Annndddd we’re at it again

When I started researching Whole30 I began with their website and they mentioned a sugar monster. I thought “How LAME.” Sugar monsters don’t exist, I have complete control over the amount of sugar I eat! Boy was I naive. After we completed our first whole 30 in January, we tried to stay true to the paleo lifestyle but were often derailed by cookies, brownies, pasties, ice cream, muffins, cupcakes….. Get the picture? We (mostly me) have a sugar monster problem…. What a bummer. Well we’d like to slay this monster and return to our good eating habits. It seems we do better with extreme measures where all sugar and sweeteners are forbidden so here we are again. Chris and I had a trip planned for Nashville and decided we would once again pursue a Whole30 when we returned.

We’ve returned and the meal planning has started. I thought I’d post my meal plan along with all the amazing websites where I found the recipes.

Tuesday:
Breakfast- egg scramble (my own made up recipe)
Lunch- left over chili (my husbands random recipe)
Dinner- enchilada stew recipe

Wednesday:
Breakfast- prosciutto muffins recipe
Lunch: chicken salad w/ celery (chicken, mayo, celery, onion)
Dinner- leftover stew

Thursday:
Breakfast- prosciutto muffins
Lunch- chicken salad
Dinner- beef fajitas in lettuce wraps (new recipe for me) recipe

Friday:
Breakfast- fruit smoothie w/ kale and spinach
Lunch- leftover fajitas
Dinner- bunless burgers

Saturday:
Breakfast- sweet potato hash this recipe rocks and so does this one
Lunch- whatever is left over
Dinner- Mexican beef recipe

Sunday:
Breakfast- lara bar
Lunch- left over Mexican beef
Dinner- steaks, green beans, and sweet potato chips

I think the second whole30 will be much easier than the first. I’ve learned so many tricks and found so many great recipes!!! Specifically I love nomnompaleo.com. Majority of the stuff we make comes from her site. I REALLY need to purchase her cookbook 🙂

Time for me to feed the pup and finish up dinner

Until next time,

Ash

Whole 30 complete, bring on the baking!

Yesterday marked 30 days of clean eating. We weren’t perfect in our endeavor but we stuck as close to the plan as we could. I am beyond ecstatic to dive into the world of paleo breads and desserts. Last night I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies to celebrate with. They are soooooo delicious but taste very different from the chocolate chip cookies I’m used too. I think it’s the maple syrup used as the sweetener that gave them the bizarre flavor. If you’re interested in making these yummy treats check out the recipe here. I think it would be okay to use butter instead of coconut oil and regular flour instead of almond flour. Almond flour is so stinking expensive!!!!! I am actually working on my own batch of it as we speak. I conjured up some more almond milk, this time with honey as a sweetener, and kept the almond bits that were left over. I laid the almond pieces on a cookie sheet and am baking them as we speak at about 170 degrees to dry them out. All I have to do is put them in my food processor for a few minutes and voila, almond flour. It’s kind of like a 2 for one deal 🙂 I am seriously turning into one of those hippy chicks, which is apparently cool right now.

Yesterday turned out to be a snowy day here in Georgia and that meant no school for me today. Chris and I are lucky to live north of Atlanta and were not apart of the snowjam on the highways. My poor sis had to walk home from her college yesterday 😦 I don’t think we expected to get any snow up this way and therefore were not prepared for the repercussions of snow on roads. I am thankful for a day off with my darling husband. We’ve enjoyed a fire all morning and have been playing around in the kitchen. Look at the mess we made

But it was totally worth it!! I made coconut cinnamon pancakes this morning that were incredible. Nomnom has the best recipes. Her recipe is so simple and uses minimal ingredients. We both enjoyed our breakfast tons! Please excuse my pancakes in the pic, I am a HORRIBLE pancake maker.

Chris and I are going to have to be careful because I LOVE to bake. Maybe that’s why I’ve been so sad the last month about food 😉 I was daydreaming this morning about how fun it would be to own a bakery that only made all natural treats. I bet I could get my Grandma to come work for me, she’s an incredible baker! My little bakery would also have a cafe where we sold almond milk lattes with homemade almond milk. Oh boy would it be heaven on earth for me. The best part is I could hire someone to clean up the kitchen 😉 hahahaha just kidding, I would help. I admit that though I love to dirty a kitchen but despise tidying it up. A girl can dream, until then I’ll be inspiring teenagers.

If I could sum the past 30 days up in a few words, I would say difficult but rewarding. Isn’t that the truth in all things that require lots of work? I am so glad we set our minds on something and saw it through. It is very rewarding to make a goal and then achieve it and it’s even sweeter because it was something my husband and I did together. We learned so much about food, moderation, and preservatives. I have seriously had my mind blown this past month. There was so much I didn’t know and understand and there are still some things I’m trying to figure out. By the way, if you’re looking to lose weight this plan is perfect. I’m down around 15 pounds (still don’t have a scale to give an exact answer), I’m down a pant size, no more bloating after meals, no more heavy feeling after meals, and my skin, nails, and hair look better. Couldn’t ask for better results after just a month. The only thing I’m sad about is that my husband has also lost some weight. UGHH he needs to gain weight! But now that I can bake, I can maybe help with that problem. I feel so much better in several ways. Not only is my body operating like it should, I feel much more confident in myself. I don’t put clothes on anymore and feel uncomfortable. That’s been a hard thing to explain to my husband who looks great in everything he wears. In general, I’m happier and if that’s all I got out of this crazy ordeal then I’d still be satisfied.

Everybody needs to stay home and be warm today 🙂 I will certainly be doing just that with my little family.

Ash, Chris, and Alfie

Day 28: we’re 4 weeks in WHAT?

I have been the worst blogger ever…. These past 2 weeks have been so busy with work. I’m teaching a brand spankin’ new math course so I’ve been spending a lot more time prepping for it than I would for any other class. We have been cooking up a storm lately and have made a bunch of new items. For instance, we made this amazing tomato soup that tasted very similar to Panera’s creamy tomato soup. We both really enjoyed it and will be cooking it again this week. We also made an oven braised Mexican beef Friday that was to die for and I have a great story to accompany it 🙂

This is our last few days of whole 30 and I must say its one of the best things we could have done for ourselves. We literally changed everything about our diet and gave up many things that we love (oatmeal, yogurt, pizza, bisquits,…. The list could go on forever). And by reading that you probably think we weigh 300 lbs a piece (totally not the case, my husband is a stick) and can see why we needed to change up our habits. We have also had our eyes opened to the copious amounts of preservatives and sugars that are laced in everything we used to eat. I had a salad at chick fil a the other night and the dressing had tons of sugar and other junk in it as well as the walnuts they gave me and the granola (not sure why they gave me that).I wouldn’t have gone there normally, but Chris and I were meeting someone from our church and salad was our only option. What I used to think would have been a very healthy meal, I now realize can have MANY hidden Ingredients which don’t really offer much in the way of nutrients. I find that incredibly annoying and a touch depressing. I never wanted to be one of those girls that read all the food labels to check for preservatives, oils and sugars. I would like to trust the grocery store and food places that they are feeding me real food. Reality is, however, that you can’t trust ANYONE when it comes to food! Not even those high dollar organic food stores like trader joes and whole foods. Oh yeah, I’ve found plenty of items in their stores that have yuckies in them. I think the point I’m making is that you have got to be aware of what you’re putting in your body and be well educated about those chemistry sounding ingredients.

Since I’ve brought up whole foods, let’s talk about the fun experience Chris and I had there this weekend. I’ve been dying to go there because I knew they carried whole30/paleo friendly salad dressings (yay no more ranch making). They carry Tessemae dressings which are delicious and completely all natural and super expensive if you order online. Unfortunately the closest store is in Roswell, GA and we live over an hour away from there now. While my husband was in college he lived and worked in Roswell so we had actually been there a few times. We finally had an excuse to go down there, so we made a day out of it. That place is humongous, larger than Walmart and maybe even SAMs club! I was like a kid in a candy shop. There was sooooo much to see and almost all of their produce is organic. The downside to organic is that it is very costly 😦 but we did find lots of new veggies to try like Japanese sweet potatoes (yum in my tum). I also went ahead and bought vanilla extract and almond flour and the most exciting part was that they had ghee!!!! Yay finally some butter in our lives. While we had so much fun we spent almost double what we normally do and we certainly can’t maintain spending that kind of money every week. And I will never buy almond flour again. I’m already making almond milk at home and the remnants in the strainer can be baked and turned into almond flour. Hello I pay $14 for a bag of almonds and I at least get 3 batches of almond milk and flour out of it verses $11 for the smallest bag of flour I’ve ever seen.

My sweet darling grandmother has been asking me what we’re going to do when we’ve finished this fast so I imagine many of you are wondering as well. I’ve somewhat mentioned our plan but I think it needs more explanation. Before we began this fun little adventure we had already decided to research the paleo lifestyle and continue with it after this “diet.” Paleo is not much different from what we’re doing now. We will be eating only whole foods that are preservative free and minimally processed. What we can add back in is sweeteners (honey, vanilla extract, maple syrup, agave, etc), desserts and breads. There are tons of recipes out there that are paleo friendly for desserts and breads. Instead of wheat we use coconut flour and almond flour and instead of sugar we use honeys and vanilla extract. There are so many ways to substitute out oils and even eggs. I’ve made muffins before using applesauce and a banana to cut out the oil and eggs. I think it’s fascinating how yummy the product is even though it’s made with non traditional ingredients. I plan on making bread this week and will post about it later on to let everyone know how it turns out. We do plan on having a “cheat” night every now and again but we have really liked the changes our bodies are making and don’t want to get back into old habits. I think the point of all this is to realize that a biscuit every now and again is okay and that moderation is key. If you want to go out to a meal with your family and splurge a little then you should. As a matter of fact Chris and I are celebrating at one of our favorite restaurants, Chow Baby, on Wednesday. But we will continue to eat paleo for the remainder of the week.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that change takes time and while our minds desire instant gratification, our bodies do not and cannot recover instantaneously. The results are incredible and worth the hassle. I think I’ve lost nearly 15 pounds since the end of December and I feel so much lighter. I checked my blood pressure yesterday and it’s gone down considerably. My energy levels are the same from the moment I wake up until I go to bed and I sleep so incredibly well every night. My skin has cleared up a lot and I no longer have heart palpitations. Like I said, the results are worth the suffering. Speaking of suffering, I had some medical issues in December and needed a ct scan to figure out what was wrong. Holy moly at the bill I got in the mail!! The reason why I bring this up is because my darling in-loves were over for dinner tonight and my husband brought up a lovely thought: What if we took care of ourselves from the inside? What effect would that have on our health later on? He is such a brilliant man and is absolutely correct, taking care of ourselves now will lead to less medical bills and doctor visits in the future (by goly I’m NEVER going to another doctor again for the rest of my life). Just wanted to share his thoughts with you all.

Earlier I said I made this amazing Mexican beef. My father in law tried it tonight and immediately asked for the recipe. I wish I could lie and say that I came up with it myself, but I did not. Nomnom’s done it again. I have got to buy her cookbook since I’ve been borrowing all her recipes from her website. The recipe can be found here. I was very excited last week about this recipe but unfortunately did not read the full recipe and therefore did not know it would take 3 hours in the oven. So I get home Friday all excited to make this dish and realize I’m short an onion. So I called the hubby and asked him to pick one up for me and when he got home I started putting the meal together. Well…it was 6:45 when we got started and when it got to the part where it was time to put the dish in the oven I read it was going to take 3 HOURS!! Oh boy, I about passed out when I figured that out and was not a very happy camper. But we had already put it together so in the oven it went and we had an egg and sausage scramble to hold us over. I tell you, that beef was worth every minute of every hour it was in the oven!!! It was so scrumptious and would be awesome in a taco or fajitas, it was like meat candy. Haha, I hope you all enjoy my mishaps because I sure do find them funny later. We have really had some successes in the kitchen and we have had multiple failures in the kitchen. I suppose it is what makes life fun and unexpecting.

Have a wonderful evening and sorry for the lengthy nature of this post,

Ash, Chris and Alf the pup

Day 21: When in doubt, make it yourself

I can see why women in the ’60’s started buying TV dinners, pizzas, and anything that would take less than 20 minutes to prepare. With women working along side men, it is much harder to have the time and energy to create a gourmet meal every night. I’m starting to dread coming home from work because I know I have to start the tedious task of creating dinner. Sure Chris is helpful but he is as tired as I am. I think all of this would be so much more enjoyable if it was my only job. Unfortunately my husband didn’t like my idea of being a stay at home wife so I’m beginning to ask myself “How do I manage working full time and a clean eating lifestyle?” I do not have the answer……yet. Hopefully with enough practice we’ll figure out how to make our diet fit into our schedules. One thing I try to do is create a “to-do” list so I know exactly what I’m responsible for each night and to be more efficient. Sundays typically have the most items because I can spend more time in the kitchen. Boy do I resent spending so much time standing in the kitchen (although I do get out of doing laundry). There are so many other things I’d like to do and people I’d like to spend time with. Is eating better worth the hassle? Well……maybe! It’s hard to say no because there are lots of benefits but it’s hard to say yes because I’m lazy :). If only there was a way to do eating healthy in an easy manner. I will say that I did find a website that delivers a weeks worth of paleo meals to your house for the whopping low price of $325 🙂

Another thing that is super frustrating is the amount of additives and preservatives that are in so called “organic” items. I have been wanting to try to almond milk and went to a fresh market store thinking they’d have something for me and EVERY brand had something in it that’s illegal to whole 30 and most were illegal to paleo (if you can’t have cane sugar in paleo, then they were all illegal). So I did the rest of my grocery shopping and when I got in the car I googled almond milk and basically the only way I was getting it was if I made it on my own :(. AHHHH how many things am I going to have to make by hand?? I found a simple recipe that called for soaking 1 1/2 cups of almonds in water for 12 hours then draining and blending with 3 1/2 cups water for 2 min. The last part consisted of straining the mixture through cheese cloth into a bowl (I used a mesh strainer). The bits left in the strainer can be baked to create almond meal and the liquid left behind is the almond milk. The entire process (minus the soaking) took < 5 minutes. Here's the kicker, the milk only lasts for 5-7 days. No wonder there are so many preservatives in the store bought crud! When we're finished with this business in 9 days I will add some honey and vanilla to the mixture so the milk is sweeter. Here's a pic of the end result (we had more than what's in the jar, I put it in a container for a friend to use)

Looks neat eh? I also looked for organic salad dressings yesterday so I didn’t have to keep making ranch. I had no luck in that area either. Every one of them had vegetable oil or soybean oil and then another 20 ingredients. I can’t imagine why it takes so many items to make a salad dressing when my ranch dressing uses 6 (mayo, coco. Milk, garlic, dill, salt, pepper). Looks like I’ll be making it myself for a while. I will say that you can find a recipe for just about anything you want that is paleo approved and that is very encouraging (minus the fact that I have to make it myself). I also hope this little rant of mine encourages you to check your labels at the store. I can’t even begin to count the amount of grocery store items that have ingredients I cannot pronounce and cannot have. It’s depressing! For one, I can’t eat things I used to and two, the stuff is so bad for your body.

Here’s a pic of what my fridge looks like going into a new week. There’s fresh mayo, fresh ranch, lara bars, fresh almond milk, chicken salad, coco milk. All sorts of goodies we’ve created. The coolest thing is that we eat everything that’s in our fridge throughout the week. By Saturday it is completely empty and ready to be filled again. I love that we aren’t wasting produce and are using everything we buy. I always feel so guilty when I have to throw food away because it’s gone bad. I can’t help but think of all the starving children :(.

That’s all for today, we’re still making it through this crazy weird “diet” and are definitely reaping tons of benifets. By the way…. My teacher friends have noticed my face isn’t so fat! Woo hoo. I hope it’s encouraging to people who see us everyday and get to see the results we’re experiencing. That’s wayyyy more important to me than actually being healthy and sometimes is what gets me through.

Have a blessed Sunday,

The Burroughs

Day 16: with success comes failure

I have been feeling extremely defeated this week. I feel like I can’t do anything right. I ruined Chris’s ranch dressing and I burnt the crap out of some zucchini chips. I have a lovely picture of those chips and you’ll see the crazy difference between the outer ones that are super crispy and the inner ones that are half crispy and half uncooked. Last night Chris made spaghetti sauce and it was wayyyyy too spicy. I couldn’t stomach it and settled for a banana. I am counting down the days until this is over. I am LOVING the energy and the amazing sleep I’m getting, but I’m tired of being hungry.

^^ lovely aren’t they? Haha well we have had some successes that I think I should share. I made a great frittata the other night and it’s been a life saver for breakfast. I grilled some great chicken the other night with an amazing cilantro sauce. And the best news I can give is that I discovered a great protein bar that is whole 30 approved. I found it through my friend Emily and thought we could try them out. They’re approximately 240 calories a bar and I tried the blueberry one tonight! INCREDIBLE! Oh man they are delicious. Downfall is that they’re super expensive. Chris and I bought a sample pack to try them out ($12 for 4 bars). I figured they would be a great way for me to get the calories I need and figure out if we wanted to spend that kinda money.

Not much else to report just trying to muscle through these last 14 days. I know we can do it, but boy am I losing the will.

Have a great hump day

The Burroughs fam

Day 14: I’m surviving

What a gorgeous Sunday!!! Alfred really enjoyed being able to go outside and play. I, on the other hand, spent the afternoon in the kitchen prepping food for the week and restocking some of our essentials. I made another batch of almond butter, ranch dressing, and lara bars. And I made a big pot of chili for our lunches throughout the week and if you’re looking for a great recipe check here. Chris tried a little and said it was amazing. I am very into easy lunches that cover all the bases (protein, veggies, fat) and that can span a few days. I’m so glad I remembered that chili recipe when I was meal planning yesterday.

I’m starting to see why this thing only lasts 30 days. I don’t know that I could live the rest of my life worrying about what ingredients are in everything. I’m starting to get depressed about not being able to go out to dinner or go hang out at a friend’s house. We will definitely continue to utilize the mindset behind Whole30 but I think we’re going to try and reintroduce some things back. For instance, I’d love to have bread again. I need to double check the paleo rules but I think I could find a recipe for a whole food bread, plus I really want to use the bread maker that we received as a wedding gift from my beautiful sister-in-law. We will NOT be adding back dairy (ahhh cheese!!!!). I know dairy is the culprit for my upset tummy and frankly I think we were consuming too much of it (I’ll miss the cheese).

Something neat that Chris did yesterday with the remains of our whole bird was make a homemade bone broth. Holy cow at the amount of broth it made. Chris tried some and said it was delish but I really wasn’t in the mood to taste it. He has been such a great help today. I only spent 4 hours in the kitchen this Sunday and he is part of the reason why I’ve cut down on prep time. He made us some ballin steaks on the grill and steamed up some green beans. You’ll love this, I DESPISE green beans and with a passion. Well Chris was determined I needed to try them because we had a large amount of them. That led to an argument…well sorta. Since we’ve started this thing Chris hasn’t had to eat 1 food that he didn’t like. I on the other hand have had to eat several (cauliflower, broccoli, squash, zucchini,….the list could go on forever) and my defense for opting for a salad instead was that I’m tired of eating stuff I hate. I know that’s silly but I’m so sad about all the gross things I’ve eaten to help my body. To make him feel better I decided that I would try a few green beans and guess what…. They aren’t as bad as I remembered (I have some traumatizing memories involving those green sticks). I seriously couldn’t believe that I actually like them! Please don’t tell my mom because I refused her crazy bacon green bean concoction at thanksgiving (it looked absolutely disgusting) and I’m pretty sure it hurt her feelings.

Not much else to report in terms of this whole 30 biz, I’ve already covered the amazing results we’ve had in the last few updates. I think I’m going to enjoy this incredible roaring fire my husband built for me and continue reading my new book 🙂

Have a wonderful Sunday evening,

Ash, Chris, and the pup

Day 13: I cheated :(

Wellll…. Today has been super fun. I slept in just a little and woke up to coffee and an egg scramble. My husband is the bomb. I have been feeling so weighed down with all the responsibility of preparing meals 3 times a day. I make breakfast for us, I pack our lunches, and then we typically cook dinner together. He was so sweet yesterday and made us burgers and sweet potato fries and then made us breakfast. I absolutely needed the break from cooking. I really enjoyed sitting on the couch making my meal plan and grocery list. It took me about 2 hours to compile those two items….. That would be because I was looking up new recipes and trying to figure out what in the world we were going to eat for breakfast. I’ve noticed that a lot of these paleo people love to wake up and eat soup or leftovers from last nights dinner. That just isn’t my style because I LOVE breakfast foods. Anyways, I thought I’d post my meal plan to just give you an idea of what we’re eating throughout the week.

I just love the personalized notepad. A few years ago Chris got them as a Christmas gift from his employer. I find that so funny even though I love using them. I found majority of the recipes from http://www.nomnompaleo.com and the chili recipe is from http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com. These are both great resources for recipes and information about paleo.

As the title suggests…. We accidentally cheated today. Chris and I were heading to the grocery store and there is this amazing BBQ restaurant close by. So I figured we could get some smoked chicken sandwiches and ditch the bread. Unfortunately there was a light amount of BBQ drizzled on the meat. Chris also ordered some Brunswick stew (he should have known better). So….that was our slight cheat today. I don’t feel too guilty because all I ate was the chicken….I’m pretty sure that my husband absolutely regrets the cheat because he was NOT feeling super. Poor fella :(. Other than that little instance we are being strict about what we’re eating.

Tonight we’re cooking up a whole chicken in my crockpot. I’ve never bought a whole chicken before so WOWZERS at how inexpensive it was. Speaking of food, Chris and I are saving loads of money. We’re spending about $125 a week on food (we buy meat in bulk) but neither of us are eating out during the week so that’s where we are a saving so much money. That helps make us feel better when we spend $5 on raspberries or $7 on bacon. Yay for that. I hope everyone enjoys their evening I know we are 🙂

Toodles,

Chris n Ash

Day 8: Hungry for Change

What a beautiful yet cold cold day. I went to get the mail and thought my fingers were going to fall off! So glad I got to spend the day indoors with my sweet cuddly pup. Chris and I watched a documentary last night titled Hungry for Change and what an incredible movie that talks about all the dangers of eating processed foods. I can’t believe how uneducated I’ve been about food! Good news is that our bodies want to heal and are designed to heal and that’s all I need to keep going with “clean eating.” If you want to check out the documentary, it’s on netflix.

My prosciutto frittatas were amazing this morning. Wayyyyyy better than the ones I made with bacon. I don’t have too much to report today other than no tummy ache this morning. I was very glad too because I hate feeling sick in the morning. I really hope everything starts to stabilize soon so I can really enjoy the energy I’m having.

I really hope that everyone stays warm and eats lots of good food!

Chris, Ash, and alf the pup

Day 7: Preparation is key

I have finally sat down from preparing in the kitchen. Oh man am I welcoming the break. We did all the shopping yesterday and got all the fruits and veggies cleaned up. I like doing it all at once in a vinegar bath in my sink. Very simple too, cold water 1 cup distilled vinegar and 1 tablespoon of salt. Mix and let produce sit for 30 minutes. Voila, clean produce that will last the whole week.

Ready to be jealous? We made a frittata this morning and it was pretty interesting. Chris really loved it. I liked it but I am starting to get sick of eggs.

The plate on the left is Chris’s (you can tell by all the broccoli..yuck) and mine is on the right 🙂
Part of preparing for the week consists of making breakfast! I made those mini frittatas again but used prosciutto instead of bacon. That was a much better choice as there was no grease and the prosciutto got really crispy. I followed nomnom’s recipe minus the cherry tomatoes. Here’s the recipe.

I’ll stop tempting everyone 🙂 I also made some Lara bars today. What an easy easy thing to make and a great lunch snack. 1 cup of pitted dates, 1 cup of nuts (cashews, almonds, pecans, etc) 1/4 cup of peanut butter(I used my almond butter) and 1 tbsp of water. Put in a food processor and blend till it sticks together. Add more water if needed. Then pull it out by hand and mold it into a rectangle on parchment paper and cut it into 12 bars. Then wrap it up in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

Today marks 1 week on this insane regimen and I’ve noticed several results in this week. No more bloating!!!! I think my face has shrunk which is fabulous. I’ve had more consistent energy levels. I haven’t had a headache today or last night. I seem to be digesting food better too. I still haven’t slept too well but I think it’s getting better. More than likely I’m down a few pounds but I’m not a scale person (I like to be surprised when I go to the doctors office). I think all of that is great for just 1 week. Unfortunately I’m having trouble in the morning with a slight stomach ache. I think it’s just extreme hunger but it makes me feel just a little nauseous. I’m hoping that will start to go away so I can get up and feel super in the mornings.

I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of my evening with my hunny 🙂 he’s being a doll and is making us steak for dinner. Yum yum, I hope everyone stays warm tonight with all this wintery air moving in. I’m extremely excited for another day off work!

Goodnight friends,

Chris, Ash, and Alfie

Days 5 & 6: Busy, Busy, Busy…

Yesterday was so busy for me! I went back to work for a teacher work day and immediately came home and cooked dinner, then we went to my in-laws to watch the Ohio State game. I’m not sure you can call that a game but that’s what we were up to. In the mean time we ate lots of yummies. I made a crazy smoothie for breakfast Friday that had tons of Kale, Spinach, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and a banana with some coco milk and ice. It literally looked like something you might throw up but it tasted so good. I think the key with smoothies is having a banana in it. Surprisingly I was pretty full and was able to make it to lunch time. Lunch was interesting because I was the only person in my teacher circle that packed something. But I was a good sport and went to Moe’s anyway and just ate my packed lunch. I’m pretty sure they were all jealous of my homemade chicken salad ;). Luckily Moe’s isn’t really a temptation for me, I only get a cheese quesadilla anyway so I’m not really missing out. After I got home from work I made a lemon marinade that rocked. It was a blend of lemon juice, garlic, onion powder, black pepper, and coco aminos. We made skewers with the chicken and alternated in some onions and green peppers. I also attempted a cali mash and for the first time Chris has told me he doesn’t like something. I found it a little bit easier to eat than the cali rice but I think he just didn’t like how I flavored it. I used this recipeand I think the nutmeg didn’t blend well along with the fact that we used coco oil in place of butter. I would suggest this as an easy side because it really is the consistency of mashed potatoes and I think with some different spicing we’ll enjoy it more.

BTW I gotta say that my in-laws are the sweetest. They have really been supportive and have tried to accommodate us when we come over. I think that is so awesome, definitely different from my momma who wants to tempt me with sugar….grrr. Chris and I had an awesome breakfast over there this morning and we all ate whole 30 🙂

Tonight we had some success with sweet potato fries, also from nomnom, and I will definitely be making them again. Wow at the flavor! That recipe can be found here. I think Chris and I have really gotten the hang of proportions and how much protein, vegetables, and fat we need. We’re finally getting to the point where we know the difference between being hungry and having cravings. Tonight I had this realization that in my old diet I thought I was full when my belly felt tight and my pants were a little tight (y’all know what I mean, the feeling where you wanna unbutton the top button of your pants to give your belly room). The problem on this diet is that you don’t have that feeling and I just realized that’s because I was over eating in the past. We had the opportunity tonight to cook dinner for some of our dearest friends and I think they really enjoyed eating with us and asking us questions. These particular friends are clean eating and it’s been so much fun to talk to my bestie about different recipes and how to’s and where we’ve had some successes and failures in our meals. I will say being surrounded by other people trying the same type of things makes Whole 30 easier. Otherwise this could be a very lonely month. I would hate to go somewhere and tell someone I can’t eat what they’ve prepared because it doesn’t fit in with my lifestyle and would instead prefer to stay home. So, yay for friends who clean eat and yay for an awesome husband who will do crazy adventurous things with me.

Really though, I think it is incredibly important to have someone to do this with. Whether it be a friend or a spouse or a sibling, the accountability sets you up for better success. I would never last 3 hours if it wasn’t for my love muffin. Another cool thing about doing this is that we get to learn new stuff together and we always have something to talk about. Struggling through this together has really been a blast. I’m constantly asking him how he feels and if he liked what he had for lunch and what kind of things would he
like to add or take away from our meals. He actually sent me an email yesterday with some neat recipes to try out next week. My other tip for success is meal planning!! Knowing what you’re eating for each meal helps lower the chances of eating something you aren’t supposed to. It is also really helpful for grocery shopping because you only buy what you need for your meals and I think it cuts down the amount of time you’re in the store.

We are officially 6 full days in and there are certainly some consequences from our old eating style. For instance, I have had a headache the last 2 nights and I’m not sure exactly what it’s from (probably lack of sugar). Apparently that is normal for the first week or two. The other thing that is driving me crazy is the amount of times I have to potty in the middle of the night UGHH and I think that’s common because I googled it and plenty of bloggers complained of it. Chris and I are both having trouble sleeping as well (which is also common). Anyone who knows me would tell you I’m the biggest crank when I don’t get the sleep I need so let’s just say I’ve been cranky in the mornings. Luckily this is supposed to go away and we’re supposed to get the best sleep ever!

Hope this fills ya in on our last 2 days and maybe you’ve found some new recipes? I’m also going to give a link to my pinterest page if your want to check out some of the recipes I’ve pinned. here ya go. Also if you’re looking to make homemade mayo the recipe is here.

Have a fabulous weekend and stay warm!

Chris, Ash, and Alf the pup