Whole30–Days 10 to 14

So much for the daily blogging, eh?

It is amazing how quickly the day slips away from me, and how unmotivated I am in the evening hours, even to type up a quick summary of the day. Especially over the past few days. Especially when I have to admit my failings…

You see, it was baking day Friday. I had prep to do for my Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning, and Friday was a long day. It was also day 10 of the Whole30…and it was a hard day. Surrounding myself with cookies, and brownies, and muffins, and breads…the temptations were great.

As someone who sells their baked goods to the public, I have to taste test the goods. The first few varieties, I tasted a nibble, spit it out, then threw the rest of the treat away (or gave it to one of the kiddos). But once, I was halfway through eating the cookie before I even realized what I was doing.

AAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

In the no-cheating world of Whole30, this technically ruined my 30 days. I should actually start again at day 1, because I have screwed it up.

But because I suck at following rules, we are just going to say…oops! We’ll try to NOT do that again.

It is amazing to me how mindlessly I went to eating that sweet without even a second thought.

And I have been battling craving sugar like mad ever since.

Yeah, that sugar dragon is a beast to overcome. One screw-up, and I am back in the mess of wanting something sweet all the time.  It is my downfall. I open the cupboard doors, hoping for some kind of sugary snack to jump out at me, something that would be still compliant with the program, but would kill the craving. Nothing jumps out (obviously) so I close the cupboard and go back to what I was doing. And 10 minutes later, I’m standing in front of the same cupboard, looking again for that something sweet, disappointed again when nothing magically appears. This repeats itself numerous times during the day, but even more so in the evening hours, when the desire to snack grows.

Other than the cookie issue, I’ve stayed on program. It has been a lot of quick meals over the past few days. The kids have had pizza, because I’ve been too busy to do a lot of cooking, and it has been hard to resist that. Eggs have been my friend, as has chicken sausages. We did grill some steaks and chicken breasts a few nights ago, and we made extras so we could enjoy the leftovers. It was taco salad for the hubs and I tonight, which is always a yummy dinner. I make my own taco seasoning, and have for a while now, long before Whole30. I was finding most seasonings had msg in them, and that would often trigger headaches for me.

I have no photos to share today. I could share some bakery pictures, but that would seem like torture, wouldn’t it?

oh, what the heck. Here are some happy sugar cookies I made last week:

sugar cookies are not whole30 approved! but, dang, aren’t they cute?

Tomorrow is the 15th. Halfway through this madness.

(Oh, and the hubs is down at least 10 lbs. in these first two weeks. Me…don’t ask.  Grrr…..)

 

 

MWF ISO BRF…Day 8 and 9

Do people even use those abbreviations anymore? That was how things were shortened back in the day….you know, in the time of non-creepy craigslist, ads in newspapers looking for love, etc.

Of course, mine above is not looking for love, but I am looking for something.

Married White Female In Search Of Best Running Friend.

Anyone who has ever listened to or read Another Mother Runner podcast or books will be familiar with the term Best Running Friend.  And during my run yesterday morning, I realized how much I miss having a running buddy.  Though the pup enjoys the runs, he is not much of a conversationalist.

When I started running about 10 years ago, I started with a sweet friend. We went for daily walk/runs together, both of us slow as molasses to start. For months, we met at 6 a.m. and hoofed it together. And not only did our legs and lungs grow stronger, so did our friendship. It is amazing the things that we eventually talked about. In Kentucky, I found another friend to run with, and the same thing happened. Deep, intimate conversations over the cadence of our footsteps and a deepening friendship.

I need that again. I need to find someone to hold me accountable to getting out of bed and getting moving in the morning. I need someone to push me to get faster, and walk less. I need myself a BRF.

As far as the Whole30 goes, it has been a rough few days. Lots of eggs, burgers, and chicken sausages, along with sides of veggies. I’ve managed to stay on track, but its been hard. When I get busy, I am more tempted to eat the quick, crappy stuff that I shouldn’t eat.  And with a dentist appointment Thursday, the only things I wanted was soft, overprocessed food after that. *sigh*

If only I had someone who would cook for me for a change….

 

Day 7. 23 more to go.

Is it bad I’m counting down already?

Is it weird I dreamt of cheesecake last night?

Yeah, it is weird, though pretty normal, from all that I’ve read from others that have done this program.  Craving cheesecake when you wake up in the morning is not the best way to start the day, though. Sugar is my downfall, and the temptations abound in my house. (The cons of baking as a secondary income…)

It was scrambled eggs for breakfast. Plain, no salsa, no guac. Just 4 eggs, scrambled up. I’m really surprised I don’t hate eggs by this point. They are my fallback meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are quick, I always have them on hand, and they can be jazzed up with so many of the leftovers, both veggies and meats. We eat a ton of them. Scrambled, fried, as egg bakes. Over easy. About the only way we don’t eat them is hard-boiled. I hate the smell that hard-boiled eggs have as they are cooking so the only time I make them is for Easter, just so the kids can dye them. Sad, isn’t it?

Lunch was leftovers. Thank goodness for leftovers.

Supper came late. It was National Night Out, so we took the kiddos down the road to have hot dogs, popcorn and root beer. I drank water. We visited with a few folks for awhile, the kids played games and won too many prizes, and we wandered back home about 6:30.

And I regretted not prepping earlier in the day/week for the meal.

We had Paleo Shepherd’s Pie. It was a new recipe and it was yummy! I will make a few tweaks to it the next time I bake it (needed more seasoning), and I will definitely start the prep work long before mealtime. There were a lot of steps to this recipe, and it took about 90 minutes from start to finish to get it all done.

So many veggies to peel and chop!   Potatoes, carrots, onions, brussel sprouts…

I can say this is the first time I have ever made anything with brussel sprouts. It is good to experiment, and I liked the taste, at least in a mixed dish like this. I have about half the bag left, so I will probably try to roast the rest in the oven as a side dish in the next few days.

Just out of the oven

After we demolished it!

 

I will admit, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I had more ground beef on hand, so I made about 2 1/2 lbs of that. And I added more tomato paste and stock than it called for, because it seemed dry.  The mashed potato topping, made with coconut milk and ghee, was amazing! That might be a side dish to have just on it’s own. I was worried there would be a coconut taste to it, but I couldn’t discern it.

So, lesson learned, look at a recipe BEFORE you are ready to make it, and plan your time correctly. Or prep your veggies ahead of time, if you can.  Or find someone else to do it for you.  =)