Whole30 Eve

Tomorrow is the day.  We are starting Whole30 tomorrow morning. 

After church, we are heading to Costco to pick up a few last minute items - eggs, pork tenderloins, a few more veggies. 

Mentally, I'm ready.  I'm bracing myself for the detox this week. I plan to write down my thoughts as the weeks go on and will post them here as a check in. Tomorrow I will be taking measurements and pictures, weighing myself for the last time (my husband said he is throwing away my scale! Yikes!)  and generally mourning what I used to be.

And having a big ole celebration for what we will become! 

While I am excited to try recipes from Well Fed and Well Fed 2, I think this first week, we'll be doing a lot of the "hot plates" instead of full blown meals. Cooking up a lot of ground beef and chicken breasts, "steam sautéing" veggies then mixing and matching for the week. 

So while the list of things that I will miss is long --

• wine
• half and half
• cheese
• rice
• tortillas
• baked potatoes

-- the list of  benefits (health and beyond!!!)  FAR outweighs all of those things combined. 

I absolutely am excited for this.  I can't believe we're doing it  - all of us, even my kids!  Although I know my daughter has a birthday party next weekend. How do I control what she eats at a sleepover?  I mean, I can't. Part of the reason I want to do this is to see if getting her away from dairy to see if it helps her allergies - but going to a sleepover where I am about 90% certain they will serve pizza for dinner and cereal for breakfast?  How do I even influence this?   

This month will be a lot of navigation for us. Leading my son away from his breakfast cereals, my daughter away from cheese & crackers in her school lunch....  I just don't know how it's all going to go!!  Daily navigation. DAILY. 

For now, I will be having the rest of my wine tonight and starting fresh tomorrow. 

Whole30 here we come.

As promised ...

FOOD PORN! 

Ribs (smoked by my amazing hubby), mashed sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli and broiled brussel sprouts !

Proud Mama Moment!! My little guy has scrambled eggs, baby cucumbers, "power greens mix" (spinach, kale, chard) and a Cutie on his plate. I asked him to point to his favorite part of his lunch - he is pointing to the super greens! Doesn't hurt that we tell him greens will make him STRONG!  I'll get him to show those muscles next time he eats it :-) 

Tuna salad with 2 crackers (easing out of carbs!),
as lettuce wraps, with 2 baby cucumbers.

 I am trying to ease myself out of carbs, but once in awhile, I just NEED a cracker. Obviously that will end on Sunday when we begin Whole30. 

An absolute FAVORITE around here. My kids DEVOUR this stuff, as do hubby and I!  We had it twice in one week, it is that good! This time I made it with half ground chicken and half ground beef.  Yum. I am looking forward to making it Whole30 compliant, now that I've found a good substitute for hoisen (recipe in a paleo book!), soy sauce (coconut aminos) and the spice mix! 

Stir fry. LOADS of veggies, amazing steak marinated in 5 spice seasoning. 

My typical lunch and/or breakfast: 2 whole eggs, 2 egg whites, some kind of fruit (this is a Cara Cara orange, yum!) and "super greens" mix from Costco.

I GET CARDIO THIS WEEK! 

I am prepping myself for this weekend's endeavor. I ran out of half and half and instead of running out for more, I have been cutting out my daily cup (or 4) of coffee. Man, adding cardio and cutting caffeine at the same time - BRUTAL.  Around 2pm, I just want to curl up in a ball and take a NAP!

I've been feeling particularly sassy now that I have muscles :-) 

Phase 2: Jamie Eason LiveFit Training

Tomorrow I start Phase 2. Biggest awesome for me?

  CARDIO!! 

My beloved cardio is coming back! I can't wait!

So far, doing well.  Still haven't started Whole30 - still researching, prepping. I ran out of half and half yesterday so I've decided to muddle through black coffee (with the occasional Vietnamese coffee or Starbucks coffee to get me through) beginning now. I've had a bit more wine than usual :-) I've been tapering my grains a lot.

I haven't decided where I'll end up when this Whole30 is over. I don't know that I can sustain the "Whole30" guidelines for the long term. I saw this image:

From THIS I feel Primal is do-able. I'd even get some white potatoes occasionally?? I don't know - I don't know if I will want to go back to it. I'm hoping not.  I do think we'll do some hybrid of clean eating and primal. If my kiddos' allergies are gone at the end of this (during SPRING!!) we'll leave milk out.  They have already told me they prefer almond milk, which is awesome. I will be attempting homemade almond milk coming up soon! 

I do have a food porn blog post coming up - as I said, I've been easing out my carbs and dairy to focus more on full plates of meat and veggies.  I have a co-op order coming in on Tuesday that will bulk up our veggies!! My order includes: 

Bananas

Red pears

Citrus pack

Roma tomatoes

Cantaloupe

Asparagus

Kale

Carrots

Cucumbers

Green beans

Cabbage 

Avocadoes 6ct

Potatoes: Sweet

Red cabbage

Baby Portabella Mushrooms

Carrots Jumbo

Brussel Sprouts

Tomatoes vine ripe

Lemons and Limes

Excited to try including some "new" things in our routines - cabbage being a big one!  I am going to start making sure to have tons of sweet potatoes around to use after my cardio workouts and lifting sessions. 

Any vegetables that aren't "common" that I should try that are favorites in your household (particularly with kiddos!!) ??? 

Whole30 Date & Another Leg Day

Well, we have an official start date for Whole30 - March 30.  My mom is visiting and she said that if we waited until she was here, she'd do it with us! Here's me holding her to that promise! <3  I have several other friends that have said they were interested in joining us too - You know who you are ;-)  Maybe we'll have to start a FB page or a weekly check in post! 

Tomorrow is leg day again. This week in Jamie Eason's training, one extra day of training is added to the weekly plan. It's a repeat of the muscle group that's "lagging."   My legs aren't lagging, but as a runner, I'm mostly interested in growing the strength there.  So tomorrow is leg day again. 

My legs still hurt from Monday. 

On the off chance I can WALK normally tomorrow, I can't wait to have another four days of pain! Yippee! :-) 

I had a shining moment today, a big NSV for me and moreover, a MENTAL win.  I was at the grocery store picking up a few things I needed to make lettuce wraps (Zomg, you must try them!) and I wandered past the refrigerated coffee creamers.  I thought to myself "I won't be able to have this anymore - maybe just one more before I'm done."  Then something struck me and I was able to put it back. I thought "You have ALREADY detoxed from this - WHY would you add it back to your diet only to have to pull it out again??!!"  

 Seriously - this is going to be challenging enough. And I have full understanding that my life is NOT over because of this meal plan. I am hoping that the proof is overwhelming after 30 days that I FEEL better and I AM better because of the fuel I am putting in my body. I am already drooling over so many of the recipes we've looked at that I honestly can't wait to get started!  It will be an adjustment! I want my family to benefit, but I don't know how my carb loving kiddos will react when I tell them no more breakfast cereal, crackers at lunch or rice with dinner!   But one thing I have always believed and have stuck to - if it's on your plate, you try it - and I am NOT a short order cook. I make one meal for the family, take it or leave it.  So I will either come out the other side of this with amazingly adventurous little eaters or some VERY hungry little people!! 

Next few weeks, I will spend time trying to ease carbs out of my life gradually so that April 1 isn't a shell shock. I've already started loading my plate up with more veggies than anything else, most night passing on whatever starch/carb is being served.  My afternoons - lunchtime to before dinner - does NOT look like that, but I am working towards it. 

Baby steps!

Meal Planning and workouts

I'm going through another food overhaul. Remember how I mentioned I need to clean up my eating in my last post? Well, I was about mid-way through reading It Starts With Food. Since finishing the book, I have decided my family will be doing a Whole30, starting as soon as I can find the nerve. :-)

I'm trying not to say "I want to wait until..." because there is ALWAYS something else. I want to wait until - after my mom's next visit, after our cheese is gone, after Easter, after 4th of July, after school starts - before you know it, it's September!  So I know I just need to do it now. Hopefully, we can do the Whole30 and discover exactly what makes us tick.  I don't want to live a life of extremes, but I do know that we all need a good reset.  Lots of junk (sugar, alcohol, grains) is plaguing my family right now. My son would be THRILLED if he could eat cereal, toast and a scone every morning for breakfast. His little heart is going to be broken at the lack of O's for awhile. But ya know what? He'll adapt.  He luckily also loves "eggies" so I know there will be LOTS of those on our menu.  He's good with veggies too!  The tough cookie with veggies will be my lovely daughter.  She is very good about eating whatever protein we give her, but veggies can sometimes be a fight. Lately, she's been a rockstar, so I'm hoping that awesome rockstar-ness continues.

Obviously I know I can't control every morsel in their (or even my hubby's!) mouths.  I am just trying to give them the best foundation I can.

Yesterday's leg day stats.

I am still working through the Jamie Eason plan. Leg day yesterday was KILLER. I haven't felt this much (good) pain in awhile!  Today was back/bicep and I am not feeling the pain yet, but I feel STRONGER.  The weather yesterday and today is unbelievable, so we've been outside nonstop. Little Guy and I went to the zoo yesterday and enjoyed the sun. Then we played kickball as a family after dinner!   Today, he and I went to the lake on a walk after the Y, then played outside until lunch. We're hanging out inside for a little rest, but will head outside shortly to watch for big sis to come home on the bus.  Then it will be MORE playing outside. :-) I love this weather (curses on the SNOW that is predicted for tomorrow!!)

Hoping to get my body fat tested tomorrow. Last time I had it checked, I was at 28% - Yikes!! Hoping Whole30 will help that aspect too.

All in all, I am feeling good. I spent our outside time perusing  Well Fed and Well Fed 2 for recipes. Most of them - mouthwatering. Truly excited to revolutionize our eating for awhile!!

Powering Through!

I had my pity party last Thursday.  I spent Friday with my kiddos. 

And just as I promised, I went to the gym and KILLED my shoulder workout on Saturday. 

Obviously the 75 calorie burn kind of dismays me, but I know I'm building muscle and burning more over the course of a day than if I wasn't focusing so much. 

Monday was chest/triceps and boy did it hurt my arm. But I powered through. I may look like a moron lifting 3lb dumbbells with my left arm and 25lb dumbbells with my right......  but I am DOING it!

 Biceps hurt a lot to lift with my arm still injured, but again, I lighten up more than I would normally and I make it through.  This one took me a long time yesterday. I was taking my full 45-60 second breaks between my sets to make sure I was giving my arm time to rest. I feel good today, though!

Leg day. Eternally my favorite. There is something that changed when I started running - I grew muscles in places in my legs that I didn't know muscles were supposed to exist! I remember finding one bulge in a place I'd never seen and asking my husband if it looked swollen. "No, honey, those are muscles!"   Huh. Interesting!    So basically, leg/calf day - ALWAYS my favorite. Starting next week, I will be adding a day of workout. You are supposed to add to what you lack, however I just want to do more leg work! 

So that brings me up through day 11.  Excited to power through the next few weeks and get to a place where I can legitimately add cardio (I snuck in a 5 min warmup - 1/2 mile - today!)  Proud of myself to keep it up, but definitely need to focus more on cleaning up my eating habits!