An Update: Feeling Good

The past few weeks have been a blur with travel and work and social events, but overall I think I've done well sticking to Whole30. Here's a quick rundown of some highlights from the last few weeks:

• I made another batch of mayo--and this is even better than my last (a thicker consistency). Success!
• I've really worked to branch out and expand my horizons with the foods that I'm eating:
• I've learned to love plantain chips (baked or pan fried in coconut oil, yum)
• Made a "mediterranean tuna" with olives, capers, pimentos, and Greek seasoning mix
• Tried out spaghetti squash (I still haven't figured out how to like it)
• Cooked my first ever pork loin roast
• And made coconut "rice" using riced cauliflower. Pictures below.
• I also found the BEST sweet potato baked fries recipe. You microwave the sweet potato first, then let it cool (preferably in the fridge). Then I tossed it in olive oil and seasonings and baked it on foil at 450 for about 10 minutes, flipping it then baking for another 10 minutes or so on the top rack. The texture is the best I've found with sweet potatoes. Here's the original recipe from The Clothes Make The Girl. I've used both "normal" and Japanese sweet potatoes, and both are divine. (I made a dipping sauce using my mayo and sriracha sauce. Yum.)

Chicago was a land of temptation, but I managed to eat mostly within the Whole30. It meant that I had a virgin Bloody Mary after our Ugly Sweater 5K run (oh but it was so good!), and resisted the temptation of a Chicago style hot dog. I'm not confident that some most of the food I ordered out was Whole30 (including that Bloody Mary), but I feel like I stayed true to the spirit. (Minus the 3 chicken wings I ate, which I can't really justify but we needed some food, and I only ate 3, and without any ranch dipping sauce. S'all about balance.) I did have the most divine salad for dinner one night with a Green Goddess Tahini dressing (with olive oil, garlic, and basil) I'm still hoping to replicate.

At any rate, here are some of the neat meals I've been eating--I'm branching out!

African Chicken Stew with Coconut Cauliflower "Rice"

African stew with plantains and mild kimchi

Spicy Roasted Eggplant - so delicious

Shredded Pork Loin Roast with Coconut Mashed Sweet Taters

And here is my new favorite breakfast. I shred a sweet potato then cook it in coconut oil with some BBQ rub seasoning (a little bit of heat that balances so nicely with the sweet flavor from the oil). Then I poach two eggs (sprinkled here with smoked paprika) and lightly pan-fry some prosciutto. After taking the pretty picture, I stir the egg and yolks into the potatoes and eat it with the salty prosciutto. It is heavenly. Even if you're not on Whole30.

The Most Delightful Breakfast

So, all in all, I am feeling great and so happy I committed to this. I'll follow up with some more posts when the 30 days are officially up, and to track my progress with reintroducing foods.

And I'll also try to chronicle the training for my next grand running adventure: a 20-mile trail run on February 1st. It will be an adventure! But that's another post to come...

Doing the Best I Can

I had a busy weekend filled with social activities, which definitely made staying within the guidelines of Whole30 pretty much impossible. So I just did the best I could. Here's a weekend wrap-up:

Friday: I had plans to meet a friend for dinner and had already scanned the menu at the Mexican restaurant we'd picked out. Alas, when we arrived at 8pm there was a wait time of an hour and twenty minutes!! Out the window went my careful planning. We ended up at a burger joint where my sad plate comprised a lone beef patty (grass-fed, at least) topped with crushed avocado and pico de gallo. No fries. No salad. Just a bun-less burger patty. Ah well. At least it was tasty! (I'd snacked on pumpkin seeds and dried fruit after my evening spin class knowing I'd be eating late, so I was sufficiently full.)

Saturday: I got my butt kicked in Body Pump class at the gym, then spent the day scurrying about with errands. Dinner out was an incredible appetizer of bresaola with lemon & olive oil-dressed arugula, followed by bacon-wrapped flounder (guessing there was probably butter on it). I ate the red cabbage on my plate until realizing it probably was sweetened, and some bits of the butternut squash puree (which undoubtedly had cream and butter in it) may have slipped onto my fork. (A tasty "mistake.") 

Sunday: Brunch out with friends proved a challenge. The poached egg and city ham I ordered worked well, but the field pea salad was a hot mess. In spite of me telling the server I couldn't eat any sort of grains or dairy, the salad was covered in fried onion ring pieces. I have no idea what the greens were dressed in (but they were yummy and so probably sweetened), and I realized I didn't think field peas were on my okay to eat list. So I stuck to the greens and figured it was good enough! As I mentioned in my last post, I'm approaching this with balance and long-term vision, so it is what it is.

Later in the day, I met a friend for a late afternoon/early evening snack at Whole Foods. After scouring the hot and cold bar ingredient lists, I came out with a bowl full of fruit. (None of the salad dressings were okay, or I would have made a salad!)

Home cooking this weekend: I made some more delicious tuna with my homemade mayo this weekend (adding dill pickle--with no Yellow 5, thanks to Whole Foods--sliced green olives, diced celery, and salt, pepper and paprika).

My mayo, and my tuna masterpiece

I also clarified butter so I can at last have some on hand to use on sweet potatoes or other veggies. It was fun! And so much easier than I'd anticipated. Ideally I would have strained the butter through cheese cloth but, as I said, doing the best I can with what I have.

Clarifying in process

Finished product--looks clear, right?

I don't have pictures, but I have a new favorite breakfast (so I'll get photos next time!): I lightly pan-fried shredded sweet potato in olive oil with salt, pepper, and whatever sounds good (this morning it was a BBQ spice blend, but cumin, chili powder and garlic is good, too). I heated some prosciutto to crisp it up, then poached two eggs and sprinkled them with paprika (for color). The combination of runny yolk, flavorful potatoes, and salty crisp prosciutto is heavenly.

Finally, I also roasted a pork loin in my crockpot, and lightly pan-fried some sliced plaintain in coconut oil, both of which turned out to be delicious experiments. (Alas, the crockpot steamed up my camera lens so I didn't get photos.)

So, my plan now is just to buckle down and be extra careful with the guidelines this week while I have control. This coming weekend, I'm heading to Chicago and will likely be eating many meals out again, so I'll try to have a clean slate heading into it. 

Onward!

Whole30: Musings from 12 Days In

Just a few quick notes and observations from this week: 

I feel good. I am sleeping well, and as predicted, I feel like my moods and energy levels are more consistent throughout the day. I have swapped out coffee for black tea with little to no fuss. There are no mid-morning or mid-afternoon slumps. (And in fact, I've been thrown some curve balls this week at work that I think I've handled quite well, avoiding my usual stressful responses.) 

I've always thought I was pretty good at reading food labels, but wow there are so many crazy additives in our food. Why can't I buy dill pickles at my normal grocery store that don't have Yellow 5 in them? Why?

On a slightly strange note, I participated in a church event last night that offered Communion. I was almost paralyzed with the decision of whether to take it (bread and wine, both Whole30 no-nos). I finally reasoned that (a) God trumps diet and (b) the small quantity of forbidden foods would not in themselves derail my month.

In the last few days, my coworkers have noticed the change as my weight drops. The pace is slower now than last week (as to be expected) but the scale continues to nudge lower. (I know, I know, I'm not supposed to weigh myself on Whole30. But it's so motivating!)

I've also really enjoyed the experience of looking at foods that I once would have sneaked in as guilty treats like cookies, candy, the fresh cinnamon rolls at work the other morning--now, I don't feel any emotion. I can observe "Oh, that looks so good," without feeling an urge to eat it. It's very liberating for this sugar- and treat-obsessed gal!

I got my new cookbook this week, Well Fed 2, and can't wait to try some of the recipes. For the first time in my life, I bought a pork loin roast and will cook that in my crockpot tomorrow. I will post pictures of that!

Finally, it will be a weekend with challenges to stay compliant: dinner out tonight and tomorrow night, breakfast out Sunday morning. But I am taking time to pre-screen menus and plan out what I can safely eat.

I think what I'm realizing is that I won't be able to say at the end of this that I was 100% Whole30 compliant... but I think 95% compliant will be realistic. I am not making major cheats: I'm just not stressing if I take in something off-list when I'm not the one preparing the meal. What I am achieving is a healthy balance that I can maintain once this challenge has ended. And since my goal is long-term, I think that's even better.

Whole30 Challenge: Homemade Mayo and some thoughts

As I've mentioned a few times, I am just not good with preparing my own seafood. I never seem to cook it right (other than this amazing black pepper crusted salmon I made, which nearly smoked me out of my apartment... eh, details).

But tuna fish is something I can tackle without fear, so I decided to try out the mayonnaise recipe in It Starts With Food, which is provided by Melissa at "The Clothes Make the Girl," who has authored a couple of Paleo cookbooks (one of which will be delivered to me tonight from Amazon, woot woot!).

Here is a link for the recipe, which includes great instructions. 

It does require patience... I let my egg and lemon juice sit out for an hour and even turned on the heat in my apartment to make sure they would be the correct temperature. And it took me at least 5 minutes to drizzle in the olive oil.

But it was worth it. I should, of course, have taken pictures of the mayo or my lunch, but I'll post one later. I had tuna, mayo and celery, and I served the tuna on slices of cucumber. Carrot sticks and an apple rounded out my lunch.

I'm super excited because this opens the door to some new recipes using mayo as the base.

I'm finally nearing the end of the book, so I am gaining a better understanding of some things I still need to tweak in my approach to food and this lifestyle. Like my almond milk has a seriously nasty additive, carrageenan, which is just another sign that those breakfast smoothies have to go. And vegetables really do need to be the base of every meal I'm eating. Fruit is easier for me to eat, yes, but it shouldn't replace veggies on my plate.

Small steps, but I'm getting there and feeling good in the process. Last night was the hardest time I've had fighting old cravings. After my run, I grabbed some chicken and carrots from the hot bar at our local co-op and ate with friends, but on my way home I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up supplies for the mayo. And I wanted to eat EVERYTHING. I wanted junk food so badly... even just bread or crackers in any form. In the end, I settled for green olives and mild flavored kimchi as my snacks. Yep, this is my life. 

Seriously, though, I get it. I see the big picture. I'm on it.

Whole30 Challenge: One week in

So it's clear that blogging everyday isn't going to work! But I will try to check in a few times a week, or at least weekly. I am one week into the Whole30 Challenge and feeling really good about it. Here is a smattering of thoughts and notes about my first week:

• I'm down five pounds. May be water weight, but my pants are fitting better already, too!
• My heart palpitations are still there, but not nearly as frequent as they had become.
• It takes a lot of planning to be able to incorporate protein (meat, eggs, seafood) into every meal. While it's not ideal, I've had to resort to some convenience foods (e.g., chicken sausage from Trader Joe's) to be able to stick as closely to the plan as I can. My protein smoothies aren't compliant, either, but they are working right now. (My almond milk is unsweetened but many versions contain off-program additives, and they really don't want you to drink your calories at all. I'll wean myself off of them... eventually.)
• Along those lines, I have become an obsessive label reader. Sugar is in EVERYTHING.
• It hasn't been a perfect week, but I'd say I'm 97% compliant in terms of eating "approved" foods. That said, I'm still finishing the book (doh!) and learning I do need to scale back on fruit and make sure that I'm not using it to get my sugar fix. The better plan is to learn to ignore those sugar cravings, unless I'm truly hungry, in which case a veggie/protein snack is my best bet. (For the same reason, my protein pancake breakfasts aren't Whole30 compliant... ah well!)
• My family was great this past weekend about trying to accommodate my diet. In fact, everyone has been great about it so far.
• I'm doing pretty well at using up the produce I'm buying, which historically has not always the case. I think it's partly my efforts at meal planning but just as much that I have so few alternatives!
• I think I'm going to try to switch from coffee to black tea. I just don't love coffee without creamer (soy or dairy), but tea I can drink as dark and "uncreamy" as possible. So, that's in process this week.
• I am surprised at how easy it has been to avoid alcohol and sweets. Every once in a while, I'll have a pang when I see something I enjoyed eating before Whole30, but nothing has tempted me enough so far. (And let me tell you, I've faced down homemade cakes, cookies and pies... potato chips... my favorite cheeses... Halloween candy galore... Pillsbury crescent rolls... the crusty skin of potatoes roasted in margarine... of course the funny thing is that as I'm typing this out none of it sounds that appealing!)
• I am already thinking long-term past these 30 days, envisioning how best to keep this up as a lifestyle. But let's see how I feel at 29 or 30 days in first before I make any firm plans! I do know that I want to stay close to this eating plan. It's so much better for me to be focused on eating whole foods, and lots of veggies, versus convenience foods.
• I need to learn to prepare seafood. Until then, I'm going to attempt to make homemade mayo and try poaching some tuna to make tuna salad. (Canned is legit but doesn't sound as appealing as the real stuff.)

So that's my update for now! I will keep checking in and will post pictures of meals or recipes I find particularly exciting or helpful. 

Whole30 Challenge: Day 5 Menu

Well I definitely did not sleep well last night! I'm going to blame it on not exercising, because everything else should have set me up for a solid night's sleep. Otherwise, I feel good.

I managed my favorite Friday 6am spin class this morning and felt good, despite my poor sleep. I have decided to go visit my family this weekend, which will be a challenge in terms of staying strictly within the Whole30 guidelines. But I've let them know what I can eat, and I may just bring along some extra produce or snacks... just in case.

Breakfast: I needed to switch things up, so I went back to my standby smoothie, with a twist: Unsweetened vanilla almond milk, a frozen banana, pumpkin pie and cinnamon spices, and protein powder. I tried out a vegan, no-sugar option that looked compliant based on the ingredient list. It was tasty, and exactly the change I needed.

Delicious, and filling.

Lunch: I also picked up some organic hot dogs made from grass-fed beef. Again, I needed some variety in my lunch! This photo shows my lunch and snack provisions for work. (My tomato and avocado salad in rice vinegar again, but with some Jane's Crazy Salt today, and fruit salad with mango, strawberries, and blackberries.)

Dinner: I went to a potluck with some friends, who were great about making foods (mostly) compliant with Whole30. There was a little bit of soy sauce in the portabello mushrooms, but I had a small portion. (There needs to be balance for this to work!) Otherwise, we had roasted sweet potatoes (white and purple), coconut curry butternut squash soup, roasted beets and roasted kale. Yum!

There's also a date wrapped in proscuitto there, yum.

Snacks: Since I'm technically writing this days later... I don't remember. But the usual suspects: fruits, veggies, nuts.

Exercise: Spin! It kicked my butt! I may just really be wishing that my heart would return to normal, but it seemed like even when my heart rate was high, it wasn't as high as it normally gets. I'll be able to scientifically test it with a speed or hill workout wearing my GPS & heart rate monitor, so stay tuned.