Whole30 – Day 7 and 8

Oops, I forgot to blog yesterday. It’s ok, there’s not a lot to say, so I’ll combine yesterday and today.

I’m basically trying to dial in how much fruit/carby veggies to eat to find the balance of not getting dizzy and light headed but not turn on my sugar dragon. The last few mornings I felt dizzy and lightheaded and wondered if maybe it’s because I wasn’t getting enough carbs, since I had stopped eating fruit for a few days. So I went to the Co-Op and got some peaches and apricots. I had … well … lots of apricots yesterday. I didn’t count. I had lots. Not dried ones, fresh ones. I also had several peaches. And I’m pissed that they weren’t very good, but whatever.

I’ll back up though. Again, I wasn’t hungry until noon. I suppose a case could be made for needing to eat earlier even if I’m not hungry?  The dizzy/lightheaded thing is happening in the first hour or two after I wake up and I NEVER eat that early, so it’s not like I’ve totally changed my pattern.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll try blending some ghee into my coffee ala bullet proof coffee to see if that makes a difference. All that said, I did notice that this morning it was somewhat better, but not all the way. So maybe the fruit helped, maybe not. It’s all a guessing game.

Anyway, yesterday I had didn’t eat until noon and had some beef stew at that point.! At some point in the afternoon I had several apricots and 2-3 peaches. (I forget.)

At 5:30 I had a chicken apple sausage fried up in some ghee since I knew I’d be occupied for the next few hours doing my radio show. Yep. I do a radio show Wednesday nights, and USUALLY I go to the station like a normal DJ but driving is still really painful and it’s a half hour away, so my friend/program director Mike brought all the live remote equipment to my house and I broadcasted live from my dining room. 🙂 It was super fun albeit very strange. Who has a radio station in their dining room? 🙂 Me, I guess. 🙂

Around 8:30 I had a small amount of ground beef cooked up with some diced tomatoes and spices followed by several more apricots and peaches. So I had quite a bit of fruit yesterday, but again, I was trying to get more carbs to see if that helped.

Today I wasn’t hungry until noon again and I had some frittata that I had stashed in the freezer. Then I got to work in the kitchen and made TWO big ‘ol frittatas, some of which I’ll stash in the freezer for future meals. I haven’t tried it yet, but damn, I can tell it’s going to be good.  It’s chock full of eggs (duh) and chicken apple sausage, chicken thighs, ghee, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, Japanese yams, spinach, garlic and spices. OMG. Here’s a picture of one of them. I cut each one into 4 big pieces for a total of 8. That’s a lotta frittata! 🙂

 

YUM!

Somewhere in there I got snacky again and had 2 hard boiled eggs and some peaches. (Some = 4) I was hungry again/still around 5:00 so I had some beef stew for an early dinner.  Later I wanted a snack so I had a little bit of cold chicken thigh with some carrot sticks. I’ve just been drinking tea the rest of the night and feel good. No cravings for sugar or any non-compliant stuff so I’m a happy camper. 🙂

Whole30 – Day 6

I don’t have a whole lot of insightful mumbo jumbo to report today, nor do I have many swear words to utter, as I didn’t have any major cravings to combat like yesterday. Thankful for THAT, lemmie tell ya. 🙂  I still can’t speak to “I’m feeling so much more-or-less energy than usual” on this Whole30 because I’m still in surgery recovery phase so everything is just out of whack anyway. I do still believe that all of this would be so much worse/harder/longer if I were eating crap. Last night I did have a dream where I accidentally ate a whole ton of Resees Pieces and some other sugar-laden crap, which I guess isn’t too surprising given how tempted I was during the day yesterday. It’s not uncommon for people to have “cheating” dreams during their Whole30 experiences. It felt SUPER real, so it was a relief to wake up and realize I hadn’t actually cheated.

I did do myself a big favor for when I go back to work next week by pre-cooking FOUR individual servings of my yummy pseudo-Sheppard’s pie. I have roughly 5,234 glass Pyrex storage containers that you can bake in and freeze so they’re perfect for today’s cooking project.

I sautéed up some grass fed ground beef (next time I want to try ground lamb though) then set that aside and cooked up some onions, mushroom, carrots and spinach in some ghee and spiced it with garlic, thyme, sage, rosemary, hickory smoked salt and pepper. I divvied up the meat into 4 Pyrex dishes, threw some of the veggies on top of each one, topped them all with mashed cauliflower and baked them at 400 until the cauliflower got all browned on the edges and everything was all yummy and bubbly inside. OMG, SOO good. Here’s a picture, which also shows off my lovely spice collection. 🙂

 

Mmmmmm, Sheppard’s Pie

 

Once again, I wasn’t hungry for breakfast so I didn’t eat anything until noon. I mixed some of the veggies I had made for the Sheppard’s pie with some cooked chicken thighs, added some extra olive oil and heated that up. Simple, fast and SUPER tasty from all those yummy savory spices. At around 4:00 I was hungry for a snack so I had 2 hard boiled eggs.  I’ve also been drinking tons and tons of unsweetened herbal tea. Tons. Water too but the tea is making me super happy lately so I’m going with it.

Dinner was really weird but super good. I had a little bit of spaghetti squash left over from the other day that I needed to use up and a little bit of the veggies and ground from the Sheppard’s pie left, but not enough to be sufficient protein. So I mixed that all up with a cut up chicken apple sausage and cooked it up on the stove. It SOUNDS weird and maybe gross but it was SO good, and super filling too. Sometimes when you’re just trying to use up random stuff you stumble up something delicious.

A few hours later I was kind of “snacky” feeling but of course my options are super limited so I cut up 3 carrots into carrot sticks and had that. I know we’re not supposed to snack, but come on, man. We’re talking about THREE CARROTS here. Let’s all agree that’s not something to get up in arms about, eh?

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I had made a nice big batch of ghee/clarified butter this week since I can’t use coconut oil like the rest of you. It was ridiculously easy. WAY easy. So if you’re buying those tiny little expensive jars of ghee, you really should stop that. Just get yourself some butter and about 15 minutes and save yourself some money, people. Just wanted to throw that out there. 🙂

Whole 30 – Day 5. Close call today!

Today I learned, once again, for the 6,325^th time that I’m totally a stress-sugar-eater, as I said in my introduction post. (Spoiler alert – I did NOT break my Whole 30. But OH was I tempted.)

I went to the doc to get my Coumadin level checked and let her know about some symptoms I’ve been having that point to a blood clot in my leg. Ever since my surgery they just can’t seem to get my Coumadin levels right (it keeps being too low, thus, my blood is too thick) and blood clots are a Big Scary Thing right after surgery, so having blood clot symptoms is no bueno.

Given all of that, the doc sent me to the imaging center to get an ultra sound of my leg just to make sure. I had enough time in between appointments to scarf down a chicken apple sausage fried in ghee so I wasn’t totally starving when I got there.

But I was nervous, clearly. I mean, she said that if it turned out I had a clot, I’d be admitted to the hospital, so THAT would suck. AND, it did cross my mind that it would be damn near impossible to stick to my Whole 30 in the hospital. (Let’s just sit and reflect for a moment how FUCKED UP that is. That sticking to a clean, whole foods Good For You Diet would be impossible… in the hospital… where you go to get well. Uh… yeah. Rock on, America.)

Anyway. So while I waited to be called back to get my leg ultra-sounded, ALLLLLL I could think about is how after I left, if I DIDN’T have to go to the hospital, I wanted to go get some damn gluten free chocolate chip cookies. Cookies. Gimime the cookies. Because, yeah. That would… what exactly? Make me feel better? Wouldn’t not having to go to the HOSPITAL be good enough to make me feel better? Shrug. Who knows. All I know is that as I sat there, all I could think about was sugar, wanting sugar, when I could have the sugar and how I could justify finding the sugar.

I got the ultrasound but of course they wouldn’t tell me anything right then, so I left, knowing I’d hear from my doctor soon enough. I DID go straight to the store, but get THIS! All I got was lettuce, spinach, cauliflower and brussles sprouts!! OMG, right?! YAY ME!!!! I somehow managed to avoid all the sugar temptations even thought I wanted to Eat All The Sugar.

The main reason isn’t because of my own personal dedication to my own Whole 30, or because of this blog, or because I was SOOOOO committed to healing from my heart surgery. Nope. It was mostly because I knew I have two online friends who I’m doing the Whole 30 with and I knew I’d have to fess up to them. Alaine and Megan. I’d have to tell them, “Listen ladies, I fucked up today. I know I’M the one that dragged YOU into this, and YOU two should TOTALLY keep going, but I’m gonna sit here with my cookies and ice cream, m’kay?” So holy crap, having a ‘lil support group really works! Phew! 🙂

So instead of all that, I went home and made a Big Ass Salad with greens, chicken thighs, mushrooms, olive oil and balsamic, plus some fresh herbs that my friend brought over yesterday from her garden. It was SUPER good and I was stoked with myself for not blowing this only 5 days in. Then, an hour later when my doc called and said I DON’T have a blot clot, I was even more stoked because I would have eaten all that crap for no reason. Yay me again! 🙂

Oh. I forgot to mention. Before all this stupid excitement started today, I put beef stew in the crock pot, so I had THAT to look forward to for dinner. I can’t have coconut since it’s a migraine trigger and I’m avoiding nuts, so I couldn’t use either of those flours to thicken it. At the end of the cooking it was still kind of thin, and then I had a brainstorm! Pureed cauliflower. 🙂 Brilliant, simply brilliant. So I pureed up some of the cauliflower I had just bought, threw that in there, and it thickened it up REALLY well. It also added some volume to it, thus making it into more meals. The hits just keep on comin’ with this stew! 🙂

I had some for dinner at around 6:30 and it was ridiculously filling. I’ve been drinking tea for the rest of the evening and have no desire to snack and my (insane, overwhelming) sugar craving from earlier has passed. PHEW! That was a close one, people. This whole exercise isn’t just one DAY at a time, sometimes it’s one HOUR at a time. But reminding ourselves that IT’S NOT OPTIONAL really does help. It did for me today anyway. Hopefully it will the next time it becomes an issue.

Whole 30 – Day 4

OOOOOHHHHHH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Peaches, dude. I just remembered something about peaches.

Something I learned last year.

And the year before that.

They hurt my stomach.

Not in a gluten way. No no, only gluten hurts THAT way. But they definitely hurt it in a… peaches way. I can’t really describe it, but remember discovering this the last two summers. FUCK FUCK FUCK. Now, sure, it could be because I eat four at a time. But that’s HOW I LIKE TO EAT THEM.

I don’t know if I have a FODMAP sensitivity in general, but I started suspecting last summer that I might. It’s weird. I NEVER had stomach/digestion issues until a few years ago. Finally in late 2010 I got diagnosed with celiac after about a year of total hell. (I realize I’m EXTREMELY lucky that it only took a year. I have a super awesome doctor.)

Even though I was vegetarian, I had started trying to eliminate soy because it had started to wreak havoc on my stomach. Then beans did. Then quinoa did. Then I was like, well, what the FUCK am I supposed to eat?! For about a year I limped along like that, then finally cried uncle and started eating meat again after 18 years.

About a month after I started eating meat is when I learned about paleo and did my first Whole 30. It was like the skies parted. I remember thinking, “You mean I DON’T have to be bloated with a stomach ache all the time?!” I had no idea. I hadn’t known a time where my clothes didn’t feel tight by the end of the day. Blame it on the grains, yeah yeah. Oh god, I just got this HORRIBLE image of Weird Al doing a terrible parody of a Milli Vanilli song. Ha! 🙂 And now you do too! You’re welcome! 🙂

Anyway, what I’m getting at is, I USED to, literally, eat 10 peaches a day during the summer with NO trouble and right around when everything else changed, that did too.

So I guess I don’t really need to update you on my food log for the day, eh? 🙂 Ha. 🙂 I guess I’ll either be more conscious about the peaches going forward, eliminate them all together, or just put up with the stomach upset because I love them more than I love my dog. We’ll see. (I’m Irish and stubborn. I’m pretty sure I know how this plays out.)

This morning I hard boiled some eggs, clarified a ton of butter, baked up some chicken thighs and baked a spaghetti squash.

I wasn’t hungry for breakfast again today and had a friend coming to visit at 12:30, so at noon I had two hard boiled eggs and a handful of strawberries just to make sure I had something. At 4:00 I had a regular meal of what I like to think of Paleo Pesto Pasta.  It’s spaghetti squash, chicken thighs, clarified butter, fresh basil, garlic and some spinach all mixed up in a bowl with salt and pepper and it’s SOOOOO good. A little while later I had the afore-mentioned 4 peaches that made my stomach hurt. DAMN YOU, DELICIOUS PEACHES!

I also made up four more individual servings of the Paleo Pesto Pasta and froze them for future quick meals. I feel like all is right with the world when I have a freezer full of super healthy meals I’ve pre-cooked.

At 8:00 I was a little hungry but didn’t want a full meal so I cooked up a chicken apple sausage in some ghee and had that. Delicious, simple and just enough.

I guess today was pretty short on veggies. I need to go to Costco and get one of those gigantic buckets of organic salad greens they have and start doing Big Ass Salads. There was a ton of spinach in my lunch though, so that’s good at least.

I can’t really speak to how my energy levels are with this Whole 30 because my circumstances just aren’t normal right now. I’m all messed up from the surgery so if I’m tired it’s because of that. I did have a headache this morning but I can’t really call that the “carb flu” because A) I had already been off of sugar and grains for 2 weeks prior to officially going Whole 30 and B) I’ve been eating quite a bit of fruit so I’m sure my carbs are well over 100g a day so there’s no way I’m suffering from that. Besides, I hardly ate any grains “in real life” before all this anyway. So who knows. Sometimes you just get a headache.

I did have some sugar cravings today which could absolutely be from eating 4 peaches at once.(Because I was NOT stressed today at all. It was a super chill day.)  I think once the other 4 peaches I have left are gone, I need see if I can finish out this Whole 30 without fruit. Or at least, maybe only once or twice a week. We’ll see. I mean, right NOW if I get sugar cravings, it’s like, oh well. Big deal. You have a craving, deal with it. Sugar is not optional. AFTER, if I get one from eating too much fruit, and sugar is BACK on the table as an option…. That’s when things could go bad. I’m just rambling/typing out loud at this point. My main point is, once again, I’m seeing that excess fruit really does kick in sugar cravings for me. NO. FAIR!

Whole 30 – Day 3

For some weird reason I stayed up super late last night even though I was really tired also took my sleepy pain meds. Maybe the Whole 30 energy can supersede codeine?! J

I was up until like 1:30am just putzing around, organizing my spices. I have this awesome spice collection I made a year or so ago and last night I decided I needed to take stock of what I was running low on so I could stock back up. Most of them are just regular, but I make some blends that I don’t like to run out of, like an AWESOME Chocolate Chili blend that I use for making my beef stew. It’s cocoa powder (unsweetened, duh), cumin, cayenne, chipotle, garlic, onion, a bit of cinnamon and some coffee grounds for depth. It’s insanely good and last night in my late-night spice organizing fervor I realized I was out, so I had a grand old time mixing a new batch. J It’s also great on steak. I do plan on making beef stew this week, so I can’t wait to put that spice blend to good use.  J

I woke up around 8:30 this morning which is actually pretty early for me, these days. I’m definitely still having lots of pain but I felt pretty good otherwise so figured I should strike while the iron was hot and get out of the house before the fatigue set back in.

I wasn’t hungry yet but I knew I should eat something so I had a cup of homemade chicken broth I had frozen previously as well as a previously frozen “egg muffin.” When I cook, I cook Whole 30 compliant even if I’m not doing a Whole 30, so THAT’S awesome. I have a few frozen meals in the freezer and I love that I can count on them being compliant.

The farmer’s market in my community is a Saturday EXTRAVAGANA, in all the ways. Socially, musically and of course fruit-and-vegetablly. The doctors want me walking for 15-20 minutes each day, so I figured, hell, might as well do it at the Farmer’s Market, right?  J

I didn’t get much walking in though, more like Talk To Every Single Person You See And Reassure Them You’re Fine Because They Read About Your Heart Surgery In The Weekly Newspaper. Yes, that’s right. The editor of the paper has been keeping local readers abreast of my progress, which is adorably sweet and shows what a cute, wonderful little community I live in.

I did do a (very slow) lap around the market and got some strawberries, carrots, spinach and basil. Then I went to the Co-Op and got some organic chicken, grass fed ground beef, cauliflower, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, W30 compliant broth, peaches (shut up), eggs, butter and chicken apple sausage.

Did you do a double take at the butter? Chill out, sisters and brothers. I’m going to clarify it, m’kay? Clarified butter and ghee are totally cool on the Whole 30, and I reckon it’s way cheaper to do it myself then to buy a tiny little jar of $6.00 ghee. I WISH I could use coconut oil for frying and cooking like the rest of y’all but it’s a migraine trigger for me, so that’s out.  Total paleo bummer, I know.

By the time I got home at 3:30 I was absolutely totally wiped out. All that talking and walking and shopping and driving MIGHT have been more than I bargained for. My energy and stamina are still totally shot and I’m pretty shitty at remembering that. I was also starving by then. And in a lot of pain from the driving. My car is a stick shift and since they cut in under my right boob, stick-shift driving is pretty damn painful. Even though the docs said I’m ALLOWED to drive, I’m going to hold off on doing that again for a few days or a week. Good thing I stocked up on all those meats and veggies! 🙂 But if I run out of peaches panic will ensue.)

I was too tired to embark on a cooking endeavor for lunch so I grabbed one of the previously frozen meals and heated that up. Just a simple dish of chicken, chard and carrots with some random combo of spices but it was super delicious.

About an hour later I had 3 peaches because they are the most amazing thing Mother Nature ever produced. I didn’t have them because I was craving sugar, I just love them. It didn’t set off a sugar craving nor did it set off further hunger signals, so I’m totally ok with it. Again, peach season is short. I’m going to get it while I can.

That was about as much excitement, movement and talking as I could take for a day so I climbed back into bed to take a nap. About a half hour later I was woken up by a text from a friend asking if I could come to her 6 year old daughter’s impromptu bake sale. AWW MAN. Well, no. I can’t. I LOVE that kid. LOVE HER. And I’d do just about anything for her. But I couldn’t get back in my car and drive right then and all she made were gluten-filled goods. If it were a regular day, I’d have driven over, bought something, and then fed it to my dog. 🙂 But I was in so much pain right then and so beyond tired, I had to just say no. I felt like the Worst Grown Up Friend Ever. 😦 (I own a business so I’m VERY VERY supportive of little kids doing their entrepreneur thing.) I know my friend understands, duh, but I also know what it’s like to be 6 and have no one come to your sidewalk business. Anyway. I’ll get over it.

I stayed in bed the rest of the evening watching stuff on my laptop and didn’t get hungry for dinner until around 8:30. I whipped up a chicken apple sausage, 2 eggs scrambled, the rest of the zucchini from last night and some olive oil into a yummy Breakfast For Dinner scramble.

Then it was back to bed with some tea to watch more stuff on my computer. One of the characters on the show I was watching was eating cake and my brain instinctively said, “I want cake”, even though I’m totally nicely full and not even at ALL craving sugar. What the hell is up with THAT?! THAT is how we end up eating too much sugar, people! Because that thought leads to the next and all of a sudden we’re Goggling recipes for “chocolate cake in a mug” or some such bullshit. Seriously. It’s ridiculous how ingrained some of these thoughts and patterns are. Anyway. Whatever. I DON’T actually want cake, I’m perfectly content right now and if I get hungry later, I have THE most amazing organic strawberries from the farmer’s market.  But recognizing little things like that is why I’m stoked to be doing the Whole 30 and keeping this blog.

My stomach has, not surprisingly, been feeling fine since I’ve been doing this. I love that about this way of eating. 🙂

Whole 30 – Day 2

Ahhh, HOME! OMG. I’m SO damn happy to be home after 3 weeks. What a damn understatement.

Today was a mix of hell and awesome. Hell because I had to sit in a car for 5 hours and I’m still in a fair bit of pain, so that sucks. Lying down is much more comfortable than sitting up, since the incision is under my boob and they did some rib separation to get to my heart. It was also super hot for a portion of the drive and I got kind of dizzy for a while so THAT was really weird. I attribute the dizziness entirely to my heart and the post-surgery state though and not the Whole 30. Truly.  I know I’ve been getting plenty of carbs from all the fruit I’m eating so I’m not worried about that.

The upside was I got to spend 5 hours with my friend Lynn who drove me home and I never get to spend that much time with her, so I’m really thankful for that. It really made the time fly and talking to her took my mind off of how craptacular I felt.

Before we embarked on the drive we stopped at a store and I got some Applegate roast beef slices and some pre-cut watermelon. It was less fat than a normal meal would be but we were car-snacking and I’m not eating nuts right now, so it would have to suffice. I had that around noon or so and later I had a peach when I felt like maybe my dizziness was coming from low blood sugar brought on by the heat. I also pounded a liter and a half of water. Somewhere in there I started feeling better.

Once we got home I was absolutely fucking exhausted but I was also very much craving steak. I realized that for the last 3 weeks I’d only eaten chicken for my protein source (other than the roast beef earlier today) and god dammit, I wanted a steak. So I stopped at the Co-Op and got a nice grass fed rib-eye and some zucchini (plus some food for my dear sweet dog who I missed more than I missed most people) and headed home.

I did the steak in my cast iron pan and while it was resting cooked the zucchini in all the awesome steakiness left in the pan along with a chunk of ghee for extra yumminess. Best. Dinner. Ever. Sometimes we really overthink things and make them more complicated than they need to be when really? One veggie and a chunk of steak is where we find our happy place.

I’ll probably have a couple peaches later because I love them to the moon and back. Again, this is a lot less overall than I’d eat in “real life”, but in “real life” I’d not sit in a car all day then come home and lie in bed all night. I’m using way less calories so I’m less hungry so I need less. So don’t go thinking I’m starving myself or trying to eat hardly anything on purpose or whatever, ok? You’ll see. YOU’LL ALL SEE! When I get back to normal, so will my eating habits.

One thing I’ll say is that even though I haven’t … uh … ahem … umm… “gone to the bathroom” in a few days (sorry, I HATE TALKING ABOUT THAT!) due to the pain meds I’m on, I’m totally not all bloated and gross feeling. That’s pretty rad, and can totally be attributed to being off of grains. I learned during my first Whole 30 that grains just make me feel bloated and crappy. I have Celiac so I don’t eat gluten no matter what, but even gluten free bread makes me all heavy and bloated. As such, I VERY rarely eat it or any other grains. I know that when I “give in” or whatever and go have gluten free cookies for a treat I’m going to feel like utter and total crap after. Now, HOW is that a treat exactly?! I really need to remember to refer to this blog once my Whole 30 is over and I’m tempted to do that.  Feeling like crap is not a treat. SMH.

Whole 30 – Day 1

I didn’t mention it in my introduction post, but I didn’t have my surgery in my hometown. I live 5 hours away from “the city” and trust me – you do NOT want heart surgery where I live. (Dude, I won’t even get a hair cut there, let ALONE heart surgery, ok?)

So, since my surgery, I’ve been staying with a friend until the doctor cleared me to go home. I saw him for my follow up today (Thursday) and I can FINALLY go home tomorrow. (I’m writing this Thursday but not publishing it until Friday due to no wireless at my friend’s house. )

I realized today that it’s ABSOLUTELY FUCKING AMAZING that I’ve resisted totally binging out on sugar during these last two weeks, given how stressful the overall situation has been. I get a gold star on the chart on the fridge for that shit, seriously!

Staying on a friend’s couch for that long while being in serious pain recovering from surgery – well fuck man, that just SUCKS, ok? I’m not asking for sympathy, I’m just calling it like it is. For the first week my appetite was shot so I didn’t want to eat anything anyway but it really came back in the last week. Granted, I can’t drive so I’ve been dependant on my friend to take me to the store, but still. I’ve been filling my basket with tons of fruit, veggies, meat and plain yogurt and that’s literally it. So yay for that.

Ok, on to today. I had a doc appointment so we left the house at noon. I wasn’t hungry for breakfast since I woke up at 10:30. (That’s what pain meds will do to ya, kids.) We didn’t get back to my friend’s house until 3:30 and by then I was STARVING. And grumpy as hell. And in lots of pain. And really tired. Not surprisingly at all, I was seriously craving sugar. But, that’s not an option since today was Whole 30 Day 1. So I made the hugest breakfast/lunch known to man since I hadn’t eaten all day: 2 Aidell’s chicken apple sausages, 2 eggs, about 2 teaspoons of olive oil, about a half a bunch of chard and a whole avocado. It was gigantic and delicious. Then I took a nap. (Again, I blame the codine). When I woke up I had a bowl of honeydew melon and 2 kiwis.  Later that night I had some more honeydew and some cherries. Overall I know that’s not much for the whole day but keep in mind, I’m not really moving at ALL right now, so my calorie needs aren’t very much. I wasn’t hungry when I went to bed so that says something.

Once I get home tomorrow I’ll get back into my regular routine and I can’t wait. Nothing like being back in your own bed after 3 weeks, right? 🙂 I’m still going to be home all next week so I plan on doing some batch cooking and stocking my freezer with some individual servings of compliant meals so that when I return to work (ideally the following week) I’ll have lots of options and no reason to cheat.

Whole 30 Round Two Begins NOW. Wheeeee!!!! (No really. I mean that. Wheee!)

Welcome to my Whole 30 blog!

If for whatever reason you stumbled across this blog and are all, “What the hell is Whole 30?!”, I’ll try to explain it very quickly: it’s a 30 day nutritional re-set/elimination program that helps you identify foods that cause you health issues, both mental and physical. That’s about as concise as I can be. To learn more, please PLEASE follow this link to read more, because it really is a very educational, enlightening program.

I’ve done one complete Whole 30 in January of 2012 and started a few others that ended early with my face in a gallon of ice cream and a stream of lame excuses. So OFFICIALLY, this is my second Whole 30. I know I’ll complete the full 30 days. Why? Well, it’s different this time. You’ll just have to believe me on that for now, m’kay? My motives are different. I FEEL different. I’m ready this time. I wasn’t ready when I had those failed attempts.

The catalyst for this go around is that 2 weeks ago I had heart surgery. For the record, no, I’m not a 64 year old fat guy. (No offense if you are.) Actually, I’m an otherwise healthy 37 year old chick with a wickedly foul mouth who seems much younger but happens to have a fucked up heart rhythm and (had) a fucked up Mitral Valve.  So two weeks ago they made a 5 inch incision under my right boob, separated some ribs, cut into my heart and fixed that damn leaky valve.  (Yes, it still hurts, yes I’m on drugs, yes, I’m STOKED they didn’t crack open my sternum and fuck up my BEAUTIFUL cleavage.)

But listen. This blog isn’t about that. My point is, ain’t nothin’ like some heart surgery to make you want to stop eating crap so your body can focus all its energy on healing, know what I mean? Not feeding it a ton of hard to digest grains, legumes and dairy just seems…smart right now. Oh crap, I think that means I’m growing up.

In the months prior to the surgery, my heart issues got in the way of working out. I’m not saying that (entirely) as an excuse, it’s (mostly) true. My rhythm would go all fucked up and super fast which would cause my leaky valve to leak worse which would cause it to hurt, and, well hell, you wouldn’t keep jogging either. So that coupled with too many dietary cheats meant I put on some pounds. I wasn’t weighing myself during that time so I don’t know how many, but I know it was between 5 and 10. More than I’d like but not so many that I can’t get it under control fairly easily.

Listen. I have a closet full of awesome dresses I paid a shit load of money for over the years. Gotta keep those fitting, right?

See what I mean? It’s the perfect time for a Whole 30. I’m more motivated than ever, PLUS, I already have two weeks of no sugar and no grains/legumes/alcohol under my belt because my appetite got obliterated by the surgery and even I’m not Irish enough to drink booze right after heart surgery. In the days directly following, all I could stomach was fruit and yogurt, so that’s why I don’t consider myself to have accidentally had two weeks of W30 already. That yogurt. (Oh. I guess there was probably sugar in that. Whatever. When I say I had “no sugar” for those two weeks I mean I had no INTENTIONAL sugar, like, via gluten free cookies or ice cream or candy or all the things I love so much. 🙂 )

Which leads me to what I want to talk about next in this long, rambling introduction post. My goals for this Whole 30. Goals, people. We need goals. More than just “I want to make sure my pretty dresses fit.”

I’ll admit that I’m a sugar addict. No question. I learned that VERY clearly during my first W30. I also learned, and continue to learn, that sugar just begets more sugar. The more I have of it, the more I want of it. It’s awful. It truly is a drug.  So…

Goal Numero Uno: KILL THE SUGAR DRAGON.

Now, the thing about that fucker is, you really can’t kill it forever unless you literally NEVER eat sugar ever again. Even then, excess fruit can bring it back. (How unfair is THAT?! Fruit!) But given the amount of “cheats” I’ve had in the last several months, it’s clear I need to go cold turkey and starve that beast because I truly cannot be trusted within 5 blocks of sugar. I don’t keep it in my house, but I’ll straight up get in the car and go find it when the cravings get out of hand. That’s just ridiculous and inexcusable. I’ve lost my privileges. At least for a month anyway.

I also know that I’m a stress-sugar-finder. (That’s a thing now. I just made it up.) Stress eater, really, but who stress-eats broccoli? I guess we’ll find out.

Goal Numero Dos: Drop some poundage, as previously stated.

That’s going to happen though, so I’m not even going to mention it again probably. It just HAPPENS on the Whole 30, I know that. Especially if you are exercising. The exercising will be a slow-go for me given the whole Just Had Heart Surgery thing but I’ll do what I can. I promise. My exercise goal is to get back to working out 5 days a week. I’m confident that by the end of the month I’ll be there. No problem.

Goal Numero Tres: Recalibrate my hunger signals/stop the stress-eating.

Part of the program is to aim for 3 full meals a day rather than 3 meals plus snacking and snacking and snacking. I’ve successfully done that in the past when I (for a while) did the leptin re-set, so I know I can get there again. Again, when you eliminate the things you’re most likely to stress-eat, that’s gotta be helpful. We’ll see.

Last time I did my Whole 30 I screwed it all up by relying too heavily (FAR too heavily) on Lara Bars. Any time I would have had a candy bar, I had a Lara Bar. (or 2) Totally missed the point of the whole fucking exercise, I know. But, I had a boyfriend at the time that annoyed the crap out of me, I was having migraines all the time, etc etc etc. Whatever. Excuses excuses. This time, none of that crap. Because… I have to do this with no nuts. I’m still not 100% sure if nuts are something that upset my stomach/digestion, so I’m going to do this all with no nuts and reintroduce them methodically just like everything else. SO, no nuts = no Lara Bars.

If you’re new to the W30 and you have a sugar/stress eating problem, I STRONGLY urge you to just pretend those things don’t exist. They are of NO benefit whatsoever and can really derail you. Trust me. I know from experience. I ate 4 in a row after a fight with my boyfriend during my last W30. Tell me how that is grasping the ideals of the program?! (I dumped that guy, btw. I’m good to go now! 🙂 )

Goal Numero Quatro: Really REALLY finally figure out what dairy does to me.

Last time I was not methodical in my reintroduction. This time I will be. I think even yogurt makes me uncomfortable and bloated but I’m not sure. I KNOW that all the delicious gluten free baked goods make me feel like crap so I really try to limit them as it is, but I’m still just not sure about dairy.

Goal Numero Cinco: Take a god damn probiotic every day.

WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER TO DO THAT?! What am I, 7?? Just fucking do it, jeez!

The only other major challenge I see during this are peaches. I love them with the passion of 5,000 suns and their season is short. So I reserve the right to eat two or three. Or seven. Teen. But then, I know from experience that too much fruit sets off my sugar cravings something fierce, so I know I’m not doing myself any favors if I do go crazy on them. I’ll just have to see. Because I’m NOT going to just let peach season go without making a dent in it and I’m not letting some “program” make me afraid of a sweet little innocent peach. I mean, come on.

Ok, there we go. That’s my intro. Day one is Thursday June 6. Bring on the meat, veggies and fruit!