W30 2018 - Week 2

Week two is done and I forgot to update. I don't quite remember what happened all that week as I spent most of my time worried over a certain cute little critter by the name of Muggles. Week two wasn't difficult and I didn't crave anything out of the ordinary. 

Dreams were becoming a problem. I spent several nights dreaming that I ate the wrong thing and had to start over. It was worse on Wednesday when we went to a friend's house to watch some Doctor Who and he brought out the cookies. I preservered and managed to stay away from the chocolate sweets. 

On Friday, we took my poor Muggles to the surgeon for a consultation. He ended up having surgery that same evening to repair his cranial cruciate ligament in his right knee. He did well and we were able to pick him up on Saturday. 

Week Three meal plan is below:

Week 3	Meal 1	Meal 2	Meal 3
Sunday	Eggs and bacon	"cuban" turkey roll-up, vegetable soup	Sloppy Joe, Russet Potatoes, green beans
Monday	Sweet potato hash with fried egg	Leftover Sloppy Joe, Russet Potatoes, green beans	Hamburgers with guacamole, steamables
Tuesday	Sweet potato hash with fried egg	Leftover Hamburgers with guac, steamables	Italian Chicken w/ Spaghetti Squash, Side Salad w/ vinaigrette
Wednesday	Sweet potato hash with fried egg	Leftover italian chicken w/ spaghetti squash, side salad w/ vinaigrette	Sheet pan pork chops, cabbage, and red onion
Thursday	Sweet potato hash with fried egg	Leftover sheet pan pork chops	Roasted cashew crusted chicken with wilted kale salad
Friday	Sweet potato hash with fried egg	Leftover cashew crusted chicken	Family visit- chicken sausage w/ warm pineapple- avocado sauce, roasted Brussel sprouts
Saturday	Sweet potato hash with fried egg	Leftover chicken sausage skillet and Brussel Sprouts	Family Visit – Slow-cooker Texas Chili, sweet potato fries, avocado sauce

Have a great week!

W30 2018 - Day 7

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It's the end of Week 1 on the Whole30. To be brutally honest, I completely dreaded this week. If you recall last week one, I had all the symptoms of "carb flu." I had migraines for three days, extreme fatigue, slight depression, and irritability. I spent most of my time, when I wasn't at work, with my head down, lights off, and being anti-social.

This week has been so much easier. I still had the fatigue and irritability, but it was nowhere near as bad as last time. I had no migraines or even stress headaches and my mood was not as morose. I almost feel like I'm cheating somehow.

I had one "oops" moment, which I managed to save, on the first day. I made cauliflower rice and seasoned it with my favorite garlic salt. I didn't think about looking at the ingredients until right before dishing the "rice" into my bowl. Not only did it have cornstarch, it had sugar! Who would put sugar in a seasoning salt?! I ended up giving the cauliflower to C, as he's not actually doing the Whole30 with me.

Here are some notes from each day following the last post:

Day 2: Slow day at work, but I didn't feel super productive. I spent most of my time roaming around making sure that things were done properly by my staff. For breakfast, I had leftover spinach frittata with an orange and sliced avocados. Lunch was some leftover chocolate chili sans the cauliflower rice and a small side salad. Dinner was chicken with roasted potatoes, cabbage slaw, and this amazing red pepper mayo.

Day 3: Oh jeez, it's super cold outside! Starting to feel a little fatigue. Breakfast was leftover chocolate chili with a fried egg on top and black coffee. Lunch was leftover chicken with roasted potatoes and red pepper mayo. Dinner was slow-cooker beef brisket with butternut squash and a salad with homemade ranch dressing from the Whole30 book. I went to bed relatively early.

Day 4: Breakfast was leftover spinach frittata and black coffee. I had to take my dog, Muggles, to the veterinarian office. He's been limping badly and looks miserable. We found out during that visit that he was riddled with bird-shot in his back and had some problems with his knees. We are keeping him on "bed rest" as much as we can until he has his consult with the surgeon. Cross fingers!

Bed rest consists of his people constantly on the floor holding him down with cuddles

Lunch was leftover slow-cooker brisket, butternut squash, and an orange. I started to realize that I'm eating an orange every day this week. Maybe that's why the migraines haven't started? Dinner was the last of the leftover chocolate chili. We had game night at a friend's house who is trying Paleo. My current guidelines are a tad bit stricter, so I couldn't try any of his food. Maybe in February?

Day 5: FRIDAY!!!! I had scrambled eggs, kale, and frozen berries for breakfast, along with  my usual black coffee. I forgot that I was supposed to be at work early, which caused a bit of a hiccup all day long. My hands started to react to the exam gloves I used to draw blood; therefore, by the end of the day, I was unable to perform venipuncture to my satisfaction. It felt like my hands were being scalded by hot water.

Lunch was the last of the leftover beef with a huge salad. I took a little bit of the ranch dressing along for just a bit of creaminess. I should have just done vinegar and oil. It wasn't bad, but it was more than I wanted at the time.

Dinner was salmon with garlicky roasted broccoli. It's perhaps my favorite meal of all time, and I am so glad that I can continue to eat it while doing the whole30.

Day 6: Ugh. My hands!!! I didn't take Benadryl the night before because I thought I saw some sugar components to the tablets. My hands kept me up all night long and I felt as if I had fire ants crawling around. I managed to find my long-lost steroid cream to calm them down and worked on breakfast.

Breakfast was butternut squash soup and an orange. I wasn't all that hungry due to the lack of sleep and feeling crummy. I felt fairly good afterwards, but I knew that wouldn't satiate me for long, so I packed my RX bar in my bag for an emergency hunger attack.

Lunch was at Whole Foods. They were supposed to have NomNomPaleo's hot bar options, but there was only one option that even resembled her food--yet they put cornstarch and sugar in it. What?! I found Epic jerky bites and a fruit cup for lunch. After a few hours of errands, I busted out the RX bar and plain baked pork rinds. Not the healthiest of options, but we didn't make it home in time.

Dinner was leftover salmon and broccoli. We ate in a hurry because we were finally going to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I will spare everyone my thoughts on the movie.

Day 7 (so far): I finally took a Benadryl the night before, so I woke up groggy. Took me several hours to perk up enough to finally start making our dinner (slow-cooker carnitas) and get brunch together. My hands stopped itching, but there are now scabs where I dug into the skin in my sleep. I'm debating on another dose of Benadryl before going to bed tonight.

Brunch was seared boneless pork chops with homemade applesauce on a bed of mixed spring lettuce. I drizzled some vinegar on top of the pork and salad. It was fantastic. I feel like conquering my day now.

We took down our Christmas stuff in record time, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the house, and started laundry. Now, I plan on going to Politics and Prose in DC to see Melissa Hartwig of the Whole30 speak and sign books. Maybe I'll purchase one of her books to sign.

Dinner tonight will be carnita-stuffed sweet potatoes with steamed mixed vegetables. The carnitas are in the slow cooker, whereas the sweet potatoes will wait until it's time to roast them. I'm getting a tad excited about it.

Here is the proposed meal plan for week 2:

	Meal 1	Meal 2	Meal 3
Sunday	Brunch: pork chops, homemade applesauce, mixed spring lettuce, balsamic vinegar		Carnitas-stuffed sweet potatoes, steamed mixed vegetables
Monday	Leftover butternut squash, fried egg, frozen berries	Leftover carnitas, chopped salad w/ red pepper mayo	Baked “BBQ” shrimp, roasted balsamic asparagus
Tuesday	Fried egg, mixed salad greens, bacon, orange	“Cuban” turkey roll-up Vegetable soup Lazy Deviled eggs	Taco salad with cumin-lime dressing
Wednesday	Kale and broccoli frittata, frozen berries	Leftover taco salad with cumin-lime dressing	Shakshuka
Thursday	Kale and broccoli frittata, frozen berries	“Cuban” turkey roll-up Vegetable soup Lazy Deviled eggs	Russet potato sloppy Joes, green beans
Friday	Leftover Shakshuka (surgeon consult)	Leftover sloppy Joes stuffed potatoes, green beans	Instapot Kalua pork, side salad
Saturday	Eggs, bacon, and leftover vegetable soup	Leftovers	Birthday party (check menu)

W30 2018 - Day 1

It's 9pm on the first day and I am killing it so far. I woke up later than I had planned, but I still had enough time to make the spinach frittata for breakfast. I added sliced avocado and sliced oranges to my breakfast along with black coffee. I felt triumphant. I finally started.


At noon, I met a few members of my Nerd Scouts group to go on a New Years Day hike, the first hike of the year, at a local state park. We walked approximately 5 miles with my little minion, Muggles.

When I came home, it was time to start the cooking process for chocolate chili. I also made paleo ranch dressing, homemade olive oil mayo, and prepped food for dinner tomorrow while I watched reruns of That 70s Show. I made cauliflower rice, but I didn't notice that my favorite salt had cornstarch AND sugar. C ended up eating the whole head of cauliflower on his own.

Now, I'm relaxing as my energy levels have depleted. I have the beginnings of the hangover phase which is relatively normal. I'm drinking some lime ginger seltzer while C drinks a beer. I'm not tempted to reach for my leftover NYE beer. 


Now to watch back seasons of Walking Dead.