jdkc4d

Wow! I wish I could sleep 14 hrs a day.

Hello.

My goals this time around are back to easier things.  Last time I try to do this whole 30 thing with a family member.  My family member messed up on day one and instead of sucking it up and just starting over the next day, she let it ruin the whole thing for her.  It made it difficult for me to continue as well especially after my reflux starting wreaking havoc. Now that my reflux is back under control I want to jump in again, but I don't want a repeat.  So I'm going to take it slow. 

My Goals:

1. I have a sweet tooth. I need to put it in its place. I am going to limit myself to 1 sweet thing a week that is non-fruit.  Fruit is allowed.  So for example, I can have ice cream one day a week. I can have fruit every day of the week. As long as I don't buy sweets, this shouldn't be a problem.  The issue really comes to play after cutting grass.  I am shooting for making that my 1 a week.

2. Activity.  I am a lazy son of a gun.  I didn't used to be this way. I have a stationary bike. My goal is to get on it and do 20 minutes 3 times a week.  This is somehow difficult for me.  I used to ride every morning, but I have to leave earlier for work now.  There is a point where getting up earlier doesn't make sense.  So I need to do this in the evening.  I need to make it my first thing when I get home from work. Usually I get home, change and start on dinner. Then I sit on the couch and eat dinner, and then I keep sitting on the couch while I watch tv until bed time.  

Life Goal: I work in IT.  I have for years.  I take for granted some things that blow other peoples' minds.  I don't have an issue when I am working with an end user, I expect they don't know anything.  However, I expect that my coworkers do.  Sometimes when discussing things with coworkers I lose my temper because, well, they don't know something they should. Last week I was trying to convey to a coworker that she should not copy all our admin passwords to her computer because its a major security risk and she didn't get it.  I ended up screaming at her, and then felt bad about that afterwards. 

I don't know. I'll let you know if it ever happens. 

Oh man. I feel like I haven't posted here in a long time.  So here's the sitch.  Eating all this whole 30 food for breakfast, while tasty has started to bring back my acid reflux, and with a vengeance.  So I'm tossing whole30 out the window.  I'm going back to a protein shake for breakfast. It's about all my stomach will let me do.  Pretty much all other bets are off.  I have a lot of trouble dealing with feeling like shit every morning, not eating breakfast has the same effect as eating it with regard to stomach issues. 

So that pretty much puts this challenge in the toilet.  I'll be back for the next challenge though.  I'm going to try and do just paleo, and reduce the amount of fruit I consume. I think having the breakfast smoothie helps with that because I can get a lot of fruit in the smoothie cup, and then cut back on ... whole fruit throughout the day. 

Week 3:

• Monday 10
  • Breakfast: None
  • Lunch: Chicken & Green Beans +5
  • Dinner: Grilled chicken thighs with mushroom sauce on top of spaghetti squash. +5
    • I like spaghetti squash at restaurants, but I don't seem to be able to make it like that at home. Ugh. This went into the trash. 
• Tuesday 10
  • Breakfast: None
  • Lunch: Chicken & Green Beans +5
  • Dinner: Mahi-mahi, mixed veg +5
• Wednesday 10
  • Breakfast: None
  • Lunch: Chicken & Green Beans +5
  • Dinner: Chicken, Broccoli, Onions, Mushrooms +5
• Thursday
  • Breakfast: None
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
• Friday
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
• Saturday
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner

How did your weekend go?

Not horribly. I spent all day Saturday ripping down the rest of the shed.  Food wise, I think I do pretty good on the weekends.  It's those pesky weekdays I have trouble with. 

Today sucked even before I woke up.  I seem to have developed a knack to wake up 10-15 minutes before my alarm.  I try to go back to sleep, and then when my alarm goes off, suddenly I'm so tired. I woke up today with a screw the world attitude.  I took one look at the eggs in the refrigerator yelled some obscenity at the eggs, and left the house. Ended up having donuts for breakfast.  But, I calmed down, ready to get back on track for lunch. Then my boss walked in and said, "Lets go".  We ended up at Red Robin for lunch. It was good. 

About to leave for the day, I have a 40 mile commute ahead of me.  The baseball game just let out and the hockey game is starting in about an hour.  Looking at way too much traffic ahead of me. If I manage to make it home before the sun sets (that's a big if), I think I might take a walk down the the park. Might help to clear my head a bit. 

I think I have some salmon in the freezer, and I have seen some asparagus starting to pop up in the garden.  Might be able to turn this day around yet. Or not. We'll see. 

Apparently it helps to actually subscribe to the posts you make....

Do you need "breakfast" for breakfast? Can you take something you'd have for lunch or dinner and eat that in the morning instead?

Not necessarily. That said, I tried eating steak and veggies for breakfast 2 days this week. While my taste buds thought is was amazing, but stomach had other ideas. Maybe I'll try fish next. 

I would suggest oats (maybe with some nuts or peanut butter), potatoes/sweet potatoes, yogurt, tofu scrambles....but I see that the Whole 30 doesn't want you to eat grains, legumes, or dairy, so most of those are out. So I'd suggest all those things and a less restrictive diet. 

lol...yeah whole30 is kind of restrictive, but more and more I keep calling it my egg diet. Blah. 

I like having oats or a half a whole wheat bagel with a little peanut butter. Greek yogurt is always good too. 

None of that is whole30 unfortunately. There is a dairy about 30 minutes from my house. They make yogurt and greek yogurt there.  Really you can't even talk about greek yogurt until you have had it right after its made. 


In the past I have had a protein smoothie for breakfast.  Its high in protein obviously, but because of the fruit, its also high in carbs. Unfortunately its not whole 30 either. Ugh. When I went to eat breakfast today, I about lost it. Ended up picking up donuts for the office.  Yeah...I have to find something else, or I'm going to lose this diet big time.

Lower body strength training done today - biking did not happen. I am packing my work clothes/clean-up gear tonight and having it all ready to go in the morning. Being unprepared is one of the things that makes me hop in the car rather than on the bike. If I'd had everything packed and ready this morning, I would probably have ignored the headache and biked anyway.

 

 

I'm at five before I have to pause. Aiming for six before pausing on my next upper body day. 

 

Also, adding a Life Quest. I was going to add it from the start but then I chickened out. So my workplace has a pretty great wellness program - the requirements are minimal and you get a bonus every quarter for participating. It took me YEARS to get the nerve to sign up for this ... so they've just changed the requirements. Instead of showing up for a wellness check once a year at work, you have to have your doctor sign off on an annual physical. Problem: I don't have a doctor. I could probably get a workplace wellness check at the strip mall QuickMed clinic, but I should probably find an actual doctor ... you know, one I could go to for serious health problems if they ever came up. Problem: I would rather wrestle a giant spider on top of a high building while enclosed in a small space in a thunderstorm while getting stuck with needles than call a doctor's office to make an appointment. You think I'm kidding. I'm not kidding. (Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit.) I'm not afraid of doctors or medical procedures. But I get shaky just thinking about making a phone call for which I don't have a script. I don't know how to find a doctor ... I don't know what you're supposed to say when you call as a new patient ... but it needs to get done. I haven't had any kind of medical exam in over ten years and I wouldn't know what to do if I actually did get sick or have a medical problem. 

So, end of week 1 - research doctors and find one taking new patients. 

End of week 2 - call doctor's office and make appointment.

End of 6 weeks (provided said doctor's office has an appointment within that window) - get initial appointment/physical with doctor over with so I don't have to keep feeling anxious/guilty about it. 

How to find a doctor:

1. Do you have medical insurance? 
   • If yes, go to the website of your insurance provider and check out the doctors there.  Email one.
   • If no, meh. Just go to the urgent care. 

I freaked out over this too a few years back.  I ended up having acid reflux, but your mind likes to make you think its much worse than it is.  I ended up finding a nice doctors' office in the middle of nowhere, away from everything so its almost relaxing to go there.  What I really like about my doctor is that I don't have to call him.  He responds to email.  I can usually email him and have an appointment setup for next day. 

Sorry to hear about the short in your crockpot. That's nuts, but it happens. Ironically, you can find them at goodwill if a new one is too pricey. I don't know why anyone would ever giveaway a crockpot.

subbed.

Yeah! Having decimated a crock pot and a stoneware casserole dish this week, I have decided I shouldn't touch cookware that isn't cast iron. Maybe I should just get cast iron plates, bowls and cups too. Also, everything tastes better cooked in cast iron and if it's well seasoned, cleanup is easy.

I actually kinda miss Whole30, so I'm a bit jealous.

Re-seasoned last night and cooked the steak for breakfast this morning.  It was so good...I was sad I had to brush my teeth...

Brussels Sprouts are great, when cooked right. Roasted with olive oil in the oven, they are great, and adding bacon makes everything better! I hope your recipe turns out, it looks good.

Well cooking them on the stove apparently was not the right way to cook them.  I was hoping they would soften, but they never did. In the end, I just threw them away and ate the rest of the stir fry.  Which was good, but I think next time I need to cut the meat smaller and add some carrots or something.  It was kind of mushy. 

I found a beef/broccoli recipe I am going to try for dinner tonight. It calls for Brussels sprouts, which I have never had before. Wish me luck: http://paleoleap.com/beef-and-broccoli-stir-fry/

I'll try it.  I am looking forward to melon season. Some mixed melon would be good. Mmmm....watermelon....drooool. 

nice looking challenge.  You've really stepped it up this time.  Looks like you're doing pretty well after the first week.  Some hiccups are expected. 

 

I really like asparagus with eggs, especially if you make them a little soft boiled.  YummY.  if you make it in the morning it takes like 5 minutes under the broiler.  Although I think your biggest hurdle will be finding foods that don't unsettle you.  

Yup, plus finding things that aren't eggs to eat for breakfast. I like eggs, but I just can't eat them every day. 

So I've hit an egg rut. I'm doing a whole 30, but I'm finding that I can't have eggs for breakfast everyday. I tried googling, but everything is how to make sweets with replacement approved ingredients. This is not what I'm looking for. There has to be more to breakfast than eggs and sweets. Anyone have any ideas?

Going back up and re-reading what I wrote for my points scoring, I realize that I haven't figured points for any of the good fats. For a moment I thought about re-calculating all the points from week 1, but instead I'm just going to skip that and try and score properly this week. 

This week I got 110 total points. I missed out on some free points I could have gotten from doing any activity during the week. My first week of whole30, wasn't a mega success. There were a few hangups, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Let's see how week 2 ends up. I definitely want to see those points go up. 

• Sunday 70
  • Brunch 10
    • 4 eggs over medium, green beans, whole avocado, apple, handful of sunflower seeds +5 for the veg, +5 for the avocado
  • Dinner: I had 1 bite of a really not good pork chop.  I spit it out.  I was busy doing other things, and didn't realize it.  Ended up not really eating anything for dinner. Don't know if thats good or bad
  • Activity 60
    • Mowed the front yard. It was a beast. The grass was about a foot tall, with all the rain we have had lately. On top of that I think I have some moles, and when they ran the gas line to the house last fall, they drove some kind of machinery over the lawn.  There are 4 horribly placed ruts on one side of the yard. I pretty much had to pick up the damn mower every 3 feet to get through them. Usually it takes an hour, today it took 2. 60 points
• Monday 15
  • Breakfast: I picked up some "breakfast steak" I think its just some really thin steak.  It cooked like crap in the aluminium pan I used.  I have one more left. I'll try cooking it in cast iron. Let's be real, cast iron is the best.  Had this with some broccoli (+5) and some unsweetened applesauce so I could have my probiotic. Hopefully that will be enough to keep my stomach in check.
  • Lunch: I had some taco salad (meat, taco mix, onion, red pepper) and an avocado. +5.  I had this a couple of times last week, so I knew it would be good. That said, about 3 hrs after lunch I got some major league acid reflux.  Felt like crap. Thought about going home early even. But I only have 45 minutes left to go, and traffic is going to suck cause its opening day in STL.
  • Dinner: Green beans and chicken boobs. A dinner of champions. Also had some mango slices. +5
• Tuesday 40
  • Breakfast: 2 Hard boiled eggs -5 for no veg. Ugh. 
  • Lunch: Grilled buff chicken boob, green beans. +5
  • Dinner: I had some beef & broccoli.  No rice or anything. It was a recipe I found on Paleo Leap. +5
  • Activity:
    • I rocked 12 minutes on the bike while reading a book. I didn't even notice that the time was almost up. Usually I am checking every minute or two. +5
    • Mowed the back yard. Took about an hour +30
• Wednesday 10
  • Breakfast: Steak and asparagus, cooked in cast iron in clarified butter. Yum yum.  +5
  • Lunch: Taco Salad +5
  • Dinner: Buffalo Chicken. Fail, no veggie -5
• Thursday
  • Breakfast
    • I've had it with eggs.  Whole thirty may as well be called the egg diet. Ugh.  Both days this week that I had steak for breakfast, while it totally agreed with my tastebuds, my stomach had other things to say. So beef is out of the question for the AM. 
    • I woke up today in F*$% the world type of mood. Ended up eating a donut at work. -5
  • Lunch
    • Was planning on finishing the taco salad off for lunch.  That would have been a good +5, but alas, it was not meant to be.  As lunchtime rolled around, my boss comes in and says, lets go.  We ended up going to Red Robin for lunch...yum.  Had the one that has bbq sauce, fries, and a bottomless lemondade. It was good. -5
  • Dinner
    • The plan is to get back on track for today...if that's even possible at this point.  I have some salmon in the freezer, and that should go well with the asparagus thats sprouting in my garden. That and a long walk would really round out this day. 
  • Activity
• Friday
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• Saturday
  •  

I like your points idea - are you using a certain number of points to decide whether or not you have passed the challenge?

Not really. Mostly I am keeping track of points over a week, and then I can compare weeks over the course of the challenge. Really, I just see how many points I get in a particular week, and then see if I can beat that number of points the next week.  I did this in the previous challenge too.  Throughout the points stayed relatively even, however in the last week due to some volunteering and then some yard work, they got blown way up.  I don't know if I'll beat that number this week, but I'll find out.

Can you put them in tea? Or would that give it a taste?

Tea?! Yuck. Tastes like leaf water.

Minds blown...

I think he needs some more ram and a faster cpu.  This boot up time is taking a long time.

Whole30 is super hard if you arnt organised.

Good luck!!

Thanks. I am in theory organized, but I have trouble with making everything a head of time, and then actually wanting to eat it when the time comes. I need to come up with some like backup meals or something. 

Awesome challenge! I'm on the final week of my whole 30 and loved it! I feel great!

 

My "advice" would be to not feel like you have to stick with breakfast foods for breakfast. More often than not I will have leftover dinner for brekkers. Easy, delicious, and no having to worry what goes with eggs!

I have a finicky stomach.  It doesn't like a lot of things, especially at breakfast. For example, I have difficulty eating meat in particular beef in the morning. It always upsets my stomach.  Anything greasy or sweet is a problem too. So I can't eat any of the normal stuff for breakfast.  Sausage/bacon/pancakes/waffles -- all of them cause me issues in the morning.  Probiotics help, but I haven't figured out what I can eat my probiotics with yet in Whole30. I used to just dump them in a morning breakfast smoothie, but I didn't finish that half the time.  I am looking for some kind of pudding/applesauce that is paleo/whole30, but I can't really find anything. Before you ask, the gelcap upsets my stomach on the probiotic, so I always break it open and dump the contents into something else. 

Wow. 6 freggies seems like a lot per day.