Whole30 - The Results

That was a tough 30 days, but I am so glad we did it. I am even happier we did it together as a family. I believe I said it before, but there is no way I would have made it through the 2nd week if my children weren't involved. During the darkest days, I kept telling myself that if my kids can get through this with minimal complaining, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to. I also thought about what message it would send to them if I quit. So I didn't.

The Groceries
So I started tallying up the food that we ate during this 30 days to give you an idea of how much a family of 4 might go through during the Whole30. However, I didn't have this wonderful idea until after I threw away some receipts. I tried to remember and guess, but this list doesn't even include every thing that I bought during the course of 30 days. Here is why it was so darn expensive......

8 pounds of carrots
3 bunches of celery
5 pineapples
4 pounds of strawberries
1 pound of sugar snap peas
3 pounds frozen green beans + 3 cans green beans
1 pound frozen California blend (carrots, broccoli and cauliflower mixture)
2 heads of cauliflower
4+ bags of lettuce
2 large containers of baby spinach
3 pounds of walnuts
3 containers of raisins (big containers)
garlic (probably 3-4 bulbs)
4+ pounds of onions
2 pounds of lemons
4 packages of Prosciutto
4 limes
10 pounds of grapes
3 3 pound bags of gala apples
4 3 pound bags of granny smith apples
2 mangoes
2 cantaloupes
4 green peppers
2 pounds asparagus
2 pounds zucchini
1 pound ground veal
1 pound ground pork
4 packages of breakfast chicken sausage
2 pounds ground beef
10 packages of Lou's Bacon (no sugar added bacon)
1 can tomato sauce
2 cans coconut milk
5+ 18 pack container of eggs
1 dozen pasteurized eggs (for homemade mayo)
5 avocados
1 package of compliant hot dogs
6 pounds frozen chicken breasts
2 packages of fresh chicken breasts
1 whole chicken
6 rotisserie chickens
6+ Dole Squish ems Applesauce
2 big containers of unsweetened applesauce
3+ pounds of sweet potatoes
3 pounds of deli turkey
20 lara bars
4 packages of mandarin oranges
3 bottles of balsamic vinegar
3 bottles of light olive oil
1 large jug of olive oil
2 packages chicken apple sausage

Whew! That is a LOT of food. I know there are things I missed. And frighteningly, the steaks that we ate and some of the ground beef that we ate was stuff we already had in our freezer. I can't imagine how much more we would have spent had we had to buy that stuff as well. We spent a lot of money, about $500 more than we usually spend on both groceries and eating out in one month. That did not make me happy, but I'm not that surprised. I wasn't really able to use coupons, and when I could I would often forget because I got out of the habit.

How we felt/feel
As I discussed day to day in my posts, I experienced many of the emotions and physical side effects that they talk about in the book and on the website. Overall, however, I don't think I feel any better or different than other times when I'm eating healthy (i.e. less) and exercising. I didn't necessarily notice getting a big spike in energy or anything. I do think I am sleeping better, but again, I think I tend to sleep better when I'm eating well.

I have had minimal stomach pains throughout this 30 days. The bathroom happenings (TMI yes, but with Crohn's important) are not significantly different. But again, I can remember back in 2012 when I was having a pretty bad flare (almost all year), I felt the BEST when I was doing weight watchers, paying attention to what I was eating, losing weight and training for a marathon. So, I don't necessarily think avoiding all the things I avoided was something that made a big difference. I think for me, it's eating healthy and losing weight that my body enjoys.

Results
Ok. So I am sure that lots of you are curious about this. I want to start by saying that according to the BMI (which everyone knows how much I hate that measure of "health"), I have 100 pounds to lose from when I started the Whole30. Drew had about 25 pounds to lose and Mary and Robbie were both perfect! :)

Drew lost 14 pounds.

Mary lost 6.6 pounds (that seems like a LOT but she doesn't look too skinny or frankly much different than she did a month ago)

Robbie didn't weigh in on day 1 and forgot to weigh in this morning, but he basically maintained. Last night he was around 57 pounds and he's usually around 55-58 pounds depending on when he gets on the scale, so I'm going to say he maintained his weight.

I lost 16.6 pounds and 8.5 inches overall (3.5 from waist, 3 from hips, 1 from chest and 1 from arms).

I can't believe I'm going to post a before and after pic...I still have a LONG way to go, but the results in just 30 days are pretty cool so I'm going to post it. Please ignore my messy bedroom! :)

What's Next??
So, I "only" have 83.4 pounds left to lose! (actually, I'd be happy with 74). I do not think that this is a realistic way for me to continue to live. Yes, losing 16 pounds without really even thinking about it (in terms of measuring or counting) was great, but I like feeling like I can have anything I want as long as I keep it in check. Weight Watcher's has always been something that worked for me to lose weight as long as I was working the program. Well, that's going to be the case for anything. Clearly, this would continue to work too as long as I was willing to continue to eliminate all these things from my diet every day. What the creators of the Whole30 suggest is that after the Whole30 you stay as compliant to the program as possible, with some mindful periods of "off-roading".  The problem with me is that isn't clear cut enough for me. When eating like this I didn't have to track or measure or anything, but when you start adding in "off program" foods here and there, how do you know when it's too much? I just can't do that. I can do something like Weight Watcher's and focus on whole foods most of the time, but since I'm counting points, I know how to add in the unhealthy things without going totally overboard.

So yesterday I officially signed up for Weight Watcher's online. I am going to give myself a few days off to just take a break. I'm (hopefully) not going to go totally crazy, but I will be indulging a little over the next few days....and I'm totally OK with that. We'll see what happens with the scale, but I'm not going to stress about it. This has helped jump start my weight loss journey (again) and I am motivated to keep going. I truly need this to be the last time I start this journey.

I plan to continue to blog through my journey. Thank you for all the support you gave me throughout these 30 days. Hopefully I can continue to get the much needed support from this blog so I can continue until I hit that goal weight and then continue on to maintenance!

Whole30 - DAY 30!!!!!

WE...we finished the Whole30!

Day 30 is here. A day I truly didn't think we would get to (really didn't think I would make it here around day 13)! During the past 30 days we took a challenge as a family to avoid all added sugars, gluten, legumes, dairy, alcohol, grains, white potatoes and other additives like MSG, carageenen, etc. We remained as close to 100% compliant as we could, but there were times that we just couldn't be 100% and that was OK.

Mary had 3 occasions where she was allowed to have ice cream. What's funny is all 3 of these days happened over the last week. Last Friday she had "discovery day" at school where they made ice cream; Sunday her volleyball coach took the entire team out for ice cream after their last game and then yesterday the ice cream truck came to her field day at school. I allowed her to have ice cream for all those occasions.

Robbie only indulged once and that was last Sunday when they got ice cream after Mary's volleyball game.

I did not indulge at ALL! I did not have one bite of the kids' ice cream last Sunday (which was impressive). There were times that I thought about having something forbidden when I was by myself since no one would need to know (I literally almost bought a donut this morning), but I always resisted.

Drew had one bite of an indulgence when he had a staff lunch and then meeting with dessert a few weeks back. But other than that, we stayed as close to program as possible for us.

Here is what our last day looked like:

Breakfast
The kids stuck with their sausage/scotch egg and apple slices and Drew had a scrambler. I actually skipped breakfast (bad, I know). I just didn't feel like eating and wasn't all that hungry.

Lunch
I stopped at Giant Eagle on my way home from running errands and got another salad. I also picked up some more fruit because we are getting quite low. Drew also had a salad from Giant Eagle.

I had taken a pic of my salad, but it looks the same as all
the other ones I've gotten. This was a much better picture.
My view during lunch today...my backyard.....

The kids had their normal packed lunches. They are awfully excited to buy a school lunch tomorrow! It's funny because Mary doesn't buy very often, but she's going to buy tomorrow! I'm happy because it means I don't have to pack their lunches!

Dinner
Another new recipe tonight was Eggplant Sliders. This was a pretty easy recipe and it was tasty. The kids even liked it and ate all of theirs.

Dinner happened outside as well! 

The Lowdown

I am going to do a whole separate post tomorrow to discuss the entire lowdown of the 30 days. I will give results for weight loss and measurements (exciting stuff) and will also discuss about what comes next. But for now, I am very proud of myself and my family for making it through 30 days of eating whole food. I am happy that we did this even though it wasn't easy. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post.....

Whole30 - Day 29

Day 29!!! WOO HOO!!!

So today was Mary's field day at school....and therefore the morning was pretty busy! I got up around 6:25 so I could get a quick shower in before volunteering at field day.

Breakfast
I then started my normal morning routine of getting Drew's breakfast made and lunch packed. He, of course, had a scrambler for breakfast. For lunch I packed the rest of the leftover rotisserie chicken with some guac and raw veggies.

The kids had their normal sausages or scotch eggs with apple slices. I was running around like crazy so I ended up just having a lara bar and an apple. I was hungry by like 9:45 at field day, but then it went away and I was fine until lunch (which was early around 11:30).

Lunch
I ate at school with Mary so I just packed some chicken salad and put it on top of some lettuce. Actually a pretty small lunch when I had such a small breakfast, but it was fine.

When I got home I made some bacon to put in Robbie's lunch for tomorrow so I had a couple of slices of that as well.

Dinner
And the craziness continued this afternoon because Mary had softball practice at 5:30 until 7 tonight. Like I said yesterday, that is the hardest time for me. But, I made dinner early and we ate around 5 and headed out to practice around 5:20. Dinner was a balsamic pork loin with roasted sweet potatoes (and a couple bacon wrapped sweet potatoes). I also put some unsweetened applesauce on the plate to dip the pork in. It was OK.

The Lowdown
What can I say?? It's day 29. It was a good day helping out at field day with my daughter. Tomorrow is day 30. The day I really wasn't sure if we would make it to....and we have. The kids were awesome. This is a huge undertaking for anyone, let alone kids and they did a fantastic job.

Whole30 - Day 28

Only 2 more of these posts!!! Let's keep it short and sweet, shall we?

Breakfast
No picture today. I had a doctor appointment this morning after the kids got on the bus so I ended up just having a lara bar for breakfast. The kids had their usual...sausage or scotch egg with apple slices. Drew had his usual of a scrambler.

Lunch
After my doc appointment I ran some errands and ended up at Chipotle with a friend for lunch. Yummy. I do, however, look forward to getting Chipotle one of these days with cheese, sour cream, corn salsa and chips and guac!

Drew packed his own lunch today and brought rotisserie chicken, guac and veggies. The kids had their normal lunches that they've been having the whole time. 

Dinner

I had roasted pork loin on the menu for dinner tonight and then ended up not making it. Robbie had baseball practice from 5:30-7 so I decided to just feed them leftover rotisserie chicken since they had to eat dinner at like 4:45. (side note- as much as I love my kids to be involved in sports the times for the practices drive me crazy. It's always right at dinner time. 4:45 is too damn early, but 7 is way too late. We end up doing dinner early and a snack after since that seems to work out the best)

Anyway, so dinner was quick and boring, but did the trick. After practice Robbie had an apple and raisins with almonds. Mary had an applesauce for her snack. Since I also ate (a very small) meal at 4:45, I think I'll have a snack tonight too....I just don't know what yet. 

The Lowdown

2 MORE DAYS!!!!!! We are going to make it! Stayed tuned after day 30 for a post about my thoughts of the entire process.

Whole30 - Day 27

Oh my goodness gracious.....I am in a bad mood today! I really hate when I get like this. It's almost like an out of body experience. I can see how I have absolutely no patience, but I can't reign it in and stop. I feel like I have been like this for well over a week now - it's totally frustrating. And when I feel like this doing anything health related with food just ticks me off. Tonight was no exception.

Breakfast
Mary and Robbie both had friends sleepover last night so I made a big scrambler for everyone with sausage, bacon, onion and green peppers. Mary requested more scotch eggs too so I made some of those.

Lunch

I just made myself some chicken salad on lettuce for lunch today. Drew had a lara bar. Mary had egg salad (of course) and Robbie had some leftover chicken wings. 

Dinner
The planned dinner tonight was grilled salmon with guacamole. I don't particularly care for salmon and have never made it myself, but figured this was a good time to try it again. This might not have been the smartest decision this particular week. I was cooking it and when I tested it to see if it flaked I decided to try the piece that flaked off. I did not like it. I'm tired, crabby and hungry - never a good combination. I'm already assuming the kids won't like it because I don't and I already know that Drew isn't a big fan of salmon either. I'm feeling like a failure for picking something so stupid, etc, etc, etc. Sigh.

Anyway, Drew ended up going to the grocery store to get some rotisserie chicken to have on hand for back up. Turns out we didn't need it. Not only did the kids eat their entire piece of fish, they both talked about how much they liked it! Drew finished his as well and I made it through about half of mine.

BUT, before dinner Mary had her last volleyball game of the season. Her team finished off their winning season and remained undefeated. The coaches had emailed parents ahead of time that they would be taking them to get ice cream after the game tonight. So, before dinner tonight this happened:

They were so happy that we let them have ice cream tonight! Mary was concerned that they wouldn't get their reward for completing the 30 days, but Robbie pointed out that this was me letting them get ice cream and we would still give them the reward (he's a little too smart for his own good)!

Robbie was a little crazy from the sugar, but honestly not any worse than he is other times and has been throughout these 27 days. Neither of them complained about their stomachs hurting and they still came home and proceeded to eat dinner so that was good.

The Lowdown
I'm in a bad mood. I don't have much to say about this that I haven't already said in multiple blog posts. Only 3 more days to endure these posts! :)

And with that I'll leave you with a picture of the Blue Thunder Dragons! :)

Whole30 - Days 25 & 26

Did you all think I threw in the towel yesterday and that's why I didn't post?!?! Well......I didn't! I was just tired and didn't feel like posting.

Day 25
Yesterday I helped my friends move into their new house which is less than 2 miles from my house. (Yay!) I went to breakfast in the morning and got the same thing I got Tuesday.

I then set off to my friends old house to start  helping them move. We worked all morning and around 1 they had pizza delivered for everyone. I felt a little bad, but said I needed to go get myself a different lunch. My friend was so apologetic, but I told her it was totally fine! Her husband was sweet too because he said he even got gluten free pizza. I said thank you, but that I still couldn't eat it right now. So, I went to Panera and got my go-to salad. It wasn't a huge deal or anything, but I definitely wanted that pizza! 

Not a very good picture!

I realized at some point during the day that I had forgotten to take the ground chicken out of the freezer for the dinner I had planned. I didn't have enough time to defrost it and I was quite tired from helping my friends move so we decided to go out to dinner. Eating out with the kids and trying to stay compliant is not very easy, but I didn't stress about it. We did the best we could. We went to Boston Market. The kids got 1/4 white rotisserie chicken with 2 sides of green beans. Drew got the 1/4 white chicken as well with green beans and mixed veggies. I got the turkey with green beans and garlic spinach. 

It was not 100% compliant. The green beans were obviously cooked in butter and I'm sure there was sugar in the rub for the rotisserie chicken, but it was close enough for me! 

Day 26

Today started with another quick breakfast before 9 AM soccer. The kids had some sausage and I had 1 hard boiled egg and a larabar. I believe Drew had sausage and a larabar. We then had Robbie's soccer game at 9 (he scored a goal!!), and then Mary's volleyball game at 11 (they won! Still undefeated!!). Lunch was pretty much an "on your own" meal. Mary made herself some egg salad, Robbie had some leftover chicken wings, Drew had some leftover rotisserie chicken with veggies and guac. I then cooked up some chicken I had marinating and I made myself some chicken salad and ate some veggies with guac as well. I didn't take any pictures since they were pretty boring meals and I've had them all before so I didn't think you needed the pics! 

Dinner tonight was another rib recipe. It was not as good as the other one I did, but I made a side with these (recipe I found on pinterest) that was AWESOME! I actually made some more tonight to snack on. It was bacon wrapped sweet potato. Bacon wrapped anything is pretty much awesome and this was just that! 

Robbie ended up taking 1 of my ribs in addition to his!

The Lowdown

Weekends are definitely the most difficult. Not only are they the times that I would love to relax with some wine, but they are when we are busy going from one game to the next and worrying about what to feed them in between or before just becomes stressful. When I can give them something quick and easy it definitely makes life a little easier. Thank goodness this is the last weekend!

With only 4 days left I can't believe I'm still having periods of time when I feel like I just want to throw in the towel. I want to say, 26 days is pretty good - do we really have to get to 30? But we do. And we will. That's what we set out to do. That is the challenge and we will do it.

Whole30 - Day 24

6 days remain. Unfortunately eating real food for 24 days has not completely taken away my cravings. I don't even know that craving is the most accurate word. But, when I was at the grocery store today there were MANY things that looked good to me (that may not even usually catch my eye) - like donuts! I have a feeling it's going to be a challenge not to binge when I'm done with this. What's terrible is I'm almost setting myself up for that though. I keep telling myself that perhaps I'll give myself one week to not count and not restrict myself (but not necessarily go crazy either) and then start WW after that. That could be dangerous territory though. So the other option is to make day 31, day 1 of WW. I honestly can't decide. I almost want to see what happens for that one week with "no rules" (to perhaps test if I did actually change a little bit during these 30 days). 

Anyway, on to today:

Breakfast

I was starving when I got up this morning, but after getting breakfasts and lunches ready for the kids and the husband, I wasn't all that hungry. I usually wait until after the kids leave for school to eat because it's just easier. I decided to just make 2 eggs over hard with some fruit this morning. A pretty boring breakfast, but I just wasn't feeling it. 

Lunch

I decided to go grocery shopping today for our last 6 days because I'm helping some friends move tomorrow so I thought it'd be better if I got it out of the way. I decided to go shopping right before lunch so that I could just get a salad or something. While shopping I decided I would just eat something that I bought instead of spending more money on a salad. I was STARVING by the time I got home from the grocery store and got my lunch made - it was close to 2! I went with turkey and bacon wraps with veggies and guac. I was annoyed because I spent more at the grocery store today than I have (in one grocery trip) this whole month. Great. 

Dinner

Lunch was not all that filling because I was hungry only a couple of hours later. We ended up not eating dinner until like 6, which was fine, but dinner was also on the small side so I'm still hungry (or hungry again an hour and a half later). I'll have some sort of a snack tonight I'm sure. 

For dinner tonight I took an idea from someone on pinterest, but made some changes to the recipe. I just took some chicken apple sausage, sweet potato, onion and green peppers and sauteed it all in some olive oil. I added some seasonings as well. It was good and Drew even said he'd get more if there was any left. Unfortunately I don't feel like it really made enough for all 4 of us (even though it was 4 sausages). I had a very small bowl. I had only taken 2 bites before I took the pic so you can see how little I had. 

The Lowdown

What can I say? There are 6 more days left and I'm ready to be done with this. I'm ready to get a break from doing the dishes 2+ times a day. I'm ready to have a break from planning and prepping and cooking dinner EVERY single night. I'll still do this most nights (and did it most nights before this), but the ability to have a break now and again will be nice. 6 more days and then I'll find something else to bore you all with! 

Whole30 - Day 23

Wow. Only 7 days to go. One week remains. We have made it to the home stretch.

As is appropriate (and not all that surprising with my personality), I am starting to second guess myself about what comes next. After 23 days of this lifestyle I believe that this is not a realistic lifestyle change for me to make. 30 days here and there might be OK, but it's just not realistic to continue this way of eating. However, one thing that makes it tempting to continue this way of eating is the fact that you don't need to track your food. That is working for the time being, but if I'm not being 99% strict, I'm afraid the snowball will start rolling and before I know it I'll gain all my weight back and be back to eating crap 80% of the time. I have no desire to be this strict forever. And we can't afford for me (us) to be this strict forever.

This is 2002 when I was pretty much at my smallest.
That dress was a size 10! 

I have been thinking about what program to follow when I'm done with this because I HAVE to follow a program. I've tried the "mostly" eating healthy thing and it doesn't work for me. I'm most successful when I'm tracking my food in some way. I talked it over with Drew and I think what I'm going to do is re-join (yet again) Weight Watchers. This is a program that has always worked for me to lose weight as long as I'm "working" the program. I even came within about 2 pounds of my goal weight when I was doing WW back in 2002 (wow, that was a LONG time ago).

Back in 2012, I posted "Numbers" where I talked about how my numbers (like cholesterol, blood pressure, etc) were so great. I also talked about how my doctor said she thinks a healthy weight range for me would be 145-160. She even said that when I got close to that goal she would write a letter indicating that, which would make 160 a suitable goal for WW. Currently, my goal would have to be 150 or less (based on BMI). Anyway, that doctor has actually left and now I need yet another one. Sigh. I should have gotten an undated note from her in 2012! I have a long way to go to get to 150 so this isn't really an issue right now though.

And this was about as small as I got doing
Sparkpeople in 2011. I still technically
had about 50 pounds to lose. 

Anyway, I was also successful on Sparkpeople, which is a free online site. However, I've been back on Sparkpeople and even Myfitnesspal many times and have yet to be successful again. I think I like the idea from WW that fruits and veggies are free so there are some things you don't really have to track. I also like the "extra" 49 points per week that you can opt to use all at once or a little at a time. Makes me feel better when I have days where I splurge. It's definitely all a mental thing, but weight loss is such a mental game for me (and probably most people).

Anyway, here is what today looked like for us:

Breakfast
Mary and Robbie had their normal sausage and apple slices. Drew had the same scrambler as yesterday and I had a similar breakfast to what my lunch was yesterday. I just had to substitute homemade ranch for the guac.

Lunch
Mary's lunch was the same as it's been the whole time (and frankly the bulk of the school year for the egg salad!). Robbie again had chicken salad on lettuce with veggies and fruit.

Drew worked from home today so he took care of his own lunch. He cooked up a steak to put on a salad. I, on the other hand, quickly realized that I had nothing for me to eat for lunch! I had some egg salad and chicken salad made in the fridge, but that's for the kids lunches the rest of the week. Had I eaten that, I'd have to worry about what to pack them tomorrow and Friday. There was some of Drew's steak leftover, but again, if I ate that I wouldn't have anything to pack in HIS lunch tomorrow. I am realizing how much I don't put myself first when it comes to this stuff. I always make sure I have things on hand for the kids breakfast and lunch and for Drew's breakfast and lunch, but I never think about what I might want! I didn't really feel like going to the store to get anything, but eventually I decided I had to. I went to Giant Eagle and got the salad bar again. It was actually really yummy today....I must have been hungry!

Dinner
Robbie requested that I make chicken wings again since he loved the other ones I made so much. I found a different recipe, just for a change and made them. He loved them, but everyone else said the other ones were much better. I just didn't think these had very much flavor. I also made sweet potato fries, but I did not get the white sweet potatoes this time and I didn't like them as much (neither did the kids - Drew was indifferent).

 Again though, Robbie had 10 wings! I only ate these 4 because, like I said, I didn't really care for them. I figure leave the leftovers for Robbie to eat for lunches over the weekend.

The Lowdown
7 days remain....that's just awesome! I've said it before, but I'm glad we did this. I'm super proud of my kids. They have been absolute rock stars about this. We haven't had nearly as many food meltdowns as I thought we might. Having said that, they're excited about only having 7 days left though!

I think I said enough at the start of this post so that's about all I have to say in the lowdown tonight!

Whole30 - Day 22

I realized yesterday after posting that I forgot to mention that I got on the treadmill again yesterday. I warmed up until the treadmill read a half mile and then I ran (slowly) until 1 mile...then I walked again until the show I was watching was over for a total of 45 minutes. I just compared my stats from the last time I did this and my max heart rate was 1 bpm lower (a good thing) and my speed for the entire 45 minutes was faster. Awesome!

This is only about the 3rd time I've exercised during this Whole30 so keep that in mind when I start talking results. I'm hoping to get back into the habit of more consistent activity starting this week though.

I've been a little crabby this evening. I think that's because I really didn't care for dinner and now I'm feeling hungry. I'll probably have a little snack when I'm done writing this.

Here's today....

Breakfast
Breakfast was out again this morning (yes, I eat breakfast out a lot). I changed it up today and got a scrambler with sausage, onions and green peppers with a side of fruit.

Mary had a different breakfast this morning. I made her a couple hot dogs and sliced an apple. Robbie still had his sausage and I made Drew another scrambler, but this time I diced up one of the leftover stuffed peppers and put that in his scrambler.

Lunch
I had a dentist appointment today at noon (duh! Why would I make it then?). My dentist is now right next to Giant Eagle so I thought I'd just stop after my appointment and get a nice salad. However, when I got there I realized that I'd probably pay less for a whole rotisserie chicken than a salad so I bought that (as well as some more grapes and strawberries since we were out). Of course today I noticed the ingredient list on the rotisserie chicken. Yea, it's not 100% compliant. Oh well. I don't care that much. It's still a whole, unprocessed food and I take (most) of the skin off so I'm sure most of the bad stuff is in the skin anyway. I'm really not worried about it. It certainly isn't going to stop me from eating the leftovers!
I ended up eating some chicken, raw veggies with guac and grapes.

Dinner
I made this recipe of Jerk inspired Pork Chops. I paired it with prosciutto wrapped asparagus and some plain asparagus. The kids then added applesauce to their plates because the pork was REALLY spicy. I didn't think it would be that spicy but it was. And, I didn't care for it at all. I don't like pork chops. It doesn't seem to matter if they're bone in or boneless. I always overcook them and then they are dry and chewy. I can cook pork tenderloin or pork loin just fine, but can't seem to do chops.

This recipe was relatively easy though, which is always nice.

Robbie wanted me to take a pic of his plate. 

The Lowdown
I told Drew tonight that I still feel like my days go by so quickly and I seem to get nothing done. Every day I am spending a lot of time straightening my kitchen (doing dishes, putting clean dishes away, etc) and prepping food, that I feel like I barely have time to do anything else. It's not really true. I'm not being as efficient as I could be, but still. This definitely takes a LOT of prep and a LOT of planning. As much as I'm a planner it's even a bit much for me. I start making my menu plan and grocery list days before my scheduled grocery trip.

This way of eating has also been VERY expensive for us. I was hoping it wouldn't be that bad when you take into account how much we usually spend between groceries and eating out, but it is that bad. We are already about $200 over what we usually spend in a month (on both groceries and eating out) and I have at least 1 more big grocery trip ahead of me. To be fair, some of those things were pantry staples that are expensive (like oils, ghee, spices, etc). And, I had to get dog food this month, but that's only about $25.

We're pretty much in the home stretch now. 8 days remain and then I need to figure out how to feed myself and my family in a way which will keep us all healthy, help me lose weight and not make it so that I have to go back to work in order to afford groceries! ;-)

Whole30- Day 21

We have made it to single digit days remaining! I am definitely feeling proud of all of us. Thanks to everyone for your support!

Today was a good day. Here is what it looked like:

Breakfast
This morning was a little crazy because I was volunteering at Robbie's school this morning so I had to get myself ready in the midst of getting food ready for everyone else. I got up, took a shower and then started preparing breakfast and packing lunches. I packed Drew a salad with tuna on it and then started making his scrambler. I then made Mary's egg salad for her lunch and Robbie's turkey roll-ups (he did say he wanted chicken salad this week, but I didn't make the chicken last night so he had to have one day of turkey). I then heated up the sausages for the kids and peeled a hard boiled egg for Mary as well. When I was finally able to find a minute, I had 2 hard boiled eggs and some bacon for breakfast. I didn't take a picture because it was pretty boring.

Lunch
After volunteering I went and ran some errands and had planned to treat myself to Chipotle. As much as I love Chipotle the way that I usually have it, I know it's a place I can still be compliant.

**Crazy sidebar - I just had to get the kids out of bed to get into the basement for a tornado warning. Awesome. Better to be safe than sorry is what I always say though!**

Anyway, I thought I would get to Chipotle earlier, but I didn't and it was around 1 by the time I got home and ate. I was quite hungry since my breakfast wasn't very big.

After lunch I had to get to cleaning my kitchen. I also needed to cut up some more cantaloupe and pineapple (I can't keep up with these kids). Before I knew it, the kids were home from school and I was starting to prep dinner.
Dinner
Another new recipe tonight. This was another stuffed peppers recipe. I stuffed it with ground turkey, kale and basil. I put some sauce on it, which it really needed because the turkey was quite dry. Oh, I also made kale chips for the first time and when Mary first tried them she went crazy about how much she liked them. But then when I put some on her plate for dinner she didn't eat them. Oy vey!

So I forgot to take a picture of the pepper on my plate when it was pretty. So I took a pic of the leftover ones and still took a pic of my plate after I cut it all up.

The Lowdown
It really is getting easier and easier with each day. I kind of missed my chips and guac at Chipotle (not to mention the cheese and sour cream on my salad), but it wasn't horrible. Again, it didn't make me crabby or anything and I was happy to be eating my salad. It's just that I certainly did notice I wasn't able to get the salad the way I usually do.

9 more days to go......

Whole30 - Day 20

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Mom's out there. I personally have the best mom in the WHOLE World! She had asked last week if we wanted to come out for dinner tonight to celebrate Mother's Day and I said sure. I told her to just let me know what she was planning to make so I could bring food for my family that sort of correlates with what she was having. She later told me she was just going to do steak for dinner with a salad and have veggies and fruit to snack on as well so I didn't need to bring anything. I think it's just awesome that she went out of her way to make a Whole30 compliant meal for me. She also still had things like crackers and cheese (and cheese to put on the salad) for those who wanted. Another thing that I completely forgot to thank her and my dad for is that no one drank wine! Usually at family gatherings my mom, dad and I are the big wine drinkers. Other people drink things like beer or wine coolers, but that isn't a big deal for me to pass up.

Anyway, here is what the day looked like:

Breakfast

Today was quite funny. I had gotten up this morning and then was kind of waiting around in bed because Mary had something something about making me breakfast in bed. She said she wanted to tell me ahead of time so I wouldn't get out of bed. Finally, after waiting for what seemed like a while, I got out of bed and just went to the kitchen to start making breakfast. Drew explained that he didn't do breakfast bed because he wasn't sure what to make (last year they just went and got donuts!). I laughed....and proceeded to make sausage and a scrambler with bacon, green peppers and onions. This morning both the kids talked about how good the scrambler was!

Lunch
I actually sort of skipped lunch today because I knew we were supposed to have an early dinner at my parents and I also knew she was going to have things out to snack on before dinner. When we got there I had some melon with proscuitto, which is just so yummy! I'll call that my lunch since I ate that around 2:30.

The kids did have lunch before we left for my parents house. Robbie had a chicken and apple sausage with some veggies and fruit. Mary had 3 (yes 3) compliant hot dogs with 2 measly cucumber slices and fruit.

Dinner
Like I said above, dinner was steak and salad along with sauteed onions and mushrooms and raw veggies with guacamole (which I made to bring). The picture I took isn't great because apparently there was a shadow on it, but you can get the idea. It was quite good and we got to sit outside to eat.

My kids also helped my mom make a "fruit salad" and Mary took a picture of her masterpiece.

The Lowdown
Today was a really good day. Being at my parents house for a get together wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I mean, sure, I missed the wine a little bit but not a huge amount. There were times when I could have gone for a cracker with cheese, but it wasn't horrible. It didn't make me crabby or anything, which I think is a great success.

I think now is a good time to point out that no matter what happens with this 30 day challenge, this is for sure the longest I've ever gone eating healthy with no "cheats" or breaks or anything. I do feel good about that. The challenges are getting easier every time, but I would like to eventually learn to keep things in control and not necessarily have to completely avoid things. We'll see though. It's all a process. This was just my starting point though and I still have a long road ahead of me! But the countdown continues and only 10 more days until day 30!

Whole30-Day 19

Well, we did it! We made it through the baseball game being Whole30 compliant even though we weren't allowed to bring in our own food and drink. Really, it wasn't that hard, but it certainly ticked me off anticipating it. I'm telling you it doesn't help that I'm premenstrual. I guess eating clean hasn't helped my PMS at all ;-P.

Here's what Saturday looked like:

Breakfast
I woke up Saturday around 7 so I could head to Petittie's to take advantage of their buy 1 get 1 hanging basket sale. It was about 8 when I got home and Robbie had a soccer game at 9. I made some sausage for the kids but didn't really have time to eat. I grabbed a Larabar and a couple pieces of bacon from the fridge and that was my breakfast. Mary had her game at 11 so we came home in between and I had a small bowl of chicken salad to tide me over until lunch. Kind of a hodgepodge of breakfast, but it worked.

Lunch

Mary made herself some egg salad with fruit and cucumbers while I made Robbie his turkey roll-ups with fruit and carrots and celery. I them made myself a nice salad with strawberries, grapes, chicken, almonds and cut up prunes (I prefer to call them dried plums...doesn't sound as gross as prunes). Drew was still asleep since he spent the whole night awake at the Relay for Life. When he eventually woke up he made himself some sausages with leftover Brussels sprouts.

Dinner
As many of you know, we went to a Lake County Captains game tonight to celebrate Robbie's reading program at school. I had a plan to bring our own food until I saw on the website that bringing in your own stuff was not allowed. Great. Needless to say I was not happy. But, in the end, it was totally fine. I smuggled in 2 apples, 2 larabars, and 2 applesauce packets. Drew said he didn't need to eat since he had lunch so late. So I ended up buying the kids and myself  a hamburger with no bun with lettuce and tomato. It was just fine. Who knows if the burgers had some non-compliant ingredients in them, but I did as best I could under the circumstances. The kids then ate the applesauce and the apples and were still hungry later. They ended up getting another burger with no bun. I had packed some more fruit and almonds in the car as well. On the way home they both had another apple and I ate some of the fruit and almonds. All in all a successful evening. I was super proud of myself for hanging in there when I really didn't want to be bothered.

And that smile is why we went.....

The lowdown
Today was tough. But what's interesting (and kind of annoying) is that it's not even like I wanted to get the crappy stadium food. I just wanted to have the option. I am a control freak and I don't do well if I feel like something is out of my control. Or, better yet, if I feel like it wasn't my choice. I remember going to an Indians game a few years ago when I was being really healthy and I had no problem bringing fruit for a snack to the game (we were also allowed to bring in the food). I brought juice boxes for the kids, fruit for snacks and had planned for everyone to have a hot dog for dinner. So it's all in my head. I need to look at things a different way. I need to realize that this is my choice because I chose to do the Whole30. It is under my control because one of the only things I can control is what I put in my mouth.

I, however, am still thinking about what I "can" eat when this is over. That's not necessarily a good thing. We'll see what I actually end up doing, but I'm almost feeling nervous for the end. As much as I can't wait for day 30, I'm also kind of lost about what comes next.....

According to this, summer is next! :)

Whole30- Day 18

Ever have one of those days (or nights) when you want to eat something, but you just don't know what it is?? Yea, I'm having one of those nights. I have also decided that I'm pre-menstrual which is just GREAT for trying to remain strong over the weekend.

Here is what day 18 has looked like so far:

Breakfast
Most Friday's I go out to breakfast with my neighbor and then do my grocery shopping. It's a fun little routine we have. So today's breakfast was the same as yesterday and Tuesday. I actually didn't finish the fruit because I was too full. And, again, this breakfast kept me full until after 1:30.

Lunch
The salad I had yesterday at Panera was SO good that I decided to run out this afternoon and get another one. Today's was good, but not nearly as good as yesterday. I'm pretty sure I was just hungry. But today I actually remembered the picture.

Dinner
We were supposed to go to Relay for Life tonight with the in-laws, as we do each year to celebrate my mother in-law who continues to be a survivor of lung cancer. However, Robbie ended up staying home from school today because he didn't feel well and then the forecast was calling for rain so we decided he didn't need to be out there in the rain. Drew still went because he's planning to actually spend the night there with his brother. I packed him up some food for the overnight (I hope it's enough).

This was my dinner - Drew got more!

I had bought a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store today because I figured that would be easily transportable for the relay tonight. So, I packed some for Drew and then we ate the rest here at home for dinner. I just heated up some green beans to go with it. And since dinner I've had about 2 pieces of bacon because I'm snacky and can't decide what I want (probably nothing I can actually have).

The Lowdown
I am feeling like my relationship with food must be REALLY messed up because I don't feel like I've "changed" yet. They do say for some it'll take longer than 30 days, but honestly I have NO desire to do this longer than 30 days. How do you motivate someone to keep going for more than 30 days when they still crave things after 18 days?  However, I am feeling confident that I will be able to stick to another healthy eating plan when this is over to continue to lose weight (something like my fitness pal or weight watchers or something).

But, day 18 and I'm still struggling. I am even considering just letting the kids eat at the baseball game tomorrow. They haven't asked to or anything, I just think that because I want to just eat at the game tomorrow (but won't), I want to let them. It's silly really.

Oh well...here's to 12 more days......

Whole30- Day 17

Today was another good day! This is definitely getting easier, but the idea of being able to splurge a little here and there is still something I miss! And, unfortunately, I still fear that I might binge when this is over. I'm going to try not to though and just continue on this road to lose weight. This was a good starting point and I think I really needed a challenge like this to get the ball rolling, but I'm looking forward to a little more freedom (hmmmm..I feel like I've said that once before. LOL)! 

Here is what the day looked like:

Breakfast

As soon as the kids got on the bus for school I headed out to visit with my parents for the day. They live about 50 min (ish) away from me so not too close, but not too far either. I met them at Bob Evans for breakfast to start the day. I got what is becoming my "go-to" breakfast out of 2 eggs over hard with 2 sausage patties and a fruit cup. It was actually quite yummy. The fruit was really good! According to the plan I really should be having vegetables at every meal and I've pretty much given up veggies at breakfast. I got sick of scramblers (which are an easy way to get veggies in) and I just don't love veggies in the morning. So I am not following this as strict as I could be (and many would argue should be), but I'm fine with it for me. 

Lunch

After breakfast my mom and I did some shopping and before we knew it it was 2PM. She asked what I wanted for lunch and I said I didn't even feel all that hungry so I could just have a snack or fruit or something. She then suggested Panera to get a salad and I said sure. By then I did have a headache, but my stomach didn't necessarily feel hungry. We get to Panera and get our meals (I got the chopped chicken cobb with avocado without cheese or dressing). They did have olive oil and lemons for the dressing so I did that. I took a few bites of the salad and told my mom that it tasted SO good. Apparently I was way more hungry than I thought. I ate it up and was halfway through my apple when I realized I didn't take a picture. So this is what you get to see of my salad....all gone! 

Dinner

So when we're not doing the Whole30 I probably make marinated chicken about once a week or at least once every 2 weeks. In 16 days of this Whole30 we had not yet had just marinated chicken and veggies (a pretty normal dinner for us). So tonight it was marinated chicken with veggies. The chicken was just marinated with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper. It was quite yummy. I wasn't all that hungry at dinner since I didn't eat lunch til after 2PM, but oh well. 

The Lowdown
I pretty much said it all above. In lots of ways it is getting easier, but I actually think we have some difficult days ahead of us. This weekend is going to be particularly challenging. Tomorrow night we have the Relay for Life (so I have to pack us dinner that we usually eat there. In years past we've just brought Subway). Saturday we have soccer and volleyball and then we're going to a Lake County Captains (minor-league baseball team for Indian's) game and then Sunday is Mother's Day. But, once we get through this weekend we only have one more weekend to get through!

I now know we can do this. I know we'll get to day 30, but there may be some more dark times to come! :)

Whole30- Day 16

It's all downhill from here, right?!?! We have officially completed more days than we have remaining. I'm glad we're at the homestretch of this challenge. It is definitely getting easier, but I long for a little more "freedom".

Here's what today looked like:

Breakfast
The kids had their 2 sausage patties and apple slices and Drew had a scrambler with some of the leftover chicken meatballs from last night (and some veggies, of course). I didn't take a picture of my breakfast this morning because it was small and boring. I was meeting a friend for lunch today and we were originally supposed to meet around 11. That's early for me so I didn't want to have a big breakfast, but I couldn't wait until then to eat. Turns out it was a good thing I did eat breakfast because she ended up having to push lunch back to about 11:45.

Anyway, I decided to just have 2 hard boiled eggs with some grapes and walnuts. It wasn't all that small in the end, but I was hungry by the time we got our lunch. I probably wouldn't have been had we actually met at 11 so everything worked out well.

Lunch
The kids had their usual packed lunches and Drew made himself a salad with leftover taco meat. I met my friend at Bravo and had looked at the menu prior to going. I decided the safest bet was their chopped salad with no feta and no dressing (oil and vinegar on the side). I added a grilled chicken breast to it for some protein. I almost forgot to take a picture of it, but after I cut all the chicken up and took a bite I remembered! :)

Afternoon Snack
Lunch wasn't all that big and didn't do a great job of keeping me satisfied until dinner. I ended up having some grapes with walnuts this afternoon to tide me over.

Dinner
Tonight's dinner was nothing exciting, but relatively "quick" and way easy. Steak with roasted sweet potato fries. That steak looks huge in that picture! It was a very thin steak though - still good size, just not as big as the picture makes it look.

Robbie of course ate his entire serving, part of Mary's (they split a steak so he ended up probably have 3/4 of a steak while Mary had 1/4), and a couple pieces of mine! I was worried about him eating too much right before soccer practice so let's hope he didn't get sick on the field (I'll find out when he gets home with Drew).

The Lowdown
I feel like these posts are getting pretty boring now. I suppose that's a good thing because I don't have to talk about how I'm struggling and how it was so hard today and what not. I wish I had a lot to say about all the wonderful things I'm experiencing. I don't necessarily feel like I have a ton more energy or anything. I'm still finding it hard to get motivated to do things like workout or clean my house. But this has definitely renewed my spark for eating healthy and losing this weight again by whatever means possible.

I spent some time today re-reading some of my posts from 2012. I got a little nostalgic for that time when I was training and eating right and losing weight. I want to get back there. I think I might have a plan in place for when this 30 days is over so I can keep moving forward with the weight loss. I'll discuss that in a post to come though. I still have 14 days to get through this 30 day challenge!