Whole30- DONE and with good results!

Weird carrot I got last week from the farmer's market

I finished 30 days of Whole 30 last Wednesday. I am very happy I was able to stick it out for 30 days. There were times that I was sorely tempted and wished I could deviate (and did for a wedding), but it was soooo worth it!

So what are the results?

Energy levels- Energy levels are much higher than before. I tried a slice of bread on Friday and was sooo tired the rest of the day and into the next. I think I will continue to stay away from carbs, or at least stick with a gluten free carb dish.

Food cravings- My cravings for carbs went waaay down. Every once in awhile a crunchy slice of toast sounded tasty, but since we don't have bread in the apt, that thought went away quickly. Craving for meat went sky high, which is really weird. I'm repulsed by meat (always have been), but sometimes I wanted to eat a steak, a slice of bacon, anything that was actual meat. Very strange. I went to the store today because I've been wanting bacon like a crazy woman. I went yesterday and was grossed out picking up the package, but I went ahead and bought one today. I'm going to make some and incorporate bacon pieces into a batch of egg muffin frittatas. One thing I DON'T crave is salmon. I freaking hate salmon now since I ate it either every day or every other day. I'm fine eating eggs everyday because they are so versatile, but NOT salmon. Gross!

Weight- My weight went down 2 pounds. But body fat % went down 1.7%. That's a lot in a month. I think it would have gone down more if I cut down a bit more on the fruit. I've been periodically tracking my body fat % since March 2010, and this is the lowest I've ever been (except for one fluke measurement in 4/2010).

Measurements- Lost 1 inch around the waist, and 1/2 inch around the hips. Everywhere else stayed the same. Not bad!

Visual changes- I took pictures back in July right before I started CrossFit. I took pictures yesterday and compared them to the July pictures. No, I'm not comfortable posting these pics online, but there is a huge difference- legs smaller, waist smaller, arms more toned.

Digestion- My stomach has been bothering me since Oct 2010. Ever since trying Whole30/Paleo, my stomach has been very, very happy. My stomach now gets upset when I eat something with sugar (sweets), is very oily (cooked in canola oil, veggie oil, etc.), or is a carb. I tried some ice cream tonight from Mother Moo Creamery and so far my tummy is OK. I really need to see what soy will do so I can reintroduce tofu back into my diet.

What now? I'm definitely going to keep up Paleo and keeps the carbs out of my diet or maybe splurge once in awhile on a piece of toast. I'll continue to document my journey and some meals here on the blog. I'm toying with the idea of maybe seeing what it would be like eating meat for 30 days and see if there is a difference. I think part of the reason why I've been craving meat is because I've become limited to fish and eggs on this diet. I bought "The Vegetarian Myth" and will read it with a huge dose of skepticism, simply because I've noticed a lot of her references are to wikipedia articles or online sites. College taught me (among other things) that online references are NOT references.

Maybe I'll post the before/after pics in the future, but now I'm going to cook some bacon. :)

Whole30- Day 26

This is what I made today!

Breakfast- scrambled egg

Snacks- fruit samples at farmer's market, pluot, strawberries, macadamia nuts, dates

Made a quick trip to the farmer's market in the morning to pick up a week's worth of produce. My hands were so full with so much food that I dropped my strawberries. :( Luckily they were wrapped up in a plastic bag, but many of them got smushed that I had to eat them as soon as I got home.

Used a LivingSocial deal D bought for my birthday and spent the afternoon sailing with friends. It was a bit scary in the beginning because I forgot what it was like and it was unusually windy in the morning, but it was fun! There are blue whales hanging out these few weeks in the South Bay area, so we tried to see some but only the sailing instructor saw the whale spouting. He told us a few days ago he was out sailing with a group and a blue whale jumped right in front of them! I don't want to mess with a 100+ foot long whale!

Lunch- Our group picked up food at the best place in Redondo- The Standing Room! They were able to modify their portobello mushroom sandwich to a sandwich style for me. If you haven't been, you NEED TO GO!!!

Spent the rest of the afternoon cooking 2 dozen mini egg frittata muffins, apple cinnamon cookies (Paleo cookies!!!!), and strawberry protein balls while watching football.

They may not look good, but they taste good!

Dinner- Baked cod, cauliflower fried rice, Chinese green beans

Dessert- Paleo cookies and nutty protein ball--DELISH!!! I was so excited to try the apple cinnamon cookies, and they were OK. I miss the texture of real cookies, but I'll take what I can get for now. :)

Whole30- Days 24 and 25

I had written down what I ate yesterday, but somehow it got deleted. Basically it was probably the same as the day before-- eggs, cod, veggies, and a pluot.

Today- Day 25

Breakfast- egg muffin frittatas

Snacks- macadamia nuts, roasted red bell peppers

Lunch- cod with julienned zucchini

Dinner- We were both tired from a long day, so we headed over to Pinkie's BBQ. We were both sorely disappointed. I had the smoked salmon plate with a side of southern greens and coleslaw. The southern greens were doused with a ton of vinegar and made it hard for me to even want to eat them. The smoked salmon was on the small side and served slightly warm. D had the hillbilly sandwich and a 1/2 rack of baby back ribs plate. He didn't like his food either. :( Bummer!

Dessert- Pluot and canned peaches

A co-worker brought in some special chocolates earlier this week. Since going paleo and doing the Whole30, I wasn't going to eat the chocolates. But, they are a special, regional chocolate, and I'm a sucker for stuff like that. So I saved myself a piece. It's been chilling on my desk (wrapped up), and there have been times this week that I've had to talk myself out of wanting to eat it. This diet (it's more of a way of life) has helped me think about the motivations behind wanting to eat the chocolate. Do I feel that the chocolate will help me feel better? Am I looking for an indulgence? Am I bored? Am I looking for a something to get me through the day? It's been a yes to all of those questions at various times, and it has helped me think about other ways to help myself instead of food and treats. I'm feeling good about myself that I can stare at it and say, nope, I am better than you, chocolate! Take that! There is nothing wrong with a little splurge now and then, but holding myself strictly accountable regarding food is so new to me and actually empowering. But I will eat the chocolate when the 30 days are up!

Whole30- Days 21-23

Almost there!!!!

Day 21- Monday

Breakfast- scrambled egg, strawberries

Snacks- plums, macadamia nuts, scrambled egg, slivered almonds, strawberries, pluot

Lunch- roasted red pepper, cod, zucchini

Dinner- cod, green beans, eggplant and kale

Dessert- pluot

The bus I take home from work broke down, so I wasn't able to work out on Monday. Instead, I cooked for 2+ hours and watched Mad Men in between. I baked salmon, sauteed together eggplant and kale, cooked some Chinese green beans, and fried rice. At least I'm now set up for all my meals the rest of the week!

Day 22- Tuesday

Breakfast- egg muffin frittata, strawberries

Dnacks- plums, macadamia nuts, scrambled egg, slivered almonds, strawberries, pluot

Lunch- salmon, fried rice

Pre-workout- egg muffin, strawberries

Dinner- salmon, green beans, bok choy and tomatoes and spinach

Dessert- pluot

Today the sugar monster came after me! I couldn't get enough sweets, so I went a bit overboard with the prunes. Tasty!

Day 23- Wednesday

Breakfast- egg muffins, smoked salmon

Snacks- plums, macadamia nuts, smoked salmon

Lunch- salmon, zucchini. I was supposed to join in for lunch at two work events, but with the diet I'm on, I couldn't eat anything. So I ditched the events and ate at my desk instead. I swear I wasn't trying to be anti-social!

Pre-workout- pluot

Dinner- scrambled egg, stirfried eggplant and kale and green beans

Dessert- pluot

The owner of the CrossFit "box" that I workout at, CrossFit South Bay, just put out a video. I'd highly suggest checking it out to see just how passionate he is about helping people succeed at being a CrossFitter and positively change their lives.

Whole30- Days 15-20

Just a small bit of our purchases from this week's farmers market.

I'm back! It's been a busy past few days, preparing food, working out, and living life outside of work. Here's what's been going on the past 5 days-

Day 15, Tuesday

Breakfast- egg frittatas, lunaball

Snacks- hard boiled egg, carrots, can of tuna, last apricot luna bar

Lunch- salmon w/ zucchini

Preworkout snack- lunaballs

Dinner-- banana, 2 crab cakes, dfried rice, baked salmon

Dessert- lunaballs, prunes

I'm telling you-- the lunaballs I made were highly addictive! The one thing I've learned on this diet is my sweet tooth is never satisfied!

Day 16, Wednesday

Breakfast- scrambled egg, lunaball

I'm getting REALLY tired of eating the mini egg frittatas every morning for breakfast. I've started scrambling eggs more and more often for breakfast, but now that is starting to get old. Any suggestions?

Snacks- prunes, dates, hardboiled egg, carrots lunaball

Lunch- salmon w/ zucchini and fried rice

Preworkout- lunaballs

Dinner- egg omelette, sauteed bok choy, spinach, tomato

Dessert- lunaballs

Day 17- Thursday

Breakfast- scrambled egg

Snacks- prunes, dates, red bell pepper, carrots

Lunch-salmon w/ rice, zucchini

Dinner- I went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant with my family. The restaurant just moved to a new location and were all out of fish, so I ordered a shirmp pesto pasta dish and just ate the shrimp. I was still hungry afterwards, so I snuck in a few spoonfuls of peanut butter. :)

Dessert- last lunaballs

Day 18- Friday

Breakfast- scrambled egg

Snacks- prunes, macadamia nuts, carrots. My co-worker came back from Hawaii and brought back some macadamia nuts for me. Yeah!!

Lunch- I didn't have any time to make fish Thursday, so I had to buy food from Mixt Greens. I bought a big "Maui Salad" and modified it-- spinach, avocado, mango, cucumber, seard ahi tuna.

Dinner- tomatoes, scrambled egg, mushrooms, crab cakes

Dessert- emerald queen pluot

Day 19- Saturday- Ended up becoming a cheat day!

Breakfast- egg omelette, pulot

Snacks- fruit samples at farmers market, almond butter, pluot, strawberries

Lunch- grilled salmon from BJ's Grill, steam veggie, tomato/cucumber salad

Dinner- This is when my Whole30 plan went out the window. We went to a wedding, and I decided that I was going to go ahead and eat what I wanted, regardless of Whole30. I never thought I'd end up cheating, right when I was almost 2/3 of the way done. But I enjoyed myself. I ate the following: mini lobster slider, butter leaf lettuce salad with walnuts, grapes, and goat cheese, Irish salmon with mixed veggies and corn polenta. Also had less than one half a glass of wine.

Dessert- A few bites of wedding cake. The wedding featured a dessert bar with mini servings of the following: mini smores cupcake, chocolate mousse, key lime pie, and a red velvet cakepop.

Day 20- Sunday- Lesson learned-- the day after cheat days SUCK

Breakfast- I wanted to wake up early and watch the 9/11 memorials on TV, which started at 5am. I woke up before the alarm and I felt so sick! So I went back to sleep. When I woke up at 8am again, I still felt sick. It felt like I was hungover, but I barely drank anything the previous night. I felt like eating a piece of bread to calm my stomach down, but that was off limits. I cooked myself some scrambled eggs and ate some strawberries. I felt soo much better after that. This was a definite good lesson for when I go back to trying out, to not go all out, but try out things gently and in moderation!

Snacks- strawberries, pluot, almond butter, marinated beets, roasted red peppers, mini egg frittata

Lunch- crab cakes, tomato

Dinner- cauliflower fried rice, salmon

Dessert- pluot