whole30

I remember reading a random article about Jennifer Aniston’s diet some months ago. The point was that she works super hard for her figure and has to be crazy disciplined. Like if she wants to splurge, she adds slivered almonds or almond butter to her breakfast. The author went on to say that this would take all the fun out of life. You couldn’t have a greasy burger or a great milkshake or french fries or donuts. Ugh, the donuts. Don’t take away the donuts.

At the time, I agreed with the author. There is so much life to be lived through delicious food. But as I’ve moved through this Whole30 I’ve come to realize that yes, food can be exciting and amazing and worth the caloric intake, but that doesn’t mean that we have to live our life through the food we eat at every meal. We’ve been eating some really delicious meals without all those things I thought made life worth living, i.e. sugar and bread. Food can be good and fun without all the stuff that makes our bodies do weird things.

I’m far from having the discipline of Jennifer Aniston, nor do I really want it, but food doesn’t make life great. We make our life great. I’m not saying that never again will I indulge in the trifecta of the perfection that is a Phil’s burger, Amy’s ice cream, and sweet potato french fries but I don’t need that to make my life good. And my life is better when I don’t eat like that. So I’ll have to exercise better judgment of when to indulge.

Breakfast: [not picture, too hungry]

• 2 fried eggs
• 1/2 an Avocado
• Starwberries
• Spinach

Lunch: [again, not pictured. again, too hungry]

• Leftover Chicken Cacciatore – Still as tasty as yesterday. It was great as a leftover. The chicken didn’t dry out at all.
• Spinach
• Grapes

Dinner:

• No-Bean Turkey Chili – The written recipe is not the best. She doesn’t really specify how much of anything to throw in so in case you want specifics, for veggies I threw in: 2 zucchini, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 medium sweet potato, and 1 red bell pepper chopped into a pretty small dice. Also, she means an 8oz can of tomato sauce. After simmering it for 1 hour, it didn’t taste quite right so I added about 2 tsp of cumin and 1 tsp of oregano. Total I simmered it for about 2 and a half hours. I’d say just plan of cooking this for a while until it tastes right. It ended up pretty darn good. And the best part of leftover chili is chili dogs tomorrow!
• 1/2 an Avocado
• Trader Joe’s Roasted Plantain Chips

I have kept the promise I made on Day 11. I have not looked at the scale. But I definitely know that I’ve lost weight. You know how?

(If you’re a guy reading this, sorry. Skip to the food part.)

Today I was shopping for a bra to go with the bridesmaid dress I will be wearing to a wedding in a few weeks. You know what? I have gone down a whole cup size. Seriously? I have 5 babies worth of weight hanging around my belly and my thighs but where I lose it is up top. Perhaps next time I’ll be more specific when I say I want to lose weight. Ha.

Breakfast:

• 2 Fried Eggs
• Spinach
• 1/2 an Apple and Almond Butter
• Handful of Pecans

Lunch: [not pictured]

• Carrot Sticks
• Spinach
• Deli Turkey
• 1/2 a Sweet Potato with Cinnamon
• Pecan Pie Larabar

Dinner:

• 30-Minute Chicken Cacciatore – I was concerned about this dish as I was cooking it. I was sure that it was far too much tomato and that it was going to be bland. Boy was I wrong. This dish was really delicious. Be sure you buy cutlets and not breasts or it will take too long to cook. I threw in the grape tomatoes with the rest of the veggies to cook; I didn’t wait to throw them in at the end. I also added mushrooms. I wasn’t particularly careful with the amount of spices, just every time I threw something in I generously sprinkled salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. Also, I didn’t bother trying to drain some liquid out of the diced tomatoes, I just simmered everything a little longer. Make a little more than you’ll eat at dinner because it will make a really fantastic reheated lunch for a few days.
• Spinach
• Watermelon

How We Felt:

I checked out how we’re supposed to be feeling today and today we’re apparently supposed to be feeling like TIGER BLOOD. Oh. Hmm. Well, I don’t feel like a snow cone flavor. And now I’m thinking about snow cones. Mmmm.

 

As I look back over the last 18 days of food we’ve eaten, it’s so pretty. And I seriously just run over to some non-cluttered flat surface – which is hard to find around here – and snap a picture so I can rush back to the table and eat. Obviously I’m not going to win any food photography contests, but eating Whole30 food makes food look so good and colorful.

Here are some ways that I’ve found to quickly make lunch (which is the toughest meal for me) that not only looks good, but is also satiating and delicious.

1. I plan one main entree for each day’s lunch, usually whatever is going to be the protein. And if I can, I make enough to eat for a couple days.
2. I prep/have on hand several different snack-y things for the week that will fill up the rest of the plate:
   1.  Carrot sticks
   2. Celery Sticks
   3. Avocados
   4. Apples/Bananas
   5. Blueberries (they are so cheap right now)
   6. Almond Butter
   7. Bagged Spinach
   8. Bagged Other-Kinds-of Lettuce
   9. Plantain Chips
   10. Various Nuts
   11. Olives
   12. Roasted Sweet Potatoes
   13. Zoodles
   14. Turkey Deli Meat
   15. Hard-Boiled Eggs
3. And really when you look at this list, only a handful of them take chopping/cooking prep. Most just need to be bought during the weekly grocery trip.
4. Then when I plate the entree I see what colors are missing and what I feel like eating and just grab from this list and fill up my plate.
5. I do almost always have some lettuce/green on the plate. Usually dry. I haven’t found a delicious dressing that I love so I don’t feel like making one usually.

Breakfast is tough because I never wake up early enough to make any of the really delicious looking recipes I’ve found, but I’m pretty happy with fried eggs, avocado, spinach, and some kind of fruit. I’m honestly not even close to burning out on this. Dinner, even when not Whole30, is the most time-intensive meal so I don’t get frustrated with how much time and prep dinner takes. But lunch. Lunch. I don’t want to spend forever on it. I just made breakfast and finished up morning errands. And I need to start making dinner in like 3-4 hours. I don’t waaaaant to make lunch. (Channeling my inner threenager :)) So I either look for things I can make quickly the night before or that will not take me longer that 30 minutes to throw together. And, if something in our schedule really goes awry, I have that list of foods at the ready and we all just get to eat a snack plate for lunch. Or dinner, really, if necessary.

Was that helpful? Maybe that was just a stream of consciousness. Well, that’s how I do it 🙂

Breakfast:

• Last of the Pot Roast
• Spinach
• Handful of Pecans
• 2 Fried Eggs
• Banana and Almond Butter

Lunch:

• Last of the Waldorf Salad
• Carrot Sticks
• 1/2 an Avocado
• Handful of Pecans (I had the box sitting on my kitchen counter which is why I think I was craving them all day)

Dinner:

• Fish Taco Bowls – I had some Cabbage Slaw Mix leftover so Fish Tacos seemed the best fit. I used Halibut. This was an pretty good recipe. Except that their serving size for the dressing is way off. I made the whole recipe for the dressing and it was barely enough for me and Kraft. Make double of it.
• Spinach
• Cabbage Slaw Mix
• Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde
• 1/2 an Avocado

How We Felt:

Kraft finally likes black coffee. Yay! A few days ago I wrote how my joints were still feeling achy and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to try this crazy Whole30 thing. Well, apparently the patron saint of Whole30 heard, because the next day the joint pain was gone. Hmm.

I’ve always had a love affair with sweets. I imagine many people learn to express some amount of moderation as they grow up. Not me. If I eat one little sweet, I have to eat ALL THE SWEETS. There is no middle ground. I can’t eat 3 Thin Mints, I have to eat the whole roll. I can’t eat one bite of ice cream, I have to eat the pint.

I can remember being about 6 years old at Christmas time when me and my cousin went to town on a big tin of popcorn. You know, the ones the size of your torso. She ate the entire cheddar section and I ate the entire caramel section. I was throwing up all night long. I still remember vividly being curled up on the fuzzy bathroom mat next to the toilet all night. And, as if that was not enough to teach us, a few years later my uncle brought a couple dozen big sopaipillas. Me and this very same cousin each ate at least 6 of them if not a few more. Omigoodness. I felt awful for a couple days after that. Just awful.

But here I am, 17 days in and I haven’t seriously craved any dessert one single time. Sure, I’ve seen a few treats and thought they’d might be nice to have but there has been no grinding and gnashing of teeth for just one Oreo. Like I said, there is no middle ground. When I have zero sweets, I’m fine and can easily turn down any temptation. But when I have just one bite, well, let’s just say when my kids’ sweets go missing, they immediately question whether I ate it.

I can remember watching one of those weight loss shows when a woman lost 100 pounds or whatever and then she ran a marathon. To celebrate crossing the finish line, she ate 1 Reese’s Peanutbutter Cup. What? Is she crazy?? Just 1. If I had to run a marathon, you can be sure a Sam’s size bag of Reese’s would be waiting for me.

I’m not sure what to do with this information, but it’s good to understand my body’s reaction to sweet a little better.

Breakfast:

• Fried Eggs
• Power to the Greens Mix
• 1/2 an Avocado
• Banana Chia Pudding – Again, all the ingredients in this are technically Whole30 compliment but I know we aren’t supposed to eat it because it’s SWYPO. But I made it, so we’re eating it until it’s finished. Which now it is.

Lunch:

• Turkey Waldorf Salad – We ran out of the Primal Kitchen Mayo we’ve been using so I had to make mayo. I had to throw away the first batch which was super frustrating. It didn’t emulsify. My advice, make sure to use Extra Light Olive Oil. Regular EVOO is too strong of a flavor. Also, I tried to use a stick blender the first time and it didn’t work. Worked like a charm in the food processor, though. Also, the recipe for this I adapted from Allergy Mama. Basically 2 chopped apples, 2 chopped celery stalks, 1 pound of halved grapes, 1/2-1 cup of raisins. I threw in the leftover turkey from the Turkey drumsticks I made on Day 12. If you are going to add a protein, which is a good idea because there is so much fruit, you need about 2 cups of some cubed or shredded meat. Then mix in lemony mayo to taste.
• 1/2 a Sweet Potato with Cinnamon

Dinner: (Leftovers!)

• Pot Roast – I just throw in a bunch of veggies (big chunks of carrots, celery, onion, and potato) on the bottom of a crockpot, 1 cup of water or broth, then put the sirloin tip (lean cut) or chuck roast (lots of fat but very good) on top and cook on high for like 8 hours or something. Key to deliciousness is salting the meat enough.
• 1/2 an Avocado
• Roasted onions and red peppers
• Rainbow Slaw – This is delicious, but it made a huge amount. We still have one more serving left. Hopefully we’ll polish it off in the next couple days.

How We Felt:

Kraft has a huge headache all day. This is rare. He usually only gets headaches when he needs coffee. For me, my dreams are crazy vivid. Which is weird because I don’t ever really sleep long enough to dream.

One completely unforeseen result of doing the Whole30 is how much us doing it encourages other people to think about it. Of course, not because of us, but more because you can only hear about something so many times before it seems like a good idea.

I, for example, heard about it a year ago when a mommy blogger I used to read did it. I thought it was crazy. So hard to do with kids. What was she thinking? As if she didn’t already have her hands full. Then I put it out of my mind. Then starting about a 2 months ago, all media shifted toward detox cleanses that are going to get you “summer bod ready”. I always laughed. There is no way that I could make it days and days of only drinking juice or smoothies or whatever. But I kept hearing about them. On TV, on blogs, on the radio. After hearing about all these juice only or smoothie only cleanses over and over, the Whole30 didn’t seem so crazy. Cut out a few things, eat more greens. And, let’s face it, we can still eat bacon. Any diet that allows you to still eat bacon has to have something going for it.

I don’t think we’re inspirational by any stretch of the imagination but I think if we can do it, that proves that really, really anyone can if they want. 🙂

Breakfast:

• Kerbey Lane Harvest Omelette – no cheese, added spinach
• Home Fries – I forgot to bring my own ketchup. Boo me.
• Fruit

Lunch:

• Leftover Buffalo Chicken and Potato Casserole – This has lasted forever. We’ve eaten it at least 10 times this week and we still have about 2 servings left. But I’m still not sick of it. It’s a really solid dish.
• Hard-boiled egg

Dinner: [Had dinners with friends]

• Hamburger patty
• Rainbow Slaw
• Potato and Green Bean Salad
• Watermelon – a lot of it
• Banana Chia Pudding – This is not in the “spirit” of Whole30. All ingredients are technically compliant but they lump this in with paleo pancakes or whatever. In Whole30 lingo, it is SWYPO. I made it as dessert for our kiddos but they hated it so we weren’t going to waste it. They’re right, it wasn’t delicious, but it was fine.

Prep:

• I chopped about a million peppers. I didn’t get around to making those stuffed peppers and they were going bad so we have pounds of frozen chopped red bell pepper now.

How We Felt:

Part of the reason I decided to do Whole30 is that I feel really crummy at times. Like my joints can get really achy and I just feel really run down. I’m not going to lie, this hasn’t really gone away. I still feel like this and we’re halfway through the program. I’m not discourage, I just really wonder what the source is.

As I’ve mentioned before, our oldest has food allergies. She is allergic to dairy, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts. Pretty much she’s allergic to joy. Kidding, kidding. Kinda. I realized today that doing this Whole30 has made me walk in her shoes a little bit. Even though we have walked the food allergy journey by her side and have been the ones advocating for her, we still had no idea what it meant to not be able to eat whatever we wanted.

Today we attended a really lovely baptism with some really lovely friends. Afterward, we went to the reception and for the first time at an event, I was limited in what I was able to eat. Now, if I eat a piece of lasagna, I’m not going to need an EpiPen and an ambulance ride, but it was a little glimpse into the life of a food allergic kiddo.

While for her, not being able to eat cake and goodies can sometimes make her desperately sad, for me I wasn’t so much sad I couldn’t eat, I was worried about having to talk about why I wasn’t eating or why I passed on the cake. I didn’t want to explain the Whole30 and every time I walked through the kitchen I got anxious that someone was going to push a plate of something into my hand.

Hospitality is a huge thing to me. Remember, I come from a long line of intimidating Mexican mothers that will literally shove food into your mouth if they think you need it. It is important for me to be hospitable to my guests but also to accept the hospitality of others. So not eating food that someone is offering me is almost painful. I feel like I might as well slap them. Food = love and if you reject food then you reject love.

But you know what? Everything went fine. Nobody noticed that we didn’t eat plates and plates of food. Nobody noticed that we didn’t have cake. And we were Whole30 compliant. Us for the win!

Breakfast:

• Green Monster Smoothie
• Egg and Sausage Casserole – Thank the good, sweet Lord that we finally finished this today. No more leftovers.
• Buffalo Chicken and Potato Casserole – I’m still not sick of this. It’s still really tasty.
• Perderson Farm Sugar-Free Bacon

Lunch: [not pictured] at a reception

• fruit
• veggies

Dinner:

• Buffalo Ranch and Garlic Basil Chicken Wings – Super, super good. Worth the hassle of getting the grill setup.
• Ranch – from Whole30 cookbook.
• Carrot Sticks
• Celery Sticks
• Rainbow Slaw – I’ve never been a big fan of coleslaw but this was surprisingly delicious.

How We Felt:

Halfway done. We’ve started discussing what our eating is going to look like post-Whole30. It is an interesting conversation. I would hate to come out of this and go straight back to eating the way we did before Whole30.