Whole 30 - Day 4

Day 4 - Thursday 

Today was a good day.  The first GOOD day I've had in 2-3 months.  I felt good emotionally and physically.  My energy level was up.  I almost exercised.  I ran sprints racing with Benji, went on a mile walk with Charlie, and even scrubbed the kitchen cabinets cleaned.  That was something that had been bugging me for a long time, but I never had the energy to do it.

We just moved into a nearly 100 year old house.  The lady who lived here last apparently was a hoarder and didn't take good care of the house.  So everything is just dusty and grimy, but there's only so much I can do with the kids around.  And then with my funky mood, I've just had no energy to clean.

Look who's starting to eat food!
She's not too sure about it though...

Anyway, here's my food log today...
Upon waking = 24 oz water.  This makes a big difference, and I have been neglecting to do this lately.
10:00 ish = Shakeology (not Whole 30 compliant)
1:00 = lunch = chicken, broccoli, and parmsan cheese (not Whole 30 compliant)
2:30 = a few of Benji's ants on a log

That's it so far.  It's 9:30, I just laid the baby down, so now I'm going to go get some dinner.  Probably mashed sweet potato and taco meat.

Benji snuck in her crib during naps because
he "wanted to make her feel good and not be alone."

Oh, I did have a victory today!  NO added sugar!  No chocolate (besides my Shakeology).  That's huge!  Eva went to spend the night with my mom tonight, and usually when that happens I go into "Treat Yo' Self" mode since I will have more free time after the little ones go to bed.  So instead of talking with Eva from 8:30-9:30, I treat myself with Gilmore Girls and chocolate.  But not tonight!  I was thiiiiiiiis close to asking Robby to go get me some chocolate chips, but I chose not to.  And also -- no Gilmore Girls tonight because the Bachelor is back on.  I actually like Nick.  The first 2 seasons he was on, I didn't like him at all, but after watching Bachelor in Paradise, he seems okay.

NOW... I'm off to take a shower and eat dinner!  Then early bed time!  It's sad that I'm so excited about these things...

Whole 30 - Days 2 & 3 re-caps

Heyyy!  So I need to do a quick re-cap on days 2 and 3.  Just to put it out there -- I had sugar both days!  Haha  BUT I feel really good about where I'm at right now... progress, not perfection!  I am just easing myself off of sugar instead of going cold turkey.

Day 2 (Tuesday)
Let me think back... oh yeah, that was a good day!
My husband is home from work all week, so it's really nice to have some extra hands around the house.  I ended up leaving him at home with the kids while I went to my mom's house to use her amazing spa-like shower.  It was so nice to take a LONG hot shower -- our house only has about 7-8 minutes of hot water!  (I'm taking donations for a new water heater...)

So while I was at my mom's house, I had some chocolate chips and peanut butter.  But other than that my meals were Whole 30 compliant.  Oh, except I did have some cheese.

I had my Shakeology at lunch time (which technically is not Whole 30 compliant, but it's awesome and makes me feel great, so I'm keeping it).  For lunch I had shredded chicken with broccoli and parmesan cheese (SOOOO good).  For dinner, we had shredded chicken on salad with homemade honey mustard.  Honey mustard is not Whole 30 compliant either.  Ok so, maybe I didn't do so great on following the rules that day.  Haha.  It definitely helps to write it all out.  But who cares, it was all real whole foods (except the chocolate chips).

And hey, look what cheese did for Urkel.  I mean, daaaaaang, Urkel!  

DAY 3 -- Wednesday

Better than Tuesday.  Eva had gymnastics, so I took my Shakeology in the van for an on-the-go snack.  I listened to podcasts with my headphones on while my kids yelled at each other and begged me for snacks the whole drive.  Fun times.  But darned if they aren't cute!

For lunch, I again had shredded chicken with broccoli, rice, and parmesan.  (Rice and parmesan not Whole 30 compliant).  For dinner, we had taco salads with homemade salsa (YUM!!) and organic blue corn chips intead of taco shells.  (No Whole 30 compliant)  AFter the kids went to bed I ate the last 4 peppermint patty things from Trader Joes.  Only 3 ingredients -- chocolate, honey, and peppermint oil.  But still not Whole 30 compliant.

1 large jar of whole peeled tomatoes
2 jars of Rotel
1/2 onion
1 jalepeno (optional)
cilantro to taste
Blend it all together.

I felt pretty good though.  My mood was stable and I physically felt pretty good.  No excess energy, but enough to get through the day and make dinner.  I've been going through a weird stressed out, anxiety ridden, slightly depressed state for the last few months.  I can feel it getting better though.

 That's it!  I'm progressing back to my clean diet, one day at a time.  I heard a quote today on a podcast -- DO THE BEST YOU CAN, AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN.  Love that.  Takes off so much pressure the be perfect.

Whole 30 - Day 1... or not.

So today was supposed to be my first day on the Whole 30 plan... but I didn't actually follow the rules today.  Because remember, I hate rules?  Following a plan is just not my jam! I ate a few things that are not on the plan, BUT I'm super proud of myself anyway.  I am an all-in... go big or go home... type of person.  I'm not a person who has any desire for "moderation."  I either want all the cookies or none.  Just having 2 or 3 cookies does not interest me at all.  So in the grand scheme of things, I am happy with my day today.

Today started out extremely stressful.  In fact, the last 2 months have probably been the most stressful time in the last 10 years for me.  I'm barely hanging on by a thread.  I feel like I'm going to have a nervous breakdown any day now.  So my way of self-medicating is watching Gilmore Girls and eating chocolate.  I'm on Season 7 of Gilmore Girls if that tells you anything.  My meals tend to stay pretty healthy just because it's my habit to make healthy food and I feel like crap if I eat gluten or too much dairy.

Felt like I was on the phone all day
today dealing with a minor crisis!

But I have been having a good bit of sugar every day for the last few months.  Because that's where I'm at mentally.  My life gets so overwhelming sometimes that I just want to zone out for a few minutes.  I don't regret anything.  I don't feel like I "fell off the wagon."  I'm not mad at myself.  Every time I decided to eat something sweet, I made a conscious decision to do it and accept the consequences.  This is the ebb and flow of life, right?  Who wants to ALWAYS do the right thing and make perfect choices?  Not me!  I do the best I can where I'm at, but I'm not going to add stress to my already stressful life by feeling guilty about what I eat.

So anyway, today in the middle of a crisis I chose to eat the rest of these cookies.  And then with my lunch I had a handful of parmesan cheese and a stick of cheddar cheese.  And then I called Robby and asked him to bring me home a bag of chocolate chips.  BUT I have made the choice to not eat the chocolate chips tonight and that makes me proud of myself.  I'm really not hungry and I actually don't feel like eating chocolate right now, so I'm just going to leave it alone and go to bed.

At least they're gluten free, right?

Because I've been living a healthy lifestyle for 8 years now, I know that once I go cold turkey with the sugar, I will stop having cravings after 3-4 days.  And I also know that I will get there because that is truly where I like to be, for the long term.  I have phases of life where I choose to not eat super healthy (usually when I'm feeling stressed or overwhelmed), but I always return to my healthy habits after a few weeks or months.  I do look forward to delving into the Whole 30 because I really do want to change my relationship with food.  I would love to not be an emotional eater.  I would love to never have a sugar binge again.  It's a BIG shift though, a huge mental change that will have to happen in its own time.  And it's darn hard.

So tomorrow I will report in again and see if I actually stuck to the Whole 30 rules!  Wanna place bets?

The Whole 30 - An Overview

This week I am going to start my first ever round of the Whole 30.  The Whole 30 is basically 30 days of whole foods -- a brief stint of super strict Paleo.  But more specifically, the program eliminates foods that can often cause issues with people's health.  After eliminating the foods for 30 days, you slowly add the eliminated foods back in to see how you feel and determine which foods your body might react negatively to.

I just ended a sentence with a preposition.  Oops.

Since the Whole 30 is a specific (short-term) program, it does come with RULES.  *gasp*  When I hear the word "rules" I automatically start to think of ways I can break them.  Here are the rules:

(1) no added sugar or artificial sweeteners
(2) no alcohol
(3) no grains
(4) no legumes
(5) no dairy

Since I've been eating a Paleo/Primal template for the last few years, and I hate the taste of alcohol, numbers 2, 3, & 4 will be easy peasy for me.  Numbers 1 and 5, however... will be... challenging.  Especially considering I just bought a giant block of delicious extra sharpe cheddar.  I was totally not thinking ahead when I bought that...

So this weekend, I purged the cabinets of all chocolate.  And by "purge the cabinets," I mean ate chocolate chips until they disgusted me, and then threw the remainder away before I started craving them again.  Viciuos cycle, isn't it?  Blood sugar... what goes up, must come down!

Sadness.  Bye bye, chocolate chips.

Now, I have never had the urge to do a Whole 30 before.    A few years ago when the book first came out, everyone was doing it.  I never jumped on the bandwagon though because quite frankly, I'm not a fan of challenges.  External challenges... someone else's goals and rules... do not motivate me at all.  I have to be motivated internally, by my own desire to do something or achieve a goal.  In other words, if someone else dangles a carrot on a stick for me, I could care less about pursuing that carrot.  I have to dangle my own carrot.  Hmmm.  That's a weird phrase.  Now I'm picturing a carrot on the end of a fishing pole with a bunny rabbit holding the fishing pole.  Cute!

This is me with my carrot-dangling apparatus.

I don't typically like challenges for a few reasons.  First, my personality is naturally rebellious.  If someone tells me to do something or gives me a suggestion/advice, my immediate gut reaction is to do the opposite. Oh.  That's exactly what my 4 year old does.  I guess it's genetic.  This has gotten me into a lot of trouble.  And I have had to learn most life lessons the hard way because of it.  I feel like as I get older, I can force myself to be more open-minded and take others' advice.  But it is something I have to consciously force myself to do.  So needless to say, anytime I see an eating plan with hard and fast RULES... I turn away from it.

Another reason I dislike challenges is because they seem to be temporary in nature.  Though I love that so many people have done the Whole 30 and therefore have been exposed to eating real unprocessed foods... I fear that many times people view it as a 30 day experiment, after which they go back to their old way of eating.  With the Whole 30, it is designed to be a temporary thing.  The authors don't expect anyone to eat this was exclusively for the rest of their lives.  But I think their goal is that people adopt a long term healthy relationship with food, rather than treat the Whole 30 like a DIET that they "do" for a month and then forget about.  The authors want us to learn how foods affect us and how GREAT we can feel when we only eat foods that our bodies process well.

So I am excited to start tomorrow.  The last 2 months, I have had sugar every day except for 1 week when I did a mini sugar detox.  Mostly little handfulls of chocolate chips throughout the day.

By the way -- what is the plural of handfull? Is it handfulls?  Or is it hands full, like how culs-de-sac is the plural of cul-de-sac??

The Whole 30 book has tons of recipes and meal planning tips and tricks.  Meal planning is a weak point for me.  Well actually, meal planning is awesome and I'm great at it becuase I'm super Type A and LOVE to formulate plans.  Following through on the plan... that's another story.

So I'm starting with no meal plan for this week, just winging it!  I have some shredded chicken in the fridge.  Tons of fresh eggs.  Some fruit and veggies.  That's about it.

Hopefully I will post every day what I ate that day, how I felt, etc.

That awkward first post...

So let's just get this first post out of the way...

I have all these ideas about things I want to write about and talk about, but it seems too abrupt to have the first post be something long and serious!  I heard someone once say that if you acknowledge that what you're doing is awkward, it makes the situation a little less uncomfortable... So that's what I'm doing!

Starting a new blog at the beginning of a new year seems like a fresh slate... a blank notebook that I can fill up throughout the year!  Anybody else LOVE a nice fresh, untouched notebook?  It's so pristine and NEW.  Just calling out for someone to come fill it up with ideas and lists.  Ahhh, lists... my happy place.

I think I just need somewhere to express all the thoughts that my head thinks.  My kids don't want to listen.  My husband works a lot.  I'm at a phase of life where I don't have many friends to talk to.  But I have so much to say!  And I would like to document the days with my kids -- some days are great and some days are awful, but they are all worth remembering.

Thanks for listening!


Your friend,
Patti