Whole 30 Day 1

Does it make a difference to be doing this with someone else?  Absolutely!!  I noticed at least 2 or 3 things that I would have eaten if I hadn't known that I was doing this with someone else.  I'm already thinking forward to the things that I can't eat in the next 30 days at least.  There is so much that you can't eat if you stick to the diet.  I was already thinking of a wine tasting I'm supposed to be hosting, no pizza on Friday nights, etc.
So this was my new Day 1.  I had no-oat oatmeal for breakfast, an apple for morning snack and beef left over from yesterday for lunch.  I made tacos for dinner, but I just ate the meat with a little avocado, some lettuce and tomato.  I resisted eating some plantain chips when I came home from work, and resisted eating sour cream, taco shells or cheese with dinner!!!!

OK, THIS is day One!!!!

I had been thinking over the last 20 days of my "Whole30" diet and realized that I am slipping more with each day.  I even went back and changed my post headings to remove "whole 30" from all of them.  I had been thinking of starting all over again, but then changed my mind as I figured I might as well continue and hope I could do better.  Well, my friend at work who bowed out on me 3 weeks ago just told me that he's starting as of today & wants to try sticking to it for 4 months!!!  I feel renewed in my challenge and now I have someone to compete with.  I'm starting from the beginning and trying to cut out everything.  Not sure if it will last for 4 months, but I want to at least do the 30 days.....

Fructose in fruit

I just read an article that talks about cutting down fructose to less than 25 g per day. This chart shows how much fructose is in fruit.  Since I eat a lot of fruit, it's a good guide for me

Fruit	Serving Size	Grams of Fructose	Fruit	Serving Size	Grams of Fructose
Limes	1 medium	0	Boysenberries	1 cup	4.6
Lemons	1 medium	0.6	Tangerine/mandarin orange	1 medium	4.8
Cranberries	1 cup	0.7	Nectarine	1 medium	5.4
Passion fruit	1 medium	0.9	Peach	1 medium	5.9
Prune	1 medium	1.2	Orange (navel)	1 medium	6.1
Apricot	1 medium	1.3	Papaya	1/2 medium	6.3
Guava	2 medium	2.2	Honeydew	1/8 of med. melon	6.7
Date (Deglet Noor style)	1 medium	2.6	Banana	1 medium	7.1
Cantaloupe	1/8 of med. melon	2.8	Blueberries	1 cup	7.4
Raspberries	1 cup	3.0	Date (Medjool)	1 medium	7.7
Clementine	1 medium	3.4	Apple (composite)	1 medium	9.5
Kiwifruit	1 medium	3.4	Persimmon	1 medium	10.6
Blackberries	1 cup	3.5	Watermelon	1/16 med. melon	11.3
Star fruit	1 medium	3.6	Pear	1 medium	11.8
Cherries, sweet	10	3.8	Raisins	1/4 cup	12.3
Strawberries	1 cup	3.8	Grapes, seedless (green or red)	1 cup	12.4
Cherries, sour	1 cup	4.0	Mango	1/2 medium	16.2
Pineapple	1 slice (3.5" x .75")	4.0	Apricots, dried	1 cup	16.4
Grapefruit, pink or red	1/2 medium	4.3	Figs, dried	1 cup	23.0

Day 20

I made pancakes for the kids this morning.  They smelled SO GOOD!!!!  I really wanted to eat one, but I resisted and just ate my regular no-oat oatmeal.  I snacked on some plantain chips and a banana for lunch and then we went to St. Charles.  I told the kids we could get ice cream there and Ben & I shared a kid scoop of ice cream.  We only ate half of it and that was enough.  It wasn't anything like as good as I thought it would be and after I ate it, I had a major headache-Sam said it would happen eventually!!  I made dinner in the crock pot-beef, mushrooms & cabbage.  It's one of our favourites....

Beef and mushroom crockpot recipe

2 lbs beef (I used roast from Sam's Club)
12 oz baby bella mushrooms
1 onion
garlic
1 box Pomi tomatoes
carrots
chicken stock (or red wine!!)
cabbage
salt & pepper

I put all ingredients in the crock pot and cooked for 8 hours.  I added the cabbage about an hour before the end so it wasn't cooked too much.

Breakfast for the kids

Sam has been trying to get the kids off the sugary cereals for a long time.  I have stopped buying any cereal for them and it finally ran out this week.  Now, we are trying to find substitutes that they will eat.  Neither of them will eat the no-oat oatmeal, but they will eat eggs and have been doing so this week.  This morning, Ben got up and immediately said "I'm going to make eggs for breakfast".  He proceeded to make 4 eggs and then made up this plate for Maggie, which he took to her with a glass of orange juice.

Days18 & 19

So hard to stay on track at the moment.  We even ate pizza for dinner last night!!!  Even though I have slipped with something every day, I'm still trying to do as well as I can and so I refuse to give up on the Whole 30 program.

Day 17

Quiet day-usual breakfast and just chicken chunks for lunch.  Didn't have time to eat much as I was running around at work all day.  I took the kids to Cici's pizza after school.  Unfortunately, I was too hungry to resist and ate a little of Ben's breadsticks-typical example of ALWAYS needing to plan ahead!!
I made Asian chicken from Time for Dinner at night.  I added some extra chicken and fried some cauliflower rice with it.  It was pretty lame, didn't taste of anything and very disappointing.  I don't know what went wrong....

Day 16

This day was going to be difficult right from the beginning.  I had several meetings at work-9:45 to 12, 12 to 2:15, 2:15 to 3:30, 4 to 5.  Essentially, all day.  I had a plan to make sure I wouldn't be hungry all day, but I was busier than I expected.  I resisted the muffins at my morning meeting, but I did have half & half in my coffee.  We were having sandwiches with lunch & I had asked for chicken salad on lettuce.  Well, the chicken salad had 3 pieces of chicken in it, a few grapes and the pecans.  So, I was still hungry after eating it. Oh no, the salad came with chips-I ate them!!!  At my next meeting, I was so hungry that I ate a brownie (they are really good, by the way!) and at that point I was so mad with myself.  I was working late and so we even tallied with the idea of going out to dinner (which, as I found out when I got home, was likely to be pizza).  I immediately decided to cook and I made this sausage with cabbage noodles.  It's Ben's favourite thing to eat.  I made it all in the wok.  I fried the sausage & removed it, sliced up an onion and cooked it in the sausage fat.  Then, I added shredded cabbage and cooked it up with caraway seeds, paprika and salt & pepper.  I made cinnamon apples-cooked the apples in coconut oil, added some cinnamon, raisins and a little coconut milk.  At least I saved some part of my food day.....

Day 15

Absolutely nothing to report.  Had my no-oat oatmeal for breakfast, apple mid-morning, chicken and tomato-basil soup for lunch.  We went to Fuzzy's tonight because they have $1 tacos.  I had a shredded chicken salad that was pretty good.  I resisted the chips and salsa!!!!
Today was the first day I noticed my clothes being loose, exactly the same time that I noticed a change when I did the Whole 30 the last time.   I broke down and weighed myself too and I lost 2 lbs since  I started!!!!

Day 14

I made it through the first 2 weeks.  Yes, I have deviated from it a little on several days, but I have managed to improve from where I was recently.  I know there are several things I really need to do.  I need to drink more water and I need to get the sweet potato chips out of the house.

I am still eating my usual far during the day.  I had some chicken with my soup today and it did seem to get me through the afternoon much better.  I made Marie's salmon recipe for dinner.  I got some steelhead trout from Sam's club.  I cut out the syrup this time and just used the ginger out of the jar.  It's not strictly paleo and definitely not Whole 30, because it has soy and Pad Thai sauce in it, plus the ginger, but it is really good and hard to resist.  I think salmon and ginger were made for each other!!!  I cooked some baby broccoli from Trader Joe's with it.  It was very good.  The kids love it and they ate everything.

Cooking on a Sunday afternoon.

I made a huge batch of no-oat oatmeal to last us into the week.  I made a small batch last night for Sam to eat this morning, then I made another small batch for my breakfast.  Then, this enormous batch this afternoon!!!!  All-in-all, I used 20 eggs!!!!!

I also made a cherry clafouti using a jar of Trader Joe's Morello cherries. Maggie has been asking for a chicken clafouti, I am going to have to make one for her soon. I much prefer the fruit ones. I found a jar of cherries in the pantry so I thought I might as well use it.  I used 4 eggs, a can of coconut milk, 1/4 cup coconut flour & some vanilla for the clafouti, then I just added the cherries and cooked at 375 for 45 mins.  I had cut down the amount of coconut flour and I think it was a lot better.

The usual batch of chicken chunks was made.  I usually fry them in butter with some salt and lemon pepper, just cook them until the liquid is gone and they start to stick a little bit.  We eat them all week, Sam eats them with salad and I give them to the kids for lunch.

We had Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps for dinner.  This is one of my favourite recipes.

Day 13

I made a small batch of no-oat oatmeal for breakfast. It's the first time I have made the 2-portion amount in a long time. I whisked 3 eggs with 1/4 cup almond milk, then I added a tbsp of almond butter and I mashed up a banana with a fork. Then I added a tbsp of flax seed and 1/2 cup mixed nuts, added some vanilla, ginger, cinnamon & nutmeg. I split it into 2 portions and it was a good opportunity to see how much I am eating every day. I was glad to see that I'm only eating about a portion every morning. I found some blueberries at Sam's after 3 or 4 weeks absence, so I had strawberries & blueberries to one portion and left the other one for Sam.

I made this beef stir fry for dinner. It's one of our favourite recipes and I found it on this website that has a whole bunch of really good recipes. The kids love lettuce so they ate everything I gave them (Maggie even ate the mushrooms). Ben and Maggie finished off the lettuce between them!!!!

I realize that I have been slipping a little every day.  I have definitely not stuck to the Whole30 plan as strictly as before, but I am trying to get to a stage that I can maintain long-term, so I thought I'd better focus on the things I resist rather than things I give in to & that I should at least think about what I have changed rather than what I haven't.  I took the kids to the Kolache Factory and I resisted getting anything, usually I would have got two of them.  Ben got two cinnamon twists, so Maggie had to get 2 bacon, egg & cheese.  She ate the best part of them in the car!!!

Our latest obsession is Whole Foods bacon, we have been getting it every Sunday morning & a bunch of that seems to get eaten in the car too!!!!  Maggie doesn't like it, but the rest of us can't get enough of it....

Day 12

The weekends are always more difficult due to the lack of routine. I started the day with my usual, of course. We were rushing around because Ben had his birthday party at 10 am, they went rock climbing. When I got home,I had this TJs Tuna in Green Curry with some spinach and had some plantain chips later.  A Friend came for dinner, we had Chicken Parmesan from Time For Dinner, mashed sweet potatoes and broccoli salad.  Had a glass of wine too.  seems like every day I am slipping with at least one thing, but I think I'm still doing OK on the whole.

Day 11

I could try and ask where did it go wrong, but I already know the answer.  I was doing OK today-had my no oat oatmeal for breakfast and some leftover chicken tikka masala for lunch, but my husband suggested pizza for dinner and I made it.  I had no willpower today at all.  I guess I can say I didn't eat sweet potato chips and I didn't have a latte, but that's about as good as it gets.  I'll hope for better luck tomorrow.  I'm beginning to realize I really do need someone to compete with to make this work!!!!

Days 9 & 10

Oh no, I've fallen!!!  I missed a day's report and now have two days together...
Actually, there is nothing much to report at all.  I ate my usual fare while at work and just had a snack at night.   I know I have been eating way too many plantain and sweet potato chips. I have to do better.  I went out for luch yesterday and had some great lettuce wraps.  Also had chicken curry which was excellent.  I was good and avoided the rice.....
We have had loads of leftovers to eat because I cooked so much at the beginning of the week.  It seems to always work out that way these days.

Day 8

Absolutely nothing to report that's inspiring.  Ate the usual at work.  Did resist the scones/bagels that were present at the morning meeting, but fell apart at night.  Knew it was going to happen, it is Ben's birthday.  We went to Mongolian Grill for dinner, not too bad because you can put your own food together, but then I did eat a piece of his cake when we got home.  Oh well, I'll get back to it tomorrow....

Day 7

Back to work. Had my usual work fare-no oat oatmeal for breakfast, apple for snack and tomato-basil soup for lunch. I made the chicken tikka masala for dinner. It was pretty labor intensive. I made the sauce for the chicken

I had left the chicken in the marinade since Saturday night and cooked it in the oven for an hour

I added the chicken to the sauce, but I did not add the sauce since there was already so much of it. I think next time I'd cut down on the amount of coconut milk that I used

When I dished it up, I told Sam that I wasn't sure that it was worth all the effort to make it. Boy, was I wrong. It was absolutely delicious and well worth it.

Had a pretty labor-intensive cooking night, spent 5 hours in the kitchen. I made the chicken, then a cake for Ben's birthday, chicken chunks for Sam & no-oat oatmeal for later in the week. Yes, it took a while, but we are pretty set up for the week....

Day 6

I had my usual for breakfast. Made the kids pancakes, but I didn't have any. I bought some bacon from whole foods and we ate a mountain of it.... Sam grilled beef tenderloin for dinner and I made sweet potato, zucchini and broccoli to go with it

Maggie ate all of it and came back for more. She's little Miss Paleo!!!

Day 5

A day of snacking and leftovers, I'm afraid.  We got an early start to the day.  Sam & I were running in the Go! St. Louis 5K run and the kids were running the final1.2 miles of Read, Right and Run.  I started the day with my usual no-oat oatmeal.  Our run got canceled and so we went to iHop for brunch and I had an omelet with bacon.  After that, I pretty much snacked on sweet potato chips for the afternoon.  I ate clafouti for dinner.  Not really a very good day for the Whole30 diet, must do better tomorrow.

I did try making a batch of kale chips.  I put half a pack of Trader Joe's kale into a gallon bag, added the zest of a lemon, some salt & pepper, and a little olive oil.  I shook it all up together and baked in the over and 250 for about 25 mins.  Some weren't really very crisp, so I stuck them back in at 350 for about 10 mins.  They were good.

I cut up some chicken and started making the chicken tikka masala recipe.  We're going to barbecue tomorrow and so I bought some beef tenderloin and that is marinating overnight....

Day 4

It's Friday. The first Friday of my first Whole 30 filled me with dread. We always have pizza on Friday night and watch a Harry Potter movie. It's a ritual. It's sacred. Enough said.... I didn't have that feeling of dread this time and I had actually saved up a new recipe to try for dinner. I had my usual fare for breakfast and lunch-I am REALLY going to have to try to change it up a bit!!!!

I made Marie's salmon recipe for dinner.  OK, it's not strictly Whole 30.  In fact, it's a little dodgy even when thinking of paleo.  That's primarily because the recipe uses soy sauce and stem ginger that is stored in syrup.  Still, I had been looking forward to making this for ages, so just made it. 

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup syrup from ginger
2 tbsp Pad Thai sauce
Rind & juice from 2 limes
2 pieces of stem ginger.
chili sauce to taste.

Put all ingredients together and boil until reduced by 1/2.  Pour over salmon and bake at 350 for about 30 mins, uncovered.

Turned out great, never knew how well ginger and salmon went together.  Next time, I'll use the ginger and not the syrup.  I may need something to counteract the lime, so I might add some coconut palm sugar instead.  I will also try substituting coconut aminos for the soy.

I cooked some kale to go with the salmon.  Haven't made it before, but Leeny swears by it.  I fried it in some olive oil and a little chicken stock.  It was very good.

I also made a clafouti for dessert:  4 eggs, 1 can coconut milk, 1/2 cup coconut flour.  I added some pineapple that I had in the fridge and it turned out very well, although the pineapple made the clafouti more like pudding.  I think pineapple and coconut go together very well.

The day was full of temptations though.  Ben suggested going to Starbucks and Sam was hankering for Vito's pizza because we were at Chaiffetz arena for the Go! St. Louis Expo.  I held my ground and got through my first Friday with no problem at all.  Now, for the weekend.

Day 3

Usual fare today-no oat oatmeal for breakfast, apple for snack mid-morning, tomato basil soup for lunch & some sweet potato chips when we got in after work/school. Yes, I eat pretty much the same thing day after day. Janhavi just asked me today if I ever get bored of eating the same thing. It honestly never crosses my mind!!! I made corned beef and cabbage for dinner. Everybody loves it and the kids eat a huge amount of it. I put some red cabbage in the crockpot, added some carrots, regular cabbage on top of that and the corned beef on the top. Then I cooked everything on low for the whole day.

Chicken tikka masala

I love chicken tikka masala and I am so excited to find this recipe today.  I might have to just run by the grocery store and pick up all the ingredients tonight so I can make it straight away!!!
I'll try to resist since I already have corned beef going in the crock pot.  Ben would never forgive me if we didn't have it tonight. Oh well, Saturday it is....

Something else to avoid.....

A story on 60 minutes last week covered the question "Is sugar toxic?"  It has the potential to be sensationalist, but honestly, it's worth taking a second look.  I have heard several facets of this in the past and it's all brought together in this story.  It all sounds plausible and the data are substantiating the conclusions.  The paleo diet is essentially supporting the idea that sugar is bad for you, even toxic if you want to go that far.  I ate huge amounts of sugar when I was younger.  I passed my pharmacy exams fueled on Smarties-vast quantities of them and little else!!!  I never had any problems with my weight when I was young, was probably even too thin.  I wonder how that has changed so much?  Yes, I believe that too much sugar can be bad for you and contributes to the obesity problems of today. However, you also have to factor in the increased intake of fast food and the decrease in activity that kids and adults have today.  People are starting to listen as the diet advice changes, but there's a long way to go and we still run the risk that we are still not right.  For now, I am happy with the choices I am making and it is working for me.....

Day 2

Pretty boring day really.  I had my usual no-oat oatmeal with strawberries for breakfast.  I can't give up coffee, so I make flavoured coffee and put unsweetened almond milk in it.  I had the tomato soup for lunch.  I had chicken and grapes for a snack in the middle of the morning and then an apple and some pineapple for a snack in the afternoon.  I also had some plantain chips while helping Maggie with her homework.  So basically, I have been snacking all day and I feel like I have eaten way too much.  I know I eat too much fruit and not enough vegetables, I need to start working on that next...

Day 1

Day One!!! I ate my usual fare during the day. I always start the day with no-oat oatmeal. I make large batches of this and Sam and I eat it all week. Because we eat so much of this, we go through 3 to 4 dozen eggs each week.  I always buy the high omega 3 eggs from Trader Joe's-they feed the chickens on flax seeds to increase the omega 3 fatty acids and I hope that it will help our balance of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids.
I usually add strawberries and blueberries to the oatmeal, but couldn't get blueberries this week.....

I had my usual tomato and basil soup for lunch and ate some chicken chunks with it. These plantain chips from Trader Joe's are great snacks. They fit in the Whole30 diet, but not low carbohydrates, so you have to be careful with them. I eat way too many of them so I aliquot them into 1 oz bags so I only eat a single serving.  I tend to eat these when I get home from work every day....

We had this butternut squash curry for dinner. I had it in an Indian restaurant in England and loved it, so I had a go at duplicating it. It was fantastic and very easy to make....

So, day one was pretty easy on the whole.....

Butternut squash curry with chicken

Ingredients
1 onion
1 butternut squash
garlic
ginger
2 tsp Trader Joe's curry powder
4 chicken breasts
1 can coconut milk
2 oz almond slivers

I cooked the onion in some coconut oil, then added the chopped butternut squash, ginger, garlic and spices. I added the coconut milk and cooked until the butternut squash was tender. I smashed the squash with a potato masher and then added the chicken and cooked until the chicken was tender.

I made with some cauliflower rice-put the cauliflower through a food processor, fry in some coconut oil and add a little coconut aminos.

I put some basil on top and it was really yummy!!!!!

Today's the day.....

Well, I am starting all over on the Whole30 today.  I'm actually quite excited about it.  I have managed to recruit a few folks to try this with me & I have committed to writing on my blog every day so everyone can see what I am eating & how I am doing.  The first time I did this, I noticed a difference in my clothes after 2 weeks.  Although I still can tell a difference from where I started, I can also acknowledge that the waistline is expanding again!!!  I can also tell that I feel more sluggish since I've been eating all that Easter candy.
I have been looking through some of my old recipes and wondering why I haven't made them in a while.   I think I have missed the challenge of eating right and finding new recipes to keep up my enthusiasm.  Sam is very supportive and it really helps that he will eat whatever I make and go along with me-Thanks Sam!!!!  We are also trying to get the kids on a better diet too.  They'd be fine without all the candy in the house, but it's hard to get them off the cereal in the morning.
So, I weighed myself this morning, will take some "before" pictures tonight and start my daily journal......

Starting all over

I had always said I was going to do the Whole30 after I got back from England.  However, I thought I'd need it because I would eat badly when I was on vacation.  Well, I did much better than I thought while I was away, but since I got back I have been terrible.  No idea how it happened, but I feel like I have been on a chocolate diet for 2 weeks.  Starting the Whole30 tomorrow, April 10.  Will last until May 10.  I'm going to do it the way I did before, keep a journal, take pictures, not weigh myself.  We'll see how successful I am second time around.....