Whole 30: The last week... Are we finished yet?

Wow - it's been a CRAZY week around here!  So busy that I didn't realize until tonight that I hadn't updated my blog in a while.

We finished the Whole30!  Yay!  I will admit to cheating about 12 hours before the program ended 😥... Lucia, however, finished strong.  I am so proud of her!!!

I won't bother listing what I ate, since it is pretty much the same as other days.  I am listing below the few things that were new, and if they have recipes, I've linked them.

• Tom Kha Gai Soup (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)
• Brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar
• Oven roasted beets

So all in all, it was a good experience.  We had some good results:  I lost 10 pounds, Lu lost 8.  We each lost inches around the stomach/hips.  Dennis also lost some weight, but he had to travel throughout the program and wasn't able to be as focused on it as we were.

I definitely think that I will do it again at some point, but more importantly, I really enjoyed how good I felt on it.  I have tried a few pieces of candy over the last day or two and man, it hit me like a ton of bricks (and not in a good way).  

We are slowly easing back into the real world.  We need to phase in some foods to see how/if we have reactions to them.  We are trying gluten-free grains first.  Once we see how those go, we'll move on to the other areas:  Dairy, normal grains, legumes...  I'll keep things updated here on the next few days!

Thanks for following... I'm excited to see where this goes!  I definitely will be focusing on healthier eating and cooking going forward.

Whole 30 Days 20 - 24... Trudging toward the end!

Well, we are 7 days out.  I am ready for some bread, but I am trudging my way forward and going to try my best to finish strong!  Clearly I've lost my blog posting motivation, but I really want to complete as many goals associated with this effort as I can.

I haven't been doing as well with my daily praying / meditation, but I HAVE been purging and definitely have met that goal with at least a full car load to go to Goodwill!

I found a recipe for a DELICIOUS Chocolate Almond Energy Bite... SO GOOD!  But also, so good that we ate all of them in a sitting between the 4 of us, so could be dangerous.  Recipe is below.

Here's where I am on the food front...

Day 20:

• Meal 1: Lemon Rx Bar & Coconut Latte
• Meal 2: Chicken & Apple Sausage and Butternut Squash Soup
• Meal 3: Half of a Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken (from Panera) - no cheese or dressing
• Snacks: Banana

Day 21:

• Meal 1: 2 Eggs, Sliced Avocado
• Meal 2: Spicy Lemongrass Soup with Chicken
• Meal 3: Butternut Squash Soup
• Snacks: Lemon Rx Bar, Coconut Latte

Day 22:

• Meal 1: 2 Eggs, Banana, 2 pieces of Bacon, Sweet potato fries, Coconut Latte
• Meal 2: Chocolate Almond Butter energy bites
• Meal 3: Curry Chicken with Riced Cauliflower
• Snacks: Banana

Day 23:

• Meal 1: 2 Eggs, Sliced Avocado, unsweetened applesauce
• Meal 2: Curry Chicken, Chocolate Almond Energy Bites
• Meal 3: Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce, apple cider
• Snacks: banana, energy bites

Day 24:

• Meal 1: 2 eggs, bacon and home fries.  Coconut Latte
• Meal 2: Banana, handful of nuts
• Meal 3: Pulled pork and sauce, baked sweet potato
• Snacks: Coconut Chocolate Rx Bar

Whole 30: 18 & 19 ... I am getting a little tired of this...

Yup - I've hit a bit of a wall.  I know there are 10000 recipes out there, but I'm stuck in a rut of making what I know works and what we will eat.  Although I haven't found a bad recipe yet, but I'm just kind of tired of being so aware of the program.  BUT... I know it is good with me and I definitely feel better, so I will keep on going and finish out strong!







Day 18 - ate out every meal :-(

• Meal 1:  2 poached eggs, bacon and hash browns (I was out with a friend - so didn't cook myself, but stayed as on program as I could)
• Meal 2: Panera... 1/2 a Fuji Apple Salad with chicken (no cheese, onions or dressing)
• Meal 3: Publix Salad Bar with grilled chicken
• Snacks: Cut fruit, half a banana

Day 19

• Meal 1:  2 Egg puffs, coffee with dates and almond creamer
• Meal 2:  Sweet potato with blueberries, apples, walnuts and coconut
• Meal 3:  Acorn Squash soup, chicken & apple sausage and Kale salad
• Snacks: Lemon Lara bar, Apple chips

Onward and upward!  (or hopefully, downward on the scale front)

Whole 30: Days 15-17... Halloween Candy - yikes!

Today is Halloween... hasn't been too hard ... YET.  We are heading out to go trick-or-treating in about 30 minutes and when the candy comes back IN the house, that will be when the challenge starts.

I've branched out with a few more recipes over the last day or two.  Some good, some okay.  I've noticed that I am definitely less hungry than I've been in a while.  That is great!  So here are the last few days...

Day 15:

• Meal 1:
• Meal 2:  2 eggs and bacon; sweet potato fries
• Meal 3:  Coconut Curry chicken and cauliflower rice.  DELICIOUS!  I didn't think I liked curry, but my daughter insisted I make it and it was really yummy.  Definitely a keeper.
• Snacks:  Cashews, banana, blueberry Rxbar

Day 16:

• Meal 1:  Egg with avocado, banana
• Meal 2: Pumpkin un-oatmeal with walnuts, scrambled egg  ("oatmeal" was okay, wouldn't do it again)
• Meal 3:  Pork chops and apple sauce, salad
• Snacks:  Chocolate Sea Salt RxBar

Day 17:

• Meal 1:  Banana, 1 egg scrambled with bacon and veggies
• Meal 2:  1 egg souffle, 1 piece of bacon
• Meal 3:  Hamburgers and sweet potato fries and apple sauce
• Snack:  Almond milk latte, terra chips

Whole 30: Days 12-14... I've eaten more bananas in the last week than I have in my entire lifetime.

A strange thing has happened on the Whole 30.  I am now eating bananas.  I know, probably not weird to you but TRUST ME, I DO NOT EAT BANANAS.  From a baby on, I haven't liked them at all.  Mom can attest to that.  Within the last few years, I've been willing to put them into smoothies and occasionally will try banana bread but that was my limit.  

Within the last week, I've easily eaten a dozen bananas, straight out of the skin.  Some days, I've eaten 3.  WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!?  I really like them all of the sudden!  

We are 2 full weeks into the Whole 30.  It is going well.  While I am glad that I now have a taste for bananas  I'm getting kind of tired of sweet potatoes and eggs.  I've found some great recipes, but it is time to shake things up a bit and try some new ones.  Hopefully this coming week will be a little more sane to allow me to do that!

Here is what I ate the last few days.  A lot more "snacks" than I want with Robotics though, so need to come up with some better options there.

Day 12:

• Meal 1:  Scrambled eggs with spinach, prosciutto and salsa; coffee with "pumpkin spice" non-dairy creamer.  Yummy but not worth the daily effort!
• Meal 2:  Banana and RxBar (not really hungry)
• Meal 3: Acorn squash with sausage, caramelized onions, apples and spinach
• Snacks: Banana and RxBar

Day 13:

• Meal 1:  Banana and Rx Bar
• Meal 2:  2 scrambled eggs with diced turkey, spinach, honey nut squash and onions.
• Meal 3:  Sweet potato with BBQ on top and a salad
• Snacks: Banana

Day 14: 

• Meal 1:  Green Juice from Costco, 2 eggs and sweet potato toast
• Meal 2: Salad bar from Legman's with Chicken Breast and Hard Boiled egg
• Meal 3:  Chicken & Apple sausage and sweet potato
• Snacks: Banana, carrots and almond butter, Beet chips

Day 14: