ChiGalPaleo's Whole30

[chigalpaleo]

Day 1, not so bad. I've been eating Whole30 appropriate foods on for the past 2 weeks on weekdays so there wasn't a big change for me there. I didn't have a perfect night's sleep last night, I was a bit restless at times, but overall it was ok. I ate breakfast about 30 minutes after waking up which is somewhat difficult for me. I've been eating breakfast consistently for years now but I'm not usually hungry first thing in the morning.

I started feeling hungry around 10am today which was pretty early for lunch, but it was possibly triggered by the lemon poppyseed muffins that someone left out in the office. I'm trying really hard not to snack because that is something I struggle with, snacking when I'm just bored or emotional and not when I'm actually hungry. I'm trying to eat every 4-5 hours and with my commute I'll be stuck in traffic when my time for dinner rolls around, so I may need a little snack somewhere in there to hold me over. I bought a few PaleoKits so I'll likely start keeping those on hand for emergencies. At 360 calories per kit they're a little too much for a snack, so I would likely only eat half a bag at a time.

After lunch I definitely had a craving for something sweet, even with the kiwi. I've never considered myself a sweet tooth but taking away ALL added sugar has really opened my eyes and I realize I'm a bit more hooked than I thought.

I worked out at 6pm tonight, after dinner, and when I got home the hunger started kicking in big time around 8pm. I resisted, only having a few scraps of turkey while I was making my lunch for tomorrow, but it was tough!

Breakfast (6:25am): 2 eggs scrambled with coconut milk in coconut oil, diced yellow bell pepper, and caramelized onions. 1 breakfast sausage patty, 1/4 avocado, sauteed mushrooms, and brussels sprouts.

Breakfast Comments: I was really full and I didn't even finish all the brussels sprouts and mushrooms. I've been eating sauteed mushrooms for breakfast for the past couple weeks and I think it might be time to give those a rest because they weren't very appetizing for me today. I also wasn't a big fan of my brussels sprouts preparation this week. I made a great version last week, using The Paleo Mom's recipe and adding in some fennel. They were delicious, but the bacon I used wasn't Whole30 compliant. I need to place an order for some bacon from US Wellness Meats so I can make these brussels again!

Lunch (11:20am): Romaine lettuce leaves with homemade mayo, spicy brown mustard, grape tomatoes, and 4 oz. Applegate Farms Oven Roasted Turkey breast (from the deli counter). Small kiwi fruit, 1/4 avocado, carrots and celery.

Lunch Comments: I started making these little lettuce turkey wraps last week and I love them! I ran out of turkey for a couple days and substituted with Wild Planet tuna that I can buy in bulk (and cheap!) at Costco and they were equally as good. Since I used mayo on the wraps, I only ate 1/4 of an avocado with this meal. I was full and content but not stuffed, I'm really loving this lunch!

Dinner (5:00pm): Giant salad dressed with a little avocado oil and lime juice, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 small sweet potato, grape tomatoes, diced yellow bell pepper, and shredded chicken breast that was cooked in a crockpot with a jar of a Trader Joe's W30 compliant salsa.

Dinner Comments: This was an awesome salad and I LOVE this chicken. It's ridiculous how easy it is, just throw a few chicken breasts in the crockpot with 1 jar of salsa and set it on low for a few hours (depending on how much chicken you use). Once you can easily shred it with a fork, pull it out and make sure to pour all the juice on top! Makes for easy meals throughout the week and can be made in bulk and frozen for future use.

Sleep: 7.5 hours

Exercise: 50 minute class at Body R&D. This class was awesome! I got a deal for 5 classes through Gilt City and this was my first time going. I'm starting CrossFit on Sunday so I don't know how often I'll get to go but if you took this class on a regular basis you would definitely see some major changes in your body. Plus it's only a few blocks away from me so super convenient! If you're in Chicago and looking to change up your workout routine I highly recommend giving Body R&D a try!

**you can also find my posts at www.chigalpaleo.blogspot.com

[ORBren]

Beautiful meals. You are doing so well!

[chigalpaleo]

Beautiful meals. You are doing so well!

Thank you!! I hope I can keep with it!

[chigalpaleo]

First off I just wanted to say forgive my food pictures. My iPhone is the quickest and easiest way to capture my meals and get them to the blog and if I'm going to be logging everyday I'm going the easy route. I started this blog for my own logging purposes but if anyone is following along I want it to be beneficial to them as well! I hope that even though the quality isn't the best it's still better than no pictures!

On to Day 2. I had a solid night's sleep but I still didn't want to get out of bed on this dreary, rainy morning. On the upside it's 62° in January so I can't really complain! As expected I woke up not hungry and when I ate 45 minutes after waking up I still wasn't really hungry at all. I'm guessing that's how it's going to be for awhile, I'm just going to keep making myself eat within an hour or so of waking up and see what happens!

Today I have to go straight to the gym after work so I've brought along a PaleoKit and some extra veggies for a snack so I'm not dying at the gym. I realized that the PaleoKit pouches I have are half of the large bag, so only 180 calories and perfect for a little fuel to hold me over.

Breakfast (6:30am): 2 eggs scrambled with coconut milk in coconut oil, diced yellow bell pepper, and caramelized onions with a little tomato past on top. 1 breakfast sausage patty, 1/4 avocado, 1/2 small sweet potato, and brussels sprouts.

Breakfast Comments: Even with skipping the mushrooms and adding in a sweet potato, I wasn't all that happy with my breakfast. I don't know if it's just because I'm not very hungry or because I'm not a fan of my food. I think it's probably a little of both. This weekend I'm going to bake up some kind of breakfast casserole and give that a go next week.

Lunch (11:45am): Romaine lettuce leaves with homemade mayo, spicy brown mustard, grape tomatoes, and 4 oz. Applegate Farms Oven Roasted Turkey breast (from the deli counter). Blackberries, 1/4 avocado, carrots and celery.

Lunch Comments: Same as yesterday except the fruit, nothing too exciting, but it's a satisfying meal and I'm happy sticking with what I like!

Snack: Steve's Grass-fed PaleoKit, loose pack. I brought the carrots and celery along but only ended up eating the PaleoKit.

Dinner: Bowl of Well Fed Chocolate Chili with 1/2 avocado. Side salad dressed with a little red wine vinegar and avocado oil.

Dinner Comments: I was so hungry after my workout that I dug in before snapping a picture! This chili is definitely tastier after hanging out for a day, the flavors are awesome! I'll be honest, even though I know that the fats I'm eating are good for me, I'm always afraid I'm eating too much. I'm not really even fat-phobic but I guess old habits die hard! Since the beef I used for the chili was grass fed (Trader Joe's brand), I didn't drain the fat so hopefully I didn't have too much fat in this meal!

Sleep: 8 hours

Exercise: 30 minute training session at Kru Strength + Fitness. My trainer Alex is pretty awesome, check out his blog The Strength Game if you're looking for workout/nutrition tips along with a good sense of humor. I struggled through this workout because I was so sore from yesterday's Body R&D session. I was going to go back to Body R&D tomorrow but I might have to give it another day!

[Derval]

Your phptos are fine! but teeny tiny font!

[chigalpaleo]

Oops! Just copy/pasted from my blog and didn't even look after I posted. Thanks, all fixed

[chigalpaleo]

It's Day 3, I'm feeling pretty good about how smooth things have gone the past couple days-but I'm sure when the weekend rolls around I'll be singing a different tune. My cravings for cookies and cake have subsided (for now) and other than not being the biggest fan of my breakfasts this week I think I'm doing pretty well. Prior to starting the Whole30 I had been eating minimal dairy and gluten anyways so that wasn't a huge change for me. I'd say the oatmeal and the beans has been a bigger adjustment but the biggest adjustment has been the amount of meat I'm eating. Prior to the Whole30 it was rare that I ate meat everyday let alone every meal. Now that I'm sourcing all of my eggs and meat from grassfed/pastured animals I feel better about it but it's still just a little weird for me.

Breakfast (6:40am): 1 egg scrambled with diced yellow bell pepper in coconut oil with a little tomato paste on top. 1.5 breakfast sausage patties with tomato paste on top, 1/2 avocado, 1/4 medium sweet potato, and salad with grape tomatoes dressed with a little avocado oil and balsamic vinegar.

Breakfast Comments: I only ate 1/2 of the sweet potato pictured here and 1.5 sausage patties. I was getting full and I didn't want to overdo it, I made sure to finish my salad, eggs, and avocado and figured leaving the rest was ok since the sweet potato was on the larger side. About the tomato paste-I'm a HUGE ketchup junkie. The tomato paste isn't an exact substitute and I'm sure I could probably find a W30 compliant ketchup recipe so the consistency would be a little more ketchup-like, but this is what I have on hand so this is what I'm using!

Lunch (12pm): Romaine lettuce leaves with homemade mayo, spicy brown mustard, grape tomatoes, and 4 oz. Applegate Farms Oven Roasted Turkey breast (from the deli counter). Kiwi, 1/4 avocado, carrots and celery.

Lunch Comments: Same old! I'm usually someone who needs to change it up to be satisfied so when I'm enjoying eating the same thing for a few days in a row I just go with it!

Dinner: Same as Monday. Shredded Red Leaf Lettuce, 1/2 avocado, left over sweet potato from this morning, diced yellow bell pepper, grape tomatoes, splash of balsamic vinegar, crockpot shredded chicken breast.

Dinner Comments: As I said on Monday, I really love this chicken AND I love that it was so easy to make. Expect to be seeing a lot of this!

Sleep: 6 hr 40 min-I stayed up a little late finishing a book so I was dragging a bit on the commute today

Exercise: None. Still recovering from the soreness of Monday's Body R&D.

[chigalpaleo]

www.chigalpaleo.blogspot.com

Today was a super busy day at work, so I didn't have time to think about much else! One of the things I've been noticing over the past day or so is how haven't really been feeling "hungry" when I know I'm not actually hungry. I tend to be an emotional eater or a bored eater or a mindless eater but I haven't felt like that at all this week. Being busy at work may have something to do with it, but even at home at night (when I'm usually trolling through the cabinets to snack on anything and everything) I'm not really having any major cravings-aside for a sweet craving I had on Monday. Sure, I wouldn't mind a glass of wine, but I haven't been really jonesin' for it. Maybe it's because I "know" I can't have it, whatever it is it's a nice change.

Breakfast (6:20am): Bowl of Well Fed Chocolate Chili, 1/2 Avocado

Breakfast Comments: I was out of eggs so I switched it up a bit this morning. This is the same size portion I had for dinner on Tuesday night but this filled me up much faster. Still working on that being hungry and eating soon after I wake up thing.

Lunch (12:30pm): Romaine lettuce leafs topped with Wild Planet tuna that was mixed with Well Fed mayo, pepper, and a little lemon juice topped with some grape tomatoes. Carrots and celery.

Lunch Comments: Bet you thought you were going to see turkey again! Close, but not quite. I ran out of turkey so I made some tuna salad.

Snack (4pm): PaleoKit-I went straight to the gym again so I had a snack on the way to hold me over.

Dinner (7pm): 2 breakfast sausage patties, 1/4 medium sweet potato, tomato paste, coconut oil, caramelized onions, mushrooms sautéed in balsamic, Penzey's Tsardust Memories. Salad dressed with balsamic vinegar and avocado oil. Kiwi.

Dinner Comments: This was my cook-everything-left-in-the-fridge hot plate! I just threw it all into a frying pan and mixed it up and it was pretty good-the Penzey's Tsardust Memories spice is AMAZING! This was my first time trying it and I loved it. Melissa recommends it in Well Fed-she knows what she's talking about!

Sleep: 7hrs 45min-I got almost 8 hrs last night but I was sooo tired this morning. Can't wait to sleep in this weekend!

Exercise: 30 minute training session with Alex at Kru Strength & Fitness. STILL sore from Monday's Body R&D class...as soon as I'm done being sore from that I'm going to start being sore from CrossFit!

[Derval]

Loving the pics & linkies!

[chigalpaleo]

Woohoo Day 5...but you know what that means-tonight marks the first night of the *weekend*. I've already planned to make dinner for Mike (my fiancé) and I so there is no temptation to go out. He isn't doing the Whole30, let alone Paleo, so I try and find a good balance for him when it comes to making meals! Burgers, sweet potato fries, and veggies it is!

Today I did a little cooking, well maybe more blending and mixing than cooking. I made some condiments for the weekend and next week. I am obsessed with condiments and I'm pretty excited with the new recipes I tried. I made a fresh batch of Well Fed mayo, 2 recipes of Well Fed Creamy Italian Dressing made with red wine vinegar, Well Fed Sunshine Sauce (for Well Fed Pad Thai next week), and W30 compliant ketchup. Lots of Well Fed stuff in there-what can I say, it's a great cookbook!

Obviously I love the mayo, but the Italian dressing may now be my fav-although next time I might try a little less vinegar or a little more mayo because it's a tad too tangy for my taste. I made the Sunshine Sauce in the small bowl of my food processor but next time I might try it in my Magic Bullet or blender because it got a little messy and it only makes a small amount so no need to bring out the big guns.

I also stopped off at the butcher today and picked up a few fun things. The Butcher & Larder in Chicago is fantastic-they have every cut of meat you can imagine since they get whole animals and they cut it fresh right in front of you (not the cheapest though). They also have some amazing beef stock that I can't wait to use in my beef stew tomorrow! I picked up the stock, chuck roast for the stew, and some marrow bones that I might roast up and then make my own stock this weekend! I got my bi-weekly delivery from Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks yesterday and in it was a bag of root vegetables-perfect for a rich beef stew that will warm us up over this frigid Chicago weekend!

Breakfast (8:15am): Bowl of Well Fed Chocolate Chili, carrots and celery, coconut flakes.

Breakfast Comments: I wasn't sure if the fat from the beef in the chili was enough so I had a small handful of coconut flakes as well. Almost to the end of my chili container!

Lunch (2pm): 2 breakfast sausage patties, 1/4 medium sweet potato, tomato paste, coconut oil, caramelized onions, mushrooms sautéed in balsamic, Penzey's Tsardust Memories. Lettuce, carrots, and celery with Well Fed Italian Dressing.

Lunch Comments: Same as dinner last night, cleaning out the last of my prepped food for the week. I wasn't really that hungry but I figured I should get a meal in since it was going on 6hrs since my last meal.

Dinner (7:30pm): Burger made with salt, pepper, Penzey's Tsardust Memories, and diced green pepper topped with ~1/4 mashed avocado, caramelized onions, and homemade ketchup. Sweet potato fries baked with avocado oil and Tsardust Memories. Broccoli with Well Fed Creamy Italian Dressing.

Dinner Comments: This was a super satisfying Friday night meal-even my non-Paleo-eating fiancé enjoyed it (he may have add some bacon and cheese added to his burger). It's no Kuma's Corner, but I felt really good about eating it and that's worth it to me!

Sleep: 8.5 hours! Yay! Love waking up before my alarm I work from home on Fridays so I get those minutes I spend on my commute back in the form of sleep!

Exercise: None. Tomorrow Mike and I start our on-ramp at CrossFit Defined so I'm resting up! I got adjusted at my chiropractor (Wicker Park Chiropractic) today and I'm feeling pretty good!

www.chigalpaleo.blogspot.com

[chigalpaleo]

It's Day 6 and I'm feeling pretty awesome. I had a tough workout, I made some beef stew, I caught up on my DVR, and I've just been enjoying this cold, snowy day in Chicago. I love that the quality food I'm preparing and eating is making me feel so great. I think just knowing that what I'm putting in my body is good for me is having the biggest impact. I'm not overeating and I'm not eating when I'm not hungry-it just feels good to have my eating emotions in check.

Breakfast (9:15am): 2 fried eggs with a splash of Frank's Hot Sauce, grape tomatoes, carrots, celery, 1/2 smashed avocado.

Breakfast Comments: I slept in today so breakfast was a little later than usual. I ate a little over an hour after waking up and I was actually a little hungry when I ate (yay!).

Lunch (3:30pm): Bowl of Well Fed Chocolate Chili, broccoli with Well Fed Creamy Italian Dressing, kiwi.

Lunch Comments: Today I had a bit of a late lunch because I had CrossFit at 1p that lasted until about 2:30p and by the time I got home and got myself together it was around 3:30p when I got around to eating. I was hoping the fat from the beef and the mayo in the italian dressing was enough, but I'm thinking I could've used a little bit more.

Dinner (7:30pm): Big bowl of beef stew and a palmfull of macadamia nuts (not pictured).

Dinner Comments: As I said yesterday I got a big delivery of root vegetables from Irv & Shelley's yesterday so today I stuck them all in the crockpot with a few other things and made some stew. I didn't follow one particular recipe, I looked at a few for some pointers and then just threw what I had in the crockpot to see what happened. It turned out pretty good, but there is still room for improvement. Once I get it down I'll post my recipe!

Sleep: 9 hours! Love me some weekend sleeping in time!

Exercise: 1.5 hours at CrossFit. This was the very first day of our on-ramp so we weren't working out for the entire 1.5 hours. But holy crap, we did our very first WOD at the end and I was seriously dying. I've been working out at Kru on a pretty regular basis which has helped me with my lifting technique but I've been severely lacking in the cardio department-and I felt it big time today. Our first WOD was a 250m row followed by 15-12-9 reps of squats, push-ups, and kettlebell swings, finished off with 10 burpees. I finished in 7:30. I was dying, seriously dying. As hard as it was I felt really accomplished after finishing and I know that it's only up from here. I'm already loving the team atmosphere at CrossFit, I never would have finished that in the time that I did without the motivation from everyone else there.

[chigalpaleo]

Last day of Week 1 and the weekend was nowhere near as difficult as I imagined! We live in Chicago and I write a lifestyle blog (www.chigallauren.com) so I love going out and trying new restaurants to write about. We don't really eat out that much during the week but on the weekends we'll usually have a few meals out-and I usually overeat when we do. I don't know if I'll be able to go the whole month without eating out at all, but if I do I'll have to be picky and find W30-compliant menu options. I think that once my W30 is over I'll eat out and eat some non-Paleo things here and there, but I'm hoping that I will be much smarter about my choices and portion sizes when I do.

I stayed away from Superbowl parties because I worried I would be too tempted and feel a little awkward not eating or drinking. I think I would've been ok but I'm glad I spared myself the struggle.

Breakfast (10:45am): Breakfast casserole, W30-compliant ketchup (only ~1tbsp)

Breakfast Comments: I slept until a little after 9a today and didn't eat until about 1.5hrs later. I made a breakfast casserole and it took longer than anticipated-but it was delicious! I plan on making one again next week and I'll be posting the recipe. Right before I ate I started feeling a little nauseous, I don't know if it was because I had waited so long to eat or what, but figured I'd write it down in case it happens again and I can see a pattern. I ate a little less than the normal meal template since I was eating so late-I probably need to add some more veggies and a little more fat for a full breakfast. Hopefully that doesn't throw me off too much. Next time I make this I'll probably try to prep everything the day before so I just have to bake it in the morning.

Lunch (2:30pm): Bowl of beef stew.

Lunch Comments: Leftover stew from yesterday, I made quite a bit so you'll be seeing it pop up pretty regularly this week. The soup solidified in the refrigerator and it let me see that there was a bit more fat than I had thought, so just a big bowl and that was my meal.

Dinner (6:30p): Red leaf lettuce, crockpot shredded chicken, 1/4 avocado, diced bell pepper, small drizzle of Well Fed Creamy Italian Dressing.

Dinner Comments: Made a fresh batch of my crockpot chicken breasts + salsa today, so there will be a few more meals looking like this one this week.

Sleep: 10 hours-I slept a lot but it wasn't the best sleep. I woke up a couple times during the night and had to get back to sleep.

Exercise: None, but I did do a little foam rolling on my legs and my mobility homework from CrossFit.

[chigalpaleo]

So this is the second night in a row that I've had dreams about going completely off the cliff and have huge meals of non-W30 friendly foods. In my dream I don't realize what I've done until I'm finished eating. Super weird! Yesterday I had some cravings for sweets when we went to Costco and everyone was buying Super Bowl treats but I really haven't been missing much, so not sure what the dreams have been about but it's so weird it's happened 2 nights in a row now!

Breakfast (6:30a): Breakfast casserole, a little less than 1/4 avocado, smashed.

Breakfast Comments: Finally I've found a breakfast to get excited about-this is so good! I'm still not starving this early but having a meal I look forward to definitely helps. With this and the stew it's hard to estimate to get the exact meal template but I think I did ok. The casserole is filled with kale, shredded sweet potato, and diced bell peppers along with the eggs, coconut milk, and pork sausage-I added avocado for a little more fat because I wasn't sure if the amount of coconut milk and fat from the meat would be enough. I could probably throw in some more veggies but after I was done with this portion I was feeling pretty content. I estimated that this was about 1.8 eggs and a little over 2 oz. of pork sausage. It kept me satisfied until lunch time so I'm guessing that means I did ok.

Lunch (11:45pm): Romaine lettuce leaves with homemade mayo, spicy brown mustard, 1/4 avocado, and 4 oz. Applegate Farms Oven Roasted Turkey breast (from the deli counter). Cucumber slices and clementine orange.

Lunch Comments: Not the prettiest, I know! Same as last week. I was going to try and switch it up this week but at least for the today I went with my old standby. Usually by this time of the day I'm starving but

today I wasn't even close! I guess that casserole did a pretty good job!

Dinner (6pm): Red leaf lettuce, ~1/4 avocado, crockpot shredded chicken, diced bell peppers, Well Fed Creamy Italian, shredded sweet potatoes sautéed in coconut oil.

Dinner Comments: Since we're working out at 8p tonight I opted for salad instead of beef stew. You've seen it all before...except the sweet potatoes. I had a ton leftover that I didn't use in my casserole so I fried them up in some coconut oil and they are DELICIOUS! I'm trying to only eat a little sweet potato here and there, so I threw some in my kitchen sink salad, why not?!

Sleep: 7 hours-not the best quality of sleep. Similar to last night, I woke up a couple times and had to get back to sleep. I'm wondering if it's because I actually slept TOO much on Friday and Saturday nights. Is that possible? We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Exercise: 1 hour CrossFit. Still in the on-ramp so didn't really workout the entire 1 hour. The warm-up and the WOD got me pretty tired-but not quite as tired as Saturday. (getting tired from the warm-up is a little embarassing to admit!) For the WOD we did 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of kettlebell sumo dead lifts and v-ups, I finished in 6:20 doing modified v-ups. I found an iPhone app called myWOD that I'm using to keep track of my times. We write our times on a whiteboard at the box but this way I have it with me so I can keep track myself.

[chigalpaleo]

I haven't mentioned this yet but I'm getting married in June! June 22, 2013 on the island of Arran off the west coast of Scotland. I got the call that my dress is in so I get to go pick it up and try it on this weekend! Just giving me more and more motivation!

Breakfast (6:30am): Breakfast casserole with 1/4 avocado.

Breakfast Comments: The color in this picture is a little weird, I used a filter in some new app I bought on my phone and I'm not a huge fan, should've just left it as is! Anyways...still loving the breakfast casserole!

Lunch (12pm): Hamburger patty made with diced bell pepper; caramelized onions, W30 ketchup, broccoli, Well Fed Creamy Italian, shredded sweet potatoes cooked in coconut oil.

Lunch Comments: Just cleaning out some leftovers and having a hot lunch for once. Nice change up from the turkey, which will probably be back tomorrow

Dinner: Well Fed Pad Thai with shrimp

Dinner Comments: Yum! Another great Well Fed recipe, and I loved it with shrimp! The sauce is a little on the nutty side for me, maybe a little thick. I may try and tweak it next time, but there will definitely be a next time for this recipe!

Snack (8:10pm): 3 shrimp from the leftover Pad Thai. I came home from CF hungry and I had added more shrimp than 2 servings worth in the Pad Thai, so I just had a few of those when I got home.

Sleep: 6.5 hours-I was a little tired this morning. We have CrossFit at 8pm on Mondays and Wednesdays so for the next few weeks this is going to be a trend unfortunately.

Exercise: Mobility class at CrossFit. Warm up and lots of hamstring stretching. My hamstrings are sooooo tight!

[chigalpaleo]

Long, busy day!

Breakfast (6:15am): Breakfast casserole, spaghetti squash, salsa, ~1/4 avocado

Breakfast Comments: I had some leftover spaghetti squash from the Pad Thai so I threw a little into my breakfast this morning. I also added in the salsa which was really good!

Lunch (11:45am): Leftover Well Fed Pad Thai with shrimp. Sliced cucumbers (not pictured)

Lunch Comments: Same as last night, still pretty good!

Dinner (6pm): Red leaf lettuce, diced bell peppers, 1/4 avocado, ~1/4 cup spaghetti squash, crock pot shredded chicken, Well Fed Creamy Italian.

Dinner Comments: Salad, again, still not sick of it.

Sleep: 7 hours, solid sleep, no waking up in the middle of the night

Exercise: Day 3 of CrossFit on-ramp. At the end we did our WOD-10 minute AMRAP: 15 medicine ball cleans, 30 abmat sit-ups, 60 second plank. I did 2r+31.

[chigalpaleo]

When I got home from work I was struggling. It's snowing, it's Thursday-I felt like going out and having a burger and a beer and I wasn't in the mood for anything I had and I didn't want to make anything. I just was not in the mood for W30 tonight. I have really noticed a big decrease in hunger and cravings this week though, so I'm going to just stick it out of the night and hope tomorrow is better.

Breakfast (6:30am): Breakfast casserole, spaghetti squash, 1/4 avocado, salsa

Breakfast Comments: I was so tired this morning I forgot to snap a picture! Take a look at yesterday's and you get the idea

Lunch (12pm): Beef stew, cucumbers, macadamia nuts

Lunch Comments: Nothing glamorous here, finishing off my stew and adding some extra veg and fat.

Dinner: Romaine, Well Fed mayo, mustard, 4 oz. Applegate Farms oven roasted turkey (from the deli counter), shredded sweet potatoes sautéed in coconut oil.

Dinner Comments: Kind of boring but I've got some turkey to clean out of my fridge!

Sleep: 6 hours-not enough. I was so busy yesterday and we had CrossFit so late that when I got into bed I couldn't fall asleep-just too many things running through my mind. I felt it all day, looking forward to getting to bed early tonight.

Exercise: None

[Wandy269]

What is your breakfast casserole recipe? I have been looking for a good one.

[chigalpaleo]

I plan on making the breakfast casserole again this weekend and posting the recipe. I used eggs, coconut milk, shredded sweet potato, diced bell peppers, ground pork sausage, and frozen kale from Trader Joe's.

[ORBren]

Hey Congrats on the getting married announcement - way to just slip it in there in conversation! That is so exciting. Are you going for a few paleo options at the reception?

I really love your pics and links and will take a peek at your blog too ! Keep up the great work.

[chigalpaleo]

Hey Congrats on the getting married announcement - way to just slip it in there in conversation! That is so exciting. Are you going for a few paleo options at the reception?

I really love your pics and links and will take a peek at your blog too ! Keep up the great work.

Thanks ORBren! I'm not sure yet what the menu options will look like, I'm going to try and keep my meal Paleo but I may indulge just a bit! As of now my blog is just a food log, exactly what I'm posting on here. This weekend though I plan on posting a recipe for my breakfast casserole, so that will be something different Thanks for the support!

[chigalpaleo]

If you read yesterday's post, you know that last night I was struggling a bit with wanting to eat some non-W30 food. Well, at the end of the night Mike told me that he thought I looked really good and he noticed a change. Now, I've also been doing CrossFit (only 3 workouts), and I was eating pretty clean prior to starting my W30, but this was so nice to hear-and I really needed it. I know it isn't a big change because the fit of my clothes hasn't changed much, but if it's enough for him to notice and say something then that's enough for me. I know I have to just keep going and the changes will be greater and greater.

Mike and I usually eat out a few meals each week, usually at least a couple on the weekends, so the last week and a half with not eating out has been a little tough (as evidenced by my struggles last night). So I decided to give eating out a try and go with what I thought would be easiest to eat W30 compliant food-sushi.

I picked a place nearby that had a few appetizer menu options that didn't have rice and had veggies and fish. One of the options was a roll wrapped in cucumber rather than rice so I was hoping that they might be able to do this for other rolls as well. They couldn't, or wouldn't. I found a couple options that seemed compliant but I asked a key question before ordering-do these have a sauce on them? It didn't list any sauce on the menu. Of course, there was sauce. One was some kind of sake-based sauce and the other was a "citrus vinaigrette". I didn't know what all this vinaigrette entailed and I felt like I had been pestering the waiter with enough questions so I just said not sauce. The dishes were very good and I felt good eating them, but that didn't stop me from craving Mike's flaming shrimp tempura and spicy tuna with spicy mayo and soy sauce across the way. I think when we go out next I'll call the restaurant ahead of time to inquire about the menu options I'm interested in. All in all it was a good first outing!

Breakfast (8:00am): Breakfast casserole, spaghetti squash, salsa, leftover shrimp from my Well Fed Pad Thai

Breakfast Comments: Obviously it's the end of the week and clean out the refrigerator time! I only had a small piece of breakfast casserole left so I supplemented with the leftover shrimp for more protein and a little fat. Breakfast casserole recipe post coming this weekend!

Lunch (1:15pm): Red leaf lettuce, diced bell pepper, crockpot chicken, Well Fed Creamy Italian (new batch made today with balsamic vinegar rather than red wine vinegar-like it much better!). Small organic fiji apple, unsweetened sunflower seed butter.

Lunch Comments: Since I was have some sweet cravings before lunch today I decided to throw in some fruit. Add in the sunflower seed butter for my fat and it was a really good meal! Unlike sweetened peanut butters that I can eat straight from the jar, this sunflower seed butter doesn't really do it for me on its on. But paired with an apple it is an awesome combo!

Dinner: The first picture is what Mike had-it was on fire! I had the bottom 2 pictures-tuna with jalapeño, cilantro, and radish, and the bottom is crab, avocado, and radish wrapped in cucumber and topped with scallions and tobiko (I think-I ate a couple pieces before snapping the picture ).

Dinner Comments: I'm not sure this met the meal template for protein and I definitely know it didn't meet it for fat. But, it was my first time eating out W30 style so I did what I could. I was actually comfortably full after this meal which was a shocker to me. I did kind of want some apples and sunflower seed butter when we got home, but I figured it was best to stay away from that since I already had some for lunch.

Sleep: 8 hours

Exercise: None...my abs are crazy sore from the AMRAP workout we did Wednesday! Need to work on those sit-ups!

[Derval]

Very pretty plates!

[chigalpaleo]

Today I went and tried on and picked up my wedding dress! I still need to get it altered closer to the big day but the dress is here and I didn't want to take it off! June 22 can't get here soon enough!

Breakfast (9:15am): 2 eggs fried in ghee and topped with Frank's, 1/4 avocado, fried tomato, sweet potato hash.

Breakfast Comments: Solid breakfast, no complaints!

Lunch (2pm): PaleoKit, cucumbers, Well Fed Creamy Italian

Lunch Comments: This was a quickie lunch that I grabbed on the way out the door. I had to run home from CrossFit, shower, and head off to pick up my wedding dress! I had a feeling my mom wanted to get dinner after the dress outing so even though this wasn't an ideal meal, it's what worked for me today.

Dinner(5:30pm): Iceberg side salad with cucumbers, grape tomato, balsamic vinegar. Salmon and steamed veggies.

Dinner Comments: After last night I didn't think I'd be going out for dinner again so soon but things happen and I couldn't exactly say no to my mom We went to an Italian restaurant which I was a little nervous about, but from my past experience I knew that they usually have non-pasta dishes that I would be able to work with. I got a side salad with plain balsamic vinegar and then asked for plain, broiled salmon with no oil or anything and plain, steamed vegetables.

It was super tough when we first got there because everything smelled delicious, there was a bread basket on the table, everyone else was having wine, the table next to us had an outrageously awesome looking pizza, and everyone at my table was ordering jumbo pasta dishes. I wanted so badly to say "just this one meal" but I stuck with it and of course in the end I'm glad I did. Once the food came I was totally fine-my salmon was delicious and I was totally satisfied. As hard as it is, I think that I just need to keep going out and making smart choices like this one and *hopefully* it will get easier each time.

Sleep: 9 hours-yay weekends!

Exercise: Crossfit! WOD after our skills was a 7 minute AMRAP-<7 hanging power cleans (I think!), 7 push-ups, 7 bar hops>. I got 4 rounds + 7 reps with 10lbs on each side of my bar. It was tough (from the cardio perspective), but I love cleans and deadlifts so I'm looking forward to improving on this one!

[ORBren]

Yeah for your great restaurant choices!!! Doesn't it feel good on the ride home - no regrets.

A wedding dress is a great motivator.

[Derval]

Well done for stating string and congrats on the dress!