Allison's Whole 30 Log

[Aliem999]

Hello!

A little about me. I have done a handful of Whole30s before (I believe 4), including a modified reintroduction the first time I did my Whole30. Some of the benefits I saw were better sleep and weight loss. It has been over two years since I did my last Whole30. During that time I was pregnant and had my daughter who is closing in on one and a half years old. I was lucky enough to be off of work 8 months after her birth and during that time I did a lot of cooking, that was generally healthful and had lost most of the baby weight. I had about 8 pounds to go.

When I started back up at work, that all changed. I gained back almost all of the baby weight (including the actual baby and such) within eight months of starting work. By the holidays I was (and am) about the same weight I was when I was 7-8 months pregnant! A lot of it had to do with the reduction in exercise I got from running errands, chores and playing with the baby I did all day. The larger part had to do with the fact that during my pregnancy I lost control with my eating habits and when I went back to work, my eating was terrible. I was eating out all the time, McDonalds breakfasts, and my husbands cooking included things like pasta and huge portions (btw, super yummy). But at the end of the day, it was my fault for not at least controlling my portions and not packing servings of veggies with me at work to cut down on the unhealthy options.

I wanted to gain control back, lose the sweet tooth I gained when I was pregnant (seriously I have no idea where that came from, before I was pregnant I really was not huge on sweets), lose weight and just feel better all around. Weight has always been something I struggled with, but until I got pregnant I had never been above 145 pounds (5'2'' and pretty curvy so somewhere around 125 pounds was where I strived to be previously). On Day one of this Whole30 journey, I am starting at a whooping 166.5 pounds, with a goal of trying to be down to 140 by the end of March.

This is also a crazy time at work for me. The next three months I will likely be working 60+ hours a week through the end of March. I did spend a decent amount of time over my Christmas break making some freezer meals. I made double batches of chili, chicken soup, and red sauce and about 10 pound bag of sweet potatoes, though my daughter will probably make a huge dent in the potatoes. She just loves sweet potatoes! Here are a quick summary of my first two days;

Day 1: Hard boiled eggs, dipped in spicy mustard, pork chorizo sausage, and strawberries mixed with coconut flakes for breakfast. I realized after I food prepped for this week that my breakfast is missing veggies. I will have to fix that next week. For lunch I had peppers and onions and sausage. It's one of my favorites. Dinner was a Kale salad with broccoli slaw mixed in and a compliant Cesar dressing. I tossed on it some roasted veggies, avocado, and salt and pepper pork. I did wind up snacking a lot today. Dried fruit and in the shell pistachios. Something I plan to work on. After dinner I also snacked on some roasted potatoes. Overall felt pretty good to get back on track. I also hit my 10k step goal today.

Day 2: Expected to wake up feeling awful. Surprisingly felt energized. I thought I would have terrible headaches and lethargy because my diet before was terrible. When I did my previous Whole30s my diet before was not so bad. Sure there were days I binged on nachos, but overall I would guess my diet was 80% compliant and the only reason why it was that low is because I usually ate unsweetened Greek yogurt or oatmeal with breakfast. I started my work day off well. My client has a walking treadmill so I spent my first hour at work catching up on emails and working while getting in some steps. I crushed my 10k steps and actually had over 13k! I don't think I will hit my 10k goal everyday, but so far a great start. My meals were the same. I added pistachios to my lunch and that really cut down on the snacking on dried fruit. Made my salad at dinner a bit bigger and felt full. Overall I felt great, definitely looked less bloated and had a great day!

Thanks for listening and I will update tomorrow on my Day 3 (but so far so good).

Allison

[Aliem999]

Day 3

Day three was not bad overall. I did start to get a little bit of a headache around 11. It was not bad enough to consider taking medication, but enough to be annoying. It did however go away after drinking a cup of coffee. Yum!

Overall my food was the same as the previous days, but I did not wind up snacking! Except for about 20 minutes before dinner, I never felt hungry during the day, I somehow managed to get 15k steps in thanks to the hour of the walking desk. Way more than I thought I would. I don't think its sustainable, but hopefully it helps for the time being.

I also realized today that I never took starting measurements so I opted to do them today including my weight so that I would have complete data. The good news is, I have already lost 3.5 pounds! Granted I know that is probably all water weight, but it still feels good to know I am heading in the right direction. Anyway, the "starting" results are as follows:

Weight: 163 pounds

Waist: 32.25 (ouch)

Hips: 42.25

Chest: 41

Now I don't expect crazy results (though I am trying to up my activity levels, despite the crazy work hours). But I figured it would be nice to know. I have also immediately noticed that my resting heart beat this morning was 62. That's the lowest its been since I started tracking it a few months ago and has been in the low 60s since the start of my Whole30 journey. Previously I was all over the place. Generally in the mid to high 60s but I have had stressful weeks that have brought it up into the 70s.

Overall my energy has not been terrible. I switched to drinking teas twice a day. I started getting into my habit of drinking lots of diet coke (and boba teas) in the fall (I quit coffee except for on occasion a few years ago after I developed a very unhealthy relationship with it for many year, often drinking 6 cups a day!) Hopefully I don't rely on coffee too much, because I know I have a lot of late nights in my future. It also doesn't help that the baby stopped sleeping through the night on Monday. Maybe a tooth is coming in. Only time will tell.

This is a longer post than expected, but hopefully helpful to know a bit more background. Here is to a great day 4!

[nutburger]

Congrats on 3 successful days so far! We have similar heights/ and I had the same starting measures/weights.  I am sure all the prep you did over Christmas will pay off during those crazy work weeks :). Good luck on the rest of your journey!

[Aliem999]

1 hour ago, nutburger said:

Congrats on 3 successful days so far! We have similar heights/ and I had the same starting measures/weights.  I am sure all the prep you did over Christmas will pay off during those crazy work weeks :). Good luck on the rest of your journey!

Thanks! I actually read yours as well. I actually have an Equinox pass as well (but I am in Orange County, California). It has been so hard to use it this last year after having my daughter. I really want to get back in at least a day or two a week. Especially since I can walk to the gym from work, if we work in the office over the weekend, and it's only two blocks away during the week when I am at my client! I really have no excuse! I really miss the classes. It's cool that I am only a few days behind you!

[Aliem999]

Day 4

Day 4 started off great. I got my hour in on the treadmill desk, so overall I had over 14k steps, which felt great. My food was pretty much the same as the past few days. Eggs, chorizo sausage, and strawberries with coconuts in the morning. Lunch was the peppers and onions with sausage and pistachios on the side, though I did not put enough meat in my lunch.

Then around three PM i was just exhausted. I hit the dried mangoes hard. Probably had 2-3 servings. Didn't wind up getting coffee, but I really felt like I should have, even though I really don't want to drink coffee every day (even though I miss my daily coffee). I feel like part of it is the hours I am working (I have been getting into work around 8:15, leaving around 6 to put my daughter to bed and prep dinner and then getting back online around 7:30 and working until around 10pm), another is my daughter sill is not sleeping well since I went back to work after the Christmas break, and lastly, my protein for lunch should have definitely been more. I just really hope my daughter goes back to sleeping through the night soon. I don't know how long I can deal with no sleep with everything else going on.

Dinner was great. I still had my kale salad with avocado and leftover roasted veggies. Since it was the last day on the pork, I crisped it up in some ghee. Soooo yummy. Forgot my husband was having a friend over so I ate my salad and watched them have pizza from a super yummy place and a pecan roll from an awesome local bakery. I was jealous, but surprisingly not overwhelmingly jealous.

Was Day 4 successful? Yes. Was I proud of what I achieved? Yes. How am I feeling? OMG I JUST NEED SLEEP!!!!!

[Aliem999]

Day 5

Yesterday I felt pretty good. Definitely still tried so I stopped and got coffee on my way to work. Breakfast was the same as the past few days. Eggs, chorizo sausage, and strawberries with coconuts in the morning. Lunch was the peppers and onions with sausage and pistachios on the side. I did a much better job with the portion size so at 6:30 when it came time to eat, I was not really hungry. I had some of my chili I prepped over Christmas (maybe a cup) with some avocado. It was a pretty small meal, but I just was not hungry. Well 9PM came around and I was suddenly starving! It probably did not help that I was watching Top Chef! So I whipped up an Aidell's Chicken Apple Sausage and an over easy egg. I did not know until reading others' posts that those sausages were compliant. My daughter loves them so we always buy them! I will definitely be adding those to me in the future! I did not wind up treading while I worked, but I still managed to get 9k steps in.

Overall (after the coffee) today was pretty good. I did feel energized, but I also feel like that is mostly due to the coffee. It has definitely got a lot harder to stick to it, but I have done it before, so I know I can do it. I just realized that that one of my last days on the plan is the Super Bowl. It is going to be really hard that day to stick to the last few days.

[Aliem999]

Whew. This weekend was rough so here is my weekend update.

Day 6

Saturday I had to go into the office for much of the day. I made hash browns, eggs and the Aidell's Chicken and Apple Sausage for breakfast and had strawberries and coconuts after I got into work. We ordered chipolte so I got a carnitas bowl. Dinner was chili I made over the holidays with some avocado. I really was not that hungry in the evening. Overall Saturday was pretty good (if I didn't have to work.) The baby is sick and is not really sleeping well. By 9 PM she was in bed with me. She slept horribly so I slept horribly...

Day 7

Soooooo tired. Though I am pretty sure that is because the baby is sick and I may be following in her footsteps. I wound up taking a nap at 4:30 for two hours after she fell asleep on me. I made hash browns, eggs and the Aidell's Chicken and Apple Sausage for breakfast again. By the time 10:30 came around I was already in my car to shop for next week. I was also suddenly starving. I had double hambuger from in n out (with all of the compliant add ons) in my car while the baby slept. Food prepped for a few hours in the afternoon. Once again, was not very hungry so I just had some chili and avocado and went to bed early. The baby joined me at around 1 AM. Better than yesterday, but still not great for my sleep. 

[Aliem999]

Ugh! Yesterday I read the spice blend I used on the potatoes I ate on Day 1 and Day 3 and it contained parmesan! I made them for dinner before I did the Whole30 and did not check the label of the spice blend before having them on the Whole30. I normally don't use spice blends, but since I spent the day before my Whole30 food prepping, I didn't want to pull out all of my spices after hours in the kitchen. So I saw the spice blend my husband uses and didn't think twice. Also, the ice tea I ordered at lunch today had sugar in it. I only had a sip, but ugh!

Ultimately I decided not to start over. I did not mean to and the spice blend is definitely not parmesan heavy and I hardly think the sip of tea I had will impact my overall journey. Plus the tea was from a super healthy place, so I suspect that they would have used something more natural like cane syrup or agave. Not a great excuse, but I did not mean to!

I need to be way more careful. All of this reminded me that I definitely need to check my labels better.

[Aliem999]

Day 8

So yesterday I felt defeated after the tea and the spice blend from my previous post. Besides the sip of tea, I was 100% compliant. on this weeks menu is eggs and sausage over a potato and pepper hash with salsa and guac and a side of mini cucumbers. One of my favorite Whole30 breakfasts. Lunch is smoked pulled pork from Costco with compliant BBQ sauce, roasted zucchini, small serving of sweet potato, coleslaw and berries with coconut. I have found that this is a huge meal. I wasn't really hungry for dinner but I did have some chicken soup and a small portion of spaghetti squash with some of the meat sauce I made over Christmas. I may have to freeze some of this because with the large lunch, I don't think I will get through the tub by the end of the week. I'll make that decision tomorrow. 

Overall, I am glad that my first week is done, even with the missteps, but I am going to put it behind me. The amounts were negligible over the grand scheme of things. So I am going to move on. They were early on in the 30 days, so I should still reap the benefits.

My energy was great yesterday! Yay! Especially with the lack of sleep I have been getting due to a sick baby and large workload. I am very happy about that. Also, I do feel like I am seeing weight results. I managed to get my 10k steps in. Hopefully today, I will get some time on the treadmill desk today.

[Aliem999]

Day 9

I think I am going insane. After finding out I screwed up, I have been beyond careful about what I eat. I was reading the board at lunch time and frozen hash browns were brought up as possibly non-compliant. After reading that I swore mine were one of the many that were more than potatoes. They weren't by the way. Only organic potatoes in my frozen hash browns. I also re-read the what happens if you mess up (https://whole30.com/2014/06/really-start-whole30/). I think I may extend my whole30 into a whole33, since I ate the potatoes with the trace amounts of Parmesan in the seasoning on day 3. I think the accidental sugar I will just get over. Plus I don't know why I am making such a big deal about it this time, when my second whole30 I had a sip of iced coffee I ordered unsweetened, but it wasn't and I did not make a big deal of it. We will see.

Meals:

Breakfast (7:30 AM): eggs and sausage over a potato and pepper hash with salsa and guac

Snack (eaten throughout the morning): fruit (at a morning meeting), mini cucumbers, strawberries and blueberries with coconut flakes)

Lunch (12 PM): smoked pulled pork from Costco with compliant BBQ sauce, roasted zucchini, small serving of sweet potato, coleslaw

Snack (3 PM?): Carrots and plantain chips with guac and salsa

Dinner?(8 PM): Crispy prosciutto

Anyway, after about lunch I was sooooo bloated yesterday. It still has not gone this morning. Since I have done this before, I know it will only happen for a few days. The sooner the better. Also, I went kinda off the rails today with the snacking. Not because I was hungry, but because I just wanted to. Because of that I did not really have dinner. I really need to stop doing that. Another day is in the books. Hopefully today (typing this on day 10) is better!

[Aliem999]

Day 10

Yay! One third done (unless I add a few days onto the end of my whole30). Day 10 went great. Did an hour on the tread deck and had over 15k steps today! Wow! It feels empowering to get my steps in and work long hours. Also, by the end of day 10, my bloating had gone down severely. I am surprised that I am not really having any cravings, especially since my team has eaten very unhealthy things for some meals and we have a mound of snacks in our room (though I will say I snagged a chocolate rice crispy treat to have after my whole30. I have never seen them before, so it's more out of curiosity than OMG I NEED TO HAVE YOU NOW!

Meals:

Breakfast (7:30 AM): eggs and sausage over a potato and pepper hash with salsa and guac

Lunch (12 PM): smoked pulled pork from Costco with compliant BBQ sauce, roasted zucchini, small serving of sweet potato, coleslaw, strawberries and blueberries with coconut flakes

Dinner (7:30 PM): small portion of spaghetti squash with some of the meat sauce, once slice of prosciutto

[Aliem999]

Day 11 Done!

Energy has been great! I have been super happy. I had over 14k steps and overall have just been high on life, even though I have been having long stressful days at work plus a sick baby. I have had a handful of small zits pop through, but probably not more than usual. Overall things have been pretty smooth. No crazy cravings, no mood swings (even though I don't normally have mood swing). Meals:

Breakfast (7:30 AM): eggs and sausage over a potato and pepper hash with salsa and guac

Snack: (11 AM): handful of dried mangoes

Lunch (12 PM): smoked pulled pork from Costco with compliant BBQ sauce, roasted zucchini, small serving of sweet potato, coleslaw, strawberries and blueberries with coconut flakes

Dinner (7:30 PM): small portion of spaghetti squash with some of the meat sauce, bowl of pineapple

[Aliem999]

Day 12

Yesterday was pretty good. Still been very happy and energetic. Over 15k steps (actually 12 away from 16k!). Today probably was not the healthiest, but all compliant. I figured it was Friday and I did not have to work until 10pm! Probably not a great reason to treat myself. Also, my husband cooked a yummy dinner for us. Hoping this good feeling continues.

Breakfast (7:30 AM): Eggs and sausage over a potato and pepper hash with salsa and guac

Lunch (12 PM): Double char burger from the Habit, lettuce wrapped with avocado. Carrots, cucubers and a few plantain chips with salsa and guac

Dinner (6:30 PM): Huge steak, garlic spinach and mushrooms

Late Night Snack (8:00): 2 crispy prosciutto and pineapple. I definitely did not need this snack, but it sure was yum!

[Aliem999]

Wow. Today going into work I was going to stop by Starbucks for a compliant drink. But after I got gas and was nearing the Starbucks, I was like nah. I don't really need or want Starbucks, so I stopped at the Dollar store (in the same shopping center as the Starbucks) and got a water bottle instead. I don't think I have ever passed up Starbucks, especially since I have a free drink voucher! Crazy since during my first two whole30s I was addicted to coffee and was going to Starbucks almost every day (venti iced coffee, unsweetened. I usually did not even have to wait for it, because the baristas knew me and would start making it as I came in the door) Now that I have quit regular coffee two years ago and it is now more of a treat (even though plain coffee or tea is not unhealthy), I just decided I did not need it today. Crazy.

[Aliem999]

Day 14

Breakfast (8:30 AM): Don't remember. I am human, but I do remember I did have some berries with coconut and the leftover crispy prosciutto. So maybe some hard boiled eggs too?

Lunch (12 PM): Chipotle bowl

Dinner (6:30 PM): small portion of spaghetti squash with some of the meat sauce

Day 15

Breakfast (8:30 AM): Hash browns, eggs with lots of spinach and onion, topped with salsa and guac.

Lunch (12 PM): Spaghetti squash with some of the meat sauce. I also had some pineapple around 3 just to clean out the fridge for this weeks meal prep

Dinner (6:30 PM): very small portion of spaghetti squash with some of the meat sauce just to finish it. Was hungry a bit later so I made hash browns, one egg, crispy prosciutto and a little bit of salsa and guac. Definitely over did it, but oh so yum!

Weekend was pretty good. I had 10k+ steps both days. I have been feeling great! I meal prepped on Sunday. Not too much to report, but on Saturday I did go on the roof of my building. I was surprised at the number of flights it took for me to start breathing harder. Went up 9 flights in total, and did not need to take a break at all. I was mainly surprised because besides the walking I definitely do not work out like I use to. Before I was pregnant 2 years ago I was definitely fit and probably would have gone up the stairs, without heavier breathing.

[Aliem999]

Day 16

Past the halfway mark, though I am about 95% sure that I want to extend it the extra three days due to my accidental, minuscule amount of cheese I did not even noticed I consumed. However that is mostly because my end date is on a Tuesday and I might as well meal prep through Friday. If my 30 days were up on a Thursday, I would probably be a lot less likely to continue the extra few days. Though I do plan on trying to be 90-95% compliant through the end of my busy season (end of March). I have been feeling really good and I do know that I can more easily lose weight on a Whole30/paleo/low carb diet, which is definitely a huge goal for me (and yes, not a goal of the Whole30). The energy I have is great though and I definitely want to keep that part up, especially with so many hours going to work. Now my meals:

Breakfast (8:00 AM): Hard boiled eggs, sausage, strawberries with coconut (Yes. I know this week is no veggies for breakfast again. If I get hungry, I have some carrots and cucumbers at work I can munch on too)

Lunch (12 PM): Veggie scramble with avocados and breakfast potatoes. Forgot the dressing (i.e. fat) for my salad. Luckily my team ordered from a place I could order from. One of my favorite lunch places, but unfortunately, no lunch items for me, since most of them would take a lot of customization and we have it delivered so I do not want to take the chance :/

Dinner (6:30 PM): Small bowl of chili and avocado. I have not been too hungry at dinner time, though I did have some of my leftovers from lunch around 4. I was stuffed at lunch, but oddly got hungry (definitely hungry, not bored) around 4.

Over all a good day. Had 15k steps! I did not think I would keep the steps up, but I am super happy that I have been so far.

[Aliem999]

Day 17

Breakfast (8:00 AM): Hard boiled eggs, sausage, strawberries with coconut

Lunch (12 PM): Homemade cobb salad with primal greek dressing (obviously no cheese :/)

Snack (3:00) : Handful each of dried mangoes and pistachios.

Dinner (6:30 PM): Small bowl of chili and avocado.

Wow. For some reason I was very tired today. Maybe I need to up the carbs at breakfast/lunch. Last week I did eat a decent portion of potatoes at breakfast and a small portion of sweet potatoes at lunch. However, the mangoes did not really seem to help and that is like all sugar. I have already meal prepped this week so I will probably just ride it out. It could also be my sleep. My daughter is still not consistently sleeping through the night since she got sick a week and a half ago (took her to the doctor and it's bronchitis again, so she will likely have several more weeks of a bad cough) Not really under my control so maybe I'll just have to get some coffee a day or two this week. I passed out the second I closed my computer at 10pm, though it probably did not help I was working in my bed at that point. 15k steps today again! Yay! At least there is some victory.

[Aliem999]

Day 18

Breakfast (8:00 AM): Hard boiled eggs, sausage, strawberries with coconut

Lunch (12 PM): Homemade cobb salad with primal greek dressing and a side of pork (I also had the pork yesterday, but forgot to include it in my log)

Dinner (6:30 PM): Small bowl of chili and avocado.

Well I don't think my energy is due to the lack of starches. While I was not as energized as last week, Day 18 was much better than Day 17. So I am for sure going to ride this week out and reassess this weekend. Also, my clothes are definitely fitting way better! I have some dresses that at larger sizes that are definitely getting loose. Maybe not ready to size down, but I have a feeling by the end of the 30 days I may be able to add some of my older dresses back in! Whooo! I am a little worried about next week. My food prep time this weekend will be very light so I am trying to come up with a very easy menu. I might be eating a lot of eggs. Don't really feel like the spaghetti squash that I already have, but I might just have to put up with it, because it is such low prep time.

[Aliem999]

Day 19

Breakfast (8:00 AM): Hard boiled eggs, sausage, strawberries with coconut

Lunch (12 PM): Homemade cobb salad with primal greek dressing and a side of pork (I also had the pork yesterday, but forgot to include it in my log)

Snack: Handful of dried mangoes

Dinner (6:30 PM): Small bowl of chili and avocado.

Energy was definitely better today. I did treat myself to a coffee in the afternoon. Probably need to stop doing that, but I love my black coffee! Overall I feel pretty good and I am definitely shrinking! Definitely not going to be back to my pre-baby weight anytime soon, but maybe i can get close to the weight I was before going back to work in April. I would love to be able to get back into some of my older clothes. Getting tired of the handful of items I can fit into, but even these little gains are helping bring my self confidence back up. I can't believe there is only a week and a half left!

[Aliem999]

Day 20

Breakfast (8:00 AM): Hard boiled eggs, sausage, strawberries with coconut

Snack: Handful of dried banana chips

Lunch (12 PM): Homemade cobb salad with primal greek dressing and a side of pork, roasted potatoes

Snack: some salsa with 1/2 an avocado mashed in, eaten with carrots, jicima chips and plantain chips

Dinner (6:30 PM): Steak with roasted brussell sprouts and side salad

Holy moly I overdid it on the food. I ate my snack thinking I wouldn't have dinner or at the very least have a very small dinner. When I got home, I remembered my husband was going to cook us steaks. Whoops. I definitely was not hungry in the morning after eating all of this food. I can't believe I am only 10 days away from completing my Whole30! My energy is definitely better now, but just in case I think I am going to add some starches to my breakfast next week. I found a recipe for sweet potato "pancakes". I think for a lot of people this may be SWYPO, though I can't imagine these will be as sweet as the banana version of these. Also, I am really not a huge pancake fan, it is more just trying to put the already mashed sweet potatoes into a form that I can eat in the car. I definitely wont be eating these with anything sweet, maybe ghee at the most if they wind up being dry. I don't really want to purchase a nut butter for these when I don't eat much nut or peanut butter in my non-whole30 life and my family really only eats the peanut variety.

I can't believe that I am already on day 20. However, from experience, I know there will be a day or two this upcoming week that will be really difficult and of course the infamous day 28 is on super bowl Sunday....as mentioned previously, this is going to be a hard weekend to food prep. Might try to do some tonight to make tomorrow easier. Hopefully this won't be a perfect storm to cheat. Wish me luck!

[Aliem999]

So I realized I missed a Day 13, so I have been off with my numbering.....anyway....

Day 20 (for real this time)

Breakfast (8:00 AM): Egg, hash browns, sausage and melon

Lunch (12 PM): Double char burger from the Habit, lettuce wrapped with avocado. Strawberries with coconut.

Dinner (6:30 PM): leftover steak, hash browns, and snacked during my meal prep on food I was making.

 

Day 21:

Breakfast (8:00 AM): Egg, hash browns and sausage

Lunch (12 PM): Small bowl of chili

Snack (2:30): Turkey stick and dried apples

Dinner (5:30 PM): Went to souplantation for my Dad's birthday. He loves that place, even though we always offer to take him somewhere nicer. Huge salad with lots of egg. Baked potato (brought ghee from home) with green onions and a few orange slices.

Overall my eating was pretty hectic (although compliant this weekend). It was such a crazy weekend. Definitely several meals that were not the meal template. On Saturday I literally ate a plate of steak and then was starving so I made hash browns after I put my daughter to bed when I food prepped.Sunday was worse. We were barely at home so I had like 30 minutes to get my daughter fed and eat my chili before throwing some snacks in my purse and running back out the door. At least I was not tempted to eat off plan, which would have been easy to do since we did a quick stop at Costco and samples were everywhere and my daughter definitely had a few. Energy has been pretty good again. As I get closer to Day 30, the idea of extending it a few days, especially if my team gets something I really like for lunch or dinner, seems harder and harder. Hopefully they will get less yummy options and I will stick to it for the Whole33.

[Aliem999]

Day 22:

Breakfast (8:00 AM): sausage, sweet potato "pancakes" and strawberries with coconut

Lunch (12 PM): Cobb salad. This week I am adding chicken to it.

Snack (3:30): Dried mangoes and pistachios

Dinner (7:30 PM): Mexican inspired cauliflower rice with ground beef

I really need to stop snacking. I wasn't even hungry this time and by the time dinner came around, I was not really very hungry so I opted not to open up the guac and had a small portion. Energy is great again. I had over 14k steps! Probably TMI but Aunt Flo came a visited today and buy does my back hurt, but my cramps are pretty minimal. Not sure if it's just normalizing since I had my baby or if the Whole30 helped. It may also explain the handful of pimples on my chin last week. My skin has been pretty clear (minus my chin) since starting the Whole30, but I also started a new skincare routine in December, so it may just be that. I did notice before the Whole30 that my skin was doing much better. I generally don't get a lot of acne, but when I do, they are massive! All except one I had on my chin were pretty minor. I also have a suspicion that those may be a result of the hand lotion I have been using and I regularly rest my chin on my hands. At least the tube is almost gone. I really hate to waste, but I really did not care for this brand (it was a gift.) Getting so close to the end of this! I am clearly losing a ton of weight. Hopefully I can stay relatively on track after this. I think eating 90% Whole30 will hopefully get me to my weight loss goals and keep me energized on top of it all!

[Aliem999]

P.S. Those pancakes aren't terrible. I have never made the banana ones, but these are not very sweet. At least for me, not a substitution for pancakes, but I may make them after the While30 because my daughter seems to really love them. I have been eating them plain and cold. I think they would probably be better with something on them, but I definitely don't want to cross the line, nor do I really care for pancakes in the morning anyway (though I do really love a good Belgium waffle with tons of butter and syrup).

[Aliem999]

Day 22

Breakfast (8:00 AM): sausage, sweet potato "pancakes" and strawberries with coconut

Lunch (12 PM): Cobb salad. This week I am adding chicken to it.

Snack (3:30): Dried mangoes and pistachios

Dinner (7:30 PM): Mexican inspired cauliflower rice with ground beef with some guac

Whooooooo! Someone at my work asked me if I was losing weight. It is definitely pretty obvious now. I felt sooooooo good! My energy dropped again around three so I tried snacking again. It did not work, but at least I did not try coffee again. I really think it was interfering my sleep so I am resolving not to have coffee past lunch. Maybe I'll experiment and see if a little later will work, but 3:30 was too late.  This Whole30 is going was faster than my others. Usually by now, I would be pretty tired of my Whole30 options. I don't think I have been eating more varied this time around, especially because previous times I did not have a family, so I could just spend all Sunday food prepping. I am going to still food prep every week, though this weekend will be even harder than last so I will probably rely on my freezer meals very heavily next week. My lack of time this week may derail extending it an extra few days, but I am certainly going to try.

Also, I found out that plantain chips (unless homemade) as of last year are no longer considered compliant. I must have missed that when I reread the rules before starting. I am fully aware I have eaten them sparingly through my Whole30 and still plan on eating them this weekend during the Super Bowl party we are going to. All of the ingredients are technically compliant (and they were within the rules of my previous Whole30s). I get it. It's like commercially prepared french fries. If (more like when) I do another Whole30, I will omit them. I really don't see how the plantain chips would be worse than a larabar or some other approved convenience bars (I love jerky, but I really can't get over the texture of the epic bars) that I would likely have to rely on at a Super Bowl party I would have to throw in my purse since we will be out of the house around 9:30 that day and I really don't want to pack a cooler. So I realize it's wrong. I have been doing it. I am almost done with my Whole30. It's not going to be perfect. Oh well. Knowing that they aren't complaint I definitely should not be eating them this weekend, but I personally do not feel like the alternative would be much, if at all better. We are locked into what we are bringing to the party. I work on Saturday and then I am being picked up from work and going to an event for the rest of the day/night so I really have very little time to prep for something else. Yes there are alternatives. Yes I am wrong. Will I do it again on a future Whole30, no. I will at least not get carried away. I have only purchased one bag of them and it still has at least half of them left. Moving on.....

[Aliem999]

Day 24 (Whoops. Did day 22 twice. I am really bad at this whole numbering thing)

Breakfast (8:00 AM): sausage, sweet potato "pancakes" and strawberries with coconut

Lunch (12 PM): Cobb salad. Forgot my avocado today. Added a bit more egg and chicken. At least there was fat in the dressing. Probably not the full thumbs worth. Weird how this lunch kept me much more full. I wasn't even hungry at dinner time.

Dinner (7:30 PM): Mexican inspired cauliflower rice with ground beef with some guac

Today was pretty good. I did have two cups of coffee this morning. I was soooooo tired day 23. I was out from 10:30 to 7. Turned off my 6:30 alarm even and it was a rare day that the baby slept past 6:30. She is usually up around 6:10! My morning tread and work session did wake me up a bit, but I definitely grabbed a coffee after. I feel like I have been in a groove. Definitely still worried about this weekend and the last few days of my Whole30. Might go grocery shopping late on Friday to get stuff for next week. I do have frozen stuff, but I don't really want to do that for 100% of my meals next week. Hopefully my team goes to a few places that are easy to be complaint next week. I don't mind going to most restaurants and finding compliant stuff. However, it makes me really nervous to order it from an ordering service and just hope they take your requests. As long as I make it to Tuesday, I will be happy, though I really do want to make it to Friday to make up for my accidental transgressions on Day 2 and 3.

On a side note, it is awesome to hear about people that finished yesterday! Way to go!