#whole30day20

[paleopineapple]

D20:M3- 2nd night in a row I have made this amazing baked chicken. With it being 75 degrees in February, I thought a salad was appropriate. . . . #whole30 #whole30day20 #whole30dinner #whole30salad #dumpranch #bakedchickenbreast #chickenbreast #paleo #springiscoming

[paleopineapple]

D20:M2- roasted carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes and made this lovely bisque. Topped with toasted pistachios and coconut cream. . . . #whole30 #whole30soup #whole30day20 #paleo #soup #bisque #coconutcream #toastedpistachios #foodphotography

[purplewysteria]

#whole30day20 #whole30 #accountability Pre workout: boiled egg, black coffee 25 Min on elliptical, 25 deg incline, kept my rpm at 60. Post: larabar Lunch: grilled steak over romaine, egg, tomato with oil & vinegar. Then we went to a get-together and I ended up having a drink. Just a small one, but it sure was sweet. So, technically, I'm supposed to "start over", but I'm just going to keep going and keep being accountable. I don't plan to stop at 30 days, this is a lifestyle change!

[chunky002]

Whole30 Days 18-23

The last week has been kind of a clusterfuck, but in a good way. I moved into my new apartment over the weekend - a 4th floor walk-up with no elevator! Woo-hoo soon-to-be-amazing ass! Moving and everything that goes along with it has taken up the majority of my time, but today I FINALLY got a workout in. Nothing fancy, just going hard on the elliptical for half an hour. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much in my life. Felt semi-refreshed and was STARVING when I got home. Stuck with compliant foods and feeling satisfied.

Speaking of food, who finally stopped craving donuts and cinnamon rolls? THIS GIRL! Yesterday was kind of a rough day, and when that kinda day would normally send me into a carb/sugar spiral yesterday it didn’t even cross my mind! Who the fuck am I? A chick that doesn’t need to eat her emotions through pasta and hostess donuts - that’s who!!

To note: it took me 9 days, Day 13 until the 22nd to kick the craving for sugary carbs - and I had never really veered towards them pre-Whole30, so just to note you WILL (probably) crave stuff you never did pre-program.

So while there is no “Tiger Blood” running through me per se, I feel confident that I can stop myself for long enough to really evaluate why I want certain foods. And I can honestly say, that has never been something I could do before going through the Whole30. NSVs for the win.

Now onto food. Stuck to program, but again since it’s been awhile since the 18-20th, and I have a shitty memory, I can’t 100% vouch for specific meals in a given day beyond saying I was totally on fucking point.

Foodage:

Day 18 Breakfast - Banana, black iced tea with coconut milk

Lunch - 2 servings chicken, 1 serving beef

Dinner - sausages with broccoli

Day 19 Breakfast - iced coffee (black)

Lunch - salad with spinach, grilled chicken, bell pepper, onion, oil and vinegar

Dinner - 2 bananas with almond butter, grapes, oysters packed in oil

Day 20 Breakfast - black iced tea, banana with almond butter

Lunch - salad (lettuce, carrots, olives, eggs, oil and vinegar), steak and grilled shrimp

Dinner - boiled eggs and salmon

Day 21

Breakfast - black iced tea with coconut milk

Lunch - carved turkey breast (a ton of it)

Dinner - grapes, 2 bananas with almond butter, oysters packed in oil

Day 22

Breakfast - black iced tea with coconut milk

Lunch - salad with grilled chicken, steak, onions, peppers, fresh salsa (tomato, onion, cilantro, jalapeños)

Dinner - the now infamous (because of how often I make it) chili with spinach, kale, and one other kind of green, added)

Dessert - 2 bananas with almond butter

Day 23

Breakfast - black iced tea with coconut milk, banana

Lunch - chili

Dinner - more chili

Snack - banana with almond butter

[strmyweather]

Whole30, Day 20

Two-thirds of the way there. A few observations:

THE GOOD:

-- my underlying mental state is definitely shifting, which is exactly what I wanted to get out of this; I wanted indiscretions to actually ‘feel like a big deal’ again, as opposed to the blithely thoughtless hand-to-mouth pattern I’d gotten into. And they do! [Case in point: for weeks now, I’ve planned to buy a pint of ice cream and sneak it into the movie theater on 1/30 as a birthday/end-of-Whole30 treat. That just sounded so delicious, and in the early days of the Whole30, I walked past the dairy case in the supermarket more than once and picked out exactly what flavor of Ben & Jerry’s I was going to get when we were done. Now, ice cream honestly doesn’t even sound good to me anymore; the idea of a huge wallop of dairy AND sugar just gives me a preemptive stomachache. The thing I actually want most these days is the date+coconut rolls from the make-your-own-trail-mix bar at Whole Foods -- which are actually Whole30 compliant (!), but I’m avoiding them anyway because sugar- and calorie-dense ‘snacks’ like that are a no-holds-barred mental thing for me, kind of like Lara bars. So now I’m thinking I’m going to make these Paleo pumpkin bites for my movie snack -- and I’m really looking forward to having a ‘treat’ without feeling terrible.]

-- cooking doesn’t feel like as big a deal anymore. I had gotten to the point where I hated to make anything in advance, to the point that I was relying on microwavable frozen rice as the base for 1-2 of my daily meals. Now, I’m back in the habit of chopping up a sweet potato, dousing it in spices, and tossing the 'fries' in the toaster oven for 25 minutes while I’m preparing, say, some lemon-garlic sauteed kale to go with it. I’ve also gotten back into the CrockPot habit and have discovered some AMAZING new recipes (my favorite so far is Italian sausage and pepper stew). These are way better choices and are really not that big of a time-suck, all things considered.

-- my skin is markedly better -- not perfect, but improved to the point that I haven’t had to wear concealer to work for the past few days. This is a huuuuuge deal for me.

-- my caffeine intake is way down without my even trying too hard. Most days now I get up, drink one cup of black coffee, then leave the house. No travel mug, no stopping at the coffee shop right after the gym. I love coffee and have never felt the need to cut it out completely, but my intake was definitely getting excessive there for a while (I remember one day when I took two travel mugs to work, one in each hand!)

-- I’m getting a lot better about drinking water, via two tricks: (1) switching most of my supplements to first thing in the morning and forcing myself to finish a full 14oz of water while taking them, and then (2) simply keeping a bottle there next to me on my desk during the day. I think this had become more of a problem than I realized. I’m recognizing that there are times when I think I’m hungry, and then I drink some water and realize, no, I’m actually just thirsty.

-- although I’ve been in the gym less, I’ve been better when I’m there -- meaning, I’m mentally excited to be there, am not cripplingly sore, and am performing a liiiiittle more in line with what I’m accustomed to being able to do. Bodyweight stuff still isn’t back to normal, but today I PRed my front squat by 8 pounds (163 lb!!!), which is above bodyweight and is the first FSQ personal best I’ve had since leaving CFCC.

THE INTERESTING:

-- I’m having terrible dreams almost every night, bordering on nightmarish, and still waking up almost every night. I’m waking less (usually just once now, as opposed to two or even three times before), but it’s still happening, and the dreams are a new thing and are not much fun. (Some of this may be because my bedroom isn’t dark enough… add blackout curtains to my list of apartment projects.)

-- I’m still having ‘rebound hunger’ after I eat a meal that is proportionately heavier on carbs. It’s weird; I eat, I’m full, and then 30-45 minutes later, I’m hungry again. I’m assuming it has something to do with the relatively steeper drop in blood sugar following a carb-y meal, but whatever it is, it’s annoying.

-- I had a CrossFit competition on Saturday, which meant I had to eat ‘weirdly’ (small amounts of easily-digestible things all day long, like bananas, diced chicken, and pureed fruit). And, starting that night and persisting for 24-48 hours afterward, my cravings returned FULL FORCE. Not sure if it was the increased sugar/fructose or the frequent snacking or a combination of both, but it definitely felt like an overall backslide. I’m becoming more aware of fructose as a ‘thing’ this time around -- this article resonates with me because of what it says about fructose rapidly causing leptin resistance and affecting appetite regulation. That's definitely in line with what I experienced.

-- I’ve learned that I do so, so, so much better with my eating and overall health when I do not have to go to work. When I can stick to a routine of a morning workout, two large meals during the day, and relatively low stress, everything feels easy and awesome. After a few days of this, I actually look leaner in the mirror, too. But on a workday, I’m hungrier, much more stressed, sitting down a lot more, and much more likely to make poor decisions throughout the day and/or eat too much when I get home at night -- and I feel like I can actually see this reflected in the mirror, too. The overall situation is actually a hell of a lot better than it was when I lived in Philadelphia (TMI alert: I’ve been getting my period regularly again ever since I moved back, which was a huge issue before and was very clearly stress-related), but the various facets of patient care are still extremely stressful for me; I don’t feel like I truly ‘exhale’ or unclench my muscles until I’m getting in my car to go home at the end of the day.

GOING FORWARD:

-- I’m gluten-free and mostly dairy-free at baseline, but had gotten super slack on the sugar. Therefore, my primary goal moving forward is to continue to keep the house entirely free of the processed white stuff. I watched Fed Up during this challenge and it really gave me a much-needed reminder about how damaging it is. I love sweets and won’t cut them out of my life entirely (if I’m out to dinner with friends, I’ll totally get dessert), but it’s a relief to get back to this point of not really missing them when they aren’t there. Sugar is ridiculously accessible in this country, and there is no need for me to feel ‘deprived’ by not having it in my house / constantly within arm’s reach.

-- I'm considering doing an autoimmune Paleo Whole30 at some point soon, because I seem to be developing psoriasis in a couple of my fingernails. (I was 95% sure of the diagnosis anyway, and then I found out over Christmas that I have a relative with psoriasis -- so now I'm all but certain.) Although they're growing out a LITTLE smoother with the Whole30, they definitely can't be called 'resolved', and I'm a huge nightshade person (love tomatoes, potatoes, cumin, etc. and eat at least a couple of things from that family literally every day), so that may be the next step.

-- Going to keep cooking with ghee. I never used it much before, but I really like how it makes things like Brussels sprouts a little more ‘crispy’ when cooked.

-- Lara bars are for competitions. Epic bars are for true emergencies. Perfect Foods bars are for basically never (maaaaybe if I need a meal replacement while on a trip). The only processed/snacky things I’m really looking forward to reintroducing are beef jerky (fantastic snack to keep in my desk for late nights, but it’s hard to find ANY without sugar) and whey protein; those Fuel For Fire packets are delicious immediately post-workout.

I have 9 more days of this; my birthday is January 30th, so this will really be more like a Whole29 for me. :) Hoping to see some more good gym progress in the next 9 days -- we’re redoing Open WOD 13.3 on my birthday (shoot me now)...

...and then I get my date-coconut rolls. LOL.