OK. That's all for now. Short and sweet without the added sugar. I still need a quail plan. I'll investigate further today for cooking them tonight. I also need to do tons of meal prep today. I'll keep you posted on the quail.
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Day 14. Pizza!
I'm starting off the day right with pizza! Well, Pepperoni Pizza Egg Cups. It's like pizza without the cheese and crust. These little egg cups are delicious, and you make 12 at once, so you have breakfast or emergency snacks for a few days. This is actually my first foray into making egg cups. I will need to investigate more egg cup recipes.
OK. That's all for now. Short and sweet without the added sugar. I still need a quail plan. I'll investigate further today for cooking them tonight. I also need to do tons of meal prep today. I'll keep you posted on the quail.
OK. That's all for now. Short and sweet without the added sugar. I still need a quail plan. I'll investigate further today for cooking them tonight. I also need to do tons of meal prep today. I'll keep you posted on the quail.
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Whole30 Days 12 and 13. The Feast and Famine of the Freezer
I seem to have recovered from my meltdown from Day 11 unless I ended up totally losing it on Thursday and don't know it. Maybe I went nuts and bought all the donuts and candies I could find, and now I'm writing to you from a sugar-induced hallucination where things only seem normal in my mind, but I'm really lying on the floor with mini snickers bars and almond joys scattered all around me. Don't come in the door! I might have boobie trapped the place by scattering whoppers all over the floor so you'll trip and fall trying to save me from the jumbo delivery of Krispy Kreme donuts.
Damn. I just typed Krispy Kreme, and NOW I really want a donut. That's what happens when you joke about going off the deep end with junk food. The junk food fights back. Do Not Taunt Krispy Kreme Donuts! They are coming for you.
Ok, don't worry. I know I didn't go off the deep end because I'm having brussel sprouts as part of my breakfast, and I can taste the slightly bitter, crunchy healthfulness. It's definitely not sweet, fatty, salty, bready, and delicious. The rest of breakfast includes Whole30 approved bacon, two eggs, and some berries. That's my standard breakfast. The vegetable might change, and sometimes I have an apple instead, but for the most part, I have the same breakfast every single day. I'm good with that so far.
I had bunless hamburgers last night and Thursday night for dinner. I didn't do the portabello mushroom bun because when I thought about it, the mushrooms turned on me. That happens sometimes. There can be a food that's perfectly fine, and I don't mind eating it. Then, one day, it turns on me, and I dread the thought of eating it. The mushrooms turned on me. I'm hoping I can cook them on Sunday and not hate the thought of it.
I also cooked chicken and shredded it. I'll make part of it into a chicken salad today that will take me through the weekend and to Monday for lunches. I might use a small part of it for a savory dinner of some sort tonight.
Yesterday I was struggling with what to have for lunch. There's a local place called City Salads where you go tell people wearing hairnets, gloves, and weird face shields what you want on your salad, and they build it for you. You would think designing your own salad would result in awesome salads. It doesn't really work that way there, though. Don't get me wrong. The food is fine, but somehow you take all these ingredients that would normally make a delicious salad, and the end result is just blah. Again, the place is fine, and it's definitely helpful on the Whole30 because you can order exactly what you want without having to say "Oh, no cheese, no croutons, no ranch, no corn, no beans, no eye roll because you're sick of me changing your salad." Still, I wasn't sold on City Salads.
Then it hit me, "Why don't I go shopping in the wonderful food emporium called Allison's Freezer?" I peeked inside and saw all kinds of options. Fish, steak, chicken, quail (how do you even deal with those?), shrimp, hot dogs... What WASN'T in there? Seriously. I pulled out a ribeye and a bag of brussel sprouts. I grabbed a potato from the fridge, and voila! Lunch that I could cook at work.
I have this problem eating the foods in my freezer, especially the meat. The ice cream is no problem. I have that covered, but having to thaw out meat before I cook it is a pain. It's like I have all this food and nothing to eat!
I don't have a microwave, so there's no defrosting things quickly. (the defrost function on the work microwave is very handy.) When cooking at home, I actually have to plan ahead to thaw something out in the fridge before I want to use it. I also have to be careful that I don't wait too many days, or I'm convinced the food has spoiled. It's a delicate balance, so I usually end up not thinking about the freezer as an option for finding protein to cook.
The funny part is I still stick things in there like I'm going to eat them later. "Oh look! This chicken is on sale. I'll get two and put one pack in the freezer to sit there for a year until I need to make room for something else to freeze, and then I'll throw it out because it looks nasty and grosses me out." Honestly, I get the heebiejeebies when something starts looking crusty and freezer burned. Of course I probably also think anything that is frozen looks freezer burned when it is actually just frozen like it's supposed to be because, you know, it's IN the freezer.
Well, the ribeye was DELICIOUS! It was flavorful and juicy and not at all as disgusting as it looked in its frozen form. That has pushed me to cook more food from my freezer. Yes. The quail was just moved from the freezer to the fridge. I will cook those on Sunday evening after I do some googling on how to cook quail. The good thing is I'll have back-up chicken salad in case they are gross.
I also have sausages to cook this week. I just need to stock up on some vegetables, apples, and berries, and I should be all set until Thursday.
Have a great weekend!
Damn. I just typed Krispy Kreme, and NOW I really want a donut. That's what happens when you joke about going off the deep end with junk food. The junk food fights back. Do Not Taunt Krispy Kreme Donuts! They are coming for you.
Ok, don't worry. I know I didn't go off the deep end because I'm having brussel sprouts as part of my breakfast, and I can taste the slightly bitter, crunchy healthfulness. It's definitely not sweet, fatty, salty, bready, and delicious. The rest of breakfast includes Whole30 approved bacon, two eggs, and some berries. That's my standard breakfast. The vegetable might change, and sometimes I have an apple instead, but for the most part, I have the same breakfast every single day. I'm good with that so far.
I had bunless hamburgers last night and Thursday night for dinner. I didn't do the portabello mushroom bun because when I thought about it, the mushrooms turned on me. That happens sometimes. There can be a food that's perfectly fine, and I don't mind eating it. Then, one day, it turns on me, and I dread the thought of eating it. The mushrooms turned on me. I'm hoping I can cook them on Sunday and not hate the thought of it.
I also cooked chicken and shredded it. I'll make part of it into a chicken salad today that will take me through the weekend and to Monday for lunches. I might use a small part of it for a savory dinner of some sort tonight.
Yesterday I was struggling with what to have for lunch. There's a local place called City Salads where you go tell people wearing hairnets, gloves, and weird face shields what you want on your salad, and they build it for you. You would think designing your own salad would result in awesome salads. It doesn't really work that way there, though. Don't get me wrong. The food is fine, but somehow you take all these ingredients that would normally make a delicious salad, and the end result is just blah. Again, the place is fine, and it's definitely helpful on the Whole30 because you can order exactly what you want without having to say "Oh, no cheese, no croutons, no ranch, no corn, no beans, no eye roll because you're sick of me changing your salad." Still, I wasn't sold on City Salads.
Then it hit me, "Why don't I go shopping in the wonderful food emporium called Allison's Freezer?" I peeked inside and saw all kinds of options. Fish, steak, chicken, quail (how do you even deal with those?), shrimp, hot dogs... What WASN'T in there? Seriously. I pulled out a ribeye and a bag of brussel sprouts. I grabbed a potato from the fridge, and voila! Lunch that I could cook at work.
I have this problem eating the foods in my freezer, especially the meat. The ice cream is no problem. I have that covered, but having to thaw out meat before I cook it is a pain. It's like I have all this food and nothing to eat!
I don't have a microwave, so there's no defrosting things quickly. (the defrost function on the work microwave is very handy.) When cooking at home, I actually have to plan ahead to thaw something out in the fridge before I want to use it. I also have to be careful that I don't wait too many days, or I'm convinced the food has spoiled. It's a delicate balance, so I usually end up not thinking about the freezer as an option for finding protein to cook.
The funny part is I still stick things in there like I'm going to eat them later. "Oh look! This chicken is on sale. I'll get two and put one pack in the freezer to sit there for a year until I need to make room for something else to freeze, and then I'll throw it out because it looks nasty and grosses me out." Honestly, I get the heebiejeebies when something starts looking crusty and freezer burned. Of course I probably also think anything that is frozen looks freezer burned when it is actually just frozen like it's supposed to be because, you know, it's IN the freezer.
Well, the ribeye was DELICIOUS! It was flavorful and juicy and not at all as disgusting as it looked in its frozen form. That has pushed me to cook more food from my freezer. Yes. The quail was just moved from the freezer to the fridge. I will cook those on Sunday evening after I do some googling on how to cook quail. The good thing is I'll have back-up chicken salad in case they are gross.
I also have sausages to cook this week. I just need to stock up on some vegetables, apples, and berries, and I should be all set until Thursday.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Day 9, 10, and 11. Are you Sure It's Not Friday? Seriously?
Well, let's see, where do we begin? Days 9 and 10 were good but really busy. On Day 9 I had to be in Tucson for meetings in the morning and afternoon, so I had to find lunch out in the world. Outback Steakhouse turned out to be a good option. I had a nice grilled chicken with sauteed vegetables plus a side salad. Day 10 I spent all day on the road to Phoenix for meetings. I was with a group of people from work, and for lunch I had prime rib, green beans, and a spinach salad. All in all it was a successful two days of being on the road and having to eat out as wisely as possible. It was a busy two days, though. I had to work until 10:00 pm one night and until 8:00 the other. I didn't have a lot of time to stop and think. Then I turned right around today and had another busy day.
Today started out ok, but it wasn't all rosy. It was more gray with some streaks of rosy. I had breakfast at home, and then it was back to Tucson for a meeting from 10 to 2 which was going to include a break for lunch. I didn't plan well enough for this at all. I just hoped it would all work out. I actually thought I would leave during the lunch and get something to eat at a restaurant next door where I could have gotten a protein and side salad. The agenda was running behind, and that didn't leave time for me to run out to get anything. The catered option was a salad and all kinds of sandwiches. Sigh.... I failed. I had the salad and then I took the guts of a couple of sandwiches and ate it with the salad. The lunch meat wasn't Whole30. I'm sure of that. It probably had nitrates and added sugar. I had a Larabar with lunch as well to take the edge of my hunger.
In addition to poor planning and being exhausted from this week, I am at that time of the month where I'm constantly hungry AND my sugar dragon is SCREAMING. This was not the right day to fail to plan. On the way home from this meeting, I was STARVING and irrational. I wanted to eat all the foods between Tucson and Nogales. I was dreaming of what I would order and eat from any restaurant I could think of. I wanted to start at one end of a grocery store and snack my way up and down each food aisle. I was telling cars in front of me to move because it wasn't safe for them to be between me and food. I broke down today and ate a fish sandwich on my way back to the office. Yep. I did, and it had a bun and everything. The scary thing about breaking down today is I do NOT want to falter again during this Whole60. I don't want to struggle tomorrow and think, "Ah, screw it. I'll eat something else bad today and get back on track tomorrow" and then have tomorrow NEVER arrive. That's the worry. It's not an irrational fear. I've been down that road before. It happens. I just don't want it to happen this month or next.
So, I will redouble my planning efforts. I cooked some hamburgers tonight and some chicken. I'm ready for the weekend, and on Saturday I will make my grocery list for the next week. I will get some more vegetables ready as well because I'm almost out of easy to make vegetable sides. Maybe I'll cook a bunch cabbage to have ready for a few meals. I will also do a bunch of pre-cooking on Sunday to have some meals ready to go.
There's my recap. It's not all bad, but it's not all pretty roses and rainbows either. Tomorrow is a new day.
Today started out ok, but it wasn't all rosy. It was more gray with some streaks of rosy. I had breakfast at home, and then it was back to Tucson for a meeting from 10 to 2 which was going to include a break for lunch. I didn't plan well enough for this at all. I just hoped it would all work out. I actually thought I would leave during the lunch and get something to eat at a restaurant next door where I could have gotten a protein and side salad. The agenda was running behind, and that didn't leave time for me to run out to get anything. The catered option was a salad and all kinds of sandwiches. Sigh.... I failed. I had the salad and then I took the guts of a couple of sandwiches and ate it with the salad. The lunch meat wasn't Whole30. I'm sure of that. It probably had nitrates and added sugar. I had a Larabar with lunch as well to take the edge of my hunger.
In addition to poor planning and being exhausted from this week, I am at that time of the month where I'm constantly hungry AND my sugar dragon is SCREAMING. This was not the right day to fail to plan. On the way home from this meeting, I was STARVING and irrational. I wanted to eat all the foods between Tucson and Nogales. I was dreaming of what I would order and eat from any restaurant I could think of. I wanted to start at one end of a grocery store and snack my way up and down each food aisle. I was telling cars in front of me to move because it wasn't safe for them to be between me and food. I broke down today and ate a fish sandwich on my way back to the office. Yep. I did, and it had a bun and everything. The scary thing about breaking down today is I do NOT want to falter again during this Whole60. I don't want to struggle tomorrow and think, "Ah, screw it. I'll eat something else bad today and get back on track tomorrow" and then have tomorrow NEVER arrive. That's the worry. It's not an irrational fear. I've been down that road before. It happens. I just don't want it to happen this month or next.
So, I will redouble my planning efforts. I cooked some hamburgers tonight and some chicken. I'm ready for the weekend, and on Saturday I will make my grocery list for the next week. I will get some more vegetables ready as well because I'm almost out of easy to make vegetable sides. Maybe I'll cook a bunch cabbage to have ready for a few meals. I will also do a bunch of pre-cooking on Sunday to have some meals ready to go.
There's my recap. It's not all bad, but it's not all pretty roses and rainbows either. Tomorrow is a new day.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Day 8. What I Ate, The Fox, and David Sedaris!
I had a decent day yesterday with a minor afternoon banana incident. The banana tried to drown itself in cashew butter, and to save it from a horrible ending, I ate it. Yum. I had already eaten more than enough fruit for the day, but I needed a snack to tide me over for a trip to Tucson to eat dinner and see David Sedaris read at the Fox Theater.
Dinner was at the "My beard is hipper than your beard and I'll raise you a man bun" Cup Cafe in the Hotel Congress. They wanted to add whipped butter coconut reduction mixed with cheese and desperation to everything. I read the menu earlier in the day to plan my attack on what to order: new york strip, roasted potatoes, asparagus no sauce or added butter and small spinach salad with no cheese. It was a good dinner with even better company.
Then we all spent two solid hours laughing and laughing as we listened to David Sedaris read from his works and talk about his life. I want to do that every single week. How relaxing and entertaining and restorative to spend such a great evening laughing and being around really amazing people. I want to be a gajillionaire just to be able to pay the speaking fee to have David Sedaris come and read and talk to me and my friends. If you have a chance to go and see him on this tour (I think it's almost over) you should DEFINITELY GO.
And if you go to the Fox Theater for anything in the future, splurge for the loveseats up in the balcony. They have extra cushion and more room for those who are blessed to be ample-assed. If you go with a group, call dibs sharing the loveseat with the skinniest person, and you'll be all set!
Dinner was at the "My beard is hipper than your beard and I'll raise you a man bun" Cup Cafe in the Hotel Congress. They wanted to add whipped butter coconut reduction mixed with cheese and desperation to everything. I read the menu earlier in the day to plan my attack on what to order: new york strip, roasted potatoes, asparagus no sauce or added butter and small spinach salad with no cheese. It was a good dinner with even better company.
Then we all spent two solid hours laughing and laughing as we listened to David Sedaris read from his works and talk about his life. I want to do that every single week. How relaxing and entertaining and restorative to spend such a great evening laughing and being around really amazing people. I want to be a gajillionaire just to be able to pay the speaking fee to have David Sedaris come and read and talk to me and my friends. If you have a chance to go and see him on this tour (I think it's almost over) you should DEFINITELY GO.
And if you go to the Fox Theater for anything in the future, splurge for the loveseats up in the balcony. They have extra cushion and more room for those who are blessed to be ample-assed. If you go with a group, call dibs sharing the loveseat with the skinniest person, and you'll be all set!
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Week One Down. Week Two Here We Come
I did some food prep today. Roasted beets, roasted sweet potatoes, five days worth of bacon, and lunch packed for tomorrow (the last of the taco salad). I will also be having bunless hamburgers, chicken salad, and sauteed shrimp this week. I have vegetables for each meal lined up. Here we go.
I feel good. The sugar dragon isn't sooooo awful today. I even cooked dinner and only ate half of it. We will see what the scale says tomorrow. (yes, I'm weighing myself. The Whole30 says not to weigh yourself for the whole month, but I feel like it keeps me accountable, so I am breaking that rule. Don't call the Whole30 police.)
I swam both days this weekend, and I want to swim two days during the week this week. I still haven't picked my fall race, but I'm thinking maybe the Patagonia Lake Triathlon here in Santa Cruz County. I won't be doing the bike or run, but I'll do the swim. If it works out, I'll do the relay, but I've had terrible relay luck. My teams always seem to fall apart at the last minute. So, I won't stress about a relay. I'll just focus on swimming faster.
For the record, I decided when I started this Whole30 that I'm actually doing a Whole60. Then I'll go to the beach for a week, which will be challenging. Travel AND having to figure out good food in a large group of family members. Don't panic because I'm doing a Whole60. You don't have to read all 60 blog posts. I'm sure you can skip around some, cherry pick the really good ones, and ignore the rest.
I feel good. The sugar dragon isn't sooooo awful today. I even cooked dinner and only ate half of it. We will see what the scale says tomorrow. (yes, I'm weighing myself. The Whole30 says not to weigh yourself for the whole month, but I feel like it keeps me accountable, so I am breaking that rule. Don't call the Whole30 police.)
I swam both days this weekend, and I want to swim two days during the week this week. I still haven't picked my fall race, but I'm thinking maybe the Patagonia Lake Triathlon here in Santa Cruz County. I won't be doing the bike or run, but I'll do the swim. If it works out, I'll do the relay, but I've had terrible relay luck. My teams always seem to fall apart at the last minute. So, I won't stress about a relay. I'll just focus on swimming faster.
For the record, I decided when I started this Whole30 that I'm actually doing a Whole60. Then I'll go to the beach for a week, which will be challenging. Travel AND having to figure out good food in a large group of family members. Don't panic because I'm doing a Whole60. You don't have to read all 60 blog posts. I'm sure you can skip around some, cherry pick the really good ones, and ignore the rest.
Because Swimsuits!!!
Target has a new kind of ad campaign this year for their swimsuits. They say the premise is " Living confidently, on one’s own terms." You can check it out here. They show normal women in swimsuits without photoshopping out their stretchmarks and thigh pudge and other normal body things. What a great campaign!
I always look at marketing campaigns like this, whether it's Target or Dove or any number of others that have popped up over the years, as positive steps forward in dispelling the notion of the perfect body. However, the notion of the perfect, thin, flawless body has been beaten into all of society for generations. It's not something that's going away with a few ad campaigns. That glamour bullshit drives sales and shapes our own relationships with our bodies. It's great to see the Target campaign, but ultimately, we all have to fight back against what has been beaten into our heads for years. We have to love our bodies for what they can do, how they look, how we feel, and more. That's the needle we can move on this scale of body acceptance.
I know I've talked recently about some of the ways that my relationship with my body has caused anxiety and depression, but that's only part of the story. I also have moments of feeling strong and confident. When I'm eating well and exercising, I increase those positive feelings, not because my body all of a sudden becomes perfect, but because eating well and activity make me FEEL better. It's so counter-intuitive. I would have thought sitting on the couch eating bon bons in a comfortable moo moo would have increased good feelings, but it turns out that's not the case.
How do you guys feel about your bodies, and what do you do for self-care and to feel confident and happy?
I always look at marketing campaigns like this, whether it's Target or Dove or any number of others that have popped up over the years, as positive steps forward in dispelling the notion of the perfect body. However, the notion of the perfect, thin, flawless body has been beaten into all of society for generations. It's not something that's going away with a few ad campaigns. That glamour bullshit drives sales and shapes our own relationships with our bodies. It's great to see the Target campaign, but ultimately, we all have to fight back against what has been beaten into our heads for years. We have to love our bodies for what they can do, how they look, how we feel, and more. That's the needle we can move on this scale of body acceptance.
I know I've talked recently about some of the ways that my relationship with my body has caused anxiety and depression, but that's only part of the story. I also have moments of feeling strong and confident. When I'm eating well and exercising, I increase those positive feelings, not because my body all of a sudden becomes perfect, but because eating well and activity make me FEEL better. It's so counter-intuitive. I would have thought sitting on the couch eating bon bons in a comfortable moo moo would have increased good feelings, but it turns out that's not the case.
How do you guys feel about your bodies, and what do you do for self-care and to feel confident and happy?
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Whole30 Day 6, A Massage, and a Nap
I have brushed and water-picked my teeth which means I am finished eating for the day. I've taken to brushing and water-picking my teeth as soon as I finish dinner so I'm not tempted to eat a snack later. It's too much effort to have to brush my teeth again, so when I'm done, I'm done. The fear of losing my teeth is greater than my need to snack later in the evening, and my laziness at wanting to redo all the brushing and picking outweighs my snacking too. I'm using my laziness and anxiety to my advantage, and it's weird that both of those emotions can exist in the same breath.
Today was a decent food day. I had breakfast, second breakfast (also known as post-workout meal), lunch, and dinner. I also went swimming this morning, hence the post-workout meal. I really enjoyed today's swim, the first one I have enjoyed since starting back. I reread the section of the book that talks about the post-workout meal, and I kind of screwed it up today. They recommend a protein and a carby vegetable like sweet potato, and no added fat. They recommend that in place of protein and a fruit. I had two hard boiled eggs, a banana, and cashew butter. Whoops. Fruit and fat. I'll know for tomorrow.
I also had a major treat for myself today in the form of 90 minute massage with the Amazing Eve. That's not his real name, but I can't help but put the Amazing in front of his name because he really is a great massage therapist. You can visit Eve's website here, and if you live in Southern Arizona, you should definitely see Eve for a treatment. Amazing.
After getting home from Tucson and my massage, I had a nice nap on the couch with Taz. Hooray for naps!
I'm planning my food week for this coming week, and one thing I'm going to try is hamburgers with portabello mushroom buns. I usually just eat the burger with a fork, no bun, but I'm giving this mushroom bun business a shot this week. I'm also having shrimp and vegetables and a chicken salad for lunch. Breakfast is usually two eggs, Whole30 compliant bacon, blueberries, and sauteed spinach or zucchini. I also eat an apple a day. Who doesn't love an apple? Honeycrisp is my apple of choice.
That's it for today. Nothing exciting or enlightening, just another day where I'm glad I stuck to the plan.
Today was a decent food day. I had breakfast, second breakfast (also known as post-workout meal), lunch, and dinner. I also went swimming this morning, hence the post-workout meal. I really enjoyed today's swim, the first one I have enjoyed since starting back. I reread the section of the book that talks about the post-workout meal, and I kind of screwed it up today. They recommend a protein and a carby vegetable like sweet potato, and no added fat. They recommend that in place of protein and a fruit. I had two hard boiled eggs, a banana, and cashew butter. Whoops. Fruit and fat. I'll know for tomorrow.
I also had a major treat for myself today in the form of 90 minute massage with the Amazing Eve. That's not his real name, but I can't help but put the Amazing in front of his name because he really is a great massage therapist. You can visit Eve's website here, and if you live in Southern Arizona, you should definitely see Eve for a treatment. Amazing.
After getting home from Tucson and my massage, I had a nice nap on the couch with Taz. Hooray for naps!
I'm planning my food week for this coming week, and one thing I'm going to try is hamburgers with portabello mushroom buns. I usually just eat the burger with a fork, no bun, but I'm giving this mushroom bun business a shot this week. I'm also having shrimp and vegetables and a chicken salad for lunch. Breakfast is usually two eggs, Whole30 compliant bacon, blueberries, and sauteed spinach or zucchini. I also eat an apple a day. Who doesn't love an apple? Honeycrisp is my apple of choice.
That's it for today. Nothing exciting or enlightening, just another day where I'm glad I stuck to the plan.
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