Whole 30: Day 10

I woke up this morning and could barely swallow because my throat was so sore. I hang out with sick people all day so I supposed getting a cold in the middle of January was unavoidable. I have not seen any true flu cases yet but I have seen quite a few sick people. I managed to make eggs with red peppers, cilantro and lime for breakfast. All I wanted to do at lunch was curl up under a blanket. I pulled out some left over salmon and put it over a spring mix with tomato, grapes, and avocado. I sprinkled some lemon juice over it and a little vinegar and oil dressing. I prefer my salad with a thick coating of buttermilk ranch but not today. I did, however, eat it curled up under a blanket.

 

We had grilled pork chops with mashed potatoes and asparagus for dinner. For the mashed potatoes I used coconut milk and homemade chicken broth instead of butter, sour, cream and milk. Even the kids ate it.

The kids are not following our new eating plan but they do eat what we eat at dinner. I don't make a separate meal. I make them a different breakfast but we have been doing that for a while. When we got married we drank a lot of soda and ate whatever we wanted. We had pasta at least once a week and fried rice at least once a week. Several years ago we cut back on the soda and the past 2-3 years we have rarely bought it to keep at home. Our kids like to drink water with flavor and I think it's because we don't buy soda. 2-3 years ago we really tried to start eating healthier and cutting out a lot of fried food and fatty food. We increase eating at home and decreased eating out. We took part in a Diabetes Prevention Program last year where we learned how to count calories and what foods are good and which ones to avoid. Still we had trouble losing weight. I think the 30 day commitment is perfect. It's not a lifetime. It's not forever. There is an end goal. And the rules are clear. It's not even really about weight loss it's about breaking the hold that sugar and processed food has on your mind and body. I like the drastic, jump off a cliff feel to this program. And it's working. I see food differently. I guess I'm becoming the hippie my brother in law labeled me as when we started this program. 

I still can't make homemade mayo. But I'm drinking coffee with coconut milk and cinnamon and  I like it.

Whole 30: Day 9 We cheated

I cheated on my Whole 30 plan. I know, I know  you all thought we couldn't make it. What was it that tempted us to stray? The scale. Part of the Whole 30 plan is to weigh at the beginning and at the end and not in the middle. The plan is to focus on how you feel and not what the numbers on that little machine in the floor say. But I couldn't help it. I was afraid I had gained weight. But I lost 3 pounds in one week! Hubby lost some too. I won't say how much for his privacy but we were pleased. So we did not eat off the plan and we are more determined than ever to complete it. We have not gone hungry, we have not counted calories or carbohydrates, and we have not even watched our portion sizes. When I am hungry I eat and when I am not hungry I don't eat. And I don't get hungry very often between meals any more. Hubby even had a meeting that included pizza and did not eat. That's dedication.

I read over on the whole 30 facebook page that statistically more people quit on day 10 and 11 than any other day. The next 2 days are apparently 2 of the hardest days of the entire plan. I don't know if it's just fatigue that the planning and cooking and everything that goes into it or maybe the new has just worn off. From what I've read this is where people find out what a strong hold food has on them. Apparently if we can make it through the next 2 days we will find lots of energy on the other side.

Whole 30: Day 8

Sunday's are crazy busy at my house. Hubby leaves early to make sure everything he's responsible for at church is done and that he is there before our students show up. He usually takes at least one of our kids with him but that still leaves me 2 other kids to get up, fed, dressed and out the door. With the Whole 30 I'v had to make a full breakfast for he and I and get lunch started. So that adds to the chaos that is Sunday morning in a minister's home. We had sausage and potatoes and poached egg for breakfast. I made buffalo chicken sliders  for lunch with parsnip fries.

I used sweet potato as the bun. I always preferred the smaller sweet potatoes for baking as they cooked quicker but the larger ones sliced up worked well for buns. The parsnips look like white carrots before you cook them if you've never had them. I just put some olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary on them. I put the chicken in the crock pot. I got both recipes from Pinterest. There's tons of chicken left so we had that for dinner as well and a salad.

I attempted mayo again twice. My food processor which is at least 9 years old and hasn't been used in years started smoking at one point so I called it quits.

Hubby and I both feel pretty good. We are not hungry which is problem a lot of times with a diet. And we are really not on a diet. People ask "What kind of diet are you doing again?" Whole 30 is not a diet. It's just changing the way we eat. It's a lifestyle change designed to cut out the junk in our diet. I am realizing more every day that although we did not buy a lot of processed food we were not eating real food. We were eating a lot more processed food than what I thought we were eating. 

So on to week 2!

Whole 30: Day 6 & 7 (Whole 30 vs Girl Scout sleepover) and a coffee update!

 I missed yesterday's post because after working all day I spent all night at a Girl Scout Cookie kickoff and sleepover.


 And this is basically how I feel. They're not here yet, don't start calling me telling my daughter what you need! But they will be here soon so go ahead and make your list. I must say I feel like quite the hypocrite telling people all day everyday that they need to eat less processed sugary foods and then spend a month walking with my daughter around town trying to convince all those people to buy what I told them they can't eat!


Usually however we do have a donation option.I don't know what our donation option will be yet. I did see cookies at the kickoff but I was good I refrained from eating them. Thanks to Hubby I had grilled chicken, potatoes and a salad on the road on the way to the sleepover. I also packed fruit for a snack and breakfast. They had fruit there as well as things that were not on my diet. I must say I really wasn't all that tempted. Usually I would have grabbed a bag of chips and had donuts for breakfast but I ate my fruit and was ok with that. I guess I was full from a dinner of real food.

I have finally found a way to drink my coffee! I found compliant coconut milk and added it to my coffee yesterday. It was good but then I had a friend who suggested I add some cinnamon.  That really made it more flavorful and tolerable. It's not my khaki colored, creamy, sugary brew for sure but it helps.

Today was kind of a blah food day. I rushed to get groceries after the sleepover so we would have food this week. We bought a bunch of meat at Sam's last week so I just needed veggies and fruit. Grocery shopping with 3 girls ages 8&9 was interesting. Here's my food for the week. The Krispy Kreme is coffee so settle down!

We had eggs when I got home but that was almost 11 so I didn't have lunch til nearly 2 and had some boiled shrimp and avocado. For dinner we had apple cinnamon pork loin with roasted sweet potatoes and steamed green beans. I attempted to make mayo this afternoon and failed. Hubby attempted as well.  Apparently you have to pour the oil into the mixture as slowly as a sloth for it work!

Tomorrow will mark a full week that we have been eating unprocessed food. We will be almost 25% done with our 30 days. I'm hoping to attempt that mayo again and to spend some time prepping food for this next week.

Whole 30: Day 5 Whole 30 vs Real life

Today was a really hard day. I got up on time feeling good and got a good breakfast of sweet potato and sausage hash.

 When I was chopping sweet potatoes for breakfast I chopped an extra one to use for lunch and I'm glad I did. Work was crazy today. I love my job but taking care of other people and making decisions that affect their health is stressful. I didn't get off at lunch on time so I didn't have much time to cook lunch at home. Lunch was ready 5 minutes before I had to leave to go back to work so I just took it with me. The 2 year old is sick and whiny and clingy. I meant to put lunch in the crockpot before I left for work this morning but I ran out of time and didn't have time at lunch either. Hubby was going to try to fix dinner but he was home with cranky baby so it didn't get done. As I pulled into the grocery store parking lot I barely had the energy to get out of the van and go inside. Straight in front of me was the Chinese restaurant. Many, many days this would have been our option. Long stressful day at work, sick kid at home, everybody needs a break and a little TLC so let's just order Chinese and be done with it. This is real life. I'm not living in a fairy tale world where healthy eating is easy. So when you come see me in the office and tell me how stressed you are and how you don't have time to cook real food, I get it. But, I pulled myself out of the van and made a different choice today. It was after 7 by the time we ate dinner. Later than I like but we had steak and mashed potatoes with coconut milk that is whole 30 approved and salad.

If you attempt this challenge of 30 days of whole foods have a partner to do it with you. If Hubby was not on board I would not be surviving this. When I got home he cooked dinner while I held the cranky baby (I have to stop calling him a baby he's 2).

Also update on the coffee situation: I found coconut milk that is whole 30 approved at my local grocery today. I was reading labels on spices for the steak (do you know that a lot of the mixed spices have sugar in them? No wonder we have an obesity problem in this country!) and happened to see the condensed milk right next to the spices and there on a shelf mixed in with condensed milk and evaporated milk was coconut milk. I'll be using it in my coffee soon and will see if it make it easier to drink.

Whole 30: Day 4

Wednesday is one of our busiest days and usually the day we eat junk. The Wednesday lunch special at one of our local restaurants is steak with baked potato and all the fixins. My husband works full time as a youth pastor and Wednesday is his busiest day of the week. He usually goes to work at 8 AM and doesn't get home til after evening church around 8PM. Most weeks we eat at church which is usually kid friendly fare like hot dogs, chicken strips or tonights offering of grilled cheese sandwiches. None of that "routine" I described above is allowed on the whole 30. The steak would be if it's not cooked with vegetable oil and the potato without butter, sour cream or cheese so what's the point? I get off work at noon on Wednesday and pick up the kids at 3:30 then the race is on to get homework finished, chores done, baths given and back to church by 6 pm. Cooking usually doesn't happen. Throw in a 2 year old with a sudden fever and vomiting and well I was ready to throw in the towel. But I feel better. Overall I feel better. I don't wake up wishing I could find time in my day for a nap. I'm not jumping out of bed but the fatigue that I thought was just part of being a full time nurse practitioner and a full time mother of 3 is slowly lifting. So I did not give up. I had some canned chicken (I had to read ingredients on 3 different brands before I found something without additives), I boiled some eggs (We've gone through a carton of 18 eggs since Sunday), had my 9 year old help me make avocado spread to use instead of mayo and then mixed it all together. I threw in some diced apples for a little crunch and put it on Romaine leaves. I took this plate to Hubby at the church so he would have a healthy dinner. I ended up putting some cherry tomatoes on mine. Breaks up the green color a little.

 

Here's a look at our breakfast and lunch today

So you can see we are not starving. One thing I have been thinking about. I talk to a lot of people who complain about being tired. Just tired. No get up and go. What if it's related to what we are putting in our bodies? That's what the Whole 30 is about. Clearing out the system and then you can add things back in and make an educated decision about how food affects your body and whether you are willing to be tired and lethargic from eating stuff that is not that healthy after all. 

So I've got 26 more days of clean eating left in my challenge. Then we'll see what happens. If I can manage to make real food on a busy crazy day with a sick kid I bet you can too.

Whole 30: Day 3 AKA the day the 2 y/o said "more squash peese"

Feeling pretty good today. No headache since day 1. I had some tiredness around lunch but powered through. I've got to work on my time management. The kids are not doing the whole 30 and my boys throw up if I give them eggs so I have to make them a separate breakfast. I made prosciutto and eggs in muffin cups for breakfast. I mixed in some onion and spinach. My 9 year old tried it and like it except for the spinach. For lunch we browned some leftover chicken I made in the crockpot Sunday. I put some coconut butter in the skillet along with some lime and cilantro and browned it. Then Hubby made roasted asparagus and sweet potato. It was a good, filling lunch. The only problem is that by the time it was done I barely had 10 minutes to eat and head back to work. For dinner tonight we had cracklin chicken from nomnompaleo. I used onion powder, garlic powder and poultry seasoning along with sea salt and it was the best chicken I have had in a while. 4 out of 5 people at the table had seconds. We also had roasted butternut squash and broccoli. At one point I was putting a piece of squash in my mouth only to see my 2 y/o reaching out with his fork to try to take it away from me. He had 3 servings of squash and would say "mo squash peese" with his little toddler grin. And what mother ever can say no to a toddler who wants to eats squash?

I also had enough energy at the end of the day to run a mile in under 15 minutes. And considering I've been on the treadmill once in the last year I think that's great. I still haven't learned to drink coffee black. I almost got a whole cup down this morning.