Week 1 Down!

I've made it through one week of the Whole30 Challenge! Today I was starving at five, which is or is close to when we usually try to eat dinner. But Carson (the almost 9 year old) has started basketball and Matt (the husband/dad) is coaching. They had practice which caused dinner to be at 6:45! So late! The afternoons have been harder to figure out what to eat when I actually feel hunger. Under normal circumstances I would run for the salami and cheese, but they are not legal on this challenge. So I had a boiled egg, 1 tbsp coconut oil, and coffee with coconut milk in it.

Then I was fine until dinner. The coconut chicken strips were AMAZING! But it isn't too surprising that I loved them since I do love coconut. I did over cook them and in the future I will try not to cook them as long. It is so hard to tell when meat is done when you can't cut into it! The family all loved it and scarfed it down! Along with the cauliflower with clarified butter. The meal was incredibly filling and satisfying with all that protein and healthy fat.

This Week's Meal Plan

Monday: beef vegetable soup (I chose this for this day because I can make a lot and I am bringing dinner to a new momma!)

Tuesday: coconut chicken strips

Wednesday: chipotle lime salmon

Thursday: roast chicken and vegetables

Friday: meatloaf

Saturday: beef stew

Sunday: chicken soup (with leftovers and homemade stock, of course!)

The linked recipes are new recipes I've never tried, so I'll let you know how they turn out! The others are all in my head I've made them so often. If you want to try and need further guidance, feel free to comment and I will share how I make them.

Also, when the meal just lists a main meat dish, I usually prepare one or two veggie sides and since my family still consumes grains, I will make a rice or potato side. The rest of the family put their beef veggie soup over egg noodles, because that is a Fischer tradition handed down through the generations. :)

Breakfast plans involve eggs and sausage! If I get bored of that, I will have to figure something else out. If I get motivated, I might cut up veggies to have omlett or skillet type breakfast with my eggs and sausage. ;)

Lunches and snacks will always consist of leftovers, big ass salads, fruit (limited), nuts, seeds, coconut and coconut oil.

It's going to be a great Whole30 week!

Day Five and Still Alive!

My workout today consisted of: lifting a bbq grill up onto a porch, dragging a gigantic Christmas tree halfway across the yard, and walking up a very looooong and fairly steep hill 5 or 6 times. (this was in snow for those of you lucky enough to live places where it doesn't do that)

breakfast: sausage egg bake

snack: trail mix, satsuma mandarin

lunch: leftover turkey soup (turkey, carrots, celery, seasonings in homemade stock)

snack: I also made coconut butter today! YUM YUM YUM! mixed some freshly made coconut butter, which is quite runny when first made, with almond butter and dipped apple slices in it.

dinner: Enchilada Spiced Pulled Turkey*

*admission - when I poured in my tomato sauce (because I was out of paste), I glanced at the can after and saw that there is sugar in it! I had no idea there would be sugar in my organic tomato sauce. I just assumed tomato sauce always consisted of tomatoes and whatever preservative they used in canning. bummer. Whole30 fail!

But it was delicious!

I put my turkey on a bed of lettuce topped with avocado and cilantro. I let the kids put theirs in tortillas with sour cream and shredded cheese. Hallie was the only one who didn't love it.

Making Homemade Stock

Friday turned out great. I am feeling great! I am missing my scale more than my sweets!

I boiled the turkey and got my stock and enough meat for 3 meals! I've been making my own stock since we moved into this house in October of 2010. I LOVE IT. I know it's healthy. I save lots of money on broth. I am getting the most out of the food I buy.

Here is a link to a great instructional on how to make stock!

I should have taken a picture of the carcass before I boiled it, but I am just getting the hang of remembering to do these things!

Here are the bowls where I separated as much good meat as I could from everything else after the turkey carcass had boiled for several hours.

Here is the stock once all that stuff was pulled out, but before being strained.
Here are my beautiful jars of strained stock! (I kept enough out for a big batch of soup that night.) Homemade stock is so much yummier than store bought!

And here's a little picture of my salad lunch on Friday. YUM.
One last note about Friday. I had a girlfriend date and I knew I didn't want to have to face temptation and have to say no to all my favorite things involving sweetness or dairy. So we met at a billiards hall and enjoyed "playing" billiards while visiting and catching up. It was a really good time. We were both pretty terrible at billiards (me more so) but we were doing something other than eating while we caught up, which was really nice. I didn't think about food once.

Whole30 Day 4

I feel like I'm getting into a groove. I am thinking less about the things I can't have and less about food in general, which makes me so happy! I don't want food consuming my thoughts.

It is now harder to not be able to step on a scale than to not have my dark chocolate. That is some crazy scale addiction right there. It is a little exciting - build the anticipation and step on that scale in 30 days. But if the results don't speak loudly enough, I might sink into a depression! (JK)

This morning I was hungry right away, so I ate breakfast earlier than I have the last few days. Then I was hungry again before nine, so I ate some of the trail mix I made yesterday with fresh coffee.

Lets talk a tiny bit about working out. I know quite a bit about it. I've read. I know what's best and recommended in the primal world. I know I need some exercise or physical activity to be healthy and transform my body into the temple I would like. (And just to be clear, I don't have any crazy notions...I am not looking for perfection here.) But I really do hate working out. I enjoy zumba and dancing in general, but toning and weightlifting, resistance type things - I can't stand them! And these are the things I really need. I have an elliptical that is like a fifth child. We purchased the hefty Nordictrack piece of equipment over 7 years ago. It was a coat rack throughout my second pregnancy. (I was too sick and tired.) Then when #2 was 6 months old, January came around and I was ready to take a plunge. That elliptical got an hour of use almost every day. With daily movement and ediets' version of SAD, I lost 40 pounds in 4 months. That was when we were living in a tiny bush village. That elliptical has moved with us 5 times. And let me tell you, it's a chore! It's not one of those tiny little fold up numbers, it's a beast! I bet it weighs a couple hundred pounds, and there is some disassembling to be done. I really do love it.

I have done lots of other videos and programs - Hip Hop Abs, Turbo Jam, Brazillian Butt Lift, Slim in 6, 10 Minute Trainer, Callenetics, Pilates, The Firm, Kettlebell Goddess, and I'm sure there are more I am forgetting! But I get bored so easily and I am not running to get to my workout because I really don't want to do it.

So, it's like this. This Fall I was basically at the point of "I have to do something!" And it wasn't even for the fitness, it was to make me a happier, nicer, more energetic person throughout the day. I get up around five every weekday morning (in order to beat the kids) and 30 minutes is what I got. I can't workout later and I can't work out longer. So even though I know my dear elliptical is not the most efficient or best choice for working out, it is what I dreaded the least and it served the purpose. I could get the endorphins pumping, serotonin level up, listen to praise music and worship God all at the same time and I would have great days. And that is what I have stuck with. Until I started taking a medication that took away any good feelings from working out and made my butt drag all day - but that's for another story. I quit working out and then I quit the med and then we had Christmas vacation and now here I am on this challenge.

So for now I am continuing my 20 minute e. sessions, but gradually trying to create variety in them. I am also adding in one toning exercise each day. Tuesday it was kettlebell ab twists, wednesday it was pushups, thursday it was the special Callenetics hip exercises, and today I did Callenetics triceps, abs (partial) and waist stretch. I hope to add more things in (so I'm doing several a day) once I have more energy and am jumping out of bed excited that it's 5 am and time to get up. :)

PS- I really love Callanetics! I found it that first time around 7 years ago and used it ever since. It's like a combo of yoga, pilates, and ballet and out of everything I've ever done, it has by far been the most effective in visibly transforming my body. This is the DVD I got, and the only one I've ever used. Eventually, I just started doing the exercises on my own without watching the video and only doing a few a day, rather than all of them. Apparently now they've updated everything! I just discovered their website today!

Callanetics: 10 Years Younger in 10 Hours was the first exercise program to be released and is America's #1-selling exercise video! Callan was waaaayy ahead of her time with this no-impact concept of exercising. People tried it and discovered it really worked. It wasn't an advertising campaign but word-of-mouth that catapulted this video to the top of the charts. This original 60-minute break-through workout has revolutionized the exercise world and to this day is still selling as strong as ever. The exercises are deceptively simple yet amazingly powerful. See why this program is already a classic.

today's meals:

breakfast: sausage egg bake

snack: paleo trail mix

I won't be posting later, so these are the plans I have for lunch and dinner.

lunch: BAS w/ avocado, egg, olives, possibly some turkey

snack: I have a bunch of grapefruit and apples, so probably one of those with trail mix or nuts (if I even need it)

dinner: today I am boiling the turkey carcass from New Year's dinner at my mom's. she sent it home with me and there was a ton of turkey left on it. I didn't have time to deal with it so I just threw the whole pan in the freezer. I will separate the meat and stock, make a pot of soup with turkey stock, turkey, carrots, celery and seasonings. Then I will freeze the extra stock and meat. I LOVE making my own stock!

Goodnight Day 3!

today's meals:

breakfast: sausage egg bake

snack: handful paleo trail mix (raw pumkin and sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, coconut flakes, golden raisins, chopped dates - I did not measure amounts, but I only used 4 total dates and prob. 1/4 cup raisins, much less than I would like! LOL. Ended up with probably 4 cups total.)

lunch: 2 Italian sausage links (I prepared a package of 6 yesterday) and leftover sweet potatoes

snack: I didn't get hungry until I was driving home from grocery shopping and it was already time to prepare dinner. I ate a handful of cashews.

dinner: ground moose burger topped with mushrooms, onions, zucchini, garlic sauteed in EVOO

After dinner I had decaf coconut chai tea (the tea bag kind) with a a half tablespoon coconut oil.

It should also be noted that I consume coffee throughout the entire day. Usually black, sometimes with coconut milk. I know it's an addiction and I know it's bad for me! But it's legal on this challenge, so I am keeping this one vice for now in order to not be a total grump all the time!

Today my sweet craving was less! Yay!

OH! I almost forgot to mention my screw up today! I made some granola bars and paleo granola (with honey and butter) for the kids to have snacks on hand. They have all (including Matt) been whining about NO FOOD IN THE HOUSE! Geesh! It's not that bad! They are just addicted to their carbs! I am not going to buy that crap. But I have this issue with wasting expensive, yummy ingredients, such as the buttery, honeyey, coconut oily, vanillaey mixture that I had mixed into the paleo granola. I had scraped the measuring cup and then there was the bit on the scraper that wouldn't come off on it's own. So, as is my customary action, I scraped the scraper with my finger and shook the excess into the bowl. But that left a good deal still on my finger, since it was a pretty thick liquid. So, WITH thought, I placed my finger in my mouth and licked it off. This is my norm, and I could totally lie and say I did it without even thinking, but I totally thought about it before doing it. And then I felt really terrible for making the bad choice. So, now you all know. Technically I broke the challenge rules. I am going to continue on my challenge as if I didn't do anything at all!

dinner

lunch

You know how people take such pretty pictures of their food when they are going to post it? I'm too real for that. Just before I sat down to eat I thought, I should take a picture because this looks mmm. mmm. good! So you will always see what the table looks like when I sit down to eat and you can see that I fed the rest of my family tater tots and sloppy joes for dinner! I am so terrible and selfish!

Goodnight Day 2!

A tiny bit of background: I went "Primal" in June of 2010 even though I thought it was crazy. Why on earth would anyone give up grains? God gave them to us, right? But I was willing to try something crazy after many failed attempts to lose the final 10 pounds of excess weight after baby number four. And I absolutely did not want to count another calorie! I shed 10 pounds almost effortlessly. I was smitten with eating fat, feeling satisfied, and never worrying about how much I ate, but what. Plus, I was allowed dark chocolate and treats made with almond flour, coconut, honey. Mmmm.

Fast forward to Christmas, minor setback as the 20 of the 80/20 became much more than that with family gatherings and traditional foods and no will-power over my sweet tooth. I did my best to recover after that first Christmas, but I have not ever been at my Primal best since then and so after another 2 weeks of gluttony this Christmas, a whole year later, I decided I needed to be extreme! Enter the Whole30 Challenge!

food today:

breakfast - sausage patty; eggs

snack - grapefruit, walnuts

lunch - salad (similar to yesterday's but smaller); Italian sausage link

snack - satsuma mandarin, second Italian sausage link

dinner - smothered pork chops (see link to recipe in meat post! they were good!); green beans, sweet potatoes

dessert - one date, tea with coconut milk.

I am still struggling with my post-meal sweet cravings! And even though it's technically "legal", I don't feel good about eating a date after a meal in order to satisfy my sweet tooth! If I don't stop that, I will not stop this sugar addiction.