Whole30 day 3...a tough blow to my momentum

This has been one of the single worst days for me...not even whole30 related. I hurt my "good" knee yesterday (good knee because it has only had one surgery as opposed to my bad knee which has had 8!) I felt okay during my workout, but when I was walking down stairs on my way out of work, a sharp pain went thru my knee and it buckled on me. I iced it last night twice and took Advil, but it remained so painful all night that I couldn't sleep and was still really bad this morning. I have never been in this much pain (even post surgical) and when I went to my doctor, I was told to just take advil and tylonal for a couple weeks until insurance will approve an MRI. I feel like I might cut my leg off myself by that point, but I have no choice. (to make it more ironic, I work for the insurance company...lol) So between the pain and last minute appointment I didn't feel like eating much breakfast and didn't have time to eat all my lunch. Now it is an hour till dinner and I am starving, lightheaded, in pain that is keeping tears in my eyes... but you know what?!?!?!?!
I AM REMAINING COMPLIANT!!! Life is not perfect and will never be perfect, but my health is more important that a bad day!

Pizza casserole and fresh cherries

Scrambled eggs, sweet potato hash and 1/2 a cucumber.

So...Day 2 recap

Chicken baked with marinara sauce, potatoes boiled with green beans, and roasted brussel sprouts

 Day 2 workout: 20 min. on the elliptical, leg press, hamstring curls, lat pull down, and seated rows.

Whole30 Day 1 recap...breaking habits again

Well...Day 2 of my second whole30 is winding down now. Yesterday went smoothly as I knew it would, but I came to a realization late in the day. I realized that the snacking habit that I had broken during my first whole30 had come back in my life during my two weeks on vacation. I didn't eat unhealthy snacks, but they were still mindless calories. So...that is my struggle again this time.

I went to the gym this afternoon for my workout and I am excited because I can feel myself getting stronger again with every workout. I am taking it slow, because, as I mentioned before, I will spend the rest of my life recovering from the damage I did to my body during my younger and more athletic days. That is okay though. Instead of increasing my weights each week and doing 3 sets of 10, 8, and 6 reps with a higher rep each set, I will be staying at 3 sets of 12 reps all at the same weight and not increasing until it becomes ridiculously easy. Just as with everything in life, the ability to adapt and change is the key to survival!



Day 1 recap

Breakfast:
2 eggs scrambled
3 pieces of compliant bacon
1/2 of a cucumber sliced
fresh cherries

Lunch:
Taco salad with seasoned ground beef, spring greens, spinach, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, salsa, guacamole, and a sprinkle of lime juice

Dinner:
Steak grilled with Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning
Boiled red potatoes with green beans (both from the farmer's market)
Watermelon

Workout:
30 min. of yoga
2 hours of yardwork ;-)

Wishing you love and sunshine,
Sarah

Whole30 reintroduction delays...

Happy Monday! Friday was the start of my reintroduction phase following the completion of my first

Eggs scrambled with peppers, onions, prosciutto, and cheddar

Whole30. I added dairy back for each of my meals, but by Friday night I was at the urgent care getting antibiotics. I had been sick earlier in the week and my weakened immune system allowed for an infection to creep into my lungs. So needless to say, since I was already feeling horrible, I knew that I wouldn't be able to really gauge the effects of adding milk back Friday. I have gone back to eating whole30 again while the antibiotics do their work. Tonight I am going to reintroduce non-gluten grains as long as I continue feeling better. I will not try milk again until the end of my reintroduction so that I can get an accurate assessment. I can honestly say though from eating it on Friday, that I haven't missed it! My chai tea tasted strange with milk instead of coconut milk. I have always loved cheese, but I didn't feel like the cheese made my omelet taste any better. I did enjoy the sprinkling of Parmesan on my meatballs at lunch. So if nothing else the revelation that I have made is that if my body can handle milk products, they should be more of an accessory rather than a main ingredient.

So the rest of the weekend I tried to rest in between taking my 12 year old to a mud run and archery practice and trying some more new whole30 recipes. Some of the new dishes were big hit like a pizza casserole I made using a recipe posted by PaleOMG and making some modifications. My son, who normally doesn't eat leftovers, requested it for lunch the next day as well! Dinner last night was my favorite meal of the weekend. I made grilled Jamaican lime chicken breasts served with fresh mango salsa and roasted garlic sweet potatoes (done on the grill). I will be adding these recipes to my recipe section soon!!

Wishing you love and sunshine,
Sarah

Whole30- LAST DAY!!!

Finally! Today is my last official day! I am excited and saddened at the same time. I really am not interested in reintroducing some things to my diet, but I know I need to do the reintroduction just so I know what the effects are of certain foods I may eat (or may not be able to avoid). So...I will do the introduction but then I am going to go back to how I'm eating. I am planning on staying paleo and mostly whole30 from now on. I'm going to work for a 90/10 balance.

I am starting to feel like myself after being sooo sick for the first few days this week. Yesterday I went walking for the first time after three days of barely moving. I managed to get 6 miles done without feeling too bad, although I am a little dehydrated still.

Stay tuned for before and after pics, measurements, and weights.

Yesterday's recap:

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs
Bacon
Steamed broccoli

Lunch:
Chicken soup

Dinner:
Tuna salad w/ olive oil mayo and
fresh spinach leaves

Wishing you love and sunshine,
Sarah

Whole30 day 32- new challenge I overcame

So, if you have been following my journey you know that I have to do 34 days due to non-compliant

bacon in the beginning. I am now on day 32 and while I have had many challenges, I hit the hardest one yet on Sunday morning. I woke up that morning with a slightly sore throat, but by that afternoon I was running a fever. Now, I am the type of person that can have full blown pneumonia and never run a fever so this was really unusual. I spent all day Sunday and Monday in bed and napped more than I have ever napped before. To make matters worse, I didn't drink enough water on Saturday because of the BBQ I hosted and was already dehydrated before the fever kicked in. Don't worry though, I got through it and stayed compliant even though a few tears were shed out of misery and frustration! I sipped herbal tea and the broth from chicken soup, gargled salt water, and discovered the wonder of an epson salt bath to help with the leg cramps I had from dehydration.

I am now feeling about 75% better and am thankful I didn't make myself more miserable by reaching for comfort foods I would have in the past. As I am wrapping up my first whole30, I'm thinking about everything that I've learned from this process and I'll be sharing those tidbits over the next few days. Here are a couple to get me started:

1. coconut is extremely versatile i.e. coconut oil, coconut aminos, coconut milk....
2. The term SWYPO (Sex With Your Pants On) makes me smile but is a great analogy and we all too often try to make substitutions to what we are eating but those substitutions aren't always good.

Wishing you love and sunshine,
Sarah