Day 10

Day 10 - So. Cold. Outside.

OK enough bitching.  Whole 30 challenge still going strong.  Something I miss, sugar free gum!  I realize that I chew a lot of gum.  Just to freshen my breath between meals.  But sugar and sugar substitues free means no gum for me.  I know that's a small amount but I'm really trying to do this thing as much to the letter as I can.

Breakfast was Avocado "toad in a hole".  It was delicious!  The other half of that avocado is in the fridge and I will be having that again tomorrow.  Basically you just slice an avocado and fry in some olive oil, add an egg in the middle and cook.  I flipped it once and covered it because I don't like a runny yolk.  Quick and easy.  Had it with some salsa and a mini turkey meatloaf that I had made ahead and froze.

Avocado toad in a hole (not pictured - mini turkey meatloaf I ate it while cooking this!)

Lunch was a salad with grilled chicken, nothing special.  I'm going to have to research and find a new dressing because even though I like balsamic vinegar and olive oil it's starting to get old.  I also had an orange.  I need to get groceries.  I'm running out of fruit!  

No snack.  I forgot to pack one.  I have some almonds in the car and I ate a few of those on the way home :)

For supper I made a big stir fry.  Lots of veggies and shrimp!  I really had no idea what to put in it that was on the plan.  I used olive oil and garlic and lemon.  Once again, some research and I'm sure I could have found some options.  I ordered pizza for the boys because I thought they wouldn't like what I cooked.  The pizza didn't bother me.  I'm really dedicated.  Surpising myself actually.  I was right, the stir fry was a bit bland but good.  Yummy veggies and shrimp it was good but I think it could have been better.  I also had an apple with almond butter for "dessert".  Love that.  

colorful stir fry

All of these spice mixes contain sugar.  I'm surprised, are you?

Day 9

Day 9 - Whole 30 going well.  I was rushed today so I was glad I had some things already prepared for meals.

Breakfast was 2 egg cups (basically scrambled eggs mixed with sauted veggies baked in a muffin tin) that I had made and frozen, spinach and an orange.  I'm kind of in a breakfast rut.  Looking at ideas and recipes to  get some new ideas.  I'm getting used to my black coffee.  It's really not that horrible anymore.

Lunch was leftovers from last night.  Chicken breast and roasted veggies.  So good!

I had a snack of raw veggies and almonds in the afternoon.

Supper was Paleo Pineapple Chili from my freezer.  I also made some steamed broccoli to go with it.  I felt like something for dessert so I made some banana - cherry yonanas. .

I was feeling snacky tonight, so I had a coconut cream Lara bar.  It's Whole 30 friendly.  Very tasty.  Ingriedeints:  dates, dried coconut, cashews, almonds and coconut oil.

I'm not a fan of Winter.  I complain a lot in the Winter.  I love Spring, Summer and Fall, but not Winter.  This one is really bad.  So much snow, and cold.  Tonight I looked at the weather and it is now -28 C and -42 C with the wind chill.  That's cold.  And guess what?  -42 C is the same as -42 F!!  How cool is that?  It's fu*king cold that's what it is.  The good news is it's supposed to be -3 C by Saturday.  Hopefully this is the last cold snap of the season because I'm so OVER it!

Day 8

Day 8 of Whole 30!  Monday blah.  Since I worked on Saturday I only had a one day weekend.  It felt too soon to go back.  Oh well.  Busy day, so it went by really fast.

Thoughts on Whole 30 so far:

1. It's easier than I thought it would be.  Really it is.  I think the fact that it's pretty restrictive makes it easy.  The rules are simple, you just follow them.  
2. Sugar is in so many foods!  Condiments are full of them (including prepared horseradish).  I went to use a club house seasoning tonight, it is a vegetable seasoning and it had sugar in it.  I read every label.  
3. I'm kind of enjoying not tracking or worrying about not tracking.  
4. I really, really want to weigh myself.  But I won't.....

I had eggs, with spinach, sliced avocado and an orange for breakfast.  My husband thought it looked so good that he had it too!  Lunch was a salad with chicken and an apple.  Snack was snap peas and almonds. And for supper I made some amazing roasted vegetables and a grilled chicken breast.  Yum!

before - vegetables, with garlic, olive oil and fresh lemon

after

Then after supper I did the first Turbo Fire video!  Very challenging but I liked it.  Worked up a good sweat and it was fun.  Now I'm off to bed.  

Day 7

Day 7 - Pretty good day today.  I was awake early on my only day off of the week!  6:30, but I was able to go back to sleep for awhile and then laze around in bed till about 9:00.  I got up and decided I wanted something other than eggs today.  Really missing my oatmeal.  I found a great recipe for pancakes so I made those.  The recipe can be found at the civilized caveman website http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/breakfast/perfect-paleo-pancakes/  They seriously have only 4 ingredients!  Bananas, almond butter, cinnamon and eggs.

Perfect Paleo Pancakes:

Ingredients:   3 Bananas

                    3 eggs

                    1/2 cup almond butter

                    2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:
Preheat a skillet to 350 degrees fahrenheit
Combine all of your ingredients in your magic bullet, blender, or food processor and mix well until you have a batter
Grease your skillet with coconut oil and pour your batter making 3-4 inch pancakes
Cook 2-3 minutes per side and then flip for 2-3 minutes
(I cut this recipe by 2/3  so I only used 1 banana, 1 egg, then I just eye-balled the almond butter and cinnamon as I was the only one eating these and that is how many it made)

mine didn't turn out quite as nice as the website, but they were delicious!  

I'm contemplating quitting my gym membership.  I find it's just so busy there now.  When I first joined it was new, and it was always so quiet, but now it's insanely busy there.  And recently all I was going there for was Body Pump and Yoga.  Seriously, this beachbody Body Pump (yes it's a Les Mills program) that I got is the same and I can do it at home.  I have my treadmill and then when Spring comes I will run outside again.  Just thinking about it right now, but I haven't been there since before Christmas so it's a waste of money.  Today I did the 30 minute Body Pump and a 25 minute Body Flow (yoga).  It was great!  I didn't even have to leave the house :-)

Roast beef supper at my parents tonight.  I did really good.  Stuck to my plan.  Lots of food that I couldn't have but it was no problem.  I had roast beef, a big salad and fruit for dessert.  On to day 8 tomorrow!

Day 6

Day 6.  Whole 30 is still going well.  So far no cheats at all.  I am reading labels like crazy and I can't believe the additives in foods!  Especially sugar.  It's in a lot of food.  I worked today.  One of our Grad students brought Starbucks for myself and the girl I was working with.  She didn't know what to get me so she got me a Vanilla Latte.  Oops.  I didn't have it.  I just told her I wasn't having dairy right now.  I felt bad that she bought it for me but I didn't want to cheat for that!

I made grilled chicken, boiled sweet potato and roasted veggies for supper.  The veggies were zuchini, brussel sprouts and peppers with olive oil and garlic.  The veggies were delicious!  I need to roast vegetables more often.

After supper I went to get a few groceries.  Took my time, read labels and got lots of fresh vegetables and fruit.  I bought some blackberries because they were on sale.  Not my favorite fruit but I had a few when I got home and they were so good!  I swear fruit is tasting amazing on this plan!  Maybe it's in my head, who knows?

For a snack tonight I fired up my Yonanas machine.  If you don't know about the amazing kitchen gadget check it out here http://www.yonanas.com/  I used bananas of course and frozen sweet cherries.  Very good.  It really made me feel like I was eating something forbidden, but it was all fruit!

banana - cherry yonanas....yummmm

No exercise today :(  That's 2 days in a row, not good.  Planning to run and do body pump tomorrow.  On with day 7 tomorrow!  (and I'm still dying to weigh myself.....resisting)

Day 5

Day 5!  Whole 30 still going well.  Today I brought a snack of raw veggies and some almonds for my afternoon coffee break and it really helped with the hunger.  Dean, Mitch and I went out for dinner to Moxie's.  I had a small house salad to start.  I didn't realize it had goat cheese and dried cranberries!  Yum!  But not allowed on whole 30.  So I picked them off and ate the salad without them.  I didn't have my glass of wine that I would normally drink on a Friday night, and I ordered a New York steak with double veggies.  It was so good!  I actually couldn't eat it all.  Had an apple (that tasted so fricking sweet!) and now I'm going to bed.  Work tomorrow.  Boohoo

Day 4

Day 4.  Wondering how these every day bloggers do it!!  The word of the day today is ANNOYING.  I had one of those days where everybody and everything annoyed me.  Whole 30 went well.

Breakfast was eggs, spinach and an orange.  And of course my yummy black coffee!

Lunch was some leftovers from last night.  Mini turkey meatloaves, spaghetti squash and some marinara sauce and an orange.

I stopped after work at the grocery  store because apparently both boys were going to be home for supper AGAIN!  I wanted to make hamburgers for them so I needed buns.  I had a hard time in the store, I started to get so hungry (and wanted to buy all the bad food!).  I bought a small container of raw veggies and some almonds to eat in the car on the way home.  It took the edge off.  I may need to incorperate a snack in the afternoon.  I was a bit headachey this afternoon again.  I don't know if it was from the Whole 30 or just from a bad day.

Supper was some leftover Spicy Pineapple chili, with some steamed spinach.  I did steal a few of my sons sweet potato fries.  Which if I had made them from scratch would have been on the plan but they were McCain's from a bag with a few forbiddon ingredients.  I only had a few.  I watched a bit of American Idol, then I ran on the treadmill to get my frustrations out.  I feel better.  And my best friend (who also happens to be my husband) comes home tonight!  Yay!

Right before bed I had a snack of celery with almond butter.  I have never had almond butter before and it was really good.  Nice snack.  Good night.  On to day 5 tomorrow.