First week on Whole 30

I have made it through the first week of Leeny's challenge and have stayed on program for the whole week.  Surprisingly, it's been relatively easy.  However, I recognize that I have a different mindset when I'm doing a challenge as opposed to everyday life.  I am hoping by the end of this challenge and finishing WLC (which starts next week) that I will be on a good enough routine to stick to it.  I'm hoping that I see enough improvement that I want it to be a permanent thing.  After 10 weeks, I should be in a new routine, but it could also be one that I just can't stand any more!!!!
Along with the challenge of eating differently, I have also had a terrible cold (Sam and Maggie have already had it), an ice storm in St Louis on Friday so that we had a 4 day weekend (out of the work routine which always makes it easier to stay on track) and the challenge of taking the kids out to eat at Panera while not eating anything myself.  Ben's grilled cheese has never looked so good!!!!!

I have almost completely (apart from about 1/2 cup a day) given up drinking coffee and I have replaced it with Teavana tea.  This has the benefit of being able to choose some cool teas to choose from, plus to control the amount of caffeine I'm taking in.  The first few days were rough-not sure if the killer headache was due to the caffeine withdrawal or the cold!!!

I have gone back to some of our old recipes that I haven't made in a long time.  Even though the Internet is flooded with paleo recipes now, some of the original ones are still the best.  I made this cherry clafouti so that I could turn to something a little sweet if I needed it.  Funny, as soon as I made it, my sweet craving went away.  I think it's more psychological than anything else-once I knew there was something in the fridge I could turn to, the urge went away!!!!

I haven't made these paleo muffins in a while as there is so much fat in them, but I found a jar of marmalade in the fridge and though I'd better use it up, so I made a batch and it has been a nice change for breakfast

I also made a batch of paleo mayo and I mixed some with hot sauce and ate it with some chicken-simple, but good

I made some paleo eggs Benedict for breakfast, nice change too

And, finally, for now, our old stand-by, the chicken, bacon and avocado salad.  Still a great choice

Great lunch idea.....

Ingredients:

4 large eggs
8 pieces of Whole30 bacon (no sugar!)
10 oz baby spinach (or greens of your choice)
1/2 red onion, diced
2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
2/3 cup sunflower seeds
2 ripe avocados, sliced*
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp dijon mustard (check the label for wine or sulfites!)
2 lemons, juiced
Sea Salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Soft boil your eggs by laying all four in the bottom of a saucepan big enough to fit them all in one layer. Cover the eggs with water by at least 1 inch and bring the pan to the stove over medium high heat. As soon as the water reaches a boil, cover the pan with a lid, turn off the burner and remove from the heat. Allow the eggs to sit for 1.5 to 2 minutes, drain, rinse with cool water to stop the cooking, and peel.
While you’re waiting on your egg water to come up to a boil, you can prep your bacon. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, ensuring that the aluminum comes up all the way on all sides (to catch the bacon grease and make your cleanup easier). Top the foiled baking sheet with a wire rack and lay your bacon strips on top of it in a single layer. Bake the bacon for 10-15 minutes on the center rack, watching closely after 10 minutes to ensure that it doesn’t burn. Once cooked, chop the bacon into bite-sized pieces.
Next, prepare your dressing by combining the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper in a medium bowl (I used the mixing container attachment for my stick blender), whisk together until well combined.
Using a quart-sized mason jar, layer the dressing equally at the bottom of each. Next, add the onions followed by the tomatoes, sunflower seeds, then bacon. Chop the avocado and egg, layer one on top of the other, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Finish the salad by packing the greens on top of the rest of the ingredients and seal the lid tight.
Store the jar salad upright until you’re ready to eat it. When it’s time to eat, turn the jar upside down and shake vigorously until all the ingredients come together. In the beginning, you may need to take a few bites of the salad and then resume shaking in order to get all of the dressing distributed over the goodies. I recommend eating this salad within 48 hours of packing it.

Paleo Restart/Whole30/WLC again

Today is the day I am starting Paleo again.  I'm going to do the Whole30, then it will segue into another Whole Life Challenge starting in May.  I have really got to go 100% as I am hopeless when trying to stay on track but eating regularly.  I had coffee with almond milk this morning-hard to get used to again!!!!

Whole30, Day 2

Not much to report. I had no-oat oatmeal for breakfast and vegetable soup for lunch.  Anne came over to work out with us, we did kettle bell swings and goblet squats.  After working out, I made Tom Ka soup, one of our favourites.  I went to a noon meeting at work today.  They had brownies from Crave-they are always fantastic.  I took one and took a bite of it.  As I was chewing, I thought of Melissa Hartwig saying that you are making a conscious decision to sabotage your diet when you eat something like that.  I felt more and more guilty and finally spat it out into the napkin and threw all of it away!!!!

Whole30, Day 1

Well, I did fine, if you take out the coffee I made for Sam and I after work!!  I had my no-oat oatmeal for breakfast, vegetable soup for lunch and tacos for dinner.  I made everything for the tacos, then the kids ate them with their regular chips/tortillas, and Sam and I ate them with the plantain pancakes that Anne made

Whole30, starting again.....

We had this cumin/coffee beef for dinner last night.  It was done in the crockpot, so it was incredibly tender and easy to make.  I made some sweet potato biscuits to go with it and fried up some vegetables-onions, mushrooms and broccolini.

 

I decided to start the Whole30 countdown again because Sam and I had Starbucks coffee on Friday morning.  Even though I have made lattes at home with our little machine, I don't really count them.  I know they are off the Whole30 program, but they are my Achilles heel and at least I'm not spending a bunch of money on them at the drive through.  Sam is against the Whole30 anyway because he thinks you should achieve a level you are comfortable with rather than doing something for 30 days that you can't sustain.  Dairy does not seem to bother me like the grains do, so as long as I just make a small latte at home, I don't consider it an epic fail.

 

I'll just start again.....

Whole30, Day 11

Oh no, succumbed to Starbucks today and then made a latte at home as well!!!!  Sam and  I had time to spare while we were waiting for my citizenship ceremony, so we walked down to Starbucks and got coffee.  I have felt tired all day, so made a latte at home this afternoon.  VERY BAD!!!!  On the plus side,  I made pizza for Sam but I ate leftovers instead.  Maggie ate dinner with her friends across the street, so Sam had the pizza to himself!!!!

Whole30, Day 10

Nothing new to report. Had no-oat for breakfast and Anne's Thai chicken chowder for lunch and dinner!!!!  Had a busy evening with doctor appointments and school stuff, so not much time to cook anything.  Sam took the kids to Cici's....

Whole30, Day 9

I made this chicken salad for lunch today. It's an old recipe from a pasta cookbook and I made it without the pasta. It's basically chicken, shrimp, melon and celery with a dressing made from natural yogurt and sour cream-the dairy makes this paleo with not Whole30.

Anne came over to work out with me, she brought some food with her.  This was a recipe she found on Pinterst, she wanted to make shrimp ceviche.  It was really good.  I'm glad I have her to cook with because we can make dishes and share with each other so we have more variety

She made these plantain pancakes to go with the shrimp.  She said they were super easy



2 yellow plantains
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted, plus more for baking tostadas
1 teaspoon salt

Chop the plantains into 2 inch pieces and toss them in the food processor with the melted coconut oil and salt. Puree. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease with additional coconut oil. Divide the plantain mixture into 6 blobs on the baking sheet and flatten them out into pancakes as best you can. (Oiled hands help). Bake at 425 for 30 minutes or so, flipping half way.

Whole30, Day 7 & 8

Oh, no,  I missed a day.  So now, I have to do days 7 and 8.  I haven't taken too many pictures because I've been eating pretty much the same every day.  I ate no-oat oatmeal for breakfast both days and chili for lunch on both days.  Anne came over to work out on Monday evening.  Sam worked with us, it was great.  Anne and I ate vegetables and sweet potato hummus after working out on Monday evening.  Last night, I made sausage with cabbage noodles and cinnamon apples.  It's Ben's favourite dinner, but Maggie won't eat it at all.  She had some of her chicken clafouti heated up-not a bad substitute.  So far, I am doing OK with the Whole30 this time.  The only thing that I have sneaked in is making a latte at home every now and again, just can't resist 



Whole30, Day 6

Day 6-Sunday. My usual major cooking today. We had run out of no-oat oatmeal in the morning, so I made a new batch-30 eggs, the most I have ever made. I made a huge bowl for Sam and then aliquoted some for me to take to work

I made a batch of sweet potato hummus, this stuff is amazing. I made taro chips to eat with it. It's pretty much what I ate for dinner

Sam was going to grill burgers for dinner, but we had so much food already that I told him it wasn't really necessary. He said he would rather have meatballs anyway, so I made a batch for him. They are not my favourite, but I had made plenty of other things that I could eat instead

I made this chili for me to eat for lunch this week. Sam doesn't like it, I think it's because it has hot sauce in it

Maggie had asked me to make her a chicken clafouti. It's a mach better thing for her to eat for breakfast than chocolate cereal

Whole30, Day 5

Saturday morning....had no-oat oatmeal for breakfast. Ben has gymnastics at 9 am on Saturday morning, soon after finishing at 8 pm on Friday nights. I knew this would be the stickler practice because he has always hated going on Saturdays. So my usual bribe is to get him kolache for breakfast. This Saturday, he was up at 7 am (before me!) and so I went and got him breakfast when I woke up. I resisted them for myself (easy, actually) and then ate my usual with blueberries-because I couldn't be bothered to cut up strawberries-it is my lazy morning after all!!

Anne came over to work out with me and then we made an enormous batch of mango curry and some taro root chips.  So, essentially I had taro root chips for lunch.
I made this cherry clafouti for dinner

Anne had brought some of her Thai chicken chowder for me, so I ate that for dinner before the clafouti.  This is wonderful stuff, but Sam won't eat it because it has red bell pepper in it

Sam and I went to Global Market yesterday.  It is a lot of fun to walk around and look at new things to eat.  Since starting on paleo, we have shopped more and more at less-traveled stores and less at the regular grocery stores.  The challenge of getting variety in your diet while eating right makes it so much more fun when shopping.  I found some imported red curry paste-can't wait to try it, I bet it's much hotter than what I have used before!!

Whole30, Day 4

I had no-oat oatmeal for breakfast this morning and peach cobbler for lunch-both whole30, but there's no meat or vegetables anywhere in there!!!

Sam was craving pizza for dinner, so I made pepperoni pizza for him and Maggie

Then, I made mango chicken curry for me

Whole30, Day 3

I'm waking up very hungry in the morning these days, maybe not eating enough at night. No pictures today. I had my no-oat oatmeal for breakfast and the last of the chicken salad for lunch-John and I were able to sit outside again since it was another perfect day in St Louis. Anne and I did a killer crossfit workout in the basement and I tried Sam's Progenex recovery protein mix after. He said it really helps with recover and soreness after a hard workout. Afterwards I thought there was bound to be non-Whole30 ingredients in it and sure enough, it had whey protein, fructose and sucralose in it, not to mention milk and soy by-products. Still, it was an honest mistake rather than me choosing to go off the prescribed ingredients....

Whole30, Day 2

I had no-oat oatmeal for breakfast as usual. I eat my first half out of the bowl that Ben made at pottery class years ago. It's a perfect bowl for comfort food, it's rounded at the bottom and fits perfectly in your hand. If I had a choice, I'd eat everything out of it!!

It was such a beautiful day, John and I went outside to eat lunch. John got a salad and bread from Fresh Gatherings, I ate my chicken salad, tasted even better being outside!!

I made Marie's salmon recipe for dinner tonight. I was going to make the cucumber, avocado and mango salad, but the avocados were all terrible so I added tomatoes instead and then added a little lime juice and some fresh basil. It was very good

I'm also trying to keep a track of the things that I have resisted throughout the day too. I was close to getting a latte from Fresh Gatherings because they have almond milk, but I skipped it because I suspect the almond milk is sweetened. Ben also got Penn Station after gymnastics and I didn't eat any of his fries, even though the smell was very tempting!!

Whole30, Day 1

First day of Whole30 and I did pretty well. I had my usual no-oat oatmeal for breakfast. I usually eat it in two batches and I ate it with strawberries

I had this chicken salad for lunch. Cut up chicken breast from Sam's Club, celery, walnuts, grapes and mayonnaise made with lime and avocado oil

I ate left-over Canoa de Madoro for dinner. I had made it with cheese on top. Since it was Day 1 and I'm determined to make it through this time, I took the cheese off before I ate it

We walked round to Xavier's to get Ben and then stopped at Baskin Robbins for ice cream. Maggie had vanilla ice cream and Ben had the rainbow sherbet. I resisted even tasting one of them!!!

I didn't do any Crossfit, but I did walk over 20,000 steps. Walked with Amy at lunchtime and then walked with Sam at night

First day of school, first day of Whole30

Yes, I have been saying it over and over, but I'm starting Whole30 again today.

I thought I would start on the day that the kids start school, I do much better when I am in a routine and we certainly haven't been in a routine all Summer.....

I'm doing it with a couple of other people, so maybe this will keep me focused. Anne is doing it with me again, she has been doing crossfit with me at home for a while and she is gluten-intolerant. Amy is also doing it, I work with her and we walked together on the Walk to Madrid team. Amy has celiac disease and so she should be pretty much paleo anyway. We will see how we will do just with the three of us. Amy hasn't done this before and I lent her It Starts With Food to read. She is really eager to get going and should keep us on track.

To try to keep me focused, I'm going to take photos of each meal I eat. Maybe that will remind me that I am supposed to be eating the right things for 30 days!!!!

Gearing up for 30 days

Although the Hatwig's 30 days started on August 1, Anne and I are starting tomorrow. I find it much easier to start on Monday when I'm in a routine and Anne knew she wouldn't do well because Megan was in town this weekend.  One of the things that they say NOT to do is to substitute foods-don't make regular foods with substituted paleo ingredients in them.  So, this means that yummy things like these zucchini muffins

and this paleo peach cobbler 

are off limits because even though they have paleo ingredients, they are fooling you into thinking you are eating regular food and that's OK.  Unfortunately, a lot of paleo proponents do exactly this and it's part of what helps me get through this diet.  I had made both of the above this week, guess I won't be making them for a while....
On the plus side, this fish and banana curry IS whole30 approved and one of the best paleo recipes I have made

The Hartwig's Whole30

Dallas and Melissa Hartwig (the people who wrote the Whole30) always do a challenge in August. I'm going to try to do it along with them this year. Anne is going to do it with me, but she wants to start next Monday and I have a friend that wants to start on August 12, so I have a couple of options in August. I may start with Anne on Monday because Ben has culinary camp this week and a great Mediterranean appetizer buffet on Friday. This time, I'm going to try really hard to stay on track and follow their advice more closely. They say you should not substitute regular foods with paleo alternatives. I'm really bad about doing that, especially with muffins etc. I know I need to drink more water and eat more protein. Let's hope I can do as well as I did the first time I did this....

My latest 30 day challenge

My paleo leader, Leeny, has decided to do an informal 30 day challenge and of course I jumped on it immediately.  It's not going to be a Whole30 challenge, but more an awareness of what we are eating.  Her introduction to it can be found here:
http://www.paleocurious.com/1/post/2013/07/the-paleo-awareness-challenge.html
It's amazing how she can write exactly what I feel or am doing.
I'm also going to use the Whole30 daily email support.  It's a really good way to know what you are feeling is normal.
https://daily.whole9life.com/email_images/pdf/whole30-goal-sheet-day-0.pdf
This is their Quick Start guide
http://whole9life.com/book/ISWF-Quick-Start-Guide.pdf