Day Thirty

Finally, the journey is complete. It's been a wild thirty days but the two of us feel amazing. Watching what I ate alone allowed me to lose ten pounds.

I'm not going to dive back into eating the way I used to- what would have been the point of doing the Whole30 in the first place? We've both come to a mutual decision- we plan on sticking to eating healthy meats and veggies, but we're going to allow ourselves a once in a while treat when it comes to grains, dairy and desserts. There are lots of Paleo desserts I've been eyeing and I can't wait to try them out.

I'm disappointed I haven't been able to really blog about the last half of the Whole30. My computer has decided it won't stay connected to the internet unless it's plugged in, and I didn't figure that out until a few days ago. I really enjoy blogging, so I'm going to continue and update with different recipes : )

Thanks for sticking around! ♥

Day Sixteen - Twenty One

I'm back and STILL on the Whole30. My computer hasn't been working all week so I'm taking this rare "working" opportunity to quickly jot down my progress.

Breakfasts and lunches have pretty much been the same since we started. We both eat eggs for breakfast (omelette city) and he eats his packed lunches of lettuce wrapped ham with fruit on the side, while I'll eat leftovers or turkey.

Seth's PERFECT omelette.

 Lmao can you tell I pack in way too many veggies?

Dinners have continued to be fun. I tried out sweet mashed potatoes suggested by my close friend Jahaira (who is also my dedicated commenter) and they were amazing. Just boil, toss coconut milk/cream in and mash. I added some cinnamon as well. Also... sweet potatoes are a nightmare to chop up. Just wanted to throw that in there.

Coconut milk is amazing. I could stand there and eat the cream on top until I pass out. It reminds me too much of pina coladas so I tend to just stay away altogether.

Anyway, we also tried out turkey brats and they were much better than the sweet italian turkey sausage we previously tried. The italian turkey sausage was too similar to breakfast sausage, which Seth hates (I'm not a fan either).

I also made a super quick pot roast minus potatoes. I took a roast, carrots, onions, and spices and threw them into an oven bag at 350 for an hour and a half.

 Before...

 After!

Anyway, that about sums up the past six days. Soon we'll be a week away from completion : )

Day Fifteen

Well, this journey is officially halfway completed. While I can't say I don't miss my favorite foods, I can't deny how much I'm loving not being suffocated to death by my jeans. Is this what it feels like to be comfortable in jeans? ; )

Breakfast - omelette with peppers, onions, tomato, spinach and mushrooms. There was barely any egg ; )

Egg not pictured. Or is it....

Lunch- A mini basil turkey burger with zucchini.

Dinner was a repeat of day seven's but with perfectly cooked cauliflower.

I'm excited because I had enough for leftovers for tomorrow's lunch : )

So ready to complete the second half of the Whole30!!

Day Thirteen and Fourteen - The weekend

Another weekend has passed!

Saturday

Breakfast/lunch was an omelette containing peppers, tomato, spinach and mushrooms ♥ We got up pretty late so first meal was technically skipped. I made Seth a turkey burger.

Dinner - Baked chicken thighs with mashed garlic cauliflower "potatoes" similarly made from the recipe Melanie linked to on her blog.

I decided to try out microwave steaming with the cauliflower since I do it regularly with squash and zucchini and stove top steaming with my colander is a pain in the ass. I chopped up the cauliflower into florets and threw it into a bowl along with three chopped cloves of garlic. I filled the bowl with an inch of water, loosely covered it, and threw it into the microwave for thirteen minutes. It came out perfectly and was so much faster than stove top, which can take as long as fifty minutes with my colander.

After they were cooked, I threw it into a blender (half at a time) with ghee and salt until it was blended. I didn't use nutmeg because mine had expired lol.

Since the chicken still didn't thaw out all the way, I just upped the temperature to 400F and baked for 50 minutes and broiled on high for 3 minutes. Perfect chicken : )

Um.. ignore the gross grease marks.

I added chives to the "potatoes."

Behold, chives in this gorgeously vibrant picture.

Sunday

We were pretty much out of food since it was grocery day.

For breakfast/lunch (another late start) we had chicken leftovers. Since we eat a lot of vegetables, we touch the fruit sparingly so there was enough for a snack to hold us over until dinner.

Dinner was lettuce-wrapped burgers again. This week will have much healthier dinners than Friday and Sunday for sure. As much as I love the weekend, I like the uniform meal planning the days of the week have.

Day fifteen will be here tonight ; )

Day Twelve

Okay I keep getting behind but it's been a pretty busy couple of days lol. Another simple food log:

Breakfast - pepper, spinach and tomato omelette.

Lunch - cabbage.

Dinner - We were out of vegetables except cauliflower which is for day thirteen's dinner so we had ourselves a "binge night." We had lettuce wrapped hamburgers. Nothing really fattening, I just don't like to serve dinner without vegetables so I felt guilty. But day thirteen will be redeeming.

Day Eleven

I didn't have time to write yesterday but it was a short and sweet day for food.

Breakfast: Onion, pepper and spinach omelette with a banana.

Lunch: Two mini turkey burgers (1/3rd lb of meat).

Between breakfast and lunch I worked out. I forgot to mention on day ten I made it to three miles, I only had to stop a few times because of my asthma. Well this day I made it past three miles with no asthma problems! :) No matter how much I stretch my legs ache like a mother, so I know it's working lol.

When I worked out in the past I would religiously exercise watching The Office. In time I realized I could time my workouts with every episode which would make time absolutely crawl by. To prevent this I've been popping in movies. My favorite genre is horror so I've watched The Grudge and The Ring on day ten and eleven. They're not scary but they're entertaining enough that I don't look at the clock too too much.

For dinner I cooked up sweet Italian turkey sausage with peppers, onions and mushrooms.

I know the squash is out of place but I needed a vegetable lol.

That's it for day eleven!

Day Ten

We made it to the double digits! One third complete. Super hype.

Breakfast started off with a pepper and onion omelette.

Lunch was a mini turkey basil burger with an orange.

~Not pictured~

Originally for dinner we were going to have turkey sausage, but we ended up running to the store and got fish instead. Cod was on sale so we picked up a pound for less than six dollars ♥ I love cod when it's baked with butter and cracker crumbs. Instead, I tossed it in lemon and olive oil and sprinkled salt, pepper and basil on top.

I covered it with foil and baked it at 400F for twenty minutes. I cooked asparagus to go with it.

Ta-da!

That concludes day ten. I ended up burning one of my wax melts from Yankee Candle to cover the fish smell lol. Cheers!

Day Nine

[Edit: I ended up hitting 'Save' and not 'Publish... Oops. Here's yesterday's entry.]

I hate sweet potatoes. Hate hate hate. I've repeatedly tried them to no avail. I eat most foods with ease, but sweet potatoes have never been my thing. Well, sweet potatoes are allowed on the Whole30, and I was going to give them another shot.

So to mix up breakfast, I made sweet potato hashbrowns, taken from this recipe I googled desperately. I omitted the bacon and garlic, but when I have my hands on some bacon I definitely want to make it again with some.

I took this ugly thing...

Ew.

...and transformed it into this.

This honestly looked like cheese.

While I was grating the potato, I fried up some onions.

I dumped the grated potatoes into the onion mixture and fried for fifteen minutes. I then put the pan in the oven to broil for a few minutes. I served them with a fried egg.

I honestly liked this a lot. I'd rather serve them with scrambled eggs, but milk isn't allowed, sooo yeah. Next time to firm up the potatoes I'm going to spread the potatoes over a baking sheet and broil them for a crispy touch. Not bad at all.

Today was my first day of exercise in a few weeks. Not to make excuses, but for my first week on the Whole30 I wanted to do it sans exercise to see how the change in my diet affected my body. After successfully losing three inches in my waist in a week, it was time to step it up with exercise.

Thankfully I own a treadmill. Just a month ago I was able to do three miles with ease, so I jumped on thinking it would be just as easy with a "newer" body. This was not the case when I hit two miles. I started having an asthma attack, so I had to jump off and collect myself. When you have asthma you never know when your body is having a good day or not, and because I don't have an inhaler I have to be careful.

When I felt better I finished up with floor exercises and I made a mini fritatta for lunch.

 Be jealous, Seth.

 For dinner I made herb crusted pork chops. I took salt, pepper, basil, oregano, crushed rosemary and parsley and rubbed it into my boneless pork chops that were drizzled with olive oil.

I baked them in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes since they were little and boneless. I served them with a side of squash.

Later on I had a bowl of fruit because I was craving some.

Day complete!

Day Eight

Today started off like any other - with a fritatta. While I could eat these bad boys 24/7/365, Seth told me he was sick of fritattas so I'm trying out something new tomorrow : )

 Goodbye, beautiful.

We had to pay my rent today as well as pick up Seth's books for college, but because it was Labor Day everywhere but one lone store was closed. The store was sadly out of his books so the hunt will continue tomorrow.

Dinner was a repeat from last week - thin pan fry steaks with homemade guacamole. This time I cooked up some asparagus and it was delicious.

Super vibrant picture.

Nice, simple day.

I also took the peels from the orange I had with breakfast as well as the lime shells from the guacamole (I juiced them) and simmered them for a few hours with cinnamon, cloves and allspice for homemade potpourri. Waste not, want not : )

Day Seven, One week complete

I know I sound like a broken record, but I SERIOUSLY cannot believe it's been a week since beginning the Whole30. I've seriously been enjoying the ride. Naturally I could go for a soft serve with sprinkles... but whatever.

Today I got a really late start with Seth. So instead of a breakfast fritatta... we had a lunch fritatta. Exciting ; )

I talked to my mom a ton today about the Whole30. Immediately after hanging up the phone the first time we spoke today she went to Nelson's, a local fruits and vegetable stand, and picked up a huge amount of goodies for only $24. Then she drove to Barnes and Noble and bought It Starts With Food, an awesome book about the Whole30! I'm so proud that she's this interested in trying out the program.

I'm happy that she, at least, has taken this challenge I'm doing seriously, whether or not she's interested in participating. The most annoying part of this program to me isn't the cravings or frustrations of not being able to eat my favorite foods (though this has thankfully been rare). No, the most annoying part is the question "Oh, you're still doing the Whole30?"

Yes, I am. It's a thirty day program. It clearly has not been thirty days. I'm not a quitter. I'm obviously passionate enough to be doing this that I've been writing about it literally every day in this blog. Seth's family also contributed to this, as they invited us to a huge barbeque-esque dinner today and already threw barbeque/whatever sauce on everything before telling us about it. They had sides we couldn't eat either. Seth told his mom "Well... we can't eat any of that." So we didn't go. I mean, if they had just had plain and dry meat it would have been fine. But we both explained the program to them multiple times only a week ago.

Like if you don't have faith in me, that's fine. I'm obviously going to prove every doubter wrong. I'm doing this, and I'm doing this for me.

Putting the soapbox away.... Tonight we went grocery shopping. We picked up a lot more meat and fruit this time around, and minus eggs and spinach (we picked up some more a few days ago) the bill totaled $91, only two dollars more than last week, and we obviously got more this time around.

Tonight I'm making lemon basil chicken breasts with zucchini as a side. It's cooking right now but smells heavenly. I'm going to explain the recipe below, but I took it from Eat Yourself Skinny and omitted the wine with a touch more oil.

I preheated the oven to 400. In a small pan, I threw in a splash of extra virgin olive oil with two minced cloves of garlic and let it cook for a minute or two. You don't want to brown the garlic.

When the minute was up, I removed the pan from the hot burner and added the juice from a lemon, a heaping tablespoon of lemon zest, salt, pepper, and a good amount of basil. I didn't measure the basil, just use your best judgement.

Before preparing the sauce, I salted and peppered my chicken breasts in a greased pan. When the sauce was stirred and warmed I poured it over the chicken.

I cooked it for 45 minutes (until it reached an internal temp at 165) and let it rest for ten minutes while I prepared the zucchini. I'm about to go taste it now, I hope it tastes as good as it smells : )

_________________________________________

Verdict: AMAZING.

Amazing, amazing, amazing. It better have been for the price. We got the three for a little over eight dollars. In comparison to dining out it's extremely cheap, but eight dollars is a lot of money to throw down for meat. Anyway, it was incredible and Seth absolutely adored it too (thank goodness). I definitely want to recycle the sauce recipe for when I make fish. I hate fish unless it's cod but I'm saving that rant for another entry, since I'm going to try out salmon and tilapia again.

Hurray for the start of a brand new week!

Day Six - dinner

Not an interesting entry but I like to keep track of what I eat!

For lunch I cooked up some turkey and squash, and had watermelon as a snack. Dinner was old fashioned hamburgers again, with peppers, onions and mushrooms.

Not much to say, other than it was a nice, relaxing day. Today (technically yesterday) makes nine months together with Seth, can't believe time flies! It certainly has with the Whole 30, tomorrow makes one week!

Day Six - morning

It's Saturday, which means Seth and I both got to sleep in. I was determined to make the spinach and egg muffins until I reread the recipe. It calls for four bags of 9oz spinach to make twelve muffins. I had one bag, which only covered maybe four. That's a huge waste of spinach for one breakfast (even though you can reheat the leftovers) so I decided against it and attempted a souffle fritatta instead. (Recipe here, omit butter for oil)

The only difference between a fritatta and a souffle fritatta is that you have to separate the yolks from the whites and beat separately. This recipe requires time to beat the whites into stiff peaks.

I ran out of peppers so I used up the rest of a tomato :) Seth hates tomatoes but I snuck them in anyway.

Beating whites into peaks takes pretty much forever if you don't have the patience. Luckily I do but I don't have a picture of them, just the process.

You're not done yet, keep going.

Even though they were peaky, my brain told me to keep going while my stomach yelled "IT'S FINE, THROW IT TOGETHER ALREADY WOMAN." So I listened to my stomach. I whipped up the egg yolks with a touch of olive oil and threw it in the bowl of egg whites, along with the vegetable medley.

That's when my egg whites went 'lol no' and turned into soup on me. I folded it all together as best as I could, tossed it into the pan, cooked on medium for a few minutes and tossed it into the oven on low broil for ten minutes.

It obviously came out differently from the recipe but it was still fluffy and delicious! Methinks we're going to stick to a regular fritatta from now on, though. If I ever make this again, I'm DEFINITELY beating it longer to prevent what had happened. No big deal though!

Well it's time to get ready for my day!  : )

Day Five

It's day five, and Friday to boot!

Seth had work at eight in the morning, so I woke up at 6:40 to make his breakfast and lunch. We had another amazing fritatta, and I packed his lunch with a sliced apple as a snack. When he left I went straight back to bed.

Lunch for me consisted of boiled dinner leftovers. Not too exciting so I waited to blog about it. ;)

Tonight's dinner: spaghetti!

Now obviously we can't eat pasta, so I picked up an adorable spaghetti squash. They're super easy to cook and make an effortless pasta substitute. I preheated the oven to 375 and threw the squash onto a pan after piercing it to bake for an hour.

The sauce only takes about 25 minutes to prepare, so I chilled and ate apple slices with cinnamon as a snack. I usually don't snack during the day with fruit, but lunch and dinner were pretty far apart.

Perfection.

So when the time came, I chopped up peppers and onions and threw them into a pan with olive oil. I cooked the peppers first for a few minutes since they take longer to cook.

When they were almost done, I took diced tomatoes and tomato sauce and warmed them in a saucepan. I used to religiously use Hunt's tomatoes. One day in the store I was chatting on the phone with my mom in the canned tomato aisle and was telling her how much I loved Hunt's. A man stopped me and walked me over to a different brand of tomatoes to show me a more healthier choice.

The sodium content in Cento crushed tomatoes are miles lower than in Hunt's. They're a little pricier but they're just as tasty. For this recipe I chose diced, not crushed, but either works. I then cooked my ground beef, and with a dash of salt, pepper and parsley my sauce was good to go. Simple and delicious. Sometimes I like to add squash and mushrooms to spaghetti sauce but tonight I didn't.

My spaghetti squash finished baking and I sliced it in half to remove the pulp and seeds. I put them aside to toast later.

From here, you can pop the squash in the microwave for five minutes and the squash strands come out perfectly and ready to eat.

This recipe is similar to my goulash, which happens to be one of Seth's favorite dishes that I make. He was really impressed that it was like eating spaghetti itself. I was super excited that I could make a tasty substitute : )

After dinner and cleanup, I rinsed the squash seeds to make a toasty, healthy snack for later. I toasted them in olive oil and salt at 375 for fifteen minutes. They sort of taste like popcorn...

This concludes day five! We're both happy and full. Bring on the next twenty five days!