Whole30 – Day 12

Day 12 hit me like a ton of bricks.  I thought I had this Whole30 down.  Thought people who were just ready to throw in the towel and quit didn’t have enough will-power…until day 12.

I woke up this morning (or evening since that’s my morning) just feeling horrible.  Not physically horrible but so easily irritated.  Then I got upset, and then all I wanted to do was cry.  I am not a cryer.  I don’t cry often, I hate crying.  And, I don’t often get the urge to just cry for no reason.  And cry I did.  But I managed to pull myself together, get my butt to work, and have a successful night.  I felt slightly off all night though and I hate that.

I did a little Whole30 forum reading and found out this is pretty common.  I even found some people who had the exact same descriptions of how they were feeling on both days 11 and 12 so I guess I’m not that abnormal.  I also read that eating more sweet potatoes (or other starchy foods) when you feel like this can help your body cope with the changes it’s going through.  I know I mentioned before a lot of my issues are hormone related…so maybe my body is actually producing hormones now?  I don’t know, that’s only a theory.  A lot of people said it’s part of the detox from sugars, and that’s probably it exactly.  Here I thought I could make it through this unscathed.

The good news is that I didn’t cheat.  I didn’t even have the urge to cheat, I just couldn’t understand why I was feeling the way I did.  Lame.

Breakfast

Breakfast was spinach mixed with what I had leftover of the stuffing of the acorn squash which consisted of ground turkey, celery, onion, and diced apples.   I scrambled this all together with three eggs and had some olives to go with it.  So delicious, even though I was still teary-eyed when I ate it.

Lunch

For lunch I decided to mix a bunch of stuff together.  I added some cauliflower rice, crack slaw, and roasted brussels sprouts into my lunch container.  Once I heated it all up I added in some mayo then mixed it all together.  It makes a nice creamy sauce, really good!

Dinner

I forgot I had a leftover sweet potato (or is it a yam?) from last week so I “baked” that in the microwave hoping that the extra starchy foods will help improve my mood.  I did cut down from a lot of sweet potatoes last week to zero this week, completely unintentionally.  I also had a bowl of thai chicken soup with cauliflower rice added and topped with a squeeze of fresh lime and an avocado.  This soup is amazing!

I guess my positive spin on the day is that I didn’t kill anyone, I’m still alive, and I didn’t eat any non-compliant foods!  Life and Whole30 go on!

I’m ready for a better day 13!  Because I’m not superstitious 😉

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Whole30 – Day 11

Today’s blog is going to be short and sweet.  I’m already two or three hours past the time I normally go to bed since I went and got my hair done today!  I’m loving the new blondness.

Overall I’m feeling really great on Whole30.  I don’t have crazy energy going on, but I do feel better than I did and my sleep is better no doubt.  Speaking of which, my pillow is calling my name.

Breakfast

I mixed wilted spinach with some crack slaw and had two poached eggs.  I could seriously eat this for every breakfast, maybe forever.  I love it that much!  I topped it all with the last bit of ranch dressing I had left.  I’m making a mental note for next week to make more sauces I can use for fats.  I feel so redundant either eating olives or avocados…not that I really mind.

Lunch

Lunch was a half of a stuffed acorn squash which has seasoned ground turkey in it, which still reminds me of stovetop stuffing (I like it) and a side of green beans with mushrooms.  I also had some raw celery with almond butter.

Dinner

I reheated some of the spinach and tomato frittata I had made ahead of time.  This was nice since I was running short on time today.  I topped it off with an avocado and some Frank’s Red Hot Sauce!  Such a good combination.  I think adding some ground meat in this would be really delicious.

Someone mentioned to me that they think that I’m more upbeat lately.  I’d have to agree.  While I’m still not feeling as amazing and energetic as I know I can, I am feeling better in general than I have for a long time.  Top that off with the fact that I have hope in actually getting help from my new doctor and I’m making really good choices for my body with all the good food I’m eating and I’m a pretty happy girl!

Good night all!

Crack Slaw

Here is it folks!  What you’ve all been waiting for, the infamous crack slaw recipe.

This is not my recipe, I found it on Facebook somewhere and there seem to be a lot of variations online.  This version I’m posting here is not Whole30 compliant but I made the changes to make it compliant.  So I’ll post it exactly as it’s supposed to be and then in parenthesis tell you what I changed to make it okay.  I love this recipe so much I’m making it again this week, for the second week in a row.  It’s so versatile I can literally eat it for any meal.   One of my favorites is breakfast with a runny yolked egg or two on top.

Crack Slaw

1lb ground beef

1lb ground turkey (my store has 20oz packages so I use the whole thing)

1 package cole slaw

1 package broccoli slaw (I could only find a kale broccoli combo, it’s so good)

4-6 tbsp of soy sauce (no soy allowed on Whole30, you can use coconut aminos but I can’t find any in my area so I used the juice of one lemon)

3-4 tbsp of sriracha sauce (I used Frank’s Red Hot Sauce since it’s compliant and Sriracha isn’t)

Cook the ground meats in a pan and add seasoning, then add hot sauce and soy sauce or lemon juice (whichever you are using), lastly add in the slaw mixes and cook until it becomes soft.

Here’s what it looks like…pure amazingness!

My Whole30 Journey Starts Now!

Hello and welcome to my Whole30 journey where I’m going to start repairing my body by eating whole foods for (at least) the next 30 days.

Today was prep day which means tomorrow I officially start day 1.  I’m not much of a cook.  Don’t get me wrong, I can cook I just usually don’t.  I have a hard time cooking for myself.  It’s just not as enjoyable as cooking for someone else.  Since G is a very picky eater that means I have to find motivation to cook a wide variety of meats, vegetables, and fruits for me.

I don’t know if it’s my weird work hours or the job I have but I just cannot make myself cook on a daily basis.  That’s why I’ve decide to prep my food for the week on my weekend so I don’t have to cook much during the work week.  Everything but breakfast is ready to go and I plan on eating a lot of eggs and spinach for breakfast which should be pretty easy and quick to cook up.

So, here’s what I made tonight:

Crack Slaw: Ground beef, ground turkey, 1 package cole slaw, 1 package broccoli slaw (I could only find a kale broccoli mix), hot sauce, and lemon juice

This is the only recipe I made that wasn’t in the Whole30 book.  So good!

I made my own mayo and ranch dressing from scratch.  They both taste way better than anything I’ve ever bought from the store.

Cold Thai Salad made with Sunshine Sauce.  The sunshine sauce is supposed to use sunflower butter.  I didn’t bother to try and find any and used freshly ground almond butter instead.  I can’t compare to how it’s supposed to taste with the sunflowers but it’s amazing the way it is!

Balsamic Sweet Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts – I thought I didn’t like brussels sprouts but these taste so good.

Spaghetti Squash – one of my favorites.  I can eat it just like this.

Stuffed Peppers – ground beef and butternut squash.

Protein Salad – made with the fresh mayo and canned chicken breast.

Chicken Chowder – This is the only thing I made that came out looking so much different than the photo in the book.  I think I used more broccoli than they called for but looks are only part of the equation.  It tastes really good.  I like broccoli anyway!

How it’s supposed to look:

How mine looks:

My kitchen was a disaster.  Before today I had liked my kitchen but I didn’t fully understand how awesome the huge granite countertops were.  So easy to clean up and room to stash the pots and pans until I was done and ready for clean-up.

And now my fridge is bursting at the seams!  No, the Pepsi is not mine.

All in all it took me 6 hours to cook 9 different dishes (including sauces).  That’s a lot of time but considering that saves me time during the week I think it’s well worth it.  I think with time I’ll get at least a little faster.

I’m nervous that I’ve cooked too much food but I really didn’t know how much to cook for the week.  It’s different not being able to just run out and get something if I’m hungry and don’t have anything at home.  I have to be prepared or I don’t think I will succeed.

I took my beginning weight, measurements, and photographs today and won’t check them again until after the 30 days is over.  I’ve seen some really great transformations online and I’m hoping to see drastic differences in myself too.  Beyond hoping to lose a few pounds and look leaner what I’m most hoping for is to feel different.  As I stated in my last post I’m doing this to hopefully heal my body with food rather than medicine.  I can’t wait to start feeling better!