I missed my update on Day 11, so today's Day 12 update will perform double duty. I went to visit my friends at their house yesterday, got to have snuggly lap dog time with their adorable dogs, and got home at 9:30 pm, which is 30 minutes past my bedtime. My friends and I usually get together at dinner time at some local restaurant, but they are on an eating out hiatus, and I have all the Whole30 eating out baggage, so it was nice to just hang out and relax without dealing with a meal. That's one of the things about this process, I'm learning. Things don't always revolve around a meal, or at least they shouldn't. More than anything I want the proper mix of protein, fat, and vegetables to eat without thinking about it too much.
I have been trying to use the weekend to stock up on some things I need. I finally made mayonaise....not messed up mayo, but real, actual, decent tasting mayo. That unlocks some potential for making tuna salad, ranch dressing, and other recipes in the book that rely on the homemade mayo. Phew.
I also made ketchup. I'm not completely sold on the ketchup. It was ok last night and tonight for dipping my burger, but I didn't love it. I used apple cider vinegar per the recipe. I'm wondering if balsamic would taste better. I might just add a bunch or horseradish and lemon juice and treat it like more of a cocktail sauce.
Today was the first day I would randomly think about carbs and want to eat them. Homemade salt risen bread, waffles, a grilled sandwich of some sort or another. Visions of sugar plums were dancing in my head, except the sugar plums were baked goods and loaves of bread.
I wonder if it has to do with what I ate early this morning before I walked the dogs. I goofed up and had a banana and some almond butter this morning before walking the dogs. I thought "banana....energy! and almond butter...fat!" I was so wrong. It made me grouchy, grouchy, and grouchy. I even yelled at a guy who tried to jam up our walk by blocking our car with his car and his unattended barking dogs where we were parked. Yeah. I was really cute this morning. Just ask Booney and Myrtle. I went back to the book to read the pre-workout meal, and I should have had the fat and a protein to feel better this morning. Lesson learned. Hard boiled eggs and some nuts in the morning before walking dogs.
Other things I have cooked to prepare for a couple of days:
1. thin pork chops with the Penzey Bavarian Spice Mix. (think mustard, rosemary, oregano, thyme)
2. roasted cabbage steaks. Yum. Olive oil and garlic salt.
3. Zucchini spears. Quartered zucchini with olive oil and garlic cooked under the boiler.
4. Sweet potatoes for this week's post-workout meals.
5. Hamburger patties.
6. Coleslaw with apple cider vinegar. I don't love this recipe. Maybe a balsamic here would be better as well, or now that I have the homemade mayo, maybe I go back to the creamy slaw. I'll force myself to finish this tomorrow for lunch at work with some kind of protein.
I have a bunch of raw pecans. I want to try and roast and grind them to make my own pecan butter this week. Mmmmm. It sounds so good to me for some reason.
I am also accepting more vegetable suggestions. (i.e. BEGGING for more ideas) I need to come up with another lively, diverse salad, and some other vegetables I can cook a lot of at once. Maybe a cauliflower? Tell me your ideas!
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Friday, August 14, 2015
Day 10: Another Weekend and a Chance to Make Different Whole30 Recipes
It is 7:20 pm, and I survived Day 10 of the Whole30. I'm a third of the way there. Leading up to this point, I kept thinking, "Wow. Time is flying by. Already day 7? Already day 9." Stupidly, I started thinking about the entire thing, 30 days, and I felt like I had a loooooong way to go this morning. This is the "for life" kind of stuff, and it was heavy and exhausting to think about. I was bored with eggs, no matter how I cooked them. Avocado? I'd rather not, thanks. Salad? Please no! Please!
3/4 of the battle really is mental. So, I tried to focus on the "Wow. This has flown by" thoughts and not "You want me to do WHAT? For how many more days?" thoughts. Honestly, with a little planning and preparation, it really isn't hard to eat according to the Whole30. I just need to try some new recipes, and I need to cut back on fruit for the next couple of days. I had one or two servings too many today, I think. I was tired and grouchy late this afternoon because I gorged on a mango and some pineapple.
Tonight's dinner was way random: chicken sausages, sauerkraut, dijon mustard, and steamed spinach. How's that for breaking out of the routine? It wasn't my favorite dinner, but I made do.
Tomorrow I have an open water swim practice in Patagonia Lake. I'll be packing my bonus post-workout meal: chicken breast and either a sweet potato or the some canned pumpkin with cinnamon. I also make sure to always have a baggy of mixed nuts and some travel size almond butters in case I get really hungry or in case I'm taken prisoner by invading lunatics, and I have to escape on foot and walk through the wilderness to get home to the dogs. I'm not sure who these invading lunatics would be, but I will defeat them with my almond butter. So beware invading lunatics! And beware hunger!
I'll take my Whole30 book so I can stop at the store on the way home to buy stuff for one or two new main dish.
3/4 of the battle really is mental. So, I tried to focus on the "Wow. This has flown by" thoughts and not "You want me to do WHAT? For how many more days?" thoughts. Honestly, with a little planning and preparation, it really isn't hard to eat according to the Whole30. I just need to try some new recipes, and I need to cut back on fruit for the next couple of days. I had one or two servings too many today, I think. I was tired and grouchy late this afternoon because I gorged on a mango and some pineapple.
Tonight's dinner was way random: chicken sausages, sauerkraut, dijon mustard, and steamed spinach. How's that for breaking out of the routine? It wasn't my favorite dinner, but I made do.
Tomorrow I have an open water swim practice in Patagonia Lake. I'll be packing my bonus post-workout meal: chicken breast and either a sweet potato or the some canned pumpkin with cinnamon. I also make sure to always have a baggy of mixed nuts and some travel size almond butters in case I get really hungry or in case I'm taken prisoner by invading lunatics, and I have to escape on foot and walk through the wilderness to get home to the dogs. I'm not sure who these invading lunatics would be, but I will defeat them with my almond butter. So beware invading lunatics! And beware hunger!
I'll take my Whole30 book so I can stop at the store on the way home to buy stuff for one or two new main dish.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Day 9 and I'm Feelin' Fine.
It is 9:15 pm, and I survived Day 9 of the Whole30. I feel good, but I'm still hungry late afternoon around 3:30. I've been holding off on a snack until after 4:00 to use that as a pre-exercise meal on the days I'm swimming after work. I'm not sure if I'm still adjusting or if I need to have a bit more food at lunch to help with the afternoon hunger.
I noticed this week that I am swimming better. I'm faster, and my endurance is better. This has really been a dramatic change from last week to this week. Part of that is training, and I think a big part is the food I'm eating.
I'm facing what the book estimates are the worst days of the Whole30.. Days 10-12 or somewhere around in there (it is different for everyone). The theory is that the novelty has worn off, the momentum is slowing down maybe, and all the foods I'm not eating have conspired together to hire a psychic to put thoughts into my mind about how much I miss these foods and want them back.
Back away, donut! Get out of here, fresh baked bread! And take your cheddar cheesy friend with you!
I will have to double check that I have a plan in place for meals for the next several days to get over that hump. I am going to have to make something totally different, like shrimp or fish, because I'm starting to get chicken fatigue. I ate a piece for lunch that had a strange texture because of how it was cut. I had to spit it out because it made me start gagging. It will be better to back off chicken a bit to avoid turning against it forever.
The one thing I do notice is that even though I'm not fatigued during the day, when it is my bedtime, I'm finished. My eyes get heavy, and my head bobs a bit. I'm almost doing that now because it's 25 minutes past sleepy night night time. Have a nice night everyone.
I noticed this week that I am swimming better. I'm faster, and my endurance is better. This has really been a dramatic change from last week to this week. Part of that is training, and I think a big part is the food I'm eating.
I'm facing what the book estimates are the worst days of the Whole30.. Days 10-12 or somewhere around in there (it is different for everyone). The theory is that the novelty has worn off, the momentum is slowing down maybe, and all the foods I'm not eating have conspired together to hire a psychic to put thoughts into my mind about how much I miss these foods and want them back.
Back away, donut! Get out of here, fresh baked bread! And take your cheddar cheesy friend with you!
I will have to double check that I have a plan in place for meals for the next several days to get over that hump. I am going to have to make something totally different, like shrimp or fish, because I'm starting to get chicken fatigue. I ate a piece for lunch that had a strange texture because of how it was cut. I had to spit it out because it made me start gagging. It will be better to back off chicken a bit to avoid turning against it forever.
The one thing I do notice is that even though I'm not fatigued during the day, when it is my bedtime, I'm finished. My eyes get heavy, and my head bobs a bit. I'm almost doing that now because it's 25 minutes past sleepy night night time. Have a nice night everyone.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
And on the 8th Day I discovered Spice.
This is the beginning of week 2, and I have to say again, it doesn't feel like it has been that long. I'm not suffering overall. Meaning, I don't suffer from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep. That's good, right? I'm not trying to out-Job Job or anything, so minimizing suffering is good. Sure, I have a moment here and there, or I stress about what to order when I go out, but so far I haven't been staying up all night on a Donut Addiction Hotline trying to talk myself down from a donut disaster.
This morning I had a meeting in Tucson with 3 other people, which also meant lunch in Tucson....unplanned lunch at an unknown location! This was a challenge. The group picked a place called Hub in downtown Tucson. They are known for their decent hipster food and their rotating selection of gourmet homemade ice cream. Decent hipster food, in my mind, means put gourmet, artisan, local bacon on everything, and put 75 obscure ingredients in your sauces while claiming they are all sustainably sourced.
Every single thing on the menu had some major flaw. Mmmm....gourmet salad with salmon and oops! with quinoa...X. no quinoa. Ooooo, salmon with zucchini noodles soaked in butter...X... I couldn't know if it was clarified butter or not, and I wasn't willing to ask for it cooked without butter because it would have been cooked in butter anyway. That's just how things work in a busy restaurant. "No butter? Sure, we can do that (as it is finished in butter)."
I settled on a burger, no bun/cheese/bacon, a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and a cup of pork, green chili soup. I asked what was in the soup, making sure it didn't have cream. It arrive and looked delicious. I proceeded to remove some fried tortilla strips from the top, and after a couple of bites, I saw it had garbanzo beans. X. Why put stupid garbanzo beans in a pork/green chili soup? So, I ate around the garbanzos a bit, but ended up shoving the soup away in "unnecessary additional ingredients" disgust.
Another person at my table ordered the side salad, and I saw it was riddled with corn. What the hell, people? Corn? I flagged down the waitress and asked that no corn be included in the salad I ordered with my burger. She looked at my partially eaten soup and asked if I was enjoying that. Uhm...garbanzo beans? No.
So, all in all I was THAT PERSON. We've all known that person. You go out to eat with them, and it is a struggle to watch them order everything with some exception and some special request. It drives me insane, and NOW that's me. Once upon a time there was a person who was friends with some of my friends. I would end up seeing said person at gatherings, potlucks, etc..., and it pissed me off every single time because this person would talk allllllllll about what they could and couldn't eat. Every single freaking time we would get the epic speech about this person's special diet, and people who went out of their way to make something special for this person would be praised. This person would poopoo dishes that had ingredients they couldn't eat because "You all know, I can't eat that!" For the love of all that is holy in this planet!!!!! SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR SPECIAL STUPID DIET! That's what went through my head each time. And now I was screaming that at myself at Hub.
At the end of our lunch, the waitress walked over and placed the current ice cream list right. in. front. of. me. Hussie. She knew what she was doing. You aren't going to break me with your fig ice cream with indian fry bread bits. YOU WON'T WIN!
The lesson: avoid hipster, trendy restaurants because everything will be contaminated with artisanal bacon that has been hand massaged with sustainably sourced sugar and salt evaporated from the tears of endangered animals. Then they will put garbanzo beans where you least expect it and try to ruin you with the siren song of homemade ice cream.
The real win of today, aside from my eating out lesson, was the discovery of spices! Crazy spices! One of the people in the meetings with me was a classically trained chef in a former life. I started talking to him about my boredom with food and the need to make things more interesting without adding complicated recipes. He immediately had me turn the car north into Tucson to Penzeys Spice Store. He said he had to pick up some things for his house, too, so since we were carpooling, we went to the spice place. Who knew this place existed? Not me.
Instead of having to follow a complicated recipe to make things taste good, I sprinkle some of these delicious Penzey blends on things and VOILA! Food. The Fox Point that I used tonight is like crack...yummy, yummy crack. I cooked chicken breasts with it, and it tastes really good. Once I tire of that, I can go Indian, Bavarian, Greek, Italian, or just straight up Garlic. This was revolutionary!
So, I have asparagus cooked, a cabbage to cook, and I will probably saute onions and zucchini this weekend. I have lots of chicken, and a couple of proteins in the freezer I can use, like shrimp, fish, and some steaks. I'm optimistic about week 2.
This morning I had a meeting in Tucson with 3 other people, which also meant lunch in Tucson....unplanned lunch at an unknown location! This was a challenge. The group picked a place called Hub in downtown Tucson. They are known for their decent hipster food and their rotating selection of gourmet homemade ice cream. Decent hipster food, in my mind, means put gourmet, artisan, local bacon on everything, and put 75 obscure ingredients in your sauces while claiming they are all sustainably sourced.
Every single thing on the menu had some major flaw. Mmmm....gourmet salad with salmon and oops! with quinoa...X. no quinoa. Ooooo, salmon with zucchini noodles soaked in butter...X... I couldn't know if it was clarified butter or not, and I wasn't willing to ask for it cooked without butter because it would have been cooked in butter anyway. That's just how things work in a busy restaurant. "No butter? Sure, we can do that (as it is finished in butter)."
I settled on a burger, no bun/cheese/bacon, a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and a cup of pork, green chili soup. I asked what was in the soup, making sure it didn't have cream. It arrive and looked delicious. I proceeded to remove some fried tortilla strips from the top, and after a couple of bites, I saw it had garbanzo beans. X. Why put stupid garbanzo beans in a pork/green chili soup? So, I ate around the garbanzos a bit, but ended up shoving the soup away in "unnecessary additional ingredients" disgust.
Another person at my table ordered the side salad, and I saw it was riddled with corn. What the hell, people? Corn? I flagged down the waitress and asked that no corn be included in the salad I ordered with my burger. She looked at my partially eaten soup and asked if I was enjoying that. Uhm...garbanzo beans? No.
So, all in all I was THAT PERSON. We've all known that person. You go out to eat with them, and it is a struggle to watch them order everything with some exception and some special request. It drives me insane, and NOW that's me. Once upon a time there was a person who was friends with some of my friends. I would end up seeing said person at gatherings, potlucks, etc..., and it pissed me off every single time because this person would talk allllllllll about what they could and couldn't eat. Every single freaking time we would get the epic speech about this person's special diet, and people who went out of their way to make something special for this person would be praised. This person would poopoo dishes that had ingredients they couldn't eat because "You all know, I can't eat that!" For the love of all that is holy in this planet!!!!! SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR SPECIAL STUPID DIET! That's what went through my head each time. And now I was screaming that at myself at Hub.
At the end of our lunch, the waitress walked over and placed the current ice cream list right. in. front. of. me. Hussie. She knew what she was doing. You aren't going to break me with your fig ice cream with indian fry bread bits. YOU WON'T WIN!
The lesson: avoid hipster, trendy restaurants because everything will be contaminated with artisanal bacon that has been hand massaged with sustainably sourced sugar and salt evaporated from the tears of endangered animals. Then they will put garbanzo beans where you least expect it and try to ruin you with the siren song of homemade ice cream.
The real win of today, aside from my eating out lesson, was the discovery of spices! Crazy spices! One of the people in the meetings with me was a classically trained chef in a former life. I started talking to him about my boredom with food and the need to make things more interesting without adding complicated recipes. He immediately had me turn the car north into Tucson to Penzeys Spice Store. He said he had to pick up some things for his house, too, so since we were carpooling, we went to the spice place. Who knew this place existed? Not me.
Instead of having to follow a complicated recipe to make things taste good, I sprinkle some of these delicious Penzey blends on things and VOILA! Food. The Fox Point that I used tonight is like crack...yummy, yummy crack. I cooked chicken breasts with it, and it tastes really good. Once I tire of that, I can go Indian, Bavarian, Greek, Italian, or just straight up Garlic. This was revolutionary!
So, I have asparagus cooked, a cabbage to cook, and I will probably saute onions and zucchini this weekend. I have lots of chicken, and a couple of proteins in the freezer I can use, like shrimp, fish, and some steaks. I'm optimistic about week 2.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Day 7 of the Whole30. What's the Plan, Stan?
It is 8:43 pm, and I survived day 7 of the Whole30. I don't feel like a week has passed, which is good I think. I feel pretty darn good. Clear-headed, maybe a tad hungy in the afternoons still, and not suffering from too many cravings. I also swam 2,350 yards tonight, which is 1.3 miles, or 47 laps, (can you tell I do a lot of counting and measuring and converting and cross-measuring on my exercise? I'm a bit ridiculous.) and I feel like what I'm eating is working out fine with my increased exercise.
Today I had lunch at a salad place. You pick your "flavor" of chicken, your salad size, and then request your toppings. I discovered that bell pepper and red onion really change the game when it comes to what would otherwise be a boring salad. Three cheers for bell pepper! and a fourth cheer for red onion! How sad it is that I consider that a major revelation in life?
I finished the last of the lamb burgers tonight. Thank goodness those are gone! I must say, I didn't love the lamb burger. It tasted like a hamburger gone bad almost, but it is what I planned for dinner, so I ate it. The nice things about this gig is I have way less food waste because I stick to a plan. Which leads me to my next plan....
There is no plan!!!! AAAAAAA. I have chicken breasts in the fridge to cook for some dinners/lunches for 3 or 4 days, I have enough lettuce for one more salad, and some spinach/kale which I will try to choke down tomorrow at breakfast and dinner.
I need vegetable ideas that don't involve spaghetti squash. After 4 meals of spaghetti squash, I need a break. Also, no broccoli for a few days because I have broccoli coming out my nose. What does that leave? I'm at a loss. Maybe a cabbage thing.
I need one more protein idea to alternate with the chicken for a couple of days. Maybe it's time for fish of some sort, and I'm tempted to try one lunch to use a can of the sardines. I am accepting sardine suggestions from everyone. Let me know your ideas on eating them and actually enjoying it. I was reading up online about sardines, and they said that sardines are high in calcium, among other things. Then I discovered that was from the bones. This sardine business might be tough.
Tomorrow week two begins!
Today I had lunch at a salad place. You pick your "flavor" of chicken, your salad size, and then request your toppings. I discovered that bell pepper and red onion really change the game when it comes to what would otherwise be a boring salad. Three cheers for bell pepper! and a fourth cheer for red onion! How sad it is that I consider that a major revelation in life?
I finished the last of the lamb burgers tonight. Thank goodness those are gone! I must say, I didn't love the lamb burger. It tasted like a hamburger gone bad almost, but it is what I planned for dinner, so I ate it. The nice things about this gig is I have way less food waste because I stick to a plan. Which leads me to my next plan....
There is no plan!!!! AAAAAAA. I have chicken breasts in the fridge to cook for some dinners/lunches for 3 or 4 days, I have enough lettuce for one more salad, and some spinach/kale which I will try to choke down tomorrow at breakfast and dinner.
I need vegetable ideas that don't involve spaghetti squash. After 4 meals of spaghetti squash, I need a break. Also, no broccoli for a few days because I have broccoli coming out my nose. What does that leave? I'm at a loss. Maybe a cabbage thing.
I need one more protein idea to alternate with the chicken for a couple of days. Maybe it's time for fish of some sort, and I'm tempted to try one lunch to use a can of the sardines. I am accepting sardine suggestions from everyone. Let me know your ideas on eating them and actually enjoying it. I was reading up online about sardines, and they said that sardines are high in calcium, among other things. Then I discovered that was from the bones. This sardine business might be tough.
Tomorrow week two begins!
Monday, August 10, 2015
Day 6 of Whole30. Feed Me, Seymour!
It is 7:54 pm, and I survived Day 6 of the Whole30. I felt really great this morning...full of energy, happy, not terribly hungry, and not craving bad foods. Even when I cried a little about Craig while walking in the yard with the other dogs this morning, I was ok.
I have been walking the past three mornings with Booney and Myrtle, something we used to do religiously but have slacked on the past several months. I load them up and we drive to Tubac for a nice excursion. I have also been swimming a lot. The increased activity and getting used to the Whole30 probably explain why I was blindsided by a raging hunger today at about 3:30 pm. I got so hungry so fast that I was kind of nauseous. Good times! I wanted to eat everything and then puke it back up! I was convinced for a while that I had accidentally food poisoned myself.
According to the book, this is the "Eat all the things" stage, and boy were they right...about the wanting to eat, that is. They didn't mention the nausea. I couldn't find enough calories to eat without woofing down an entire jar of almond butter. I had taken some hard boiled eggs to work in addition to my lunch as an emergency snack. Thank goodness I did! I ate three of those, a few berries I had left, a few nuts, and a spoonful of almond butter. I figured out I need to keep more fast, convenient vegetables at work!
I got home, played with the dogs, ate an early dinner and now I finally feel normal.
I had a pretty good lunch and had a lot of vegetables with my breakfast protein. I also ate lunch late, which made this hunger all the more surprising. So, more vegetables at the office, in addition to replenishing my protein stash. All in all, not a bad day, and I learned a few things, which is good.
I have been walking the past three mornings with Booney and Myrtle, something we used to do religiously but have slacked on the past several months. I load them up and we drive to Tubac for a nice excursion. I have also been swimming a lot. The increased activity and getting used to the Whole30 probably explain why I was blindsided by a raging hunger today at about 3:30 pm. I got so hungry so fast that I was kind of nauseous. Good times! I wanted to eat everything and then puke it back up! I was convinced for a while that I had accidentally food poisoned myself.
According to the book, this is the "Eat all the things" stage, and boy were they right...about the wanting to eat, that is. They didn't mention the nausea. I couldn't find enough calories to eat without woofing down an entire jar of almond butter. I had taken some hard boiled eggs to work in addition to my lunch as an emergency snack. Thank goodness I did! I ate three of those, a few berries I had left, a few nuts, and a spoonful of almond butter. I figured out I need to keep more fast, convenient vegetables at work!
I got home, played with the dogs, ate an early dinner and now I finally feel normal.
I had a pretty good lunch and had a lot of vegetables with my breakfast protein. I also ate lunch late, which made this hunger all the more surprising. So, more vegetables at the office, in addition to replenishing my protein stash. All in all, not a bad day, and I learned a few things, which is good.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Day 5: Mayonaisse, Pesto, and Kale. Whole30 Gourmet Life.
It's 8:05 pm, and I survived Day 5. I'm actually feeling pretty good. I went to the grocery store for a few additional things I had forgotten, and I was so tempted by the smells of the bakery. It was a true test of will to not shove 17 muffins in my mouth all at once. After I gained some composure and kept shopping, the urge for baked goods passed rather quickly.
While walking the dogs this morning in Tubac, we saw a bunch of people sitting on the patio of the local coffee shop. They were laughing and enjoying coffee and baked goods and egg sandwiches and such. I almost pouted, "But I want to sit at a coffee shop and sip coffee with cream and eat croissants and cheese danish until someone has to move me off the patio with a crane. I do! I do! I really, really do!" Part of it is wanting or craving a baked good, but part of it is just the ease with which these people go out, order food, and shovel food into face. Here I am making my own freaking ketchup for a lamb burger, no bun, so that my fat ass won't be so fat anymore and so that I can be healthy and active, but for a split second this morning, I just wanted life to be easier. I shook it off and moved on, and I actually feel better tonight that I am cooking and taking care of myself and planning and being prepared. So, I have been developing mental strategies for getting over those pity parties and cravings.
Here are some other things I learned today:
1. I can't follow a recipe. I was all excited about making mayonaisse. I'm not sure why. It's not like I'm eating a sandwich and need to put mayo on the bread. For one..no bread! For two...try finding lunch meat without added sugar! Fuggedaboutit. I'm making chicken salad later this week, and I do need mayo for that, but that doesn't really justify the excitement I felt at whipping up my own condiment.
I put part of the oil and the egg in the Ninja blender. I added a bit of mustard powder and salt like the recipe said. I slowly started to put in the remainder of olive oil while the blender blended, and it all worked! It worked like a charm. The only problem is it tasted like a crap biscuit covered in crap.
This can't be right! Everyone said the mayo tasted like heaven! Creamy, mayonaisse heaven! I'm doomed! Everything in this book is going to taste like garbage, isn't it? Everything!!!! My life is a lie!
Oh, what's that? The paragraph before the recipe saying don't use extra virgin olive oil because the flavor is too strong and will make nasty mayo? Oh...ok. I see. My life isn't a lie. I just didn't read all the directions. Back to the mayo drawing board tomorrow with a lighter Whole30 approved oil.
2. Don't eat breakfast too far in advance of a big swim workout. I swam for over an hour today, and I was hungry for a good 45 minutes of that swim. I had eaten breakfast too early and dawdled at the house before getting to the pool, resulting in hungry swim. No fun. I was smart enough to pack bonus, post-workout meal because I was leaving for errands right after the pool, though. So, I wasn't a total failure this morning. I was just a hungry, partial failure.
3. It never ceases to amaze me that 10 cups of spinach and kale can cook down to 1 cup of food in less than 10 minutes. It also makes me wonder what would happen to me if I ate the whole cup of reduced spinach/kale mix in one sitting. I would never eat 10 cups of that in one sitting in a salad, for example. Would some gastro blasto happen if I ate it all after it cooked down? I'm not going to find out today, but I do wonder.
All in all, I'm feeling good. I'm having fewer Craig cry fests. I feel way more prepared food-wise to tackle this week, and I have a couple of good fall-back items I can always order from my local diner if push comes to shove and I need food fast.
While walking the dogs this morning in Tubac, we saw a bunch of people sitting on the patio of the local coffee shop. They were laughing and enjoying coffee and baked goods and egg sandwiches and such. I almost pouted, "But I want to sit at a coffee shop and sip coffee with cream and eat croissants and cheese danish until someone has to move me off the patio with a crane. I do! I do! I really, really do!" Part of it is wanting or craving a baked good, but part of it is just the ease with which these people go out, order food, and shovel food into face. Here I am making my own freaking ketchup for a lamb burger, no bun, so that my fat ass won't be so fat anymore and so that I can be healthy and active, but for a split second this morning, I just wanted life to be easier. I shook it off and moved on, and I actually feel better tonight that I am cooking and taking care of myself and planning and being prepared. So, I have been developing mental strategies for getting over those pity parties and cravings.
Here are some other things I learned today:
1. I can't follow a recipe. I was all excited about making mayonaisse. I'm not sure why. It's not like I'm eating a sandwich and need to put mayo on the bread. For one..no bread! For two...try finding lunch meat without added sugar! Fuggedaboutit. I'm making chicken salad later this week, and I do need mayo for that, but that doesn't really justify the excitement I felt at whipping up my own condiment.
I put part of the oil and the egg in the Ninja blender. I added a bit of mustard powder and salt like the recipe said. I slowly started to put in the remainder of olive oil while the blender blended, and it all worked! It worked like a charm. The only problem is it tasted like a crap biscuit covered in crap.
This can't be right! Everyone said the mayo tasted like heaven! Creamy, mayonaisse heaven! I'm doomed! Everything in this book is going to taste like garbage, isn't it? Everything!!!! My life is a lie!
Oh, what's that? The paragraph before the recipe saying don't use extra virgin olive oil because the flavor is too strong and will make nasty mayo? Oh...ok. I see. My life isn't a lie. I just didn't read all the directions. Back to the mayo drawing board tomorrow with a lighter Whole30 approved oil.
2. Don't eat breakfast too far in advance of a big swim workout. I swam for over an hour today, and I was hungry for a good 45 minutes of that swim. I had eaten breakfast too early and dawdled at the house before getting to the pool, resulting in hungry swim. No fun. I was smart enough to pack bonus, post-workout meal because I was leaving for errands right after the pool, though. So, I wasn't a total failure this morning. I was just a hungry, partial failure.
3. It never ceases to amaze me that 10 cups of spinach and kale can cook down to 1 cup of food in less than 10 minutes. It also makes me wonder what would happen to me if I ate the whole cup of reduced spinach/kale mix in one sitting. I would never eat 10 cups of that in one sitting in a salad, for example. Would some gastro blasto happen if I ate it all after it cooked down? I'm not going to find out today, but I do wonder.
All in all, I'm feeling good. I'm having fewer Craig cry fests. I feel way more prepared food-wise to tackle this week, and I have a couple of good fall-back items I can always order from my local diner if push comes to shove and I need food fast.
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