Whole30 - Week 2 Meals & Journal

Looking back on Week 1 I would say it was very successful. I'm already feeling the effects and seeing the benefits of eating this way. I am enjoying the food and not feeling deprived. I see so much improvement in my afternoon slumps and in my stomach. It does take a lot of prep as far as meal planning and grocery shopping but as far as more cooking during the week - I don't think so. We made easy meals last week and I cook dinner anyways so I'm not feeling like it is that much more time consuming during the week. 

Prep for the week included a Costco run and Trader Joe's run. I also made batch of paleo mayo with Matt's help and made up lunch for the week - Chicken Salad.

Paleo Mayo - Super Easy and Fast to make - recipe

Chicken Salad - chopped chicken, celery, grapes, apples, paleo mayo, and lemon pepper seasoning. 

Coffee Made for the week and in Mason Jars. 

Stocked with fruits and Veggies.

Fruit, Veggie and Meat draws are full, got organic peaches and apples at Costco.

Day 8:
Breakfast: 3 egg omelet with spinach, basil, bacon crumbles, and Everyday Seasoning from Trader Joe's with clarified butter. Coffee with Coconut Milk and Cinnamon. This is become my usual breakfast. 
Lunch: Chicken Salad over greens with a little greek dressing and side of plantain chips - I always want a crunch. And a large green unsweetened tea. So good. 

Dinner: Sausage, Potatoes, and Asparagus have been one of our favorite dinners for a long time so to be able to have this on WHOLE30 is such a treat. Usually we would have with red potatoes and drench it in sugar filled ketchup so I am experimenting with some new ideas here. This week we used Trader Joe's Garlic Herb Chicken Sausage, a bag of mix potatoes, and 2 sweet potatoes. I fry the potatoes in olive oil and garlic salt and everyday seasoning from Trader Joe's for about 20 minutes stirring often then add chopped sausage for about 10 minutes and then scoot it all to the side of the skillet and add a little more olive oil and the asparagus which I top with lemon pepper. I give asparagus about 5-8 minutes depending on the thickness of the stalks - I like it crunchy.  This was delicious and I especially likes the sweet potatoes in the mix but noticed that they cooked up faster than the other potatoes. Had a side of peaches and me and Parker had some avocado. 

Love that the kids are eating what we are eating.

Journal: Slept hard and work up in a much better mood. Sunday was rough.  Went to a hard work out at Stroller Strides. Enjoyed what I ate today and was full and satisfied. I did good thru the afternoon but was pretty tired by evening. 

Day 9:
Breakfast: 

Snack: I felt a sweet tooth and had a bowl of almond butter, banana, sliced almonds, cinnamon, and shredded coconut. Very filling and satisfying.

Lunch: Wasn't super hungry from my morning snack so had a late lunch. Chicken Salad, avocado, chips, and peaches. I ended up not eating all my chips and peaches because I just wasn't that hungry. 
Dinner: We have community group tonight and the host is making spaghetti so I'm making our family Zoodles (recipe) with Red Sauce (only sugar free I could find at Trader Joe's) and Sausage (spinach garlic chicken from Target). There will be salad and fruit there too. Kinda stinks to have to make a meal on my week to bring a side but that is how it works when you are eating "different". Here is a photo of the zoodles in the making. It was very fun to make them but after baking to dehydrate they were just a clump so I was really bummed and didn't love the texture. The sauce and sausage was good. 

Journal: Slept hard again and woke up sore from my workout yesterday and with a headache.  Feeling the need to snack but not from hunger - interesting! I feel like today was a rougher day in the afternoon and evening. I was tired and a little grumpy but you know who knows what that is from :)

Day 10:
Breakfast: 2 fried eggs with clarified butter. My favorite scoop of almond butter melted, sliced banana, sliced almonds, shredded coconut, and cinnamon. I had hot coffee with coconut cream with cinnamon ... I need cold mornings to enjoy that. 

Lunch: I had chicken salad again with 1/2 avocado and plantain chips with a green tea.
Dinner: Tried for a Mexican meal. I made up ground beef with chopped jalepeno and peppers and threw in spices. I took a Jicama peeled and chopped and threw in food processor until it looked like rice added chopped cilantro, salt and lime juice. Jicama rice was good and easy to make I mixed with my guac and meat and pretended in was a chipolte bowl! I also made a sort of ranch dressing - took 1/4 paleo mayo, 1/4 light coconut milk, sprinkled with onion powder, garlic powder, and dill. It was ok but not hidden valley! 

Journal: Still having trouble getting out of bed in the morning but once I'm up I feel my energy in morning and mood is much better. I worked out this morning and it was a hard workout but I see I'm getting stronger. Have a headache and sore neck and shoulders today. In the afternoon and evening I had a headache and I feel the last 3-4 I have been constipated and then cleaning out but it's uncomfortable ... What's that about? Maybe too many bananas?! Felt my attitude about food was negative yesterday and I craved sweets which I really haven't struggled with. I looked up the whole30 timeline and see that day 10-11 are the hardest and when most people quit and they say the "magic" of soaring energy is almost here so I'm sticking with it and excited for the magic!!! Here is link to timeline if you wanted to read 

http://whole30.com/2013/08/revised-timeline/

Day 11:
Breakfast: my usual 3 egg omelet with spinach, bacon, basil, everyday seasoning fried in clarified butter 

Lunch: Cobb Salad - pre-grilled chicken breasts from Trader Joe's, handful butter lettuce leaves, handful of Crunch Salad from Trader Joe's, 1 boiled egg, 1 slice bacon, shredded carrots, leftover jicama from last night, "sort of ranch dressing" from last night, and a drizzle of garlic roasted olive oil. 

Snack: I broke under the craving and made Paleo Banana Muffins with some brown bananas that have been taunting me and reminding me of my sweet and amazing banana pancakes :( These were very dense and disappointing 

Dinner: Citrus Herb Roasted Chicken Thighs Recipe Sweet Potato Fries (sweet potatoes sliced stir in bowl with olive oil, garlic salt, seasoning salt, everyday seasonings, and italian seasoning, put on baking sheet in oven at 400 for 30 min or until browning)

Snack: Did my favorite melted almond butter with sliced banana, sliced almonds, cinnamon and Coconut  - I'm going to call this amazing Banana Coconut Almond Butter Treat :)

Journal: Really dragging today and craving sugar and carbs again. So frustrating. But still feel determined to fight thru! I feel kinda down and moody. My stomach seems off again. :/

Day 12:

Breakfast: 2 egg omelet with bacon, spinach, basil, seasoning with leftover sweet potatoes from last night and usual coffee

Lunch: 11am ice tea and apple and then a1:30pm Green smoothie with some plantain chips

 Dinner: Coconut Crusted Burgers - YUMMY -I made 6 medium size patties out of  1.5 lbs. ground turkey. And I made a broccoli salad with golden raisins, almonds, bacon, celery, broccoli, and mayo with red wine vinegar. 

Journal: My stomach still seems off which I can't quite figure out. I'm kinda dreading the weekend because I usually don't cook on the weekends and Paleo does require cooking :/ I doubled up the dinner recipe so we have leftovers. Ok for some positives I noticed today at Stroller Strides (which I have been doing for 5 weeks) that my workout level is more 
intense and that my performance is really improving which is encouraging. 

Day 13: Saturday
Breakfast: Leftover sweet potatoes, strawberries, omelette and banana muffin (which didn't get eaten because it was so dense) and my usual coffee. 

 Lunch: Yard House for lunch on our date and really did our best to order. We ordered and shared a Spring Mix Salad with veggies and Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing and Turkey Club Sandwich with no bread or cheese and no condiments with a side of mustard and pickles. 

Dinner: We had "clean out the fridge dinner" which I'm going to coin as "upcycled dinner" so we had leftover citrus herb chicken shredded with salad, avocados in paleo wraps. These wraps were so easy to make and were good. You could basically make them any flavor you wanted. 

Journal: I felt like today was a success with some up and downs. We had an amazing morning date, dropped kids off and went to Junk in the Trunk so much fun... but there was amazing smells coming from the food truck so left a little HANGRY! We did enjoy Mama's Cold Brew Iced Coffee there black and it was delicious. I really felt sorry for myself that I couldn't have a "treat" on our morning date BUT it ended up totally fine. I felt like I did ok for eating out but after thinking about it I'm sure the dressing, turkey and bacon all had added sugar. But did as well as I could! I thought my weekend mind frame at breakfast and dinner were much better and I was happy to have leftovers and not have to cook. 

Day 14:
Breakfast: Almond Butter Waffles **so good :) I had half a waffle with strawberries, shredded coconut, sliced almonds, and cinnamon. Also had one fried egg, 1 slice bacon, and usual coffee. 

Lunch: Jalepeno Burgers topped with homemade paleo mayo, sweet potato fries, salad with avocado. & peaches. 
Dinner:

Journal: Andrew's family came over for lunch and the football game. I really enjoyed my lunch and didn't want any of their non-whole30 food and they even had ice cream. I just had my favorite Almond Butter Banana Bowl and was satisfied.