JJ’s Whole 30: Week 3

OK – so here I am.  It’s day 23. (You can see Week 1 here, and Week 2 here…) 3+ weeks of absolutely no sugar, no grains, no alcohol, no dairy, no legumes (including soy) and no artificial sweetners and a WHOLE LOT OF EGGS.

Here’s a little sampling of my breakfasts.  All told I ate 27 eggs in the last 9 days. Wow.

Fried eggs with sweet potato home fries and berries, soft boiled eggs with spinach, artichoke & fire roasted tomatoes, eggs on sweet potato hash with sausasge and avocado.

So, what’s the deal with eggs?  Well, eggs are perfect for whole 30 and paleo diets.  They pack a powerful protein punch and they can be portable if hardboiled, they go with a lot of stuff, etc etc etc.  And I read a lot about “egg fatigue” prior to my Whole 30 and I thought “Well, I’ll just find other things to eat for breakfast…” So, no.  I just have been eating a crapton of eggs.  I didn’t feel burnt out on eggs.  Until day 20. On Day 20, which was Friday, I woke up hungry (which is what is supposed to happen, if you read the book – my leptin levels are normal again!) but we were feeling a little under the gun with time, and I didn’t have time to cook the darn eggs and we didn’t have any hardboiled ones and I just didn’t want eggs.  I wanted a chicken biscuit from Chick-fil-A.  Really.  Though the thought of what that heaviness would actually do to my currently very clean gut makes me queasy, my brain wanted the convenience, the fried-ness, the CHICK-FIL-A-ness of that biscuit.

Anyway, the good news is I stopped at my favorite local coffee place Swift & Finch and got a medium coffee (black) and a LaraBar and moved on with my life.  I ate my leftover soup for lunch.  I drank a lot of water and had an apple with some almond butter when I was still hungry.  And life was good.  But it was a rocky start that morning and this whole project has been as much about mentally learning to deal with that and resist the temptation to go back to what seemed “easy” – because it’s really not easier once it makes you sick, right?  Also, Friday morning was hard because I think it might very well be the first time I’ve been REALLY HUNGRY in 21 days.

So, here’s some more food porn. Salt & vinegar wings with crispy sweet potato fries, chipotle lime fajitas (huge hit), a grilled chicken, artichoke, tomato, avocado and spinach salad from Schroeder’s New Deli (with vinaigrette), spinach salad with boiled eggs, vinaigrette and fruit for lunch at my desk, leftover chipotle lime chicken with avocado, fajitas on Tucker Farms lettuce, grass fed beef burger with avocado, homemade mayo, cherry tomatoes and carrots, 15 minute teryaki shrimp stirfry (big hit!), and carrot/butternut squash crockpot soup.  DELICIOUS.  I’ll make all these things still after the Whole 30.

One of the rules on the Whole 30 program is that you aren’t supposed to weigh yourself – it’s part of the Whole 30 philosophy – that your actual weight is not indicative of your healthy choices for this 30 days.  And you know, I’m pretty much a rule follower (See above – 3 weeks of no….sugar, etc.) – but, well, I cheated.  And I’ve lost weight.  I’ll save the amount for the wrap at the end of 30 days but Oh my holy oats – wait, not oats, no grains – oh my holy… avocado? Anyway, the number on the scale was way lower than what I was expecting.  My clothes are DEFINITELY looser.  (That said, they were pretty tight right there around Christmas….so….it’s more accurate to say they fit again.)  I have been sleeping well.  Really well.  I’ve had some weird dreams about food choices, like i force fed an office mate celery one day.  And I don’t even like celery… Our subconscious is so odd.

What else – hmmmm.  I thought grocery shopping would be harder and more expensive since I’m supposed to buy high quality meat and produce – actually, it’s easier and cheaper.  This is hard to believe.  I concede…  The truth is though – when you only buy meat, produce and eggs, you can pretty much buy a lot of it.  I’ve had to shop every 5-6 days, yes – because, well, food that spoils (that is – WHOLE FOOD) needs to be eaten quickly and replaced.  But, it’s still been cheaper on the whole and I’m not eating out at all (well, rarely) so I’m saving that $$$, too.

I did not expect Will & the children to go on this journey with me – but they actually have eaten every whole 30 meal (dinner meal) happily and had seconds.  We are eating all the leftovers.  Usually we end up throwing out leftovers a week or so later… but Seriously.  And they haven’t asked for Little Debbies or Cheese Nips or anything.  There are a few things still around – hot dogs & wheat bread and lunch meat and cheese – but on the whole they are eating a lot better (not that our diets were ever awful) and don’t seem to actually notice that much (brussels sprouts excepted…they didn’t like them.)

So, I’ve been posting a lot (like all) of my meals on Instagram.  You can go look at them here: JJ’s Instagram – but people keep telling me “I don’t know how you are doing this” –  “I couldn’t live without cream in my coffee.””I have too much of a sweet tooth to give up sugar.” “I’m too busy to plan my meals out/shop that much/cook every day.” “My kids and husband won’t do this with me and it will be too hard to make multiple meals.”  I know.  I said the same things.  This is actually not my first attempt at Whole 30.

OK – here’s some tough love.  Yes.  You can do all that.  But it has to be a serious conscious choice because it can be a little hard to tough it out some days – BUT it is worth it and it is valuable and it ISN’T IMPOSSIBLE.  I feel awesome, I’m running faster and I’ve lost 9+ pounds (oops let the cat out of the bag there, eh?) in 23 days.  And also, the food has been delicious and I’m somehow despite my perception otherwise, saving money and time. (PS, I see you rolling your eyes at my optimism here, because I also did that with every other Whole 30 blog I read before I started… it’s ok.  I understand.)

For kicks, here are some other fun photos of my week: (Me in front of my Faces of Hope photo; some pictures of my 9.7 mile trail run over the weekend at Berry; me and my #1 boy at Schroeder’s, the kids having ice cream (I bought a banana and a water!); mother-daughter pedicures; tea at Swift & Finch after a 5.5 mile run with friends; my knife in the floorboards while chopping – there’s lots of chopping… at least it missed my bare foot?; Carson Claire loving her Whole 30 breakfast; everyone scraped their bowls of the butternut carrot soup; and finally – 30 DAYS UNTIL DISNEY!

I have 7 more days before I hit 30.  Frankly, I’m afraid.  I’m afraid to eat cheese. (GASP!) And bread and fried things and sugar.  I’m afraid because I don’t want to go back down that slippery slope.  I don’t want to crave donuts and feel like crap at 3pm.  I want to keep running faster and not worry about my skin problems and whether I can fit into those pants anymore. I want to buy smaller pants – heck yeah – I like cream in my coffee (*and chick-fil-a biscuits*), but I much prefer feeling awesome, sleeping well, having stable moods,  having all-day energy, and running fast.

So – I’m thinking these things might lead to a Whole 45 and a modified way of eating, like, forever.  Wow.