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Is That Fog or Shade?

It’s Day 5 of 30 here at the ol’ Bouse House and so far…so good. This time around seems to be a little less physically taxing, though we do have a couple of the usual first week ailments. Biff has had a dull headache the last couple of days and I’ve been a little foggy. Not necessarily tired, but just not as sharp, I’d say. I got sucked into watching a Taylor Swift concert on Netflix with my son yesterday. I found myself getting annoyed at her repeating the same three dance moves (and yes, I’m counting hair scrunching as one of them) yet I was too numb to look away. Maybe it’s the sugar detoxing, maybe it’s just the power of T. Swift. The world may never know.

I wonder which diet would give me legs like these…

I did CrossFit yesterday for the second time since starting this Whole30 round. I made sure to tell the people around me that I was feeling foggy, so they wouldn’t be alarmed if they saw me staring at a pile of weights, confused. I did ok in the workout, but it called for handstand push-ups. As the name implies, you do a handstand against the wall, lower yourself so your head is touching the ground, and push yourself back up again. I can’t do them fully, (mostly due to being scared of crushing my skull) but I can usually manage 5-6 in a row if I put a couple of mats between my head and the floor. This time, it was all I could do to just get into a handstand. Plus the shirt I wore kept coming untucked. It was a scene.

The good news is, I’m already starting to feel some of the positive physical changes, too. I feel less bloated. I wore my jeggings comfortably to Target yesterday (when I die, please someone have them put “Wore Jeggings to Target” on my gravestone.) My skin is looking milky white like one of them Downton Abbey chicks. And I seem to be sleeping more soundly.

We’ve been eating much of the same for breakfast– eggs and potatoes. Lunch has been salads mostly. I made a nice meatloaf with mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts a few nights ago, and tonight I’m contemplating what to do with a package of chicken thighs. I’m thinking of using some coconut aminos to make a stir-fry, served over cauliflower rice.

Later this week, I’m having dinner with some girlfriends. Fortunately, the restaurant serves organic steaks. I’m thinking it won’t be too hard to stay on track, though I might be tempted by a gluten-free cider. These gals always bring the TEA and I don’t know if I can handle it without a little drinky-poo. Either way, you bet your crop top I’ll be bringing my own salad dressing! #HotSauceInMyBagSwag

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Uncategorized, Whole30 Journey

Day 18: Friday Headache

Exercise: CrossFit
Food: Fried Eggs with Sweet Potatoes and Spinach, Green Salad with Veggies and Tuna Fish, Pork Chops with Roasted Veggies and Spinach

breakfast

There’s an egg in there, I swear!

Less than two weeks to go and it’s feeling like smooth sailing at this point. The beginning is such a huge change all at once that you have to be hyper aware of everything you’re doing. Now that I’ve got the hang on things, I have to remind myself to not get too complacent and mess up on accident. Like forgetting to include a healthy fat in a meal, not double checking ingredients before using a new item, or taking a bite of my son’s leftover sandwich. The fact that he hardly ever washes his hands makes that last one slightly easier to avoid. Slightly.

The dull headache I had yesterday came back today, at a slightly alarming time: during my workout. More precisely, when I had about 5 minutes to go to the end of my workout, and I had 65 pounds of weight above my head. I could feel it creeping in, but at first I thought make it was just a symptom of the fatigue I was feeling at that point in the workout. And then when I was doing some heavy overhead squats (barbell is over your head while squatting down and back up) it started to get worse. I think I was holding my breath, I was really concentrating on my form. It was a heavyish weight for me to do as many reps as we had (I was on number 46. Oh and there was running, burpees, and kettlebell swings in there too. Dead). When I stood up, I knew I should stop. At that point there was about 2 minutes left. I don’t know that I’ve ever had to stop like that, but I’m glad I did. After having some water and walking a few laps outside, I felt a little better: enough to make me confident this was just the return of yesterday’s headache and nothing too concerning. I took some ibuprofen immediately when I got home, took a shower and had some lunch. I felt mostly better after that, and then I had to rush out to volunteer in my son’s class. I’m hoping the headache won’t return tomorrow. I did a little reading and it seems others feel this at this point in their Whole30. Some attribute it to Ketosis (basically when your body starts using fat for fuel instead of carbs) or a need for more salt or magnesium. I could also just be getting sick. Or PMSing. We’ll see! Yay!

For breakfast, I roasted some sweet potatoes and then fried some eggs, added some sautéed spinach and a side of bacon. Bam!

I had pretty much the same lunch today as yesterday: green salad with tuna fish. I was so glad I had prepped most of that before going to the gym. It was quick, filling, and refreshing.

And for dinner I made brined pork chops using a recipe I first used a couple of weeks ago. What I didn’t account for was that these chops were a little thinner than last time, so I overcooked them just a smidge. More sautéed spinach and roasted veggies rounded out our meal. Oh and we had apples with almond butter, perhaps my favorite thing.

So…takeaways from today: harness your child’s grossness to stick to your goals; don’t die at the gym in a literal way, it’s not cool; less than two weeks to go!

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Uncategorized, Whole30 Journey

Day 17: Resisting Temptation

Exercise: Testing My Willpower
Food: Scrambled Eggs with Spinach, Onion, Avocado and Salsa, Turkey Burger wrapped in Lettuce, Chicken Stir-Fry with Cauliflower Rice

Turkey Burger

Hold the buns!

After a fun and successful dinner at a restaurant last night, today was also a mix of socialization and temptation. We had a playdate afterschool with some of my favorite moms and kids. My son gets out of school a little later than the other kids, so by the time we got there, they’d had enough time to…bake cookies! The smell was divine. It had also just started to rain and the thought of how “comforting” a cookie would be crossed my mind. But the idea was gone almost as quickly as it arrived. Witness the rewiring of my brain! I stuck with my La Croix and juicy gossip.

I did have a “first” today: a nagging, little headache. I can’t be sure if it was Whole30-related, but it didn’t go away after coffee, breakfast, tea, and lunch. So I gave in and took a few ibuprofen. It’s “allowed” on the plan though not encouraged. If I didn’t have to go anywhere in the afternoon, I might have toughed it out. But when my friends started group texting about getting Mexican food for lunch, I decided I needed to be on my A game for this playdate.

I didn’t go to the gym today. The only mid-morning  CrossFit class on Thursdays is right in the middle of when I drop my son off at school, so I can never make that. I took a wait-and-see approach to going to an afternoon/evening class. But by the time we got home from our playdate I would have had to start immediately prep dinner to fit in a workout and I didn’t have the motivation. Where’s that Tiger Blood? I’m waiting!

Breakfast was the usual variation of the lil scramble I like to make. I did not have any potatoes today, I’m trying to limit those on days I don’t workout.

For lunch, I cooked up a frozen turkey burgers and made a lettuce “bun.” It was kinda a hot mess, though it tasted good. I had to eat it in 3.5 bites before it totally disintegrated in my hand.

And dinner was better in my mind than on my plate. I made a stir-fry using some chicken I marinated in coconut aminos. I used cauliflower in the place of rice, and I attempted to use a dash of rice vinegar on in. Instead I got more like a splash. It was still ok, but not to-die-for. Some apple slices and almond butter made me feel better about it.

So…takeaways from today: it IS possible to resist fresh-baked cookies; get your head right before a playdate; always look before you dash.

 

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