Day 4: Kill All The Things

Day 4: Kill All The Things

I woke up with a KILLER headache this morning and was sure the Hangover Phase was just hitting me a day late, but I made my coffee, ate extra protein for breakfast, drank a couple glasses of water, and within a couple hours the headache was gone. The rest of the day has been GREAT!

One of the people on my forum said that she really really wanted to step on the scale because she's sure she's lost weight, but she didn't. I understand the feeling. That has been one of the harder things for me. I'm a scalaholic. I weigh myself every day even when I'm not on a diet. I guess I just like to kick myself when I'm down. Guess that wasn't a very good thing. 

 

So, my scale is locked away in my closet, but I do feel lighter. I know that sounds silly, and if I did weigh myself it would probably only be a pound or two different--maybe nothing, but it is what it is. I do feel lighter. I'll take it.

I made some turkey burgers for dinner today. The texture was a little strange using almond flour instead of bread crumbs, but it was by far the most flavorful turkey burger I've ever made. Here's a link to the recipe.  I didn't have any coconut, so mine weren't coated.

 We finally got our garage delivered today. We have been working on this for months. Today was a beautiful day-mid 70s, gentle breeze. I sat on the deck this morning, drinking my coffee, doing some school work, and watching them build our garage. The small of fresh lumber, the sound of hammers...it was wonderful, and I didn't want to kill anyone or anything today.  Of course tomorrow is Kill All the Things, Part II. We'll see how that goes.

I ended the day by playing an online version of Cards Against Humanity with my family. What a great way to stay connected across the miles. I didn't spend as much time in the kitchen as I had planned today, but I did get my crazy plastics and baking tools cupboard cleaned out so I don't have to duck every time I open the door. I have to do some cooking/freezing tomorrow, though. I still have a lot of produce in my fridge that I don't want to go to waste. I WAY overbought for this first week. I was too afraid of not having enough to eat! HA!

Tomorrow is my last real day of summer vacation. :-( It's been a great summer, but always flies by. I'm really excited that several other teachers are going to start their Whole30 because of me talking about it. It makes me feel good that I could spread the excitement, and it will really help having a bigger support group.

On to bed and getting ready to face Kill All the Things Day 2.

TTFN

vicki

Day 3: The Hangover-Part II

Day 3: The Hangover-Part II

Today is supposed to be the second day of the Hangover Phase. It didn't bother me too much yesterday, so let's hope today is okay, too.

I keep forgetting to post my goals, so I'm doing it now before I forget.

• Break the psychological addictions I have with food and it's hold over me
• Get my cholesterol, blood pressure, and other body numbers where they should be and get off the BP meds
• Get my gut in order without all these "tummy issues" and get off the acid reflux meds
• Get rid of these mood swings! ARGH!
• Be able to put on my socks and tie my shoes without having to think about how I'm going to reach my feet
• Feel like doing more than sitting on the couch all day--I need energy!
• Get rid of the achiness in my joints and muscles and have increased flexibility so it doesn't hurt to bend over and pick something up off the floor
• Move down a pant size (for now, but eventually, I'd like to be down 4 pant sizes)
• Feel good about myself

I'm a little worried about today. I have meetings at 1:00 and at 3:00. The 3:00 meeting is a BBQ at my principal's house for the leadership committee. I know they will have yummy food, and I'm not too worried about being able to resist, I'm just worried about getting really hungry. I'm taking a chopped salad for my dish to pass, and I am bringing my own protein (chicken thighs), but I'm not going to like seeing all the other yumminess.

My daily email also said that today was the day that it was okay to take a power nap in the afternoon. Great. I get permission to nap, and I have meetings. That won't be happening. Now I feel grumpy about that.

Okay, enough grumping for now. I'm not feeling too horribly this morning. I did sleep pretty well (I got my pillow back from the resort, but that's a different story), but I woke up to use the restroom and I couldn't get back to sleep for 2 hours in the middle of the night. No headache this morning, just a little groggy and grumpy. And a really bad case of bed head. Time to make some breakfast!

Ugh, I am so tired of chicken thighs. I won't have time to do much tonight, but tomorrow I have to find something new to eat. It feels like I've been eating chicken thighs, shredded sweet potato and roasted beets for weeks. (That was my breakfast, by the way).

Well, I made it through the BBQ. It was harder than I thought it'd be. Everything looked so GOOD! I did have a good plate of food, too. I took a couple burger patties, had a large serving of chopped salad, and was able to eat some fresh fruit that someone else brought. I had people ask me to make them a chopped salad, so I guess that was a hit.

Today was pretty good altogether. I'm a little hungry now. I ate some veggies for a snack tonight because we ate dinner so early. I have to go to bed early tonight because the people will be here at the crack of dawn to build our garage. I can't wait. We've been waiting a long time for this.

My hangover phase was not bad. I'm hoping it's not just delayed. Every day is a new experience. I'm going to experiment with some new recipes tomorrow. I'll let you know how they go. TTFN!

vicki

Day 2: The Hangover Phase

 

Day 2: The Hangover Phase

They say that days 2 and 3 are considered the Hangover Phase. They warn about headaches, body aches, gut aches, and a general feeling of blah. I expected to have a pretty rough time these two days because I really binged a lot during the weeks leading up to this. So far, only a headache that woke me up in the night but got better once I was up and around this morning. Oh, and really stinky poo. I know, TMI, but I'm sure it's those stinky toxins leaving my body.

Two pretty exciting things happened already today:

1. The Paleo Mom posted on FB that US Wellness Meats was giving 15% off on orders under 40lbs. I checked out their website, and they have BACON! You better believe I placed an order!

2. My Door-To-Door Organics order came today! I usually get the small veggie box, but this week I added quite a few things to it, so it was a huge box. See:

I finally did something I've been wanting to try for a long time. I made some refrigerator dill pickles. Well, actually I started them. They have to sit on the counter for 8 hours in the brine, then I transfer them to jars. Then they need another 2 days in the fridge before they are ready to eat. The waiting is the hard part!

Exciting thing #3--My Amazon order arrived! I am so thankful that I had just gotten a bonus at work so I put it into grocery shopping for Whole30 staples and ordering fun new gadgets from Amazon and two great cookbooks that every Whole30er should own. Can you believe that this is my first ever cast iron skillet? 

Well, the whole taking pictures of my food got old really fast. Not too exciting to take pics of leftovers, and that's what today has been so far. Breakfast: leftover sweet potato skillet and a glass of apple/pear/carrot juice. (I know, juice is frowned upon, but don't worry, I'm not even close to a daily juicer, I just needed to use some fruit) Lunch was leftover spaghetti squash and 3 burger patties smeared with homemade mayo. Dinner was a hot plate of beet greens, shredded sweet potatoes, roasted beets, and a couple chicken thighs.

I haven't had too much of a "hangover" day. Just a little lethargic.My biggest problem yesterday and today is my meals. I make myself a great meal, but I get full 1/2 way through. I mean FULL as in STUFFED. So I stop eating because I don't want to continue to stuff myself and get sick, but then about an hour later I'm having hunger pangs. I really focused during lunch and dinner today to eat slowly, but that didn't seem to help. Hopefully someone on the forum can help me figure it out. I started a thread and it's 3 pages long already! Making a lot of new friends.

Oh, darn, I forgot to post my goals today. Maybe I'll go ahead and start tomorrow's blog tonight and do it while I'm thinking of it. I got sidetracked talking about poo.

Okay, time to go click the "I did it" button and probably turn in early tonight. I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon/evening with a cookout as part of the meeting. I'm pretty nervous about it, but I'm going to take a chopped salad as my side dish and take a couple of my standby chicken thighs to warmup in her microwave. Pretty much everyone in the committee knows that I'm doing Whole30, so that should help.

TTFN!

Vicki

Day 1-Off and Running!

Well, not literally running. I'd prefer to live through the day!

So, I woke up today with mixed feelings. I was excited to finally get started, but there was/is this fear of failure hanging over my head. It's come from a lifetime of successes followed by failures, and it's hard to ignore. I was kind of wishing I hadn't so public about everything--then I could just fail in private. I think it's going to take a lot of positive affirmation to convince myself that I really can do this. I also know that every day that I successfully complete the program will bolster my confidence.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff.

Since I didn't prep anything for breakfast yesterday (remember--tired feet), I had to figure out what to make. I am really glad I have this week before school to figure all these things out. I ended up making a breakfast scramble (shredded sweet potato, sliced beet, some diced onion, about a 1/4 c of the ground beef I had browned yesterday, 3 eggs and some salt and pepper). It made a LOT. I put it all in my bowl, but I could only eat half of it. Now I have tomorrow's breakfast all done!

Meal 1, Day 1

I didn't end up eating my first meal until around 10:30 a.m., and I was really full and didn't even finish eating it all. I was kind of surprised that I was hungry again by noon. I didn't get my ranch dressing made yesterday, so I had to whip that up before I could eat lunch. It would have been better if had set overnight since I used dried herbs instead of fresh. I will make a couple more batches tonight.

I ended up eating lunch at 1:00, and it was delicious and filling. I made a salad with mixed greens, grape tomatoes, olives, a boiled egg, homemade ranch dressing, and the meat from two chicken thighs (cooked last night).

Meal 2, Day 1

Unfortunately, by 2:00 I was hungry again. I don't know if it's my brain trying to remind me that I'm doing something different, if I'm not eating slowly enough, or if I'm really not getting enough food. I'm pretty sure it's not the latter. I will continue to try to figure this out.

5:00 check in. I drank a lot of water this afternoon, and even though I still have a hunger twinge now and then, I just start working on something, and it goes away for a while. You're not supposed to let yourself  be hungry on Whole30, but you're also not supposed to have snacks. Gonna eat slowly during dinner. 5:15 ate about a 1/2 c of blueberries. That took the edge off.

Warmed up chicken thighs (from Sunday's cookup), spaghetti squash, and salad for dinner. Again, it was way more than I could eat, but I didn't want to get hungry before bedtime.

Meal 3, Day 1

All in all it was an okay day. I am so thankful I have this week off. My daughter and sister who also started today had a lot tougher time with meal prep and hunger issues. I was able to do some additional prep work today like:

• shred a gallon bag full of sweet potatoes
• clean some beet greens to use later and roasted the beets
• made more ranch dressing
• separated all my seasonings into compliant and non-compliant

And now, I get to go click the "I did it" button on my Day 1 email!

Tomorrow I need to remember to list all the measurable and non-measurable goals I hope to achieve.

TTFN!

Vicki

Day Zero

My Motivational Poster

It's finally here! I've been preparing for this day for a couple of months now. Tomorrow I officially begin taking my life back.

First of all, if you are unfamiliar with Whole30, here is the link to the main site. http://whole30.com/.  It is basically a super clean eating program that you follow for 30 days without ANY slips. It has to be strictly followed to have the reset work.

The reset happens when you eliminate all sugars, grains, dairy, soy, legumes, and chemicals used in processed foods. Testimonials of successful Whole30ers include all kinds of improved health results and they were able to break their addictions to foods.Yes, almost everyone lost weight, but although that was the original thing that drew me to this lifestyle, the weight loss has become just an added benefit.

So, how did I prepare? As those of you who know me best know, I can kind of obsess when I start researching something new, and this was no different. I've spent most of my summer break learning everything I can about Whole30 and how the body processes different foods. Here's what I've done so far to prepare:

• Googled everything Whole30
• Read the website http://whole30.com/ about 20 times
• Ordered and read the book It Starts with Food
• Started a Pinterest board specifically for Whole30
• Promptly started judging all the people who had pinned non-compliant food to their Whole30 boards--READ People! Pancakes are NOT Whole30! and Paleo does not equal Whole30 all of the time
• Started filling my Amazon cart with things like coconut aminos, ghee, and almond flour (basically anything I thought I'd have a hard time finding at the regular grocery store)
• Bought a new crock pot and a new food processor (just got the food processor today)
• Sorted everything in my cupboards into compliant and non-compliant (Unfortunately I had so little compliant food, it ended up on the counter. The stuff left in the cupboard is all Bruce's now.)
• Started practicing with new foods. Who knew...I LOVE Beets! I guess I just didn't like them pickled, but they are awesome roasted.
• Went on vacation and ate whatever I wanted and said my little goodbyes along the way
• Talked to as many people as I could about the program and subscribed to several blogs
• Picked out a handful of recipes to try the first week (not enough to be overwhelming)
• Made a motivational poster
• Made an extensive grocery list
• Went shopping--at Walmart. You can do Whole30 without going to the fancy stores. Here are my results:

• 

  Produce-I shouldn't have piled it up so much. There is a lot more there than it looks like

  

  Pantry Items and my new Food Processor

  
  

Meat!

 

 

 

Once I got home I went into prep mode. I:

• browned 3 lbs of ground beef with onions and garlic
• baked 1-1/2 lbs of chicken thighs with salt and pepper
• fried 1-1/2 lbs of chicken thighs in coconut oil with salt, pepper, and paprika
• made my own mayo...see!
  
• grilled 8 burgers
• boiled a dozen eggs

At this point I still had veggies to prep and some sauces to make, but my feet were killing me, so, since I don't have school tomorrow, I'm going to do veggie prep in the morning.

This should give me plenty of go-tos for the week. I also bought ground turkey to make into turkey sausage, ground pork to make Scotch Eggs, a chuck roast and a pork tenderloin. I can chase away the boredom by making an actual recipe mid-week.

Tomorrow morning I will wake up to my Whole30 Day 1 email, weigh myself, take measurements, take before pictures (this has to be worse than anything the next 30 days has in store for me), put away my scale, and start taking back my life.