June 1, 2014 - Day 1

What did I Eat?

Meal 1

2 Eggs Scrambled, no milk or butter

Wilted Spinach, approx. 2 cups raw

Mandarin Orange

Black Coffee

Meal 2

Hearty Meat Sauce

Spaghetti Squash, riced & blanched

Meal 3

3 oz. Steak, seasoned & grilled

Green Beans, steamed

Yashbrowns

1 Nectarine

The Day

I woke up at my sister’s house today. She lives a significant distance from me considering I do not drive, and I had committed to her product party before committing to Whole30, then she also committed to Whole30 for June 1 and we thought it would be a fun idea if I slept over and we could shop for her first week together and start on June 1 together. It only costs $8 one way to greyhound as they are two towns over. Sean and I normally drive, and it takes just over an hour, but he was not coming for this visit. I find Greyhound relaxing anyway and I was able to get further in It Starts With Food so it was a good trip.

My sister and I had some coolers last night and stayed up late chatting only to be woken up by my 18 month old nephew crying for mommy around 5:30 am. My sister did not want him to wake me so early, so she ran to grab him right away and took him to her room. He was pretty awake and wanting to play so she asked my brother-in-law (BIL) to take him to play in in the living room and invited me to come sleep in their bed a little longer with her.

I felt spoiled when I woke up again a couple hours later. I woke up in a big king sized bed, with my sister bringing me my first Whole30 meal of this round. Plus her and her husband aren’t coffee drinkers so BIL went out to get me a black coffee from Starbucks specifically. On top of feeling spoiled, I was overcome with excitement and pride for her too. After revealing there were 2 eggs in the breakfast meal, I assured her she can add more next time. I had just read about general portions in ISWF on my way to their place. If eggs are your only protein, you can use as many whole eggs as will fit in your hand without dropping any.

My sister revealed that they were opting to give me the dehydrator and meat slicer that I wanted to buy from them previously as part of my birthday and Christmas presents this year. I was not able to buy them due to finances at the time, so it is more than generous that they were willing to give them to me as gifts. I can’t wait to make some compliant jerky and dry some of my herbs that are now growing like weeds in their planter box.

I played with my nephew and then I made lunch for all of us. It was an adventure. I made a compliant meat tomato sauce of my own recipe and we gutted a spaghetti squash for all of us. It was my first attempt at subbing squash for pasta and I had no clue what to do. BIL says he has baked it, then scraped it out with a fork but this takes about an hour total. I had heard that you can scrape it, then blanche the noodled flesh and it seemed faster. 

I started scraping and the squash did not make nice long noodles whatsoever! It was short and coarse like long grains of rice instead. I went with it, and we blanched it, strained it, then poured the meat sauce over top. It turned out to be not so bad but perhaps next time I will try the baking method. Overall the taste and texture was good and the meal itself was quite satiating. Though there was not enough for everyone (disaster #2 of this meal) and BIL had to make regular pasta for him. (He is not doing a Whole30, but is supporting my sis)

We had the product party which was lots of fun. It was a quick demo of the product and ordering, so no food was served and once everyone left we made dinner, and then my sister and I had sweet moments with my nephew while he drank his bottle before bedtime. We sat on a loveseat with his feet on her lap and his head in mine and I savoured that moment. He is really just the cutest.

Once he was in bed, my sister drove me home with my new gadgets and we said goodbye. Overall, it was a great weekend of bonding with my sister and I cannot say enough how happy I am that my family is doing this with me this time.

How do I feel today?

I started the day feeling off from the coolers last night and the aforementioned junk food eating in the last few weeks. I was tired and foggy for the first half of the day, from lack of sleep. By the end of Day One, I was feeling more alert, but I went to bed early since it is a work night. I am regretful that on day one, I have not exercised. Hopefully I can get out to the pool tomorrow.  

Intro to My Second Whole30

It’s been a crazy few weeks and I am very excited to start Whole30 again for the month of June. It could not be more perfect in that June started on a Sunday and has exactly 30 days to it, right?

I am even more excited that some of the most important and most influential women in my life are doing it by my side. This includes my mom for her second round, as well as both of my sisters, and My Dad’s fiancé for each of their first rounds. In my opinion, Good Health is the best and most important thing you can wish on your friends and family. With good health, your chances for a long, happy, healthy life dramatically increase, and of course we want our loved ones around as long as possible, but we also want them to have a good quality of life in that time and good health is the cornerstone to a good life.

Starting Photo - 06/01/2014

This time I have taken starting photos! I love my curves, but I would love to lose this gut by reducing my bloating. Here are my starting measurements:

Height	5' 7 "
Weight	207 lbs
Chest	42"
Arms	14"
Waist	35"
Hips	48"
Thighs	29"
Calves	18"

To be honest, I knew my birthday weekend was going to be rough but I did not realize it would be so easy to fall into my old habits of grabbing fast food for lunch often and mindless snacking, after a long weekend of partying and I do not feel good about it. I am craving good whole foods and very excited to get back into the Whole30 life after the last two weeks. On the upside, I will be able to feel a difference once again in the way my body feels.

On top of trashing my body for 4 days over my birthday long weekend, and slipping into old habits, I had another weekend wherein a completely gorged myself on fatty, high calorie, high carb foods in prep for a round of HcG. I will leave it to you to research HcG if you are interested. I have done it 3 times before with great results, under the care of a naturopath.

The HcG Gist: The first two days, you are required to eat as much as you can to fill your fat stores and this leaves you less hungry when you start, while the HcG builds in your system. Once the hormone builds, you no longer feel hungry and do not need to eat much, you then begin eating a very low calorie diet from a very short list of allowed foods. Then your body begins burning fat as fuel and of course, you lose weight that is mostly pure fat.

I feel this can be a good kick-starter only, for those interested in losing weight really fast and then switching to a healthy lifestyle for good. My naturopath will not allow people to use it for a crutch which is why I like doing it through her.

So, I did the first two gorge days, and started in on the low calories on the third day and then we got The Call. Unfortunately, Sean will be having a major surgery Mid-June. After careful deliberation, it was clear that adhering to the very strict protocol of the HcG diet would prove too challenging for this time and I decided it was not the right time.

Sean will be in the hospital for 4-5 days post op, and I will be back and forth to the hospital, and work, and home. I may need to eat on the go and there may be emergency situations, but hopefully not. Then there will be aftercare. Life will be spontaneous, busy, and challenging for up to a couple weeks it seems. I am up for the challenge with Whole30, but not HcG.

While I stopped the HcG, it doesn’t change the fact that I gorged for an entire weekend. I was bloated, gassy, and had a major breakout on my face. Despite feeling gross, I found myself wanting more and more fast/junk food and giving in more and more also. When I realized that June was the perfect month to do a Whole30, it was an easy decision and I made my commitment. I felt good about the decision when I realized I would rather feel healthy on the inside like with Whole30, than simply lose weight quickly, like with HcG. I feel this is a healthy thought process.

This new round of W30 will present some challenges, but like I said, I am up for them. I found eating on the go, or out, to be fairly easy with W30. I will be blogging along the way as before but with a few changes:

• My blog posts will be more structured (i.e. sections for “What I Ate” “How I Feel” “What I Did”)
• I intend to include more pictures and links
• I want to come up with and add more recipes
• Recipes are now on a separate tab so as not to make my blog posts soooo looong

And finally, on top of committing to 30 days of eating Whole Foods, I am also committing to 30 minutes per day, of moving my body, for the next 30 days. My building complex’s outdoor pool is now open and last year we were in it almost every day so I feel like this should be easy. I am sure there will be challenges here too, but I feel really good about the challenges both mentally and physically.

Thank you for following along in my journey and congratulations if you are doing Whole30 too! 

Here we go again!!! 

Days 13 & 14 - 2nd Weekend

This weekend I spent a night away from home and then had company.

On Saturday I got up early because I had very special plans – babysitting my one year old nephew!  I had made Scotch Eggs the night before so I heated up two in the oven while I got ready. These were easy to make, easy to reheat, good cold, and a good breakfast on the go. Oh and so so yummy!

I planned to take the Greyhound bus and stay the night in Abbotsford so I had transferred all my purse stuff to my backpack, just as the city bus arrived and I suddenly doubted that I put my bus pass in my backpack too and I couldn’t find it so I missed the bus and cabbed to the Greyhound bus station. I checked the bus schedule and had I waiting for the next one, I would have missed the Greyhound one so I called a cab. Because of this, I had some time so I grabbed a coffee, which I promptly spilled on the bus as I was getting settled. I put my stuff down on the seat and bolted to the bathroom at the back and pulled the door. I pulled and pulled and it wouldn’t budge! So I pushed and the door flew open and crashed loudly into the toilet seat. I propped it open with my foot and frantically looked for paper towel – no dice! I grabbed toilet paper and it was that super cheap kind that rips after every square or two. I grabbed as much as I could and sopped up my mess just as the bus was pulling out. Phew! What an ordeal, typical me.

After I finally got settled, I read some ISWF on my Kindle. I am not skipping over the chapters about why we eat the way we eat (an option they give at the start) and I find it all so very interesting. This book has really made me re-think about how I think about food. But they didn’t over complicate it. I have always know that I could achieve better health if I could just arm myself with the knowledge of a nutritionist, but every time I tried to read articles and/or books, I would find it overwhelming or dry or just too much information to cram into my brain.  The way ISWF is written is down to earth, easy to understand, and quite humorous and entertaining as well. It’s a good read in its own right and I can’t wait to read more of it. If you have not read it yet, please consider I as it can only add to and enhance the whole Whole30 experience.

I arrived in Abby, and my sister tells me she has to go to a kid’s birthday party and I was welcome to join. I could have stayed at her place and caught up on my blog, but I wanted to see my nephew as much as possible and it was lots of fun! It was a rec centre gym, rented out with gym activities for kids (scooters, parachute, etc) and bouncy castles. I was hungry by the time I was done running around with my nephew but disappointed when I suddenly remembered kid party food of my era. But then I was all the more happy to see a fruit platter and veggie tray rather than chips and candy. Kids had to eat veggies if they wanted cake! Go moms!!!

My sister was nice enough to take me grocery shopping while nephew napped. I picked out some foods for dinner and breakfast on Sunday. We got to my sister’s and she gave me the rundown and her and her husband left. I fed my nephew per my sister’s directions and he signed that he was done just as I started cooking. I let him out of his chair to go play with toys but he wanted me to come too. I followed him and took out some toys to distract and ran back to the kitchen to finish chopping my yams. I pan fried chicken breasts in olive oil and seasonings, boiled the yam cubes with brussel sprouts in the steamer above. All in all my first meal cooked with a baby afoot was pretty good!! 

My nephew and I played with toys and had a dance party in his bedroom before evening bottle/snuggle time and going to bed. We got up on Sunday, and I made myself boiled eggs instead of fried since they only had margarine, with Yashbrowns. Mandi and Jeremy like the term yashbrowns. We all played with my nephew some more, then I packed up my backpack and went home on the bus. I had such a fun weekend and it felt really good to not have to be worried about leaving my house and having compliant food.

When I got home, I had 2 Scotch Eggs for lunch and some leftover Simple Salad. Sean and I cleaned up in prep for company since we had invited Sean’s twin, Scott and his friend Christine over for a visit. I was feeling confident that I could make something Whole30 compliant that everyone would enjoy. I went with Salmon and Asparagus with a lemon, caper dressing. It turned out fantastic. I will make this again, W30 or not. We all played a game and visited but it was a work night and eventually bedtime came.

Overall I had a great weekend, stuck to my Whole30 despite being out and having people over, and went to bed feeling great.

Day 8 - Easter Monday

Easter Monday was the highlight of the weekend!

Sean and I woke up decently early to receive a delivery of new fish for our aquarium. His work buddy couldn’t care for them anymore, knew we had an aquarium, and made plans with Sean to swing by to drop them off. There were some real beauties in the bunch and that made me happy.

While Sean dealt with that situation, I was getting ready for our planned day. We had plans to go to Abbotsford to visit my family. My sister, Mandi lives out there with her husband, Jeremy and my little nephew, Zane. My dad and his fiancée Anna would be there also.  

When I was made-up and ready, I whipped up a double batch of Scramblettes for Sean and me. I love that they are so quick to make, it doesn’t take much to make a big batch, and they are quick to eat.

We drove from West Vancouver to Abbotsford in just over an hour. Everyone was already there and waiting. Since my sister knew I am doing the Whole30, she offered to look at the grocery list and try to accommodate Sean and I. I had offered to bring our own food, but she insisted. Jeremy presented us with Chicken breasts, grilled with just olive oil and salt and pepper. They were simple as per my request but tasty. There was an array of raw veggies on the table as well, and I loaded my plate with carrots.

We all went for a walk around a large park in Abby. We played with Zaney Pants (what I call him – it’s catching on…) at the playground, walked on a path around Mill Lake, saw some turtles, geese, and other waterfowl, talked, told stories, caught up. The sun was shining and everyone was in great moods.

We got back to my sister’s place and Zane was ready for a nap. My dad and Anna had to head out but Sean and I opted to stay for dinner and go out with Mandi and Jeremy. I perused some local menus to see what we could have. I settled on Cactus Club for their 4 mushroom steak dish, figuring I could swap out the potatoes that come with it, for extra veggies. They were more than accommodating. In fact I was blown away by the server’s knowledge and willingness to accommodate my needs.  

She came by to ask if we had questions. I asked what the “Seasonal Veggies” were, and she said asparagus. I then asked if I swap out the potatoes, could I get extra asparagus. She said of course. Or I could get a different type of veggie, or anything I want. I asked if there is flour or butter in the demi-glace. She gave me a confident “no”. I asked if the yam fries are fried or baked. Maybe I could get yam fries instead of potatoes. She said “they are fried…. But I can have some baked for you – no problem!” I baked out and thought that is just too much to ask and ordered the steak with asparagus and broccoli in place of potatoes. She wrote down that I may have a wheat allergy and a butter allergy to ensure those would not be added to my plate. Needless to say,  I was more than happy with this service. And the meal was delicious!

Sean and I hit the highway right from the restaurant after we said our goodbyes and headed home. It was back to work the next day and we had to stop for groceries and I had breakfast and lunch foods to make…