Let's try this again

Day 1 (again) of Challenge 2

The first time I did W30 I spent a week planning, shopping, cooking, laying everything out, cleaning my whole house to start fresh. This time I am coming off the week of fun I gave myself (Never again; I unwillingly sabotaged all the good I had done. Lesson learned.) and am in the middle of moving. I didn't do the planning. I came into it with a sense of well-I-did-it-once-twice-will-be-easy. And I sabotaged myself. So here I am again, on a new Day 1 (maybe day 0 since I didn't bring a lunch and the restaurant at the museum is calling me).

Things to do differently:

1) At night, put the phone where I have to get up and walk to it. I enjoy the extra 15 minutes of sleep where I was doing my meal prep for the day way too much.

2) DO MY DISHES! I know, this one is silly. But I have a bad habit of looking at the sink full of my big bowls and saying "Whoops, cant make a salad today. I would have to clean a bowl." And, no, I don't have a dishwasher.

3) Prep, prep, prep, and plan! Fill up the thaw box in the fridge with meat, get some salad dressings ready, and lets do this.

Really people, it is not hard. I am just being lazy this go around and can't pin-point exactly why.

A side note on 3 nalgenes of water. Do you know how much water 3 nalgenes is???? Its 96 oz. That's STUPID to think I can drink that much. Especially when I start the morning with six cups (48oz) of fluid already! New goal for this W30: two, yes two, nalgenes of water.

Day after Easter

T-minus five hours and counting, -30 (how, I don't know...)

So tomorrow is the official start of my next W30. I did fairly good this week. Quite a few snacks but no more than one non-W30 meal per day. Even with those successes- why did I let Jolene talk me into the day after Easter as the next official start day????

Luckily, a few pieces of candy today have me so sick the idea of eating anymore makes me nauseous. Unlucky, my 3yo still has a bucket full of candy (even after giving half of it to my sister) and has more coming in the mail.

I also noticed that the snacking and lack of impulse control may be stress eating disguised as the liberties I gave myself. We are making a huge move on what will be Day 18. Day 20 is when my body started screaming "GIVE ME BAD THINGS!" last time.

It's about to get real. I thought last time was a challenge...

Learning Lessons- Breakfast

Day 29 of 30, Challenge 1

I have learned (taught myself because I don't use recipes) how to make a mean breakfast muffin. Thanks to a friend's sausage spice mix recipe, I am rocking super food breakfasts. However, this morning I had my first epic fail. None of the recipes I saw when I was looking for ideas had a base to their breakfast muffins so I decided, hey, why not potatoes?

Week 1: Super success with russet potatoes cut into rounds at the bottom of my muffins. They browned and got a great texture.

Week 2: Tried to make like a hash-brown quiche bottom. Fell apart and stuck to the pan (forgot to grease it) but crisped up and tasted great.

Week 3 and 4: Again with the hash-browns and monumental success. Week 4 I did prosciutto wrapped muffins by lining the tin with a strip of tasty meat then adding the filling. The hash-brown kinda floated up into the eggs but OMG was it tasty.

Week 5: Failure. Massive. Sweet potatoes get soft. And mushy. And lots of water comes out of them. And they are harder to brown up. An when making an egg based breakfast muffin always make sure your egg to veggie ratio is right and that you try to fill the tins with the same amount of each ingredient... So, yeah, I have six "muffins" of loose kale and sausage and six sturdy muffins, all with a gooey , detached, mushy orange round on the bottom.

Recipe- Amy's Sausage Seasoning

(I triple it so I don't have to mix it up as often and add crushed red pepper)

20g/2 Tbsp kosher salt
4g/1.5 Tbsp rubbed sage
7.5g/.75 Tbsp ground black pepper
4g/1 tsp granulated onion
2g/0.5 tsp granulated garlic
Some fennel seeds- optional

A Window to the Past... Cookies...

Day 13 of 30, Challenge 1; Post from Whole9 Forum

It's day 13 and I'm doing great, feel great, looking great. Everything is great. Except..... cookies. All I can think about are cookies. Everything looks like a cookie, smells like cookies, everyone is eating a cookie every time I turn around. I dream about cookies almost every night to the point that in my dreams my friends are all yelling at me, "Put the cookies down!" To make things worse it's girlscout cookie time. Why do they strategically place themselves right where you will walk by them over and over and they ask over and over "Would you like to buy some girlscout cookies?" YES! I would love to, I want to scream. But I don't. Instead I put my hair in front of my face and book it past them. Sorry to be rude, girls, my willpower is only so strong!

I haven't cheated. I wont cheat. I'm making a lot of yummy food and working in a lot of variety. This is the most sustainable diet change I have ever made. I really do just LOVE cookies.

Last night I sliced up some yams, covered them in a little EVOO and baked them. It was kinda like a cookie but not. It was soft with a little bit of a crunch on the outside. It was also sweet. My friends doing W30 suggested sprinkling it with cinnamon next time. Sigh, I will try.

Does "cookies" count as a food group to reintroduce into my diet after the 30 days? (rhetorical question, just needing to share)

DIE COOKIE DRAGON, DIE!

Note: The resultant advice on the forum was DO NOT EAT THE YAMS. A big thing of this change is not to indulge the cravings. (http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/26007-cookies/?hl=cookies)

Pre-Game

Day 28(ish because of a couple cheats) of 30, Challenge 1; -21 lbs

Today I am making myself accountable. Coming off my first Whole30 I am looking and feeling great. I am down over 20lbs, have more energy, and am super excited to keep going!

I had a couple "oops" in the last week of my first 30. Because of all my successes and my continued desire for progress, I am doing another 30. This time, in addition to the food restrictions, I am adding a "3-Nalgene" water challenge. I am also adding this blog component to increase my accountability, share recipes and ideas for those who might think this lifestyle change (not diet) is "too much effort", and also as a little personal therapy.

My goal? Be the best me I can be. I'm not putting a weight loss goal, size goal, lifting goal. Nothing like that. Instead my goal is simple. Be the best me I can be. Put in 100% effort for cleaner eating and continue adding physical activity as my energy and ability change with my weight loss.

For those of you not familiar with Whole30, please check out the site. I have tried the Medifast. Tried Weight Watchers. Tried just portion control. Tried the "fuck it, I'm just fat" diet too and let me tell ya, that doesn't work...

Whole30 lets me eat good food without the stress and worry that's gets associated with food when it is assigned a points or calorie value. Now I get to just ask myself: Is this a good food choice, or a bad one?

I'm not planning on getting going quite yet but wanted to have this blog all ready to go for my new day one. Hope you all enjoy the read or at least get a good laugh :)