Whole30 Day 11 and 12

Thursday is really a blur and I did cheat big time. BUT I got to cheat w/ some amazing friends.

Breakfast:
Don't remember!

Snack:
Lara bar

Lunch:
Green bean salad with walnuts, strawberries and feta cheese (dairy is not allowed). A tiny bite of a chocolate dessert at Bakery Lorraine. I'd give the salad about a 3 out of 5.  The dessert gets a 5.

Dinner:
Mexican food at LaFonda in San Antonio.
I had lots of chips and salsa. My entree was chili relleno w/ tenderloin, rice and enchilada verde.
All very good.


Whole30 day12
Friday

Breakfast:
bacon and 1 fried egg

Lunch:
Ground beef taco style w/ onion and bell pepper on top of baked potato.

Snack:
Lara bar, coffee and some roasted pistachio nuts

Dinner:
The Black Walnut...will probably get burger/no bun and sweet potato fries.


Almost halfway there. Feeling good. Very few cravings. Just when I'm hungry...I really crave protein as in MEAT.  Waited too long to eat on Thursday night, so went overboard on the chips. Will carry some nuts in my purse from now on.

Whole30 Day 10

Breakfast:
leftover zucchini scrambled w/ some Rudy's sausage and eggs

Lunch:
leftover grilled green chili chicken breast topped w/ about 1 cup of pico
small 'cereal' bowl of red grapes

I really can see why they call them 'velcro' dogs. Elsa and I had the chance to meet another Aussie in the neighborhood today. 10 year old Kelly is a very sweet tri-black. 

Snack:
CHEAT, but very good
Starbx grande iced coffee w/ 3 pumps of skinny (sugar free) mocha and cream while I waited to get the good news on my brake repair.

Dinner:
at Nik's on 621...one of my favorite 'local' spots to eat.
Grilled chicken breast with roasted lemon garlic potatoes. This was very, very tasty!
Wm had lasagne. :)
Kids eat free on Wed. pm. The little girl at the table next to us reminded the waiter that her pizza would be 'free'! She said she LOVES the pizza there.

I'm really getting into the groove of this plan this time around. I think it really helps that I'm so much more familiar with what's ok and what's not ok after my attempt last year. I feel great. Sugar cravings are gone. The garlic bread at Nik's looked amazing and I KNOW that it is, but it wasn't hard to pass up. I'm also finding that I CAN eat out at most places as long as I go with grilled entree and veggies or salad. I love that I feel full and never hungry. I love that I don't have that carb overload feeling where I just want to crawl into bed and sleep for hours.

There is no alcohol allowed on this plan for 30 days. I miss my occasional glass of white or red wine, but will add that back in after I'm done.

Also enjoying knowing that I can just eat a bowl of 'cereal' (coconut flakes with fruit and almond milk) if I'm sick of eggs. Adding the veggies w/ the scrambled eggs has helped a bunch. Also love the pico and using special vinegars to spice things up.

Whole30 Day 9

Breakfast:
a bit of sausage scrambled w/ a couple of handfuls of spinach and 2 eggs topped w/ pico. This tasted AMAZING to me.

Lunch:
 I think I had a little leftover roast beef and about 4 'halo' tangerines. This is a day that these 'cuties' came over this week so I barely remember eating.

Snack:
Lara bar and a couple of 'halo' tangerines

Dinner:
Green Chili grilled chicken cutlets, sweet potato w/ butter and sauted zucchini. Loved the green chili chicken ...easy marinade of :
2 handfuls of cilantro, 2 T of canned green chilies, 1 cup of olive oil, 1 chopped and seeded jalopeno,
2 T of lime juice blended in vitamix. I poured this on top of chicken cutlets in large ziplock baggy this am to marinade all day.

Whole30 Day 8

Breakfast:
2 pieces of bacon
'cereal' of coconut flakes, clementine, small apple and almond milk

2nd Breakfast: (Ha!)
leftover sweet potato hash from Saturday am (sausage, sweet potato, onion, apple and pumpkin spice)


Lots of grocery shopping plus extended time on my couch this am...Nice was super nice. Hoping to vary up some of the menu this week. Feeling great. May have more to do with the puppy finally sleeping thru the night til 5 am the last two nights than what I'm eating.

Some things for me to plan for will be all day with friends in San Antonio and then Friday some family coming in.

Dinner:
grilled burger, baked potato and butter, spinach and red onion with splashes of balsamic vinegar. *

*wow! I loved the vinegar and will use that more often.

Whole 30 Day 7

Breakfast
2 banana, 2 clementine
 plus almond milk smoothie
2 cups coffee with cream

Lunch
Rudy's brisket extra moist
Rudy's cole slaw

Dinner
Amazing grilled chicken breast with peppers at Texican. Passed on the rice and the charro beans. So fun to see some old friends! Nice to know that usually can get something grilled at a restaurant.

Whole 30. Day 6

Beakfast
Hash with sausage , onion, apple, sweet potato ...very good

Lunch
Panera fuji chicken salad (this is cheat, not sure what is in dressing and there was some cheese)

Snack
Strbx Iced coffee with sugar free syrup and cream. (This is cheating, using sugar free or any sweetener)

Dinner
Balsamic roast
Sauted zucchini
Baked potato

Whole30 Day 5

Breakfast:
3 pieces of bacon*
2 scrambled eggs
Clementine orange


Lunch and Dinner:
"Leftover Soup" made w/ baked chicken fajitas, onion, zucchini, new potato and chicken broth and more chili powder, cumin and coriander

Had to have soup since I had dental surgery this am.

After Dinner Snack:
2 clementines, 2 frozen bananas, almond milk in vitamix to make 'ice cream'. FAVORITE 'snack' so far!

* discovered my uncured bacon and also my sausage does have sugar added to it. Have to find another brand w/o sugar!
No wonder I was starting to look forward to breakfast. :()

Whole30 Day 4

BREAKFAST:

Bowl of 1/2 cup coconut flakes, 1/2 cup raw cashews, 1/2 apple, mandarin orange plus almond milk
(I loved this break from eggs and bacon!) Technically not supposed to eat a lot of nuts on the 30 day plan...but they are paleo friendly, so I went with it.
2 cups of coffee

LUNCH:
leftover oven fajita chicken and peppers and ...... yes, carrot salad!

Snack:
Bag (100 cal bag) of nuts plus 3 dates, hot tea

DINNER:
Out to eat at The Black Walnut. I had the Grilled chicken breast with pico, roasted veggies and garlic mashed potatoes. Very good. I passed my garlic bread on over to Wm.

My mood feels much better today. ;)  It sure was nice for Wm to bring home some beautiful yellow tulips....
I still can feel the definite change in joint soreness going away. Even though I feel a little more energetic, this cold and rainy weather has me wanting to just stay home as much as possible.

Tomorrow is dental surgery day. I need to think about all the soft foods I can eat over the weekend that are Whole30 compliant.

Whole 30 Day 3

BREAKFAST

1/2 onion and 1/2 yellow bell pepper sauted in olive oil plus 5 scrambled eggs. One tangerine and a few blackberries

Snack:
Lara bar and bag of nuts


LUNCH: *
1 baked red potato (medium size) plus 1/3 pound crockpot taco meat
Taco meat:  1 pound of ground beef, 1/2 onion and 1/2 yellow pepper plus cumin and chili powder and garlic salt.
bowl of carrot/cabbage slaw (I LOVE this stuff)


DINNER:

Oven baked Chicken Fajitas
1 orange bell pepper, 1 onion and 1 red bell pepper
4 chicken breasts topped w/ chili powder, cumin and garlic salt and coriander

* After a little talking it over...Wm will be doing his own thing mostly for lunches. I will buy him some bagged salads for part of the time, but they are not 'Whole30 compliant'

I have to admit, I've been emotional the last couple of days...actually kinda 'snarky' at night would be a better way to put it. I think it's the transition off of the sugar? OR maybe no bread, but bread was not a huge deal before, so I tend to think it's the sugar.
On the positive side, I already feel less of that 'stiffness' in my joints. That's what I noticed almost immediately last year when I did this.

Whole30 Day 2

BREAKFAST:  For the two of us:
                          about 1/5 pkg of Owens' natural breakfast sausage scrambled w/ 2-3 handfuls of fresh baby spinach and 5 eggs
                           applesauce cup and blackberries
                           coffee

Wm doesn't care for spinach for breakfast and I have to admit...I like it better fresh in a smoothie if I'm going to eat it in the morning. I need to come up w/ another 'green' for eating with eggs. Maybe try zucchini and onion tomorrow.


LUNCH:  Wm had about 2 cups of Rotisserie chicken, 3 tangerines, a few baked red potatoes w/ butter, salt and pepper plus a Lara bar and small bag of nuts for snacks.

I had:

BIG lunch!  Rotisserie chicken, celery, tomatoes, 1 cup cooked veggies, cabbage/carrot slaw sweetened w/ pineapple and blackberries, mandarin orange.  I'm trying to eat BIG at mealtimes to avoid snacking.

Thinking of other meats for lunchtime and will probably try cooking up some taco meat for lettuce wraps this week. Leftover pork loin from tonight's dinner will also work. Next week or on the weekend will pick up Rudy's bar b q brisket.
Felt a bit stomach upset this am...probably from getting back to all the vegetables in our diet, both cooked and raw.

DINNER:  Pork loin in crockpot w/ one onion and one chopped up apple.
                    Baked Sweet potatoes w/ butter

Snack: Lara Bar and bag of nuts (100 cal pack)

Whole30 Day 1

This series of postings are really for me to just keep track of what I make day after day so I can redo this plan easily. But, feel free to read along if you like!

After re-reading It Starts With Food last week to get motivated...I realized I needed to wait until I had some time to meal plan and grocery shop before we started. With a bad case of plantar fasciitis and some very strange left hip pain...new grandbaby in the family and a fairly new puppy in our house, I knew I better wait until TODAY. So today is the day. MONDAY, January 19. MLK day.

Saturday I stocked up on lots of good eggs, grass fed ground beef,  a pork loin, roast, and a couple of rotisserie chickens. Add to the cart lots of bell peppers, onions, spinach, cilantro, zucchini, sweet potatoes, a bag of red potatoes (Double YAY YAY...white and red potatoes are now allowed on the Whole 30 plan!) and some other veggies and a bag of clementines and apples...some olive oil and spices and I'm set! I did purchase a couple of cool little lunch containers so I can get lunches premade for at least half a week at a time.

Wm and I did this paleo plan last year about this time. We were not super strict, but I would say we followed the plan at least 90% of the time for a month. By early fall we had pretty much abandoned it, though. My sugar consumption went way up over the holidays and I just basically felt like I was not focused any more on what I was eating. More eating out, more desserts, more french fries, etc. etc. I really felt just not up to par (at best) Also, since I decided to let my hair grow out gray, I was just feeling OLD.  I knew I did not want to change the gray hair plan, so I decided to get to work on what goes INSIDE by body.

William had started back on his 'stomach' meds again and we both were generally just not doing great. :(

So, off we go! Neither one of us is that concerned with weight at this point. We each have a few extra pounds put on over the holidays, but really just a few. I weighed in this morning just because the program says to do it at the beginning and the end, but not during. So, it's not weight this time. It's really about feeling great and losing the lethargic, yukky feeling in our bodies, our upset stomachs, the painful joints.

Todays meals:

BREAKFAST:   Microwave a medium size red potato till done. Cool slightly and meanwhile cook 3 pieces of uncured bacon and remove from pan. Saute a red chopped bell pepper, one white onion in remaining bacon grease. Whisk about 5-6 eggs. Add quartered potato to the pan and then add the eggs. Cook until done. Add garlic salt and pepper. Top with chopped up cooked bacon. BIG hearty meal for two of us. I give Wm about 2/3 of this (usually!) and I take the remaining third. We each drank about 3 cups of coffee. Wm had his black. I put in about a teaspoon of heavy cream.

I needed this big meal and it really lasted me until I was able to eat lunch at almost 2 pm.

The little stinker was staying right underfoot most of the time, but I did catch her chewing on the bottom edge of the oven once or twice. 

 

LUNCH:    I had rotisserie chicken (about 1.5 cups), baked red potatoes with butter, salt and pepper, carrot salad (shredded carrots, pineapple and raisins) and sliced cucumbers. William had similar items, but also extra fruit and a small bag of nuts for a snack.

DINNER:   The plan is to grill about 1 pound of grass fed beef for burgers, whip up a pan of sauted spinach with some olive oil and chopped up red onion and round out w/ some more of that carrot salad!

I feel GREAT and have all day. That's what I notice usually is how much my energy level goes up w/ more protein and no added sugar or sweeteners. I am also so glad to be eating my veggies consistently thru the day.

Hopefully I can keep this posting up at least w/ a much shorter synopsis of the day.