That's right, Internet friends. It's officially Day 12 of Whole30 and while I feel like I've been doing this forever it's been exactly, uh, twelve days without some of my favorite food groups (namely chocolate, bread, cheese, wine and yogurt). Yet somehow some way, I've been eating meat, vegetables and nuts like every single day. Bonus points if you sang that like Snoop Dog. Bigger bonus points if you didn't.
ANYWAY.
Let's dive in.
Day 8
Breakfast: I decided to eat my sweet potato-and-beef chili with a fried egg for breakfast, because I am a genius! I also added 1/4 of an avocado, yum!
Better than prison food: roast chicken, brussels sprouts and sweet potato
Lunch: leftover roast chicken, brussels sprouts and sweet potato.
Dinner: curried chicken salad (with walnuts, apple, celery, onion and mayo) on butter lettuce and radishes with some red wine vinaigrette, plus some broccoli. Also, I know you're not supposed to be satisfying your sweet tooth but I really wanted something sweet so I had four raisins. So there, Whole30!
Day 9
Breakfast: sweet potato-and-beef chili with a fried egg.
Lunch: I was going to do this white chicken chili in the slow cooker but read through the recipe and decided to cook it on my stove the night before so I could use up what was left of my roasted chicken in the process. It turned out OK. It would probably be waaaaaaay better in the slow cooker. I topped it with 1/4 of an avocado after reheating it in the microwave at work.
Curried chicken salad, broccoli, bacon and the shadow from my iPhone
Snack: banana
Dinner: more curried chicken salad with butter lettuce, broccoli and a bowl of squash, sweet potato, carrot & ginger soup. And a few raspberries because... whatever.
Day 10
Breakfast: the chia pudding adventures continue! I blended together the almond milk and seeds with a banana, blueberries and raspberries, and topped with more blueberries, raspberries, coconut flakes, chopped pecans and a bit of almond butter. Actually good! (Still not a bonafide replacement for my beloved yogurt, but managing.)
Lunch: white chicken chili
Snack: I don't know if it's because my chicken chili was kind of sad (or if I'm just super sick of eating chicken) but I headed to Whole Foods and bought an RXBar and some almonds, plus had an apple when I got back to work.
Sweet potato & beef chili with fried egg and avocado
Dinner: I got home late from work and cobbled together a pretty delicious dinner of a chicken sausage, sauerkraut, half a baked acorn squash (mashed with ghee), roasted asparagus and sautéed spinach. Plus a few raspberries. Whatever!
Day 11
Breakfast: a smaller serving of sweet potato-and-beef chili with a fried egg, plus some leftover chia pudding with raspberries and blueberries
Lunch: salad from Whole Foods, with kale, arugula, romaine, mixed greens, cucumber, mushrooms, tomato, beets, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, olives, chicken, bacon, dried cranberries, cashews, pumpkin seeds, nutritional yeast, with balsamic vinegar and olive oil
Snack: half an RXBar, 6 almonds, and an orange
Dinner: I got home on the later side again and had a bowl of white chicken chili topped with avocado, plus a salad of butter lettuce, radishes, tomato, cucumber and avocado with balsamic vinaigrette. And a few bites of curried chicken salad. And a few raspberries after.
Beef bolognese and zucchini noodles. Yum!
Day 12
Breakfast: sweet potato & beef chili with a fried egg and 1/4 avocado (I swear I will never be finished with this chili...)
Lunch: white chicken chili with 1/4 avocado
Snack 1: a banana and some almonds
Snack 2: half an RXBar in the cab on my way home from the bar I went to with co-workers (where I had soda water and lime, and remembered how annoying bars are when you aren't partaking in any alcohol)
Dinner: the last couple bites of my curried chicken salad, plus I cooked a beef bolognese served atop zucchini noodles! It was delish! Plus a couple raspberries post dinner.
Thoughts:
• I am getting sick of chewing meat. I love meat and all, but this way of eating there's just way too much for me. I realize that typically I might have a little meat in a sandwich (in the formed of deli sliced beef or turkey) or salad and some meat protein with dinner, but I'm not normally eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I realize that the cheese, bread, and beans I have in my daily eating often help round of my meals to make them filling.
• On the flip side of that, I realize I eat a lot of bread and grains to fill up and maybe I don't actually need them as much as I think I do if I am getting a lot of protein in a meal. Eating this way is obviously intended as a month-long "reprogramming" and not a forever lifestyle change, but it's interesting to observe that I don't maybe need to eat what I think I need to in order to get and stay full.
• I think I'm supposed to be fighting off the desire to eat something sweet after dinner, but I don't normally chow down on copious amount of sweets after dinner normally (I do maybe reach for a small piece of chocolate, so I figure satiating my sweet tooth with a couple raisins is OK).
• I haven't experienced any cravings for any specific foods thus far. Yes, I am getting a little bored of eating meals that only consist of meat and vegetables (and coconut milk), but I'm not like "give me potato chips or give me death!" or anything crazy. Other than getting hungry before lunch, I have not been experiencing any wild hunger pangs, either. I think this might be testament to the fact that I stopped snacking a few years ago and it made a huge difference for me. I would often still have a snack but I'd see it as one specific meal between lunch and dinner, not mindlessly eating all through the day. It's been easier to do this when I've worked in offices that don't have a ton of food around. I know companies have this idea in their head that they should put out a ton of food, but I'd honestly rather have a vending machine with both healthy and not-healthy things to choose from so that I'm forced to make a decision about what and how much to eat. (Where I'm currently working puts out fruit everyday in the afternoon and heavily subsidizes the cost of the snacks in the vending machine -- I think this is an ideal solution.)
• Did I mention my jaw kind of hurts from chewing? It does.
• I haven't had too many social activities yet this month where the not-drinking has been an issue until tonight (and I really don't mind not drinking, it's just that sitting outside at a super loud bar is not that fun when you're not enjoying a beer). Maybe that'll change as the month goes on. I did a "Drynuary" a few years ago and it was really eye opening about how much I drank without really wanting to (like ordering a glass of wine at dinner just because it's assumed you have to drink wine at dinner); I think having done that before has made me better prepared to think about how I'll get through the month (and not being able to eat out much on this plan definitely helps).
• I need to make another grocery store run and plan out the next week or so. So far, most of my recipes have centered mostly on chicken or ground beef, so I'd like to find a way to incorporate more seafood and pork. I'd also like to get back on track with working out after work, which has not been possible since I've been coming home and preparing dinner. Now I know why I turn to things like pasta and sandwiches a lot -- they are definitely time savers!
• I'm almost at the halfway point! Just 18 days to go!
Any advice for me? Let me know in the comments!
