Making this a Lifetime thing

[NinjaSarah]

So, I'm moving over to Post Whole30 Log. I did a Whole16, was looking at doing a w30 to reset after the holidays, and who knows, maybe I'll still go the 30 days compliant. But just in case I choose to off-road, encounter an f-off food or make not the best choice as I work to incorporate the overall Whole9 into my life...better to be here, instead of confusing a 1st timer.

Food:

I know from my first Whole30, I can consume Some dairy (butter) ok. But too much=ugh. Grains...gluten grains cause some physical upset, break outs and bloat. Fortunately, I can still bake and eat 1 or two cupcakes. I just limit myself to that 1 or two. And as always, really enjoy it. I still like, and use, the "Get downright romantic with your food" idea

I truly enjoy the meals/ingredients/websites I've been exposed to thru W30. (shout out to NomNom and ClothesMaketheGirl!) It's not really that hard, but letting oneself get caught up in the Idea that it's more work, that's easy. Something to work on. Even in between the Whole30s my eating out habits improved. One, I didn't eat out nearly as often. When I did, I enjoyed local eateries that really know their stuff. No fast food. Only once, when sick and desperate I ate Zoup chicken soup. I will continue to quash the snack monster.

Sleep:

Need to continue to work on my sleep. My space needs to be darker. In the winter I use a humidifier, and damn that light is bright and hard to block. A combination of dark cloth and duct tape dims it, but it's still there. And I need thicker curtains, my neighbors have returned to leaving their porch light on all night. And weekends, I'm still not so great about keeping consistent with my weekday sleep behaviors.

Fun&Play/Socialization: To me, these are intertwined. This time of year, as much as I love winter, these are hard for me. I like Looking at winter, not necessarily being out in it I'm having some upheaval/changes in my social group so the play/fun aspect has been mostly a party of one. I dance around the house all goofy like when I'm home alone. I'm reading more, and working on brain puzzles. Aside from walking to and from work everyday, physical activity is pretty low.

Our household has also turned off the cable. This helps, because even though I say I only watch a few shows consistently, I am someone who can get sucked in and loose chunks of time to that contraption.

Nat. Environment: I appreciate nature. As said above, I appreciate Winter nature from a comfy warm blanket and couch kind of setting. Spring/summer/fall-gardening, walking,biking. Looking to embrace a few more ideas this new year. There's a group that does outdoor Tai Chi, will be looking into that. Since my early 20's I've been a pretty consistent user of sunblock, and I honestly don't think that'll change any time soon. Will look into other ways for upping Vit D. I do get outside when it's nice as much as possible...

So yeah, to sum this novel up working on making this an actual Life. Not just a reset button used throughout the year. I've seen physical benefits just after those 1st thirty days. My body comp change was amazing, for me. My mood, so much improved. My skin, sleep, mental wellbeing, greatly improved. I want to keep this going. If 30 days can do that with just enforcing One aspect, Nutrition, then what could a lifetime incorporation of all nine do? A perfect WholeLife? Nope. A perfect for me Whole9Life? That's what I'm shooting for.

[Tom Denham]

Sounds good!

[NinjaSarah]

http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/4110-ninja-on/page__hl__ninja__fromsearch__1

For my own future reference. Kind of forgot about my first Post Whole30 log when I created this new one.

[NinjaSarah]

Yesterday:

Morning: scrambled eggs in ghee, 1/2 avocado and salsa. Black coffee, 1 3/4 cup.

Afternoon: chicken salad with homemade mayo and greens. Grabbed an apple and sunbutter to bring back to work, just in case, but didn't eat.

Evening: Spaghetti squash with grass fed grd beef and compliant spaghetti sauce. Abt a 1/4 of a large squash. Water.

ES: Hot tea, half an apple, warmed with cinnamon and coconut butter.

Sleep: eh, kept waking up throughout the night. Like Wide awake awake.

Activity/Nature-walk to and from work, x2 with lunch. Cold but pretty with sunlight and snow.

Fun: not optimal perhaps, but indulged in a little Puppycam link friend sent me, and a phone game.

Self improvement: started reading Shop Class as Soulcraft.

Today:

Morning: scrambled eggs, ghee, pork sausage. Half banana, blueberries, blackberries. 1 1/2 cps black coffee.

Afternoon: leftover spaghetti squash and meat sauce. La Croix.

Looking ahead to Evening: Don't have anything prepared and it's volunteer night. Poor planning on my part. So tonight I will possibly go off-road. I have an apple, dates and sunbutter here and will take it with me, along with a HB egg if I don't eat it this afternoon. Will not eat crap food just because it's there.

Ate hbegg with mayo before hand and took some peppermint tea. Wasn't tempted by all of the grain: pizza pizza pizza.

After: bowl of chicken soup a la'my sister, an apple and almond butter.

Activity: walking to and from work x2 as usual. Walk home & back for lunch crisp and sunny. Was nice to take off my hat and gloves and try to absorb a little bit of sun

Fun

Self Improvement: I volunteer weekly at a children's grief group. Can be oddly uplifting at times, emotional and heavy others.

[NinjaSarah]

Had a mini "vacation" this weekend. Watched my old neighbor's dogs at their new place. Like a Swiss Chalet. Especially with all of the snow we got of Friday! Oldest sister and niece came down, so we three sisters and niece went out to eat. They're doing their first Whole30, wanted to show this Is possible. We went to our favorite Mexican place and all got fajitas of some kind. One sister made it easy for the waitress and said no chips, tortillas, beans, sour cream, cheese or rice for any of us

They spent the night at my "vacation" house, we played games, had hot tea, chatted and enjoyed a nice fire. And the dogs too. This is how I get my canine fix, my cats won't allow me to have one, and they Really loved the extra attention they were getting from my niece. Saturday was a nice lazy day. Started teh day with eggs and coffee. My company got going noonish. Played with the dogs inside and out, there was some lovely sunshine going on, and a huge flock of geese was hanging out in the woods and on the river, that is in their backyard.

Don't remember what I ate for lunch I did take a nap at some point. Drank Lots of tea. Previously, dogsitting = snacking. This was/is hard to change. So lots and lots of tea. and ball throwing for the dogs.

Dinner: 1/4 head green cabbage cooked in coconut oil, with grass fed grd beef and spicy mustard. Taking a page out of Derval's book, all non-compliant foods here are in red. This wasn't compliant because it had sugar And honey in it, but it was what there was. I tried eating it plain, I really did. Green cabbage doesn't have quite the depth of flavor that Red has.

Evening indulgence: almond milk hot cocoa with a splash of whiskey

Was still hungry (may have been annoyance/nerves/cold, had a slight dog-related incident that scared the bejezus outta me so...) half an oven roasted sweet potatoe whipped up with a dollop of coconut milk, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Started my last lazy morning with eggs fried in duck fat. Oh. My. Goodness. Wow. Ate the other half of the sweet potatoe topped with an apple chopped up and sauteed in coconut oil and cinnamon. Black (STRONG) coffee. Wow.

And then met my foodie group for lunch Dim Sum. I won't list everything out, the taro dumpling was technically compliant, as was the taro square?/cake?/solid porridge???? The tea was compliant! It was good. I enjoyed myself and the company. Met some more new people, which is the point of belonging to this group. Felt a sugar/msg/gluten headache/rush coming on towards the end. I was originally going to treat myself to a bookstore trip and movie, but my innards said...Better not.

Took a heavy 1/2 hour nap, drank lots of water and wasn't hungry feeling again for the rest of the day. We ate at noon. Belly was bloated. So hey, I knew this was all a possibility, I made a choice to still go. I also now know there are some (not many but some) food options that I can eat at this restaraunt and not have issues with...

Overall, a good weekend. Finished one book, and nearly another. Stayed fairly unplugged (hence the long catch up here) and just enjoyed the beautiful sights and sounds of "country" life.

So, natural environment-Check; socialization-Check; Fun & Play-check; activity-light but check; self-improvement;check; nutrition-mostly check ; sleep-meh (no curtains and a full moon! at least no artificial light) plus one dog who thinks 6:30 IS sleeping in

[NinjaSarah]

Today, partly due to the awful weather-beautiful "Blizzard" on Friday and heavy snow yesterday, now 40s and rainy = slushy, icey, muddy awful mess. And partly do to how I ate off-plan yesterday, I've got a serious case of the Crankers.

Just meh. Still wasn't hungry when I woke up, sis cooked pork sausage, I nuked up a fluffy egg "souffle" . But I just couldn't eat it until 10, then I was ravenous. But still could only eat half. And didn't want my frozen berries or tangelo. Weird. Lunch, was Yesterday's leftovers. I know, I know, here I am, saying how not so good physically I felt after eating, and I'm grumpers today, yet I still ate them. They were good, what else can I say? (No, I know)

I did sleep wonderfully last night, even with the nap (it was 4ish I think when I had it), didn't wake up at all during the night.

Activity: the walk to work, then back again for lunch, was physical. As my sister said, it was like walking through wet sand. Plus water covered ice for stability exercise, large puddles/snow hills to jump or stretch over, and add in keeping an umbrella steady in the wind

[NinjaSarah]

Yesterday evening was a good one for fun/socialization. Met some awesome ladies for sushi. Great conversation, they're such upbeat people and genuine, can't help but smile and laugh when I hang out with them. Unintentionally had a nearly compliant meal. Did riceless rolls, with actual raw sushi, I usually stick to the psuedo-sushi Had some lovely Pinot Grigio and a couple splashes of tamari.

Slept fairly well. Something, possibly the storms, woke me up about 3:30 and I had a hard time getting back to sleep.

Today: breakfast was a sweet potatoe, coconut milk, raspberries and blackberries. 1 1/2 cps black coffee.

Activity, walking to and from work as usual. Also, really trying to stick with using the stairs. I had gotten complacent, I'm a little clumsy and winter boots aren't the easiest to walk up & down stairs in (mainly down) and was using the elevator more and more. Now, with increased usage, an entire bank of elevators is closed due to construction, they're slower, And since they have issues during the best of times (1 stops working at least once a month, Usually it's empty, but not always!)....I REALLY don't want to get stuck. It's only 4 floors so...

For fun/get out of the house...thinking about hitting store/movie tonight. but not positive. Stuff needs to get done around the house. But this freakish winter warm up is supposed to come to an abrupt end tomorrow evening, which usually means stay off the road conditions. We'll see.

[NinjaSarah]

So I made it through Superbowl Sunday, and did pretty well if I do say so myself . I made hot wings (thank you Frank's Red Hot sauce, such a simple list of ingredients) beefed up with some added spices and apple cider vinegar. Serious kick but soooo good. Also, for the first time, made paleo chocolate chip cookie bars. Went with bars becuase I didn't trust the cookie to hold it's shape. Baking with almond flour...still don't know the "science" of it like my traditional baking. Anywhoo, those went over Quite well with Everyone Had 1 Guinness, a couple of breadsticks our friend cooked up. Also, lime tortilla chips with Salsa. So, certainly not Whole30, but that's ok because I'm not on one. But certainly the least gluttoneous (sp?) and least gluten filled Superbowl party, for me, Ever. No evening long grazing. No eating until beyond stuffed and uncomfortable. No food hangover the next day. No hangover the next day Good times hanging out with friends.

Now my sis & her hubs are off to Vegas and I'm on my own for the week. Started my day with, what the hell can I eat that's FAST? One of those mornings, forgot to turn on the coffee pot (which led to my being late), cats were being difficult, put on the wrong leggings (after my sis had texted and said She grabbed the wrongs ones for the plane, oy!)...It's not Monday right? Mashed up 2 hardboiled eggs with avocado and mayo, dash of chipotle, Yum. Didn't go so well with coffee ( ) so ate all of it and Then finished the coffee.

[NinjaSarah]

Warning to any current Whole30ers, or fresh off the "program" This is my

Post

log, this day food-wise Totally

NonCompliant (

except lunch, that was spot on).

Yesterday was a great "Me" day. It was sunny outside, took the afternoon off. Went to a local shop, a little Italian place that has a bit of everything. Oils, a

Wall

of spices they'll scoop out for you, freshmade

cheese

and

pastries.

It's been quite a while since I've been there, I forget it's there half the time. But with Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday coming up, I felt like trying one of their

paczki.

Um,

wow

. It Smelled amazing as soon as I walked in, not just of baked goods but the overall store, just imbued with oils and herbs. Their paczki's are Much smaller than the commercially available ones. And totally on my F-off list. Yeah, totally getting up early on Tuesday to buy some for the office. The people here are going to eat them no matter what. So...why not support a local, amazing business, and eat lovingly made product (homemade doesn't = healthy, but...) rather than premade, mass-produced shipped in big business food.

Anywhoo...worked til 1, then skedaddled. Ate a yummy lunch of shredded pork/tex-mex salad creation. Snuggled with the cats, cleaned a bit. Then went out 'n about to take advantage of that sunshine! Bopped along to good music, got some goodies for the felines, spent some time at my local humane society (been Way too long) then stopped and bought some lovely tulips for the house. And some red wine, funny valentines for next week....and did my good deed. Some poor person's PT cruiser was wide open, with no person in sight, in the parking lot. let the greeter know. and then passed on a good word to the manager because that particular greeter is Always so nice.

Without going every little thing I did that made it a Great day, just have to say: Overall, closed out yesterday feeling pretty damn awesome.

[Derval]

Catching up on all the post logs now that I am this side too. Look fwd to following yours

[NinjaSarah]

Welcome back to the flipside Derval I did pop over to your latest W30 endeavor, I'm just not the best about commenting/letting people actually know I'm following them

This morning, felt like I got my natural environment/play/activity for the whole week. Shoveled my drive and walk way, about 6-8 inches of snow fell between 3a & 7a. Plus the lovely icey hill left at the end by the city plow. Then trekking in to work, felt like I was cross country skiing, minus the skis. It was an oddly wet snow, so heavy to lift, and slippery to walk in.

I loved it.

Sleep this entire week has been pretty shoddy. Home alone for the week, I just can't sleep with my door closed when I'm alone, so my room was Much brighter than normal.

Socialization: good week, 2 nights out with friends. Great times, poor food choices. Looking forward to jumping back on for a whole14 or so to reset. Upside (?) I've realized the fairly constant headaches I had previous to finding W30, were grain induced. After one particulary heinously/good meal (pasta, garlic bread And pizza, oyvey!) I freakin' felt hungover the next day! So lesson learned, an OCCASIONAL helping of this particular restaurant's amazing pizza-Worth it. A bachanal of AmericanItalian food? Not worth it.

Self-improvement: continuing to read Shop Class for the Soul; started reading Primal Blueprint; no grief-volunteer work, no families showed up last night due to weather so we all went home. But I did spend an hour at the Humane society Wednesday. No puppy pile (no puppies to pile up with), side note to anyone reading this-having a rough time? If you're not allergic, I highly recommend stopping into your local HS or shelter and finding some cuddly animals. Mood-immediately uplifted. Spent some time curled up with some cats.

Week overall: good mentally, emotionally and activity wise. Not the best nutriotion wise. However, while I was able to acknowledge that my slighty grumpy demeanor last night grew out of my food choices, I didn't beat myself up, or even think, "that was Bad, or I was Bad"...or any thoughts along those lines that I would previously have used to mentally pick on myself. I chose less than optimally, even knowing what may/would happen. But I chose. I'm not worth less because of it. I simply have a headache, and a less than happy gut. Both which will be addressed starting today.