Nyx's first Whole 30ish log

[Nyx]

Day 14

I had a small epiphany last night while I was trying to solve the case about why my response to eating is different this week as opposed to last week. After going back and forth about was I not getting enough healthy fat in my meals, had I been a slacker with water or veggies, it dawned on me that, in the immortal words of Neil Sedaka it's just that “breaking up is hard to doâ€.

My Whole 30 is all about breaking up my body's (and mind!) previous relationship with food and much like my first boyfriend who didn't take me seriously when I kicked him to the curb, my body didn't take week one seriously as my first steps to destroying lifelong bad eating habits. Maybe it thought I was stranded on some kind of organic farm and that I'd break out soon. So, it let me do my thing without much negative feedback. But now that my body starting to notice that my diet has stayed changed for longer than it ever has our breakup squabbling has ramped WAY up.

The hunger pangs I'm getting are right around my old lunch and snacking times and I think it's a trick to get me to go back to eating less the optimal foods and/or grazing my day away. So now I'm making it my focus to really examine if that pang I just felt was true hunger or just a craving to be munching on something because that's what I used to do. We'll see how this goes….

Meal 1: turnip hash with zucchini sautéed in coconut oil with two soft boiled eggs cracked over all of it. (I totally acted like a 5 year old and mixed everything together. So messy, but so good!

Meal 2: Steamed broccoli with diced chicken breast and compliant marinara sauce.

Meal 3: Chocolate Chili (will this never end) over spaghetti squash)

[Nyx]

Oh! Other happy surprise for today: I was getting dressed for work and threw on a dress I hadn't worn since starting all of this and just as I was reaching for my spanx -to ensure the dress had clean lines- I realized it already did! I'm smaller throughout the waist! For the first time, I'm a little hopeful that my spring and summer clothes will feel a little more roomier in a few months.

[Nyx]

Day 15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To be honest, when I first started out I never thought I'd make it to this point. I was sure that my addiction to refined carbs and a well made cocktail would have be breaking down at the slightest temptation. But here we are on day 15, mostly craving free, feeling much more comfortable in my clothes and most importantly really happy with how I feel.

Kicking off week 3 today calls for a quick reflection on week 2:

What worked:

• Stayed on plan (duh )
  
• Started to get quality sleep
  
• Made a great connection with someone talking about wh30 and loaned them ISWF
  

What didn't work:

• Water intake was all over the place
  
• My goal to move around more was mostly pushed aside in the face of 16 hour work days
  
• My sleep while of good quality was still much too short. On average 6-7 hours a night
  
• Got sooooooooo bored with the meals I made for my household. By Wednesday I was ready to chuck my still 1/2 full container of chocolate chili out the door!
  

This week my workload/schedule is much better and I'll have 2 extra hours in the morning before I need to head to work. So I'm recommitting to getting some great walks in this week and not being to rushed to remember to drink water throughout the day. I'm also doing a Costco run tonight so that I can experiment with stocking up on staples and just making simple quick meals this week since I'll have the time.

Meal 1: Kind of a bust, quickly fried some eggs to mix in with the turnip hash but had to pack it to go. When I got to work it was all congealed and I only got down a few bites before ignoring it.

Meal 2: Chocolate chili (again!) but made better by being mixed with the coconut cauliflower mash.

Meal 3:

[Lynnefair]

I get the Chocolate Chili thing! It's great to start but do I really want to eat it every night????? I put it in single serving freezer bags and it has come in handy on nights when I just couldn't make myself cook.

You're doing great!

[Nyx]

Pop quiz hotshot!

This is the title for my day today. I unexpectedly had to put all my newly acquired whole 30 skills to work today because the memorial I attended ended up being an all day affair instead of a 3 hour one.

The day started off well. I had the sweet potato hash I set up the night before (diced sweet potatoes, green beans, onion, and chicken apple sausage) for breakfast. Then it was off to a memorial for my gram-in-law, who passed away last month. The memorial ended up being an all day affair filled with amazing stories and quality family time. But it was also unfortunately filled with casserole after casserole after casserole and stacks on stacks on stacks of cookies and other off limit items. I managed to find some roast beef I felt pretty safe about because it came from a deli I know and trust but I didn't get to eat them until 8 hours after breakfast.

We also ended up eating out for dinner as a send off for those who came in from out of state. I ordered pan seared steak with arugula salad and asparagus. I made sure to confirm that all the oil used for the dish was olive oil, replaced the potatoes with more veggies and asked them not to add any parmesan to my salad.

When it came out there was a pile of parmesan on my salad. Not a huge deal, since I could easily removed it but it did make me nervous that they may have just been paying lip service to my olive oil questions. Sigh…..

Overall, it was a successful day. I was surprised by my ability not to eat anything off plan and with my ability to withstand direct peer pressure to "just put my diet aside for a day". Ugh, I am making a promise now to never insist anyone eat anything after they say no the first time.

[Nyx]

Day 17

Had an interesting reaction to working an overnight shift on Saturday that I think was related to doing the whole 30. Got home at 6:30 am and went straight to bed. Outside of briefly waking up when the husband got out of bed I didn't wake up again until 12:30 pm. A solid six hours is pretty impressive for me after an overnight. Usually I can only manage about four before I wake up and can't fall back asleep. As a result I had a lot of energy once I started my day. Went for a hike with the pup, did 5 hours of cooking prep for the week, cleaned up the apartment. Usually, one of those things would get done after an overnight so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

Things I'm not pleased with are my tummy. I'm not sure what it was from yesterday but my digestions been a little out of whack since my unintentional off road trip yesterday. I'm not rebooting the 30 since I can't be sure if my digestive woes are related but I am going to really keep eating out to a minimum until the end of the month.

Meal 1: Sweet potato hash

Meal 2: Tuna in romaine lettuce boats with a side of roasted carrots

Meal 3: Jumbalaya (mmm so good!)

[Nyx]

Day 18

I made condiments this weekend! And they don't suck! I was weary of making mayo on my own because the last time I tried too, years ago, it was just a mess. This time, after scouring the site for some complaint recipes, it all came together in a matter of minutes. I think the main difference is that I own an immersion blender now. I swear I love that tool = ) Emboldened by my success with mayo I also made ketchup. This was a little harder because I have a much pickier standard for what I want my ketchup to taste like than mayo. But this was a success too! Now I can indulge my love of dunking things into things once again. Plus, I won points with my husband because he made a wicked good cocktail sauce using my ketchup as a base yesterday.

Meal 1: Sweet potato hash and two eggs

Meal 2: Tuna in romaine lettuce boats with a side of roasted sweet potatoes

Meal 3: Braised curry Lamb Shanks over pan roasted cauliflower

[lhenkin]

Congrats on your ketchup success. I have mastered the mayo, but haven't ventured into the ketchup yet. What recipe did you follow? Any tips to share?

[Nyx]

Congrats on your ketchup success. I have mastered the mayo, but haven't ventured into the ketchup yet. What recipe did you follow? Any tips to share?

I went off of this recipe: http://www.spoonfulofsugarfree.com/2012/04/12/homemade-sugar-free-ketchup/

For some reason I had the recipe up on my computer in the living room instead of on my phone or ipad. So when it came time to add the spices I eyeballed the measurements instead of running back and forth. The only extra ingredient I added was two dates. Before I added them the mix tasted too tomato-ey. The dates gave it just the right amount of sweet to take the acidic tang off the tomatoes.

Good luck!

[Nyx]

The hardest part about this month so far has been thinking about the future. Why can't I just hang out in the present where everything is nice and going well and not think about challenges that may come up? Ugh, my younger brother is coming to town with a friend on Thursday and staying with us through Sunday. All I can think about is how many ways I could self-sabotage myself by being in non-complaint places (restaurants and bars mainly) watching everyone around me chow down and/or drink up and convincing myself to throw in the towel.

I'd like to think that won't happen because who walks away from 18 days of awesome?! But I know it happens. In the meantime, I'm going to not get in my own head about it and keep doing what I'm doing. Namely eating well and being happy with myself.

Meal 1: ½ Mashed avocado, scoop of chocolate chili (it's back!), roasted sweet potato sticks (I shoveled my butt off this morning and I was starving when I came inside to eat hence the large meal)

Meal 2: Jambalaya and a side of steamed broccoli

Meal 3:

[simonec]

nyx, try to think of it as a lifestyle change...you can stick to w30, for longer or come back to it when needed, i'm going to try to eat paleo, but not w30 for the month of april and see how it goes but i love the results of w30 so much that i think the kids and i will do may and or june and possible july together and make it a w60 or w90 for the family...my kids really do help keep me on track, asking about healthy foods and "is this healthy, momma? are we all getting healthier?" and other questions that i keep hearing really help motivate me. (not to mention that my kids are finding more favorite veggies...5 year olds that love brussels sprouts and broccoli? yup, mine do)

[Nyx]

Day 25

I used to be puzzled by people who would get to day 20 or 24 and cave. The thought of being so close to finishing the month and walking away from it was slightly baffling to me. But then this weekend happened to me and now I completely understand.

When I wrote my last post I was in the middle of freaking out about my brother's impending visit. I took a break from writing in my log because I knew it would just be me getting in my head about how HARD this visit was going to be and really who wants to read about that over and over again, right?.

So when this weekend came and went and I'm happy (and a little surprised) to say that I did it! I made it through the whole weekend which consisted of visits to multiple bars, restaurants gobs of social pressure (internal and external) to partake in all of the above and remained strong.

Things I learned: I am not less funny/interesting when I'm sober and others are not, I only needed to hide in the bathroom once to "take a break" from hanging out in locations that didn't have anything I wanted or could eat/drink, the bartender was only a little annoyed with the number of times he needed to refill my glass with water and I do not enjoy being the designated driver. I'm totally going to write a thank you note to everyone who has been one for me .

So yay! I faced down the "real world" and I won! Now I'm a few days into week four and I can't believe this whole experiment will be wrapping up soon....