Day 14 -- Two Weeks Down

The last couple of days have been good, although something I ate didn't agree with me today, and I can't figure out what it was. But it did mean I didn't have anything very exciting to eat.

Anyway, food:

Breakfast -- since I didn't have my breakfast casserole made up, it's kind of thrown together -- three eggs, a piece of velvety butternut squash (yum -- even though I didn't heat it up, and I'm pretty sure it would've been even better warm!) (Also, I finally got to use the pretty new red KitchenAid mixer I got for my birthday to make it!) and some raw celery and carrots. I also had some grapes after.

Lunch -- I was going to make this cauliflower soup, had all the ingredients, except I was going to use my chicken broth instead of beef, since I have a bunch in the freezer -- until I read the note the author put in at the end that said using chicken broth made it taste like gravy, so I added extra carrots, some roasted golden beets, and a couple of sweet potatoes to the cauliflower. It turned out really good -- not too sweet, with a mild flavor, which made it great for this meal mixed with the seasoned ground beef from the burrito bowls, and then later for  -- 

Supper -- more soup, this time with some cinnamon chicken and topped with some toasted coconut flakes.  Yum. 

Day 13

Today was great. I think the burst of energy thing kicked in. I got up and went to Sprouts -- I had to find avocados, especially since one of the things I made for this week is a burrito bowl type thing, and none of the avocados at the grocery store here looked good at all, and I didn't see any at the farmers' market Saturday. Anyway, so I did that and came home and cooked and chopped veggies and cooked some more. I still didn't get everything finished, though. I haven't done the salmon patties I'm planning to do, or the sausage for the breakfast casserole, and the butternut squash is in the oven cooking now for the velvety butternut squash recipe. Also, somewhere in there I think I did three loads of dishes in the dishwasher. That still amazes me, that one person can go through that many dishes. 

Before we get to today's food, last night I posted my three meals, but then had to work several hours past supper, so I ate a snack. While snacks are not encouraged, it's understood that if you're hungry, you should have a mini-meal, with a protein, a little fat, and some veggies. I had a cup of tea and half a Larabar. Not really the right way to do the snack thing. And then this morning, after breakfast, I had the other half of the Larabar. I've decided Larabars are not good things for me to have around -- it's like having a candy bar in the house. Now that I've tasted them, and I know there's another one around, I just want them. (And frankly, if I'd bought four of the Cashew Cookie flavor, which is the first one I tried a few nights ago, I'm pretty sure I would've just eaten all four of them right then, it was that good.) Even if I'm not hungry, I think about them and wonder how the other flavors will taste (I'd never tried any of them before this). And then, when I have eaten them, I feel guilty, because I know that while they're technically not breaking the Whole30 rules, the way I'm eating them is going against the spirit of the thing. The way I've eaten them is exactly what I would've done if there were Snickers bars or ice cream around -- eating them in place of better choices that are readily available, replacing good nutrition with things that don't promote health. (This doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Larabars. If you can eat one, and stop, and not crave more, and you find that nutritionally speaking, they fit in your life, good for you. Apparently there are some people who do that with ice cream and Snickers bars too, but I'm not one of them. I wish I was, but it doesn't work that way for me.) Anyway, so since they're not a good choice for me right now, the other two that I have are in an envelope, addressed to my nephew, who I'm pretty sure will be thrilled to get something in the mail, even if he ends up not liking the flavors I've sent him. 

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, here's today's food:

Breakfast -- breakfast casserole, breakfast salad, grapes, coconut flakes.

Lunch -- Sweet Cinnamon Garlic Spiced Chicken, Mashed Cauliflower, and cucumber -- both of these recipes are excellent, and so easy to make. I cooked the chicken yesterday, but it wasn't quite done in time for supper last night, so I stuck it in a big glass bowl and put it in the fridge. When I went to get it out, it was a big, solid, gelatinous, bowl shaped thing -- I had trouble pulling individual pieces out. So if you make it, don't do that. Maybe try individual containers, or wrap a piece or two of chicken in foil and put the foil wrapped pieces all in one container and just save the liquid in a separate container to put over it, if you want. But don't just dump it all in one big bowl. Trust me on this one.

Supper -- burrito bowl with 1/2 avocado and part of a tomato -- this was also yummy, and I never thought to cook broccoli slaw, but it made it really good, as opposed to the sort of blah but healthy that broccoli slaw usually is.

Day 12

Today has been good. I woke up and ate breakfast, and then went to the farmer's market and the grocery store. I have lots of veggies, and some new spices. Now I just have to cook it all. My meals today were mostly eating the last of stuff so I can wash the containers and re-use them for this week's food. I'd say maybe I should get more containers, but then that's just even more dishes to wash and put away, so maybe not. Anyway, it's about 7:45 pm now, and I'm working, and I have no idea how late I'll be working, so if it's very late, there's a chance I'll be having some kind of snack later, but I thought I'd go ahead and do this post now and just include what I've eaten so far:

Breakfast -- egg casserole, breakfast salad, grapes, and some coconut butter melted and drizzled over the top of the fruit/veggies. (I didn't really mean to order coconut butter -- I was doing an Amazon order, and looking at coconut oil, and then got sidetracked looking at all things coconut, and somehow the coconut butter ended up in my cart, but not the coconut oil. Oops. Fortunately, it's not as good as peanut butter or cashew butter, so I don't think it'll be something I can't stop eating.)

Lunch -- sort of random. The last of the cooked ground beef I had, with a baked sweet potato, and a tomato I picked up at the farmer's market today, sprinkled with salt and a dill mix spice blend.

Supper -- even more random than lunch. Heated leftover chicken and fresh carrots in ghee, put them over a bed of salad greens and another tomato, all with the juice from half a lemon and a little olive oil. Weird, but it really wasn't bad.

So that was my terribly exciting day, and unfortunately, I'm already getting tired, and I have no idea how late I'll be working. Blah. But other than that, it's been a pretty good day. 

Day 11

I woke up feeling great today. Of course, that was at 7:30 this morning. I don't normally wake up that early, because I normally need to be up past 10 pm. Fortunately, I don't have to work today, so I can go to bed after I post this. And the whole getting up early thing will come in handy for making sure I get to the farmers market tomorrow.

I've done something new and different (for me, anyway) -- I've actually attempted to plan next week's menu. I'm going to stick with a breakfast casserole/breakfast salad combo every morning (but with turkey sausage from this recipe, and then I'm going to do a fish dish -- these salmon cakes (I would've called them salmon patties or salmon croquettes, but whatever), crockpot chicken, and burrito bowls, plus I'm going to use the butternut squash I bought last weekend that I haven't cooked yet to make this butternut squash casserole type thing, some cauliflower soup, and mashed cauliflower. Plus assorted vegetables, whatever I pick up at the farmers market tomorrow or get from the store. I think that's enough to get me through most of the week. (I cannot believe how much food I seem to be going through!) If I need other protein sources, I have some frozen chicken I can use. And I seem to have to go to the store for a mid-week veggie run each week too, for the stuff that I eat most, or that doesn't keep as well. 

Now to the food:

breakfast -- egg casserole, peach, breakfast salad, coconut flakes

Lunch -- chicken salad (roast chicken, grapes, half an apple, home made mayo), on salad greens, with the rest of the apple

Supper -- Here's what's on the plate: 3 eggs, fried, the rest of the roast jicama from the other night, some breakfast salad, and an orange. I ate part of the eggs, part of the jicama, and part of the breakfast salad. The orange tasted off, so I didn't eat it. None of it was very impressive, and after eating a little bit, I was just like, yuck. But I was hungry. And I'd bought a few Larabars to have for emergencies, because they're allowed on the Whole30 (as long as the ingredients are all compliant), but only for emergencies. I bought them because I have this weird fear of being out somewhere and being hungry and not being able to find food that is Whole30 compliant, so I keep one in my purse, and a couple in the pantry. This is the first time I've eaten one. I'm pretty sure "dinner tastes yucky" is not an emergency, but I ate it anyway. Really, supper wasn't exciting, but (other than the orange) there was nothing wrong with it. I think I just wanted something different. Or maybe something sweet. I'm not really sure. Part of why the Whole30 is so strict is that, while it is an elimination diet that can help you pinpoint any problems you may have with dairy or grains or legumes, it is also an attempt to change how you eat, and your emotional attachment to food -- so if you normally turn to sweets when something is unpleasant, it's going to highlight that, and since you can't really have sweets, you can't do that, you have to just deal with whatever unpleasant feeling it is that you're feeling. The thing is, while I know that I do that at times, I didn't think there was anything unpleasant or anything I was worried about, so I'm not really sure what's going on.

Day 10

I woke up today feeling good. After breakfast, I even went for a walk. Not anything spectacular, just around the block. According to my Up (a really nifty pedometer type thing), it was .85 miles, and took me 18 minutes, but it was something, which is better than the nothing I usually do, right? 

Anyway, this is what I ate today:

Breakfast -- egg casserole, breakfast salad, coconut flakes

Lunch -- green beans, chicken and leftover eggplant, salad greens, 1/2 an avocado with salt, pepper, & lime juice, and some grapes

Supper -- sweet potato "fries" (really just roasted sweet potatoes, cut long & skinny instead of in cubes and sprinkled with Chinese Five Spice and salt -- some of them burned, but the rest of them were yummy), ground beef, and a little mayo for dipping the sweet potatoes in -- not an exciting meal, but filling

So anyway, that's my day, and I'm pretty much exhausted now, even though it's only 10 pm, so I think it's probably my bedtime. (Side Note: I'm usually up until 1 am or so, so this whole tired at 10 pm thing is really weird. And it could potentially interfere with my work schedule in the future, so I hope it doesn't last.)

Day 9

Feeling grumpy today, but I did get most of the dishes washed and put away, until supper time, when they multiplied and filled up the sink again. There's only one of me, I don't understand how I use this many dishes. I've got chicken broth in the freezer and green beans rinsed to cook tomorrow, and I started a menu plan for next week, so I'll know what I need to shop for and cook over the weekend. I'm less tired than I was a few days ago, but still waiting for the burst of energy people talk about getting. Also, for some reason I seem to wake up every morning at 5 am or so. I've been able to fall asleep for a few more hours after, but it's really annoying.

Today's food:

Breakfast -- egg casserole, breakfast salad, peach, mayo

Lunch -- chicken salad made with roast chicken, half an avocado, grapes, celery, on a bed of salad greens, with some lime juice

Supper -- two eggs, scrambled with some leftover cooked ground beef, roasted jicama, homemade mayo -- I only ate about half that jicama (and that was half of the jicama I cup up to put in the breakfast salad -- it was huge! And it was the smallest one I could find at the store), I put the rest in the fridge to have tomorrow. I'd never cooked jicama before, only had it raw in salads and stuff -- it was pretty good.

Day 8

Today went pretty well. Nothing spectacular. Went to the dentist, then to Sprout's for extra veggies (I'm going through veggies like you wouldn't believe here!), and then home to work. I think every pot and pan in my kitchen is dirty, and I really didn't feel like washing them, and I'm sure I'll regret that tomorrow, but for today, that's okay. 

So, the food:

Breakfast -- egg casserole (same as yesterday), breakfast salad (for the week's worth, it's a couple of zucchinis, couple of yellow squash, apple, strawberries, carrots (cooked just enough to be a bit softer), jicama, celery, all mixed with lemon juice), and that white stuff on the bottom of the plate is home made mayo, which was really easy to make, and really, really tasty, and added a lot to an otherwise boring egg casserole.

Lunch -- chicken salad (roast chicken, home made mayo, grapes, celery), on a bed of salad greens, with some raw carrots and celery

Supper -- ground beef (with a new spice blend -- Chinese Five Spice -- which was interesting, but beef probably wasn't the thing to put it on, although it's not so bad I'd throw the rest out, just a little weird), plus a sweet potato, some breakfast salad, and half an avocado. Mmmm, avocado.

Day 7 -- Week 1 Done

Feeling better today, still a little tired, but not like the last couple of days. So far, it really hasn't been too bad. And I'm definitely eating better tasting stuff than I ate on Medifast -- or for that matter on any diet I've ever tried. There are things that I think, oh, a little cheese would make this so much better -- but mostly I don't miss it. Sugar and grains are a little harder, I do like desserts, and those involve at least one or sometimes both of those. Cooking all the time is hard, but I can see where, if I could really spend a weekend cooking and then freezing stuff, I could get ahead of it and not have to do so much every week. Of course, I don't always have good luck freezing stuff, and don't want  to end up having to eat dried out, freezer burned food, so I don't know if that would be better in the long run or not. It is something to think about, though.

I did have the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that I decided I MUST HAVE sweet tea (I don't normally sweeten my tea, so I don't know what that was about). Anyway, I very carefully measured out a small amount of sugar, like half a teaspoon or something, some amount that I had deemed to okay, and made my iced tea, and drank it, and then had a piece of cake (not even chocolate! it was like apple cinnamon or something, not at all what I'd choose if I were choosing to go off plan), and then just started freaking out because I'm not allowed to have that stuff for another 23 days, and I was convinced I'd just really messed up and ruined my whole30 plan and was going to have to start over. But I didn't seem bothered by any of this until after I very calmly drank the tea and ate the cake. It was just weird.

Enough about my subconscious already -- on to the food:

Breakfast -- egg casserole with ground beef, sweet potato, zucchini, yellow squash, sauteed leeks, garlic and mushrooms, raw snap peas, strawberries in coconut milk (coconut milk is still just not doing a lot for me. I want to like it, I love coconut, but it's just sort of there)

Lunch -- chicken breast cooked in a little ghee (a frozen one -- poor planning on my part, but amazingly given that it's been in the freezer for a while, it actually met all the requirements for Whole30, and it was pretty good), leftover roasted brussels sprouts, roasted fairy tale eggplant (they were so cute! but they were a little bitter cooked, I don't know if I did something wrong or what), and half an avocado.

Supper -- leftover roasted fairy tale eggplant, roasted sweet potato, and a chicken salad inspired by this one over at Your Healthista, which was originally inspired by the Whole Foods Sonoma Chicken Salad, although I didn't follow her recipe exactly, so mine has half an avocado, half an apple, a few grapes, and some chicken, and I just made the one serving of it (Side note: This looked like a ton of food, and I didn't think I was that hungry, but I ate every last bite, even the still bitter tasting eggplants -- which I still have another serving or two of to eat over the next couple of days)

So to sum up this week, it's been okay. I've been tired and was a little cranky for a few days when I gave up the coffee, but I'm hoping the tiredness will be over soon. The food is good, but it's a lot of work, and takes a lot of planning, so while I'm not obsessed with thoughts like, "When is my next meal?" or even, "I really wish I could have some cake now," I am spending a lot of time thinking about food, and preparing food, and cleaning up the mess from preparing food, and shopping for ingredients to prepare food, and looking up recipes for more food to prepare. If I had a social life, this could be a problem, but I don't really, so I guess it's okay.

Day 6

I was really tired again today, so I went back and looked at the Whole30 Timeline and it looks like I'm about on schedule. I was having trouble staying awake at work today, so it would be nice for this part to be over with, which according to their timeline should happen in the next day or two. 

Anyway, to the food:

Breakfast -- sweet potato and zucchini, three fried eggs, half an avocado.

Lunch -- big handful of salad greens, carrots, celery, zucchini, seasoned ground beef, half an avocado, a peach.

Supper -- Leftover salmon, raw carrots, celery and snow peas (I was feeling lazy and didn't want to cook any veggies) plus, not pictured, a peach and a handful of almonds.

Tomorrow's the end of week one. I knew the first week or so would be hard, because Medifast has a similar effect, when you give up sugar and bread and all of that. I did think maybe I'd get by without going through most of the hard part, since I came straight from Medifast to this plan without adding a bunch of stuff into my diet between them, but I guess that wasn't enough to avoid it completely.

The hardest part is definitely planning and cooking. Since I'm single and don't have to feed anyone but myself, I don't usually bother to pre plan, I just eat what I feel like, and before this, if I didn't feel like cooking, I could go out. Going out now seems like it would be very difficult, given the sheer number of things I'm supposed to avoid, and the number of things that contain sugar that you don't think would, and how soy seems to sneak into everything in some form or another, not to mention avoiding dairy and wheat products. Whatever I decide to do after the end of this 30 day period, whether it's basically just sticking to this same plan or trying to add in dairy or other foods, I can say I will be paying a lot more attention to labels -- and not just the calories and fat content, which is all I used to really look at, but the actual ingredients. I knew there were a lot of chemicals and salt and other unexpected stuff in some foods, but I guess I never realized exactly how widespread it was, and I think the sheer number of things that have added sugar explains a lot about the obesity rate in this country. Even people trying to cook at home, thinking that's healthier than having fast food, can be putting sugar into everything without realizing it if they're not paying attention. Case in point -- I would love to add bacon to my egg casserole thing for the week, not a lot of it, just enough to have that lovely salty bacon flavor, and it would be allowed within the whole30, if I could find it in a form that didn't have sugar. There are some out there at some grocery stores, I hear, and I could special order some online if I were really desperate, but I can't just walk into our local HEB and pick some up. I didn't even find any when i was at Whole Foods. I would've expected this if I were looking at, say, maple bacon, but really, does the just plain old regular bacon really need sugar? That's a little frustrating.

Day 5

I woke up this morning at 6 am and couldn't go back to sleep. This is really not like me, I hate mornings. But even though I couldn't fall asleep again, I was tired. Being up that early does mean I got to the farmers market this morning and picked up a bunch of stuff for the week, and then went to the store for the stuff I couldn't get at the farmers market. Then I came home, unpacked the groceries, and took a nap. It was like 10:30 am. Really sad. But I felt better when I woke up, so I guess it's okay. 

Anyway, to the food:

Breakfast -- the last of the breakfast salad, two fried eggs. Not pictured: one package of raw cashew butter and a plum. I think it was a plum. Some kind of fruit, anyway. That was more than 12 hours ago, I don't remember now -- and that's why I take the pictures, otherwise, I'd forget.

Lunch -- crockpot baked sweet potato topped with leftover orange cinnamon stew, snap peas, almond butter. I'm not buying any more nut butters for the rest of the 30 days, clearly I can't control myself with them -- I bought each of those packets yesterday so I would have an easy, portable fat to add to a snack/meal if I were going to be out running around all day away from home. You know, an emergency type of deal. Yeah. That worked out well. 

Supper -- baked salmon (HEB had them on sale today), roasted Brussels sprouts (made with ghee (a form of clarified butter), which the folks on the Whole9 forum all rave about -- I'm not real sure about it. Not bad, but I don't get all the fuss about it), and a plum.

Anyway, if you want to see what all I got at the farmers market, I put pics on the facebook page. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with all of it yet, but I think it's going to involve an attempt at making paleo mayonnaise. 

Day 4

So, I've been really tired all day, not sure if this is still the caffeine withdrawal or what. Also, I just feel sort of slow, mentally speaking, like in a fog or something. Fortunately, I got to work from home, so I actually ate supper at a reasonable time and can go to bed fairly early tonight, maybe that will help. I have noticed that over the last few days I haven't sat around watching tv as much -- mostly because I'm in the kitchen trying to cook all the time. I will say I'm eating better tasting food than I've had in a long time.

Anyway, the food:

Breakfast -- This one was sort of a fail. I ate it anyway, but those are supposed to be fried eggs there -- I forgot how fast eggs cook when you fry them, and they got a bit overcooked. So that's two overcooked fried eggs, with the last of my egg muffins I've been having all week, with a sweet potato (baking them overnight in the crockpot turned out perfect -- just wrap them in foil, throw them in the crock pot, put the lid on it, put it on low, and go to bed.) I added coconut oil to the potato, since I can't have butter because of the no dairy rule.

Lunch -- Big handful of salad greens, with part of the breakfast salad stuff I've been having every morning because it's starting to look kind of sad and I want to finish it before it gets too soggy, plus the last of the roast chicken, half an avocado, and a mix of olive oil, coconut milk and lime juice for dressing.

Supper -- leftover orange cinnamon beef stew (still one more serving of that left in the fridge, eventually you will see something new here), chopped zucchini, roasted cauliflower and carrots, and half an avocado.

I've got the remains of the roast chicken, some celery, carrots, onion, garlic, rosemary, and thyme all in the crockpot simmering to make chicken broth -- hope it turns out good, I've never made my own broth before. Tomorrow, I'm going to go to the farmer's market here in town -- in addition to the obvious veggies and fruit, there's supposed to be a spice company and someone selling grass-fed organic ground beef, so I'll have to check them out.

Day 3

I decided to give up coffee starting today. I didn't really think I had a problem, but judging by how tired and cranky I was all day, I must've been a little more caffeine addicted than I realized. I didn't think I really drank that much, a cup or two a day, but I guess that was enough. Also, even though I came into this not expecting a lot of the carb withdrawal symptoms people usually experience -- because I did that back when i started Medifast and came from Medifast to this -- that may be playing into. Whole9life.com has put together a handy timeline for what to expect during the Whole30, and based on my experience with Medifast, which caused similar stages, it seems pretty accurate. So if you know me in real life, and I seem a little grumpy the next few days, this is why.

Anyway, other than being tired and cranky, today went well. I added in a snack between lunch and dinner, and it helped a lot, so I'll probably start making sure I have one with me when I have to work or I'm going to have a long day for some reason. I actually asked on the Whole30 support forums if my meals seemed reasonable, and they suggested I might need to add more, particularly healthy fats. I feel like I'm eating a ton of food already, so I'm not sure about that, but I'll keep trying to pay attention to how I feel and how hungry I am.

And now to the food, which is pretty boring, I probably could've just pasted in the pics from yesterday, because they're basically the same. Fortunately I'm not bored too easily eating the same things over and over.

Day 3 Breakfast -- egg muffins, same as the last two days, breakfast salad leftover from yesterday, blackberries, macadamia nuts

Day 3 Lunch -- bunch of salad greens, carrots, snap peas, celery, roast chicken, with olive oil and lemon juice for dressing

Day 3 Supper -- leftover orange cinnamon beef stew, riced cauliflower, blackberries in coconut milk with a little cinnamon

Tomorrow, i'm having a sweet potato, I hope. I have some baking in the crock pot, I hope they turn out since I've never done them that way before.

Day 2

Day 2 has been pretty good. I ate my three meals, I did pack more for lunch than I ate at the meal, but then I went back and finished it a few hours later because I was hungry. I was trying not to do snacks, because they encourage you not to eat between meals to give your body plenty of time to process all the stuff you already ate, but they do say it's okay if you're really hungry and not just eating out of boredom -- and I was really hungry. It's probably because I'm coming off of Medifast where I ate 6 meals every day, so my body is just used to eating every two to three hours. Tomorrow, I'll actually take a snack with me in case I need it. I'm also trying to follow their recommendation to actually sit at the table and eat, without watching tv or turning on the computer or checking the phone. It's kind of nice, actually, to just sit for a little while with nothing to do but concentrate on the food in front of me. I think I notice more how it tastes, as opposed to when I'm just gulping it down while checking facebook.

So here's what I had today:

Breakfast -- egg muffins, same as yesterday, equivalent of about 3 eggs, breakfast salad inspired by this one at Stupid Easy Paleo (jicama, carrots -- lightly cooked so they weren't so hard, apple, celery, zucchini, plum, blackberries, cucumber (should've peeled it, I cut it in big hunks and the peel was really bitter), and I think I'm leaving something out, but then all that mixed with the juice of one lemon -- made it last night, enough for a few days, it was really good.) Oh, and some avocado, maybe 1/3 of one small one, and coffee with coconut milk. I may just give up coffee while I'm doing this, not the same without some creamer or some sugar.

Lunch -- bunch of salad greens, celery, carrot, half an apple (I'd actually put this in the rest of the salad dressing yesterday so it wouldn't brown -- worked great, and actually made the dressing taste better since it really needed a little sweet to offset the tartness of the lime juice), snap peas, leftover roast chicken, the rest of the avocado from breakfast, and a dressing of olive oil, lime juice and coconut milk.

Supper -- leftover orange cinnamon beef stew from yesterday, with cauliflower that I "riced" in my ninja blender/food processor and heated in the skillet, one apple, and some macadamia nuts (they're mixed in the stew)

 Oh, and somewhere between breakfast and lunch I had a cup of Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spiced Tea, which I really, really like, but I just looked it up to link to it, and it contains soy, which I'm not supposed to have (who puts soy in tea?) so I won't be having that anymore. I'm going to assume it wouldn't be enough to make much difference this one time, but I was going to have it again tomorrow. Oh, well, I'll find something else instead. 

I did finally take my before pictures, I think I'll put them on a separate page rather than in this post, so look up at the top of the page for the Pictures tab.