Whole30: Day 11

I woke up on Day 11 feeling like a dog with its tail between its legs, because I had a dream that I binged on beer and ice cream at a bar. *sigh* I have to remember that this is still a big change from where I was a couple of weeks ago, so I’m going to slip from time to time…in my dreams, apparently. I’m so glad that I didn’t break this promise to myself in real life!

Day 11 was uneventful as far as actual eating was concerned. I’ve been laying low and sticking to what I prepared on Monday. So, breakfast was the same as the day before (spaghetti squash, tomatoes, turkey) and lunch was a haphazard combination of kombucha, cashews, dried mango, and butternut squash soup. That’s not my most prized meal – in fact, I don’t even think it counts as a meal. I wasn’t very hungry, and I was working a lot. There’s no such thing as a perfect Whole30, right?

For dinner I made this masterpiece Whole30 feast:

Roasted beets, a fried egg on a bed of spinach, roasted chicken with roasted red pepper sauce topped with capers, and sweet potato soup. WOW. I was so full and so satisfied after this meal!

The best part of yesterday happened early on in the day. Whole30 reposted my Non Scale Victory photo on their Instagram account!!! And not only did I gain a bunch of followers who are kind enough to support me on this journey, but I also got to see positive comments from people who were either inspired by the #NSV or who had similar experiences. Here’s the post:

The coolest part about this post was that people were so kind in the comments:

Holy cow! People are inspired by me? Wow! I had no idea that posting a picture on Instagram could inspire people to get back on the Whole30 train…Or perhaps I know that better than anyone else, since I discovered the Whole30 on Instagram!

The best comment of the day came from @mrsforbes on a post on my page from a couple of weeks ago. I guess she probably found me after the post on the Whole30 Instagram. This really warmed my heart:

I have been feeling pretty exhausted lately, so I crashed last night. My boyfriend and I went out to a bar to celebrate his new job, and the only thing I could get there aside from water was coffee. Luckily it helped me get through a few hours of socializing while beautiful drinks and pretzels and fries were all around me…I do look forward to having those sorts of treats again when this is over.

Another little note: the ring I wear on my right hand has been sliding around a lot lately. 🙂 It hasn’t done that in years!

Whole30: Day 9

Being back home is the bomb dot com. Being in control of my own food intake feels like the biggest blessing after having to ask awkward questions while ordering in a restaurant. Antagonizing over a menu and then picking the least exciting (but potentially most nutritious) meal at dinner is not my favorite activity.

After seriously sleeping in and witnessing the first snow of the season, I got creative with breakfast. Again, the darn cans of emergency tuna that I had on backup got the best of me, so I ate one of those with a measly fried egg that I made. I must say — my egg frying technique has improved tenfold. But egg + tuna + hot sauce is not delicious. So I resolved to make the most of the day and plan out food for the next several days.

Taking what I already knew about overbuying groceries for my first week, as well as taking into account how to build a perfect paleo Whole30 plate, I wrote down the following meal plan for the next few days:

Monday

• breakfast: ground turkey + spaghetti squash + tomato sauce
• lunch: soup + tuna/salad
• dinner: chicken + veggies

Tuesday

• breakfast: eggs + veggies + avocado
• lunch: chicken + veggies + avocado
• dinner: salmon + veggies + nuts

Wednesday

• breakfast: soup + red pepper slices + avocado
• lunch: chicken + veggies + avocado
• dinner: eggs + whatever else is left over

Since “breakfast” today was late, and I was very un-hungry for most of the day, my only other meal was a big bowl of delish at Chipotle. (Don’t judge me. There’s one in the same shopping center as Trader Joe’s, where I bought all my groceries for the week, and Michael’s, where I bought a sh*t-ton of beautiful Christmas stuff.)

When I got home from the grocery run of the century, I began a several-hours-long cooking adventure.

This is a roasted chicken. Oh, my, God.  It’s delicious. (Before on the left, after on the right.) I rubbed olive oil on it, threw on some salt and pepper, threw in a couple slices of lemon, and roasted it at 425* F for 1.5 hours. AMAZING!

Here’s some of that fabulous tomato sauce (sans celery – it was so expensive at Trader Joe’s!) It’s still delicious, served hot off the stovetop or the day after for breakfast:

Please excuse the low quality photo. The fire alarm was probably going off when I took this. (That happens way too often with a hot oven and a small apartment.)

Not pictured here: spaghetti squash (yessss), and perfectly ground turkey (mmmm). Overall, this was a huge success and I’m excited to prepare more food later.

Special note: The Whole30 gives me confidence. Today I experienced a surge of confidence in the way that I look, even though not much has changed. When you take care of yourself, your self image improves. When you treat your body like it is something worth cherishing, you begin to believe that it is. So, I took a picture to document how good I was feeling yesterday:

Additional note: I HAD MY FIRST NONSCALE VICTORY!!!! This dress, which I originally bought to wear in my Masters degree recital, fits better now than it ever has before. I can’t believe it! And because I was feeling so good about myself, I decided to try it on. WHO KNEW???

Overall, this was another great day on the Whole30. So long, single digit days!!

Whole30: Day 8 (on the road!)

Today was a travel day. This morning my mom and I made the most of the breakfast buffet at our hotel. I was able to get a balanced breakfast together without risking the addition of potentially non-compliant and tempting breakfast sausage or bacon. A significant personal observation is that I went to a buffet and made smart choices and didn’t even think twice about the second or third plate I usually would have gotten, filled with questionable food.

Here’s how I put my plate together:
– Protein: salmon and a couple tablespoons of hard-boiled eggs – Vegetables: breakfast potatoes, cucumbers, fresh salsa, and fruit (pineapple and some dried banana)
– Fat: capers!

I’m actually writing this on the plane back to Rochester now. It wasn’t lunchtime in the last airport, and I wasn’t hungry, so I hunted for Whole30 snacks that could get me through this flight. I found some dried mango (only ingredient: mango!) and a really great pack of dried almonds (only ingredient: almonds!). It took some time and some hunting to find nuts sans sunflower or other oil, but it worked! And I know that it’s easy to go overboard with fruit while traveling, but…yeah, that’s the reality of flying. Unfortunately, fresh vegetables are not available everywhere.

I’ll update later with potential lunch/dinner decisions. What I’m a bit concerned about is the fact that I basically have no food at home, so making breakfast will be a bit of a challenge tomorrow morning. The plan is to get spaghetti squash and make some more ground turkey/tomato food.

I did stay awake on the planes with some good reads and watery American Airlines coffee!

Glamour Magazine rocks. Watery coffee does the job.

…(Updated later, from Rochester)

Okay, so the funny thing about the Whole30 is that not only do I no longer have cravings for potato chips, Dunkin Donuts, queso, and Ramen, but I don’t really have any cravings at all at this point. I don’t crave salty things, and I don’t ever really feel hungry. So, when I was in the airport, I found the only thing I could be sure was totally compliant: sashimi. God, it hurts to pay $16 for six pieces of raw fish..but eating healthy comes at a price. I finished reading Life of Pi (aw yeah) during this day of travel. Eating raw fish complemented that book quite well.

Airport life: mobile phone charger, book about man who eats raw fish, plastic bag that my raw fish came in, and then my raw fish. Nom nom.

Once I got back to to Rochester, I realized that the only food I’d eaten all day was nuts, dried fruit, raw fish, and that massive breakfast. But I still wasn’t hungry. I know that one of the rules of the Whole30 is that we should eat three well-rounded meals each day, so eventually I made some roasted potatoes, and ate them with a can of tuna and some black olives. It was not the most satisfying meal that has ever been consumed, but it worked. And it met the basic plate-building guidelines of the program.

Another day done. Bam!

Whole30: Days 5 and 6 (on the road!)

Whole30: Day 5

Keeping up with the Whole30 while traveling is extremely difficult. I didn’t realize how limiting food options can be when you’re trying to be healthy and don’t have a kitchen to prepare your own food. Especially when it comes to asking what kind of oils and spices food is prepared with — it is extremely awkward to ask someone at an omelette station if they are using olive oil. And sometimes you just have no control over what kind of ingredients are used to prepare food where you are eating, so you just have to eat raw food. Awkward. Yesterday I ate up the last of my spinach frittata for breakfast with some leftover carrots and a handful of cashews. I keep forgetting that canned tuna is an option for protein, so for lunch I went out and got some yellowfin tuna and pink tuna sashimi. The funny thing about ordering that was that it came on a bed of rice noodles with pickled ginger and wasabi on the side…which it doesn’t appear you can eat while on the Whole30. So, I removed the sashimi, paired it with veggies that I prepared for lunch, and ate a handful of nuts. Surprisingly, this lunch kept me full for a few hours.

Sitting in the airport to fly from Rochester to Dallas was Whole30 HELL. Wow. I didn’t realize how much I enjoy letting myself go in an airport because, “We’re trapped! We’re past security! THERE ARE NO OTHER FOOD OPTIONS AND I’M TOTALLY GOING TO GET SUPER HUNGRY ON THIS PLANE!!!” I sat and stared down a McDonalds while waiting for my flight. A Subway was to my right. A Brioche Dorée was next to the McDonald’s. People were getting huge drinks left and right (oh God, I want a root beer!) and the smell of greasy fries was so tempting.

Just before I boarded the plane, I grabbed a spinach salad with tomatoes, kalamata olives, and cucumbers with tuna on top. It was super unsatisfying. They gave me a little side of olive oil, but there was no lemon or salt or pepper to add. I was planning on saving this for the plane, until I realized how offensive the smell of tuna would be for everyone around me. So, I scarfed it down before boarding the plane.

During my changeover in Charlotte, NC, I grabbed a fruit cup and ate it slowly while waiting to board my next flight. This was a good way to end my eating for the day. Overall, nothing I ate yesterday felt delicious or truly satisfying, but I guess that’s the risk you take when you have to simultaneously empty your fridge and avoid all prepared food available to you in an airport. The other piece of this is that items like a knife, small veggies, or a can opener, wouldn’t be good to bring in my carry-on baggage, and since this is just a quick trip, I didn’t have any checked baggage. I guess next time I should prepare for the airplane and staying somewhere afterward with hard-boiled eggs and olives…although there’s no fridge in my hotel so neither of those things would be good for a while after I pack them.

Whole 30: Day 6

I’m combining yesterday and today because I don’t have a ton of time to be writing while I’m here. This morning I had an omelette with mushrooms, tomato and spinach (basically the spinach frittata) with some melon, pineapple, and grapes for breakfast, and then lunch was a salad with grilled chicken (again, just tomatoes and some other assorted vegetables.) I’m getting really tired of chicken and veggies, and I want something more satisfying.

I don’t know. I’m in a bit of a slump because everywhere I look there are cookies (this is a Doubletree, so you get a free, warm chocolate chip cookie when you check in), or bread/intense meat/burgers/fried food (this is Texas, after all) or Tex Mex and margaritas (literally my favorite food). I want a meal that tastes naughty but is not cheating. At the same time, I have zero cravings right now. I remember food that used to sound really appealing – chips, etc. – but the part of me that wants that is my brain, not my body. I think that the connectivity that I want to feel with food right now has nothing to do with whether or not I feel energized or full. I miss the comfort of what I used to eat and the sort of adrenaline rush (too much?) that comes with not knowing what your next meal will be. I want someone else to come and cook something I’ve never had before that includes an exotic combination of flavors + wine + chocolate + toffee + salsa/queso.

Alright. Done complaining. 🙂

Yesterday’s lunch – noodles and such were removed from sashimi prior to consumption. 🙂

 

Whole30: Day 3

Today there were a few trends:

• Awesome mental clarity, right off the bat. When I wake up, I’m up. No coffee, cold water, or other creative methods to get me out of bed.
• I was extremely bloated for the whole day. I do believe that my body doesn’t understand that it can burn healthy fat, instead of sugar, so it’s just holding onto this fat while it figures its $&!^ out.
• My face already looks a little less puffy. Just a little. 🙂
• I have had energy from the time I woke up until bed. No coffee after 12 PM, and two cups of tea. A kombucha around 2 PM helped with digestion a bit.