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!
 

Reintrocduction Day 2

It's reintro day 2 - nothing to see here. Today and tomorrow will both be back on the regular Whole30 diet to see if we have any unpleasant reactions to having legumes. I'm not expecting any...

Breakfast - 3 eggs over medium, 2 sandwich steaks.

Larabar for a snack.

Lunch - Outback! Medium sirloin, mixed veggies and a sweet potato - all plain. I forgot my clarified butter and pumpkin pie spice in my lunch back, so I did get cinnamon for the potato. I also ate my chicken salad in the afternoon.

Dinner - Balsamic Pork Chops with Rosemary. Compliments of my favorite Northern grocery store - Wegmans! Plus a side of the usual mixed vegetable blend - carrots, water chestnuts, sugar snap peas, broccoli...

The pork was delicious. I clearly ate way more than I should have today, but I was actually hungry when I ate. It wasn't out of boredom. I had plenty of work to keep me busy at the office today.

My lunch buddy "made" me go for a walk with her. Against my better judgement I went for one lap. In a maxi dress and flats. Just as we were coming around the corner to my "exit" at the end of that lap my right knee popped. It was a rather sharp pain. I tried to walk it off and limped back to my desk where I didn't move the rest of the day. I did bend and straight it a few times and it hurt each and every one of them. When I got up to leave I got the same sharp pain and limped on out the door. Halfway to the Jeep it seemed ok. It hurt like a when I got into the Jeep. It hurt (though not as sharply) just pivoting my foot between the gas and the brake. Not cool. I limped my way to the front door. Hopefully it'll be fine tomorrow. I'll be busting on the arnica gel and taking my turmeric pills again for a while. Those are two things my herbalist put me one for a previous knee injury (I stepped on the mat outside the shower and it slid while my other foot was still firmly planted in the shower - you never think it's going to happen to you! This was one of those memory foam mats that had a rubber backing on it, but it just wouldn't grip on my tile floor so it went in the wash and off to Goodwill!) I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but it's the other knee this time. I guess we'll see what happens.

Against my better judgement, I stepped on the scale this morning. The house scale hasn't been working, but it worked and seemed to be relatively accurate. It showed 10 pounds less than what I was at the doctor's office. I'm sure their scale is WAAAAAY more accurate, so I'm going to try to pop in tomorrow and see if I can hop on their scale to get an accurate reading.  The last time I used our scale it was off by 50+ pounds. So I'm taking that 10 pound loss with a grain of salt for now.

I'm not 100% sure I want to get on their scale though. My appointment is in March. I'm leaning toward NOT being weighed until then - more as a motivation factor for not wanting to disappoint the doctor, plus that's another month for me to really enforce the habits (or routine...) that I've gotten used to over the past 30+ days.

I have to get all my blood work done again at the end of February - 2 weeks before my appointment - so it will be interesting to see what, if any, changes there are there.

I saw a picture of myself back before Christmas. I can only say that I'm more than a little mortified. Oh and I can TOTALLY see a difference in my face. That picture will not see the light of day until I'm at a point where I am comfortable taking an "after" shot.

Reintroduction Day 1

Well...we haven't really done anything different. LOL

We went to breakfast at the mom and pop home cookin' place again. No steaks on the breakfast menu today. So we improvised. We both had a 4oz burger patty, 2 eggs over medium, home fries (plain/done on the grill) and water. It was crazy busy for some reason this morning.

After that we went to BJ's and topped off my Jeep (still $1.65!) and Mr. P. ran down to Home Depot again while I went in and grabbed a few things. This week it really was only a few things LOL.  They had a coupon for $4.50 of the Tyson 10lb bag of boneless, skinless chicken boobs. Yep - not on my list, but they went in my cart! And the coupons are good thru mid-February, so I will be stocking up with 10lbs of chicken every week. They also had a coupon for $2 off 3lb of Land O' Lakes butter - which made it cheaper than the house brand. Grabbed another 4 pack of sparkling apple juice, a box of sandwich steaks and a bag of sirloin burgers. I almost bought those last week, but this week they had a clipless coupon for $4 off (last week it was only $2 off). I also grabbed a 2 pack of Northland Cran-Pom juice (100%) since it had a clipless coupon and a bag of organic Fuji apples.

After that we went to Aldi. Picked up 3 dozen eggs, a package of summer squash (holy crow the produce problems are starting to hit the prices here - last week they were under $2, this week they were almost $4). 3 avocados ($.39!), bananas, frozen cooked plantains, some button mushrooms, asparagus, baking potatoes and an 8 pack of Apple Cranberry LaCroix. 

Relatively cheap week of shopping.

I warmed up the leftover scallops and shrimp for a late afternoon snack and topped it with a big dollop of my spicy cashew sauce. Then I did more dishes...and threw chicken in the crock pot to make my chicken salad this week.

Oh I also picked up a 5 pack of sandwich size BPA free containers at Aldi so I can put lunch stuff together for Mr. P. since he doesn't do it. He's working late this week and his lazy "grab 2 apples and a banana" lunch is not going to cut it. I already portioned out 2 cans of black olives into 5 small containers so he can grab and go in the morning. I'm going to put 2 hot dogs (Applegate Farms) and sauerkraut in the sandwich containers and he can just take the mustard bottle with him. I'm not a fan of regular yellow mustard.

Dinner was 1 1/2 sirloin burger patties, DIFFERENT mixed veggie blend (zucchini, lima beans, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots) and avocado slices. The burgers were good - haven't had them before, but they cook in 12 minutes from frozen so they will be a great quick meal to have on hand.

OMG it's DAY 30!!

Holy crap! It's Day 30! 

Last night I had a dream that I took a bite out of a burger - complete with the bun, cheese and bacon before I could stop myself and THEN a potato chip! Then I broke down sobbing because I was going to have to start the Whole30 over from Day 1. I was a bit frantic when I woke up. I've been known to self sabotage. NOT THIS TIME. NOT. This. Time.

Beautiful day in Central Florida. Got up before 8am, lots to do around the house. My mom came over to help out! She got here while Mr. P. was making breakfast. Nothing fancy - over medium eggs and sandwich steaks. Why mess with a good thing?

So it was a bit chilly this morning so I had put on leggings and a tunic length sweatshirt type top and my mom said "that top is huge". So I told her that I had bought the gray one a size larger because my regular size was too tight in this particular top - which I had ordered earlier in a really pretty magenta - purple color. So I pulled that one out and put it on and it fits. Not only does it fit, but it's loose enough that it doesn't cling anywhere. Like it's JUST RIGHT - like it's how it's supposed to look! She said "that's much better" - I guess I can toss the gray one in the dryer and see if it shrinks at all now!

I also keep pulling up my leggings. You know - leggings. The pants that fit like a second skin and shouldn't be worn as, well...pants. In fact I walked out to the back 40 to get the lawnmower and my arse was nearly hanging out by the time I got there (had my hands full so I couldn't pull them up while walking). For real people - I am now really, really curious as to how much weight I have lost.

Mom wanted something to eat, so I nuked her a tray of TGI Friday's spinach and artichoke dip that was in the freezer (since we won't be eating it) and the rest of an open package of party pumpernickel. Then I whipped up chicken salad for myself and had a bottle of sparkling apple juice. 

I'm kinda beside myself here...Whole30 does magical things people. MAGICAL. 

One of my friends just started yesterday. The food pictures she posted on FaceBook yesterday looked amazing. If I can do it, she can do it! You got this Heather!

Dinner was L.A.T.E. Like 9pm late. Mr. P. didn't bother to take a lunch break while doing stuff around the house, so while he was making dinner he ate 4 Applegate Farms hot dogs with mustard and sauerkraut. Seriously? He seared some shrimp and scallops in clarified butter, garlic, black Hawaiian volcano salt and some pepper and then tossed a bag of mixed veggies in the microwave. It was good. I added spicy cashew sauce because I have half a jar left (and it's good...LOL). I didn't even heat it up. I just took little bits of it with my fork before adding on a shrimp or whatever. Yum yum!

I celebrated by having a large glass of white grape juice - 100% juice of course. I don't love white grape juice. It's not the same as regular grape juice...but I'm kinda cheap and it was CRAZY cheap at BJ's last weekend with a clipless coupon. I prefer the Wellsley Farms house brand 100% apple juice or 100% cranberry from OceanSpray. I did not care for the inexpensive 100% juice "cranberry" that I picked up at the Walmart Neighborhood Grocery. While it was 100% juice, it was not 100% CRANBERRY juice and neither of us liked it enough to buy it again, even if it's $3 less. You get what you pay for.

Day 29 - excited!

Day 29 - last day of the Whole30 at work!

Today was a gorgeous day! Sunny, clear skies, crisp morning and cool through the afternoon. Fall in Florida...in January. Seriously - the trees have only started turning in the last few weeks.  I took this photo on my way to work on January 22 because they had just changed.

Breakfast was the usual - finished up the box of sandwich steaks and topped them with 3 over medium eggs.

Lunch - surprise! Chicken salad - went with the dried cranberries and a whole (small) fuji apple today. I also had a cup of organic unsweetened applesauce.

Dinner was mushroom burgers with mixed potato hash (sweet and yukons).

 Can't believe we are there!

Day 28 - OMG 2 days left!

Honestly, it's kinda hard to believe that the Whole30 itself is just about over. 28 days in the book and two to go. 

It's been a dreary, cloudy, rainy, yucky two days here in Central Florida. It literally rained ALL DAY today. Varying degrees of course, but it never actually stopped. Yuck! Hey Mother Nature - it's not rainy season!

Breakfast was the new usual! A couple of sandwich steaks and three eggs that ended up over hard today. Oops. I also had a fruit cup.

Lunch was chicken salad - today it had apples, dried cranberries and slivered almonds.
A cup of unsweetened organic applesauce.

I may have had a Larabar. Ok two. I was hungry!

Dinner was blackened Mahi Mahi topped with avocado, steamed carrots and green beans with crispy fried prosciutto.

Day 27

It's Day 27 and we just keep plugging along. Last night I got home later than usual 7:15pm or so and Mr. P. hadn't started dinner. In fact he hadn't really thought about what to make for dinner. He had gone from work (at 3:00pm) to a friend's house to fix a pool pump. I don't know what time he got home, but he said it was later than he anticipated. I suspect he had been home well over an hour, if not two. Of course he was camped out on the couch watching TV.  So he asked me what I wanted for dinner. Ummm seriously? I just said "These are the kind of nights you just want to go out and get something, but you can't" and walked off. Needless to say, dinner happened around 8:30pm. 

Now it's "tomorrow" and it's been raining since before I got up at 6:00am and here's what Accuweather has to say about it...

The high is supposed to be 73 today. It's currently 66 and I'm not so sure it's going to change that much. These are the days I wish I had rain boots - my shoes / feet will be soaked from walking across the yard to get to the Jeep when I leave for work. Yay.

Breakfast - 3 sandwich steaks and 3 over medium eggs and a fruit cup!

Lunch - chicken salad, fruit cup, apple sauce, and dates in the afternoon.

Dinner - thrown stuff in a skillet and call it a stir fry. Shrimp, cabbage, coconut aminos, olive oil, mushrooms, garlic, green beans...and I added spicy cashew sauce to mine.

Notes:

• The annoying cough I've had since July is gone. Everyone had it - I'm pretty sure there was mold in the classroom where our offices were temporarily moved during a remodel of the office. 
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• I've been able to wear eye makeup (aside from my usual waterproof gel liner) the past two weeks or so. I gave it up well over a year ago because my eyes were watering so bad that I was taking allergy pills on a daily basis. Haven't taken the pills since before Day 1 and have only had 1 day that my eyes were watery (just last week).
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• The arthritis in my thumb joints hasn't flared up from eating seafood. Years ago my coworker (who is a nurse) told me that eating too much seafood would aggravate arthritis. Sure enough - if I had seafood regularly my thumbs would be killing me a few days later and it would last 2 or 3 days. No pain in January!
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• No heartburn. Haven't had it since prior to starting Whole30.