Amusing MJ

I started a Whole 30 two weeks ago and thought I’d blog about my experience.  If you missed it, you can find last week’s recap here.

Day 8 (Tuesday) This whole process is starting to be more routine (although I still haven’t mastered making breakfast and getting to work on time).  I did my first run for the half marathon training, I was supposed to do 3, but only got in 2.5 because it was still 100+ degrees when I ran.  I ate leftover spaghetti with spaghetti squash for both lunch and dinner, but since it was delicious I didn’t mind.  Before this whole process I wasn’t much of a leftovers fan, but since it keeps me from having to cook a full meal EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, I’m becoming a bigger fan. My husband and I are still working on finishing up the renovation project at church, so that is occupying my time.  I still haven’t gotten to the boundless energy levels that they keep talking about with the whole 30, but I am not exhausted either.

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs

Lunch: Leftover Spaghetti on Spaghetti Squash ‘noodles’

Dinner: Leftover Spaghetti on Spaghetti Squash ‘noodles’

Day 9 (Wednesday) I tweaked my back working on the stage Sunday, but working on the stage last night again just made it angrier.  I went to the Dr. to make sure I didn’t pinch a nerve or do something worse to it, but he says it is just muscular.  I was adamant that I can’t take muscle relaxers because they knock me out, but he thought a very low dose of the weakest medicine would do the trick… he was wrong.  It knocks me out AND isn’t strong enough to make my back pain cease.  Oh well… lesson learned. Because of that, my workout routine has been put on hold a bit. I’m hoping the pain will go away by Saturday so I can get my first long run in for the half marathon training.  Foodwise it was a pretty good day. I made guacamole from scratch and taco seasoning from scratch.  I found a recipe for a bunch of spices to mix for taco seasoning, but I didn’t have red pepper flakes, so I just substituted cayenne for the whole half teaspoon of it. That might have been a mistake! The taco meat was SPICY (but still delicious).  We just had a bed of romaine lettuce, taco seasoned ground beef, with guacamole on top.  YUMMM.

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

Lunch: Grilled Chicken on spinach salad with avocado.

Dinner: Paleo Taco Salad

Day 10 (Thursday)

Today was a rough day; I kind of knew it would be because of what I have scheduled.  Tonight I went to a Pie Night at my brother’s house.  Our worship service at church has been hosting these at my brother’s house (he’s the preacher) several nights this week to help people get to know each other and feel more connected.  If you see day 3 on last week’s post, I (I use that term loosely) had previously made four pies to serve for them. And the Whole 30 timeline says days 10 and 11 are usually the worst because you’ve done this long enough to be tired of it, but haven’t seen the results of your hard work yet.  For me at least, I’m already seeing the results: I’ve lost 8 lbs (you aren’t supposed to weigh yourself… shhhh), and I am feeling less sluggish.  However I get the emotion that you feel like you have done so well, but you are ONLY 1/3 of the way through.  That last two thirds seems kinda like forever.  But still I would have given my right arm to be able to eat a huge slice of pie last night with my brother’s homemade whipped cream.  And in the spirit of full honesty, I gave in and had a bite of pie.  It was less than quarter sized and I stopped after that, but it was glorious… and oh so worth it.  It also gave me the motivation to keep going on this whole ordeal.  I am proud of myself, I am getting better at cooking and it will be worth it to be healthier (and that tiny little bite of pie didn’t hurt me a bit).

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and a Banana

Lunch: Grilled Chicken breast with avocado, an apple and some almonds

Dinner: Nom Nom Paleo’s Kahlua Pig and mashed sweet potatoes with cinnamon

Day 11 (Friday)

I’m feeling a renewed energy in completing this Whole 30.  Watching other people eat things I crave is hard, but I’m still glad I’m doing this.  I’m geared up to survive another weekend on the Whole 30.  My family was in town, so we went out to eat for dinner.  I chose Mexican food (I do live in Texas… so they are on EVERY corner) because I thought I could have fajitas without the tortillas and cheese.  So I just ate the chicken with onions and guacamole… and it was great! I really didn’t miss the tortilla.  A few weeks ago I would have said my self-control did not extend to sitting in front of a bowl of tortilla chips and guacamole and not partaking, but I survived! (I am pretty sure Mi Cocina doesn’t cook in 100% Whole 30 approved oils, but being social is more important to me than staying strictly Whole 30, so I let it slide).

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Grapes

Lunch: Leftover Pork Roast and Sweet Potatoes and an Apple

Dinner: fajitas with onions and guac but without cheese and the tortilla.

Day 12 (Saturday)

For the first time in a long time I have a mostly free weekend, so I spent today relaxing and catching up on errands, since I’d cooked most of the week I had a ton of leftovers, so I just had leftovers for lunch and then we made our paleo taco salad for dinner (my husband loved that meal).  Reese is an Aggie and they played Alabama today, so we went to a friend’s house to watch the game.  Fortunately they had a fruit and veggie tray… unfortunately they had BOTH a cookie cake and chips and queso (my favorite!!).  It was killer to sit and watch a football game without any of my ‘traditional’ comfort foods, but I stuck to the fruit and veggies, giving myself a break on the ‘no snacking’ rule… if I’d have not had anything I’d have broken down and had a giant piece of cookie cake by the end of the (oh so brutal) game.

Breakfast: Eggs and grapes

Lunch: Leftover Pork Roast and sweet potatoes with cinnamon

Snack: Watermelon, mango, carrots, carrots, more carrots

Dinner: Taco Salad

Day 13 (Sunday):

I’ve gotten into a routine of getting up in the morning, scrambling my eggs in coconut oil, eating, and then washing my dishes.  So far I’m not sick of scrambled eggs, but I’m going to have to come up with another alternative soon in case I do.  I came home from church and mixed up another chicken salad (shredded chicken from the crock pot, celery, almonds, mayo, grapes).  It was another good lazy day; we spent most of it by the pool at my brother’s house.  Tonight I went to a Senior Style show for one of the girls in my covenant group.  I had forgotten that it was a sit down dinner, so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to eat anything, and then I would just be rude since they had paid for my plate! But lucky me… the salad was served without dressing and the main course was chicken with a butter sauce, but the butter sauce was put on the table, so I just ate mine without.  I was feeling pretty good about my self-control… and then they served cake.  Now if you haven’t figured out, desserts are my weakness.  I LOVE desserts… the more chocolate the better.  And fitting with their theme of Mint/Meant to Be it was chocolate cake layered with chocolate mint mousse.  I couldn’t resist. So for the second time in my Whole 30 I blatantly cheated, but like last time, I had ONE bite and quit.  I passed the dessert on to my girls who happily finished off mine as well, because like I said: DELICIOUS. (and yes… that one bite was TOTALLY worth it.)

Breakfast: Eggs with grapes

Lunch: Chicken salad

Dinner: roasted chicken, asparagus, salad (without dressing)

Day 14 (Monday):

Today starts my hardest stretch.  Twice a month I travel for 3-4 days for work.  Today starts my first stretch of travel.  For this trip I do a 7 hour round trip to Kansas.  Normally my routine is to pick up a fountain Dr. Pepper at my first stop to help me stay awake on my drive, so I knew that no DP was going to be a struggle on the drive.  Add to it that I needed to be in Kansas extra early so I woke up at 5am to drive… and I am NOT a morning person. Since it was so early, I didn’t make any breakfast and just grabbed a LARABAR.  BTW… those things are not good.  They taste like the inside of a fig newton… without the delicious outer crust.  But I knew there would be no breakfast type things on the road I could eat.  I’d also packed a cooler with my leftover chicken salad, some fruit and my coconut oil and ghee so I would be able to cook at my parent’s house. I thought I was pretty prepared.  I WAS WRONG.  I’m not sure if it was waking up so early that threw me off or the fact that I didn’t make my normal eggs for breakfast and I was low on protein, but I was STARVING on my drive.  I’d eaten an apple, but it wasn’t holding off the hunger, and I knew I needed to make it to Kansas so I could eat my chicken salad for lunch.  I stopped at a gas station (one of the bigger travel stops since they have a better selection of snacks) and found NOTHING that was Whole 30 friendly.  I did finally settle on some roasted almonds with sea salt.  The only thing maybe taboo about them is Sunflower oil.  I’m not really sure where that lands on the Whole 30 approved scale, but decided desperate times called for desperate measures.  (And my cell phone didn’t get any signal in rural Oklahoma, so I couldn’t Google that.)  The almonds delayed my hunger until I got to Kansas and could have my chicken salad.  When in Kansas I usually stay with my parents (good for Whole 30 since I have a kitchen to cook in!) and one night at my grandmothers.  Tonight I am staying at my grandmother’s for the evening.  We brought her some chicken and noodles from one of her favorite restaurants in Salina.  I was all set to eat my chicken salad for another meal, but it didn’t sound very good.  I decided to boil a couple of eggs and eat them with ghee on top. Today was definitely a rough day on the whole 30, but I learned some important things about travelling while doing this Whole 30 thing… mostly… DON’T SKIP BREAKFAST!

Breakfast: Lara Bar, Apple

Snack: Roasted Almonds

Lunch: Chicken Salad, carrots

Dinner: Two hardboiled eggs, cantaloupe, peaches