Whole 30 - Day 5

Day 5 

You know that scene in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.. the one with Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman.... they make it out of the water and onto the beach and he kisses the sand?   Mouth full of salty sea water, can't lift arms, crawling on hands and knees with the waves smacking you onto the beach,  collapse and kiss the ground. You've made it!! 
That's me today. I am so excited I have made it 5 days! I woke this morning feeling COMPLETELY different than yesterday. I wasn't mad, or hungry and I had plenty of energy. I am confused. Oh well. Cheers! 
Breakfast was another omelet. Spinach, onion and salt/pepper with 1/2 banana and some blueberries on the side. 

Lunch I thought I would be a little adventurous and try something odd. I happen to love the Shewman Special at Scotty's. The one where they put peanut butter on the burger. Sounds crazy and it is. Crazy good!! So I took out my frozen turkey burgers, some onion, lettuce, almond butter and then I thought hmmm pineapple, why not?! So I added that too. 

This was pretty good all except it was a little watery so I think I would definitely grill the pineapple first. 

So lets back this thing up to yesterday. Ahhh yesterday. 

Brad came home with a look on his face I can only describe as 

Poor Brad. This is way harder for him than me. He works in an office much like many of you, where they bring in donuts, cake, pop, cookies, and pizza. Yesterday was a coworker's last day so pizza was delivered and worst of all, Carrot cake. Brad said to me, "Do you know how hard it is to say no to carrot cake? CARROT CAKE HANNAH!"  So lets all take a minute to applaud Brad. I would have had to leave the premises. He also told me that today they went out to lunch where he got a salad and brought his own dressing but they left the croutons on and he had to pick off all 15 croutons. Again, he yelled and exclaimed, "15 CROUTONS HANNAH!"     Oh the humanity!!

Well I was obviously not in the best mood so I felt like I could use some starch. Potatoes are allowed. Potatoes were calling my name. What goes well with potatoes? Meatloaf. So I searched out a paleo, Whole30 compliant Meatloaf recipe. You can find that here, 

http://www.livehealtheasy.com/2013/12/sweet-potato-meatloaf.html 

You actually add in a mashed sweet potato plus some flax seed meal, Italian seasoning, garlic, onion and egg. I could have gone for a little less flax and italian seasoning but the hubs said it was "so tasty" so whatever right?

As for the potatoes... Oh I pan fried those bad boys in some olive oil with a little salt and pepper (Salt, salt, salt and peppa's here!) 

I think this is just what I needed. I inhaled this! 

So today is definitely the best day thus far. I even felt so good that I was like Oh I could do yoga today or maybe even some cardio but then I was like....

I figure that I should just focus on getting through this week and as I gradually feel better I will look at exercising again. Look, I'm usually the kind of person who will try to convince you to whatever I'm doing so that you will be doing it with me but let me just say this. This program requires a lot of planning and prepping. You need to clear out pantries, buy lots of food and plan. You need to make sure you don't have a bunch of social gatherings to attend. Lastly, you need to prepare yourself for whats ahead. You are removing a lot of things from your diet. Sugar is a huge one. That sneaky snake is absolutely everything. Seriously, check your labels. I'm not lying. 

It is tough. I encourage people to do this program but I just want to be transparent here. I would ease into this with maybe a week or two of clean eating by removing a majority of junk and THEN go into this. Unless you're just up for the challenge then go for it. 

I do not want to show you a picture of me BUT I took a picture of my stomach on Monday when I began the program and today at Day5. This is NOT a drastic difference but if you look at the front of my stomach it has already smoothed out. As I said in yesterday's post, I don't feel bloated and my clothes fit better. 

Like I said, it's not drastic but it's something. I'll take anything at this point. 

Enjoy the weekend. Till next time.

-Hannah

Whole 30 - Day 3 "Kill ALL things!"

Day 3

Reader beware. I am cranky. I'll start this post by showing you this

Can you read that? It says "Kill ALL the things!"   This is especially true for me today. I am writing this to be honest about my experience. I think this program is great but that doesn't mean that I don't have bad days. I would say that last night and today have been rough. You know that feeling you have once your hangover starts to pass but you're still slightly hungover? Or when you have had the flu for 4 days and then you are finally able to eat real food but your stomach isn't quite ready? This is the best comparison I can give you. My stomach isn't completely on the fritz but its not normal and I just don't feel great overall. At least they tell you this is normal. Mostly from all the binge eating we did last weekend. 

Brad woke up this morning in a much better mood compared to yesterday. Me...not so much. I was hungry but didn't really want to eat and just plain pissed off. Just keeping it real people. Today is an ugly day. I want my coffee with hazelnut creamer, I want to go to Panera and get a baguette and broccoli and cheddar soup. I'm throwing a tantrum. 

Never the less, we press on! 

Ok- enough of that. Lets recap yesterday. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to make but I landed on this...

If you're saying Oh that looks good! You are correct! Spinach, chicken, walnuts, pecans, raspberries, a few mint leaves all with a olive oil, apple cider vinegar and lemon juice. It was delicious. 

I was again, unsure about dinner but I kept seeing burgers with pesto so we made turkey burgers with pesto and green beens. I mixed up the meat with diced onion and a little garlic powder and cooked it in coconut oil. 

The pesto... well I've never made pesto before and I pretty much made this up. I did some spinach, parsley, walnuts,olive oil, garlic - I think that was it? I honestly can't remember. I don't measure things out often :/  It was tasty though. 

We put it on top of the burgers along with a little Paleo mayo. 

Although that is a lot of green and doesn't look too good, it was very good. 

Today I wasn't sure what to make for breakfast. I woke up starving! I never wake up hungry like this. It was odd. I loved the blueberry and egg frittata that I made the other morning so I went back to that. After I snapped this pic I also cut up half a banana and put that on top. Even better!

If you haven't made this yet... Why?? It's delicious!  So again I was multi tasking and cooking chicken for Brad's lunch and helping get his meal packed. He settled on another Chicken salad with paleo mayo for dressing, fruit salad and nuts. It goes without saying that I'm extremely proud of him. 

                 

I realized that we were out of meat and quite a few other things so after I fed that cute baby we headed off for some Krogering. 

Is this not the cutest little Krogerer you've ever seen?!? She kills me. 

Well we went through and replenished everything we were out of and grabbed some things that we didn't have like Organic Sunflower seed butter and almond butter, Organic frozen turkey burger and organic frozen chicken strips so that we always have meat ready to go. I searched and searched and searched for sausage and or bacon so that we could make some breakfast casserole but guess what? Everything has SUGAR. I mean EVERYTHING!!! Cane sugar, sugar, maple syrup etc etc.. Grrrrr!!!!

So we may go back into town to visit Bloomingfoods to see if they have any but for now we are fully stocked with all the other stuff we need. Even got some Lara bars that are Whole30 approved! 

Despite my clear tone of "This freaking sucks today", lets talk about a few positives:

My skin is clear, I'm not bloated and clothes fit better already.

They say getting through the first week is rough. I would have to agree. All my food tastes good but I think my body is just trying to figure out what the heck is going on. I shouldn't be complaining. I drank a shake for two meals of the day for 90 DAYS just a few years ago. This is actually eating food food! I can hold a grudge for 30 days, but I may die at the end of 4 days into this. Just kidding. Honestly I just need to let this out and I think I'll feel better. I know I won't be complaining 26 days from now when I've lost weight, have great energy and know how to cook with only 3 ingredients. I mean, after March comes April, May,then BAM! June is here and my bikini looks like it should fit my daughter better than me. Not happening folks. Not happening! 

Alright, wish me luck and patience and all that good stuff. 

- Hannah

Whole 30 - Day 3

DAY 3 

Sooo tired, Can't lift head off pillow, Shuffle feet down the hallway..................

I'm sure that's what you expect me to say, right? Well surprisingly enough, I am awake, energetic (even after getting up several times with that teething baby of mine) and I feel good. 
I expected to feel a little more like this by now,

"I'll just snort it" ( still laughing) 

OK- So where did we leave off? Dinner for last night. I wasn't sure what to make actually. Brad and I realized we still had a lot of our Italian Pork Roast left. So we decided on pork fajitas, or something like it. I started by putting some coconut oil, and ghee into a pan on medium heat, added some salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder and red pepper flakes ( it just sounded right). Then I added my onions and bell peppers. I always like to cook onions until they are translucent. So I cooked that for a few minutes and then just added the remainder of the pork. Put it all on a bed of romaine lettuce and done! 

                   

I've been told that this blog is difficult for people to read while at work once they pull out their Lean Cuisine so I recommend just as I can no longer watch my beloved Pioneer Woman ( So much butter and heavy cream and sugar, Oh the sugar)  in the middle of the day, that you don't stare at this food porn unless you have a well prepared lunch in front of you :)

Another recommendation: For those of you now thinking you will begin your own Whole30 journey... I forgot to mention this in my first post. You should plan plan plan. This includes purging your kitchen of all non Whole30 items. We boxed ours up and put away in another room and we actually gave some family members fridge items that were unopened like cottage cheese and cheese sticks. Out of sight, out of mind. Trust me, it helps!

Now that we had used our meal prepped food we had to make some more. While we watched Pretty Little Liars (Don't judge me. It is a great show) last night I took some organic chicken tenders and put into the crock pot with just 1/2 cup of water and some salt and pepper and cooked on low. Before bed I pulled that out and into some tupperware. 

This morning for breakfast I made an egg, onion and spinach omelet. It was so good. 

While I waited for that to cook I was making a chicken salad for Brad to take for lunch. I cut up some more bell pepper, onion, spinach and romaine lettuce, added the chicken on top and put some Paleo Mayo into a separate small container for him to use as his dressing. 

Notice my "I like my cream and sugar with a touch of coffee" sign? Not today. I again had my coffee with a little unsweetened canned coconut milk and cinnamon. I really do love this now. 

I've also started drinking some hot tea in addition to my water throughout the day. I drink Mothers Milk tea ( for the babes) and I have a stash of Yogi brand tea that I've been picking from. I've been drinking those as is but of course you could add...wait for it... canned unsweetened coconut milk. 

For lunch today I will probably make the same salad I made for Brad. I haven't got to dinner just yet. I will probably be on Pinterest and www.theclothesmakethegirl.com  to pick something out. 

Those of you wondering if I am hungry. I am not. I eat enough at each meal to make sure of that. I haven't had to snack yet but if I do I will do the same thing Brad has been doing. We have a plethora of nuts and fruit that I can quickly pull together. 

If there are any questions I can help answer please place in comments below. 

Until next time, Make good choices :)

-Hannah

Whole 30- Day 2 The Walking Dead

Day 2

Get ready...this is hard to believe... Brad is still breathing!
 Remember when I said that I'm not sure his poor soul will survive these 30 days? Well he isn't the happiest camper but he still on board even after a day of no sugar. If you're a Walking Dead fan, this morning Brad looked similar to a Walker searching for his next meal.  ;)  Just kidding. I do think this is hitting him a little harder than me though.   I think I am doing pretty well. No headache or super tired feeling yet. 

So going back to yesterday, a quick recap, I had fruit for breakfast and Chocolate Chili for lunch. I lot of you have asked about this recipe so here is the link again for that, http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2009/02/22/my-favorite-chili-recipe/
I absolutely loved it. I plan on having that again for lunch today. Perfect for those of you who don't care for beans in your chili because on Whole30 you can't have legumes. 

Alright, so onto dinner last night. I told you that we had dry roast Italian Pork Roast and that it smelled amazing... well it tasted even better. I never knew that you could roast pork without water or broth or any other thing you would add. This recipe called for garlic and some seasoning and that was it. You actually cut into the pork and dug the garlic cloves into it. The meat was so tender and it almost tasted like it had butter in it but we all know that there was no way that was in there.
 R.I.P. Butter :(
Here is the link for that recipe, http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/10/16/slow-cooker-italian-pork-roast/
For a side I made carrots and green beans. I blanched them which basically means that you put in boiling water for a few minutes and then remove. I think I did about 5 minutes. Then I had a skillet with olive oil and about 1.5 tablespoons of Ghee (your butter substitute) some garlic powder and a few dashes of balsamic vinegar. I heated that all while the vegetables were being blanched and then added those veggies to the oil and sautéed that for several minutes. I think I went around 10 minutes but it would just depend on how you prefer it. 
The result was soft but not mushy, very tasty veggies. The meal was delicious and we made sure to eat enough that we would be full and wouldn't be craving those sugar free fudge pops that are still in our fridge! Damn those things!

Now on to today... Again I had my coffee with a little unsweetened canned coconut milk and cinnamon. I was asked why the carton coconut milk isn't allowed and it looks like the carton has carrageenan in it which isn't allowed.  I'm really starting to like my coffee like this. Those of you who need to kick the Coffee Mate, Baileys, and International Delight habit, I encourage you to give this a go. If you really want motivation you can read this article,  http://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2012/07/why-we-stopped-drinking-coffee-creamer/ - One person's experience with why they stopped drinking coffee creamer. I won't get on my own soap box.. I'll link you to someone else's :)   
OK - Breakfast! Now I knew with the mood that hubby was in that he needed a good breakfast 
( yesterday the baby slept in so I did too which meant I didn't make him breakfast which equals a banana for him and well, that will hold him over for an hour) Today I wanted to make something I had seen on a few websites and on Pinterest ( another lifesaver for this program). 

At first I thought that this looked extremely odd but the more I read the description I did agree with the article, "Blueberries and eggs were meant to be together"

So I set out my ingredients and started cooking. This does require a little patience and skill as you have to flip it onto a plate and then back onto the pan. 

The end result was beautiful.  It smelled wonderful! Blueberries, egg, cinnamon, a very small amount of pepper, coconut oil, tiny amount of ghee... It almost tasted like french toast. Totally serious! I also cut up an apple, drizzled a little coconut milk over it with some cinnamon ( I love cinnamon and its great for your metabolism FYI) and put those on the side. *Note- apples are almost as good if not better at waking you up than a cup of joe :) 

I really should have taken a picture of our plates at the end because Brad ate the whole thing. That's my test to know if it was good. 

So chili for lunch again and I think I may grill some chicken, sauté some bell pepper and onion, dash of what not here and there and add to a bed of lettuce = chicken salad/fajitas?  I'm just gonna roll with  it. 

A few extras: I made Paleo Mayo yesterday because what I have been told and read is that you can add this to just about anything and also use as salad dressing etc. So here is the recipe, 

http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2010/06/03/the-secret-to-homemade-mayo-patience/

A few ingredients at ROOM TEMP, very important, and SLOWLY blend and wah lah!

Well, wish me luck! According to Whole30.com  today is,

I think this was more true for Brad than it was for myself but we shall see. Until next time..

- Hannah 

Whole 30- Day 1

WHOLE 30

A couple’s journey through Whole 30- Day 1

Let me just preface this with a few things. Yes, I majored in Journalism in college and yes I love to write. Here comes the shocking part… I suck at grammar. I don’t pay attention to where commas should and shouldn't be or if I began a sentence with a preposition. So before you start reading this and cringe at every grammatical misstep, please just look at this as a diary. I have a baby who demands my attention 95% of the day and 3 dogs who believe they are babies who need 95% of my attention so I am lucky if I get a shower let alone to write a blog post. There. I have said all that now lets get to the good stuff. 

Why are we doing this? Well there are a few reasons. 1. I just had a baby and need to lose the weight 2. Brad has Crohns disease which means we really should be much more careful with our diets than we have been 3. We used to eat fairly well and sometime after marriage and real jobs we fell off the wagon- Actually we fell off, tried to get back on several times but just ended up dragging behind it for a few years now. SO I decided I had had enough. We are overweight, tired, and don’t feel good. We kept saying we would eat better and kind of did but then ultimately didn't so it was game time. Whole 30 it is! As they say on whole30.com, This is not hard. Birthing a baby is hard but drinking your coffee black is not hard and we can do this! However, Brad does believe that he will die without peanut butter, pop, and cheese. We shall see if his poor soul makes it through these treacherous 30 days.  

Upon deciding that we were doing Whole 30 last Wednesday, I spent several days going through whole30.com and other sites preparing lists of what to buy, what to make etc etc. Luckily www.whole30.com provides you with everything that you need ( For FREE). It has shopping lists, dos and don’ts, recipes, FAQs and so on. Brad went to the store while I attended a baby shower. He bought a LOT of groceries. He came home and started cooking our meals for Week 1 according to www.theclothesmakethegirl.com . This chick outlines absolutely  everything for your Whole 30 journey. Which is awesome because starting out you really don’t know what to do. She has you start up your crock pots, oven and stove and you are actually cooking about 5 meals at once   http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2013/12/29/whole30-2014-week-1-meal-plan/

When I walked in the house it smelled SO delicious. I came into the kitchen to find Brad scurrying around blaring Mumford and Sons, garlic and onion on the floor, and spices spilled on the counter. I could have said, “Omg you’re making a mess!”( because he was) but I came home and it was almost done and I didn’t have to do it so I shut my mouth :)  

Once we had cooked what we needed we put it into Tupperware containers and went to bed. I am pretty sure that I dreamt about today. I had dreams about what I was eating and telling people about Whole 30. I think this was my brain preparing my body for today. Now I can’t really tell you what Brad always eats for breakfast and lunch because its a bit of a whirlwind when he is leaving for work in the morning but I know he eats breakfast and packs his lunch for the day. I started my day by weighing myself since you can’t weigh throughout the program I needed my starting weight and no, I will not tell you what it was. Then I began breakfast with my coffee. Thank goodness they allow this because my baby is teething and cranky pants and this momma needs her coffee!! I added a little of some canned unsweetened coconut milk and sprinkled some cinnamon on top. It actually was pretty tasty. I have drank my coffee black when I’m out of my oh so magical yet horrible for you Coffee Mate creamer so this wasn’t too bad. For my breakfast I cut up a banana, added some blueberries and coconut milk and cinnamon. That my friends, was very tasty. Probably adding that to my “Go To” list but maybe include some coconut flakes or nuts as well.  

Lunch, I am eating our Paleo Chocolate Chili that we made last night. Chocolate chili??? What? I know! I read that and thought, yeah right! Well it’s not actually Chocolate chili but it has cocoa in it. Here’s a link to that recipe from theclothesmakethegirl.com 

http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2009/02/22/my-favorite-chili-recipe/

Let me just tell you that when I lifted the lid on the crock pot to see if it was done I was smacked in the face with the most amazing smelling chili. And it is! 

For dinner tonight I will be taking our Italian Pork Roast that we made last night and adding some steamed veggies. I would have done pork carnitas on lettuce wraps but the hubs forgot a few items at the store. No big deal :) 

Well the baby is about to get up from her nap which means I am out of time. I will be back at it tomorrow morning. 

- Hannah