Tag Archives: barbell club

Uncategorized, Whole30 Journey

Slow n’ Steady Progress

Food: Scrambled Eggs and Sweet Potatoes, Green Salad with Veggies and Tunafish, Tri-Tip with Potatoes and Asparagus
Exercise: Barbell Club and Crossfit

eggplant

My first foray into Eggplant on the Whole30! I served it over some mixed-squash noodles.

Our second(ish) round of the Whole30 is moving right along. Today puts us at day 7, and though we haven’t had most of the withdrawal symptoms as the first round, both Biff and I feel a little hungover today. I swear, we each only had one Kombucha last night! I’m sure there’s a little bit of detox going on. I’ve also been really hungry today in between meals, which had subsided pretty early in round 1. Hm!

But we’re still seeing lots of progress. Yesterday, I bought myself a sassy pair of mom yoga pants (very tasteful ones- no sheerness and no camel toe!) and I comfortably fit into a size smaller than before. I will now wear them everyday. The gym is where I tend to see the most progress, mostly because we have measurable results daily. Both last night at Barbell Club and today at CrossFit I PR’ed some lifts. And our workout today had lots of running. While I was still pokey, I was proud that I didn’t need to stop and walk while running 1200m and then 800m (with pull-ups, push-ups and squats in between). I actually felt lighter while running. Is that a thing? My pull-ups felt easier too. I use a resistance band to “help” and a few weeks ago I was able to reduce the strength of the band (so I needed less help). Today I used that same, new band and I felt like I could even go down another step. Whoop whoop! Less body weight and increased strength make Melissa a happy gal!

So…takeaways from today: try pull-ups again soon; don’t impulse buy yoga pants, take the time to try them on and then find out the ones you like the most are the most expensive; you can be hungover without drinking! Fun.

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Uncategorized, Whole30 Journey

Day 15: That’s Half of 30!

Exercise: Barbell Club
Food: Scrambled Eggs with Spinach, Sausage, Onion, Potatoes and Avocado, Leftover Bolognese with Carrot Noodles, Chicken Breast with Onions, Peppers, and Sweet Potato “Nachos”

chicken and nachos

Chicken and Sweet Potato “Nachos.” I’d say my dishes are looking slightly more appealing.

Well well well. Here we are at the halfway mark in my Whole30. It’s all downhill from here! It’s usually in days 16-18 that people will experience what’s called “Tiger Blood.” That describes a surge of energy, mental clarity, and general bad ass-ery. I thought I was feeling that a little bit yesterday but a friend who has been through the plan before says you’ll definitely know if it has arrived. I’m a little scared to wake up tomorrow.

One of the things I’m starting to grasp at this stage are all the “little” rules of the Whole30. These are the kind of rules that address more of the mental/emotional part of eating. So they can seem a little willy-nilly. For example: pancakes. Most of the ingredients in regular pancakes are not permitted on the Whole30 anyway (I guess..I don’t really know how to make pancakes. Pretty sure you need milk.) so regular pancakes are out. But you can make fake pancakes that fool no one using compliant stuff like bananas and cinnamon and mushing it all up and doing something else with it. Well, that’s a no-no too. The theory is that you’re fooling your brain, you’re feeding that “need” for pancakes. I get it. Kinda. I was a little confused yesterday when someone posted in the Whole30 FB group about his sweet potato nachos. Everyone was oooh-ing and awing and I’m like “why aren’t they telling this dude he’s a failure and needs to start over?” An admin eventually chimed in and said this was allowed because it was just sweet potato– he hadn’t combined other ingredients to mimic a chip. I’m still a little fuzzy on that one, but I figured if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em and you bet your ass I made those with dinner.

I felt great at Barbell Club tonight. We didn’t go too crazy heavy with anything, but I was sweating like crazy. Release those toxins!

For breakfast I made scrambled eggs and spinach, sausage, onions and peppers. I reheated some potatoes I made yesterday but they were a little blah. I was also trying to help my son finish his homework so I wasn’t really savoring my meal anyway.

Lunch was the rest of the Bolognese sauce from the other night. I served over some Trader Joe’s carrot noodles, of which my husband is still not a big fan. I had a pretty eventful morning of going to the dump, so I needed something quick and easy.

And for dinner I baked some chicken breasts in the oven with peppers and onions. I made the sweet potato nachos just by making thin slices and roasting them in the oven for about 25 minutes. I topped with chipotle mayo, avocado, and salsa. Ole!

So…takeaways from today: I’m awaiting my Tiger Blood; pancakes aren’t allowed but nachos are; carrot noodles hit the spot after a cathartic trip to the dump.

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Uncategorized, Whole30 Journey

Day 8: One Week In

Exercise: Barbell Club
Food: Scrambled Eggs with Avocado, Veggies and Salsa, Leftover Bolognese with Carrot Noodles, Leftover Egg Roll in a Bowl (now with more egg!)

Eggs with Salsa

What I lack in cooking skills, I make up for with my plating techniques

Today marks one week since we started following the Whole30. Boom! I think that pretty much makes me an expert? Maybe not, but I do feel that I have a pretty good handle on things. I went to the grocery store today (yes, another trip to the grocery store) and I had a much easier time reading labels and ruling out certain items. My biggest challenge is still cooking. I’ve alluded to the fact before that I’m not a good cook. And it’s not something I particularly enjoy. But I am proud that I’ve churned out some edible things and I feel like I’ve improved a little just by virtue that I’m cooking more daily than ever before. I may even foray into soups this week! Yeah, you didn’t think things were going to get so wild on this blog, so fast.

The Whole30 creators stress that it is not a weight loss diet. Though most people who can spare to lose a few lbs tend to see some good progress. So people aren’t encouraged to weigh themselves during the 30 days. But it’s so tempting! I do feel lighter– not necessarily weight-wise, but maybe I just have less bloat? Ultimately, I’d like to lose 40lbs, and I’m already thinking that when 30 days is up, maybe I’ll do another 30. Or add a macros counting component? But just like when LaLa dishes some hot gossip, I need to back it up! (Is two Vanderpump Rules references in two days too many?) One step at a time. I’m glad to already be feeling better, regardless of what the scale says.

I went to Barbell Club tonight instead of CrossFit. It meets at 7pm, so after I’d had all my meals for the day. I felt good! We worked on our Snatch. And Clean and Jerks. Those are real things. Man, things are getting wild tonight.

Enough about snatch work. Breakfast was…drumroll…eggs! Scrambled eggs with veggies, avocado and a nice salsa I found at Trader Joe’s to be exact. Quite good and satisfying! I’m trying to lessen my potato intake, and since I didn’t workout in the morning, I didn’t feel like I needed them.

For lunch I had some leftover Bolognese sauce over carrot noodles. I packed Biff the same thing for work, but he reports that the noodles didn’t reheat so well. Good to know!

Dinner was the rest of yesterday’s Egg Roll in a Bowl, this time with that aforementioned poached egg. I had to have Biff show me how to poach and egg so now I know. Ladies, find you a man who can handle eggs!

So…takeaways from today and a week of healthier, clean eating: if you practice anything enough, you’ll get better at it (ie cooking); no one likes a limp noodle, especially at work;  22 days to go!

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