Day 31: The Menu

Hey everybody! As part of my second month of Whole30, I thought I'd do more posts that have to do with what I'm eating. I can't guarantee that I'll post every single day, but hopefully if you are curious about what you can eat on Whole30, it will give you a good idea. If you're already doing Whole30, maybe you'll just get some good recipes out of the deal!

Day 31 Breakfast: Asian meatballs and zucchini noodles

Remember last weekend? I made up a nice batch of Nom Nom Paleo's Asian Meatballs! They're great quick protein, so you'll probably be seeing a bunch of these little cuties in my meals for the next few days. The recipe is here. For the zucchini noodles, I just used my Kuhn Rikon peeler to turn a small zucchini into noodles. I tossed them in a pan on medium heat with a little bit of coconut oil, sautéed them quickly, and added about 1/3 teaspoon of coconut aminos. I tossed them in my handy little Eco Meal Kit with a handful of meatballs, and put a little bit of hot sauce on top. Once I got to work, I just microwaved the whole concoction, and dug right in!

Day 31 Lunch: Grilled chicken and watermelon pico de gallo

I love leftovers! I usually cook about 1/3 more for dinner than we can eat, and stash the rest in tupperware for lunch the next day! Last night we grilled a delicious whole chicken that Kevin brined in his special solution. Lunch today is one of the chicken breasts sliced up and topped with a little Trader Joe's "12 Seasoning Salute". The rest of my plate is watermelon pico de gallo and some coconut flakes. Yum!

Day 31 Dinner: Smashed steak skewers with cherry barbecue sauce

I was SO EXCITED ABOUT DINNER all day. I can't even tell you. I actually whipped up this barbecue sauce last night while the chicken was grilling, and I sort of wanted to just eat it by itself. Since I am doing Whole30, juice is pretty restricted, so I omitted the apple juice and added the same quantity of apple cider vinegar. The result is tangy sweet deliciousness. I just soaked some wooden skewers in water, carefully put the sliced flank steak on the skewers, and then had some fun smashing the skewered meat with my fancy new meat tenderizer. We grilled the tenderized meat, and after letting it sit for a minute, spread some of that delicious sauce over each one. MAN it was good. I served those bad boys up with some snap peas that I sautéed in ghee and topped with salt and pepper.

Before Whole30, I struggled more with snacking, especially at work or in the evening after dinner. Having kicked that habit, I still like to have a nice cup of hot tea after dinner. A hot cup of tea is just a great way to wind down at the end of a long and busy (and delicious) day...

That was it! Whole30 day 31 was pretty tasty, don't you think?

THIRTY!

Okay y'all. It's day 30 of my Whole30.

I did it. And it's been incredible.

To say that I started out Whole30 with limited expectations would be an understatement. I had never been super successful with low-carb 'diets' in the past, and always found myself slipping back into old eating habits.

Reading "It Starts With Food", though, really helped me figure out why I struggled with food so much. More than anything, this experience has changed my mindset in a lot of ways. Whereas I used to think of eating this way as sort of a personal punishment ("but what if I'm having a really crappy day and just want to munch on a packet of Cheez-its?") I've been thinking more in the mindset of "man, there is so much awesome healthy food that I can have". And sure, cruising through the aisles of the grocery store for foods that are full of preservatives (and weird chemical ingredients that you can only pronounce with an advanced chemistry degree) might be cheaper than stocking up on quality meats, good vegetables and fruits from the much-more-Whole-30-friendly perimeter of the store, but knowing how awesome I feel right now, I can't imagine ever going back to where I was a month ago.

Now that's not to say I'll never eat anything non-Whole30 or non-Paleo again. Let's not get crazy. I sort of consider Nom Nom Paleo's Michelle Tam to be sort of my Whole30 godmother, so I was super excited to finally get her Nom Nom Paleo iPad app over the weekend. It's full of super-tasty recipes that I can't WAIT to try, including one for Pumpkin Maple Coconut Custard that I think might have to whip up as a special treat to enjoy the day after Thanksgiving as we put up the Christmas tree.

The most exciting stuff? I'm down over 10 pounds. I wore a pair of pants today that I wouldn't have even attempted to put on before my Whole30, and they are so big I think I need to go buy a belt. I am in the best shape I've been in since I was a kid running track and field. My skin feels incredible, and I have way more energy than I've ever had.

I worked it out today, and if I stick with eating the way I have been (and I plan to because I feel amazing, and YUM everything is just so good) I will be done 150 days of clean Whole30 eating by December 24th....just in time to enjoy a Christmas cookie or two!

Have you been thinking about trying your own Whole30? Tomorrow marks day 31 for me, and I plan to do a whole bunch of recipe and meal recaps throughout the month, so why not join me? You can always leave me comments and ask questions - I'd love to help you get started! Here are a few link resources that you might find helpful:

All About Whole30: a great place to get started!

The Whole30 Timeline: your guide to how you might feel, and how your body might respond as you progress through your Whole30. For me it was pretty spot on! Around day 6, I started to feel super tired and lethargic, but thanks to the timeline, I knew it was just a product of my body getting rid of all the junk in it. I was able to push through and keep on goin'!

Whole30 Shopping List: this was one of the most helpful things for me - a clear list of things I could fill my cart with at the grocery store.

Whole30 Vegetarian Shopping List: you can be a vegetarian and do a Whole30! Honestly I'm not sure why you'd want to, but just in case you are considering it, I wanted to make sure you had a shopping list too!

The Whole30 Meal Planning Template: this is a great guide to help you build your plate at meal time! The right amount of protein, veggies, fruits, and fat in every meal are what helped me kick the wicked snacking habit I had pre-W30.

Paleo Flow Chart: The Paleo diet and the Whole30 program are very similar in a lot of ways. This chart can help you figure out whether a particular food is okay to eat or not. There are slight variations in what is OK by Paleo standards, but not OK for your Whole30, but this will get you started!

PS: BIG thanks to my sweet awesome husband for being so sweet and encouraging, and for eating all the weird stuff I've been cooking up lately! Also big thanks to my friend Lindsay for inspiring me to try the Whole30 lifestyle to begin with...

All Black Everything

Okay so I'm not talking about the Lupe Fiasco song. I'm talking about my outfit today. It's a beautiful day out today, but for some reason instead of grabbing a cute flowy summer dress, I felt like wearing all black. I threw on a light short sleeved black sweater and my favorite pair of black skinny ankle pants, and finished the whole thing off with a set of black beads that belonged to my great-grandmother, and a pair of pointed black flats. It wasn't until I was walking into work that I caught my reflection in a glass door and had a flashback to what is easily my favorite commercial of all time (my second favorite commercial of all time is the camel who is super excited for Hump Day. Nobody can watch that and not laugh). I thought I'd post a link to the video here for your enjoyment, because it has two of my very favorite things: Audrey Hepburn, and AC/DC:

 

Treat yo' self!

Everyone treats themselves once in a while. Some people go out and buy a cute new dress. Some people fill up the bathtub to the brim with hot hot water and bubbles and soak for a while. Before my Whole30, I was the kind of person who treated themselves to food. A pint of Ben & Jerry's after a long week. A box of Cheez-its. A couple of pieces of Ghirardelli chocolate squares with the gooey caramel in the middle. Don't get me wrong, it's not that those things don't sound good to me anymore, but my Whole30 has completely changed my view on food, to the point that (I hope) it would take a serious blow to the head for me to go back to my old eating ways for more than just the rare special occasion.

But I am still the sort of person who believes in treating myself a little. Since the beginning of my Whole30, I've been working really hard on sticking to the program, and using the extra energy that I've gained to push myself in ways I haven't done in a long time. From big things like working out at least once a day, to little things like taking the stairs to the 4th floor kitchen in the building I work in to fill up my water bottle a couple times a day, I've been making some good changes. Kevin and I actually decided over the weekend that we're going to keep doing our walk/run in the morning before we get ready for work, and add a MaxT3 workout in the evening as well.

So this weekend, I treated myself a bit. Not with chocolate or Cheez-its, but in a much different way. I took myself for a much-needed hair cut at the local Beauty College - a hard deal to beat at $5. I treated myself by raiding the super-clearance rack at Sports Authority and scored a cute and comfortable pair of running shorts, and a super-breathable workout t-shirt. Kevin and I went shoe-shopping, and I picked up a great pair of minimalist running shoes that I'm excited to use for my morning runs in conjunction with a set of compression sleeves that I'm hoping will help combat my shin splints and help me recover faster from my runs.

What did you do to treat yourself this weekend?

Whole30 - Day 22

While I work this week on putting together some fun recipe and meal planning Whole30 posts, I thought I'd sit down for a minute tonight and reflect a little on my Whole30 so far.

It's hard to overstate how much my Whole30 so far has changed my view on food. I started out as the girl who thought she could never cut bread out of her diet - even for 30 days. At the beginning of my experience, I spent a little time on Pinterest looking up some motivational quotes. I wrote a bunch down, and have them posted around my office at work, and around the kitchen at home. I think the one that has had the biggest impact on me is this one:

It's just been so true for me, and I feel like this is really the heart of Whole30. Discipline is a huge factor when  you make a decision to dramatically change the way you eat. For me, it was a pretty big lesson because I have always been an emotional eater. I would comfort myself when I was stressed or sad by eating a cookie, or some bread, and thinking "I'm going through something - I deserve this". That was a huge idea to overcome. Once I decided to do my Whole30, that was going to be the end of me having a stressful day at work, eating something I shouldn't to 'comfort' myself, and then ending up feeling even worse. 

Sometimes what I want in the moment is a cookie. Or a big piece of crusty bread with a nice spreading of fresh Irish butter. But all it takes is that moment for me to stop, refocus myself, and think "this is not what I want most". What I want most is to be the healthiest version of myself. I have felt so incredible over the last 22 days, and I can't wait to see what the next few months bring. 

My Favorite Things About My Whole30 (So Far...)

1) I had a few (okay...a lot) of pants hanging in my closet that I kept hanging onto because I was hoping I'd fit into them again someday. 

2) My skin feels incredible! I should start by saying I've always tried to take very very good care of my skin (particularly my face), but cutting out processed foods, most carbs, and sugars has done amazing things for my skin and hair. 

3) Sticking with it! I've never considered myself a real stick-with-it kind of person, and I really did think that my Whole30 was just going to be hard. I had to laugh, though, when I read on the Whole30 site that eating differently isn't hard. Beating a heroin addiction is hard. I can say no to a cookie, because let's face it, there are people out there going through much tougher stuff than just cutting out bad foods. 

4) Learning. I haven't finished "It Starts With Food" yet, but I'm working on it. No pun intended, the book really gives you a lot to chew on. I was reading the chapter yesterday that talks about nut oils and how they can cause inflammatory issues with the digestive tract. It's really interesting stuff, and most of it is completely new (and fascinating) to me. 

5) Cooking! I have loved to cook for years, this has just put a new perspective on it. It's definitely taken more planning, but in some ways it's been a fun challenge. At home on a Saturday, and not sure what to make for lunch? How throwing some kale and canned crab meat into the frying pan with a little Sriracha and coconut oil?

6) So much energy! Cutting out all non-Whole30 compliant foods has dramatically increased my energy levels. I've added a FitBit Flex  to the mix, and it's really helped me get a sense of how I'm sleeping, how much activity I'm getting in during the day, and how my food intake balances out with my activity. 

7) Sleep. I can't remember the last time I've consistently slept this well! My FitBit has helped me get a sense of my sleep habits, which helps me make adjustments in my day-to-day activities. For example, I didn't get much exercise yesterday (I tracked it on my FitBit) and slept terribly last night (also tracked on my FitBit). With more exercise under my belt today, and healthy amounts of good food and plenty of water, I'm expecting a pretty awesome night's sleep tonight!

8) Enjoying food in different ways. I've been taking the advice of the Whole30 meal planning guide and trying hard to really appreciate the food that I'm eating. It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, that it is actually really refreshing to take a minute to realize how delicious portobello mushrooms are when they are sliced and sauteed in clarified butter and balsamic vinegar! 

9) Hydration. It surprised me at first how thirsty I was in the first few days of my Whole30. I have been making a point to take in more water every day, and I think it's had a huge impact on how great I've been feeling. 

10) Attitude is everything. It's so true! I have felt so much more positive and upbeat since I started my Whole30. As someone who used to feel totally at the mercy of stress and anxiety, it's been so much different for the past 22 days. This has easily been the most surprising and awesome thing to come out of my experience!

So what do you think.....have you been thinking about starting your own Whole30? I'll be starting day 1 of my second Whole30 on September 1st! Join me!

A Whole30 Day...

I thought it might be fun today (on day 12) to give you a peek into my Whole30 day in pictures

5:30 a.m. 

The alarm goes off, and we get up to go for our morning walk. This has become one of my favorite things, and we've been doing it pretty consistently for a few months now. It's nice because it's morning, and Kevin and I get to have some time together before the day starts, and we get to give Ruby some exercise while that's happening. Multi-tasking before the sun even comes up? I love it! Obviously this picture can be used as evidence that I don't put a whole lot of thought into my morning walk ensemble. gray and black polka-dot socks with vintage-fabric-patterned Rocket Dog sneakers and workout capri pants? Not my most incredible look.

7:00 a.m. 

Coffee! I haven't always been a huge coffee drinker, but I've grown to enjoy a cup or two in the mornings. The funny thing is that since I've been doing Whole30, I really haven't felt the need for coffee. When my alarm goes off (and sometimes before it goes off), I'm wide awake and super alert and ready to take on the day. This alertness has pretty consistently lasted through the day until I lay down in bed, at which point I pretty much fall asleep immediately. But still. Coffee. I love my morning coffee. I could have coconut milk in my coffee and still be Whole30 compliant, but I like it just black!

9:00 a.m. 

Breakfast is key! I used to be a sort of casual breakfast eater. I was more of a breakfast snacker. On Whole30, though, I'm focusing on making sure I have three well-rounded meals per day. Breakfast on this particular day was sort of a sweet potato hash cooked in coconut oil topped with two fried eggs and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. I also had a few walnuts I ate after the eggs and hash (to make sure I had some healthy fat with my meal).

12:00 p.m. 

I love the simplicity of cooking Whole30 meals! This day's lunch was some tilapia cooked in coconut oil. I had eaten tilapia for dinner the night before, so I just tossed another fillet in the pan to cook for lunch the next day. I paired it up with a salad of chopped cucumber, tomato, and sliced sweet peppers. Afterwards I had a good tea-spoon sized amount of almond butter to make sure my healthy fat was in the mix! That fish was exactly as flaky and tasty as it looks in the picture....

7:00 p.m. 

I have to say, I remember being pretty excited about dinner on this particular night. I seasoned up a few little steaks and Kevin grilled them. I put some sliced mushrooms in a pan with some coconut oil and a little balsamic vinegar, seasoned the whole thing with some salt and pepper, and served the steak sliced up with the mushrooms on top and a fried egg (to make sure my meal had enough protein). I added a few fresh tomato slices, and a little bowl of some tasty whole olives (olives make a great 'fat' component to a meal!)

So there you have it, folks! A whole day of Whole30! When I first started writing this post, I thought I would include recipes for each meal, but everything is just so.....whole! I haven't been doing much mixing or fancy recipes. I've really enjoyed taking time to appreciate the simple good flavors of everything I cook. If you're thinking you might like to do your own Whole30, check here to get started!

Whole30: Week Two

Okay folks. I've officially finished my first week of Whole30, and I am feeling pretty great. This is going to be a pretty detailed recap, but it's worth it I promise! (especially if you're interested in maybe doing your own Whole30 someday)

I'm not gonna lie, it was a little challenging. I made the conscious choice to start last week partly because that was the first week of our Residence Life Resident Assistant training. Since I am a crazy emotional stress eater ("I'm having a stressful day, maybe I should sit at my desk for 5 minutes and eat a few fistfuls of Doritos while I contemplate my many failures") and training week is pretty much a tasty conga-line of awful food (donuts, bags of chips, cookies, fried things, soda, Jolly Ranchers, those tiny mini chocolate bars, etc.), I decided this would be an awesome opportunity to kick up my willpower. Even though I steered clear of temptation, there were a few times when I would have liked to throw a temper-tantrum and eat a few fistfuls of bread. 

So I was the crazy girl who brought a giant lunch cooler full of Whole30-approved food to the off-campus portion of training. I got a few interesting looks as I filled my plate with hard boiled eggs, avocado slices, home-made prosciutto chips, broccoli florets, and assorted nuts, but in the end I felt much better for it. I admit I did have a wistful moment as I glanced at the carrot cake a coworker brought to the table, but I quickly remembered the quote I had memorized for just such a moment: "Discipline is just choosing between what you want NOW, and what you want MOST". In that moment I wanted to jump on that carrot cake like a crazy spider monkey. What I want MOST is to be healthier, feel better, and ideally shed a few pounds in the process. 

The other hidden gem of the off-campus part of training is that I ended up staying in a room that was a pretty good distance from the dining and meeting area where we spent most of our time. Since I'm a pretty early riser (I usually wake up between 5:30 and 6:00), I would wake up, get ready, grab my laptop bag and walk what felt like about a mile to get to breakfast. I'm super thankful that happened - even though I wasn't home to take my morning walk with Kevin and Ruby, I was super glad to sneak in some quiet "me-time" in the midst of some pretty busy days, and get some exercise at the same time. 

To give you an idea of a typical Whole30 day for me, here's what I ate today: 

Breakfast: 

- Black coffee (oh man am I thankful you can have coffee on Whole30)

- Small tupperware container of berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries)

- Nitrite-free turkey-jerky

Snack: 

- Small handful of sweet potato chips (I'm not done reading "It Starts With Food" yet, but I've heard it suggests staying away from snacks. In this case I was feeling pretty hungry, and needed a little something)

Lunch: 

- Leftover roasted lamb shank from last night (yum!)

- Mashed sweet potato with coconut oil and salt and pepper

- Almonds

- LaCroix Lime (a great brand of sparkling water that I pretty much always have in the house - it also comes in plain, peach-pear, coconut, grapefruit, lemon, cran-raspberry, and mixed-berry. It's literally zero calories, no sugar, no sodium, so it's essentially just water with a little natural flavoring to make it more drink-able)

Dinner: 

- Tilapia filet and a few shrimp cooked in coconut oil

- A salad of chopped cucumber, tomato, and avocado with a little balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper

- LaCroix Peach-Pear

A super grainy cell phone picture of my dinner! Check out that avocado....who doesn't love it?

Tomorrow's meal plan:

Breakfast:
- Fried egg on top of sweet potato hash cooked in coconut oil
- Black coffee

Lunch:
- Leftover tilapia (cooked in coconut oil)
- Salad of chopped peppers, carrots, cucumbers, and avocado
- raw walnuts

Dinner:

- Grilled steak with salt and pepper
- Grilled zucchini
- Fresh sliced tomato (I just love summer tomato sliced and drizzled with a little bit of vinegar and salt and pepper!)

Apart from feeling pretty awesome, I also stepped on the scale last night and I've lost almost 5 pounds, which in and of itself is pretty exciting (it's only been a week!). I'm going to be keeping an eye on the Whole30 timeline so I can get a better idea of how my body will react as I go through the process. I find it interesting that it suggests that days 6-7 are titled "I just want a nap", since most of the weekend was spent trying to figure out why I was so dang tired. Days 8-15 are titled "Boundless energy! Now give me a d**n Twinkie".

If you're thinking about doing your own Whole30, I highly recommend it! Check out the website. There's also an awesome Shopping List and seasonal produce guide. You can even do Whole30 if you're a Vegetarian!

So....are any of you thinking about starting your own Whole30? If so, let me know! I'd love to keep up with your progress!