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The Unofficial Official Last Day

It’s January 30th and that means I made it to day 30 of this Whole30. Well, technically I did cheat one day, so it’s not an official Whole30, but since this is my third(ish) time through, I think it counts. So in the words of Vicki Gunvalsen, Wooooohooooo!

I haven’t updated here for awhile because, well, things have been pretty routine. Cook, sweat, shop, sleep, repeat. We’ve been using our dehydrator a lot for fruit, which I think has saved us some grocery money. However, I’ve yet to find a good shopping routine. We plan to stick with this Whole30 way of eating for the foreseeable future (while allowing a cheat meal or drink once every two weeks) so I’m still eager to fine tune the shopping and spending. I was spoiled in California. Within 5 miles of our house we had several big chain supermarkets, two Trader Joe’s, two Whole Foods, a Sprouts and, my personal favorite, Whole365. I even went to Whole365 when we visited last November, for old time’s sake. Here, I have to drive about 20 minutes for Trader Joe’s and a little longer for Whole Foods. I can certainly find enough of what we like at the in-town supermarkets and the couple small, natural food stores. But the mark-up is all over the place. And don’t get me started on how hard it is to find a good avocado.

Sad lil guys

The good news is that’s forced me to try a few new recipes. On Monday I made this beanless chili recipe in the InstantPot and it came out great. On reheating, the sweet potatoes fell apart, but that didn’t affect the taste. I used ground beef instead of turkey and I doubled the Rotel. I also didn’t measure the spices because I like to live dangerously. I’ll definitely be making it again!

Pretty much the only thing I need to go to Whole Foods for is compliant dressings and mayo (yet somehow I always seem to spend $140 there…) so I think I finally have the kick in the pants I need to start making my own. Biff has been kicking around the idea of making another batch of Kombucha, but I’m ok with not having a living yeast culture on our counter.

So I’m off to workout and then to the grocery store today! Tomorrow I’ll weigh myself and maybe I’ll have a gluten-free cider to celebrate. And then, it’s right back into another Whole30!

 

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Whole30 Journey

I’m Baaaaaaaack!

Foraging for something I can eat

My cabinets are stocked with sweet potatoes and ghee. That can only mean one thing: the Bouses are back on the Whole30! And I’m resurrecting my blog. Boom! I wish I’d kept it up longer last year, but it’s a familiar pattern: I get all gung-ho about something, people like it, I pressure myself to make it better, then I get worried I’m not keeping it fresh, then I get resentful, and next thing you know, I’m setting small fires around town just to feel alive. Oh and we moved across the country.

We actually ate pretty close to Whole30 right up through July, when we moved from California back to my home state of Massachusetts. Between the move itself, adjusting to our new surroundings, and living within walking distance of a dozen kick-ass restaurants, the last half of the year we’ve fallen off the wagon. By December my pants were tight and I was routinely getting the meat sweats. Time to get back in gear.

So here we are! Yesterday, was day one, because yes, I’m that basic that I start a new diet on New Year’s Day. Breakfast was potatoes, eggs and avocado. I had the same thing today. For lunch I made turkey burgers without the buns and for dinner we had the ol’ standby Egg Roll in a Bowl. I’m thinking the mental toll won’t be as high this time around because I’m used to cooking this way now. Physically….we’ll see! I’m hoping to drop a few lbs but mostly I want to feel better and get some mad gainzzzzzzz at CrossFit.

In case it’s not painfully obvious, I’m not a medical professional or fitness guru. So take all of my actions with a grain of salt. But for those of you who aren’t familiar, the Whole30 is basically an elimination diet. No grains, gluten, dairy, legumes, soy, sugar, friends or fun of any kind. Additionally, you’re supposed to only eat meals— dishes that consist of about 1/3 protein, 2/3 veggies and a thumb-size portion of healthy fat. So if you’re hungry in between lunch and dinner, you’re supposed to have a mini-meal that follows that template rather than, say, a handful of nuts. Sometimes I’ll fudge that rule a bit and have a Lara bar or said nuts. Snacking is definitely my weakness though, so I try to really determine if I’m really hungry or if I’m just bored by the current storyline of everyone ganging up on James on Vanderpump Rules. It’s not about the pasta, LaLa! I hope he can turn it around…

Ok so this should whet your whistle for what’s to come! I’m going be real and say I’ll try to update daily but I might not. Bravo is not gonna watch itself. Here’s to 2019: to health, fitness, and boom boom shorts this summer!

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Starting Over

Exercise: Volunteering in a Kindergarten classroom for 1.25 hours
Food: Fried Eggs with Spinach, Onions, and Sweet Potato Fries, Leftover Chili, Bacon-wrapped Chicken Breast with Asparagus, and Potatoes

chili

Here we go again. Let’s do this.

Yesterday marked our official restart of the Whole30. So that makes today day two but also day 32? Since we didn’t stray too much from the plan while we were gone, I’m assuming we won’t have most of the typical withdrawal symptoms people feel when they’re first starting. Good! I’m still sleeping like a log, which definitely wasn’t the case the first days of last month. My skin is having a moment right now though, which is a little discouraging, but I’m wondering if that was caused by the wine? Or being on a nasty airplane? Or that my cat might have slept on my pillow the whole time I was gone and I haven’t washed the cover since we’ve been back?

I’m also battling a little cold or something. I was hoping to workout, but I decided to conserve my energy since today was my day to volunteer in my son’s classroom. I’m so glad I did. Those children were having some feelings today! Perhaps they were hangry? I haven’t been to the gym for over a week now, and tomorrow I won’t be able to make it unless I go to barbell club and rush to my son’s baseball team meeting right after. This is one of those moments where you ask yourself what kind of first impression you want to make on people.

For breakfast, my husband took pity on my sneezy self and made fried eggs with some spinach, onions, peppers and sweet potato fries. We had a side of chipotle mayo for our fries as our serving of healthy fat.

Lunch was easy- I heated up some chili my sweet, sweet friend left for us when we returned from our trip. Seriously, how nice is that? She went to the trouble to make Whole30 compliant chili and had it waiting on our counter in a crockpot. Seriously.

And Biff took on dinner too. He wrapped some chicken breasts in bacon and served them with asparagus and potatoes. Very nice.

So…takeaways from today: starting over is easy if you never really stopped; sneezing will make your husband cook for you; true friends will scoop your cats’ poops and make you dinner.

 

 

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Day 24: Snack Shopping

Exercise: Giving the side eye to some jerk who rammed his cart into me at Whole Foods
Food: Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes and Avocado, Chopped Salad with Turkey and Veggies, Meatloaf with Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Asparagus

snacks

That’ll be $3,000 please.

We’re leaving for the East Coast on Saturday for the memorial service for my Aunt. Biff and I have discussed how we should “handle” our Whole30 and we agree that we’ll do our best to stay on track, but if it gets stressful, or complicated, or just in-the-way, we’ll not feel badly about going off track. The most important thing is being with our family. It will be relatively easy to stay on track on the airplane, but it’s already a big departure from how we would normally prepare for a trip! I’d usually be stocking up on all kinds of crap. But not today! I went to Whole Foods and spent the rent payment on nuts and jerky. Oh and some Lara bars. I nearly choked on my own smugness.

No workout for me today. I had a few things on my plate and the CrossFit workout called for more running, like yesterday. I know I should make myself go when it’s the things I hate the most, but it was raining and I had to write a newsletter and I needed to make some lists and blah blah blah. My kitchen is pretty clean though!

We were running low on some things so for breakfast I threw in whatever veggies I could find with some eggs, scrambled it up and called it a day.

I was two scandals deep into an episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills when I realized it was lunch time. I made up a quick little chopped salad with some turkey, avocado, tomatoes, cukes, onions, etc., and scarfed it down while Teddy and Dorit rehashed their drama again.

And for dinner I winged it and made a meatloaf. I used ground beef and added in some onions, garlic, an egg, a spoonful of tapioca flour and a Primal Kitchen marinade I discovered at Whole Foods. It turned out very nicely! I mashed up some sweet potatoes with a little coconut milk and roasted some asparagus too. We had apples and almond butter for a little dessert.

So…takeaways from today: Whole Foods is cray; we’re going to probably get stopped by the TSA for too many high priced snacks; you can’t make me run!

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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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Day 13: The Reeducation of Melissa Bouse

Exercise: Resisting the urge to sooth myself with food while reading Fire and Fury
Food: Scrambled Eggs with Veggies and Bacon, Turkey Burger with Sweet Potato Fries, Brisket with Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus

Have I mentioned that I’m not a good cook? It bears repeating. And I have to admit yesterday, I was kinda over it. As much as I’ve tried to make a few things ahead and plan on leftovers, I’m cooking a lot more daily than ever before. I was so grateful that Biff manned two out of three meals today. We also got a few new pans at Target, which he says might help with some of the things that are frustrating me. Next, we need to get our knives sharpened. However, I was glad we hadn’t yet because I nicked myself while trying to get an avocado pit out. My first CRI (cooking-related injury) since starting the Whole30. Aww. Anyway, it’s helpful having someone like my mans around who is intimately familiar with 300 Alton Brown recipes and techniques. He’s been giving me helpful tips (just the tip?) all along. I don’t necessarily take his advice, but I usually wish I had.

I didn’t do any kind of work out today. I thought about putting on RelationShep while the guys were at Atticus’ swim lesson and doing some sit-ups, but that would have required putting on a bra so I did nothing instead. Apparently, I wasn’t really that motivated (to either do sit-ups or watch RelationShep.) Back to the CrossFit grind tomorrow!

For breakfast, we had some oven-crisped bacon with scrambled eggs and veggies. Swim lessons are at 9am on Sundays, and last weekend we waited until after to have breakfast. That was a little too long so we stepped it up and got it in before.

I bought some frozen turkey burgers at Whole365 and Biff cooked those up for lunch with sweet potato fries. I had mine on a bed of lettuce, tomato, onion and avocado (so…a salad then?) The burgers are literally just turkey, so might not be something most people would buy versus just ground turkey. But I had a coupon!

For dinner, Biff made a brisket in the smoker. We had that as part of our Christmas dinner, and I noted at the time that it would be good for the Whole30 (and it’s deeeelish.) I finally remembered to buy it again! He made mashed potatoes using ghee and coconut milk and they were pretty authentic tasting! Some happy, little asparagus rounded out the meal.

So…takeaways from today: listen to your husband more (unless you don’t want to); Sundays aren’t for bras; coupons dictate a lot of my decision making.

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Day 9: Can we talk about recipes?

Exercise: CrossFit
Food: Same silly egg scramble I made yesterday, Air Fryer Fried Chicken with Potatoes, Riced cauliflower, and a Pickle, Brined Pork Chops with Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Green Salad

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You might be doing the Whole30 if your texts look like this

So…I’ve had to look up a lot of recipes. Even for simple things like how to make mashed sweet potatoes (sad face). And with that, I’ve noticed the trend of long, verbose descriptions and stories of each recipe and what it means to the author. I realize that I probably read a lot of these out of the context of a larger blog or website or book. But I just want to know how to make the dish! Maybe when I get better at cooking, I’ll want to hear how sweet potatoes remind someone of that one time she got her period in the produce aisle.

I’m writing this before today’s real test of our Whole30 willpower. Tonight, we’re going out to see the one night-only, national showing of The Room (because why would we use a rare date night at the movies to see something critically acclaimed). Pretty much everything at the concession stand is off-limits. And snacking isn’t really “allowed” on the Whole30 anyway. So I’m going to BYOK– bring your own kombucha– and we’ll look smugly around at everyone else while out guts heal.

I did my usual Wednesday 10:15am CrossFit class today, and I felt like I did pretty well. I was able to use a heavy-ish weight for the workout, which seemed appropriately challenging. I swear my workout pants felt a little more comfy.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it – I had the same breakfast as yesterday. I cooked up some onions, peppers and spinach, scrambled in some eggs, and then topped with salsa and avocado.

For lunch, I fried up a chicken breast in the air fryer. It came out a little better than the last time I made nuggets. I served with potato “fries” and cauliflower rice and a cute lil’ pickle. I added some compliant mayo on the side for dipping.

And for dinner I made some brined pork chops using this recipe my husband found. What I like most about it, is that the author shares my plating aesthetic (note the paper plate and its placement on top of the washing machine! Genius!) It came out very nice! We had mashed sweet potatoes and sautéed spinach.

So…takeaways from today: skip the long intros on recipes, I don’t read ’em; a happy gut feels better than popcorn tastes (I hope); real plates are overrated

Movie

Date night!

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Day 4: Getting in the Groove

Exercise: CrossFit, Lifting my son onto and off of a god damn motorcycle chair at his haircut
Food: Scrambled Eggs with Peppers, Onions, and a Side of Banana with Almond Butter, Green Salad with Tuna, Mini Veggie Meatloaves with Asparagus and Sweet Potato

Whole30 Book

Is under the candy dish really the best place to keep this book?

I’m happy to report my mood has lightened a bit from yesterday. I was able to interact with several people today and not only was I nice, but I was able to form complete sentences. I noticed a few other positive changes today too (in Whole30 forums they called those “non-scale victories” or NSV). First, I’m not feeling as hungry in between meals. I’ve found a better timing to when I’m eating and I think that’s helped: breakfast is around 8:30am, lunch at 1pm, dinner at 6pm. Even with a workout in between breakfast and lunch today, I wasn’t ravenous like I would often be way back in 2017. Second, it seems my skin tone has evened out a tiny bit. That’s really encouraging because the prospect of better skin was one of my reasons for doing Whole30. And the last one I can’t really write/talk about because I’m a lady, but let’s just say I’m spending less time in the shitter.

My workout was good today. I decided to go a little bit lighter on some of my weights, based on how I was feeling earlier in the week. I’m glad I did. We had quite a bit of rowing in today’s WOD and toward the end I really felt out of gas. Otherwise though, my body is feeling good. Despite not sleeping well last night again, thanks in part to a 6-year-old who likes to share my pillow, I wasn’t sore or stiff this morning. And it’s been awhile since I’ve made it to the gym 5 days in a row.

For breakfast, I quickly made some scrambled eggs with spinach, onions and peppers. I had a banana with almond butter (see pic below) which I think was a nice bit of extra fuel.

Lunch was another “easy” meal of a simple green salad with spinach, veggies, avocado, and tuna fish.

For dinner I tried a new recipe recommended by someone on a Whole30 group page on Facebook. It was mini meatloaves made in muffin tins and it turned out great. I have 3 servings for leftovers to boot. I served it with sweet potatoes and asparagus with some chipotle mayo on the side.

Bananas and Almond Butter

What I like about this photo is that you can see the exact moment I gave up trying to spread the almond butter on the banana slices. #skillz

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my little ol’ blog- and to those of you who have commented (in person and online) and offered up encouragement!

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Day 1: Now We’re Cooking!

Exercise: Crossfit
Food: Sweet Potato and Sausage Hash, Green Salad with Tunafish, Balsamic Chicken with Veggies, tears

 

Day one is in the books! Well, nearly. We still have to get through our nightly binge watch of “Game of Thrones.” That would normally be the time when the snacks and beer and wine would come out. Something about dragons just makes me want to indulge!

I started the day by making a sweet potato hash breakfast. It came out really nice but it was a lot more work than I’m used to putting into breakfast. As a result, I ate a little bit later than I would have liked, and went to the gym smelling like onions.

Today’s workout was a good mix of strength (deadlifts, goblet squats) and cardio (rowing, jumping rope, doing box jumps, trying not to pee while jumping). I felt like my hearty breakfast was more than adequate to push through.  I’ve also connected with a few people at our box (which is what Crossfitters call the gym. I dunno.) who are doing or have done the Whole 30 so I look forward to the extra layer of accountability.

I had lunch around 12:30 which is later than I would have before. Knowing that the Whole 30 discourages snacking made me much more conscious of my meal timing. I made a green salad with veggies and tuna salad on top. I was feeling pretty good until about 3pm, when I was doing one of my 3,000 pantry runs to get snacks for my son. I really wanted to grab something for myself. But I was saved by mommy’s littler helper- La Croix.

Dinner was a dish I’ve made before — chicken thighs and veggies tossed in balsamic and olive oil and roasted. I used to serve over rice or cous cous. Tonight I used cauliflower rice and made a side salad with some compliant dressing. And then I washed dishes for 17 hours.

So…takeaways from today: doing more prep in the form of chopping veggies will be helpful; sweet potatoes rock (I used 200% more sweet potatoes today than ever before); I can do 40 goblet squats without puking; I need to buy more food, already.

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