Whole30 – Day 61

Whew!  I’ve just completed my second Whole30 in a row.  Granted I did have wine twice and about a 1/4 inch square piece of a smores poptart, but other than that I’ve been totally, 100% compliant, which is pretty impressive if you ask me.

I’m still loving the food and still not so much loving the cooking but I get it done week after week because I know that’s what needs to happen.  I did get a new kitchen gadget that I’m loving and that is helping me cook healthy and quick.  It’s called an Instant Pot, or InstaPot, and it’s a 7 in 1 device that acts as a crock pot, pressure cooker, and other features I haven’t used yet.  I love the pressure cooker setting!  I made the most tender amazing beef roast in it tonight and also an entire chicken.  It’s really good for making bone broth too, which is really good for helping to heal the gut.  I also made some chicken hash with shredded sweet potatoes, granny smith apples, and chicken thighs as well as some spaghetti squash chow mien.  Hopefully it’s all good because this is what I’m eating this week.

Now for the bummer part of my post.  I’m really not making any progress 😦  I continue to eat real, whole, not processed foods because I know that is what my body needs but I’m still super tired and not seeing any changes to my body (outside or inside).  I’ve been on my current medications for a month now and really thought I’d start to see some improvements.  My weight has stayed roughly the same as where it was after my first 30 days (within a pound or two either lower or higher depending on the day) and my clothes fit the same.  I really feel like until I get on thyroid medications I’m not going to see the changes I’m looking to see.

I’m really trying not to be too down on myself because I know I’m doing everything I can.  I also know I didn’t make myself sick overnight so I can’t expect to be healed overnight either.  I just have a hard time being patient when I know there are other things that can be done and it’s not me holding back the progress.  Yep, I still have another month to go before I see my doctor again.  I even called the office today hoping to get a call back but I haven’t heard anything yet.  They decided to close their doors for two months so I’m just on stand-still and that really bothers me.

I haven’t been as good on the exercise front as I had meant to be.  I posted two weeks ago that I was going to start lifting and that hasn’t happened.  I know it’s an excuse of sorts but they day I had planned on going after work I ended up having to stay four extra hours and I’ve just been exhausted with some really long, really wet and windy, work days.  I have been doing yoga 3-4 times a week though and I really am enjoying that.  I feel like it doesn’t exhaust me as bad as a hard workout does and for now I think that’s what my body needs.

Here’s to another 30 days and hopefully some new improvements.  I think I’m going to go pour myself a glass of wine….because I can 🙂

Whole 30 – Day 50

I think it’s about time for a Whole30 update!  I’m officially half way through my second Whole30.  It pretty much just feels normal at this point to eat this way.  I still miss some things but only when they are right in front of my face.  Otherwise I’m happy to eat my “real” food.

I haven’t been measuring myself at all but the scale is pretty much hanging right where it’s been for weeks.  I feel like until my thyroid issue gets treated with medication that isn’t going to change and as much as I may dislike my fluffier body I’ve learned to live with it for now.  No sense in hating yourself over something you can’t control.  Obviously I’m doing everything I can to change it food/diet wise and it’s just not happening.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been on vacation (days off really, I didn’t go anywhere) for the last 10 days.  Tonight I’m back to work.  I feel like I have slightly more energy than I have had, but I think a lot of that is due to not being at work and being stressed out at work.  I’ve also been sleeping at night for the most part and that really does make a difference. Hopefully I can keep this energy level up!

I feel like I’m ready to start working out now.  I’m not sure how my body is going to react but I’m going to give it a try.  I started doing some YouTube yoga which I’ve really like.  It seriously kicks my butt though.  I’ve been doing the 30 Days of Yoga on the Yoga with Adriene channel.  I haven’t done it every day but I have enjoyed it when I have done it.  It’s nothing crazy and is for beginners for sure.

What I’m really excited to start is the New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess workout.  It’s a seven phase workout for lifting heavy.  I know building muscle on my body will help ramp up my metabolism and will help shed some excess fat.  You can find the book on Amazon here.  I’ve read that some people get bored with the workouts but I like that it’s all written down exactly what I need to do and I don’t have to be creative about it.  I could change my mind but for now this is what I’m going to try.  I have to do my best to make it to the gym three times a week which is a struggle for me, but they say even twice when you start out is okay.

The other crazy thing I’ve done is to cut out caffeine, like completely.  I never thought that would be something I would do.  I love my morning coffee.  I don’t even think it was the caffeine doing anything for me but I just like the way it tastes.  I decided to stop drinking caffeine because I’ve done so much reading on how it can negatively impact your body and pretty much everything I have wrong with me caffeine makes worse.  So it was a hard decision but an obvious one to make in my mind.  It’s been 12 days so far and I have to say I don’t feel any different, no better or worse.  I didn’t even notice caffeine withdrawals which I thought was weird because I did drink at least one large cup of coffee a day and usually several cups of caffeinated tea.

My morning just wouldn’t be complete without having something warm to drink though.  I’ve been listening to The Nourished Podcast by Meg Doll and Shawn Mynar.  I love these ladies!  They have both been through things similar to what I’m dealing with, and probably even worse than me.  They are both certified holistic nutritionists and they have a lot of really good info on your body (especially for women).  I just love listening to them.  Anyway, Meg talks about what she drinks in the morning which is half a lemon squeezed into your mug, sea salt, and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (Braggs or anything with the mother still in it) and hot water.  I think the sour kick of the drink wakes me up as much as the caffeine used to.  It’s also supposed to help create more stomach acid, which most people are lacking with the way we eat now (processed foods).  Symptoms of low stomach acid include the following:

• Bloating, belching, and flatulence immediately after meals
• Heartburn (often thought to be caused by too much stomach acid)
• Indigestion, diarrhea, or constipation
• Undigested food in stools
• Acne
• Rectal itching
• Chronic candida
• Hair loss in women
• Multiple food allergies
• Iron deficiency
• Weak, peeling, or cracked fingernails
• Chronic fatigue
• Adrenal fatigue
• Dry skin
• Various autoimmune diseases

I was shocked when I learned this because I have about eight of the things on the list.  What’s really crazy to me is that I don’t have heartburn, I’ve never had it in my life.  But I guess you don’t always have that with low stomach acid.  By not having enough stomach acid your body doesn’t process proteins well nor does it absorb the nutrients from the foods you eat.  It’s amazing to me because I’ve found so many possible answers to the problems I have.  When they say everything in your body is tied together they aren’t kidding.

So I know that was a long update.  If you’ve made it this far, congratulations!  This is what happens when I don’t write every day.  I have a lot to say apparently!

I’m still working on making myself better.  No new doctor’s appointments until January.  I’m really hoping for the most amazing 2016.

Whole30 – Thanksgiving

I had a very quiet Thanksgiving this year, just G and I.  Normally I wouldn’t have bothered to cook an actual Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us.  Neither of us are huge on holidays because usually at least one of us is working.  This year we actually both had the day off.  Even with the day off I really hadn’t planned on cooking turkey and all the trimmings until I came across the Whole30 compliant recipes on whole30recipes Instagram which were created by pretend_its_a_donut also on Instagram.

I made a turkey breast rather than an entire turkey and I chose to cook it in my crock pot so that I could make gravy similar to Nom Nom Paleo’s Gravy and Chicken which I’ve posted in the past.  First I dry brined the turkey breast using salt and other herbs and let it set for two days.  Just before getting ready to put the turkey into the crock pot I smothered it with ghee (butter with the milk solids removed).  I placed the turkey breast down which helped keep the breast nice and juicy!

The cranberry sauce was my favorite thing I made I think, although it was all good.  Usually I made the most delicious brandied cranberries for Thanksgiving.  While this recipe does not take the place of my brandied cranberries it was still really good.  This is coming from a  girl who refused to eat cranberry sauce as a kid.  It was nice and tart and turned out nice and thick too.  I’d make it again in a heartbeat!

Bacon wrapped green beans!  These were so good.  It was a challenge to find compliant bacon (no nitrates or added sugars) but once I did this recipe was actually really easy.  G even smoked the bacon for me before I wrapped it on the green beans so it had a nice smokey flavor!

Balsamic brussels and persimmons.  This was good but I found the balsamic to be a bit overpowering.  Luckily I like balsamic vinegar so it was still good for me.  It did cover the flavor of the persimmons though.

I also made some basic mashed potatoes.  I usually add milk to make the potatoes creamy.  I thought by adding a ton of ghee that I could accomplish the same thing but that didn’t happen.  My mashed potatoes didn’t look too nice but they tasted fine, especially topped with my gravy which was AMAZING!

The only thing missing was the pumpkin pie, which I could have found a substitute for I’m sure.  I’m used to not eating sweets by now though so I really didn’t miss it. I sure wasn’t hungry after dinner!

 

Whole30 – Reintroduction: Wine

I made it 35 days on my first Whole30!  On November 14th I had a planned reintroduction because I actually got a date night off with G and the semi-annual wine walk was happening which we really like to go to.  I’ve known since before I started Whole30 that I’d be going to this wine walk.  At first I thought nothing of it but as it grew closer I was actually nervous to see how my body would react to alcohol/wine.

G and I wine walking in the rain!  It’s a little blurry and I guess maybe I was too.

When doing the Whole30 the reintroduction phase is where you reincorporate foods that you have eliminated for the past 30 (or however long you’ve done the program) days.  The objective is to only reintroduce one thing at a time so you can truly judge your bodies reaction to that one particular food group.

This one reintroduction at a time was such a hard challenge but I set off with the right mindset.  So many times with alcohol it is easy to forget about your health and diet goals because the alcohol lowers your inhibitions and can make you really just not care.  During the wine walk we went to several businesses, even a candy store.  Oh. My. God.  The sugar smelled like heaven!  My sense of smell has really improved over this time because no way I would have smelled it so strongly before.  I went from place to place trying to find one hors d’oeuvres that I could actually eat and I found none.  I was HUNGRY, and also a bit tipsy.  But, I didn’t eat anything that I shouldn’t have (which meant I ate nothing) and just stuck to wine.  I was proud of myself for not giving in because I really wanted to, but I also really wanted to know if wine was something I could drink in the future because it’s something I do enjoy.

I really lost track of how many wine samples I had but I’m going to guess maybe 20oz.  It wasn’t a small amount by any means and surely enough to get an idea of how it would impact my body.  The weird thing was, for how much I did drink I didn’t feel too intoxicated.  I thought this would actually be the opposite since I hadn’t drank in at least 35 days, maybe my body processed it more efficiently?  I don’t really know the reason but it was fine by me.

A shameless plug for our favorite winery every year!  If you haven’t tried the Cougar yet you’re missing out.  So yum!

The night of wine walk I had no ill side effects.  No stomach aches, headaches, or other body pains!  That night and the next day I didn’t get a headache and no hangover!  I call this a total win!  I’m so happy that when I’m ready to start eating more foods that I can also include wine from time to time.

After the wine walk G and I went out to dinner.  I had the most fantastic prime rib, sweet potato fries, and vegetables (and another glass of wine!).  Food definitely tastes more fantastic now after eating whole foods.

I’m back on the Whole30 way of eating again.  I’m just not ready to reincorporate the other foods yet.  As of this writing I’m technically on day 2 of my second Whole30.  I’m still looking for that tiger blood energy that’s talked about in the book.  My body may take longer to get there but I do believe it will happen.  I’m really loving this way of eating.  To me this is food freedom, even if you may think it looks really restrictive.  For me I can eat Whole30 foods and not track my calories/macros and obsess over if I’m eating enough or too much of any one thing.  I feel like my body is working and not causing a lot of side effects from what I’m feeding it as fuel and I like that.

Whole30 – Giveaway Winner Announced

Here I am on day 35, still going strong!  I haven’t had any non-compliant foods yet and nothing much has changed since day 31.  I am really excited because G and I actually have a date night tonight and I’m reintroducing wine!  I’ll post all about that tomorrow….or whenever my head quits pounding, lol.  Really I don’t know what to expect but I’m curious to find out.

Okay, now what three of you really want to know.  Wait a minute, small tangent first.  I have to say, I was shocked and at first quite disappointed to have only three people enter my giveaway especially considering how many people were reading my blog.  Don’t get my wrong, I’m not some famous blogger but I still had a pretty decent following through my Whole30 days.  I decided to see how many people viewed my day 31 blog.  The total: 267 views, and again three people actually entered the drawing.  After getting over my disappointment I realized that the people who entered are likely the people who actually want to do a Whole30 and who want to change their health for the better.  Once I started thinking about it in those terms I’m more okay with the low numbers.

Alright, so here it is without further ado.  The entries were assigned numbers based on the order in which the comments came in.

1. Clarissa C
2. Melinda P
3. Donna P

I used Random.org to select a random number between 1-3.

And the winner is:

Melinda P!

But wait.  I’m not done yet.  Since I only had three people enter and these three people happen to be some of my best friends (again I thought for sure I’d have random entries from people I didn’t know).  I decided to pull an Oprah. I’m not giving away cars here people but I’ve decided to send all three the Whole30 book!  You’re all winners to me and I love you guys.  I also love the fact that you want to be healthier and feel better.

I’ll be contacting you all soon to make sure I have the most current mailing address for you and once I have that your books will be on the way, 2-day priority from Amazon Prime!

I hope you enjoy the book and the recipes.  I can’t wait to hear how you like the Whole30!

Whole30 – Day 31 (The Big Reveal)

Hello again to those of you who have been following along in my Whole30 journey, and to those of you who are just now reading my blog for the first time.  It’s been a crazy 30 days, some ups and some downs, but mostly ups I think.

I started off on the Whole30 because my doctor recommended I change my eating because my body isn’t working right.  Who knew that your gut and healthy gut bacteria had such an impact on your hormones, immune system, and general well-being?  I sure didn’t.  I figured as long as my food digested and went on through I was doing okay in the stomach area.  Unlike some people I wasn’t experiencing indigestion or heartburn so I never made the food connection to my health.  But of course, what good is a engine if you throw junk in it all the time?  Not so good.

One of the big things Whole30 does is to switch your body from being a sugar/carb fueled system to a fat fueled system (the way nature intended).  This is supposed to really increase energy levels because, as we know, excess foods get stored as fat, not sugar/carbs, so your body will have a lot of excess stores of fat to run off of in an emergency (or just when it needs it).

While I don’t feel super energized after completing the entire 30 days, I know it has a big part to do with other health issues I’m having, like hypothyroidism, low B12, and adrenal fatigue (to name a few).

One thing I think has really changed for me personally is that my mood is more stable.  I’m not going to lie, I can be pretty moody and I tend to just be grumpy a lot for sometimes no reason at all.  Now G might not agree with me (but he doesn’t read my blog so I guess he can’t refute what I say) but I feel like my moods are much more even and stable.  Do I still get upset?  Of course.  Do I still get annoyed?  Yep.  But when I do I think it’s for a pretty good reason not because I need some sugar.

What did I gain from Whole30?

Better sleep!  I “usually” fall asleep quickly and stay asleep which is a big deal since I work nights and sleep through the day.  Anyone who has tried this knows it’s not always the easiest thing to do.  My sleep has been screwed up for years prior to this.

Better relationship with food!  My old way of eating was very carb heavy.  I loved carbs.  My typical Friday night might look like me going to the grocery store for a bottle of wine and a sweet or salty snack like ice cream or chips and I would eat and drink it all.  I felt like I had had a hard week and I deserved to put this crap into my body because it was a reward for me.  Obviously I haven’t been drinking any wine the past 31 days or eating ice cream or chips but I no longer reward myself with food of any kind and that’s a pretty big deal.  I had always seen those images online that said something similar to “Don’t reward yourself with food, You’re not a dog”, but I really liked those rewards, lol.  Now I only eat when it’s meal time and I really do love the food I’ve been eating.  I forgot how flavorful real foods and spices could be.

Skills! I have learned to prioritize cooking and cleaning into my routine.  As much as I’d like to not do either of these things ever again I also know that it is crucial to my health.  If someone wanted to send me a personal chef I’d be okay with that too though…just a thought!

Knowledge!  The first time I went shopping for Whole30 approved foods I felt like it took me forever at the grocery store and reading the labels was a challenge.  Luckily I brought a list with me of what additives in foods I could and couldn’t have so referencing that was easy, but time consuming.  After that first week I pretty much knew to stick to the vegetable and meat isle and only go down the other isles for spices and things like that.  My shopping times greatly reduced as the weeks went on.  If you think you can pick up any pre-packaged bottle of sauce think again.  it’s amazing what companies will put sugar in.  It just doesn’t make sense.  Why needs sugar in their tomato pasta sauce?

Willpower!  It’s a good thing I’m a strong person because my willpower has been tested many times in the last 30 days.  From G eating all kinds of sweet, salty, alcoholic treats in front of me, to handing out Halloween candy and not eating a single piece, to free-for-all cookies and candy sitting on the counters at work.  I made it through each and every one because I set my goals from the beginning and I knew the disappointment of giving up on my goals would far exceed the minimal temporary satisfaction gained from eating any one of those things.  If you make up your mind going into this (or anything) you won’t give in when temptation looks you in the face.

Planning!  I have a crazy schedule and this is something I know about myself.  I knew if it were up to me to cook every meal, every day, at the time I was supposed to eat the meal, that I would not succeed.  Did that stop me from doing Whole30?  Nope!  I spend one day of my weekend doing shopping and cooking for the week.  Other than making my eggs every morning for breakfast my food is ready to go and that has been something that has really helped with the stress and time management of this plan.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I would not have been successful had I not cooked my meals ahead of time.

Okay, I know those things are all great, but what you all want to know is how much I’ve lost right?  Well, at first I was a little sad over the numbers but when I stopped to think about the fact that before Whole30 the scale was gradually climbing higher and higher, I can be quite happy and proud of the fact that I’ve lost 4.6 pounds in the last 31 days.  It’s not the number I had hoped for in my head but it is better than gaining!  What’s more impressive to me is that I lost a total of 9 inches off of my chest, stomach, hips, butt, and thighs.  9 inches is nothing to scoff at!  And, I have to be honest with myself, I just didn’t have a ton to lose going in to this.  I still struggle with what society has put into my head about the ideal woman’s body type and to me it’s what I was for years, super thin.  Now I know that being that super thin person who ate like crap and never ate enough fat to sustain my body functions I know that my ideal is not healthy.  It’s still tough to get around when it’s been in your head for so long.  So, I’m learning to love my healthier body.

Keep in mind that my results did not include working out.  I had enough going on to be successful with this that I didn’t need to add something else too.  Also, with adrenal fatigue, until your body starts working correctly you can actually do more damage than good by working out hard and stressing your body.  One thing at a time, which I struggle with.  I just want to be better now!  Is that too much to ask?

Okay, here’s some progress pictures!  It’s a bit tough to tell because the lighting seems different (even though they are all taken in my house under the same lights) but I can really see a difference in my stomach area (less pooch), and where my swimsuit ties cross agains my back area they don’t sink into flabby skin nearly as much as before.  Overall I think my complexion is better too.  My cheeks look more rosy and healthy rather than washed out and pale.

It should come as no surprise, if you’ve been reading along with me, that I’m not done with this way of eating.  For my health and in hopes of having a long life ahead I’m going to continue eating this was as much as possible.  I already have my reintroduction of alcohol planned (which has been planned since before I started), because G and I actually have a day off together and we’re going to go wine tasting!  I can’t wait to go out and have some fun.  I’m not sure how the wine is going to affect my system but I’m interested to find out.  I’ll be blogging about how that goes and other progresses along the way.  I’m not done with my blog but I’m thankful to take a break from daily blogging.  Who knew, it’s a lot of work!

Giveaway!!!

Okay, as promised I have details for the giveaway!  I have really enjoyed talking with so many of you throughout my journey.  It makes my heart happy to be able to help people be healthier.  That being said my giveaway is a copy of Whole30!  One lucky winner will receive a hardback copy of Whole30, which includes extensive information on how to eat certain foods and why as well as beautiful color pages of recipes.  The recipes are fantastic by the way and they break it down so anyone can do it!  The copy will be shipped directly to you from Amazon.  As far as I know I can ship it anywhere in the world so this giveaway is open to anyone and everyone.

To enter simply leave a comment here on this blog post.  In the comment tell me 1) which of my Whole30 blog posts was your favorite and why 2) one thing you learned from my blog 3) why you’d like to do a Whole30 for yourself and 4) include your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win!

Comments made elsewhere (Facebook or other blog posts) will not count for the giveaway.  Incomplete comments will not be counted either.  Each entry will be assigned a number and I will use a random number generator to pick the winner.  The giveaway will close Friday November 13th (such a lucky day!) 2015 at 8:00 PM Pacific Time and a winner will be announced shortly after that.  In the event the winner does not respond to the e-mail I send within two days a new winner will be selected and so on until I have a winner to send the book to.  Good luck all!

Whole30 – Day 30

Woohoo!  I did it!  I set my goal and I reached it.  Now I can take a deep breath and relish in my victory over food.

I’m not going to lie, this one is going to be short and sweet.  Like I said yesterday I couldn’t sleep at all before my shift.  I managed 4 1/2 hours of broken sleep and I’m ready to crash.

When I wake up tonight I’ll be weighing myself, taking measurements, and photos!  I’m excited and nervous to see what the last 30 days has done physically.  I already know some of the mental changes and I’ll be addressing that too.

Breakfast

The usual!  Spinach, crack slaw, poached eggs, and avocado!

Lunch

Balsamic vinegar pot roast with sweet potatoes and green beans, topped with gravy, and some almonds on the side.

Dinner

My last meal to be photographed and I was too tired, hungry, and so over taking photos of food that I completely forgot.  I do know what I ate though!  Spaghetti squash pad thai on a bed of cauliflower rice and some almond butter (separately) for fat.  I think the pad thai is better now that it’s a day later.  Some of the extra sauce seems to have soaked in so it’s less liquid and it tastes better.

Not only have I successfully completed the Whole30, I also managed to blog every single day for over 30 days.  That in itself is quite an accomplishment for this girl!  I believe I would not have been so successful without having to be accountable to you, my readers.  Thank you for following me through my journey!  I hope you’ve learned a little something and I encouraged you to make some healthier food choices too.  That being said, I’m thankful that after tonight’s post I can take a small break from blogging.  Sorry P (and many others), I know you looked forward to reading every day but this girl needs a break from the keyboard.  Don’t worry, I won’t be far away.  I plan on doing several updates along my journey because I’m far from done healing my body.

Whole30 – Day 29

So close I can almost see the end!  Must be my internal excitement because I should be sleeping right now and can’t, which is a really big bummer considering I have to work tonight.

I did my fifth massive cooking session and am pretty happy with the results!

I decided to try to make my own kombucha at home.  The first step is to make (or buy) a scoby.  I decided to try to make one since I’ve been successful doing this several years ago, but I never really got into actually making the kombucha.  Kombucha contains lots of probiotics which help your gut and although the process involves sugar, the fermenting process eats up most of the sugar.  In two to four weeks I should know if my scoby is going to grow.  Maybe in a month and a half I’ll actually have home-brewed kombucha!  If I get this to work I’ll post more about it in the future.

See the little floating things in there?  That’s part of a scoby that came in my drink and what will hopefully continue to grow.

Look what I found, finally!  I’m so excited!  Coconut Aminos.  Now I can finally make my crack slaw (and many other recipes) as intended.  Thanks D for letting me know where I could find it locally.  For those of you in the PNW, the co-op in Astoria has it in stock and if I remember right it was $6.99/bottle.  Much better than the $16.99 I saw it for on Amazon.

From top to bottom, left to right, I made a balsamic pot roast with sweet potatoes and green beans and a gravy similar to the one I made for the chicken last week, spaghetti squash pad thai with chicken and shrimp, roasted vegetables including carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and green beans, cauliflower rice, and crack slaw.  The pad thai recipe made a ton so I froze some of it immediately.  It’s not as delicious as pad thai from my favorite Thai restaurant but it’s still pretty good.  I made fewer vegetable dishes and a larger quantity of the ones I did make this week which saved a little time.  Also, I stuck to vegetables I know I like so I won’t have the rutabaga/turnip debacle I had last week.

I’m seriously so excited!  I can’t believe I’m really starting my final day (officially).  Like i’ve said before, i have no intentions of stopping my whole30/wholelife way of eating any time soon.  But just know that I can commit myself to such a big change for 30 days and accomplish it is huge.  If you set yourself up for success this is actually a pretty easy process, so long as you focus on all the things you can eat instead of all the things you can’t.

Whole30 – Day 28

I can’t believe I haven’t eaten any junk in 28 days!  If you know me and my sweet tooth that’s amazing all in itself.

I managed to get my shopping done today and tonight is cooking night!  I have some new recipes to try and I can’t wait because one of them is Pad Thai, one of my favorite dishes in the universe.  When I first started out on this journey grocery shopping took me forever but now I’m finding it to be a breeze.  I still don’t like what the cash register total comes to but I guess I’m getting more used to it.  Every week seems to be roughly the same, about $115 in groceries.  I know I could cut down some costs, but I do buy grass fed beef and free range chicken, no added hormones/antibiotics, and that’s worth a few extra dollars.  I could also shop what’s on sale but I’ll be honest, I’m not there in my cooking yet.  Right now I sit down and look through recipes, or I find something during the week, that looks good and that’s what I make.  Maybe one of these days I’ll focus more on eating this way on a bit of a budget.  One thing at a time I suppose.

Breakfast

Spinach, zoodles, poached eggs, and almond butter!  Yes I ate it straight out of the container, but no I did not eat the whole thing.  I ran out of avocados and needed some fats so almond butter sounded like a good way to get it in.  If you’ve never tried the machine that grinds it fresh for you, you really should.  It’s is so much yummier than any pre-packaged almond butter I’ve ever tried.  It’s good enough I probably could eat the entire container if I didn’t have a little self-control.

Lunch

Chili topped with ranch dressing.  In my mind this was an awesome combo.  In my mouth, not quite so awesome.  It wasn’t too horrible to eat but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Dinner

Seriously one of my new favorite dishes.  Chicken and Gravy by Nom Nom Paleo with mashed sweet potatoes, topped with clarified butter and LOTS of gravy!

As you know I don’t usually write my blog this late at night, but I slept and slept and slept today!  It’s my day off and clearly my body was telling me I needed it.  Hopefully my body was doing some much needed repairs during that sleep.

Did you forget?  Only three days until I announce my results and the giveaway details!

Whole30 – Day 27

What a day!  Thankfully I’m writing you from my weekend which is going to look a lot like lazy other than the cooking I’ll be doing tomorrow night (which I haven’t even planned yet).  One thing I know for sure I’ll be making this upcoming week (yep, week5!!!) is going to be some crack slaw.  I can’t believe I’ve gone a week without it.  I really do miss it.  It feels like such a staple to me.  It makes me so happy to hear back from the many people I know who have made this dish who love it as much as I do.

I have no idea if what I’m experiencing is Whole30 related or if it’s just a random coincidence, but my jaw has been killing me for the past few weeks.  I haven’t mentioned it because it all started with one side or the other popping, usually once a day or so.  It would be pretty painful when it popped, and so loud that my ear would ring for a short while, but then it would feel better.  Well that changed a few days ago.  The right side of my jaw is so sore, and it’s not popping anymore.  I scheduled a visit with my dentist to try to find out what’s going on with it.  Originally I thought maybe my inflammation was going down so things were resettling, but even if that is the case it hurts like hell.  Hopefully Monday brings me good news and less pain.

Breakfast

Wilted spinach, avocado, and poached eggs!  I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so many eggs in one month.  Eggs are one of the most nutrient dense foods you can eat so I don’t feel bad about it.

Lunch

Nom Nom Paleo’s chicken and gravy with some mashed sweet potatoes and the roasted veggies I don’t like.  I managed to choke down some of the vegetables while they were smothered in sweet potatoes and gravy.  I know they are good for me but dang they are not good.  I’ll be changing things up drastically in this department for next week.

Dinner

So part of my exciting day after work included getting a new phone!  New phones are great but they always seem to be a pain to set up.  Luckily, once I figured out how to do it (thank you Google) the iCloud backup made it pretty easy.  Why am I talking about this for the dinner section?  It’s because my phone was in the one of many updates when I ate dinner so you don’t get a picture today.  I had the chicken curry and green olives!  Still one of my favorite combos.

I still really can’t believe my first 30 day journey has almost come to an end.  I realized something today, that I probably already knew.  I am an emotional eater.  I got really upset and frustrated today, over something mostly stupid but still annoying, and I was driving around during this time.  I saw Dairy Queen and I wanted a Blizzard so bad.  Believe me, Blizzards have been one of my go-to foods in the past when I’m upset or wanting comfort or just something sugary and delicious.  Crazy how our society has utilized food to comfort, soothe, and take the place of healthy stress relievers.  Luckily I can realize this now, it’s not a real craving but a mental trigger.  When we feel stressed out is not the time to pump your body full or crap because that only stresses out our bodies more on a different level.  But I guess it’s taken me 27 days to learn this, and it’s going to take even longer before I completely lose these triggered cravings (obviously).  I wonder if they would ever completely go away?  What are you food triggers?  If you are aware of what makes you want to eat foods that are not good for you then you can have a mental plan on how to redirect your focus to a healthy one.  Just a little “food for thought”!