Whole30 - Day 8

I woke up to the 5:30am alarm (which is mostly for my husband) and still felt pretty tired. I feel like I haven't been sleeping well all week. I already made the decision last night that I would work out during my lunch hour, so I decided to sleep in an extra hour. That extra hour felt pretty wonderful. I'm a slow mover in the mornings. If I didn't have to work outside the home, I would probably wake up naturally around 7am everyday. That would be lovely. When do you wake up during the week? Weekends? 

Work was another crazy day. I tell you, it's never a dull day in payroll. I'm looking forward to a few weeks from now when year end has calmed down a bit. I did get the opportunity to run outside this afternoon. It felt amazing! I was still a little slower than normal, but felt fairly strong. There were moments when I thought my heart rate was going to spike, but I was able to keep it stable. I ran for 37 minutes on an out-and-back route into the State Park. It's a beautiful area. The prairie dogs were out in full force. There were a few Mallard ducks floating around the thawed water (creek/ponds). Since it was such a gorgeous January day for Colorado standards, there were numerous walkers, runners and cyclists out and about. Believe it or not, there was a mom walking a stroller and dog coming upon me as I took this photo. 

Breakfast: I tossed together 1/4 of a sweet potato (diced), 1 diced zucchini and the leftover half of the apple Dijon burger (crumbled) in a frying pan with a little olive oil. I cooked it for about 10 minutes (the sweet potato was still a bit undercooked, but I was running low on time). I threw in a couple eggs at the end and scrambled them up. 

Lunch: Leftover roasted cabbage, rutabaga hash browns and pulled pork. I anticipated that I'd be hungry after running, so I brought some blackberries to snack on. I neglected to take any photos of lunch, since it looks almost identical to last night's dinner (minus the egg). 

Dinner: Creamy cauliflower soup w/ gremolata and sugar-free bacon ends. I adapted a non-Paleo recipe from a magazine (not sure which one - I just have the torn out page). I'll post the recipe for the soup this weekend. The gremolata tasted a bit like crushed Ritz crackers. Yum! I made a simple salad with mixed greens, tomato and avocado with a basic lemon juice/olive oil/sea salt/pepper dressing. So good. I also drank a few sips of the Passionberry Bliss Kombucha I opened last night. 

Top left: Breakfast. Bottom: Soup w/ gremolata & bacon. Top right: Simple salad.

Hope you are all having a fabulous week! Congrats! We made it halfway through the workweek. Now, it's time for some much-needed sleep. Good night all and make tomorrow even better!