Fourteen Questions for Valentine's Day

This was going around Facebook and although we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, I wanted to answer these fourteen AOL throwback questions about my lifetime love because it gives me the warm fuzzies to think back on our life together so far.

1. Where did you meet your other half? 

We met at house party when we were in college. It was his house. He was playing the piano so I heard him before I saw him. 

2. How long have you been with your significant other? 

Together for thirteen years, married for seven. 

3. What was your first date?

We got Taco Bell and ate it on his back porch. I feel like we also drank Rolling Rock, since that was really in back in 2002. 

4. How long were you dating your other half before he/she proposed? 

I think it was a little over five years. 

5. When did you say "I do"? 

June 21, 2008-- Summer Solstice!

6. What song did you dance to at your wedding?

Two songs:

One

Two

7. What stands out the most from your wedding? 

It was hailing and raining and we were doing everything outside so I was freaking out a little. Then it cleared up and everyone partied like crazy around the bonfire while the band played. 

8. Do you have any children? 

We have two fur babies. ;)

9. What's your favorite thing about your other half? 

He's so funny, caring, and kind. 

10. What's best dish your other half makes? 

Everything he makes is delicious. He makes an amazing steak. Also, his cheesecake is the bomb. Oh, and his deep dish pizza. And everything else too. 

11. Where is your favorite place you have traveled with your other half? 

I love going up north with him. I also like exploring cities with him and trying every kind of food we can. 

12. When did you know your other half was the one? 

We were on east campus at WMU walking around one warm spring night and I was just thought, yep. 

13. What does your favorite date night consist of?

Movies and food or some kind of crazy adventure, like trying to ride bikes around in the dark or turning down a weird road to see what's at the end of it.

14. How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

We don't. Valentine's Day usually makes me feel like this:

But less so now that I'm not working in a high school every day! 

Anyway, I think it's pretty clear what I'm really all about:

<3

A Year of Thirty Days: Whole30 and Yoga Camp Halfway Point

Let's start with Yoga with Adriene's Yoga Camp. I'm on day forty-five days of non-stop yoga and I feel awesome. My back feels good, my joints feel good, and I even flew in crow pose for longer than five seconds. This thirty day Yoga Camp has been an amazing challenge so far! A new video every day this month gives me more of a reason to jump out of bed each morning. I post daily on instagram, so please check out @jheymossy for more details on how it's going. Here is one of my favorite posts from the last few weeks:

A year ago, I wasn't able to do this for very long because my hips are always tight. I'm very proud of this! Also, I do yoga in my pjs every day and not super cute yoga outfits. Just tryin' to be real! 

One thing I'm working on is putting in the time to meditate in savasana, or corpse pose. I've been extra anxious lately about a host of things, so this is an accurate portrayal of what my savasana turns into:

I'm working on it! 

Whole30 Check-In

My second Whole30 is going really well. I didn't jump too far off the deep end and into old habits after my first Whole30, so I didn't experience as many of the side effects of going off sugar this time. It's been pretty amazing this time around. I am really feeling the importance of making the right food choices this time. Here is my second Whole30 in a nutshell:

I look forward to cooking and prepping meals and most important, I'm not obsessing about if I'm losing weight or what my first meal after Whole30 will be this time around. I'm decidedly not weighing myself anymore. My clothes fit, I feel good, and I don't need the number to be lower to make me feel good about myself. It's freeing. It probably won't get me a lot of blog hits because I don't have before and after measurements or pictures. If you could scan my brain though, you'd see some vast changes! 

Also... I'm also thinking about buying a side of beef from an organic farm in the area. From Miss Vegetarian in college (who mostly subsisted on cheese and pasta and bread) to now... weird. We have a chest freezer, so it seems like a more economical way to get my grass fed beef. That ish is SO EXPENSIVE. 

Also, I tried the RX Bar Whole 30 pack this month:

I LOVE these bars! Although I'll always keep my favorite Cherry Pie Lara Bars on hand, the protein in these compliant bars can't be beat. I'm so busy that I love having these in my purse for emergency situations as opposed to the Lara Bars, which curb the hangry, but not enough. Highly recommended, despite the price. So far, I've had the pumpkin, apple, coconut, and sea salt chocolate. Coconut and sea salt chocolate win over the pumpkin and apple. They had kind of a potpourri taste to them, you know what I mean? However, I'd still eat the pumpkin or apple in an emergency. 

Other Whole 30 Things I Can't Live Without this Month:

Well Fed 2 (thanks again #teamreycer)

My stick blender

Chicken thighs

Bone broth

Lacroix, Lacroix, Lacroix (or the Target Brand Lacroix in mint cucumber. New fave)

Soups and stews of all kinds to beat the winter chill

Homemade mayo

Glass containers for storing all of the awesome food I'm making

My Whole30 support group chat with my friends and sister

Wholly Guacamole minis from Costco 

Pre hardboiled eggs from Costco

Costco. Period. 

What are some of your Whole30 staples?

Last thing... what does it mean when you say you're not drinking and everyone is shocked? It means everyone asks if you're pregnant. Hmmmm, what does that say about me?

I might go full paleo or paleo(ish) when this Whole30 is over. I'm really thinking about it. 

Planning for Whole30 #2

Today is day four of family Christmases and I'm feeling homesick for my well-stocked Paleo kitchen and what has become my mostly Paleo lifestyle. I went a little off the rails over the last few days, that's for sure. 

I'm still working on figuring out being Paleo while traveling and during major holidays. I definitely failed this year, but I'm not beating myself up about it. My body is beating me up without my brain even trying! Those sugar cookies and cakes were delicious, but now my joints hurt and my gut is rotting. 

Since my first Whole30 in September, I've stuck to mostly Paleo eating, although I did welcome gluten back into my life, so it will be a little bit of a struggle when I part with it for thirty days to start my second Whole30 in January. I'm looking forward to starting on January first, this time with other people! My sister is doing it again as well as a few of my good friends. I love having accountability partners. 

The key to a successful Whole30 for me is planning. I'm someone who delights in putting plans together-- when someone says we have to have a planning meeting, a feel a wave of excitement come over me... yeah, I'm one of those. I spent the morning on my favorite blogs planning out my January. I've detailed my plans below. 

Pantry and Fridge Prep: Bye, bye beer. I have to check my fridge and pantry and make sure I have everything! I've been sticking to mostly Paleo cooking and eating since my first Whole30, so this time around it isn't going to be as expensive to stock the fridge and pantry. I stock up on Thrive Market, at Costco, or our co-op. I bought a membership to Thrive Market on Cyber Monday because I've found that I reorder from them every three-four months. 

These are my staples:

Tessemae's Dressing

Ghee

Coconut Oil

Coconut Aminos (I have this leftover from the last Whole30-- I only used it once. I will see if I can use it up this time around!)

Cherry Pie Larabars

Tuna

Eggs- From the co-op. I usually buy two cartons a week.

Fish Sauce

Coconut Milk

Dates- I get giant containers from Costco

Cocoa Nibs

Coconut Butter (for those times when I want to eat a candy bar, coconut butter in a date suffices)

Almond Butter

LaCroix (I have a love affair with LaCroix-- Curate are life)

Recipe Prep: Like many Whole30er's, I "discovered" Mel Joulwan's Well Fed and Michelle Tam's NomNomPaleo recipes on my first Whole30. I will be sticking to them for this second round. 

From Well Fed:

I love Mel Joulwan's recipes and her idea of a weekly cookup, where you spend 2-3 hours prepping most of your food for the week. I'm not a fan of getting home and making a whole meal. Below are the recipes I'm making again or trying for the first time during this round of Whole30. 

Making for the freezer:

Cauliflower Rice

Moroccan Meatballs

Condiments:

Ranch Dressing (first time)

Mayo

Sunshine Sauce

Options for cook-ups:

Roasted Chicken Thighs

Spaghetti Squash (round two, I am not a fan but I will try it again)

Cincinnati Chili and Zoodles

Beef Stew (I make this so much, but I love it when it's cold outside)

Golden Cauliflower Soup

Mulligatawny Stew

Sweet Potato Soup

Cook on the spot for dinner:

Reykjavik Salmon Salad

Meatza

Paleo Pad Thai

From Nom Nom Paleo:

The Nom Nom Paleo podcast is one of my favorites. I've learned so many great Paleo tips from listening to Michelle's and Henry's family. 

Condiments:

Magic Mushroom Powder

Options for cook-ups:

Slow Cooker Lemongrass and Coconut Milk Drumsticks

Slow Cooker Thai Yellow Curry with Grass Fed Beef Brisket

Cook on the spot for dinner:

Egg Foo Young-ish

Spicy Tuna Cakes

Cracklin' Chicken

Garbage Stir Frys

Let me know if you have any favorite Whole30 recipes and I will put them on my list! 

Whole30: One Week Later and Still Cookin'

Let's check in on life post Whole30.

If you're just stopping by, here is my Whole30 journey:
Prepping for Whole30
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four

It's not so different from life on Whole30. My body feels so good that I've stuck to Whole30 since my last day except for last weekend with the Hubs. 

I decided to reintroduce grains and it all went well. I haven't really reintroduced anything else, except for the cheese I went crazy on the other day.

I guess I was testing it out even though I already know that I'm lactose intolerant. I thought maybe the Whole30 had cleared up the lactose intolerance. Just kidding, I know it didn't. It just tasted good. It fed my soul, definitely not my body, and my soul is full. Of cheese and farts.

Thank GOD grains don't make me feel sick! I don't know what I would have done with a gluten intolerance. Now onto my first non-Whole30 sips and bites...

Cranker's Coconut Porter, be still my heart.

Anything Pretzel. 

Beer and a pretzel. My insides felt like the Herbal Essences commercials of the late 1990s: 

What I've noticed the most since ending my Whole30 is that my clothes all fit much better. They were getting a little tight and some of them didn't even fit anymore. I didn't weigh myself or measure any part of my body pre and post Whole30, but let me tell you something. My favorite dress from Senegal (I call it my fertility dress because it highlights my uteral--that's a word I just made up--area) fits me again! It hasn't fit since before I switched careers and started eating all of my feelings. 

Attractive, no? I was just really excited that it fit.

I'm still cooking up a storm from the Well Fed blog. I'm dropping hints that I want both volumes for Christmas. I'd like to cook my way through those. It would also be nice to not have my laptop or phone out when I'm cooking and trying to refer to the recipes. I always feel like I'm going to drip liquid or meat juice onto the screen. 

My next step is figuring out how to be a foodie without hurting my gut. I'm trying to find balance with my eating and calorie tracking and constant yo-yo weight due to the stress levels in my life. I'm trying to get away from dieting for awhile. I've already found one solution for pizza:

Pizza sweatshirt. Boom.

I vow to keep working on this before my whole wardrobe fills up with food themed items! 

Whoops. I took it too far.

Whole30: Week Four Round-Up AKA I DID IT, SAY WHAT?!?!?!

Yesssssssssssss. I finished Whole30.

I can't believe I made it a whole month of completely clean eating. And YES. I finally finished #16 on my 30b430 list: Eat clean for one month. Only two years late, but CHECK! Sweet victory.

Anywayyyyyy...

Week Four had me bored and feeling DONE with the Whole30, so I got really into my food. I decided to take more food pictures this week too, just to get myself through.

I made delicious paleo beef stew twice:

As you'll see throughout this post, I am in love with Mel Joulwan's Well Fed recipes

 I decided to try making pork belly with this delicious crispy cumin roasted pork belly: 

You've got to eat it fresh out of the oven or it gets weird. But it's so good fresh out of the oven.

I made Well Fed's chocolate chili again and ate nachos all week because I had so much Costco guac left.  

I am so glad I didn't buy Trader Joe's plantain chips until week four. 

I turned this pickle soup recipe into a Whole30 compliant recipe by using coconut milk, coconut flour, and ghee instead of milk, flour, and butter. 

Weird flavors, but so delicious. Plus, it's Polish American Heritage Month. I'm not Polish, I'm just sayin'.

Cooking break! I went out to eat at Green Street Smoked Meats in Chicago and oh. my. smoked. brisket. And the watermelon salad? Who knew that watermelon, fresh lime, jicama, and tajin would be one of the freshest and most amazing things I've eaten this month?

You've got to check out Paleo Porn... they tell you all of the awesome paleo restaurants in several cities.

 Back to cooking. I made a whole chicken in the crockpot and restocked my freezer chicken stock supply with this crazy-easy crockpot stock:

STOOPID easy. I love it. 

 I went a little crazy on the coconut butter this week, specifically, coconut butter stuffed dates:

Coconut butter, where have you been all my life?! I had to ground myself from dates and coconut butter for a few days.

 The Whole30 Timeline says that on Day 28 this week, I'd feel like Day 28 is as good as Day 30 and I'd think about quitting. It's not that I thought Day 28 was just as good as Day 30. I was tired of having no social life because so much of my social life revolves around going out to eat and drink. Then I had to take a step back and think about why so much of my social life revolves around going out to eat and drink. There has to be other things to do, amiright?

I just have to find those things. 

I saved a ton of money and stomach aches this month by not going out to eat or drink. I would like to continue that in some way, shape, or form. 

Another prediction on the Whole30 timeline is that I would worry about life after Whole30 when I got closer to the end. I'm a little worried, since the Hubs and I are taking a mini-vacation this weekend and I don't know what is going to happen to my gut if I go crazy with vacation food. I guess I'm going to have to be cautious, but still let loose a little. After all, the last prediction on the timeline is that a bowl of ice cream might be okay. 

More on reintroducing foods and what I got out of Whole30 next week. I wonder what life will be like without having to be the person who is always armed with their soft-sided lunch box at every single meal that has to be eaten out of the house?

Whole30: Week Three Round-Up

When my friends ask me what's been happening in my life, all I can ever start with is, "I've been really busy." One of my best friends even posted this on my Facebook wall the other day:

She gets me.

My busy-ness was my excuse for not cooking much over the last three years of crazy career transitions. This Whole30 has forced me to see that you can't use being busy as an excuse for going out to eat 4-5 times per week. That's how I've ended up with an extra fifteen pounds on my bod. 

The trick to staying on top of Whole30 and being busy is putting in the time to prepare my food every week. I'll just cook like a fiend for 2-4 hours, depending on how fancy I want to be. I like doing this on Sundays, but if I'm busy on Sunday, I'll do it on Saturday. If the weekend was spent traveling, I'll spread it out-- I'll roast my chicken on Monday morning and make some kind of stew(s) on Monday night. It is worth the time, gives me lots of choices, and saves my gut from the chicken tenders dipped in ranch that I would order if we were going out to eat. 

Right? No?

Week three was weird because of my sickness, so I spread my cooking over two days. In total, I spent about two hours in the kitchen (not counting making my breakfast every day). 

On Monday, I made coconut shrimp soup, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and roasted sweet potatoes. On Tuesday, I made roast chicken thighs and homemade mayo. On Wednesday, I mixed things up by making this quick creamy dill salmon and eggplant fries for dinner.

Below is what I ate for the week, just to give you an idea of how I split the food from my weekly cook-up and faced PMS while on Whole30.

Tuesday-Saturday: I ate a variation of the same thing every day.
I don't mind eating similar meals almost every day for a week. I will eat leftovers every day as long as I don't have to cook during the week. And it's not like I have to choke these meals down, like when my mom got too many corndogs at Sam's Club back in the day and we had to eat corndogs every day for dinner for weeks after while holding our noses because we couldn't take it. The food I'm making is delicious, so I look forward to eating it and I'm a little sad when it's gone.

• I've always been a morning person and I find comfort in making my breakfast every day-- this wasn't something new that came with Whole30 (THANK GOODNESS). Breakfast is always some kind of green (right now I'm really into collard greens) sautéed in coconut oil, two-three eggs scrambled in OR over medium on top of the greens depending on my mood, and an avocado. If I've done a morning workout, I will throw the greens and eggs on top of some roasted sweet potatoes. I've always loved this combination and eat it every day until it gets cold outside. Then, I switch to crockpot oatmeal until my bones thaw in the spring (in my non-Whole30 life). Oatmeal is one of the first things I'm reintroducing when this is over! Please GOD, I hope it doesn't upset my gut! 

  

  Valentina hot sauce, ohhhhhh yeahhhhh. My apologies that I didn't make it look like art-- I just poured it on there.

• Lunch is cut up chicken thighs, half an apple, and sugar snap peas with a heaping tablespoon of homemade mayo. I put this chicken salad on top of spring greens and top with chopped almonds. This salad makes me so happy! I haven't gotten sick of it yet. This week I'm going to try chicken, celery, carrots, and half and apple. I don't think it matters as long as I have my mayo. 

  

  Homemade mayo is the sunshine of my life.

• Dinner this week was coconut shrimp soup over mashed potatoes, salmon and mashed potatoes with eggplant fries, or coconut shrimp soup and leftover salmon on the mashed potatoes. I didn't get sick of this soup all week either. The heat from the jalapenos felt awesome on my healing sore throat. I have no pictures of the soup because I kept eating it before I could take one. 

  

  I usually hate eggplant, but I LOVED these fries. 

• I haven't been snacking throughout my Whole30 because I'm trying to be really mindful about my eating, but between PMS cravings and a day or two where the time between lunch and dinner was insane because of meetings, I had some cashews and a few slices of dried pear. When things got really bad with the PMS, I ate a handful of frozen cherries and a Cashew Cookie Larabar. This is a huge improvement from my usual PMS Reeses and Oreo flurry.

Alrighty, now for the Whole30 predictions for my feelings this week.

Days 16-27: Tiger Blood!

Follow up to last week's question: What does Tiger blood in Jen World look like? Here are your answers, as well as other Whole30 victories:

Tiger Blood

-I woke up after two days of being sick and felt like:

-I sleep through the night, every night. 

-I feel really happy. Maybe it's the Tiger Blood, maybe not. I just feel really, really happy.

-I'm even more perky than usual in the morning.

-I look better in my clothes.

Other Victories
-I didn't give up when I was sick.

-I made it through another TWO lunch meetings at my favorite sandwich place and favorite local eatery.

-We had a celebration for a group I've been in for the past year that included food (bread, cheese, AKA my favs) and beer (Arcadia Jawjacker and New Holland Poet, WHYYYY), I didn't deter, and it wasn't too bad.
-I was on a college tour with students and we got to eat lunch in the all-you-can-eat cafeteria and the food looked delicious. I ate a lunch I brought from home.

(Interlude) Day 21: I'm so over this.

Whole30 says that during this interlude, you get so sick of Whole30 food that some people can't even eat. This isn't the case for me because I'm still having so much fun cooking. I am, however, SO OVER not being able to eat Greek yogurt, oatmeal, legumes, honey, and bread. I'm over not being able to be social because I can't really eat or drink anything offered to me.

 I'm not going to go hog wild when this is over, but everything in moderation, ya dig? I could quit now, just because I feel really good and I want to see how my body reacts to Greek yogurt, oatmeal, legumes, honey, and bread, but I've gone so far that I might as well finish it out!

Only one more week before I start reintroducing foods and I'm looking forward to it. 

Whole 30: Week Two Round-Up

Tomorrow marks the end of week two of Whole30. It started out great, like really great. I cooked for about three hours at the start of the week and BAM! I had nothing to do throughout the week but mix and match all of my food. It was awesome, worth the time, and made Whole30 feel a lot more manageable this week. I roasted chicken thighs, made a carton of hardboiled eggs, a huge batch of golden cauliflower soup, two spaghetti squash, sunshine sauce for paleo pad thai, thawed out some wild salmon for easy dinners all week, and baked sweet potatoes.

It was all delicious and much easier than the first week, but I can't get over how NOT into spaghetti squash I am. So many people tout its versatility, how it's THE BEST stand in for pasta... etc. I don't know if I wasn't making it correctly or what, but I've got to throw a big no on those claims.

I'm going to try it again next week, but only as spaghetti squash, not under tomato sauce like it's actual spaghetti or something-- let's not kid ourselves. I have a feeling gluten sensitivity isn't in the cards for me, so I'm looking forward to reintroducing whole grain pasta when this Whole30 is up. Until then... zoodles?

Onto the Whole30 timeline predictions for my feelings this week. 

They say... Days 8-9=Tighter Pants

This didn't happen to me this week. What did happen is I tried to eat less red meat, more chicken and fish. I just can't stomach too much red meat, even if it's grass-fed and organic. I also made a few salads, including this beauty with sweet potatoes, golden tomato, spring greens, and Tessemae's lemon garlic dressing as a side to my herb-crusted salmon. 

Like I said... a great start to the week!

They say... Days 10-11=The Hardest Days

We went out of town for the weekend, which made days 10 and 11 even harder than already predicted. When we got to the hub's parent's house, they had pretzel rolls and sourdough bread, not to mention wine. Torture!

I had to tell myself what Whole30 told me... it's only 30 days. It wasn't a holiday or a special occasion. It was just a weekend away, those happen all the time, and it's okay to not eat the pretzel roll or sip on the wine this time. 

I think the end of my "YOU CAN DO THIS!" self-talk rope came when we hung out with our niece and nephew and went for ice cream. At the candy shop. 

Sugar addict's nightmare. So many gummies.

The weekend was rough on my willpower and ability to maintain positive self-talk, that's for sure. I even thought about weighing myself because I feel lighter and it would have made me feel better even though it's a no-no and would defeat the purpose of why I'm doing this. I even got snippy with the Hubs when he ate a bag full of bagels (he literally ate a bag full of bagels, it was small, but still). I was like, "DUDE."

-- I said other stuff too, but that sums it up. It was just a cherry on top of a weekend of trying to be cool with sticking with this for thirty days.

They say... Days 12-15=Boundless Energy and Dreaming About Junk

Yeah, this isn't happening because I'm sick. I have no appetite and no boundless energy. I've got a sore throat and body aches-- this is a real killer. In fact, yesterday I slept thirteen hours. 

 The only things I want to eat and drink are saltines, Mrs. Grass, dry toast, mineral water, and warm whiskey with lemon juice. Soooooo... none of those are Whole30 compliant except for mineral water and lemon juice. 

I had a moment yesterday where I got irrationally angry at all of this. I've been working my ass off on sticking to Whole30 and this is what I get? I get sick? Really? Isn't my immune system supposed to be bouncing viruses off of it like rubber? I mean, WTF, Whole30?!?

I'm over the rage today--I was being irrational. I realize now that anyone can get viruses, even when they are super healthy. I'm grateful that I have no snot running out of my nose because I'm not eating any dairy. I'm also grateful that I'm not eating a bowl full of gummy bears to comfort myself right now because sugar can make it harder for you to get better when you're sick.

 This is what I am eating or drinking when I have an appetite:

-Plain baked chicken

-Scrambled eggs

-Throat coat tea

-Water/mineral water

-Roasted and salted almonds (kind of close to saltines?)

-Mashed potatoes with ghee

-Frozen cherries (feel so good on my throat)

-Unsweetened applesauce

-Bananas

Throat coat. A lifesaver. 

It's working out so far. Here's hoping to better days going into week three, the supposed week of Tiger Blood. 

We'll see what living with Tiger Blood in Jen World looks like next week.

Whole30: Week One Round-Up (And Other Stuff)

Today is officially day seven of my Whole30... the first week is over! Before I get into that, let me get into the sugar binge I had right before I started Whole30 that left me feeling horribly sick for the first few days. -__-

It was fun though. 

First, I had a work trip to NYC, where I ate everything. There are many things I dislike about the city-- the hoards of people, the urine-ish smell that seeps from the pavement when it's hot, the people asking me if I want to go to the top of the Empire State Building or ride a double decker bus every time I walk by. But I LURVE the food in the city. Anywhere, any type of food, any time. I even found a place to eat Filipino food! I was too full to eat there, but next time. Oh, next time, New York. You and I and a fork and spoon and my soft pants.

Over Labor Day weekend, my friend and I had a Pinterest win with these extremely unhealthy treats. 

 

It worked out. I felt guilty for making something healthy so incredibly unhealthy, especially after reading It Starts with Food. However, I was in Last Hurrah Mode, which is the worst attitude to have before starting a diet making a lifestyle change. I'm not gonna lie, it was super fun to make and eat. 

When we got home, I officially started Whole30. Before I started... I don't know, being lazy... I used to cook so much. This is forcing me to get back to those habits. I even made homemade mayo (which made me question every other mayo I've ever eaten because it was delicious) and chicken stock and stored it in jars because I scared myself reading about why you shouldn't store food in plastic containers. 

It's so simple, but I still felt fancy. 

 For my first week, I decided to take Melissa Joulwan's suggestion and do most of my cooking for the week on Sunday (in my case I did it on Tuesday, but whatevs). I used to do this when I was teaching because I was always really tired after school. Then I stopped because I got lazy (see the trend here?). I made chicken in the crockpot, used the bones and make stock, roasted a pan of sweet potatoes, and made bison chili. I made big batches so I could just grab and go all week. 

It worked out pretty well, except for the meat. I ate so much meat last week. 

 I'm okay with meat, but I'm not a person who eats meat every day. I'd much rather have beans or quinoa, or something else with protein like nonfat Greek yogurt. Beans and quinoa will be the first food items to be reintroduced into my rotation when this is all over. 

The good thing about the meat for Whole30 is that you need to look for meat from animals who have been humanely raised and not fed a bunch of junk. More on that here. 

Here is how Whole30 predicts your first week will go and they were on point with most of it:

On day one, I was feeling really great. We were in the car traveling and I even avoided road food and ate turkey and an avocado for lunch. I was missing a veggie, but I made it work. When we got home, I went grocery shopping and I got pissed off. Every. Thing. Has. Sugar. What is normally a forty minute shopping trip turned into two hours. Not cool. I'll write about my prep for this undertaking (and the DENT it left in my bank account) in another post because it deserves its own post. 

At the start of day two, I felt pretty good. I even ordered an extremely healthy lunch when I was out for work. Then, the headache started. 

Worst. Feeling. Ever. 

It was behind my eyes and on top of my head. It spread to my neck. It lasted for three days. I also experienced pretty horrible sleepless night on day two and three. I got about three hours each night and spent most of my night googling "Whole30 can't sleep" on my phone. I thought I was coming down with something-- I had the body aches. Turns out, it was probably just me detoxing from the sugar I so readily and easily consume each day. My body's reaction to no sugar kind of scared me. I'm glad I'm doing this. 

On days four and five, you're supposed to be so irritable that no one wants to be around you. Besides losing my temper at the dog and snapping at the Hubs for a few trivial things, I was all good. 

Days six and seven find you feeling extremely tired according to the timeline. I wasn't any more tired than I usually am, although today (day seven) I could have taken a nap. In fact, it's 9:30pm and I'm exhausted. 

So yeah, not a lot of positives yet because my body is like, "What the eff are you doing to me?" except that my sleep for the last two days has been FREAKIN' AMAZING. 

I ended my first Whole30 week with an awesome event in our community called Pedal to Your Mat, where I rode eleven miles on my bike and ended up at my mat for an hour of yoga. They even had food I could eat at this event!

 

I'm trying to find some way to treat ma' self as I near the end of each week of this Whole30 challenge that is not food related (the food at the end of this event was a bonus!) or crazy expensive.

Doing something healthy and physical after a rough first week of Whole30 seemed like a great reward! Yoga under a blue sky with live music. YAAS! 

Week Two is starting tomorrow... I hope this lasts!