Whole30 Complete!

Total weight loss: 13.8 lbs

Total inches loss: 17.0

(Inches calculated from full body measurements.)

I am quite pleased with the changes to my body during this 30 days. I am not done, but the first 30 days has gone by a lot faster than I thought it would, with a lot of ups and downs. The cravings were hard, as well as trying to see how my body adjusted to the foods I was eating. I know my activity level is way too low and I need to find ways to increase that to continue to lose weight. I am disappointed that my skin hasn't really cleared up much, which was one of the big things I was hoping for. I am sleep a lot better, I have more energy and my stress level has gone down. I have more patience and don't lose my temper as often. I don't crave a lot of bad things anymore and what I do I think is not really a craving but remembering how good they were. I am worried about cheating and how my body will react to those foods if I try to eat them but I am sure I will indulge in something off the list some time soon just to see. I also need to work on trying out more recipes and types of food. I am getting in a rut, but I got my Primal books in the mail and there are tons of tasty looking recipes in there.

I may continue to post on this blog through the end of the month, but only when I make something new. I won't post my meals of leftovers and breakfasts of fried eggs, you've seen that enough already. Eventually I will move and start a Primal blog, or just stop blogging, I have not decided yet.

But in all, this was a very positive experience, I am glad I did it and I learned a lot about myself, my body and food.

Whole30 Day 30 - Lunch

Emergency protein (ground pork, cabbage, onion, kale, garlic and coconut aminos) and leftover green beans.

Whole30 Day 30 - Breakfast

Day 30, what?!?!?

Yesterday I felt pretty horrible. I ate a sweet potato and a banana, that's it for the whole day.

Today I am feeling a lot better. Still not 100% but much better than yesterday. I am hesitant to eat because my stomach still feels off, so I made some breakfast sausage patties from some ground turkey sausage I had thawed in the fridge.

Whole30 Day 29

I will probably not be eating today. A stomach virus has been floating through my house and it caught me last night so I doubt there will be Whole30 food consumption today.

Whole30 Day 28 - Lunch & Dinner

Lunch- leftover roasted carrots, chicken, broccoli & cauliflower.



Dinner - Emergency protein (cabbage, kale, onion, ground pork, coconut aminos, garlic) and sugar snap peas.

Whole30 Day 28 - Breakfast

I'm feeling a little off today. The kids are sick with some vomiting stomach bug. I don't know if I am projecting and don't feel well because I assume I am going to get it or if I really am getting sick. I have been drinking tea and taking tums to keep my tummy settled. This morning I have no desire to eat, but I am hungry. Nothing sounds good except a peace or two of toast. I would go ahead and have some toast but I don't know yet what reintroducing grains will do to my body and I won't want to make myself sick on accident. Finally after a few hours of trying to decide, I settled on having some leftover chicken sausage and a baked sweet potato.

I feel so very tired and worn down. I really want specific things- PB/banana on toast, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, warm biscuits with butter.. sensing a theme here? I want carbs. And I would gladly have them if I know how my body would react. But I won't, so I won't. Day 28, almost done with 30 days, wow.

Whole30 Day 27 - Dinner

Chicken, roasted broccoli and carrots (EVOO) and a small handful of olives.

The seasoning I used on the chicken was a tad on the salty side, but otherwise good.

Whole30 Day 27 - Lunch

I am starving. I feel like I am coming down off a sugar high I am so hungry I am shaking. I had olives and a leftover chicken sausage around 1030am for a snack because I was hungry then too. Two hours later I am famished and realize I have NO protein made up in the fridge. *headdesk* I do have some packs of thawed chicken sausages so I cooked up the tomato basil ones to try out. I don't feel like eating tuna right now so.. I wonder why I feel like this. I have not eaten any differently today than other days aside from adding in the olives/chicken brat snack at 1030 when I was hungry. hrmm.



I also had a sweet potato and some roasted cauliflower from last night. I still don't feel right, kind of shaky. Maybe I am getting sick.

Whole30 Day 27 - Breakfast

(Brennan seems to have broken my camera so pictures will probably come from my phone from now on.)

Two eggs fried in organic olive oil spray.

I think the hardest part so far as I get further into this, is reminding myself this is not a lifestyle. I could easily fall into this trap of eating this way forever. I can see myself already falling into this mindset that ____ food is BAD. I don't want to think that way. I want to choose to eat or not eat certain foods because they are better for my body or because I don't like the way they make me feel. Not because I have ingrained into my head they are bad/off limits. That is just setting me up for having a continued bad relationship with food on the opposite side of the spectrum than I came from. We've been taught by CW that lean meat is good, fat is bad. And while I am coming around to the fat area by using healthy oils and eating olives and more coconut, I keep forgetting that fatty meat IS NOT BAD FOR YOU. Bone-in meat IS NOT BAD FOR YOU. For example my dinner last night. I am used to buying boneless chops so that is what I got. They were flavorless and dry. As I was choking it down I vowed to next time buy bone-IN chops because I know they have more flavor. I have never been a huge fan of bone-in chicken though so that will be very hard for me, but I am willing to try. I was hoping to start dabbling in Primal when the 30 days is up but my book isn't here yet and I want to read it first. I know that butter is something I will be able to add back in, I can only imagine how delicious my fried eggs will be when I cook them in grass fed butter.

I am anxious to move past this phase of cleansing and onto the part where I figure out how we're going to eat for the rest of our lives.

Whole30 Day 26 - Dinner

Pork chops, roasted cauliflower and green beans.

The pork was dry, I didn't eat even half of it. The cauliflower was pretty good though. (Salt, pepper and olive oil).

Whole30 Day 26 - Lunch

Baked sweet potato and the last of the 'emergency protein'.

Whole30 Day 26 - Breakfast

Leftover corned beef and balsamic carrots.

I am trying to eat the leftovers in the fridge because no one else in the house is eating them and I hate throwing food away. I want to cook some more food, but there are so many leftovers in there I refuse to make more food until most of it is gone.

I am really going back and forth on my decision where to shop. I think this week I will go look at Sam's club and see if they have good enough meat and produce for me to consider shopping there. It is MUCH closer to my house than Whole Foods, but I am sure they don't carry certain things I like to buy. (Like sausages and bacon) but we'll see. I would prefer to not have to drive an hour to Whole Foods every 2 weeks if I don't have to.

I know it is better to buy grass fed/organic, but I have to consider the fact that in a couple months our budget will be decreasing and I need to know if I can still feed us all on less money. (Especially since my husband will need more food than I do). I am hopeful that they have what I am looking for. Maybe i'll head to the farmer's market next weekend too, We'll see.

Whole30 Day 25 - Dinner

Emergency protein, sweet potato and roasted balsamic and olive oil carrots.

Whole30 Day 25 - Lunch

Leftover chicken soup.

I'm pretty stressed today and feeling a bit down. I am worried about the Government shutdown and what it will do to us. Being military, if the shut down does happen, next week we won't get enough of a paycheck to pay our mid-month bills and then won't get anything until a decision is reached on the budget. That means I will have little to no money for food. I will have to see if our bills will allow us to pay late so I have money to food. Which brings me to another issue. If we do only get half a paycheck, I will have to take some of the LITTLE money we have in savings to grocery shop. Until now I had been driving an hour away to get local/grass fed meats. This takes 1/4 tank of gas and costs more than buying grain-fed meat. Until this crisis is over I may have to just buy what I can locally at the store. But then, do I buy from walmart? Or do I spent the $40 to get a Sam's membership and buy as much in bulk as I can so if we run out of money we still have food?

I just don't know. I hope I wake tomorrow to a decision and all this isn't an issue. *hoping*

Whole30 Day 25 - Breakfast

2 eggs fried in organic pam spray and a bowl of halved strawberries and banana slices.

As of today I am down 10.6 pounds! Amazing what a little exercise will do to jump start things!

Whole30 Day 24 - Dinner

Garlic spinach chicken sausages and broccoli cauliflower mix.

Whole30 Day 24 - Lunch

Leftover corned beef, carrots and cabbage. I also had a small handful of cashews after lunch.

Whole30 Day 24 - Breakfast

It was supposed to be a fritatta with emergency protein (ground chicken, kale, mushroom, coconut aminos, garlic), but I forgot to oil the pan and it stuck, so I got scrambled eggs instead. I added some strawberries and raspberries.

My weight is holding steady, it's a little disappointing but I know I have two options. Eat less, or work out. I am not going to eat less, because that isn't good, so I need to get in some exercise. I think I have lost all my body is going to lose just sitting around, now I need to get moving.

Whole30 Day 23 - Dinner

Slow cooker corned beef, cabbage and carrots.

Whole30 Day 23 - Breakfast & Lunch

Pretty lame breakfast, turkey sausages and apples. My egg pan was washing in the dishwasher and I didn't feel like making anything else so I just searched the fridge for something.



I went out for Mongolian for lunch. Now before anyone freaks out, the noodles and rice were for Brennan, I picked them out.

My lunch consisted of broccoli, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, shallots, parsley, pork, chicken, sausage and lamb with garlic oil. It was delicious, though I am sure I may have ingested a sliver of rice or noodle since they were all chopped up on my food. My stomach feels a little gurgly, so I am thinking too much oil as well. But in all, I am glad I can still go there and get food since I get to pick and choose what I want in my bowl.

Whole30 Day 22 - Dinner

Emergency protein and baked sweet potato! I found the idea for emergency protein from Nom Nom Paleo which is basically some meat and veggies cooked up and put in the fridge so you have some healthy quick protein always on hand.

I made my like this-

1 pound ground chicken

1 large cereal bowl of sliced kale

1 tsp garlic

1/2 cup onion

big handful of sliced mushrooms

2 TBSP avocado oil

1.5 TBSP Coconut Aminos (This is like soy sauce, but it's soy free and made form coconuts. It does not taste or smell like coconuts at all. If your grocery carries it, it will be by the asian foods/soy sauces.)

I heated the avocado oil over medium then added the onion and some garlic until tender then added the mushrooms and sauteed for a few minutes adding some S&P. I added the chicken and browned about 1/2 way before adding the coconut aminos and some more S&P. When the chicken was just about done I added the kale and sauteed until the kale was to the doneness I wanted. (Like wilted spinach)

This was delicious! I have never had kale before, it smelled (raw) like cauliflower. It tasted really good and is a great nutrient-dense vegetable!

Whole30 Day 22 - Lunch

Leftover chicken soup. I wasn't very hungry but it was getting to be too late for lunch so I had a little something so I wouldn't be hungry between meals. I did eat some extra bacon with my breakfast, like a few extra pieces, I didn't count. I had some strawberries too because they were on their last day and I could not let them go to waste.

Whole30 Day 22 - Breakfast

I had breakfast way late today. Normally I eat breakfast around 7am, but a bunch of stuff out of my control happened and I ended up not getting breakfast until 9:15am. I was starving, but I held myself off from picking up any bad food along the way and when I got back home I made myself 2 scrambled eggs and 2 slices of nitrate free thick cut bacon, yummm.

Week 3 complete!

Weekly weight loss: 2.4

Total weight loss: 9.8

Weekly inches loss: 1.0

Total inches loss: 12.25

I cut out beef this past week, I am not sure if it made the difference or not. I will try adding some, a little, back in when this is over and see how my body reacts. But until then I am very happy with my progress thus far. I have accomplished so much in just 3 weeks, imagine what months, years of this will do.

Whole30 Day 21 - Dinner

Chicken soup!

Ingredients:
5 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used 2 breasts and 1 pound of thighs)
3 containers of Trader Joe's Free Range Chicken Broth
1 large onion
2 cups chopped celery (the stocks that are darker green in color have more flavor)
1 cup baby carrots
garlic powder
pepper
dill weed

(I also added chopped mushrooms and some fresh spinach)

Process:
Rinse chicken breast and place in a large soup pot.
Chop whole onion into bite size pieces and place into soup pot.
Pour in chicken broth and season with garlic powder, pepper, and dill weed.
Turn burner onto medium and bring soup to a boil.
Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes add in celery and baby carrots and cook for another 45 minutes to an hour.

Pretty good but I wish there had been measurements for the spices, I definitely put a little too much dill in. I couldn't taste it when I was eating it but now after my mouth tastes like dill lol But still, it was good and it made a lot so I will have plenty of leftovers!

Whole30 Day 21 - Lunch

Leftovers!
Salsa chicken, peas and 1/2 of a sweet potato.

Exercise

I don't talk much about exercise because I don't do a lot of it and when I do it isn't the cool crossfit or P90X workouts a lot of others do. My workouts consist of walking. Either after the kids go to bed on the treadmill or in the morning with Brennan in the stroller. Today it was nice so we walked in the neighborhood. This neighborhood is pretty hilly and some of those hills are killer to go up. I did my 2 miles and stretched and now I am eating half a baked sweet potato and some turkey sausage links for fuel. To be honest I usually don't eat at night after I workout. But then, those are slow walks on the treadmill, more just to keep moving than for exercise. Plus I don't like eating right before I go to bed anymore. I want my body to be burning fat while I am sleeping, not digesting food. I have not been able to rearrange my schedule to get up at 5am and work out, I have been very sleepy lately. And why does exercise make me so exhausted? After I exercise, I feel all jello-like and all I want to do is sit around. I definitely don't feel energized, which is another reason I prefer working out at night, then I can fall right into bed lol

Yea, so that's all I have to say about that.

Whole30 Day 21 - Breakfast

2 cage-free eggs and the rest of the mushroom sausage mix from the other day's stuffed squash.

I feel... weird. I wake up feeling... happy. I forgot what it felt like to be happy and now I feel happy like, all the time it seems. It's weird and it is such a foreign feeling that I feel.. I don't know, ashamed, guilty, something? Guilty, I think that's it, I feel guilty for being happy. I don't know why, but I have been nothing or unhappy for so long that I forgot what happy feels like. I do know that when I would have brief periods of being happy, people close to me would be like "What's wrong with you." So I stopped trying to be happy because apparently the people around me couldn't handle me being happy. When I am happy, or at least when I used to be happy, I was HAPPY. I was fun and giggly and goofy and the people I know in my life now know me as the depressed grumpy person. I started to think maybe they didn't want me to be happy, maybe they wouldn't like me as much anymore. Now I don't care. I am happy and I am tired of hiding it. People ask 'How are you?' or 'How's your day' and I want to say GREAT or PRETTY GOOD! but I feel weird being happy and I don't... want to hurt someone's feelings by me being happier than them or something so I say 'Eh, it's ok.' I am not doing that anymore and if you don't like it, tough shit. I feel good and I am not going to hide it anymore. It doesn't mean I don't care, it means I am starting to care about myself finally.

Whole30 Day 20 - Dinner

Salsa chicken (chicken marinated in cilantro garlic muir glen salsa and baked) with steamed broccoli and sweet potato.

The further I get into this, the more I am thinking about the future. I am almost done with Whole30, but I still have a few weeks left of Whole45 (or is it 46?) until the end of April. When that time comes, I will be done here. Then what? I have been doing some researching and it seems that Primal is the closest to what I am doing now, if not exactly like what I am doing now. I am 100% fine with eating this way for the rest of my life. I will take the rest of this month to become more comfortable in the kitchen cooking these new meals, then I will slowly begin to convert the kids.

Right now they still eat school lunch and cereal but I will slowly wean them off most of the bad stuff, all if I can. The hardest part in that is Brennan is very picky. He will not eat meat, he will not eat fish (unless it is a fish stick). He loves fruit but it gives him the runs, which then causes rashes. He loves juice, hates water. I got him to keep drinking milk by giving him 1% instead of whole milk. He likes some vegetables, but not all of them and quite often throws his food on the floor instead of eating it. But if he throws all his dinner on the floor and so I give him CARBS instead of MEAT AND VEGGIES he digs right in. He is 21 months old and just isn't mentally able to be reasoned with yet. So first I will tackle the kids school lunches. I am not sure how to do that quite yet because they like sandwiches and don't want hard boiled eggs and leftovers in their lunch boxes. I wish I knew some people going through what I am so I could ask for advice or get an idea of what others are doing or trying.

Either way, I am making the change. Yes, I get flickers of temptation when I make the kids a PB&J or smell fresh baking bread in the store. But I have 'cheated' already and know my body cannot handle that kind of food. Granted I have not tried to add any grains or dairy back in yet, but that is because it hasn't been long enough. I am going to wait that out for a few months and let my body heal before I see how it reacts.

So when I am done with this, I will start a new blog, because I won't be Whole30 blog of a SAHM, i'll be Primal, so I will need a new blog name.. hrrmm.

Whole30 Day 20 - Lunch

Two leftover chicken sausages, a handful of mushrooms, a couple handfulls of spinach, leftover asparagus (chopped), salt, pepper, garlic and avocado oil. (Sauteed)

Whole30 Day 20 - Breakfast

Strawberries, two eggs fried in organic pam and one slice of nitrate free bacon cut in half.

Day 20?!?!? Whooohoo! I am 10 days away from 30 days! though I am going till the end of April, so I almost half way to that goal, but still!

Whole30 Day 19 - Dinner

Apple chicken sausages and frozen veggie mix.

Earlier when I was at the store I was looking for some kind of basket to put my counter produce in and could not find anything. Then when I went to the post office to mail a package to my husband I saw there was a thrift store across the street so I went there and they had the perfect basket!



So my pants are getting annoying. They are loose. Loose enough they the only thing holding them up is the flabby lower belly fat. So they keep sliding down my ass, but the next size down is still too tight to wear. Hopefully they will fit soon so I stop looking so silly.

Whole30 Day 19 - Lunch

Leftover stuffed squash. (I scooped it out into a bowl to reheat it)

I am already thinking about what I am going to do when this is over. I know I am going to eat this way until at least the end of April. After that I am either going to keep going, or maybe go Primal. I need to do more research into it, but honestly I am happy doing what I am doing right now. I don't miss sugar or grains or dairy and I sure don't miss alcohol because I barely ever drank anyway. It's funny, when I am at the store, all that easter candy is out and I see it, I smell it and I remember it tastes good, but I don't want it. That right there is worth all of this.

I really am amazed at how each day I feel a little better, a little stronger, a little more secure and a little more confident in doing this. It helps that my pants are starting to get loose and I can see my body changing. I really don't see any reason to stop right now, I really don't.

Whole30 Day 19 - Breakfast

Two egg fritata with leftover sausage, spinach and mushroom mixture from last night.

Random thoughts.

This feels like a religion. Seriously. I am only day 18 and I feel like I have already changed my life completely. I cannot see going back to eating the way I was ever again. I want to tell people, shout it from the rooftops.

I have been a member of sparkpeople.com for many years and I frequently browse the message boards to see if I can offer support to anyone. I see tons of people complaining about binge eating and failure and food addiction, asking for help. I want, so badly to just slather them all in Whole30 goodness, but I feel like... wrong.

Let me explain.. I am not religious at all and it bothers me a lot when people who are religious try to push their beliefs on me or just talk about Godly things to me or in reference to me. Certain people can get away with it because I love them and they are family and they don't go overboard. But anyway, what I am saying is, I feel like one of those people. If I tell these people the only way to get off the fat wagon is to drop the crap, will I be like a religion pusher? If I tell these people who are begging for help that they need to cut all that crap from their lives for at least 30 days and live clean so their body can detox and heal, am I in the wrong? Am I being a pusher?

I just don't know.

Whole30 Day 18 - Dinner

Sausage stuffed acorn squash.



Ingredients

1 pound italian pork sausage (I used some fresh italian pork sausages I got from the meat counter and just squeezed the meat out of the casings to brown.)
2 acorn squash
1+ cup shredded/chopped fresh spinach
8oz sliced mushrooms
water

Directions
Slice each squash in half and clean out the seeds/strings. Slice a small sliver off the back so it sits like a bowl without wobbling. Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Place each half flesh side up on the cookie sheet and pour 1 TBSP water into each bowl. Pour 1/4 cup water onto the pan, tent loosely and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

While squash is baking, melt a small amount of coconut oil (or other oil of choice) in pan then add pork sausage, then mushrooms, then spinach and cook until almost done, but not totally done.

Spoon sausage mixture into bowls, pressing to pack mixture in. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until squash flesh is soft when pierced with a fork.

I would have added onion but I was out. I did add some extra seasonings, a sprinkle of sage, oregano and thyme.

THIS WAS SOOO GOOODDDD!!!! OMG. Best. Dinner. Yet.

The kids were not fans of the squash but liked the stuffing. I am so glad I have two for leftovers!

Oh, and I sauteed some asparagus in the pork drippings, but they were just OK. I will go back to roasting them in the oven I think.

Whole30 Day 18 - Lunch

Salmon seasoned with sea salt, pepper, garlic powder and basil, pan seared in avocado oil.
Leftover balsamic carrots.
Sweet potato sauteed in coconut oil and cinnamon.

The salmon was alright, the skin being attached on one side was freaking/grossing me out. Does all salmon have skin on it? I need some other ways to cook salmon. A lot of recipes I find are not Whole30 ok so I need to find some other ways to try it. I will definitely eat it again, it will just take time to get over my fear of cooking fish.

Pants!

A few days ago I mentioned a pair of jeans a friend gave me that I have not been able to fit into. When I started Whole30 18 days ago I could get them up, but not even close to buttoned.

Well... today I got them buttoned AND ZIPPED! They were a bit snug, but WOO FREAKIN HOO!!!

Whole30 Day 18 - Breakfast

I had a banana while I cooked my breakfast of eggs and turkey sausage.

I did a 7 minute surge training video I found on youtube this morning and it was pretty killer. I am so out of shape. I am going to keep doing it until I can do it without problem, then I will add a rest period and a second set. Or maybe I will find a new longer one after I can do this one better. We'll see.