Whole30 - Day 16

I am over the hump. It's the second half of the Whole30 challenge. Amazing how fast time flies! I don't feel deprived at all. There have been a couple of times where I felt super hungry, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've been thoroughly enjoying the foods I'm eating. I'm doing my best to make different dinners for the entire 30 days. Variety is the spice of life. It keeps one engaged too. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get a great night's sleep last night. When the 5:30am alarm went off, I was still feeling a bit tired. Luckily, I was able to sleep until 6am. I did my 100 squats, 100 sit-ups and 25 push-ups while watching the local news. I made a quick breakfast before getting dressed and heading out the door. 

Work ended up being extremely busy. Meetings, phone calls, projects. As I look back on the day, I feel it was quite productive. I accomplished a major task before I left for the day. I just have to compile some data into one spreadsheet and then I check that off the list. It feels great to check things off the to-do list. Even with work being so busy, I took a much-needed break to run outside. I thought it was going to be 50 degrees today, but it ended up hitting about 40 degrees by lunch time. 40 is still warm enough for running in shorts and a t-shirt, especially here in Colorado where the sun shines so strongly. That sun felt so amazing. I ran for 31 minutes and then went into the fitness room to cool down. I ended up running at 8.6 mph for a minute and then jogged at a 3% incline at 6 mph for 4 minutes and then walked for a couple minutes as a true cool down. Of course, I stretched a bit before going back to work. Stretching is so important. I don't do it enough, but I'm doing at least the bare minimum after my workouts. I am also incorporating weekly yoga into my routine. That means tomorrow is a yoga day! Yay! 

Breakfast: The rest of the Banana Nut Porridge with blueberries and a bowl of sliced strawberries. 

Snack: Before running, I ate half a Cashew Cookie Larabar.

Lunch: Leftover salmon and garlic-lemon broccoli. 

PM Snack: Banana, the rest of my banana muffin that I nibbled on yesterday and the second half of the Larabar. I was hungry after running. 

Dinner: Cauliflower "rice". Grass-fed ground beef with a diced onion and orange bell pepper. Roasted Brussels sprouts. Cashew "alfredo" sauce. Mix it all together on your plate. Delish! Lots of flavors and textures in this meal. I drank about a third of a bottle of Strawberry Kombucha.

I'm going to end on an observation over the past couple days: The news world has been awfully strange lately. Have you heard about the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax? It's bizarre. Now today, Lance Armstrong is being brutally honest with Oprah in an interview about doping. This is really odd. What are your thoughts on Te'o and Lance? Do you think we'll be seeing Manti Te'o interviewing with Oprah next week? 

Whole30 - Day 11

Saturday mornings are glorious! I slept until 8:30 today. Last night, I took some allergy medicine, because I've been thinking I can't sleep because of the shots I'm getting. The medicine definitely helped me sleep. I felt well-rested this morning, as compared to previous mornings this week.

I felt like eating breakfast first thing. I had every intention of doing a workout at some point, but... that didn't happen. At least I did my 100 squats, 100 sit-ups and 25 push-ups for the day. After breakfast, I wrote my grocery list and got ready to brave the bitter cold. I had won a 40% off any Desigual item at Details Boutique during their 12 Days of Christmas. It had to be used by 1/31, so I thought this weekend was a perfect time to check out their inventory. I found a clearance shirt and a second one to use the 40% discount. There's also a meat shop on that side of town called Tony's Market. Since I was on that side of town, I thought I should check it out. They have all kinds of fresh meats and seafood. They grind all of their meats fresh daily. They sell some game meat. Tony's also has a small produce section, grocery section, prepared foods and a large dessert case. As a Paleo person, I was there for the meat! I bought chicken breast (antibiotic and hormone-free), ground turkey, grass-fed ground beef, sugar-free tomato basil chicken sausage and sugar-free Italian sausage. I wanted to swing by Rosey's boutique at the mall, since they were having a huge sale. I found the cutest animal print shirt. It'll go well with leggings. It was about 33% off, which is pretty good. I rarely ever will pay full price for clothing. After that, I went to the grocery store to stock up for the week. I ran into a friend of mine who also happens to eat Paleo. We kept following each other around the store, since we eat such similar foods!

My purchases for the day: 40% off, 70% off, 33% off.

Breakfast: I've had eggs all week. I wanted something a little different. I know Dallas & Melissa at Whole30 may not like "pancakes" for breakfast. The goal of Whole30 is to "restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, calm systemic inflammation and put an end to unhealthy cravings, habits, and relationships with food." I doubt that having Paleo Pancakes every once in a while will make me crave desserts or treats. For me, food = fuel. The better choices I make will get my farther in my workouts. I found these 3-ingredient pancakes. Ripe banana, almond butter and an egg. I added some cinnamon and vanilla extract to the mix. With our pancakes, we ate two all-beef snack sticks and a little bowl of blueberries.

Snack: Carrot Cake Larabar - delicious. I was running errands/shopping, so it was an easy snack to eat while driving.

Lunch: I ate lunch super late. I got home from the grocery store at nearly 4pm. I reheated some of last night's leftovers and had some cantaloupe. I took it to the neighbor's to eat while watching the second half of the Broncos game.

Dinner: The game ended pretty late. I think it was the longest football game ever (ok, not really, but it was over 4 hours). My husband was coming back from watching the game with his dad and was hungry, so I got started on dinner pretty fast. I made my own recipe for portobello mushroom casserole. Instead of stuffed mushrooms, I just mixed everything together into a baking dish (everything pre-cooked) and topped it with cashew "alfredo" sauce and some almond meal mixed with olive oil. I baked it in a 400-degree oven for 25 minutes. It added a nice crunch to the dish.

It doesn't look very pretty, but it tasted amazing! I had a lot of extra liquid because I didn't drain my diced tomatoes. Next time, I will drain them. 

I watched the Broncos game with my awesome neighbors and a few of their friends. It was a fun time hanging out with them. We'll probably watch the Super Bowl with them too. Like I mentioned yesterday, we have some cool neighbors. Next door. Across the street. Down the street. This neighborhood rocks! 

I plan on hitting the hay in a few minutes. Sundays are long run days - so I'm thinking a 7-mile treadmill run is in store for me. It's going to be bitter cold tomorrow, so no running outside for this girl. I want to use tomorrow to do some food prep for the week and make some Whole30-approved banana muffins. I'm also making Banana Nut Porridge for breakfasts. It sounds promising. I'm sick of eating eggs every single morning, so trying to add in some variation. It'll help me get through the first half of the challenge. It's exciting to be doing a Whole30 right now, because there are a handful of other Paleo bloggers doing it at the same time. That means really great food ideas/recipes. Check out Against All Grain, Kate's Healthy Cupboard and Paleo Savvy. All are doing Whole30's this month.

Hope you all had a great Saturday! Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

Whole30 - Day 10

Double digits! Day 10 is in the books. Less than 3 weeks left of no sugar. I must say, today was the toughest yet. I woke up with the intent of running at the gym before work. However, I had another rough night of sleep. I decided to sleep past the first alarm and sleep until 6am. No morning workout for me. I packed a gym bag to bring to the office for a lunchtime workout. I watched last night's episode of The Office while doing my squats, sit-ups and push-ups. That show is hilarious! Meredith actually looks pretty good with a bald head. I'm also anxiously awaiting Erin and Pete to get together. It'll happen before the show ends. It has to! Oh, so what made today so tough? I was constantly hungry! I haven't felt that way for the entire Whole30 so far. I snacked both in the morning and afternoon.

Work was productive for the most part. The internet went down around 2pm and didn't come back on at all the rest of the day. Not a lot of work you can do when you can't access any systems. Before that happened, I took a break to run on the treadmill. It was definitely not an outside day. It started sleeting this morning and then it switched over to snow. Temps hovered around 30 degrees this morning and dropped throughout the day. I decided on a 5k run with some sprints in the middle. I threw in 100m/200m/300m/300m/200m/100m sprints in the middle. My legs moved a bit faster today. I really think yesterday's yoga made a difference.

Breakfast: Leftover bell peppers and onions, one piece of crumbled sausage and two over-medium eggs. Handful of blueberries and strawberries.

AM Snack: Unsweetened Banana Chips

All gone... how sad.

Lunch: Two Pure Wraps with lettuce, tomato, avocado, Dijon mustard and sauteed chicken tenders (I cooked them last night in a little olive oil with sea salt and pepper). I crushed up some Pizza Flax Snax and sprinkled them on top. Added a nice little crunch.

PM Snack: Apple (no picture)
Dinner: I made my own version of a tomato-meat sauce and served it atop a bunch of shredded zucchini. I had some cashew cream leftover from the other night, so I added it into the sauce at the end, along with some nutritional yeast. I drank the rest of my Strawberry Serenity Kombucha (about half the bottle).

It feels good to be home. The drive home from work was pretty ridiculous. There was a dusting of snow at my office (which is 9.5 miles from home). As I drove in the direction of home, the conditions quickly degraded. Heavy snow, strong winds, icy roads. I was driving 20-25mph up a huge hill and suddenly started fishtailing. I couldn't get any traction on the roads. I didn't couldn't make the turn onto the road that leads to my street, so I kept going to the next road and drove around the block. I drive a rear-wheel drive car and it doesn't drive well in the snowy winters. I shoveled the driveway quickly but not until after I took my shoes off, so I threw on my Croc sandals. Yeah, Croc sandals + snow + 19 degrees = frozen toes. My neighbor was going to use his snow blower, but couldn't get it started (flooded engine, he thought). Even so, I like our neighbors. This is an awesome street. Great people. 

Pictures just don't do justice. Snow-packed road on the drive home.

That's all for today. Goodbye, Friday. Hello, weekend! Do you have any fun plans? Workouts, running errands/shopping, Broncos game (watching it at the neighbor's house) and cooking this weekend for me. Good night!