August Whole30: Week 3 Planning and a Lesson in Checking Your Labels

As promised, I'm going to tell you guys the story of the spicy tuna cakes and the importance of checking labels! So last Friday night on my way home from work, I stopped and did my grocery shopping at Aldi, as usual. Anyways, I've been really digging the Spicy Tuna Cakes, so I decided to make them again for this week. So I picked up four cans of chunk light tuna in oil at Aldi, which was different from the week before - I bought light tuna in water. When I got home, I read the label, and was horrified to see the tuna was packed in SOYBEAN OIL!! Ugh! So I picked up some tuna packed in olive oil (and no nasty sneaky ingredients) at Publix, but I was FREAKING OUT because I was second-guessing the tuna I had bought and eaten all last week - I thought I was going to have to start back at Day 1. Well I googled it, and the tuna in water only contains tuna, water, vegetable broth, and salt. PRAISE JESUS!!! Moral of the story: ALWAYS CHECK YOUR LABELS!!!

So besides the spicy tuna cakes, I also made Cinnamon Beef Stew with Orange Gremolata from Well Fed, and Big-O Bacon Burgers from Nom Nom Paleo. I made the stew and the tuna cakes on Saturday, but didn't get around to making the burgers until last night after I got home from the gym. They actually came together fairly quickly, plus I had a few side condiments and such going on at the same time, so I got a lot accomplished in like an hour or so. If you head over to my Snap Story, the videos and pics from cooking will be up for a few more hours! I'll post a picture of the finished product here as well...

That's all I've got for now, but I'll be posting a little more later in the week, because I'm hosting a cookout at my house this Sunday, and I'll be making a few Whole30 compliant side dishes as well as maybe an entree or two! Stay tuned!

Whole30 Midway Point - Progress Update!!!

I'm gonna keep this short today, and let the pictures speak for themselves. I'm really encouraged that you can see progress in the pics!! Even more importantly, I am starting to feel better in my work pants, which had gotten really tight in the waistline recently! Halfway through the 30 days, and I'm feeling really good! I'll have to post about the scare I gave myself this weekend, but I'll save that for this evening or tomorrow :D

Let me know what you think!!

Whole30 Week 2...Midweek Report

Hello interwebz! Reporting in here for a little midweek update. I've been noshing on spicy tuna cakes, layered taco casserole, and teriyaki chicken all week, and my mouth and stomach have been happy campers all week. In fact, I'm loving the Spicy Tuna Cakes for breakfast so much, I'm making another (double) batch of them for next week!

Next week's meal plan/shopping list!

First, I wanted to report in on any changes I've felt I've experienced so far. Like I said in my last post, my sleep has been much deeper since cutting out all the grains, dairy and sugars. I just wish I could make myself go to bed earlier than I do! I've been better about getting into bed earlier, but then I watch tv or read a book until after 11, so I'm getting the same amount of sleep that I always do. I'm gonna keep trying, though.

This past week's sleep...definitely not long enough, but the depth is getting much better!

Another change I've seen is in my day to day demeanor or mood. I'm not really one to experience huge mood swings, but I've noticed that I've been calmer, internally, over the past week or so. I don't know if anyone else notices it, but I can feel it. I don't feel as stressed or wired, or whatever. Except in traffic, because that always brings out the ROAD RAGE in me!

Third, last night I may have gotten my first taste of tiger blood. I went to the gym at 5 after work, and got home from there around 6:30 or so, walked Buster, then sat down to eat dinner. Between eating dinner and then working on meal planning for next week, I think it was around 8 or so when I got up from the table, and there was a little light left in the sky. All of a sudden I had this feeling like I wanted to get some stuff accomplished last night, that I had been procrastinating on. In early July, I had dug out a flower bed around the back of my house, and planted five pineapple tops that I'd been propagating. When I finished that, I still had two tops that I'd just put in water, and still needed a week or two to sprout roots. Well, that was like four weeks ago, and the glasses were still sitting on my kitchen counter, along with a glass of scallions I'd done the same with. I got all three things planted last night! I also got my kitchen completely cleaned up, dishwasher loaded and run, and even cut my fingernails after I got out of the shower last night, LOL. I usually tend to wait until I can barely type anymore to do that!!! Honestly, feeling so motivated and having a steady, even energy is such an awesome thing, I only hope that it continues in the weeks ahead...

The final change that I've seen so far is that I do think my work pants are slowly starting to become looser on me. I wish I would've taken my measurements before starting on August 1, but unfortunately I didn't. I can definitely tell a difference in the quads/thighs, and several of my work pants that used to really cut into me at the waist while seated at my desk no longer seem to be so tight, so I'm taking that as a really good sign that my body is changing in the right direction. Like I said, I didn't take measurements, but I did take some pictures the week before starting the Whole30, so I'm going to try to take mid-point progress pictures next Monday, and post them here!

Alright, that's all I've got for now. I hope everyone is having a great week, it's almost the weekend, woohoo!!!

August Whole30 Week One...In the Books!

Here I am, on day 8 already...to be honest, the first week was fairly smooth sailing. I think that preparing a weekly game plan and really thinking out the meal prep process ahead of time really contributed to the ease of getting through the first week. I'll fill ya in on what I've done now for each of the first two weeks (I'm about 80% finished with my meal prep for week 2), from start to finish.

Around Tuesday evening or Wednesday, I begin thinking about possible recipes I'd like to make for the week. I'm aiming to prepare recipes that will give me a total of 6-8 pounds of protein for the week, and in addition to hot recipes, I try to assemble a salad as well. For week 1, I also made a soup, but decided not to for week 2. So by this past Wednesday night, I had 3 entree recipes picked, plus one salad: Spicy Tuna Cakes by Nom Nom Paleo; Layered Taco Casserole and Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken, both from the Whole30 Recipes Instagram feed; and Thai Yummy Salad, from Mel Joulwan.

As you see above in the picture, I list each recipe out, and then list the ingredients below each that I'll need to buy to make the recipe, sketching out a rough grocery list in the process. I add "A's" or "P's" next to each item, signifying where I think I'll have to buy each item - I aim to purchase as much of my grocery haul from Aldi as possible. Aldi is far more inexpensive than Publix, and has a great selection of both organic and conventional produce; in addition, they've got grass fed ground beef for less than $6/lb, and decent poultry products as well. Sometimes, however, they have limited quantities of items; for instance, when I did my shopping Friday night, they were cleaned out of sweet potatoes. Instead of paying $2.99 for a 3 lb. bag of sweet potatoes at Aldi, I ended up paying $1.29/lb. for them at Publix. So Aldi is always my first stop, then I follow up with a trip to Publix to fill in the gaps. I got this all done Friday evening.

I actually began some of my meal prep after I got home from the stores on Friday night, because those pieces of the prep involved using the Instant Pot. If you've never heard of the Instant Pot, let me fill you in: it's an electric pressure cooker, but actually can serve 7 functions in one pot - pressure cooker, slow cooker, sautée, rice cooker, yogurt maker, steamer, and one other I've never used and can't remember. I love mine, and use it to make everything from whole chickens to pulled pork to bone broth, to even cooking sweet potatoes in 15 minutes. Which is what I used it for Friday night, along with converting the Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken to Instant Pot. So when I went to bed Friday night, I had one meal already prepped, plus the component of another ready to be used. Score!

I was away from the house for most of the day yesterday, so I made sure to eat a good, filling breakfast to keep me going; I had a double portion of the curry turkey bites along with a glass of iced Crio Bru and coconut milk right around 10:30. I also took my Yeti mug filled with my new current obsession: Grady's decaf cold brew coffee. You guys. I had heard all of the raving about cold brew, but hadn't been able to try it, because I can't have caffeine, and I never saw any decaf anywhere. Then Melissa Hartwig, co-founder of the Whole30, posted about Grady's decaf on Instagram, and I just had to give it a try. Verdict? AMAZING!

When I got home around 5, I was definitely hungry, so I ate the last portion of the paleo pad Thai, then got started on the rest of the meal prep. Assembling the layered taco casserole was actually pretty easy, and it smelled so good as it was cooking, I can't wait to try it! The recipe calls for topping the casserole with a layer of guacamole after it has cooled for about five minutes, but since I cooked it for meals to be eaten later in the week, I omitted that step for now; I picked up those single serving packets of guac at Publix, so I can add the guac each time and it not get all brown and yucky. The final recipe I prepped was the spicy tuna cakes, and I called it a night.

Unfortunately, my version did not come out as beautiful, but it was definitely delicious!! Photo credit: Living Loving Paleo

One final thing before I go for now...the Whole30 program is really big on "Nonscale Victories". In fact, one of the rules of the program is that you can't get on a scale for the entire 30 days, because the program is about so much more than weight loss. One of the best Nonscale victories I see each time I do a Whole30 is in the area of sleep. I rarely have trouble falling asleep, but rarely is my sleep deep throughout the night. The picture below is my sleep from Friday night/Saturday morning...only having five minutes of restlessness is a MIRACLE for me!

Sleeping the sleep of the RIGHTEOUS

Have a great week, guys!

Damn, Daniel...Back at it Again with the Whole30!!!

So exactly two years after starting my first Whole30, I decided to start my third. If you'll recall, I did a second Whole30 in October 2014, just a month after finishing my first - my youngest sister wanted to see if the Whole30 would help her GI problems, and I offered to go along for moral support. Both months were challenging but helpful, and here of late I've been getting further and further away from both clean eating and where I want to be as far as body composition, so it seemed like a good time to buckle down and be disciplined again.

Over the past year, I've shifted my focus more away from paleo and Whole30 style eating, to a flexible dieting or "If It Fits Your Macros" approach. There is definitely an appeal to the IIFYM style, as theoretically you can eat whatever you want, as long as you can fit it into your daily macros (proteins, carbs, and fat). Initially, it seemed to be working, as I lost 10 lbs. between the end of June 2015 through the beginning of September. However, as the fall continued on and we got into the holiday season, not only did my weight loss plateau, but then the holidays hit full force, and counting macros fell by the wayside. And for all of 2016 so far, I've really struggled with not only the number I see when I step on the scale, but how my clothes fit in general. I decided to get back to my paleo roots, quit stressing about calories and macros and measuring my food, and simply try to cut out all of the unhealthy, inflammatory foods from my diet.

 I was on vacation in North Carolina from July 18-24, and once I got back, I dove into my Whole30-compliant cookbooks and blogs I follow for recipe inspiration. I came up with an entire list of recipes that I not only enjoyed eating, but was motivated to cook over the course of 5-6 weeks (30 days plus about 10 days of reintroduction). I chose several recipes from the list for my first week of meal prep, created a grocery list from that, and on Friday of last week, hit up Aldi first, then Publix for my first grocery haul. I was super excited that I was able to keep my grocery bill for the first week under $75!

My menu was the first week was two of my all time favorites, Paleo Pad Thai and Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup, plus three new recipes that I'd never made before: Sunrise Scramble, Curry Turkey Bites with Apricot Ginger Dipping Sauce, and Spring Chopped Salad. The Curry Turkey Bites recipe is from Nom Nom Paleo, the others are all from Melissa Joulwan. I love both of these authors' recipes because they both stay Whole30 compliant the majority of the time, which makes it easy for me, plus they both are fantastic about delivering bold flavors in easy recipes.

So the majority of my Saturday evening was spent in the kitchen, prepping all of the food (with the exception of actually stir-frying up the Pad Thai - I did that on Monday evening), but it has really paid off this week - three days in, and the most I've had to do (besides the stir-fry Monday night) was pull a container (or two) out of my fridge, and heat it up in the microwave. It makes life so much easier!!

So honestly, so far this week has been fairly painless, but I know the real test will be this weekend, when my prepped food will be running low, and I'm used to eating out more over the weekends. I just need to buckle down and stay on plan - I'm already choosing meals for next week and making a grocery list - and be prepared when I'm planning to be out and about, with little to no compliant food options available. You can also follow along with my adventures via Instagram and Snapchat, AbbyQ17.  So stay tuned!

Breaking News...Round 2!!!

sorry I've been absent for a month, things got a little hectic last month, I slipped away from the disciplined, clean eating I'd been keeping to for over a month, and...well, I just got lazy. When you're lazy, you'll eat just about anything put in front of you. And I pretty much did. Ah, such is life.

But great news! I'm taking on another round of the Whole30 in support of my little sister!! We've been at it for the better part of a week, and I'm proud of her determination! She's been struggling with digestion and intestinal issues for most of this year, so she decided to do the Whole30 to see if it would help ease some of the painful symptoms that she's been having. Perhaps you'll see her in a guest post further down the line!!

Just a quick recap of some of the things I've eaten this week, which have pretty much been the same every day: breakfast has been chicken Apple sausage and homemade coconut milk yogurt with my homemade mango jam mixed in, then grilled chicken, zucchini soup, and baby carrots for lunch, and a new stir fry I mixed up this week for dinner! I spiralized a sweet potato and sautéed half of the noodles in a little ghee to soften them, then I mixed in some browned ground beef and some steam-sautéed "Cruciferous Crunch" veggie mix from Trader Joe's (it finally opened in Boca!!). I seasoned liberally with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then also threw in some ground mustard and fennel seeds. It was really good!

My sister and I are planning to do another big cookup Sunday afternoon for the week ahead, so I'll report back more after then. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hmm, wonder what this could be for???

Mid-weekend Update!

Previously on the Bumpbuster blog...I'd promised all you faithful readers an update on my homemade coconut milk yogurt experiment.

The verdict? DELICIOSITY!!!

I got home from work on Thursday evening, and my little jars of tangy, coconutty wonder had been chilling all day in the fridge. I took out a jar, dipped in a spoon, and tasted. It was the clean tang of yogurt I'd missed, and just a hint of coconut n the background. Creamy goodness! I decided to amp up the flavor by swirling in a spoonful or two of no-sugar-added mango jam that I'd made back at the end of July. Flashback photo...

Canning homemade jam makes me feel like a domestic goddess. Which I definitely am not.

The yogurt was definitely thinner than the Greek yogurt I'd been buying before going paleo, but it is very enjoyable and satisfying. I took another jar in my lunch on Friday, so I've got just five jars left to enjoy before I need to make another batch. Plus, I've had requests from family members to share!! I might end up buying a second set of jars, so I can always be ready to make a batch even if I'm still working on the first. I just love the fact that I can now make my own yogurt at home, and control what goes into each batch. The only sugar I added to the recipe was a tablespoon and a half of coconut sugar, which is absolutely necessary for the yogurt cultures to feed off of during the fermentation process. Once the process is finished there is no sugar left in the finished product. No additives, no preservatives, just real food!

A quick recap of Thursday through today's meals (DISCLAIMER: I've gone off the rails a bit these past two days!):

Thursday, Sept. 11th:

Breakfast: diced chicken thighs, collard greens, and sweet potato hash, banana with sunbutter

Lunch: spicy tuna cakes, carrots, chopped nectarine with coconut cream

Dinner: zucchini noodles with homemade meat sauce, yogurt with mango jam

Evening snack: grapes and Caramelized coconut chips

Friday, Sept. 12th:

Breakfast: Aidell's chicken apple sausage, banana with sunbutter

Lunch: spicy tuna cakes, carrots

Afternoon snack: homemade banana pudding (more on this later)
Dinner: boyfriend treated to Capital Grille! Appetizer: fried calamari with cherry peppers Entree: steak au poivre with shared sides of roasted wild mushrooms and potato au gratin Dessert: creme brûlée 

Saturday, Sept. 13th:

Breakfast: apple fritter and bacon maple donuts with a decaf coffee from Rhino Donuts in Lauderdale by the Sea

#faileo

As you can see, from Friday afternoon on, it was gradual slide into Cheat Day Extraordinaire; whoops! There's a story behind the banana pudding, though. At the end of July, one of the employees of the company I work for (which happens to be my dad's company) came to me about assistance with his insurance benefits. He had previously declined our company insurances, because he was covered under his wife's plan. Then she was laid off in July, so they now needed to enroll in our company plans.

 I helped him get his paperwork together, then I needed some additional information from their previous plan to submit to the insurance company. While he was on the phone with his wife getting the information, he asked me if I liked sweets. Now, by this time it was around the first week in August, and I was a few days into my Whole30; I told him I definitely had a sweet tooth, but I was doing a challenge and not eating sugar for 30 days. He asked when the challenge was up, and I said after Labor Day. He then said, "okay, after Labor Day, my wife is gonna make you her homemade banana pudding as a thank you!" 

Banana pudding...a Southern hug in a bowl

Now, I'm half Southern, and my food preferences definitely lean towards my Southern roots, and I LOVE banana pudding! How could I turn that down? So yesterday was the day, and his wife brought in a still-warm dish of the banana pudding into my office. They are two very sweet and nice people, and honestly one of my favorite parts of my job is being able to help the employees any way I can with dealing with insurance or whatever other payroll/HR issues they may have. Getting repaid in desserts is just icing on the cake. Heh heh.

As far as Capital Grille goes, the food there is so good, I couldn't resist indulging some more. And the menu is pricey, so it's a very occasional treat (the boyfriend had a $50 coupon, which is one of the reasons we went - the bill still ended up at $100 WITH the coupon!). Their fried calamari with cherry peppers is about the best calamari I've ever had, so I was definitely ordering some of those. I love the spicy, vinegary contrast of the peppers with the crispy, chewy calamari. The steak was pretty good, too, but was actually outshined by the two sides we ordered to share, which were both recommendations from our waiter. The roasted wild mushrooms were so earthy and savory, a good counterbalance to the pepperiness of my steak, and the potato au gratin just melted in my mouth. I should've stopped after my entree, but creme brûlée sounded too good to pass up!

And I have no real excuse for going to Rhino Donuts this morning after Pilates and yoga (I did back to back sessions; Pilates from 8-9, and hot yoga from 9-10:30). I'd heard very good things about the new donut shop in LBTS, so walked over and ate my two donuts at one of the sidewalk tables. Both donuts were delicious, but I'm really looking forward to trying one of their "rhino horns" when they put them back on the menu after the weather cools down (apparently they're difficult to make in the heat and humidity) - they're Rhino's version of the famous Cronut from NYC's Dominique Ansel Bakery!

That's about all for now, still on tap for the weekend is a baby shower this evening, and doing my weekly cookup at some point today or tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

So-long-for-now Snaggle

Pilates, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, and The Great Yogurt Experiment

Ahh there's so much to share today, and it's getting so late! Here goes nothing, though...first, my meals today:

Buster is a big fan of zucchini noodles, apparently.

Breakfast: diced grilled chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, and collard greens, banana with sunbutter
Lunch: spicy tuna cakes, baby carrots with guacamole, chopped nectarine with coconut cream
Dinner: zucchini noodles topped with homemade meat sauce

Mangia!

Man, that homemade meat sauce was delish! I just used a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, with a few tweaks. In the future, I'll make some changes, such as letting it simmer even longer, and adding more tomato paste (I only had about a tablespoon left in the tube). But it was pretty tasty for my first stab at making homemade sauce!

I had another Pilates session earlier this evening, so it was already somewhat late when I got home. But since I hand time to kill while my meat sauce simmered, I got to working on my first batch of HOMEMADE COCONUT YOGURT!!.

Back before I made the switch to the Paleo lifestyle (let's face it, it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle, haha), yogurt was a regular staple in my diet. I'd either have a yogurt as breakfast, or as part of my lunch. Sometimes I miss the creaminess of yogurt, and the ability to get extra protein in my diet in the form of a sweet almost-dessert. And then I saw a post on Instagram from one of my favorite Whole30 bloggers, and she made her own homemade almond milk yogurt! She had gotten her recipe from Lexie's Kitchen, and sure enough, she had both an almond milk yogurt recipe and a coconut milk yogurt recipe posted on her website! Obviously, yogurt made from coconut milk doesn't contain the protein of a traditional cows' milk yogurt, but hey, you can't always get what you want. I'll eat my paleo yogurt with a side of meat, hahaha.

I purchased a yogurt maker (fairly inexpensive), yogurt starter, and gathered the ingredients over the past week, so I was ready to go tonight. It was a fairly easy process, and now I've got seven 6 oz. jars culturing away overnight! I'll report back in tomorrow on whether the batch is a success, and if it's yummy. I fully plan on mixing some of my no sugar added homemade mango jam with the yogurt, yum!

Mmm, my little jars of probiotics

Sushi Tuesday!!!

Gotta make this quick tonight...my interwebz were down for most of the evening, oh noes!!

Breakfast: chicken apple sausage, banana with sunbutter

Lunch: 3 spicy tuna cakes, small mixed greens salad with grilled chicken, carrots, cukes, tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette from Italio

Snack: baby carrots and guac, chopped nectarine with coconut cream

Dinner: 2 sushi bomb rolls from Bluefin Sushi Thai

The salad at lunch was an impromptu decision when D/B offered to pick me up something while he was out at lunch; it was really good! After work, I went over to my sister's new house to see her and the kids, and we decided to walk over to the really good sushi place across the street. They have a Tuesday special, the sushi bomb rolls are $5 each with purchase of a drink. These rolls are tuna, salmon, and whitefish with asparagus and avocado, and the whole roll is tempura-ed and deep fried...definitely NOT paleo or Whole30, but pretty delish!!! Plus, when we walked into the restaurant, my parents' neighbors and good friends Bridget and Paulie were there, so we joined them for dinner! It was a fun evening for sure. I need to clean it up the rest of the week, I definitely felt a little heavy after dinner tonight, kinda bloated, so I need to get back to my happy place.

That's about it for tonight; I was going to try my hand at making coconut milk yogurt after I got home, but the boyfriend stopped by and I ran out of time. So perhaps tomorrow night! Gotta test this bad boy out:

Weekend Recap

There's always so much to catch up on on Monday nights, isn't there?

Friday, Sept 5th:
Breakfast: chicken apple sausage, scrambled eggs, banana
Lunch: diced chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, and turnip greens hash, chopped nectarine with coconut cream
Dinner: sloppy joes (sans hamburger buns), crudité, grapes

Saturday, Sept 6th:
Breakfast: chicken apple sausage, scrambled eggs, banana
Lunch: Chipotle salad with carnitas, pico, medium salsa, guacamole 
Dinner: Mississippi Sweets BBQ pulled pork platter with Mississippi Sweets (sweet potato chips) and  cole slaw

Sunday, Sept 7:
Breakfast: chicken apple sausage, scrambled eggs, banana
Lunch: ground beef sautéed with onions and broccoli, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes
Dinner: JB's On The Beach seared ahi tuna salad, coconut banana cream pie

Monday, Sept 8th:
Breakfast: diced chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, and turnip greens hash
Lunch: ground beef sautéed with onions and broccoli, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes, chopped nectarine with coconut cream
Snack: banana with sunbutter
Dinner: scrambled eggs with spinach and feta chicken sausage, grapes

Yes, you read that right...I ordered dessert on Sunday night. And I didn't feel bad about it! I shared the slice of pie with my boyfriend, and didn't feel bloated or icky afterwards. I did, however, get a low level headache late this afternoon, most likely from sugar withdrawal. I must remember the sugar headaches the next time I'm tempted to order dessert! Honestly, though, I don't think it's a terrible hint to indulge every now and then, but there's always a trade-off, and you have to decide if it's worth the consequences.

I went back to Pilates again after work, and it was another good session. My instructor also told me to practice cobra pose on a regular basis, as this allows the vertebrae in the lower back to expand and potentially allow the bulging disc to ease back into place. It seems counterintuitive to me, but at this point I'm willing to do just about anything - and my back does feel better after a few poses.

Sorry I've gotten lazy about taking pics, here's one of the fresh, cold-pressed juice I picked up at my Pilates studio to tide you over till tomorrow night!

Beet it, kook!!

Healing My Back

It's been over five months now that I've been trying to get my lower back straightened out; I saw a chiropractor for a month back in late May/early June, I took over a month off of exercising completely. I modified workouts to remove anything involving my lower back - leaving mostly shoulder work and the stationary bike. Finally, I've seen two orthopedics, and just Tuesday, finally had an MRI.

My orthopedic got the MRI results in yesterday afternoon, and other than a slight bulge in my L4-L5, congenital narrowing of the canal and a very slight touch of scoliosis, the results were clear. My ortho also seems to think my issues might lay within my SI joints, not the lumbar spine, because of how the pain tends to travel down to my tailbone. He offered me three options: anti-inflammatories, oral steroids, or injections. I'm trying the anti-inflammatories (600mg 3x a day for 10 days) for the time being, then I go back to the ortho on the 17th.

I'm also continuing my Pilates regimen; I'm currently attending reformer classes twice a week, with one complimentary yoga/mat Pilates class a week as well. I went to a yoga class tonight, and I really enjoyed it. We did a lot of deep stretching, especial hip openers, which should really help my SI joints in the long run. I'm going to have to wait until Monday for another reformer class, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Here's my menu for today:
Breakfast:diced chicken, sweet potatoes, and turnip greens hash
Lunch: ground beef on Ethiopian cabbage drizzled with BBQ-mayo sauce, chopped peaches drizzled with coconut cream
Snack: banana with sunbutter
Dinner: Deliver Lean turkey shepherds pie with maple glazed turnips (boyfriend shared with me!)

I'm getting low on prepped food again, so I need to get back in the kitchen before the weekend. I've got some more ground beef I can cook up, plus some broccoli to steam. I went pretty light when I grocery shopped Tuesday night, but I think I can make it to Sunday. Eating clean is denifitely expensive! But, as they say, you can pay the farmer now, or pay the doctor later!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Whole30 Results, Recap, and the Hot Dog Story

So I teased you guys with the picture above last night; it shows the beginning, middle, and end points of the thirty days. I also stepped on the scale for the first time in a month this morning...and I'm down 7 pounds! I think I still have a bit to go on reducing da pooch, but it's definitely flatter and less bloated than a month ago. And my pants all fit better! That's the most important thing to me, not the number on the scale. I'm also sleeping better and am just feeling more calm and content in general, and it feels great. Those feelings are keeping me determined to keep sugar out of my diet!!

And now...the hot dog story. As I told you in last Thursday's post, my boyfriend and I had tickets to the Miami Surge-New York Rhinos Gridleague match Saturday night. It worked out perfectly, because his parents were staying at their condo in Miami for the past week, so we went down and visited with them for the afternoon, then headed down to the match in the evening. We got down to their condo around 2 Saturday afternoon, and met them at the cafe out on the beach, where we ordered some sushi. I ordered a cucumber wrapped tuna roll, and I'd smuggled my coconut aminos in like a good lil Whole30er! We hung out for about 3 hours, then headed down.

Now, I'd read online that there was going to be tailgating before the match, plus there was to be a local paleo meal delivery company set up in front of the arena. Grabbing some compliant snack per game would be a cinch, right? Wrong. The meal delivery company was only handing out samples! So we went inside, where I hoped there'd be something, anything I could order from concessions. Uhh...hmm. Chicken fingers, nachos, popcorn, Papa Johns...I was starting to panic. It was only six o'clock at this point, the match was going to go until at least nine, what the heck was I going to do? The cucumber roll was long gone at this point. Finally, I decided to order an all-beef hot dog, top it with yellow mustard, and eat it sans bun. It was as compliant as I was gonna get while trapped inside the Bank United Center for three hours over dinner time. That didn't even stick with me long...by the time we were heading back north, I was absolutely starving and had developed a headache. I snapped at my boyfriend the whole way back to Fort Lauderdale, because we were meeting up with friends and I was pretty sure there'd be no food for me there. Finally, we stopped at a 7-11 in Fort Lauderdale, where I proceeded to purchase a 2-pack of hard-boiled eggs, 2 bananas, and a bag each of salted almonds and cashews. And a coconut water. And that my friends, is how you do 7-11 Whole30 style!!!

Time to recap the past two days of food:

Tuesday, September 2nd:

Breakfast: zucchini soup, three scrambled eggs, banana with sunbutter

Lunch: Naruto cucumber rolls with coconut aminos 

Dinner: browned ground beef on top of Ethiopian cabbage drizzled with BBQ-mayo sauce, fruit salad

Wednesday, September 3rd:

Breakfast: zucchini soup, diced chicken thigh, sweet potato, and turnip greens hash, banana

Lunch: browned ground beef on top of Ethiopian cabbage drizzled with BBQ-mayo sauce, fruit salad

Dinner: Italian hot plate! Diced chicken thighs sautéed with diced onions, steamed broccoli, and diced tomatoes, seasoned with Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes

So that's my recap of the past two days, as well as my Whole30 results and the hot dog story. Tune in tomorrow for my MRI results and plan of action over the next two weeks for my back!

Crossing the Whole30 Finish Line!

I made it! I made it! Today was Day 30 of my Whole30, and it's officially over! It wasn't always easy, but I'm so glad I did it. I've been debating with myself for the past week about what to do on Day 31, and at this point I think I'm just going to keep going as long as I can. Granted, this might only last till the weekend, but a girl can try! I'm going to continue to try to eat Whole30-style as much as possible (definitely during the week), and try to make sensible choices when eating out on the weekends.

Speaking of weekends, here's what I ate over the long weekend:

Friday, August 29th:
Breakfast: diced chicken, sweet potato, and collard hash, banana
Lunch: Chipotle - Bossman's treat! - carnitas salad with pico de gallo, medium salsa, and guacamole
Dinner: baked sweet potato stuffed with collards and chili
Late night snack: chopped nectarine with coconut cream

Saturday, August 30th:
Breakfast: zucchini soup, hard-boiled egg, banana
Lunch: tuna salad with carrots and cucumber slices
Afternoon snack: cucumber roll with tuna
Dinner: all-beef hot dog with mustard, hard-boiled egg, banana, cashews and almonds (more on that hot dog later)

Sunday, August 31st:
Breakfast: zucchini soup, banana
Lunch: tuna salad, banana with sunbutter, hard-boiled egg
Dinner: Chipotle - carnitas salad with pico de gallo, medium salsa, and guacamole 

Monday, September 1st:
Breakfast: hard-boiled egg, apple slices and grapes
Lunch: tuna salad
Dinner: ribeye steak with Montreal steak rub, baked sweet potato, veggies with paleo ranch dressing, fresh fruit

I'm gonna have to save the hot dog story for tomorrow night, it's getting way too late! Stay with me as I continue the adventures!

Whole30: Days 24 & 25

Breakfast of champions

I can't believe I'm only five days always from completing my Whole30! There's only a 3-day holiday weekend standing between me and the finish line, haha. Let's recap what I shoved in my face over the past two days, shall we?

Wednesday, 8/27:
Breakfast: diced grilled chicken thighs, sweet potato, and collard greens hash, banana
Lunch: Chili over zucchini noodles
Snack: Caramelized coconut chips
Dinner: red Thai curry over zucchini noodles, peaches with coconut whipped cream

Thursday, 8/38:
Breakfast: diced grilled chicken thighs, sweet potato, and collard greens hash, banana
Lunch: chili over collard greens and a baked sweet potato
Snack: baby carrots with guacamole, hard-boiled egg, mixed nuts

A perfectly balanced snack!

Dinner: red Thai curry over zucchini noodles

This week has been somewhat hectic, so I'm really glad I've had a good stash of food, ready to go, all week. I know some people hate eating the same thing over and over, but I really don't mind. Especially since I'm the one making the food and it's all my favorites! Since Sunday, the only food I've prepped is the curry Tuesday night, which literally took 5 minutes, and I mixed up another batch of tuna salad this evening while I heated up the last of the curry. Now I'll have lunch through the weekend, and I still have plenty of chili left as well. I also have a pound of grass-fed beef  waiting in reserves in the fridge, as well as a few veggies I can prep. I should be set on food through Labor Day!

So here's the update on my visit to the orthopedic clinic for my back. First if all, if anyone in Palm Beach or Broward Counties needs to see an orthopedic, I highly recommend Emere in Boca Raton; it's a walk-in orthopedic clinic, similar to an urgent care center, so no appointment needed. I walked in, filled out a few forms, and was seen by a doctor literally within 10 minutes. And I absolutely loved the doctor - Dr. Jace Provo, who is actually on staff with the NBA. He sat down and talked with me, asked what was going on with my back, then performed a few diagnostic tests, having me both stand and lie down to perform the tests. He said that my issues were in the L5-S1 area of my back, which is a common area for injury for crossfitters, and that he was going to order an MRI to really see what was going on in there. And that made me really happy, I really hope that I'll finally have an answer to what's going on with my back. I scheduled the MRI for Tuesday after work, they just need to get approval from my insurance in order to perform the MRI. So fingers crossed that they don't deny me!

I've got another busy weekend ahead; Pilates first thing Saturday morning, then I'm pretty sure I have to head into the office for a few hours after that (it's the last business day of the month). After that, my boyfriend and I will be heading down to Fisher Island in Miami, where his parents have a condo. It's like entering a different world, going over to the island, a nice little getaway. We'll visit with them for a few hours, then we're headed to Coral Gables to catch the very first Gridleague match in Miami! What's the Gridleague, you ask??

According to NPGL.com, Grid is "the world’s first professional spectator sport with co-ed teams that compete in strategic athletics racing. It’s a mainstream sporting league that is fan, TV and sponsor friendly. Each two-hour match features two 10-person teams (5 men, 5 women, one of each being over 40 years old) going head to head in 11 fast races. Grid races are easy to follow and are played with pre-set rules and unlimited substitutions designed to force teams to strategize." My condensed definition? It's a professional Crossfit league! There are 8 teams for the 2014 season, with one expansion team set to join the league in 2015. Miami's team is the Miami Surge, and has some well-know athletes on the team - Talayna Fortunato and Lauren Brooks, to name two. And they're facing off against the New York Rhinos Saturday night! So I'll report back in and give a recap on the event,

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Whole30: One Week to Go!

Buster got all fancy for the occasion

Happy National Dog Day, everyone!

This week is moving right along; here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: mug of zucchini soup, Aidell's chicken apple sausage link, banana
Lunch: tuna salad with carrots and cucumber slices, chopped nectarine with coconut cream
Dinner: red Thai curry with chicken, bamboo shoots and yellow squash

I hadn't originally planned to make the curry this week, but I had all of the ingredients to make the curry sauce in my pantry, so it was just a matter of choosing which veggies to throw in with the chicken. It literally takes 5 minutes to make! I used 2 tbsp. Thai Kitchen red curry paste, a can of coconut milk, and 2 tbsp. of Red Boat fish sauce. Ah, fish sauce...smells like stanky feet going in, but makes the final product so much better! It just adds a salty savoriness that I definitely miss if I don't include it.

I went to Crossfit after work today, and got in some strict press and strict pullup practice. I did 5 sets of 3 strict press (I did 65#), then 1 strict pullup. Then, I did three sets of 3:00 on the Airdyne for calories, with 3:00 rest in between. I got 38, 46, and 50 calories on each set. After the class, I strapped on the pair of gravity boots they have at the gym, and looked like this for a few minutes:

Letting go of the bar to get into the dead hang takes a little bit of courage...

My back had grown increasingly more and more agitated throughout the day (well before I went to Crossfit), so I really wanted to give the gravity boots a try. As soon as I put them on, my spine just felt like it stretched out and decompressed, and a satisfying pop occurred. Unfortunately, as soon as I came back down, my back tightened right back up, and got tighter after I went home and ate.

So I think I'm going to go back to the orthopedic tomorrow, actually go to the new walk-in orthopedic, Emere, that my friend just started working for. I've got to get some answers on what is going on with my back; it's not like I'm in severe pain all the time, but it hurt pretty bad tonight and I'm sick of being on the IR. So we'll see how that goes...

Tomorrow is HUMP DAYYYYYY!!!

Whole30: Days 19-22

I've fallen behind this weekend on blogging! I was barely home enough to get my food prepped for the upcoming week, let alone log my food. I'll fill ya in on all the details, but first, my food log...

Friday, 8/22:
Breakfast: Scotch egg with Ethiopian cabbage, banana
Lunch: Ground beef with Ethiopian cabbage drizzled with mayo/BBQ sauce
Dinner: Cheesecake Factory Luau Salad minus edamame, cheese, and wontons, with  olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Saturday, 8/23:
Breakfast: grilled diced chicken thighs with collards and sweet potato
Lunch: Chipotle salad with carnitas, no beans, pico de gallo, medium salsa, and guacamole
Snack: Starbucks unsweetened iced passion tea, banana
Dinner: grilled chicken thighs and ground beef with Ethiopian cabbage

Sunday, 8/24
Breakfast: Scotch egg with Ethiopian cabbage
Lunch: tuna salad with carrots and cucumbers
Dinner: Chocolate chili from Well Fed over zucchini noodles

Monday, 8/25:
Breakfast: Mug of silky gingered zucchini soup, Aidell's chicken apple sausage, and a banana
Lunch: Tuna salad with carrots and cucumbers, chopped nectarine with coconut cream
Dinner: Chocolate chili over zucchini noodles and a baked sweet potato
Evening snack: Nectarine

On Friday, I worked until lunchtime, and decided to take the afternoon off. My boyfriend had taken the whole day off, and we decided to head down to the BB&T Center to take in day 1 of The Crush Games, a local Crossfit competition. We ended up staying down there until early evening, and headed across the street afterward to Sawgrass Mills mall. I was getting hangry, so after some shopping we headed to Cheesecake Factory. I was nervous about finding something to eat there, but salads are always a safe bet so long as you sub a few items. I wolfed my salad down!

This is what Whole30 hell looks like...

Saturday morning, I woke up early to head to Pilates at 8, but before I left, I brewed a cup of coffee and sautéed up my breakfast hash to take on the road. After class, I ate on the way out to the BB&T Center. It worked out perfectly, my boyfriend's first heat was at 9:55 and I got there in plenty of time. Some other friends of mine were several heats after him, so I stayed to watch their heat, then headed out to find lunch around noon.

That's my hunk on the far right!

I had googled the day before for Chipotle and found there was one about a mile down the road from the arena, so I headed straight there. The carnitas salad was so good! Of course, I love ordering the burrito bowl with rice and beans usually, but ah well, the salad was pretty good. And I still got to order guac, yum!

After heading back and watching the finals heats of the afternoon, and I headed back across the street to the mall and met up with my little sister for some more shopping. She did all the shopping! But I did grab the snack at Starbucks, which held me over until I could get home for dinner and had some of my quickly dwindling leftovers - I was definitely going to have to make food on Sunday. I ended up just laying low on Saturday night, it had been a long day.

Sunday morning I woke up and went to church, then came home and mixed up a batch of homemade mayo, which I then I used to make tuna salad. I had a scoop of that with cucumber slices and baby carrots. While I ate, I made my cooking plan for the week, and made my shopping list at the same time. After lunch, I headed off to Publix, and was back home within a half hour, ready to start my "cooking wod"!

First, I got the batches of Chocolate Chili and Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup going on the stove, so that once they reached a simmer, I could focus on other things. I preheated the oven and got the sweet potatoes as well as chopped yellow squash roasting. I fired up the grill, and grilled off 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs. I also spiralized three zucchini, dividing the noodles into six portions in to go containers.

Mmm....chili

I had all of his food cooked up in under three hours! Better yet, I also have the ingredients on hand to make a quick Thai curry this week, which I can serve over the zucchini noodles. So I've got plenty of options that should keep me fed throughout this week!

My fridge, post-cookup!

Today was a typical Monday, but I ended up heading to my parents' for dinner with my family, since if didn't see them over he weekend. I brought a serving of the chili with zucchini noodles, plus a roasted sweet potato. My niece kept stealing bites of my sweet potato! Good thing she's a cutie!

That about wraps up my weekend and Monday, I'm down to 9 days to go on my challenge! More thoughts later this week on what lies ahead and what I plan to do post-Whole30!

Whole30: Day 18

So the first half of the Whole30 challenge seemed to fly by, but this week I've found myself thinking, I'm only on Day 17? I still have 13 days to go?? Time seems to be dragging this week; fortunately, food boredom has not set in yet, and I'm not absolutely sick of cooking (yet), possibly because I do try to experiment at least once a week.

I did a 2-month paleo challenge through my Crossfit box back in the early spring, and it was really successful - I lost about 10 pounds and got really lean - AND I started hitting PRs in the gym. Then towards the end, food boredom set in, I just really didn't feel like cooking up a whole bunch of food every week anymore. It also didn't help that I had company staying with me for a month - company that I absolutely loved having stay with me, but wanted to cook me delicious, non-paleo Southern food. I gave in and let her feed me whatever, and slowly, the weight crept back on and I lost the leanness I'd gained. Then I hurt my back, and it all went downhill from there...

Lean, mean, Crossfit machine!

Back to today, here's what I shoved in my face:

Breakfast: Banana with sunbutter, Scotch egg, broccoli
Lunch: Ethiopian cabbage topped with diced grilled chicken thighs and BBQ sauce, chopped nectarine drizzled with coconut cream
Snack: handful of macadamia nuts
Dinner: baked sweet potato stuffed with pulled pork and topped with BBQ sauce, Ethiopian cabbage, small salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

My boyfriend...he's a total hottie when he wods :D

I'm going to be cheering my boyfriend on in a local Crossfit competition for most of the weekend, so it's gonna be tough to get my food squared away for the upcoming week. Gotta come up with a game plan and then execute when I can, most likely in the evenings! I'll also be taking food along to the competition, so we'll see how that works out. Since I won't have access to a microwave to heat up my food, I'll most likely pack tuna with carrots and cucumbers, maybe a piece of fruit, and maybe I'll hard boil some more eggs. With a lunch bag with a freezer pak, I should be good to go. I'll report back on that later in the weekend!

So This Happened Tonight...

Here, fishy fishy...

Yup, I did it. I made the Pan-Fried Sardines from Well Fed 2 for dinner. Before tonight, I'd never eaten sardines in my life, and when I think of them, they send me back to my high school days. For Homecoming week, we had a grab bag contest where whatever you pulled out of the bag, you had to eat as fast as possible. Sardines and Vienna sausages were ALWAYS in the bag!!

Tonight, however, while the flavor of the fish was definitely stronger than I'm used to, it was not unpleasant, and the light breading of arrowroot powder and spices provided a crunchy texture and flavor that could stand up to the sardines. I ate them over Ethiopian Cabbage, also a Mel Joulwan recipe, and the cabbage had bold seasonings as well. So baby steps, baby steps. I know fish like sardines and mackerel are high in omega 3s, plus they're pretty economical, so I'm trying to broaden my horizons and learn to enjoy them. I would call tonight's dish a success!

The rest of today's food log:

Breakfast: mug of Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup, Scotch egg, broccoli, banana with sunbutter
Lunch: Ground beef over Ethiopian cabbage, drizzled with mayo/BBQ sauce mix, chopped nectarine with coconut cream

Looks weird, tastes awesome

Snack: Caramelized coconut chips

I went right home from work today and made up a batch of the coconut chips to tide me over till dinner (I get off work at 4:30). I ended up laying on my bed, eating the chips and watching tv, and before I knew it, I'd fallen asleep for almost two hours! I've been averaging only 6 hours of sleep per night, so I know I definitely need to work on that. Food is only part of the equation; your body needs plenty of rest to recover and heal as well, and this part of the equation often gets ignored in today's fast-paced world. I know it's the hardest part for me, and as I get older I realize that I can't function on as few hours as I used to. I'm not really sure how I survived almost six years at Deloitte!

On that note, I think I'll turn in. Good night all!