Logging on for a Whole30: Day 12

After my 2nd Sunday of cooking, I'm finding that part is kind of relaxing and am looking forward to that part of this weekend. I start thawing meat, turn on Pandora, clean up the kitchen to prepare for the impending disaster-zone, and everyone leaves me alone while I cook for a few hours. I think seeing how beneficial prepared meals are during the week lessens any blow to the amount of time devoted to all that cooking. I hope the past two weeks haven't been some sort of joyous fluke!

Today I'm eating/gonna eat:
Sweet potato casserole + Peter Rabbit Pumpkin, Carrot, and Apple squeeze pack thingy (yes, baby food!)
Egg-vacado salad lettuce wraps + plum
Homemade pizzas! Adult Recipe + kids will just get standard whole wheat crust because Littlest is allergic to nuts (adult recipe crust base), specifically almonds, and I'm not interested in making THREE different pizzas. Two, I can handle.

Logging on for a Whole30: Day 11, my gut is going insane

I ate almost a pound of sauerkraut for lunch today. And boooooy is my stomach using those natural probiotics to clean house! I made Reuben Roll-ups for lunch - slices of corned beef from the deli wrapped around some fancy Boar's Head Sauerkraut and then smothered with homemade paleo Russian dressing. My, oh my it was scrumptious! I was halfway through here and took this to brag to Husband. It worked.

#nofilter #badfoodporn #dohashtagsmatterinblogs ...?

Today I ate/am gonna eat:

Sweet potato, sausage, & spinach casser-ttata + espresso with coconut milk & pumpkin pie spice

3 Reuben Roll-ups

More Sweet potato casser-ttata for dinner!

Logging on for a Whole30: day 10, 1/3 of the way through!

Today marks my 33% milestone. Day 10 of 30; toot toot! I'm feeling pretty great and properly fueled for my long days, although they are mostly sedentary - what's great is I don't find myself needing a snack quite as soon after lunch, if at all. I haven't been taking any of my medications for 10+ days (really just because I forgot then realized I forgot THEN realized I was just fine anyways). 

Today I ate, or am gonna eat:
1.5 scotch eggs 
1/2 chicken breast + 5 lil meatballs + fauxtatoes
meatloaf + zucchini

Logging on for a Whole30: Days 6 - 9

The weekend came and went without much interest. I had a few "tests" that were either liquid or crunchy triangles. But more importantly, I did well - we tried a new restaurant, I relaxed at the pool without an alcoholic bev, and I doled out a few chocolate chips without popping a few myself :)

This weekend I ate:
Sat.- an omelette with sweet red peppers & onions, and hamburger patty with Wholly Guacamole, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. I ate a late breakfast and actually skipped lunch. 
Sun.- Scrambled eggs, pork carnitas & guacamole from a local place, and chicken for dinner.
Mon.-  Scotch eggs, meatloaf burger patty, chicken breast, mashed fauxtatoes, and eggplant. (SO good!)

Logging on for a Whole30: Day 5

Today is donut Friday at the office.

audible sigh.

I think I can still remember what the last donut I had tasted like. Being well aware of what today is I prepared by eating a little later than normal and getting a really big coffee so I wouldn't be hungry enough to be mad that donuts make me feel like shit.

Today's meal plan:
2 frittatas + venti black coffee (this will actually last me 3-4 days)
Leftover Thai beef, wrapped in lettuce + peach + avocado
Italian chicken Hot Plate from Well Fed + whichever veggies remaining that are cooked & sound appealing

Logging on for a Whole30: Day 4

The boy chose pizza for his birthday dinner last night (day 3).

Which I think is a quintessential choice for birthday dinners until about age 26 when you discover the wonder of grilled meat, vegetables and beer in your own backyard with friends.  His choice is admissible.

I survived another day, even though I didn't get the dinner that would've made my life a lotta bit easier. Stephen ordered a s'mores pizza for them and I secretly jumped for freaking joy when she said they were all out and remaining choices were not our-kid friendly. 

Today I ate:
2 Fritattas + cup of Morning Thunder black tea
Homemade chicken nuggets + brussels sprouts + sweet potato
Fuji apple + 2 hard boiled eggs
Thai beef dish (recipe below) + the LAST of the sweet potatoes (finally!)

Logging on for a Whole30: Day 3

I unsubscribed to Papa John's emails yesterday. Do you know what that means? It means I won't be getting any good deals on bad decisions. You know what I did yesterday that I kinda regret? Eating ground hamburger and then doing a high intensity workout. I did notice, however, that my burp count was waaaay down during class - that's significant. I ALSO realized that I haven't taken my stomach meds (ranitidine or something) for a week now - that's also a huge success. 

Today I ate:
1.5 fritattas (Josh said his was "too spinachy") + bison sausage patty + 1/4 of a banana with sunbutter + choked down 3 gulps of canned coconut milk
Ground beef + cauliflower + 1 avocado
Mediterranean Salmon Salad @ Brixx + homemade chicken nuggets (when I got home from bday dinner)

Logging on for a Whole30: Day 2

I made it through the night. It was a dark and stormy one, with lots of lightning (not metaphorically speaking, the constant lightning was actually very annoying) but here I am. In tact. I was planning to be in bed by 10:30/11 but once I realized my fancy you-should-go-to-bed-now-to-look-rested alarm* was still set to 7a instead of 6a, I turned my lamp off at 9:40 instead. 

Today I ate:
1 frittata + some sweet potatoes + brussels sprouts + coffee
Leftover chicken + sweet potatoes + brussels sprouts + olive oil
Ground beef/bison sausage mix + cauliflower for pre-workout
2 Hard boiled eggs + sauteed portabello mushrooms with coconut aminos (fancy!)
64oz water

Logging on for a Whole30: Day 1

The actual day one.

I'm actually doing the Whole30. Not planning to, not thinkin' 'bout it, not preparing for, not "waiting for my birthday to pass." Just doin the damn thing.

Today I ate:
2 frittatas + a bison sausage patty + coffee
Tuna Waldorf Salad + broccoli + 1/2 a peach
Chicken + 1/2 a sweet potato + brussels sprouts
Almost 64oz of water

Logging on for a Whole30: Day 0, The Planning!

Sunday was my day of planning. Almost all day I worked on a meal plan for 7 days = roughly 16-18 meals for an average of 3 people. It was kind of tough and overwhelming until I came across a tip in one of my new cookbooks, Well Fed 2: "don't try to be a recipe hero, just keep it simple for the first 1 or 2 weeks."

Oh, well NOW you mention that. But that's something I can do - mediocre, simple, easy, mindless, etc. hah! 

Logging On for a Whole30

At the beginning of the year, I decided to get my family "clean." I adopted a healthy, clean eating approach for us and honestly, it wasn't that difficult - there's a clean and/or GMO-free version of many icky stuffs found on the grocery store shelves: milk for almond milk, butter & veggie oil for coconut oil, white potatoes for sweet potatoes, boring ol'white pasta for whole grain brown pasta, honey for white sugar, and so on as blogger Chrissy Pollina points out in a (helpful) post in January this year. 

Eating clean was a good start; a start that was prompted after reading Michael Pollan's, "The Omnivore's Dilemma" earlier this year. We jumped on the organic train and started eating organic grass fed/finished beef, humanely sourced chicken, organic vegetables - you get the idea. We actually signed up with a local organization called Healthy Home Foods and purchased 6 months of food (there's a formula to figure this out) - meat, veggies, and fruit - to store in an upright freezer. We felt good about eating happy animals and even better about serving these clean foods to our children, family, and friends. It was a really good choice for us!

Let's fast forward 6 months...