Roocifer

Clearly I haven't kept up with the daily updates, but I'm still on Whole30! Today is day 25, wooo! Honestly I feel like I have yet to experience the magic of the Whole30 with regards to exercise - I still feel like I'm dragging big time when I run. Otherwise, I feel great and my clothes feel a teensy bit looser. I'm looking forward to taking measurements next week (for once!). The half marathon is two weeks away, and I'm undecided whether or not I'm going to start the Whole30 reintroduction as planned on day 31, or if I'm going to give it more time to see if I just need longer to adjust. I'm leaning towards just making it a Whole45 and then doing the reintroduction after the half, but we'll see. On the job front, I have an update! Honestly I had basically given up on my goal of updating my resume and applying for a job. I work for a university and one of the perks of the job is being able to take grad school classes essentially for free, and so I registered for a class for this fall. If I quit, I lose that benefit and have to pay like $2000 for the class - no thank you! However, an opportunity may have fallen into my lap. I have an informational interview today with a sub-group at the university (not where I am now) that would be a major boost in pay and a lot more interesting than what I'm doing right now. They're looking for someone with almost exactly my background, and to start ASAP. I'm so excited...will let you know how it goes! I haven't been too active on the boards lately, but I hope that everyone's challenges are going well!!

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled with pumpkin, coconut milk, 1 small banana, pecans Lunch: salad with ground turkey, hamburger, and blackberries/almond butter/coconut milk dressing Dinner: steak stirfry and kale chips; banana, blackberries, coconut milk, toasted coconut flakes

Day 10 Breakfast: 3 spicy tuna cakes fried in ghee, kale and butternut squash Lunch: salad with strawberries and almond butter mixed with coconut milk for the dressing Dinner: hamburger, sweet potato, broccoli Snack: hardboiled egg, pecans, 2 small pieces of chicken Day 11 Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, stirfry mix, ground turkey Lunch: salad with strawberries and almond butter mixed with coconut milk for the dressing Dinner: hamburger, sweet potato, broccoli, kale chips

Breakfast: 3 spicy tuna cakes fried in ghee, kale and butternut squash Lunch: ground turkey with Italian sausage seasoning, broccoli, sweet potato with some coconut oil Dinner: apple onion pork chops, brussel sprouts Snack: hardboiled egg, apple and almond butter, 1 small piece of chicken My snack was practically a meal, I was so hungry when I got home from work yesterday! Been much hungrier the last couple of days, so I'm making sure to add a little more healthy fat to each meal. Fine by me, that's pretty much the best part anyway

Breakfast: 3 spicy tuna cakes fried in ghee, kale and butternut squash, iced coffee with coconut milk Lunch: salad with strawberries and almond butter mixed with coconut milk for the dressing Dinner: leftover pork, cocoa-toasted cauliflower, and green beans Snack: 1 hardboiled egg and a larabar Exercise: walked home from work (2.75 miles) and did a body weight exercise routine - 3 x (10 backwards lunges, 15 pushups, 20 side leg raises per side, 45 seconds plank, 10 side lunges, 3 reverse chinups, 15 body weight squats) I wasn't thrilled about having the tuna cakes for breakfast but figured they had to be eaten...well, they were so much better fried in ghee! Go figure I tossed some kale and butternut squash (both were frozen - no prep work, very easy in the morning!) into a skillet with coconut oil, salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic, then put the fried cakes on top. It was pretty much heavenly. I was so hungry all day today - it wasn't cravings, I really would have eaten steamed fish and broccoli. I think it's because I ate a normal amount yesterday (ate til I was satisfied, not hungry or stuffed), but I also ran 10 miles...I didn't consciously try to make up those calories, so I think my body is requesting them today. Haven't done a strength training workout in a while, so it was nice to get that done. I also unknowingly started this week's mini-challenge - planks! Happy Monday! (oh yeah, I'm also annoyingly chipper for a Monday. Whole30? Making sure I get a good nights sleep every night? Don't really care - I just like having a good attitude and not wanting to throttle everyone at work)

Thanks, Hammlin! I'm used to tracking EVERYTHING at myfitnesspal.com, so it's a welcome break to just quickly write down what my meals were. I'm really loving the "listen to your body and don't weigh anything on your food scale" aspect of Whole30

Breakfast: pre-run: 1 hard boiled egg and a handful of pecans; during: 1 larabar; after: 1 sweet potato and ground turkey with Italian sausage seasoning Lunch: salad and 3 spicy tuna cakes (NomNomPaleo app), apple with almond butter Dinner: slow cooker pork, cocoa-toasted cauliflower, green beans Exercise: 10 mile run Very disappointed in the spicy tuna cakes, I have to say. They looked so delicious in the NomNomPaleo app, but mine were just not that good. Too tuna-y...although I guess I'm not quite sure what I was expecting. On the other hand, the cocoa-toasted cauliflower was amazing and I think I could eat a whole head of cauliflower prepared like that all by myself, so at least one recipe was a success. My recipe repertoire and my ability to just throw together meals with whatever is on hand has improved dramatically since going paleo (not last week, I mean over the past few months). I guess it's kind of a necessity, since I'm not leaning on pasta or rice or bread to fill out my meals any longer. Requires a lot more strategy and forethought, but I'm a much better cook these days! Today's run was supposed to be 12 miles, but my legs were absolutely dead tired. I think it must still be an adjustment to the Whole30, since I haven't run since Tuesday...so there is really no excuse for having tired legs. I was ready to be done around mile 6 but pushed through so I could at least hit double digits. All in all I think this week went well! I would've liked to fit in another run, but I prioritized my sleep this week I'm happy to report that I didn't get the low carb flu - no bad headaches or anything like that, just generally feeling like my energy is a little lower than normal. Although...one interesting thing is that my sleep schedule shifted pretty much instantly (and this happened when I first went paleo, but then it gradually changed back to "normal" the more lax I got about what I was eating) - usually I'd stay up til 10:30 or 11pm, and then drag myself most unwillingly out of bed between 6:30 and 7am feeling totally exhausted. This week I was up around 5:30am without an alarm, feeling pretty awake, and then falling into bed and sleeping like a rock at about 9:30pm. Speaking of which...look at the time! Off to bed for me. Hope everyone else had a good first week!

This week was...ok. I'm still struggling with planning my workouts better because of the heat. My total mileage for the week was 15.8 miles.

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with spinach, broccoli, and 1/2 avocado Lunch (emptying the fridge of leftovers): best chicken ever (recipe from Well Fed), spaghetti squash, 1/2 sweet potato, grapes Dinner: lemon rosemary broiled salmon, cumin roasted carrots (recipe from Well Fed), asparagus Snack: small piece of chicken and a few pecans The salmon was SO GOOD. And stupid simple to make - stick it in a pan with ghee, rosemary, salt, and sliced lemons, then broil for 10-15 minutes. Ta da!

Breakfast: 2 fried eggs, leftover apple/onion mix, broccoli, coffee with ghee Lunch: salad with strawberries and almond butter mixed with coconut milk for the dressing Dinner: leftover Indian chicken and cauliflower rice Snack: pecans, 1/2 sweet potato with a little bit of almond butter

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, spinach, turkey burger, 1/2 avocado Lunch: salad with strawberries and almond butter mixed with coconut milk for the dressing Dinner: apple onion porkchops, Brussel sprouts, small sweet potato mashed with coconut oil Snack: strawberries

Thanks for the encouragement, guys! It all went fine. One particularly obnoxious coworker who knows that I'm doing Whole30 but doesn't understand paleo at all tried REALLY hard to talk me into some cake..."You're only on day 4, look at this cake, it would totally be worth it to start over!" Um, no.

Leaving this note here for accountability...I'm headed to a birthday ice cream party for one of my coworkers in a few minutes. I brought a tiny container of coconut milk so I could make myself some iced decaf coffee, so I will have to be content with that instead of being jacked up on sugar all afternoon. (work functions were a problem for me last challenge - I'm working on systems to make that better this time around, and leaning on you guys is one of them!)

Preach it, sista!

I'm loving your adrenaline shots! Fried eggs with avocado and turkey sounds delicious, I have to add that to my list of breakfast ideas.

I'm so encouraged to read this, since this is a huge problem for me as well. I've also been taking magnesium (but no multivitamins, I checked the label on mine and they have soy in them, so they're out during the Whole30) and have read in several places that that's also really helpful for TOM issues. Crossing my fingers and toes that I'll have similar results. So glad that it's working for you!!

Yes! Trust me on this, it's delicious. It tastes kind of like banana bread if you mix a smashed up banana in there too. My basic recipe is this: take 3 eggs, mix those together in a bowl with canned pumpkin (about 1/3 cup, I don't measure), coconut milk (about 1/4 cup), cinnamon, and allspice. Add a banana if you want, but that's optional. Mix everything really well and scramble it up on the stovetop in some coconut oil. Also good if you sprinkle some chopped nuts on top after it's done cooking, if you want a little crunch and some extra fat. It's pretty much this recipe, but without stevia or vanilla extract since those aren't technically Whole30 approved. I also stopped putting the extra pumpkin and coconut milk on the top, mostly because I didn't think it really needed it and I'm actually quite lazy at heart when it comes to cooking

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled with pumpkin, coconut milk, and 1 small banana; coffee w/coconut milk Lunch: enormous salad with romaine lettuce, cucumber, green pepper, carrots, a bunch of chicken, and sunshine sauce dressing (recipe from Well Fed) Dinner: paleo Indian chicken (minus the honey) Snack: about 5 cashews and the crumbs left in the bottom of the container, plus helping myself to some extra coconut oil when I was making dinner Exercise: walked home from work, about 2.75 miles Feeling soooo foggy today. Saying the wrong words for things, being confused about when meetings are happening despite them being clearly written in my calendar, and feeling like I can't focus on anything for more than a few minutes. I know this will pass, but I hate feeling like such a space cadet! I'm tracking my sleep and I know that I am (in theory) well-rested, so I'm sure this is just an adjustment period. Also, last night I had a dream that I drank half a soda and had to restart my Whole30 - I woke up feeling horribly guilty over something I hadn't even done! Ha.

That's what I tell myself every time I have to get up at an ungodly hour just to get my run in! Seriously, though, I'm sure it's true - there was one day last week that was about 10 degrees cooler than it has been, and my mile pace was faster than what I've been doing by more than a minute. We just have to hang on til fall! *facepalm* I have no idea why I didn't think of that.

It really is gorgeous - I've run it once before and it's such a great course. I was the exact same way when I started running. My old logs are hilarious to look at, though..."Long run today, 2 miles!" But we all have to start somewhere and there's absolutely no shame in that! Glad your run went well yesterday!

Just a quick note to say that if anyone else is dusting off their resume for this challenge, I found this blog this morning and it looks like a great resource: JobJenny. She has a lot of good tips beyond what you find in old, tired, articles on monster.com.

Has anyone else had the food dreams start yet? Last night I dreamed that I drank half a soda and had to start my Whole30 over...I was so mad at myself! I don't even drink soda (even before the Whole30), so that was kind of a weird one.

Oooh that looks yummy! I love cauliflower rice, but we only have a mini food processor, so I have to do it in like 8 batches for a whole head of cauliflower. It would definitely speed things up to just use frozen cauliflower instead of chopping up a whole head. I think stressbunnies is my new favorite word I adore Well Fed - my husband isn't paleo but he has happily eaten EVERY recipe I've made from that cookbook, so that is a huge testament to how good the recipes are! I think my favorite section of the book is the spice mixes/sauces/condiments - those are all amazing. She also has a bunch of recipes on her blog (the SB & J burgers are out of this world!!) I think it was ok because it was only one day, it was the FIRST day (there's a lot to be said for day 1 enthusiasm!), and because my mom was doing it with me. I think if my whole family was waving ice cream cones and cheeseburgers in my face I would've said, "screw it, I can always start tomorrow." But I'm also just flat out refusing to entertain the idea that I might not make it the full 30 days. Knowing that if I make an off-plan food choice means that I'd have to start all over is hugely motivating.

Ah, ok. I know absolutely nothing about rowing, so it's cool to learn more about it! Good luck with your goals - will definitely be following your progress!

The Scouts will miss you! Can't wait to hear how your half goes - I have no doubt that you're gonna ROCK it! And congrats on being the Scout Champion for the last challenge!!