21

Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs & pumpkin breakfast pie

Lunch: sandwich pickles, apple, sunflower seeds, and 4 slices of Turkey Pastrami (the only Applegate product that I could find without carrageenan added). First time I've ever had pastrami, it was pretty good actually.

Dinner: 1 tomato-basil chicken sausage cooked in coconut oil with the casing removed. That made it taste so much better! Had it with mustard. Spaghetti Squash with tomato sauce, 2 slices of pumpkin-meat pie (added the rest of the sausage to the recipe this time), and creamy blueberry spinach.

[melbournegirl]

Sounds like its a bit of a hard slog for you! I hope robin pops in and offers some words of wisdom / inspiration. Your meals and style of eating is very different to mine but then I am from Australia... Reading everyone's log makes me realize just how different we all are even when following a whole30

[melody]

Day 22 - Excited because both "Well Fed" & ISWF have arrived! I've decided to try and be more conscious of how much water I'm getting. Maybe that's a factor?

Breakfast- 2 slices of pumpkin chicken sausage pie with coconut milk & water and 2 hard boiled eggs.

Lunch- Water. About 5 pickle sandwich slices, 4 slices of turkey pastrami, a blood orange, handful of macadamia nuts

Dinner- Lemon water, roasted beets & sweet potato, salmon cooked with coconut oil & raspberry jam-lemon-pistachio topping, fresh spinach, and the butternut squash dish from Well Fed (with almonds instead of pecans).

It's so COLD here that my appetite has picked up a bit....

I've been trying a mind-over-matter to get out of the grump/cranky mood and while not a perfect solution, it helped a little today. Digestion still messed up though.

[melody]

Day 23

3 glasses of water.

Breakfast - 2 slices of pumpkin-meat pie with coconut milk

2 glasses of water

Lunch - Spicy cilantro chicken sausage cooked with an onion & snow peas, spaghetti squash with tomato basil sauce.

1 glass of lime water

Dinner- Out on location for work. Planning to have: 2 hard-boiled eggs, 4 slices of turkey pastrami, Brad's leafy kale, Kombucha

[melody]

Had 3 more glasses of water and half of a cranberry kombucha.

Was not hungry or even thinking about food while working. Drank other half of cranberry kombucha on the way home. Ate two eggs.

I'm home and it's now 11pm and I could eat. But wondering if I should since it's so late. Probably going to make some tea and have a mini meal.

[melody]

DAY 24

Breakfast: Spaghetti squash, tomato-basil pasta sauce, cashews, fresh spinach

Lunch: 3 spicy cilantro chicken sausages, casing removed & cooked in coconut oil with about 2tbs of onion, 1 whole tomato, 2 big handfuls of spinach. Leftover butternut squash casserole from "Well Fed" with pecans, blueberries & coconut milk. Taking alternative bites of each dish, it was a taste explosion. One of the best meals I've made yet.

Dinner: Not really hungry, lunch was my big meal of the day. 2 turkey pastrami slices, pear with pumpkin pie spice, about 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds & some tea

[melody]

DAY 25

The past few days my back has been really itchy, and today I took a look in the mirror and it seems a rash has broken out across my upper back. I hope that I'm not allergic to eggs or anything else I've been eating....not sure what it could be. I've never shown an allergy to eggs before but I've been eating a lot more than normal...?

Breakfast: Slept through it. Been having trouble sleeping again unfortunately.

Lunch: Last 2 slices of pumpkin meat pie with coconut milk

Dinner: 2 tomato basil chicken sausages (casing removed), cooked in coconut oil with onion, 1 tomato, 2 big handfuls of spinach. Served over spaghetti squash along with a fresh apple.

Only 5 more days. Really waiting for that miracle to happen...

[melody]

DAY 26

Breakfast-in a rush. 2 tomato-basil chicken sausages and some pomegranate seeds

Lunch - ate out. Ordered a salmon salad with oranges, dried cranberries & pom vinaigrette. Explained what I couldn't eat to the waiter and he said all were okay. Asked for it without the cranberries and passed on the vinaigrette just in case. The greens & salmon were really good though. They had covered the salmon with what tasted like a salt-brine....really good.

Snack-for the first time since I started, I broke into the "emergency" freeze dried strawberries & blueberries that I bought before I started (and at the time figured I'd be eating a lot of during this!). Had a handful of each along with a spoonful of coconut butter and a cup of shelled pistachios.

Dinner-Not super hungry. 1/4 sunflower seeds. 3 slices of Applegate Farm turkey baloney. I re-read the ingredients 5 times before buying just to confirm it's compliant! I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever had baloney in my life. It was pretty good because it tasted mostly of spices & is pretty similar to the fake meat stuff. Some more pomegranate seeds--based on the past two I've had it seems pomegranates are reaching the end of their season :-(

[melody]

DAY 27

Breakfast: 2 spicy cilantro chicken sausages cooked with coconut oil, garlic, and broccoli and ate with some pomegranate seeds.

"Lunch": Spoonful of coconut butter & pomegranate seeds & 1/2 gingerberry kombucha. Had a nut bar I had planned to eat but never did.

Realized I needed something more a few hours later, had:

Snack: the other half of the gingerberry kombucha, 1 gala apple & a few too many handfuls of marcona almonds

Dinner: Trade Joe's ready to eat turkey breast, blueberries, green beans, and a temple orange

Mini-meal (hungry around 10pm---I think the cold & hormones are making me hungrier than I've been the past few days): more turkey breast, 3 dates, more marcona almonds, blueberries

[melody]

DAY 28

Breakfast- 1/2 avocado, turkey breast, carrot, blueberries, 2 dates, marcona almonds

Lunch- gala apple, almond butter, pickles, 2 slices of turkey baloney, blueberries

Dinner- 1/2 avocado, turkey breast, blueberries, carrot, 1 tablespoon almond butter & 1 teaspoon raspberry jam mixed together as dip for carrots.

[melody]

DAY 29

Breakfast-turkey breast, snow peas with almond butter, grapefruit.

Lunch- 3 chicken salad pickle sandwiches (pickles as the "bread"), 2 carrots sliced and dipped into mix of 1 tablespoon almond butter, 1 teaspoon raspberry jam.

I bought sea scallops as a special treat to try and make tonight for dinner.

[melody]

DAY 29 Con't

Dinner- The sea scallops were okay. Not as good as lobster but sort of similar in taste. I cooked them up in coconut oil with some broccoli, onions, and fresh squeezed lemon. Had lemon water with dinner as well.

I've realized today, a big trigger for me (and one that I haven't really had since this started) is when I have a long edit for work that I don't want to do. I tend to snack as motivation. I found myself eating some more almond butter/jam mixture at dinner-time (I was trying to get through as much work as I could and postponed cooking at that time--I was hungry and considered making it a full mini-meal but didn't want to totally ruin my appetite and was also finally making progress and didn't want to stop and make a full dinner yet). And then just now after dinner, I was wanting something again and snacked on a cup of frozen raspberries. While it's not in the spirit of a Whole30, I don't think a bowl of raspberries is the worst thing in the world. But I think it's something I need to watch for going forward, and not allow a cup of raspberries to revert back to chocolate snacking. I'm not sure what else will work, since getting up and doing something else totally defeats the point of getting the work done. I think just being more aware of it at least is a start.

[melody]

DAY 30

Breakfast- turkey breast, blueberries, 1/2 avocado, huge handful of red leaf lettuce

Lunch-3 slices of turkey baloney, 2 carrots chopped, almond butter-raspberry jam mixture for dip, blueberries

Dinner- I am planning to try and make navrattan korma (it was one of my goals to try making it, so this is the last chance to get it within the 30!) I'll be substituting the paneer with chicken. Not really in the mood to cook though. And I also still have 4 sea scallops to eat. So we'll see what I end up doing.

[melody]

DAY 30 Con't

Dinner- I decided to make the navrattan korma after all. I used this recipe: http://www.cookingan...rma-recipe.html

It was much spicier than any I've had in a restaurant (guess they tone down the spice for Americans), and the store didn't have green chillies so I didn't even add those. I also didn't add jeera because I didn't realize that it's the same thing as cumin. Forgot to cook the chicken, so added extra cashews. Served on top of cauliflower rice. Had some frozen raspberries and a fresh orange as well.

I don't think it's hit me yet that I've actually made it the whole 30 days. Really proud of that!!

[melody]

Day 31

Breakfast- scallops cooked in coconut oil, 1/2 avocado, blueberries, big handful of red leaf lettuce.

Lunch- 2 slices of compliant turkey baloney, 2 carrots chopped into sticks, 1 tps fruit-sweetened raspberry jam &1 tbs almond butter mixed together as a dip, blueberries.

Dinner- I'm cooking butternut squash to make some soup and I'll probably do that with a salad.

I'm not sure if I'll eat fully compliant today or not. Throughout this whole thing I've looked forward to getting a dark chocolate sunbutter cup today, so I probably will walk to the store a bit later to get one. (I've decided only if I walk there though....no driving to get it).

But let me take a moment to look back at this month:

Successes

I did it!

I successfully cooked fish for the first time in my life

I cooked navrattan korma

Late night cravings are mostly eliminated

Not a big need to snack

I lost 4 of the 10 pounds that I had gained. (I gained them over the course of a month, so I had hoped they would be gone over the course of a month, but still a partial success!)

I found meat to eat that I don't hate

Slept 7-12hours every night

I feel less bloated

Areas for Improvement

Half because of work & half because of lack of discipline I go to bed & rise too late

Still cannot fit into most of my pants

Still have intermittent rash on skin. Cut back on eggs and that seems like it might have helped, but wondering if perhaps it's environmental (mold?)

Had some very cranky & moody days while on this that were not like me at all. Perhaps I was just super late to the "kill the world" phase? Doing better now.

While I was fully compliant with the food aspect, I failed some of the other areas in my Whole9 plan.

The Next 30 Days

My goal over the next 30 days will be to eat compliant most of the time.

I want to attempt to include dark chocolate into my diet again because I love it, but at a more moderate amount than before W30.

I plan to turn my computer off by 10pm every night. Work exceptions are possible, but ideally I will just get up earlier instead to do it.

Continue with my regular walking but perhaps build in more of a schedule.

Eat seafood at least 1x week.

Continue to take the time to plan & prepare healthy meals.

Set work goals & complete them.

Set maintenance/household/cleaning goals & complete them.

[melody]

DAY 32

I did off-road a little bit yesterday, and after today I will be writing over in the "Post-Whole30" section. But overall yesterday was a really good day and I ate mostly clean and spend time savoring the non-compliant treat that I had. It was a little too sweet. Today I've eaten clean so far.

Breakfast- leftover navrattan korma & leftover salad from last night (red leaf lettuce, tomato, avocado, macadamia nuts, fresh cherries, lemon juice)

Planning to eat mostly if not all clean today.