My Dirty Whole30

First Whole30: November 2015 First Whole15: September 2016 Second Whole30: January 2017

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Day 21 Dinner: chicken (marinated in rotisserie chicken seasoning, yellow mustard, salt/pepper and olive oil; roasted sweet potatoes and green peppers, and green beans. The past two days have been a little rough-- I've really wanted non-compliant foods, and I've gotten a little fixated at times (like staring at a poster of a Starbucks smoked butterscotch latte at Target). Often I'll think, "I've made it this far, this is my second Whole30, why don't I just stop now?" But I know I have to keep it up-- I'm not a quitter. And I want to see my results after a full 30 days. Otherwise I'm feeling good-- a little headachy here and there, but I think it may just be sinus issues. Tomorrow is my first wedding dress alterations consultation though, and I'm actually kind of excited! Cuz I feel lean, my clothes are fitting better, and I know it's only downhill from here!!

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Day 16 Lunch and Dinner: leftover shredded chicken and green beans, and London Broil with broccoli rabe and roasted potatoes. I had to take a pic of my sad lunch because it cracked me up! I feel like my meals are starting to become more utility than pleasure. Yesterday I had a 7:30pm workout class, so for my pre-workout meal I had 2 scrambled eggs in butter (yup, I'm eating butter- it's my second Whole30!!), and then after I got home I had a sweet potato with broccoli rabe on top. I realized it wasn't a real "dinner," and that's ok! It did the trick, and I didn't go to be hungry. I'm feeling good. My stomach issues *I think* have settled, and my energy is still up. Still not snacking. Yasssss!!!

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Day 13 Dinner: Fajita Bowl with shredded chicken, red/green peppers, and sweet potatoes. Topped with avocado and cilantro. Hot damn this dinner was good! Maybe even the best dinner I've made on Whole30. This was much needed too after my less than stellar past few dinners. Today I felt really good. Went to yoga in the morning and cleaned the house all day, and didn't need a snack or anything. I think that's what I'm most proud of this round, that I kicked my afternoon snack habit. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with some other Whole30 friends to have a Bachelor viewing party/Whole30 potluck! Should be excited to eat somebody else's cooking! Hahaha

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Day 12: Not happy with protein

So after struggling through a dinner of chicken breast, baked potato, and green beans, I'm realizing that day 11/12 must mark the point where I get extremely sensitive towards protein-- so if anything tastes the least bit off or weirdly spiced, I get nauseous and can't eat it. I remember this phase from my first Whole30-- I'll have to go back and look at what day that was. Stomach is still kind of a mess in the mornings also. I guess my body is still adjusting!!

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Day 9 Dinner: leftover short rib stir fry with broccoli, snow peas, mushrooms, cabbage, and garlic/ginger/coconut aminos and my new go-to Penzey's Now Curry. Today I felt friggin great. I can't tell you how much energy and confidence I have on this diet. At work I found myself taking the "long way" often, without even thinking about it. When I would normally send an email, I took a walk to visit someone instead. Oh, and also the pizza food truck came to work today so I was tempted by everyone's pizzas ALL DAY. But didn't cave at all! Riding this momentum on to day 10!!

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Day 8 Dinner: Healing Chicken Soup: onion, carrot, parsnips, celery, shiitake mushrooms and chicken in a ginger/turmeric chicken broth. Daaaaayum this was good! Felt really good on a cold cold night. I kind of improvised on a recipe I found online, so I wasn't sure how it was gonna be. But we both loved it! My stomach recovered after this morning-- I ended up having a baked potato with leftover short rib and bok choy for lunch, and I felt fine after. I'm also really impressed with my will power in the late afternoon-- usually I really want a snack or sweet treat around 3pm, but I've been doing great sipping on tea and keeping busy.

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Day 8 Breakfast: spiralized sweet potato with spinach, 2 eggs, avocado. Ugh, after yesterday's nausea I'm seeing the effects this morning-- my stomach is just "letting loose." I'm wondering if this is just normal Day 8-9 stomach upset... maybe I'll try some sauerkraut at lunch and see if that helps.

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Day 7 Lunch: leftover turkey/sweet potato chili over spinach and zucchini. This was good but unfortunately I felt pretty nauseous about an hour and a half later-- thinking maybe too much acid in the tomatoes... oh well.

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Day 6 Lunch: Smoked salmon with red onion and tomatoes, and salad with cukes, hard-boiled egg, olives, and sauerkraut. Salad was meh, and I forgot how much I hate out-of-season tomatoes. Had to have some hot banana after this one! (Sliced banana heated up in the microwave).

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Day 6 Breakfast: basted eggs, russet potato hash browns with onion, and a side of applesauce with cinnamon. A little break from the kale/brussels!! Headache is sort of gone today, which is awesome. Gonna see if all the energy I've had is due to the Excedrin or Whole30! Tomorrow is ONE WEEK! Woot!!

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Day 5 Dinner: Garlic Sesame short ribs, curry cauliflower rice, bok choy. Well I slaved away all day on the short ribs, and I think they're... pretty good. I probably needed to sear the meat first, but both recipes I was following didn't, so I went with it. The real star of this meal had to be the cauliflower rice. I followed this recipe (kind of- I don't have turmeric so I used Penzey's Now Curry which has turmeric in it): http://www.realfoodwithdana.com/turmeric-roasted-cauliflower-rice/ The bok choy was also good-- not a vegetable I cook usually so I followed a recipe with garlic and ginger in a wok, and it added a nice bitterness to cut the richness of the short ribs. Feeling good today-- the Excedrin worked, and I had a ton of energy today (scraped snow off two cars!!). Onward! Can't wait for Day 7 to finish the week off strong.

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Day 5 Breakfast: scrambled eggs, sautéed shredded brussels and kale, smoked salmon with everything bagel seasoning. I woke up with another headache this morning, so again I'm taking some Excedrin Tension Headache. Yesterday it worked like gangbusters-- and I had a ton of energy, not sure if that's due to the caffeine or the diet. But I felt good yesterday: confident, chatty, in control, and like my best self. Today is a snow day (yay!!) so it gives me plenty of time to load up the slow cooker with some short ribs (don't ask how much they cost.... 🤐) and get some much-needed cleaning done. 5 days and going strong!!!

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Day 3 Lunch: Salad with leftover chicken, beers, cucumbers, avocado, and hard-boiled egg. Oh man, today started rough. I had Physical Therapy at 7:15am so I decided I would quickly make sweet potato toast with almond butter and bananas as I was about to leave, and take it with me. Well, that did not go according to plan. After 3 rounds in the toaster and 10 minutes under the broiler, the potato still wasn't browned and I was 15 minutes late for PT. So I ended up scraping the almond butter and banana off the raw potato with my teeth. And that was my breakfast. Lunch was a little better. And still no headache!!! Maybe it's coming tomorrow? Think I'll take some Advil now just to be sure.

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Day 2 Dinner: Pan-fried chicken (marinated in olive oil, Dijon mustard, herbes de provence, and salt/pepper), roasted potatoes (chili pepper and Cajun seasoning), French-cut green beans. 2 days down! Woohoo. My head started to pulse a little bit today, kind of a warning of what's to come. I took some preventative Advil, which I might keep on doing until I'm in the clear. Tomorrow morning I have PT at 7:15AM so I'm trying to figure out what kind of breakfast to have on the run. I also need to somehow pack a lunch as well... maybe I'll use this as an opportunity to try sweet potato toast!!

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Day 1 Dinner: Shrimp and Chorizo skillet over a baked sweet potato. Dang this dinner was good. I adapted it slightly from this recipe: http://www.paleonewbie.com/20-minute-shrimp-sausage-paleo-skillet-meal/ since I had uncooked Sausage Craft chorizo sausage, so I squeezed little bits out of the casings to cook (hence requiring a bit more cooking time). Will said it was a little greasy, so I may drain it mid-cook next time. But hey, it feels gooood when you're on a diet to eat something greasy!!! Overall I'm feeling good. Going to get rest and drink lots of water in preparation for prime headache days ahead of me.

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Whole 30 Round 2: January 2017 Day 1: Breakfast Basted eggs, sautéed shredded brussels and kale, avocado. And my favorite Frank's Red Hot! Well here we go! My second full Whole30. My reasons for doing it are probably a little more weight-related than before. I'm getting married in April, and I'd love to get the size of my hips down to fit into my dress. So while I'd love to cut my sugar cravings, bloat, and emotional food connection, I'd really also just like to lose 10 lbs. At the end of the day, does it really matter the reason though? As long as I'm doing it!!

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It's Over! Thoughts After My First Whole15

Well, my first Whole15 is over, and I think it was completely worthwhile. I weighed myself yesterday, and even though I only lost 3 lbs, I feel much better. My clothes fit better, and I find that I have consistent levels of energy throughout the day. As soon as it was over, I went yesterday mid-morning to get the iced mocha and chocolate chip scone that I was craving. And it was good, but I did find that I experienced that rush right after and then crash later on in the day. But, after I ate dinner I found that I didn't need dessert at all. I also ate a later lunch and didn't feel compelled to snack in the late afternoon. I'll continue to support my friends as they continue their Whole30s, and as I did during my last reintroduction, I'll continue to base my meals on Whole30/paleo for the foreseeable future. Not sure when my next Whole15 will be... Maybe January? For now, ta ta!