June 6, 2014 – Day 6

What Did I Eat?

Meal 1

Apple

Banana

2 Boiled Eggs

Sun Butter

Meal 2

Roasted Chicken and Veggies from Urban Fare

Meal 3

Leftover Chicken

Leftover Mashed Yam, attempted to pan fry

The Day

This section should be titled “The Evening” today.

The day was pretty standard; woke up, went to work etc. It was after work when anything interesting happened - and I use that word lightly.

I went to meet up with an old family friend to pick up a handmade gift for one of my dearest friends. I haven’t given it to her yet so I can’t go into detail. But I have known the artist for longer than I can remember. Feels like distant family really. Our moms are really close. I picked up the gift and we chatted for a little while and caught up. It took me close to an hour to get home so I had a late dinner. For the first time in 2 months I felt hungry along with irritable and weak-ish. 

This was not a fault in the program but rather my own poor planning. I knew that I had these plans after work and I could have brought along a Larabar or Fruit. I was so cranky and tired when I finally got home, that I wanted to eat but not to cook. A night like this in my old life, and I would have ordered a pizza so I was happy to realize that I have come a long way and have learned a lot.

Since Sean is decidedly sticking to broths and shakes for the time being, I re-heated a chicken breast that was on reserve for him, for me. The only veg that I would not have to cook was the leftover mashed sweet potatoes that I made yesterday and couldn’t stand. I added some egg to bind and salt to cut the sweetness and tried pan frying like a fritter. No Dice. It did not hold together and then burned on the bottom. I mixed it up a bit to at least warm the mash through. The caramelization caused by the burning made them a little more tolerable. But still not great.

How Do I Feel Today?

Most of the day really good, but tired and cranky with a two hour delay on dinner.

June 4, 2014 – Day 4

What did I Eat?

Meal 1

1 Boiled Egg

1 Banana

1 Larabar

Meal 2

everything in one bite

Salad

• Romaine
• Tomatoes
• Avocado
• Shrimp
• Walnuts

Meal 3

2 Italian Baked Eggs (Oeufs En Cocotte)

 The Day

I FORGOT TO BUY EGGS!!!!

I did not start the day off right. I forgot eggs when I did my grocery run last night. I grabbed some things out of the fridge that would enable me to make a salad for lunch at work. We have a decent kitchen in the office to if need be, salads and things can always be assembled on my lunch break rather than having to get up super early or make something the night before. Unless I need to make for Sean too, then he doesn’t have the luxury of a kitchen since he works outdoors. With his digestive issues of late, he has been sticking to mainly liquids and soft foods lately and I really only need to worry about me.

I got to work and stopped at that little café in the lobby. I grabbed a black coffee, banana, and apple and I asked the lady for 2 eggs. She says “oh no! They are just cooking now if you want to wait… otherwise there is only one left from yesterday.” I was already late so I take the one, pay and head up stairs to the office. I peel my eggs and eat it. I bite the apple and it’s gritty. I look at the apple and it’s bruised. I decide I better cut it up and I take it to the kitchen only to find, once I’d cut it in half, that the bruise surrounded the whole apple just under the skin. I have never seen that before but what a letdown. I pouted as I tossed it in the organics bin we have at work. I went back to my desk and started on the banana. This was relatively bruised also but most of it was salvageable so I ate what I could. I waited until I was hungry again to eat the Larabar which was a longer time than I thought.

Lunch rolled around and I chopped all my veggies and assembled my salad. I think I need to bring a decent sized bowl to work for my salads. Once I had all the ingredients in the bowl, there was no room for the shrimp. I put it on the side and ate them together as best I could. I opted for no dressing as I had an avocado as a fat and tomatoes, and avocados on salad kind of blend together to make their own delicious dressing any way. After eating in the lunch room (not at my desk) I went out into the sun, over to Urban Fare, to buy eggs.

When I got home I was excited to make the baked eggs dish mentioned above. I had pinned it for my first round of Whole30 and always seemed to be short one ingredient or another. When I went grocery shopping yesterday, I bought spinach purposely for this dish. Everything else, I had. I get home only to realize we forgot eggs and couldn’t make the dish. So tonight was the night! I was going to make them for breakfast for the next day. After prepping and making the dishes, I decided we would have them for dinner tonight instead. They were easy but made a few dishes and there were many steps. Once they were in the oven, I did not feel like making another meal for dinner so I thought, why not have these fresh tonight instead? I ended up making 6 instead of 4 anyway, I could serve 2 to each Sean and me for dinner and have 2 for breakfast tomorrow as left over. They were soft enough for Sean to eat, and probably the healthiest thing he has had all week. He was living off of Mr. Noodles and juice.

Sean has diverticulitis and has had 3 major flare-ups in 4 months. It is uncommon to have a second flare-up at all, let alone within a year of the first one. And it is uncommon for people under 50 or so to have this condition period, then it becomes increasingly common after that age. It’s the reason old people need to eat high fibre. You have to keep everything moving, or there is too much pressure on the large intestine and these pockets form. Then when they become infected, they cause a lot of pain. We’ve been told when he has a flare up, he should move to a liquid diet and get antibiotics. For the three major flare-ups, we have gone to the hospital, he has been on pain meds, diagnosed, and sent home with antibiotics. He is missing so much work and it’s causing him so much pain, so frequently that the doctors have decided to operate. This is the surgery that he is having Mid-June. It will not be laparoscopic like we had initially been told and had read. It will be a full invasive procedure, he will be in the hospital for up to 5 days, and then home resting and healing for up to 6 weeks. It’s kind of a big deal. This will hopefully be the best thing for the long run. He should be in less pain, less often moving forward. Unfortunately he has diverticula throughout his entire large intestine. The part the surgeon is focused on is riddled with scar tissue from past flare-ups and they want to remove it. They obviously cannot remove his entire large intestine. Well technically they could, but the benefits do not outweigh the cons just yet, and hopefully we never get to that point.

All in all, we are feeling nervous but optimistic.

How do I feel today?

The clarity I feel continues to amaze me. I had another small headache in the morning that went away pretty early on. I had more sugar and crap food before this round than the other so I fully expected some withdraw in the first week or so. I also have had cravings and small fantasies of cheating. I have asked myself things like “I know dairy isn’t my issue, so it wouldn’t hurt if I added cheese here and there right?” but I remind myself that I did not do a proper reintroduction after my last W30, so I don’t really know that I am ok with dairy. I also have been tempted to weigh in this round. This is weird to me because I was so set on not doing it last round. But I have really noticed a huge difference in my belly size from day 1 to now and it’s got me curious if that translates to pounds. Again, I remind mself it’s not about that. Who care if I lost 1 lb, 5 lbs, or no lbs? I am feeling great!!

June 2, 2014 – Day 2

What did I eat?

Meal 1

Leftover ground pork patty

2 boiled eggs

Banana

Apple

Meal 2

Urban Fare Roast Chicken Breast

Mixed steamed veggies

Coconut Crème Larabar

Meal 3

2 Lamburger Patties

Brussels Sprouts from frozen, steamed then sautéed in Ghee

The Day

I woke up and looked in the fridge, instantly regretting that I hadn’t shopped. Luckily, despite all my bad eating in the last few weeks, when I did cook at home, I stuck to Whole30 foods! I grabbed a leftover ground pork patty that I had made on the weekend, and some boiled eggs that I made last night, then headed to work.

Work went by fast; a typical summer Monday. I head to Urban Fare for my old standby, chicken and mixed veggies for lunch and buy a coconut crème Larabar. This one is decidedly my favourite.

When I got home, Sean (aka my ride) was having some tummy pain (to do with his impending surgery) and asked if there was any chance we could grocery shop tomorrow. I looked in the fridge and decided I could get by with what we had. I steamed some veggies and made seasoned patties from ground lamb to throw on the grill.

I wanted to go swimming but there were a lot of people in the pool this evening and I didn’t want to go down alone. This will be a mental hurdle that I will have to overcome if I want to move my body like I said. I was disappointed in myself but not discouraged.  

Today wasn’t very exciting, just a typical day. With sunshine.

I will make tomorrow better.

How I am Feeling

My energy is good and consistent. I am feeling less bloated. I have had a bit of hunger between meals but will adjust accordingly. I’ve had to pee a lot as I up my water intake but I know this will balance out. I am still really pumped and excited to be doing this. I am enjoying the flavours of W30 food more this round and looking forward to meals.

Day 19 - TGIF

All I can say is Thank Goodness It’s Friday!

This week was busy and crazy at work and I am glad for the weekend.

I got to work and had boiled eggs and fruit again. It’s inspired me to start pre-making breakfasts for week days, like Egg Muffins or Breakfast meatloaf. Getting a little bored of boiled eggs.

For lunch I went over to Urban Fare and got a salad at the salad bar and roasted chicken leg/thigh. This was incredibly satiating.

But the plat de résistance was dinner. I made Herbes de Provence Chicken Breasts and a Simple Salad. I love how all the meals you eat on Whole30 are home cooked. They nourish the body and the soul. There is a certain sense of satisfaction that you get when you make your own food. There is nothing more satisfying.

Also thanks to Whole30 I have learned to enjoy leftovers. I used to hate them, but perhaps it was because how I used to eat was never quite right in the first place.