ellystar

Kept with Whole 30 today. One more glass of water till my goal. Haven't worked out yet this week, plan to fix that by Friday.

Last night I also made homeade mayonnaise for the first time. OMG I'm never having store bought mayo again. This stuff is fantastic. I followed the recipe from theclothesmakethegirl.com (I'd link to the actual page, but her site seems to be down right now). I made egg salad with it for my lunch today. AMAZEBALLS. Hopefully when I make it again it will emulsify as well as it did the first time. It takes patience the drizzle the oil super slowly, but so worth it.

It's tough sticking with this Whole 30 thing, but I I feel like my willpower is pretty strong. However, I want a Hostess Cupcake so bad right now. Just keep swimming though...

Goal progress for today:

As long as I don't do anything stupid, I'll have finished day 1 of Whole 30. The first day is always the easiest, lol. Still need to drink a little more water to reach my minimum for today.

I made two new recipes tonight, one for dinner tonight and one for breakfasts this week.

Dinner - Italian Mushroom Bake: http://popularpaleo.com/2012/12/04/italian-mushroom-bake/

I used ground pork instead of sausage and added extra spices, because it's pretty difficult to find sausage with no added sugar. It was okay. I thought it would be awesome based on the reviews. Oh well. I would make it again, but not often.

Breakfast prep - Zucchini Fritters: http://stupideasypaleo.com/2013/12/09/paleo-zucchini-fritters/

These came out awesome. I'll be making these often to have for a quick breakfast or lunch addition.

Man, it's been awhile since my last challenge. Like, months and months. I really need this now - accountability and something to track what I'm doing. This should help me get on track in a big way.

Main Quest - Clean up my life

Not that my life is bad, not even close. Just a little messy, and it needs some cleaning up so I can feel like I'm actually doing something with it.

Goal #1 - Clean up my diet

Although I don't do CrossFit anymore (due to financial reasons - I really want to go back!), I still follow the box on Facebook and they are doing a Whole 30 challenge, starting today. So today, I'm starting Whole 30. I desperately need this because I've been eating horribly these past few months, put on a lot of weight, and need to get back on track. Plus I haven't been sleeping well and my eczema is starting to get ugly, and I want to fix both of those too. I don't think I have a problem with dairy, so I'm going to bring that back in after 30 days to see what will happen, especially my skin.

Goal requirements: Whole 30 for 30 days, then introduce dairy only to see how it affects me

Goal #2 - Clean up my glass

Water. I don't drink enough of it, and I need to. Especially at home, since I do a decent job of it at work. Now that it's winter, I really need it. I wake up feeling dehydrated almost every morning, and that's not good. I think this will also improve my skin issues, I hope.

Goal requirements: Drink all the water - minimum goal is 64oz a day.

Goal #3 - Clean up my workout skillz

I haven't worked out much in months, especially after having to drop CrossFit at the beginning of the summer. I'm sure I've lost of a lot of the progress I gained from doing WODs three times a week. I want to improve five specfici things before I go back to CrossFit - specifically squats, lunges, push-ups, double unders, and endurance. I'm setting the bar really low here - work out for 30 minutes at least once a week working on at least one of those skills. I feel like a massive underachiever setting it to anything less than 3 days a week, but I think I need to start small here.

Goal requirements: Work out for at least 30 minutes at least once a week, working on squats, lunges, push-ups, double unders, and/or endurance.

Side Quests

I'm a very messy person. Not like gross messy leaving food on the counter for days or spills uncleaned, more like a cluttered messy. Books, craft stuff, clothes - they just end up everywhere (my poor husband). It starts small, then it gets worse. I need to start nipping these in the butt sooner. I also want to clean up my cooking habits. I want to try new things during this Whole 30 experience.

Side Quest #1 - Clean up my junk

Yesterday my friend came over and helped me to clean up all my sewing/crafting/costume stuff, which was an absolute distaster. We didn't get all of it done, but now I have a space for everything, and over the next few days I will begin to put everything in its place. So my goal here is to finish getting everything organized and keep it that way over the next six weeks (and beyond).

Goal requirements: Get my stuff clean, and keep it clean.

Side Quest #2 - Clean up my cooking skillz

I've been defaulting to the easy recipes too often, and they're becoming boring. Boring is not good when doing Whole 30. I've been researching a lot of paleo blogs (wow, there are a lot!) and I've been adding lots of stuff to Pinterest that I want to try. I'll share what I try out and how it was. The challenge is six weeks, so I'll try six new recipes. I might do a few in one week, and none in another.

Goal requirements: Try six new Whole 30 recipes.

I think I've got everything for the challenge. Time to do this.

Yesterday's food:

Skipped breakfast

Lunch - peanut butter and jelly sandwich (I was lazy and didn't prepare) and an apple

Snack - plantain chips

Dinner - Chicken, zucchini, and onion stir-fry. Delicious

Snack - plantain chips (way too many...)

Yesterday's workout:

Didn't happen. Didn't get up early enough for this morning either. I need to break my snooze bar habit...

Hello old Battle Log. Sorry I totally abandoned you.

I'm going to start keeping track of stuff here again to help me get back on track. I really need to get back on track. Let's do this.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement

Setting up the phone across the room didn't work this morning. Turned it off, went back to bed. It was tired when I woke up though, unlike yesterday morning where I was just lazy. I used the sleepyti.me calculator, and I'm going to aim to fall asleep around 11:30pm tonight so that I wake up between sleep cycles.

Made my lunch this morning, so I'm 2/3 with that so far.

Didn't make it to CrossFit last night, because I'm full of excuses. Thursday - it's on. Watch it be nothing but running and burpees (HATE both), but I'll suck it up anyways and do it.

How are you going to grade yourself and distribute your attribute points? (if you're playing that game that is)

 

Oh yeah, I forgot that part. I think I'm going to just focus on my goals, maybe put those into play next time.

I'm already 0/2 with not hitting the snooze bar. It went off at 7am this morning, and I didn't drag myself out of bed until 7:45am. Which meant it was too late to walk to work. But, I did make my lunch AND breakfast, so it wasn't a total loss.

I think I might leave my car at work today and walk home, that way I have NO excuse in the morning, lol. Except I need to drive to CrossFit tonight. So much for that idea.

Usually I can't get out of bed because I'm tired, but I went to bed an hour earlier than usual last night and I wasn't tired when I woke up. I was just... comfortable and just wanted to lie there forever. Man, I am so lazy. Tonight I'm going to set my alarm on my phone and put it across the room so I have to get up. That tactic never worked in the past (I would just go back into bed), but maybe if I get enough rest again it will work this time.

It's been awhile since I've posted in the forums (though I've been reading all of the awesome articles posted). The last challenge I did was at the beginning of the year, and I didn't keep up with it at all. I saw Steve's latest post about doing this next challenge, and I think it's time for me to step up and make the changes I want to do, instead of saying "I'll start tomorrow." I'm stuck in a rut, and I need to get out of it.

Here are my goals:

Make my Etsy shop. I really want to expand my creative juices and sell things on Etsy that I make. I want to make cute headbands and embellished t-shirts, but I haven't thought about how I would do this at all. So I'm going to start looking into costs of materials (and maybe use up a lot of my excessive craft stuff in my basement too) and how I can make this a possibility.

Dump the snooze bar. My snooze bar doesn't work anymore an hour after my alarm first goes off. I've been in this situation many times. I don't know how I used to wake up at 6am for my old job, because I can barely drag myself out of bed at 8am. For this goal, I will no longer hit the snooze bar. When my alarm goes off, I'll get out of bed. If I wake up before my alarm goes off, I will get up. The other day I woke up at 7am, and I felt pretty good. But then I went back to sleep. The alarm went off 30 minutes later, and I kept hitting snooze. When I finally dragged myself out of bed at 8am, I felt like crap.

Walk to and from work a least once a week. My office is 1.5 miles from my apartment. When I started this job two years ago I said I was going to walk once in awhile. I haven't done that yet. Unfortunately, Mondays and Fridays are out for this (Mondays I have to buy breakfast on the way in, Fridays I have to go pick up lunch), but that still leaves 3 days to make this happen.

CrossFit 3x a week. About a month ago I made this goal at my box. I've been once since. What a waste of money and a waste of all the work I put in before. I haven't been able to make it a routine again since my wedding five months ago, and it's frustrating to me that I haven't been able to do that. But I'll be honest, I'm intimidated to go now, and it's stupid and irrational for me to think that way. My box is awesome. The coaches are awesome, the people are awesome, and there aren't unrealistic expectations or over the top pushing. It's my social anxiety that is getting in the way. But I do miss it and want to get back in it, and continue improving and getting stronger.

Cook more meals - all weekday lunches and dinner at least 3x a week, all paleo. Another thing that I haven't gotten back into the habit of after the wedding is cooking and preparing more meals. You'd think it would be easier because I have all these awesome kitchen tools and gadgets now. Going forward, I will make all my lunches for work and cook dinner at least three times a week. And all of these meals will be paleo.

I'm up for drinks on Friday or Saturday night (not getting in until Friday morning). I'm going to a girl gamer brunch on Sunday, so that's out for me.

I tried all sorts of things for my diet, including Whole30, but nothing ever worked. But I have not tried eliminating night shades. I'll try that, but I have my eczema pretty much under control now, so it will be hard to gauge.

What finally worked for me is doing UV light therapy. My eczema was out of control on my hands, and after having the treatments for a few months it was gone - gone for the first time in years, other than using hard core steroid creams that I could only use for a few weeks at a time, and my dermatologist didn't want me relying on them in case it would stop being effective. It has popped up a little bit, but it goes away when I use a less potent cream now. Right now I'm having the same treatment done on my legs and it's also helping a lot.

ETA: After re-reading the article, something is not clear to me. Was John able to go back to eating nightshades without them flaring up his eczema? It says he went back to eating food normally, that means all food? The use of "normal" is too vague here, for me. Plus it just seems incredible that you could cut them out, then eat them again without flareups happening again. Because being Italian, the idea of cutting garlic out of my diet forever traumatizes me

And in the mean time -- favorite video game from when you were a kid? Arcade or console, whichever. I was a huge fan of the X-Men arcade. I miss arcades. I wish there was one close to my house. 

Super Mario Bros 3, Wizards and Warriors, Mega Man 2, 3-D Worldrunner, and Dargon Quest were my favorite NES games. SNES is still my favorite console of all time, and my list of favorite games from that is epic.

I'll be there all three days

Nothing was set in stone for the 3rd.  You know I will definitely be aboot for a PAX meetup.  PAXPAXPAXPAX.

I'll be at PAX East too and I'm definitely up for a meetup there

Finally, if none of those do it for you, try drinking better coffee in smaller amounts.  Really good coffee doesn't need additives (nor does really good tea; too bad the world is full of bad coffee and bad tea). Your taste buds can adapt, though it IS an acquired taste.  If you go to a specialty coffee shop with those hipster baristas with trendy haircuts and art on the walls, you might get better coffee... the bad news is, it won't be cheap, and visiting a coffee shop may be time consuming.  (Good coffee should be savored, but if you just want something hot and caffeinated to slam down at your computer, it's not worth the price.)

I support this. The first time I tried coffee black was at a really nice, expensive restaurant in Boston's Back Bay. It was so delicious. Before that I was cutting back on my cream and sugar amounts in coffee - for those who go to Dunkin Donuts I used to be an extra-extra girl (the thought of that now is so gross). But that day was the day I converted to a black coffee drinker and I haven't been back since. It will help you to eventually drink mediocre coffee black as well.

But if you try it and it's not for you, I would just make sure that you read your labels carefully. Or you could try flavored coffee, but I'm not sure how things like French Vanilla get their flavors. Anyone know?

I'll have to try the cinnamon thing mentioned above. Didn't they mention on Castle recently the idea of putting cinnamon in coffee? I had never heard of that before.

If you want to support the girl scouts but not end up with calorie filled boxes on your hands, they do take donations to send cookies to soldiers. At least the troop in my area had that as an option on their form.

Peanut butter patties... so good. Those are tagalongs right? For some reason my troop growing up didn't have those names, but it was the same products. I never knew what Samoas were till I got to college.

In a similar vein:  I batch cook for the week on Sundays. If I know I'm going to make something during certain days down the road (for dinner or whatever) and it'll call for diced tomatoes or onions (or any other veggie) I go ahead and dice a bunch while I'm already cooking.  It's likely they'll be fine in the fridge for a few days before I need to use them.  So, that's also an option. 

Meal planning and batch cooking doesn't really work for me. I find that when I do those, I end up wasting food, which is weird because those two things often prevent that. I only plan two days in advance. If I go more than that, plans always tend to get changed and then I have stuff go to waste.

 

Dicing tomatoes doesn't take that much time or effort - why not just buy some tomatoes (or grow them) and do it yourself?  It's not

that inconvenient, and if control is your priority it seems like that would make the most sense.

 

 

I dice my own tomatoes often, but honestly sometimes I just don't want to. Sometimes I want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible, or maybe I don't have a choice. Or keep clean-up to a minimum. One of my go-to quick meals is sometype of frozen seafood that I've defrosted and a can of diced tomatoes. Another is eggs and salsa.

But that wasn't really my point, and I was just throwing out diced tomatoes as an example. My point is, why is there such a push for things without salt added or low salt, but there isn't the same focus on sugar? I find it strange. I know ignorance isn't an excuse, but I wonder if a lot of people realize how many things have sugar added to them.

Yeah, I agree it would be easy to have a sign up that says "check out our hidden menu with healthy stuff!" Maybe they're hoping word of mouth and social media will make it "viral" or something. *shrug*

I'm having their turkey salad now, and it's pretty good. It came with these cute little olive oil pouches. I hope more restaurants get into those because I hate dry salads, and pretty much all salad dressings have sugar in them.

 How many grams of sugar per serving is listed in the carbohydrates block on nutrition labels. A teaspoon is 4 grams of sugar, or about 15 calories.

Sure that includes a mix of natural and additive sugars (is there a difference really?), but it should give you a good idea of where on the sugarary spectrum the product falls.

I know how to read nutrition labels. It doesn't help that they don't separate what type of sugar is in there.

For me, there is a difference. If I'm trying to eat paleo or if I'm trying to control my calories, I want to be able to control what I'm putting into my body. But I also don't want to have to spend time making my own salsa or tomato sauce. But in the end, I really can't have both, unless I take the time to search for the right products.

I don't see any reason why a can of diced tomatoes needs to have anything in it besides tomatoes, except maybe a little seasoning. If having "no salt added" is such a big deal that it's added to labels, so should sugar.

I had the steak wraps a few weeks ago and they were good. When I got there I asked if they did the hidden menu, and the cashier knew exactly what I was talking about. I think Panera does a really good job of training their staff.

I think they're not added to the menu yet because it's still in testing, or whatever they call it. I think a small handful of Paneras have it on their menu, and they're designated as "prototypes". (At least, that's how Dunkin Donuts does it - there's one in my area.) If they add new items to the menu, that means replacing signage and menus at all their locations, which is a big expense. But if one of the items doesn't work out and they want to remove it, then that's a big loss of money. I think they should just go ahead and do it, but unfortunately, that's how business works.

For me, it's definitely an investment. I was burning $30 a month at my old regular gym and I never went because I didn't have the motiviation to go. But I pay $150 a month for CrossFit and for me it's worth every penny and skipping out on other places I could spend money. It's motiviation to go.

I also really, really like my coaches and the community at my box. They are absolutely fantastic and make it worth going even more. My coaches are definitely big on having the correct form, while building strength and flexibility.

Most boxes will let you try a class for free, and they might also have a discounted introductory program. I would shop around and see what is available in your area.

Whether there is or isn't sugar in something isn't really all that relevant, what matters more is how much there is.

Exactly, which is frustrating too because there is no way to tell. When I'm not eating 100% paleo I'm okay with getting things that say "less than 2% sugar" or whatever it is, and I stay away from products where it's really high up on the ingredients list.

I'm trying to cut back on added sugars in my diet, and not just for paleo purposes but eating in general. But when you go to the store and look at labels for many shelf staples, there is added sugar in everything. Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, evaporated cane juice, etc. etc. It's in salsa, tomato sauce, nut butters, broths, deli meats, sausage, and more. My favorite was a salad dressing that had prominently on the front "no high fructose corn syrup" but sugar was its second ingredient.

Is it really necessary? Does sugar add such a necessary flavor to these things such that the product would fail without them? So many products are adding less or removing sodium from their products, why not sugar? I just find it surprising that there isn't a push for this, except against corn syrup. Why can't it be something where consumers can control their own sugar levels, like salt?

Does anyone have products they recommend that have no sugar added? Or recipes? I usually make my own salad dressing, and I might try my hand at making mayo now that I have a food processor. But at the same time, I still want the convenience of being able to buy things instead of making them myself.

I've been continuing on with these goals, just keep forgetting to update them. Here we go:

1 - The challenge is going well so far. It helps that two of my goals, exercise and water, are included in it. Except for the long MLK weekend (where I was at a sci-fi/fantasy convention, didn't prepare any food, and had limited choices, I pretty much ate a bunch of crap) and one meal where I had potatoes, I've been 100% paleo. It's been tough. Luckily I found a recipe for paleo biscuits that's helping with the bread cravings. But I feel pretty awesome, I've been sleeping better, and my eczema is clearing up. I originally wasn't going to weigh myself again until the end of the challenge, but curiousity got the best of me - and I'm down 6 pounds already!

2 - I've been doing pretty well with this. The goal with the paleo challenge is 96 oz a day, which I've hit more than half of the days so far. Except for a couple days here and there (mostly weekends) I've made it past 64 oz. Sucks having to pea a lot though.

3 - I really need to make this more of a priority. I've only been twice a week since the start of this challenge. I just need to make this a strong priority.

4 - Ugh, let's not even go there. I haven't written anything. I still feel major writer's block and I'm too afraid to sit at the computer and end up writing a bunch of crap. But, writing a bunch of crap is better than writing nothing at all.

Unless you are already a relatively frequent traveler, airline cards are mostly a big waste of time and money (and I say this as someone whose primary CC is an airline card).

Which one do you have? I have a JetBlue American Express card and I use it to pay for my CrossFit membership each month (then pay it off) and when I travel on JetBlue, which is two or three times a year. I get bonus points for using it at a gym and I'm racking up points very quickly.

I second CapitalOne though, especially for rewards.

You could make coconut wraps: http://juliaspaleopantry.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/tasty-coconut-wraps/