The results are in...

I wanted to do a separate post about the weight loss that happened from Whole30, because it's really not the focus of the plan. Whole30 is about making your body healthier, not skinnier. The two do go hand in hand sometimes though, and I definitely lost weight. I have always stored the majority of my fat in my stomach, and some in my boobs. So the more weight I gain, the more I look pregnant :). Having CF and especially after having a kid, I will always have a little tummy. But it was getting a little out of control before I started Whole30!

I only really weigh myself at the doctor, but I know I weighed around 131-132 lbs before starting Whole30. This is also what I weighed the day before I gave birth to Maddie. SO- needless to say I didn't mind losing a few lbs so I could fit back into some non-stretchy pants.

In these pictures, I tried to replicate them as closely as I could. I am sucking it it in in all three pics- yes, even the first, lol. Remember, that's where I carry my weight! I wanted it to be as accurate as possible, so no lighting or angle tricks.

Weight Day 1: 131-132
Weight Day 31: 118

Breaking news alert: eating healthy food makes you lose weight, haha. Also, this was without exercise, just diet changes. My plan now is to add in more calories, but also start exercising more. I'm hoping to maintain what I have now, I'm very happy with this and don't want to lose or gain.

See ya stinky!

I just finished my last meal on day 30!!! WOOHOO! I am very excited- both that I am done and that I finished all 30 days. Not even a single grain of sugary goodness has entered my lips since February 1st. This last week has been fairly easy, compared to the first three. My cravings are not strong at all.

So I've really been thinking about what I want to take away from Whole30. There's no point in putting myself through that if I don't learn anything from it! First, I won't be continuing paleo eating for the time being. I'm so impressed by those who do pale all the time! I haven't weighed yet, but I think I've probably lost 10+ lbs, and my doctors won't like that! Also, I miss enjoying my food. Because of my terrible taste buds, there were only a few meals that I really truly enjoyed during my Whole30, and that was hard. So, I will be going back to a normal diet starting tomorrow (yay!).

BUT- I do feel like I've learned a lot and have some positive changes to take away.

1. Veggies every night with dinner.
(white potatoes and corn don't count, lol!)

I have gone YEARS (literally- this is not an exaggeration) of my life without eating a 
single fruit or vegetable. This is one change that I fully intend to integrate into my life.  

2. Fruit most days of the week.

            

3. Drink water or milk 90% of the time at home.

This will be one of my biggest changes. No more 2-3 cans of Dr. Pepper at home every

day. I will maybe have one from time to time, and when I eat out sometimes, 

but not every day. I have gone a month with no caffeine and I don't want to become 

dependent on it again for energy and stamina. No more chocolate milk every 

morning either! Waaaay too much sugar- will reserve for a treat every once in a while!

4. Switch to "natural" ketchup and limit use.

That's as much as a compromise as I can give with ketchup. Ketchup and I, we are

tight. And I really don't like any ketchup substitutes that I've tried. So I will eat

the kind made with sugar instead of HFCS, and I will be mindful of how much I use.

5. Snack smart.

If I need a snack, I'm going to grab an apple, some nuts, some popcorn. NOT 

a brownie (or 2), rice krispy treat (or 3), or a big bag of jelly beans or candy. I'm not saying

I'll never eat those things- of course I will! But it will be a treat, instead of eating

them all day every day. Moderation of sweets- what a concept!

6. Pay attention and eat real food.

I just need to pay attention to what I'm eating. Look at labels and ingredients. Find out where my meat and veggies are from and how they were raised. These things were moderately important to me before starting Whole30, but I'm pretty committed to it now.

Despite my title of this blog, I am actually REALLY glad I did Whole30. Thanks to Sarah for the inspiration! And to all of you who encouraged me and offered tips along the way. And to my parents who bankrolled the not cheap grass fed meat bill. There have been a LOT of positive changes. I haven't had a single stomach issue since the first week- bloating, cramps, gas, pain, etc. And I have a chronic illness that causes stomach issues! I have more energy, even when I've been pretty sick the last couple of weeks. I'm sleeping great. I'm sure there are more that I can't even think of right now.

I highly recommend this to anyone that wants to try it. I really think reading the book helped a lot as to WHY I was giving up all of these things. For me, I don't think permanent changes would be possible until I completely changed my habits, and that took almost the entire 30 days. It was not necessarily a fun 30 days, but you know what? I've done harder things. Although it may not have felt like it at the end of week 2 :). 

I think that's it! I will be back tomorrow to post before and after pictures and weight loss, for those that are interested in the weight loss aspect of Whole30. I probably won't post the link to this on Facebook, so check back if you're interested!

So close I can taste it!

Believe it or not ( I can't!), I am now on day 28 of my Whole30....wow! I knew when I started it that I would finish it because I'm stubborn like that, but there were a couple of times (I'm talking to you, week 2) that I really wanted to quit.

Last week was a challenge, I was in good old NYC for 2 nights. It's pretty much masochistic to go on a trip like this while trying to do Whole30, but I had an offer to stay in free apartment, and I can't say no to that! So I packed up little baggies of steak and chicken and bacon, threw a bunch of apples in a bag and headed off to the big city. Staying in an apartment was nice so I could heat up my meat and cut up my fruit and cook my bacon. I really don't know if I could have done it in a hotel.

I also found a restaurant called Bareburger that I ate at for dinner my first night there. They serve all grass fed meats and are very transparent about their cooking oils, etc. I ordered a hamburger with a fried egg and bacon, no bun, and sweet potato fries. It was all pretty good. I wasn't sure if I'd like the fries, but they were actually pretty tasty with salt. I also found a little grocery/prepared food store with some tables, and went there a couple of times and just bought water and fruit and was able to sit inside (in the heat!) and eat my meat, lol.

It definitely wasn't the best trip food wise, but luckily since I live so close now, I knew I'd be back soon so I just tried to ignore all of the amazing looking (and smelling) places I passed. I couldn't help from noticing that you are basically never more than 30 ft away from a Snickers in the theater district. Using the lottery system, discounts and TKTS, I also got to see 3 shows for the price of one- all three close orchestra seats, it was awesome!

I've pretty much just been making a big dinner every other night, eating leftovers for one night plus lunches, and bacon and apples for breakfast. I'll post the recipes I used for the last couple of nights. From here on out (2 MORE NIGHTS!!), I'm not cooking anything special, so this will be my last food post, but I do want to write a little bit about the experience and what I'm taking away from it. So look for that tomorrow or Tues :).

Ok- Friday night I did a roast chicken- this recipe is based on Thomas Keller's but is modified for Whole30. It was very tasty- nothing like some crispy chicken skin. I roasted sweet potatoes, white potatoes, carrots and turnips with the chicken and those were all good except I almost threw up one bite of the turnips. Old habits die hard. It was a high effort, big mess meal, so maybe best for a weekend.

Tonight, I cut up a steak and just grilled some meat kabobs using this marinade. It was SO GOOD. A marinade I'd definitely come back to. Like really yummy. My meat wasn't even that good, but it didn't matter because the marinade was so delicious. I also did kale chips, after Maddie requested those over brussels sprouts :).

Sorry for being a bad blogger

Ok, I'm still here! Didn't quit, I promise :). I have been super bust at night this week, which is when I usually blog, so I just keep putting it off. The past few days have been good, my cravings are not as strong as they were last week, so that's nice! Being busy at night is a bit of a challenge, as I've had to eat at weird times or eat really stinky garlic chicken in the car (sorry family!) on the way to an event. But I'm now at day 21, which means- single digits left! Woohoo!

I won't do a day by day of breakfast lunch and dinner since it's been a few days and I honestly don't remember each meal. Breakfast is usually bacon/apple, apple/almond butter, or sausage and egg scramble. Lunch is almost always leftovers from dinner.

I do have two really good recipes to share.

Chicken nuggets: these are delish, but SUPER GARLICKY. I love garlic but I think I might tone it down a touch next time. Have a toothbrush handy when you eat these, they are strong! I used half almond flour and half tapioca flour on mine, and I think that was a great combo. I'm not crazy about coconut flour, I don't like the sweetness.

Beef Bourgignon: this was SO GOOD. I need this- it is SO flavorful and filling. It's not a hard recipe at all- a little time consuming with the chopping and clean up, but so worth it. I left out the mushrooms because I don't like them, and I used beef stock instead of bone broth. You need to try this recipe, whether you are paleo or not! Oh, and next time I'll probably skip thickening it at the end. Maybe I didn't cook my thickener long enough, but it was kind of gloppy and slimy.

Ups and downs

So, this has been a hard week for me. I feel like I spend more time wanting to throw in the towel than being happy that I'm doing it. I know it's just my brain trying to convince me to feed it sugar, but let me tell you, it's doing a good job. I also don't think I ate enough today, so I'm a little tired and grumpy. I just don't get excited about meals or eating anymore. I feel like because I'm so picky, I have to force feed myself most of this food.

On the other hand- I am definitely experiencing some positives. I am not bloated, I do not crash around 4-5 pm every day. My pee is almost clear (sorry!). I am not having frequent upset stomachs, headaches and body aches, even though I am sick. I am falling asleep quickly and sleeping well. My favorite jeans fit again. That's a LOT of positives, and I'm only halfway through!

Just have to conquer those cravings! Because they are NO JOKE right now.

Day 16:

Breakfast: homemade sausage patties- got some organic ground pork at the market and added my own spices. I won't include the recipe because I think they were to italian seasoning-y and next time I'll make them simpler for sure.

Lunch: stewed chicken with balsamic dressing and roasted potatoes

Dinner: Creamy chicken veggie soup again (fresh batch). It was very good! I ate two full bowls, I was really hungry tonight.

Whoooa, I'm half way there, whoa, livin' on a prayer (for real though)

Day 15 has finally arrived! I get to start counting DOWN the days now, woohoo! This was a rough day because of some bad timing around lunch time. We started running errands about 30 minutes before lunch, and didn't end up getting back for another 2.5 hours. I had a small breakfast because I ran out of bacon (the horror!), so I was hungry. I brought some cashews in the car, but I wasn't really feeling them.

And then Maddie got hungry, so we decided to run through Chick-fil-a to get her a quick lunch. Y'all, I am not even kidding- the smell of those nuggets brought tears to my eyes. Also, CFA has like the best Dr. Pepper ever. I have two feet firmly planted in the land of cravings right now. This is actually not the first time CFA has brought me to tears...one time when I was super pregnant I pulled up at like 10:28 and they were out of chicken minis. My love of CFA is real(ly crazy).

Day 15:

Breakfast: apple and almond butter

Snack: cashews

Lunch: leftover grilled chicken and kale chips

Dinner: leftover grilled chicken and green beans

New York City! Day 2

Day 2

So, Maddie is a huge fan of the TODAY show, haha. She watches it with my mom sometimes so she knows all the anchors. When she found out we were going to NY, she really wanted to hold up a sign on tv. So we woke up waaaaay too early (neither of us are morning people), bundled up and checked out of the hotel (checked our bags with the bellhop).Took the subway over to the show and made our poster. 

It was SO COLD, so it wasn't super crowded. We made it on tv a couple times! We didn't stay long, only until about 7:45 because Maddie was really cold and I had already gotten texts that we were on tv, so it was time to get inside and warm up! I'm glad I did it once, but being a night owl- I probably wouldn't do it again :).

We walked over to Ellen's Stardust Diner for breakfast. I didn't tell Maddie that the waitresses/waiters sing, so it was a fun surprise for her. They weren't super crowded (only time I've ever been there without a school group taking up the whole place!), and when they saw Maddie, they sang three Disney princess songs in a row- she was in heaven! The food was ok (they don't have nutella french toast anymore, which was a bummer, bc that was pretty good), but we came more for the atmosphere anyway.

We took our time eating, then hopped on the subway and headed to the American Natural History Museum! I was so excited to show her this awesome place. We watched Night at the Museum a few nights before our trip, so she was pumped. We got there right at 10, checked our coats and bags, and headed straight for the top floor. We had the dinos all to ourselves for a while! She was impressed by those for about 10 minutes, then got bored of skeletons. We had time to see the whole museum though, and we both really enjoyed it. Her favorites were the butterfly conservatory, the gems, the hall of human origins, many of the animals, and of course, the discovery room! 

We took several sitting breaks in the museum, and after we left we walked to Gray's Papaya. Maddie loves hot dogs and papayas, so I figured it would be a hit- it was! I am not a big hot dog fan, so after that we subway'd back to Times Square and went to BonChon for me to grab some wings (they are my fave wings and we don't have one in my town!). Then we had about an hour to kill before our train left, so we wandered into a few tourist trap shops in Times Square and got Maddie an I heart NY shirt.

All in all, it was a great trip! I wish the weather had been warmer, but if we did the trip in April or May, the hotel and Lion King tickets probably would have been double the price, so I can put up with a little cold for a good deal :). Maddie is in LOVE with the city, she wants to sell our car and move there tomorrow!