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!)

Going to the gym after work. This too busy crap ends today. Race is in 10 days. 13.1miles won't run themselves. Motivate.

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.

And...ladies here on the thread...I was stunned to find that my TOM this time did **not** include crushing cramps. That by itself is enough to make me a true believer. Now, to be fair, when I last attempted Whole30 in June, it was my TOM pain that did me in, along with batshit insane mood swings. But for the past two months, I've been taking vitamins (including magnesium, which I've heard helps a lot), getting outside every day to Walk to Mordor since the end of July, and bumping up my exercise so that now I'm doing CF three times a week, martial arts three times a week, and walking. A lot. Maybe it's the combo of Whole30, exercise, and vitamins? Don't know. I'm just so relieved that my TOM has been pain-free.

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!!

Do you put the pumpkin IN the eggs?? I'm trying to imagine that and keep envisioning pumpkin pie filling folded into scrambled eggs.

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.

Good luck on the Challenge; and keep up on the speed/work tempo run because I'll be right out there with ya. training for the Hairy Gorilla half at the end of October and yea speed work while it's almost 90 is horrid, my thinking is that when it gets cooler in the fall our bodies will be used to the torture of running in the heat and we will fly; at least that's my hope lol

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!

I only have a small one too but I found putting it in a blender works better aka faster for me.

*facepalm* I have no idea why I didn't think of that.

Yay! Thank you! I've never done the Rock 'n' Roll Half, but I've run an approximation of that route many, many times. In fact, the route along the Schuylkill River up to Falls Bridge and back is the exact path that put me on to running. I remember struggling along that river with my hat pulled almost over my face because I was so embarrassed at my inability to run a quarter of a mile. The beautiful thing about running, is that no one laughs at you for trying. There was a lot of solidarity on that path!

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.

Best of luck on the Whole30 and the PR. If you are looking for recipes to try this Chicken Curry is one of my go to meals now. It is pretty easy to make. If I am feeling lazy I will sub in 2 bags of frozen cauliflower for the fresh head. It is also pretty cheap to make (well if you have all of the spices, the first time I didn't so it cost about $50 in spices, but hey now I have a ton of spices) It makes enough for about 4 servings

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.

Good luck on the resume...I totally feel ya on that one. I'm looking/interviewing for jobs now and it is stressbunnies.

I think stressbunnies is my new favorite word

I just borrowed that Well Fed cookbook from a friend- excited to try some things, especially after reading a post like this! Yum! Good job at your beach day! How great to have your mom doing Whole30 with you!

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!!)

Way to carry on, despite being on vacation! I essentially crumple in new surroundings and eat everything. You're a rockstar!

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!!