Whole30 - Day 9

I had another rough night of sleeping last night. I'm not sure what the deal is. It seems like I can sleep when I'm not supposed to be sleeping, but can't sleep when I need to. You know what I'm talking about? I can fall asleep easily in the morning after the first alarm goes off. I could take a nap right after work, but then wouldn't make dinner and would mess up my whole sleep schedule (let's not make it worse). 

I woke up this morning with every intention of riding bike on the trainer. The radio turned on at 5:30am and I just didn't have the motivation. I laid in bed until about 6am. Yoga popped into my head. Besides, my body has been a bit sore lately from all the squats (900 in the past 9 days!), sit-ups and push-ups. So... I found an online yoga website and did a 35-minute bend & stretch workout from Do Yoga With Me. They have a ton of workouts with varying degrees of difficulty. I can feel a difference in my body today. I feel like it alleviated some of the soreness and tension that was building up. I may have to incorporate yoga once per week. 

During my lunch hour, I got my second allergy shot of the week. I moved up to the "B" vial. Not sure what that means, but apparently, the dosage is progressing. Very minimal itching today, which is great. A couple weeks ago, I had a minor reaction to my cluster shots (3 shots in each arm in 2 hours). They cut back on my dosage and I'm doing the twice per week normal shots (1 in each arm per visit). I decided to swing by Vitamin Cottage before heading back to the office. I didn't buy much on this visit - just one bag of Spicy Flax Snax (only costs $4.15 at Vitamin Cottage), 2 - 6 oz containers of organic blueberries (on sale 2 for $5!) and a handful of assorted Larabars as a potential snack food in the upcoming weeks. 

Breakfast: Diced yellow squash, spinach, two scrambled egg, half of a small avocado and a few dashes of nutritional yeast. I added two all-beef snack sticks. 

Lunch: Leftover cauliflower soup w/ gremolata and sugar-free bacon. Simple salad with mixed greens, tomato and avocado. I made my own dressing with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and pepper. 

Dinner: Breakfast for dinner! I sauteed onions and bell peppers. Scrambled five eggs (four would have been enough) to split between my husband and me. I cooked up some sugar-free sausage. We ate our scrambled eggs/veggies/crumbled sausage and diced tomato on Pure Wraps. I cut up a cantaloupe, so we enjoyed a couple slices on the side. 

Now, I'm just sitting back enjoying the best night of television. Big Bang Theory. Two and a Half Men. Person of Interest. 

Tomorrow will be double digits! Happy Friday! This weekend I will be typing up a new recipe for you. Good night. 

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! 

Whole30 - Day 5

Day 5. 1/6th of the way through. Things are going pretty well. Weekends are typically the tougher days because I'm home all day with the temptation to snack. I normally bake on the weekends too, but not during Whole30.

I woke up around 8am and snuggled with our kitty, Mango. He loves attention and I thought some 1:1 time with him would be good.

I made some breakfast a bit later (details below). Watched "Clueless" on TV allowing my food to settle before going out for a run. Who else remembers watching "Clueless" during their teen years (or younger)? I was 11 years old when the movie came out. It's a classic, that's for sure. I did some research on the ages of the main cast. I'm always curious, because actors/actresses are almost always older than the characters they portray. Paul Rudd (Josh) was 26. Alicia Silverstone (Cher) was 19. Brittany Murphy (Tai) was 18. Stacey Dash (Dionne) was 28. Anyways, after the movie ended, I changed into my running clothes for my long(ish) run. I ran 6.3 miles around the neighborhood. My legs are still adjusting to the 100 squats per day so it was a slow run. 59 minutes compared to my usual 55 minutes for that route. I was just happy I was able to run the entire distance, considering it was my longest run since Ironman last August. I must commit to more running over the next 8 weeks. I have a half marathon to run in March.

After running, I watched the Colts playoff game. I'm a bit disappointed in their performance today. They definitely exceeded my expectations this season. They'll be a force to reckon with next year. Now I'm cheering on the Broncos the rest of the way.

Breakfast: I like to use up leftovers within a few days. Otherwise, it seems I throw out food on a regular basis. I sauteed onions, mushrooms and bell peppers with the last leftover turkey burger. Then I mixed in 5 eggs (for the two of us). I put a sliced tomato and diced avocado on top. We ate it with a Pure Wrap.
Lunch: Leftover steak tips w/ mushroom gravy atop cauliflower "rice" and broccoli.
Dinner: Yam & Carrot Cakes with sugar-free sausage from U.S. Wellness Meats, Crispy Prosciutto, 1 egg and roasted zucchini & yellow squash.
Snacks: Post-run, I drank a Cranberry Kombucha. I snacked on some Pizza Flax Snax and Sunflower Flax Snax this afternoon.

Top left: Go Colts! Top Right: Dinner. Bottom left: Breakfast. Bottom right: post-run beverage. 

The weekend is over. Going to bed soon. Sunday nights are important to get a good night's sleep to start the work week. Otherwise, it's tough to catch up. It's another busy week for me. Hope you all had a lovely weekend! Make the most of each day this week. Live in the present moment.