Happy Weekend!

I’m popping in with a Whole30 update. I’m officially at the halfway mark today…Day 15!!!!! Whole30 has been wonderful to me so far but I am excited to be entering the countdown phase (and I’m sure some of you are ready for more regularly scheduled content and not all Whole30, all the time. Ha.)

Today I have a recap of days 9-12. I have to admit that these days were the hardest so far. On day 9 I hit a bit of a slump which I’ll get into more in a little bit and then on day 12 I had to travel to West Virginia and food options were limited. I’ll talk more about that later in the post too.

Let’s get to it!

DAY 9

Sorry to say you’ll be seeing more chia pudding in this post as it’s really all I can get excited about for breakfast on Whole30. I packed this to eat after practice on our first yoga teacher training weekend.

I redeemed myself a little with lunch. Sauteed sweet potatoes, spinach and mushrooms with a fried egg, salsa and guacamole.

And dinner was a burger topped with caramelized onions and mustard and served over avocado in a kale leaf. Roasted brussels, turnips and carrots on the side. I am a ketchup or aioli girl when it comes to burgers and I seriously missed that here! The plan was to make homemade mayo but then I discovered that I didn’t have the right kind of oil for it (you need “light tasting” not extra virgin olive oil) so I just went with mustard. The burgers still turned out well.

Day 9 was a little difficult for me in the whole food and emotions category. On Sunday night I was coming off of a long teacher training weekend (they are always both mentally/emotionally draining + crazy wonderful all at the same time) + receiving the new about my family member. When I got home I was definitely kind of taking my frustration out on Whole30 and really wishing for a glass of wine (and some ketchup!). Instead I took a hot bath, poured a kombucha and enjoyed dinner. I felt totally relaxed after. So that was a win for Whole30.

DAY 10

Another day, another bowl of chia pudding.

Lunch was leftover beef stew from the crockpot. Really hearty and filling.

Snack was apple and almond butter.

And then I lost steam. It was Monday night and I didn’t get home from teaching until almost 9 p.m. with nothing planned for dinner. Where I would usually throw something together like a flat bread, quinoa bowl or cheese and crackers in this instance, I instead skipped dinner. I had ZERO desire to eat another egg or sweet potato and zero desire to spend the next hour cooking something. Y’all know that I am not a meal skipper so this was a little weird for me. I told you these were the hardest days yet!

DAY 11

I got back in my groove on day 11. (Side note: adding unsweetened shredded coconut + cacao nibs to my chia pudding = more awesome. Love the crunch of the cacao nibs!)

Lunch was a salad with spinach, arugula blend, radishes, pine nuts, smoked salmon, avocado, cucumbers and tomatoes. Balsamic and olive oil to dress. I had just returned home from Trader Joe’s and had a whole fridge full of fresh ingredients to create from!

I made this amazing dinner for my parents! Bone-in pork chops, mashed sweet potatoes and braised red cabbage and apples. We all raved about it! Braised red cabbage is one of my favorite veggie sides ever.

DAY 12

Breakfast after training clients and working out before hitting the road to WV.

Between the time I left Charlotte and ate this apple with almond butter at 3:30 p.m. I also had: dried apricots, dried apples, plantain chips, freeze-dried bananas, ham and collard greens. Random day of eating on the road.

We had a family dinner at Texas Steakhouse after the services. There were 26 of us! This was definitely an instance where being on Whole30 made me feel kind of self-conscious. I didn’t really want to talk about it or bring attention to “what I couldn’t eat” because really…in the whole scheme of things this is a very “first world” type of problem to have. If it came down to it, I would have survived had I needed to eat off-program. I felt weird ordering salmon, sweet potato and asparagus and asking the waitress to leave all sauces and toppings off. I did ask for clarified butter on the side and drizzled it on my salmon and sweet potato. I was desperately in need of a good meal after piecing together lunch and skipping dinner the night before.

HOW I FEEL

• Physically, 100% great but as I shared in this post this was the most emotionally difficult period of Whole30 yet.
• I definitely experienced my first real cravings for things off-program during days 9-12, especially a glass of wine!
• Sleep has been both good and bad. It’s still hard for me to wind down at night and most nights I haven’t gone lights out until 11:30 or midnight but I am sleeping through the night more consistently which is HUGE for me. I wake up every.single.night around 3-4 a.m.
• My appetite has definitely leveled off. I do snack on-program which isn’t really encouraged but I don’t do it mindlessly.
• I had to use the steroid cream on my eyes again because they got really itchy. No flaking but they were very itchy coming off the weekend. I only used it one time and they have been okay since.
• I had a rough patch with my skin during my cycle with a lot of breakouts but that is also clearing quickly. I would also like to take a moment to share that several others commented experiencing reduced severity with cramps on Whole30. Definitely a great benefit!
• Digestion still all good. All pants fitting super well (even those that I usually have to do some squats in to loosen up before wearing!). I don’t think I’ve lost any weight on the scale (you’re not supposed to weigh yourself) but clothes are fitting better and I still feel overall less puffy and bloated. I felt all sorts of ick after the holidays.
• I also feel proud of myself for sticking with this. I have to comment that the accountability of sharing online and partnering with friends has been HUGE for me. In my weak moments it’s definitely a huge motivating factor!

What do you eat when you don’t feel like eating anything?  Any go-to “desperation dinners?”

Fellow Whole30ers…how’s it going?

Fellow Whole30ers…how do you deal with travel? 

More Whole30:

I’m Doing My First Whoel30
Recent Eats: My First Whole30 Days 1-4
Recent Eats: My First Whole30 Days 5-8