fourteen

Breakfast

Fried Eggs & Fresh Organic Roma Tomato

Lunch

Forgot pic

Mexican Chili & Sweet Potato Spears

Dinner

Malek al Kebab - House Salad w/Lamb

No comments today... So tired... 

thirteen

... Let's not talk about details today. 

Here's what I ate:

Breakfast

Omelet w/Broccoli Salad & Snap Peas

Tasted great, easy to make.

Lunch

Mediterranean Beef & Kale Stew w/Mashed Sweet Potatoes

MEAT! This was good, though I wasn't really in the mood for stew. Also, the recipe is a lot better with lamb.

Dinner

Aidell's Chicken & Apple Sausage w/Cole Slaw and Orange Slices

Kinda in a hurry for dinner tonight. Didn't feel like repeating pulled pork so I was glad I had these sausages available. This did the trick.

Tomorrow marks two weeks of tracking and trying to stay Paleo. It also marks the end of just Paleo for this round of tracking. Wednesday will begin the Whole30 which I will count down to end on Valentine's Day. :)

twelve

Breakfast

Sweet Potato Omelet & Aidell's Chicken and Apple Sausage w/Grapes & Banana 

All good and a great, filling way to fuel for the day.

Lunch

Forgot pic

Gus 'n' Us - Grilled Chicken Salad w/Walnuts, Dried Cherries, Mandarin Oranges & Strawberries

So delicious I couldn't stop eating until it was gone. I swear they put crack in their chicken! :)

Dinner

Turkey Lettwiches w/Cole Slaw & Grapes

The perfect, yummy, filling food for watching the Golden Globes.

I spent the afternoon at Trader Joe's with Bryan's mom, sister and baby niece. It's fun to make an adventure of grocery shopping, but it was sooo crowded! I got some good stuff though (Whole30 approved turkey kielbasa, freeze dried banana slices, eggs, Castile soap, and some fun bread for Bryan who is not doing the paleo thing).

Beginning with Wednesday, I'm going more strict and following the rules of the Whole30. It will end on Valentines day. I'm ready!

seven

One full week of eating free of grains, dairy and legumes. I feel great and am noticing less bloating and less crazy cravings for junk. It was another snow day from work and, while I love that I'm saving on make-up and dress pants laundry, I miss the office and the jokes and general fun.   

However, I am taking advantage of the extra time I'm not spending driving to make some pretty great breakfasts. 

Speaking if which...

Breakfast

Turkey & Onion Omelet w/Dried Cherries & Pear Slices

Who says grown ups can't make their breakfast look like a face? Well, that one looks creepy so I'm probably one of those people. :)

Lunch 

Lamb Kofta w/Garlic Sauce & Grilled Squash and the last of the broccoli slaw and salt potatoes.

Yum times a million. I can't get enough of this kofta.

Dinner

Grilled Chicken Salad w/Avocado, Cucumber & Onion and Mashed Sweet Potato

Tasty standby, but the avocado was on the spoiled side so I had to pick around it...

One week done, roughly five to go!

Whole30 Day 28

Day 28 was spent saying "see you later" to a wonderful man. My grandpa will be missed by so many who came out to pay respect and to honor his life. I am so lucky to have had such a selfless, caring, devoted example of unconditional love in my life.

The ceremony was beautiful. I got to honor him in song by closing the mass with "How Great Thou Art" and God gave me just enough clear nose time to do a decent job. 

There was a luncheon and I had a good sampling of turkey lunch meat, kielbasa and sauerkraut, olives, dill pickles, and some broasted chicken... I again neglected to take a photo.

After that, I headed home to catch up on some work and had some leftover chicken, and tuna with celery for dinner.

And a delicious orange and pear for dessert!

Back to welcome reality for a few days before flying to Portland for my cousin's wedding on Friday. Two days remain of my first Whole30 and I'm pretty darn proud of myself. I think I'll do this a couple times a year from now on.

Day 29, here I come!

Whole30 Day 21

The countdown to the end begins with today. Oh my gosh I found the best lamb stew recipe and, thanks to swapping out the mashed chick peas for a better option, I am hooked!

Well, you can't see much from the photo thanks to the spinach blocking the view, but tender slow braised lamb with cumin, cardamom, onions and diced tomatoes on top of mashed yams lie under the blanket of greens. Thank God for slow cookers!

Dinner took forever because I decided it'd be fun to make garlic aioli. Three tries later (two failed and one successful) I sat down to this

Tuna salad with chopped red onion and green olives alongside the egg whites from my aioli attempts topped with the aforementioned aioli.

Really good stuff, though I should have listened to the internet a advice about cutting the extra virgin olive oil with pure olive oil. Extra virgin has a strooooong flavor! Thankfully, the garlic and seasonings made it turn out ok.

My friend Paige mentioned that, during this challenge, she and her husband correlated a feeling of hunger with feeling tired. I hadn't thought of it before, but I can say it's true thinking back to each time I felt I could just go to sleep. My body has re-learned that food is fuel. Rather than the processed, sodium packed, chemical laced, sugar coated, hormone ridden, pre-packaged nonsense food that I used to eat making me feel lethargic, tired, and lazy I get a little sleepy when it's time to fill up the tank.   

So day 21 begins tomorrow and it marks three weeks of success with nine to go. Sometimes I get a little longing for popcorn or something sweet. Occasionally I wish I could have toast with my eggs at brunch. But you know what? I don't stare at my plate anymore analyzing how much I've got left until the plate is clean. I set down my fork, look up, talk to the people I'm with and, more often than not, I leave food on my plate because I get to take the time to let my stomach catch up to my brain.

Blah blah blah, long-ish post.

See you tomorrow!

Whole30 Day 17

Seventeen days have passed since I started my first Whole 30 and I don't think I have really stopped to explain what it is. It comes from a book by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig called, "It Starts With Food" and something about changing your life, yadda, yadda, yadda .

I can't gush enough about how, even only seventeen days in, I feel changed. My "need to feed" is diminished to about zero. Cravings (real ones, not times I've said, "I miss pizzaaaaaa") are not gone, they're different. I have been craving watermelon, cashews, lamb, sweet potatoes, steak, avocado, and middle eastern salad dressing.

I also can't find the words to express my love of not measuring or weighing one damn thing this whole time. My clothes fit better, my skin is clearer, my aches and pains are disappearing, and I'm in an overall better mood. I'm not missing out on a thing. I've never heard, "there are donuts in the kitchen" and thought, "aw man! I am going to regret not eating one!".

I can't say it has been easy, but it has not been very hard at all and I know why they say, in the book, something like "don't you dare tell us this is hard".

This challenge has given me freedom from the self destructive nature of my relationship with food. I can't imagine sitting in the couch dipping Doritos in a can of processed cheese product or polishing off a whole can of Pringles in 20 minutes. I actually can't see myself eating one single Pringle again. <--- rhyming! Nailed it!

Anyway, on to the food pics!

Lunch was in my belly before I remembered to snap a pic... Again.

Potbelly Farmhouse Salad w/o cheese.

Aaaaaand for dinner, all I wanted was watermelon, but they were out at the market, so I went with my third favorite melon (they were out of honeydew too)

Cantaloupe, or as I call it  "Sing, Lupe!!!"

On to Day 18 folks!

G'night!

Whole30 Day 16

Day 16... The beginning of the end... Well, not the end of eating like a champ, but the end of my challenge.

I sleep better. I fall asleep faster, stay asleep, and wake up better. I'm less groggy, less reluctant to get the day started. This is something I have always wished I could say. :)

You'll notice I don't post pictures of breakfast, though I have posted a pic or two of breakfast food. This is because I've been trying another theory that involves only eating when I actually feel hunger. I don't know about you, reader, but I am super rarely hungry in the morning. At first, not eating breakfast was strange, mostly because I was so used to it. Now, I don't miss it at all. Sometimes I get a hunger pang around 10AM and pop a handful of cashews in my mouth or eat a Larabar.

Lunch was chicken with Imam Bayildi again. It was so good I forgot to get a picture again. :)

Here's a picture from the Internet.

Dinner was some baked garlic chicken with skillet fried sweet potato American fries AND lemon water!!! Oh how lemon juice can change a person's day! I was getting a bit bored with water bring the only thing I drink. 

Also, lemon Larabar for dessert.

I feel silly that I started this before I began reading It Starts with Food, but I didn't want to wait any longer... and I am reading it now. I highly recommend it. It is a good read and has a lot of useful information. Read it! Change you'd life! :)

Seventeen, here we come!

Whole30 Day 15

Half way there!!! Wooooooo hooooooo!!!

Another whirl of a day with a busy workload and a dentist appointment and more painting and more Arabic! :)

Lunch was almost scarfed before I could take a pic of my chicken salad with an Arabic vinaigrette. 

It was pretty dang good and it did the job of making me not hungry anymore. :)

Dinner was more Arabic (sensing a trend?). This time it was the good lamb, the BEST lamb EVER. Malek al Kabob

Same pic as the last time because I ate my food so fast last night that it was all gone when I remembered I'm supposed to be documenting this stuff!

I'm realizing food isn't playing as big of a part in my life as it used to. I'm not putting a lot if thought into when I can eat what. I'm perfectly happy with having a few great ingredients to use in a few great ways. I can't see me getting tired of Arabic! :) 

This will definitely be more than 30 days of my life, this will change it for good. I'm not saying I am going to live every meal 100% Whole, but I will be looking at a more 80/20 or 90/10 balance.

Half way. Wow! See you on the downhill slide to the finish!

Whole30 Day 2

Day 2 is under my belt and I'm luckily not experiencing the headache I was promised yet... Though, maybe yesterday's migraine was a part of after all. 

Anyhow, today went well and I finally made it to the grocery store to stock up on good stuff. 

Lunch today was done chicken and this wonderful dish my Aunt Lorrie introduced me to call Imam Bayildi (layered eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and bit but of a spice kick). Very good. I felt an extreme need for sweet so I had some golden raisins too.

Dinner... Oh dinner!

I got a fresh cut of Angus steak while shopping and grilled it in my cast iron skillet in Ghee... aMAHzing! Sides were roasted sweet potato and a sliced orange. I couldn't finish the steak so now I have a future lunch already done! :)

I'm feeling fine, though looking at all the packages to see if there is added sugar, MSG, nitrates, or sulfates is a bit disheartening. Every package of Bacon or lunch meat had sugar added... Every single one... Even the "uncured" bacon. I need to find a bacon that I'm allowed to eat!!! 

Does anyone know of a brand of all natural, no sugar added, uncured bacon and where I can find it? I'd greatly appreciate it!