Whole 30 update

Well, it took 4 days, but I lost the 3+ pounds I gained from ONE DAY of carb loading.  It's funny (not really) how losing weight while eating Whole 30 compliant was a fraction of a pound per day, yet I load up on carbs on reintro gluten day and BAM 3 pounds overnight. Retaining water? Probably. Bloated? Definitely. 

I've kind of decided that when I choose to have gluten grains, I will most definitely limit them to one meal a day. 

My mom stopped by yesterday - she brought me an orchid for Valentine's Day. She's pretty thin. The weight she does have, she carries in her middle. She said that her doctor (who is Vietnamese) told her if she wanted to lose it to cut the carbs. My mom pretty much lives on bread and pasta. Not big on meat.

Carbs...what are you gonna do?
 

Reintro - Day 11

Day 11 - DAY 11! Do you know what that means? We're done. Officially done with our first Whole30.

We followed the 10 day reintroduction schedule and today is our last "2nd Whole30 day" after the last reintroduction.

We ended up going out for dinner. Sharon's again - because it's easy.

I got up late so I didn't have enough time to make breakfast and lunch (food prep people, I'm telling you it's the key to success with eating this way) so I made lunch and at 2/3 of it for breakfast when I got to the office. Then went to Outback with a couple of co-workers. I had the usual...only I changed it up and had them GRILL the steak - still plain though.

Breakfast was chicken salad. I added a Fuji apple, dried, unsweetened cranberries, and slivered almonds. 

At some point I also ate 2 unsweetened applesauce cups and a Larabar...oh and a fruit snack thing. 

One thing to note - I have gained back 3 pounds since gluten grain reintroduction day. With all the carbs I ate in one day - I'm not even a little surprised.

Mr. P. did sort of surprise me last night on the way home from dinner saying he wasn't opposed to continuing to eat this way for the most part - but "I will not be giving up beer" LOL. Fine. I'll take it!

I suppose I'm going to just try to slip back into Whole30 here and get those 3 pounds back off and do my best to food prep on Sundays. I admit - I would have had time for breakfast yesterday if I had actually shredded my chicken and made the chicken salad in advance - oh and portioned it out into grab and go containers. Mr. P. has been taking his pretty regularly. 

I have a 3 day weekend coming up. I think I will do a full clean out of the fridge - add the new shelf liner that I bought a while back and get rid of things we won't be using anymore. Set yourself up for success and you can do it...right?

This will probably be my last daily update. I will continue to share new Whole30 recipes that we try, any new observations, challenges, and successes as well.

 

Reintro Day 10

Well...it looks like I will be limiting my grain intake from here on out. Lord have mercy...

• Bloating
• Gas
• Diarrhea
• Stomach (intestines I assume) ache

 I have a feeling I did not eat enough legumes to find out of I have any issue with them. Specifically beans. I will probably do another reintro day with them for myself.

Remember this gem? Pretty much me this morning!


 

Pass the Pepto...I have to go to work.

On the plus side - I'm pretty sure "the sickness" is just about done hanging around. I'm not coughing much at all now - mostly when I let my throat get dry. I know I haven't been drinking enough water the last few days. My eyes are much better although as a whole they don't look so good. From rubbing and wiping and 'crying' my flesh is red, raw and I actually have a couple of small zits. Too much touching, not enough cleaning I guess. I'm sure it will clear up over the LONG WEEKEND. WOO HOO - I am so excited about having a 3 days weekend.

So I got up at 6am, spent some quality time in the bathroom, washed my face and all that morning routine type crap and went to tackle the mountain of dishes. Yes I left BOTH sides of the sink full of dirty dishes. Why? Because I had already unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher once yesterday and I didn't feel like doing it again. Truth be told, I didn't feel like doing it this morning either. Somehow Mr. P. has a 30 minute morning routine and I have a 2 hour morning routine. Mine has nothing to do with girly stuff either. I'm a pro at multi-tasking. I swipe my face and neck with a peel pad and go about getting the critters rotated in and out of the shower, wash my face, pat dry and moisturize while someone is still in the shower, by the time shower duty is done my face is dry and I can put on my make-up which takes 5 minutes tops. IT Cosmetics powder foundation, IT Cosmetics powder blush, brush the eyebrows and lashes to remove any powder residue and a quick swipe of IT Cosmetics black gel eyeliner pencil. I keep my lip gloss in the Jeep and put it on before I get to work. Plenty of red lights to sit at on the way to the office... I'm super efficient at getting dressed too. Typically when it's 'cold' like it has been - it's leggings and a tunic or leggings and a dress - both with boots. Again, pretty much a 5 minute event.  Then it's on to feeding the critters, opening the blinds in their room, packing my lunch, making my breakfast, doing the dishes from someone else making their breakfast, unloading the dishwasher if it's full, putting out the  mail if there is any, getting the paper if it's delivery day, and separating the trash/recycle carts because I have a neighbor who is insistant on putting hers across the street with our but she doesn't follow the rules. We have an automated truck now - it goes down the street and has a grabber claw that picks up the bin and dumps it. There has to be 3 feet of space on all sides of the bin for that to work. Nope - she puts it right up against ours.  I think I will put a stop to that - I'm writing a note to tape on her bin Friday morning! I don't have time to do other people's work in the morning.

My stomach was a mess most of the day at work, but I also had the munchies pretty bad.

I had 3 scrambled eggs, 3 sandwich steaks, a cup of applesauce (not a literal cup, but you know – the individual cups), 3 Simply Balanced raspberry pineapple fruit snack things, a big bowl of chicken salad and a Larabar. Plus several 24 oz cups of water.

I went to the Super Wal-mart that’s next door to my office because I needed some hair color, light bulbs, milk and a new air purifier. I ended up getting a cheap pack of toothbrushes for cleaning, a new battery op toothbrush for my drawer at work, a couple of pairs of leggings for Georgia and new wiper blades for my Jeep. Holy crap – when did wiper blades get so expensive?! I also picked up a 2 pack of filters for my air purifier. I’ve been sleeping with the TV on because my old one died Monday night. I can’t sleep when it’s quiet. Lucky for me Mr. P. has been sleeping in the guest room since I’m sick. He could never sleep with the TV on – not with the light, not with the sound.

So I got home late. Mr. P. had a wonderful dinner ready when I got home. Alas, no picture and it was definitely picture worthy! Seared scallops, sauteed asparagus and green beans with garlic and prosciutto! It was sooooo good. OMG a million times better than pasta and garlic bread.

It's cold here - we actually have a frost advisory. My hands were cold, so I made a Godiva Milk Hot Chocolate with the SO Delicious (compliant) unsweetened almond milk I picked up at Wal-mart today. It did the trick!


    

  

Reintro Day 9

Today is gluten grain day! SO EXCITED!

I decided to stay home from work again today. Since I no longer have a private office, I don't want to be running out the door every 5 minutes to hack my brains out with the coughing. It's COLD today. I put on leggings, socks, sneakers and a 3/4 sleeve sweatshirt today and I've still be curled up under a blanket on the couch most of the day.

I did finish up some laundry as well as do dishes...what's new? When aren't I doing dishes?

I made a couple of sandwich steaks this morning, with 3 organic, cage free eggs (scrambled), and 2 slices of delicious, buttered, sourdough toast. I even took a pretty picture!

For lunch I made gluten free mac n cheese - only I used vanilla coffee creamer because I didn't have milk. I threw it out. There's something very wrong about sweet mac n cheese. So gross. I had 2 more slices of toast and 2 squares of dark coconut chocolate from my Lindt bar from Christmas. It was the last 2 squares. I was a little sad. 

Mr. P. got home early in the afternoon and wanted to know what kind of pasta I wanted for dinner LOL. So I googled and found a garlic butter pasta recipe. We might add shrimp and/or scallops. He happily went off to Publix and like 45 minutes later (he went for pasta, bread, green beans and sandwich steaks - and Publix is literally walking distance from the house) he comes back with a baguette to make garlic bread, sandwich steaks, pasta, 2 packages of crackers, and  frozen green beans. Apparently he was reading labels. 

This morning I was down 17.8 pounds. I'm afraid of tomorrow's check in...carbs have never been good to me and after my first piece of toast this morning, I could have made and eaten the entire loaf. 

I had a handful of 3 ingredient Triscuits. I don't remember the last time I had them, but boy were they good!

Here's the Buttery Garlic Pasta recipe from Uncle Jerry's Kitchen. We added shrimp. It was delicious! Not to mention simple and quick. GREAT meal for those nights you forget to take something out of the freezer. 

 

Reintro Day 8

Nothing exciting today. I'm still not back to 100% so...

Breakfast was a Larabar.

Lunch was chicken salad with homemade mayo, dried cranberries (unsweetened) and a diced Fuji apple. I also had a fruit cup.

Dinner was OUT. We went to Sharon's and we both got a 4oz burger patty, 2 over medium eggs and home fries (no butter, made on the griddle).

Oh - I may have had 2 squares of dark chocolate with coconut from a Lindt bar that my husband put in my Christmas stocking. I still have 2/3 of it, plus a mini Toblerone bar, a 2 pack of peanut butter cup trees and another whole chocolate bar that I can't remember.  Once upon a time I would have wolfed down a whole bar in nothing flat. Two squares of dark chocolate is perfect. 

Tonight was a grilled bologna special night at Sharon's. Man did I want it. It used to be on their menu as a sandwich. It came as a thick slice of grilled bologna with American cheese, mayo and a grilled, buttered bun with sesame seeds. OMG. It's a southern staple y'all! They also had coconut cream french toast! 

Alas - tomorrow is grain day! Pasta and bread oh my! Mr. P. plans on having beer. Personally I don't put that under grain....but whatever. 

The best thing about today - minus not having to do dinner dishes - was a BAT! Mr. P. rescued a tiny little evening bat at work. It didn't appear to have any injuries at all, but it was awful cold and damp yesterday - raining off an one. My guess is that the poor little guy got all wet and cold and just couldn't make it home. He was balled up on the driveway at Mr. P's place of work - which thankfully doesn't have much traffic - and what traffic it does have, is controlled by security badge access. Poor little guy could have been run over! Luckily, the hubs is always keeping an eye out for the critters and rescues one critter or another on a daily basis. Typically it's snakes, frogs, and lizards that get into gear boxes or in the building. So this tiny little guy got to ride around half the day in a nice warm box in the truck. Eventually I got a hold of our local wildlife rescuer and she does take bats so he met up with her and passed off this ridiculously cute little creature. She assessed him and said he's good to go, probably cold and rain. She's going to keep him a few days to let him rest and get him fed on the regular and then we can let him go. 

 

Just hanging around...like a...bat.

 

Look how tiny! It's on the tip of his finger!

 

Getting a little crazy...

 

 

On the move!

 

Terrible video of a video that our rescue lady shot while she was feeding him tonight.

 

Reintro Day 7

Well - I think I am on the mend. I slept fairly well last night, though I am guessing that from being all stuffed up that I was probably snoring - Mr. P. moved to the guest room some time during the night. Oops. Things should be back to normal in a couple of days.

My eyes are still a watery mess, but I'm not 100% stuffed up. I managed to get myself dressed and run to Super Target to do some grocery shopping. I rarely go there to shop, but there was no way I was going to venture to BJs and Aldi and Publix. Not quite up to that task just yet. It took way longer than it should have to get what I got, BUT - I ran into my brother's family there so I got to see my little sunshine birthday girl. 

I scored some great deals too - they had grass-fed ground beef marked down $3 off - and it was already on sale. So I got $7.49/lb for $3.49/lb. I got a roast that was also $3 off, a whole chicken for $3 off and a couple of packs of chicken tenders $2 off each. They also had a mobile coupon for $5/$25 in meat/seafood. Cha-ching! They also had the organic eggs marked down to $2/dozen (regularly $4.89) - I got 3 dozen and they were an additional 5% off with Cartwheel. Pretty much everything I picked up ended up having a Cartwheel deal and in the end I got 5% off all of it with my Target RedCard debit card. 

Not that I'm keeping track (ha ha) but -17 pounds this morning - 37 days. Not bad for not dieting. 

It's 2:30pm as I write this post and the only thing I have had to eat today is half a leftover white grape juice pop and a Larabar.

I tossed a bunch of chicken in the crock this morning - with chicken stock, carrots and some leftover chopped onion. The house smelled divine when I came in from Target...and that's with a stuffy nose! 

I also found a compliant chicken stock at Target! Pretty sure it was my reward for getting my arse out of the house. 

I'm going to make some skillet potatoes for lunch and then I'll get to work on packing lunches for the week. I portioned out black olives for Mr. P. yesterday - and I got him a jar of compliant sauerkraut today (go figure the jar I bought just before we started all of this has white wine in it. Really?!) I wonder if he's tired of hot dogs and sauerkraut with olives and fruit every day? Yesterday I noticed his weight loss. He put on a t-shirt that was an XL and it fit. He typically goes for the XXL because so many are "slim fit" these days.

Mr. P. has been working all weekend and been all over town to do it. Luckily I caught him before he was in Dr. Phillips so I could get him to run into Whole Foods.  We are about out of Coconut Aminos. Well...I guess I wasn't specific enough when I said it was in the condiment section, has a palm tree on the label and a gold wrapper over the cap. He came home with the same bottle only with a red wrapper and while it does say Coconut Aminos, it also says Teriyaki Sauce. At least it seems to be compliant.  I guess I will order the huge jug on Amazon. It's the only way it's affordable. Seriously - this is like the one product that I can get cheaper at a local health food store. Except that we don't really have one nearby. We used to have a Chamberlains, but it went away. I did hear that they are moving back though. Although no idea where - it might not be convenient either. 

Well - I forgot to take a picture of dinner. Sorry! Since Mr. P. bought teriyaki sauce, I used some of my awesome deal chicken tenders and half a can of pineapple chunks to make a teriyaki chicken dish - served it over zoodles. Huge plus - ONE PAN. Dirtied 2 plates, 2 forks, 1 knife, a spatula and a pan. WOO HOO! 

Reintro Day 6

My eyes won't stop watering - literally tears streaming down my face. The coughing is horrible. The congestion is wicked. 

I have taken allergy medication, Mucinex DM, DayQuil, NyQuil...none of it works. None of it even helps a little bit.

Today I am exhausted. I got up at 4am because of the coughing. Mr. P. has to work all weekend so I didn't want to keep him up all night. I got up and tried to sleep sitting up on the couch (to keep my nose cleared up) and gave up. Spent almost 2 hours sitting at the computer playing mindless games and drinking hot apple juice.

Eventually went back to bed just before Mr. P. got up. Immediately started coughing.

When I got up, I wasn't particularly hungry...but I made some sweet potato Yukon Gold hash with salt, pepper and paprika. Then I ate half a white grape juice pop. The silicone molds I have are pretty big. Then I remembered it's DAIRY DAY!  I might make a cheese omelet for lunch. 

I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Tossed a load of laundry in...so much to do, but my head feels like it's going to explode so I prefer to just sit somewhere and be miserable vs. get up and do stuff and be extra miserable.

I noticed I am very burp-y the last two day. Not sure if it's from the La Croix sparkling water or  breathing thru my mouth and this damn cold.

Today also happens to be my little sweetpea's 5th birthday! I can't believe that tiny little baby girl is 5 years old. She's super smart, extra spunky and is (usually) the sweetest little - well not so little - girl. Her party was held at a small local chocolate place and the kids got to make their own candy.

I never got around to the cheese omelet. Wasn't really hungry and didn't have the energy to do it. I did eat 2 cheese sticks. 

Mr. Paisley went out and got us Freddy's for dinner. I had a triple steakburger with cheese (hold the bun and no condiments), we split a large order of fries (they're shoestring fries and they were extra salty so I only ate a few - I'm not a big fan of salt - even though I constantly buy fancy varieties) and since it's DAIRY DAY - we got vanilla frozen custard. It was delicious - probably would have been to die for if I could have actually tasted it. I also had half a can of La Croix with some apple juice.

So far so good - no tummy troubles. Thank God - I love cheese. And ice cream. And cheese...all kinds of cheese. Did I mention I love cheese?
  

Reintroduction Day 5

It's Day 5 and we're back to the Whole30 eating today and tomorrow. If memory serves me...we get DAIRY on Saturday and they suggest ICE CREAM! I am so jumping on that wagon. I really want that right now...stupid sore throat!

Woke up still sick this morning. One eye was glued shut, my mouth was bone dry and my nose was crusty and stuffed up. Oh and my throat still hurts. I woke up 30 minutes before my 6am alarm. I didn't even try to go back to sleep. I got up and hit the shower on full steam to try to clear out my nose and pry my eye open. I washed my hair with Wen Winter Vanilla Mint which not only has a nice tingle, but the mint helped open up my nose as well. That said, I don't really feel any better. I can barely speak and I've already slowly sipped a full 24oz Tervis full of water to try and soothe my throat. It works...as long as I just keep drinking. I've been googling Whole30 remedies for sore throats. They're all over the map. I'm kind of thinking that technically I'm well past the 30 days so I might very well cave and make hot tea with honey. Plus down a glass of hot water and apple cider vinegar. Yum (not...) and gargle with lemon salt water (also yum...no, not really). I'm also starving. I don't think I've gotten up and had my stomach rumbling and growling at me since I started. I think I'm going to make scrambled eggs with my sandwich steak this morning.

My throat is starting to feel a bit better. I did have my hot tea and honey - though I didn't finish the whole mug...really only about half. I did have scrambled eggs and sandwich steak for breakfast and for lunch I had a couple more sandwich steaks and a bowl of fried (?) plantains. They were ok, but not the greatest. I doubt Mr. P. would like them and they're a bit pricey $6.99 a bag at Aldi - they are name brand though. I don't think I'll buy them again.

I managed to unload the dishwasher and reload it - surprise, it's full again. I hate to use paper products when there's no need for it, but the never ending dishes waiting to be done is ridiculous. Although really...all it would save is 2 dinner plates so I guess there isn't much point to using paper plates to try to make less dishes.

Later that day....

I spent 30 minutes in the hot tub - then I got rained on. The heat cleared up my nose for a little while. My throat has stopped hurting, however my mouth is dry because I can't breathe thru my nose. While I was napping it dawned on me that I should freeze some juice in my freezer pop molds. DUH. Why the heck didn't I think of that yesterday?! I have 2 white grape juice pops in the freezer right now. Can't wait to have one! I also made an appointment for Kahlua. She's my only lizard that doesn't freak out about going to the V-E-T.  I'll take her to work with me tomorrow and stop on the way home.  We think she might be gravid. Because she had metabolic bone disease laying eggs will be difficult for her. She can't use one of her back legs because it's fused at the hip socket (it was broken and not treated by a former owner), her hips are really narrow, and her spine is crooked - all from poor diet and lack of proper care. She's the sweetest thing for having such a crappy life pre-Paisley Cottage.

Confession. I couldn't wait on my pops to freeze. I ate an old orange freezer pop from last Memorial Day. Full of sugar. I won't eat another one, but it was so nice...the juice ones will be even better!

Dinner was a thrown together stir fry. Coconut aminos, salad shrimp, assorted leftover veggies from the week, zoodles, cabbage and cashews. I added spicy cashew sauce to mine. Also had a cranberry apple La Croix sparkling water mixed with some cranberry pomegranate juice.

Reintro Day 4

Day 4 of Reintroduction! Today we got to have non-gluten grains.  So we were going to have rice and corn, but...we ended up skipping the rice. I was going to do oatmeal for breakfast but then I realized that I make it with brown sugar and I usually top it with a splash of heavy whipping cream - so that didn't happen either.

I was super excited about corn - not because I missed it but damn I'm tired of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and sugar snap peas. Squash and zucchini prices here are through the roof right now. Asparagus is only slightly better. I don't care for either cooked from frozen, so fresh or nothing for that. Green beans I just haven't been to Publix to restock.

Mr. P. is hanging in there. He's down 15 pounds and I'm down 13. That's according to our scale - which is probably fairly accurate for him because he's been using it, even though it wasn't working for awhile. Who know on mine. A few more weeks and we'll see.

So for breakfast I went with the usual. Again I overcooked the eggs, but not as bad. They were mostly edible.

Lunch was chicken salad and a Larabar.

I ended up going home from work around 2:15 because I'm sick! WTH?! First it's very, very rare that I get sick. Second, 30+ days of REAL, WHOLE, SUPER NUTRITIOUS FOOD and I end up sick? I woke up with a sore throat, figured with the temps bouncing all over the map here in Florida it was having the fan and AC back on (seriously, it's been 85 degrees the last 2 days and now we're back to 60s and 70s for a while). Well - not the case. By noon it hadn't gone away and while it was 76 degrees in the office I was fine, then freezing, fine, then freezing. Totally felt like I had a fever. So I went home. According to my digital thermometer I was below normal (which is normal for me). I couldn't deal with the sore throat any longer, so I popped 2 DayQuil liquid gel and hoped for some relief. Didn't help. I wanted hot tea with honey, but we aren't to the sugar point yet. I found some sugar free Halls drops and went for it, even though they have both soy and artificial sweetener. It was wonderful...until it was done dissolving and we were back to square one. I tried to nap - right after I finally fell asleep the same wrong number that called me yesterday on my cell phone called AGAIN. So I got up and laid on the couch and watched a show on Tiny Houses.

When Mr. P. got home he made some guacamole to go with organic corn tortillas he picked up. So I had some of those - they were yummy. Then he made dinner.

Sauteed Pork Chops with Vinegar and Rosemary, corn and the usual vegetable mix. 

    
Before bed I also had 2 spoonfuls of Yacon Syrup hoping it would sort of stick long enough for me to get to sleep. No such luck. At least it's natural sugar.

Reintro Day 3!

Today I slept thru my alarm. And with my new phone, the built in alarm clock apparently doesn't automatically snooze, because it hasn't gone off SINCE. WTH?!

I should have known that was going to lead into a crappy day...and it's only 8am. 

I overcooked my eggs and sandwich steak. The steak was still good, reminded me of how I like my Steak n Shake burgers "well done" so they're crispy around the edges. The eggs though...I pretty much only ate the over hard yolks. 

I think my trusty iMac is also on the way out. I think the hard drive is making noise. If I whack the front of the monitor near the apple logo the noise stops, but only for a few minutes. Needless to say I made sure Time Machine was backing up every hour.

I admit that I'm due for a new computer. This one has to be 5 years old...if not a little older. It's from before they got really thin. I wouldn't mind that upgrade - though I have said a million times that I'll never buy another Mac. This was my first and last. 

On that note - it's now 8:09am and I should have left the house by 8. I'm not dressed for work, no make-up and my lunch isn't packed. Actually it's not even made to be packed. 

I'm tempted to call in.


OH! The good news is that my knee seems to be fine! It hasn't hurt at all since I got up AND I haven't taken any pain pills (aka Aleve) or anything. I am going to toss my turmeric in my bag though and go back to taking those daily. Just in case. I also hopped on the scale again this morning. If it shows another pound + gone. I decided not to go to the doctor's office to get weighed. Motivation to stay on track through February. Go me!

Breakfast - overhard egg yolks and overcooked sandwich steak. Yum...

Lunch - can of pineapple chunks*, a Larabar and chicken salad. 

Snack - organic unsweetened applesauce

Dinner - blackend Mahi Mahi with avocado and (clarified) buttered mushrooms plus a side of asparagus. Delicious!

My day only got slightly better after leaving. I did actually get to work by 9 so I worked my old schedule since I was 30 minutes late. Good thing my boss doesn't care!  However, upon leaving I realized we were still under a Dense Fog Advisory. It was crazy! I think a lot of folks stayed home because of it, as there wasn't much traffic. 

*TMI - but hey...this is when we learn things about our bodies and food. That's why we are doing this Whole30. The pineapple had a not so pleasant "went right thru me" experience. I found that odd as I've been eating pineapple all along. I love pineapple. I don't know if it was the quantity or what, but I have 5 more cans, so I guess I will find out!