Whole30 - Day 15

We just had our first away time while on this new diet. We were in Carmel. The best western had tons of carbs for breakfast, so I had an apple and an orange and some cashews that I brought from home. Then we ate at our favorite place there, Belle www.carmelbelle.com for two meals yesterday. I had the polenta with everything, except the polenta. :) Which was roasted tomatoes, stir fried mushrooms, a poached egg, to which I added another egg and a side of roasted asparagus. SO delicious, then for dinner, I had the rotisserie chicken, avocado and tomato salad with bacon, alas, hold the blue cheese. Also SO delicious.

I had an americano, which is an espresso with hot water. Not as bitter as black coffee and at least it warmed me and made me feel like I was having a little treat.

I miss cheese!!!!!! So much. You know it comes with almost everything on every menu and is the most delicious thing in the world. I see it in my future in a mere 15 more days.

I am also excited to start up again with cream for the coffee.

That's what I miss most. Not breads or crackers or cakes or muffins. Just cheese and cream. Also, butter.

We had our grocery shopping day today. I made nomnompaleo's AMAZING baked broccoli with bacon. I followed the recipe and used two heads of broccoli. The flavor of the bacon permeated all of the broccoli and I feel like I could eat all of it right now! But I won't as I want some for later. I am roasting some tomatoes in the oven for garnishes for the next week's egg and chicken dishes. I also made some delicious salsa for garnishes as well. This is a variation of a recipe from a friend of mine named Lilliana who is from Colombia. She makes this much every week and it is excellent on tacos and chips.

Salsa:

5 tomatoes - chopped tiny

1 sweet onion - chopped tiny

1/2 bunch cilantro - chopped

2 jalapenos - seeded and deveined and chopped

4 scallions - chopped tiny

Juice of 2 lemons

1 tsp of garlic powder

salt

vinegar - maybe 4 tablespoons, I used cider just because wine, and rice vinegars are not allowed, and I'm out of regular.

olive oil - maybe 4 tablespoons

I'll top my eggs with this as well as almost everything else this week. So delicious.

So, things are going well.

I'm still alert and awake all of the time. No sluggishness or drowsiness. Not sure about weight loss as I'm not allowed to weigh myself until the end, but I think maybe 3 pounds so far. Things seem tighter (not clothes, but areas of my body), I'm sure the CrossFit workouts are attributing to that too.

It is so strange to say no to yourself as often as this diet demands. I was walking through San Francisco with visiting family and I thought, hmmmmm, shall I have a latte at Starbucks? no What about some small cinnamon donuts from the pier? no What about some ice cream? no What about anything at all in this entire bakery? no. It gives you a sense of power, but then also can be frustrating. Power because you realize you are in control of what you eat and saying no isn't going to kill you. Frustration because isn't it just lovely to eat some ice cream or have a latte while walking around? It's just 30 days. Then I'll have to figure out what I can do next.

Whole 30-Day 9

My acupuncturist said I should eat one cup of brown rice a day after I told her all about the Whole30 diet. I was actually surprised, thinking that she would have other concerns about it. I have added the brown rice, but only that, and so it may not really be the Whole30 anymore, but if there is a baby that is more important. I feel though that I am still on it and am behaving that way except for the rice.

It is a lot of cooking. But I try to do a lot in advance for the week.

For Breakfast I made a fritata:

I chopped onion, red pepper and zucchini and stir fried them,

Then I added 6 beaten eggs and cooked it for a little bit and finished it off in the oven.

It's good with green tomatillo salsa on top.

It should last 4 days.

For Lunch I made chicken salad:

I used "Just Chicken" from Trader Joes

Chopped it small and added mayo and dijon mustard and tarragon

Then I dice an avocado half and put the chicken salad on top

I top with some reduced Balsalmic Vinegar and a few roasted cashews for crunch

It will last 4 days as well.

For Dinner I made chili:

With a recipe from theclothesmakethegirl.blogspot.com

It will last for 2 days for dinner for both husband and I, and probably an extra meal or two for myself or some to freeze.

What I've learned so far:

Make sure to eat as suggested before and after workouts, Tuesday and Friday were the only days that I've had a bit of a headache since starting the diet. I don't think I ate enough quickly enough after the workout and got a little weak.

Eat before leaving the house:

We were going to a couple fair type events this last weekend and I made sure that I had eaten enough before so that I would be full during and not crave all the things that weren't allowed. The day that I did not eat enough, I had a Lara bar (Cherry Pie, only has cherries, figs and pecans) but still was hungry. Fred and I split a sausage with onions and peppers. Of course my half didn't include the bun, but it kept me going until we could get to Chipotle :)

How I feel:

Awake and alert all of the time. It must be different from before or I wouldn't notice it right?

Whole30 - Day 5

I am trying to gauge how I am feeling differently as I am in day 5 of my Whole30 restricted diet journey.

I feel more alert, from the moment I wake up, and throughout the day. I have more energy and pep and get bored faster and like to move more.

My stomach feels good, never too full or heavy feeling, but satisfied and satiated until the next meal, usually about 4-5 hours.

I did have some headaches on Tuesday and I think it was because even though I ate until I was satisfied for breakfast and lunch, overall it wasn't enough food to fill me up. It turns out I have to go a little past full if I have some engagement that will keep me from eating for a 4 hour chunk of time.

The ingredient thing definitely takes some research, it turns out that the mayo I'm using has soybean oil and the roasted cashews have some rice oil. I'm going to make some of my own mayo for the future and watch those ingredients more closely while shopping.

I do worry that I will forget about the diet and accidentally pop something into my mouth.

It is also two days after my first official Crossfit exercise routine at Crossfit Palo Alto. Wow, I can't think of a muscle group that wasn't used. It is all sore.

I fully agree with their philosophy of getting fit using movements that are part of daily life and not isolating certain muscles and working them in a way that won't happen naturally. So, no crunches happened but my obliques are feeling fully exercised from the other stuff we did.

It was interesting watching my stamina in relation to the other women in the class. I sure felt like a wimp and that I let myself give up and stop way too easily. Many of them pushed themselves much harder and were much more sweaty and exhausted looking afterwards than I was. I need to be more committed to give it my all when I'm there.

I think someday I'll start my own blog of foods and recipes I've made so that the blog can be more useful than just as a journal for myself.

I did have chicken salad over avocado a number of times for lunch this week:

Chicken Salad:

Shredded cooked chicken - I used Trader Joe's "Just Chicken" from the refrigerated section

Dijon Mustard - Mix in a bit

Mayo - Mix in until desired consistency

Dried Tarragon - Add

I made up a bunch and then used it over three days for lunch putting it over a diced avocado half and then drizzling it with a little balsalmic vinegar.

Whole30 - Day 2

Yesterday was my first day on the Whole30 diet. It was an eating out all day type of day, as Sunday's usually are for us.

At Chipotle I had: The Salad Bowl, with lettuce, chicken, steak, salsa, guacamole and fajita vegetables. Quite Tasty.

At the Mediterranian Grill: I had Chicken, tomato and cucumber salad, baba ganoush, and some pickles and radishes. Also yummy.

It was nice to know that in the evening I could have had a nice cup of tea, but I wasn't hungry for it, so skipped it.

I stayed full between meals for about 4-6 hours.

Today is Day 2.

Food:

I tried a recipe for bacon and strawberries http://www.tabatathis.com/?p=423 which was very tasty but felt like it had a lot of fat in it. I drained a bit but my stomach feels a little heavy.

For lunch I will make a simple chicken salad and put it in an avocado.

I figure for snacks I can have an apple or a banana with some almond butter on top.

For dinner we are going to have steak and a sweet potato salad from my Moosewood cooks at home Cookbook.

I had coffee with almond milk in it, which isn't too terrible. I do miss my little teaspoon of sugar.

Feel:

At the end of yesterday I felt good, the kind of full that is pleasant, leaves me not craving anything.

Whole30 - Intro

My last entry was about the weight watchers. Well, we've had a couple of trips since then, to New York, Home for the Holidays, and Hawaii! My weight crept back up a little bit and those last 5 pounds I've been trying to get rid of won't seem to go a way.

I exercise a lot and most everything seems to be trim-ish and not too bad looking. But it is so frustrating to feel like I am following the rules to Weight Watchers and am still staying exactly the same plus or minus one pound. Actually I've gained 2 pounds since the return from Hawaii.

So, I decided to try something else. I read the great book "Women, Food and God" TWICE it was so informative.

I got a lot from the guidelines at the end of the book and since reading it have stopped weight watchers counting and have been trying to just eat what my body wants when it wants it. And most importantly not to eat past being full. (Maybe not so surprisingly, I eat a very similar amount to when I was on Weight Watchers. It's just nice not to keep count of everything and to try to listen to my body.)A more mindful eating approach. I don't want to ruin it for you, I SO suggest reading the book. It made me think so much about how much I eat and why.

I thought that would help with the last 5 pounds, but nope. Here they still are, mocking me. I was finally to the point that I thought, "Well, I guess this is the weight I'm supposed to be, and I should learn to be happy with it."

Then I went to a Crossfit location in Palo Alto, as an introductory class, with a friend from my bible study. They mentioned nutrition as such an important base for good fitness and said they use the Whole9 eating program. I went to the website, curious, and found a pretty strict paleo diet suggestion for 30 days. They call it the Whole30. After reading the testimonials and giving it some thought, I decided to try it.

Let me say that I love LOVE dairy products and have tried a few times before to cut back on them and have not been successful.

This 30 day diet weans you from many food groups and you see how you feel afterwards and decide what you want to reintroduce based on the way your body feels after being free from that food group and the way it feels after reintroducing it.

It is nice that it is 30 days only and when I think about what I am missing, I know that I can have that item again real soon. I wonder, based on the testimonials though, if I will want the foods I am taking out when I'm done with the month.

The plan:

No sugar of any kind - real or fake

No alcohol

No grains - including corn and whole grains

No dairy - of any kind, including butter

No legumes - including peanuts

No white potatoes

No processed foods

It seems very similar to the Atkins diet, except without any fruit restrictions. Not that I've ever done the Atkins diet. So, of course I have all of the concerns I've heard related to that diet. What about the lack of carbs? Will I get headaches? Can my body still work well without grains? Aren't all three, Proteins, Fats, and Carbohydrates needed? Of course there are some carbs in nuts, and fruits, which I'll still eat.

I was thinking though, regarding grains, which is my only health issue with this. Of course lots of people all over the world live without dairy and they are fine. We all know sugar and alcohol aren't good. But what about grains? Most Americans eat white processed grains, white bread, white rice etc... Those have no nutrients at all. So, isn't not eating them about the same as eating them? And isn't not eating them making more room in my stomach for more vegetables, fruits and meat? Which do have nutrients.

I also read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" which had me fully convinced that the Atkins diet was based on great scientific research and is the best way to retain muscle while dieting and is also a great lifestyle way to eat.

So, I'm giving it a try.