Whole30 Third Week Meal Plan

Today is Day 15, you know what that means?  I’m officially half-way through.  I’ve survived half of the Whole30.  It has been hard and I would be lying if I said I did everything perfect.  I tried a sip of diet coke and it was nasty.  So much for being a rebel!  I guess I’ve kicked that habit.

I shared my first week’s meal plan and my second week’s meal plan with you.  So I thought I should keep it going.  I also have been holding myself accountable by sharing what I actually ate the first week and the second week.  Because no matter how hard I plan, things never happen that way.  Like when I got sick and lost my appetite for a few days or when I went out of town longer than I thought.  It’s been hard, but so worth it.


whole30 meal plan

whole30 meal plan

whole30 meal plan

whole30 meal plan

 

I usually venture away from this plan, but this is what I buy for and plan for.  At least I know on the days I’m tired there is enough food to cook a dinner in the fridge.  Also, I like to look at it the night or two before so I can pull any meat out of the freezer and have it defrosting.  My favorite is when I can cook a bunch of chicken at one time and have enough for a few meals.  I LOVE the crockpot, it makes my life so much easier.  I have some yummy salsa chicken coming up next week already on my radar.

I’m pulling the meatball soup out of the cookbook I talked about last week.  I’m having to make some adjustments to it to make it compliant, but I’m sure it’ll still be tasty.

Whole30 Eating Out Tips

I really enjoy eating out.  J and I can get out of the house for a little bit, have a date night, and just be around people.  So when we go and I order food knowing that it’s not prepared correctly and knowing it’s not the best choice of meat then it makes it less fun.  Plus… I can’t stand to look at the bread the next table is eating or having to say no cheese on my salad.  Cheese is so tasty.

Maybe in bigger cities there are more options for places that actually have organic foods on the menu, but in my small town, we don’t have that luck.

I kept seeing people talk about Chipotle has compliant meals you can order to give yourself a break from cooking… that’d be nice, but there is one problem.  The closest Chipotle is 112 miles away in Memphis, TN.  The next closest is in St. Louis.  Bummer!

I’ve come up with a few tips that could really help someone like me when they’re first starting Whole30 on how to eat out.

Whole30 Eating Out Tips

Whole30 Eating Out Tips

1) Ask the server how it’s prepared.  Is it cooked in olive oil (good!) or another type of oil that isn’t Whole30 approved?  Did you know most steaks are cooked with butter in restaurants, which is not Whole30 compliant (unless it’s clarified butter and no restaurant near me is doing that)?  How is the chicken prepared – in a marinade made with soy sauce and sugar?

You are paying for a service – it’s okay to ask these questions.  If the server doesn’t know then ask all your questions and make them go find out.  It won’t hurt them to be a little more knowledgeable about their employer (not like ewww they don’t serve the right kind of oil, but so they can tell the next person without any hesitation).

2) Just say no to bread.  That’s the easiest thing to do, but if you’re like me then the people you’re eating with want the bread.  I’m not tempted by the bread basket being there as long as it’s not sitting directly in front of me.  But if you are then have the wait staff only bring enough pieces so everyone with you can take one then if they want more just have them ask for the another ONE, not a whole basket.

3) It’s okay to make modifications.  Ask for no cheese, no butter or the sauce on the side.  Most kitchens will be happy to make adjustments for you.

Remember YOU ARE PAYING.  So it’s okay to ask questions, make changes to the menu and know how you’re food is prepared.

Want to know something?  It’s okay to send back an order if it’s done wrong.  YOU ARE PAYING.  I feel like I’m screaming that at you, but it’s the truth.  If you have asked for no cheese or no sauce and it comes out covered, then send it back.  You can be nice about it, but still do it.

 

 

Weight Loss Wednesday: Week 8

weight loss, weightloss
I can’t believe it’s been 2 months since I’ve started these posts… I guess time flies when you’re having whatever this is…

I’m also 13 days into my Whole30 experience.  So I haven’t weighed myself or anything.  I can tell clothes are fitting better, but I’m not sure if that’s Whole30 contributed or a combination of it with crossfit.  Probably the combination, but who knows.  I was doing crossfit b.w. (before Whole30) and I didn’t notice too much of a change, except in my thighs because my pants were getting tighter there….

I’m no longer craving diet coke like I mentioned in Monday’s post.  Every once in awhile I get a craving for chocolate or ice cream, but I ignore it and drink water.  It goes away and I go on about my day.  I have noticed since starting Whole30 that I haven’t been hungry as much.  Maybe it’s because I’m filling my body up with better, more nutritious food.  I don’t know, but I like it.  I’m definitely keeping my portions under control.  I know portions aren’t a huge concern while you’re doing Whole30, but for someone who had a problem with controlling how much they ate, it’s nice to know that with eating cleaner it’s not so much a concern.  I have to admit though – the first few days I was starving.  I would take second helpings that were suppose to be for J and I’d eat them all. Luckily he’s not doing all of Whole30 (just eating what I cook for dinner) so I can easily make him something else if he wants it.

I can’t wait to see how my third week goes. I’m hoping to see some more changes soon.

 

Avocado-Lime Salad Dressing, A Whole30 Recipe

So I’m a honey mustard and thousand island kinda girl when it comes to my salad.  I always say I could eat a big salad every single day and be perfectly happy.  And that’s the truth as long as I got one of my favorite dressings on hand.  Of course those dressings are not Whole30 approved and are so not healthy for my body.  So I nixed them.  They had to go.

I cannot eat a salad without any type of dressing on it.  Gross!  The thought of it just kind of sickens me a bit.  I need some more flavor on it.  Sure I can add tomatoes, red onions, peppers, chicken and so much more, but I need a little extra umph to get me through.  I went looking on Pinterest (the source of everything!) to find something that sounded good and would be Whole30 approved.

I found an avocado-cilantro one that sounded pretty good, but it had added honey in the recipe.  Well that was not going to work for me, so I switched some stuff around and made my own.

avocado salad dressing, whole30 approved salad dressing, whole30 recipe

Avocado-Lime Salad Dressing, Whole30 recipe

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado
2 Tbsp. of lime juice
the juice of 1 orange
1 Tbsp. cilantro
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
water (for consistency)

Add all of the ingredients into a blender.  Blend until smooth.  Add water until the consistency you like is reached.  I like my dressing a little thicker (hence my love of honey mustard and thousand island dressings) so I didn’t add very much.  It’s probably not as sweet as the original since we left out the honey, which I’m okay with.  It’s still very tasty and the perfect topping to my salads.

whole30, avocado lime salad dressing recipe

Any leftover dressing can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

This Whole30 just got so much easier! Boom!

What I ate – Week 1 of Whole30

Week 1 of Whole30 has come to an end (actually the first 10 days).  I survived.  I shared my meal plan with you last week of what I planned to eat.  But being this is a new year and I’m striving for a new me, I want to be held accountable for what I actually ate.  So in being in true blogger fashion – I took pictures.

Day 1 (Jan. 2)

whole30, 2hole 30, meal plan
Breakfast: sweet potato casserole with cherry tomatoes
Lunch: poached chicken on kale with red onions, cherry tomatoes and avocado dressing
Snack: banana and cashews (not pictured)
Dinner: grilled Tilapia with avocado salsa and steamed broccoli

Day 2 (Jan. 3)

I was out of town for the weekend visiting family, so it was pretty hard (at least for me).  I stuck to everything and brought snacks with me to really help me out.  I didn’t take any pictures of my meals because I just think it’s awkward to do that at a restaurant.

Breakfast: sweet potato casserole with cherry tomatoes (I heated it up before we left, thank goodness I froze some!)
Lunch: Salad with lobster and crab (we went out to eat and this was the best thing I saw on the menu)
Dinner: roasted chicken with white potatoes and a side salad with tomatoes and onions (again we went out to eat.  While everyone around me was drinking beer and eating pizza I was scarfing down chicken.  I actually didn’t have any problems with it – all I wanted was a diet coke more than life itself!)
Snack: cashews

Day 3 (Jan. 4)

Today was the day of our family’s Christmas with my grandma.  She arranged for the facility she lives at to prepare ham and then everyone brought a side dish.  I was asked to bring dessert and, if you know me, it’s hard for me to turn down any dessert.  So we stopped at the grocery store on the way and I found something that I didn’t like to take.  WIN!

Breakfast: eggs with sausage that my MIL prepared
Lunch: ham with pineapple and oranges with cherry tomatoes (so glad I brought my tomatoes with me to lunch!)
Dinner: steak with potato and side salad
Snack: cashews

Day 4 (Jan. 5)

whole30  meal plan

Breakfast: sweet potato casserole – I woke up late and didn’t have time to prepare what I planned.  Again, I’m so thankful to have some of these pieces frozen.  I grabbed and drove to work before heating it up.
Lunch: baked tilapia with a tomato salsa and half of a baked potato – since I woke up late that threw my lunch plans off so I ran home and made tilapia to stay on track.
Dinner: grilled pork chops with green beans and the remaining baked potato

Today was my first day back at Crossfit in a long time.  I’m not going to lie I was pretty weak and tired by the end of it.  I’m hoping that the longer I do Whole30 the better my body will react to the food I’m fueling it and give me a better work out.

Day 5 (Jan. 6)

Breakfast: I woke up with a sore throat and didn’t feel much like eating.  So I drank tea and water until lunch.
Lunch: We ordered Bread Co. for a co-worker’s birthday.  I had baked potato with no butter and no sour cream (I know, I’m eating a lot.  I have to cut these back), salad with chicken, avocado, and sliced almonds.  I ordered my salad with no cheese and no dressing.  I also passed on the birthday cake.  Boom!
Dinner: Chicken with potatoes – no picture because it wasn’t really deserving of one.  Being sick is the pits!

Day 6 (Jan. 7)

whole30 meal
Breakfast: 2 eggs mixed with coconut milk served with ground turkey (seasoned with red pepper flakes, garlic, salt and pepper)
Lunch: I didn’t take a picture so I can’t remember what I had – probably chicken….
Dinner: Salad from a local restaurant

I stayed home sick and barely felt like eating.  I made this great breakfast and then barely took 2 bites of it.  I just didn’t have an appetite all day.

Day 7 (Jan. 8)

Breakfast: banana and peppermint tea
Lunch: grilled chicken with green peppers, tomatoes, and onions on top of a salad
Dinner: fajita chicken, steak and shrimp

I still didn’t feel like eating when I woke up.  I know I should have forced more in me, but the thought made me tired.  So I just ate a banana and drank tea.  For lunch I forced a little more, but I still wasn’t very hungry.

I’m also really dragging on taking pictures of my food.  I did so good for the first day, but then completely fell off.  I need to get better.  I will get better next week.  Only 23 more days to go…  I really like it and think I can handle not going back to the way I was, but I do miss cheese in my diet.

 

 

Whole30 Second Week Meal Plan

 

whole30 meal plan, whole 30 meal plan

I’m on Day 8 of my first Whole30.  It’s rough.  I’m not even craving food – just diet coke!  I love me some diet coke!  I’m sick of water.  I’ve tried several flavors of coconut water and I didn’t care for them.  I can drink sparkling water, but barely.  It doesn’t taste good to me.  I think I’m going to have to buy some fruit to add to my water and sparkling water to make it a little tastier this next week.

I also woke up Tuesday with a super sore throat.  Luckily I thought about it before popping a cough drop and researched it to find there is no such thing as a whole30 compliant cough drop.  Bummer.  So I opted for teas and water with lemon.  It’s not the same as a cough drop.  But it’ll do.  I’m little worried about taking antibiotics, but I read on their site how they approve of antibiotics when needed.  I avoided Nyquil to be on the safe side, which made my achey head and sore throat that much worse.

Back to the meal plan…

I figured Fridays would be a good day to post my meal plan and thoughts from last week.  With the weekend right around the corner it’s nice to have a little more motivation to get through.

Here’s my Whole30 meal plan for January 10th through January 16th.  You can check out my last week’s meal plan, too.

whole30 meal plan, whole 30 meal plan

whole30 meal plan, whole 30 meal plan

whole30 meal plan, whole 30 meal plan

whole30 meal plan, whole 30 meal plan

 

Here are the recipes that I will be using this week, if it’s not listed then I used it last week and/or I’m making it up.

Taco Meat in the slow cooker from merelynne
Pot Roast from Rubies and Radishes
Italian broccoli, marinated antipasto and deviled chicken all come from The Best of The Best Italian cookbook with some adjustments

Weight Loss Wednesday: Week 7

weight loss, weightlossI have to be honest with you.  I mean, it’s more like being honest with myself.  Nonetheless it has to be done.  I have not lost any weight since I’ve started Weight Loss Wednesdays.  I’m so ashamed!  It’s been 7 weeks – seven. weeks.  I don’t know where my head was at.  I was hoping to find the motivation with these posts, but that didn’t come.

I had to do something else.  For my health and sanity, I had to try another way.  I started the Whole30 on the 2nd.  I went into why and my thoughts behind it all last Friday, which you can read about.  So I’m not going to go into detail about Whole30 and such in this post.  But I will say it’s hard… real hard.  You never realize how much your dependent on the crap-food until you take it away.  I’m proud that I’m sticking with it.  I have my meals planned and am in full prep mode to make sure I stick to them.

Yesterday we celebrate one of my co-workers birthdays.  We had food and cake.  I ordered a potato with ham on it and then had 1/2 a salad with almonds, avocado and grilled chicken.  No butter and sour cream on the potato.  No dressing on the salad.  It was actually pretty good.  Then I watched everyone else eat cake.  I did fine.  Honestly, I didn’t want it.  Sure I can taste the buttercream icing in my mouth, but it’s not worth it.  I’ve been doing so good on Whole30 and I’m not throwing it all away for a sliver of cake.

It was a pretty looking cake though…

cake

I also woke up yesterday with a pretty sore throat so being able to not give in to my comfort foods is a big deal.

One of the deals on Whole30 is that you do not weigh yourself for the 30 days, which I can appreciate.  This is not a diet nor is it a weight loss trick.  It’s there to reset our bodies from the toxic food that we normally consume (or at least I consumed).  I weighed myself before it started and will share my results at the end of this month.  I’m not hoping for much if anything, but I am hoping to learn how to eat cleaner and leaner.

I’m still going to crossfit, but I’ll have to admit my energy levels are low.  I read from others that it’ll bounce back once my body is getting used to the new food, but it’s hard.  I’m tired a lot and am trying so hard to not be cranky with others.

I’m going to keep my Weight Loss Wednesday posts going.  I’ll share achievements with you – some may not be scale victories and I’m okay with that.  It’s not all about the scale.  I have to teach myself that.  It’s about how I feel, how my body is reacting to my workouts and if I’m satisfied after dinner instead of feeling guilty.  The weight will come off with time on a cleaner diet (not as in a fad diet, just food you eat on a regular basis) and being more active.

Here’s to a new and improved body and mind!

 

Whole30 Recipe {Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole}

whole30 breakfast casserole
So for my first week of following Whole30 I found this yummy looking casserole from From This Kitchen Table on Pinterest.  I added a few tweaks and voila – my very own breakfast casserole that’s Whole30 approved.

I went ahead and made a pan up on New Year’s day, let it cool then sliced it into 10 pieces.  I put two slices into the fridge and the rest I wrapped to freeze.  I figured knowing what I could eat for 10 mornings would really help me out.  You see, I’m not the best morning person.  I usually wake up late, watch too much tv, play with the dogs too long and dilly-dally getting ready.  I couldn’t depend on myself to get up and actually cook a healthy, Whole30 approved breakfast every morning for 30 days.  It was impossible.

whole30 recipe sweet potato breakfast casserole

Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole, a Whole30 recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound ground meat (I used beef because it was what I had on hand, but you could use any)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/2 small white onion, chopped (you could use less or more depending of your love of onion)
2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 bell pepper, diced (optional and I used 2 smaller peppers)
8 eggs
1/2 cup coconut milk
additional salt and pepper

Directions:

1) In a skilled combine meat with garlic powder, thyme, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt.  Add onions about half-way through browning the meat.

2) place sweet potatoes in a separate pan in place in oven on broil for 8 minutes.  Stir the potatoes and place back in the oven for an additional 6 minutes.  Do not use the pan you’re going to bake this casserole in to broil the potatoes.  When you’re ready to add the eggs the pan will be too hot and it will immediately start cooking your eggs.

3) Turn oven to 350 degrees

4) Whisk together eggs and coconut milk together.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5) Spread the sweet potatoes in the casserole dish, top with meat mixture and green peppers.  Add the egg mixture on top.

5) Bake on 350 for 30 minutes.

Once out of the oven, slice into 8-10 pieces.

If you’re going to freeze a portion of the casserole then let cool completely, wrap individual pieces in foil and place in a freezer bag.  To reheat from freezer, do not thaw.  Place directly into microwave for 1 minute or until heated through.

whole30 breakfast casserole

I have to tell you – this casserole is so yummy.  I’m excited it turned out so well.

Going to the dogs

dogs

It’s no secret that I’m crazy over our pups.  I have many posts and Instagram images dedicated to them.  I can’t believe how much bigger Bud has grown in just the short 8 months we’ve had him.  Plus, Friday is the 2 year anniversary of when we found Tiny.  She was just a poor little pup on the side of the highway, scared to death and only 4 pounds.  I love these little guys so much!

I compiled some of the most recent ones to share.

maggie - sleeping maggie bud - tired bud and maggie

I’m doing Whole30

whole30
I’ve committed to starting Whole30 for the month of January.  I have a feeling it’s going to be hard.  If you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea what I’m talking about then I suggest you check it out on their site.  It’s the idea that our bodies are not made to consume the over-processed foods that we are used to putting in our mouths.  Our bodies need to hit the reset button and that’s exactly what Whole30 does.  It’s thirty days of eating clean, whole foods so allow our bodies time to heal from the damage we do with Oreos, fast food and potato chips.

I purchased the book It Starts With Food and read it one day.  Melissa and Dallas Hartwig go into the science behind the over-processed foods and why our bodies are not made for them, and why we crave them.  As I was reading it was like “oh yea, I know that!” but even knowing it doesn’t mean that I don’t consume those overly sugary foods.  So it was a wake up call of sorts because here’s all this information and explanation of how I’m hurting my body.  It’s like you’re opening yourself up to be hurt and yet you do nothing to prevent it.

I decided to start on January 2nd, not January 1st for a few reasons.

1) there are 31 days in January so by starting on the 2nd I will complete it on the last day of the month
2) I’m off work on the 1st so I can spend that day prepping foods, cooking ahead my lunches and breakfasts, and setting up a plan to succeed

whole30 meal plan, whole 30 meal plan

 

I went a head and outlined what my meals were going to be, each and every meal.  I sometimes do really good with planning dinners, but then get lost on lunch and breakfast.  So I either go out and grab something or I skip the meal entirely.

whole30

whole 30

whole 30

whole30

Here are links to the recipes I found.  If there isn’t a link it’s because it’s my own recipe.

Sweet Potato Breakfast Casserole
Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa
Grilled Pork Chops (half way down the page)
Fried Chicken (three-fourths the way down the page)
Beef and Broccoli with Cauliflower Rice

Check out my first week’s meal plan.