This Week’s Update

Continuing on with my daily struggle, I mean journal through yet another attempt at a Whole 30. Just for a recap, Whole 30 is a program where you eat only whole foods for 30 days. This is essentially a paleo diet, but it removes all the fun paleo foods like almond flour pancakes and dark chocolate. Just meats, lots of vegetables, some fruit and healthy fats. For 30 days. Sounds simple right?

Whole 30 Update

Sunday, Day 4: Breakfast: two scrambled eggs, black coffee

Lunch at Chipotle: carnitas, white rice, guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce

Dinner: beef roast, mashed root vegetables, broccoli and green beans (this is actually our “Christmas dinner” and will be featured in my ebook)

Day 4 Assessment: feeling ok, really would enjoy some chocolate about now, like three or four of these!

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Monday, Day 5: Breakfast: protein bar and black coffee prior to morning workout

Brunch: sausage, one egg, bunch of kale, apple

Afternoon snack: another protein bar

Dinner: Asian Beef and Vegetable Stirfry

Asian Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry

Day 5 Assessment: really tired, can’t keep my eyes open at 9 PM, resisted the candy, hooray!

Tuesday, Day 6: I’ve been doing a Bible study called Living a Praying Life and the last lesson my group discussed included a section on fasting. I’ve read and heard about fasting many times, but this time it affected me differently. It’s something I want to do, something I feel I should do, but looking at my calendar, I don’t know when I’ll get a day set apart. A member of the group suggested fasting just from one meal. What a great idea! So that’s what I did today.

I had black coffee, because surely Jesus would not expect me to not have coffee. I was hungry all morning and it did make me turn to Him to sustain me. Nothing earth shattering happened, but it was a positive experience. I would do it again.

Non-intense workout just before lunch. Did feel a little light-headed so I took it easy.

Lunch: Very, very hungry! Two eggs, about 3 ounces of sage breakfast sausage, one Applegate Chicken Apple Sausage, big bunch of kale and one tomato – all scrambled up together, topped with half an avocado. Told you I was hungry.

Dinner: Crispy Baked Cod, roasted broccoli and asparagus, a few bites of baked sweet potato. I was really sort of still full from lunch.

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Evening Snack: Turns out I got hungry later so I had some “dessert”: one apple sautéed in a little ghee, sprinkled with cinnamon, a dash of sea salt and some roasted almonds. Yum!

Day 6 Assessment: I was super, duper tired all day. I could barely function. Lots of couch sitting and reading to the kids today. And then sending them out to play while I continued to sit. Got a good night’s sleep so Day 7 should be better!

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This is what I wanted to do all day.

Wednesday, Day 7 (Day 7 already! Whoo hoo!)

Breakfast: Black coffee with collagen powder (find my favorite brand here), Bilinski’s chicken apple sausage and carrots. This sausage is a new brand to me, but I’m thankful to find one besides Applegate that doesn’t contain sugar. Lots of black pepper in this one so AIP-ers beware.

Pre-lunch bike ride – actually felt fine. My energy may be coming back, thankfully!

Lunch: Salad, turkey, pecans, a few dried cherries, balsamic and olive oil.

Mid-afternoon snack: a few almonds and a mini Hershey’s chocolate egg. Ok, two. I know.

Dinner: bacon, eggs, sautéed kale, grapefruit

Day 7 Assessment: It’s hard, I won’t lie. We are so conditioned to want something sweet after every meal. It’s a hard habit to break. I did have more energy today so that was a plus. I realized I was using my protein bars as a dessert or sweet treat so vowed not to have any today.

Thursday, Day 8: Rainy, gloomy day. If ever there was a day to lounge on the sofa and eat bon bons, today’s the day! But alas, my kids are in a class all morning so I will be productive with my free time. Really, I will.

Breakfast: black coffee and protein bar, prior to intense morning workout.

Brunch: baked salmon, mushrooms and onions, pile ‘o greens

Dinner: We were supposed to have small group tonight, which means a quick dinner/mini date. Small group was canceled so we had a little more time to enjoy a more relaxed dinner. But when you’re following a Whole30 you still don’t have a lot of choices when it comes to eating out. Here’s what I chose: grilled chicken over sautéed mushrooms and onions (lots of onions!), side of mashed potatoes and side salad. The dinner actually came with green beans, but I knew the beans would be covered in vegetable oil, which is a huge immune trigger for me, so I chose the salad instead. There was shredded cheese on the salad (I didn’t ask about it when I ordered – should have) and I ate it anyway. Mashed potatoes certainly had dairy as well. I ate them anyway.

Technically, all these “rule breakers” would disqualify my Whole30 and I should start over. But I’m an adult and I choose to go on. It’s not like I did a face plant into a pan of brownies.

Day 8 Assessment: It’s still hard to not eat sweets after meals or for a little afternoon pick-me-up. I’m needing to be very conscious of true hunger vs. desire for a snack. Dealing with a little guilt about the dairy in my dinner. The rule follower in me says, “You better start over.” The practical, grace-receiving me says, “It’s ok. Let it go. Move on to day 9.” I think I’ll follow the practical me this time.

Friday, Day 9 Breakfast: one Belinsky’s chicken apple sausage, two scrambled eggs, roma tomato on the side, black coffee

Workout right at noon. Felt fine. Not hungry at all prior to class.

Lunch: I’m hungry now! Salad, roasted chicken, pecans, 1/2 apple, balsamic and olive oil

Dinner: a new recipe this week – Chili! I have a favorite chili recipe which was given to me as a wedding present by a good, family friend. I’ve even won the church chili cookoff with this recipe. But it is not Whole30 compliant. There’s a good bit of brown sugar in it (there’s the secret for all my competition 🙂 ). Thankfully, my tastebuds don’t want as much sweetness anymore, but chili (in my opinion) still needs a hint of sweet. Check out the recipe to see how I achieve that, in a totally paleo and Whole30 acceptable way.

Beef Chili
Beef Chili

Day 9 Thoughts: A part of me still feels like I need to start over. I ate some dairy. I had rice at Chipotle. Those two chocolate eggs. One day early on I put coconut creamer in my coffee, which contains less than a gram of sugar, but sugar nonetheless. I wonder if these little “cheats” have spoiled the reset.

Saturday, Day 10 (or should it be Day 1?): I had a super busy day planned including a morning high intensity workout so I started the day with black coffee and a protein bar.

Post-workout meal: two eggs, one chicken apple sausage, green apple

Late lunch: Chick-fil-A grilled nuggets inhaled in the car before grocery shopping.

Dinner: Out with the girls!! We have a relatively new restaurant here in Raleigh that is 100% gluten free, soy free and non-GMO. When we eat out, I hope to legitimately get a gluten free meal. If I can tick one or two of the other paleo boxes, then I feel I’ve totally scored, but I never expect that. Going into this dinner, I was hopeful to get a bonafide paleo dinner, start to finish. I have to say that I was totally impressed. If you’re near Raleigh, NC, give Fresh Levant a try.

My dinner: steak medallions on top of a small bed of baba ganoush (an eggplant spread), roasted potatoes, asparagus and brussels spouts. It was delicious. The only cooking oil they use is olive oil, not mixed with any other oils. Score!

Sunday, Day 11 Breakfast: bacon and black coffee and more bacon

Halfway through Sunday school, my stomach started growling. I knew I hadn’t eaten enough breakfast, but when it comes to Sunday mornings, I usually have to choose between doing my hair or eating a good breakfast. Today I chose hair. Priorities, people.

Lunch: Lunch was at a local Peruvian rotisserie chicken restaurant, Mami Nora’s. Their chicken is free of hormones, antibiotics, gluten free, dairy free, not sure about soy. We’ve eaten there a lot and it never makes me sick. We get a whole chicken, salad and plantains. Delicious! And super affordable.

Afternoon snack: a few almonds and dried cherries

On the menu for dinner: Grilled shrimp, kale salad and sweet potatoes leftover from earlier in the week.

Ready for another week and hopeful that it will get easier to resist all the sweets. The kids’ Easter baskets are over-flowing and in plain sight.

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I hope you noticed our new logo at the top of the page. Isn’t that a cute family? We always look just like that.

Things are busy around here as we begin to wrap up extra curricular activities and run through the homestretch of the school year, including end of year testing. The beginning of each school year is always so full of excitement and promise and we always hope to finish strong. We still have about six weeks to go and the beautiful weather is making it hard to stay on task some days. We continue to be so thankful for this homeschooling journey God has provided. It is a blessing to be with my kids each day and learn alongside them.

I’ve been busily working on my first ebook, which I’ve mentioned before. It will be a compilation of recipes for the holidays from Fall through New Years. I had planned to include recipes for the entire year, but there are just too many for one book, so I’m going to have to split it up into two. There will probably be fewer new recipes on the site for a while as I have to save some goodies for the book!

We’re also working on all the details related to selling our awesome paleo cookies. When I want to buy a treat for my kids (or me) because I don’t have time or just don’t feel like cooking, there is nothing in the stores that meets my standards. Oh sure, we still buy cookies and other snacks, but I’m always compromising in some way: always more sugar than I want, almost always some grain flour involved, usually soy, dairy, and lots of gums and preservatives. My cookies have none of that. They’re really just too good to keep to ourselves. I know that sounds arrogant. God has given me this gift of enjoying cooking and creating recipes. I feel like I’m supposed to share it.

So be on the lookout for when and where you can purchase Our Paleo Family cookies in the near future. We will initially offer four varieties: molasses gingerbread, old fashioned chocolate chip, iced sugar cookies and baklava. Yum!!

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That’s it for this week. I hope you are well! Thanks for reading.

“God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course. Give me insight so I can do what you tell me- my whole life one long, obedient response.” Psalm 119: 33-34 (The MSG.)