I did it!

Yesterday (3/8) I went up to Rock Springs in the morning for a 24 hour shift. I brought lots of good Whole30 food but I was nervous about the stress and if we flew would I get hungry.  All those concerns.  I am thrilled to report I made it through an awesome successful day even with a transport that lasted about 8 hours. 

It was a beautiful day to fly!

I find myself staring out at the clouds.  They look so soft and there is so many beautiful sites from up in the sky!  

Home for about 20 hours, I did some cooking and repacking for 2 more days up in Wyoming.  I decided that since I made it to day 9 without any major breakdowns that I would treat myself to a whole lot of yummy.

Raspberries, banana, coconut milk, cashews and unsweetened coconut flakes. So delicious!  I can't believe how sweet that fruit is, it's amazing!

For lunch I warmed up the Spicy Tuna cakes I made and had it with salad.  The Spicy Tuna cakes hold up really well in the fridge for a few days and I warmed them up stove top in some ghee. 

I was so hungry I took a few bites before picture.  oops.

Dinner was a bust.  I don't know how to cook Kale to make it taste good.  I have tried a couple of different ways and so far no bueno.  I sliced up the steak I made two days ago and cooked it with slivered almonds and then added Kale and some spices.

I just ate the steak.  It was good!

I am really pleased with the way I feel and how easy this has been.  I would still like to cut down on eating nuts, but I think my fruit intake overall has been controlled. (Minus my 9 day celebratory dessert)

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I'm taking my running shoes up to work.  If it's bad weather then I'll go try out this new gym around the corner.  Remember the Jelly Bean Race?  It's a virtual race I signed up for way before considering the Tenex procedure I'm getting.  Well, I didn't forget.  Today I got the medal and I'll show it to you after I do the race.  I haven't decided on a 5K or 10K, but I scheduled the procedure on the 22nd thinking I could race on the 20th.  It's just a fun one, but I want to do it since it's the first one I signed up for and I try to follow through on my commitments, however small.  

Speaking of commitments, I'm planning my follow up post about Ab Month soon.  Ab Month kinda fell right into Whole30 month and posting when I'm working is so difficult.  I haven't forgot!  

I love stalking all the running blogs and reading about all the races everyone is getting ready for! It's really getting me excited and I'm hoping I'll be running more regularly by June 1st! 

Kale help!  Anyone?

How do you feel about commitments?  Even little ones?

What is your favorite "I can't run" backup exercise?

Blog on.............

Whole30 day 6 &7

The last two days have been....interesting.

Yesterday was a shitty day.  Hands down.  Most of it wasn't even related to my Whole30 challenge, but the great news is that I didn't have any problems staying on task with my food.  

I started at an EARLY morning meeting with my attorney.  EARLY!!  7am.  That is just crazy talk.  I packed up some food to eat because I knew I would be hungry and I didn't have enough time to eat before. 

The meeting was quick but I was glad to have my snacks.  I just ate the egg and some cucumbers, just enough to get me home.  

Which took a while.  

Then I had a conference call.  I kept alert by sipping some tea and Kombucha.  

I didn't do much cooking but I had taken some steaks out of the fridge.  I made a huge salad mix to take to work.  I also took some coconut flakes (unsweetened) and cashew pieces and roasted them up in coconut oil and cinnamon.   They are good, but next time I'll finish off with a little salt and roast them in the oven.  Speaking of salt.  I love Johnny's seasoning salt.  A lot!  Guess what.  The second ingredient is SUGAR!  OH man!

So I looked at the ingredients and mixed up my own little shaker full of delicious seasoning goodness.

My spoils of Day 6.

Then I grilled a few steaks for dinner so Daniel would have something to eat when he got home from work.

I ate my steak with a dollop of Sunshine Sauce mixed with Homemade Olive Oil Mayo and it was AMAZING!!

Last night we didn't fly but I spent an hour or so messing with the Night Vision Goggles.  We wear them for safety at night when flying the helicopter.  Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to wear them in the air yet!  So every time I work rotor I get them out and put them on.  Last night it was late so I went with the pilot out to the Helicopter and played with them while it was dark and I could turn them on.  It reminded me of the Geico commercial with the Antelope.

Hehehe

I couldn't sleep so I played with them a little bit in the middle of the night too.  Scandalous!!

So far day 7 is going fabulously.  I got up and ate a hard boiled egg, some cut up veggies and a half of an avocado.  I don't feel tired at all and I don't feel hungry.  Sometimes I still catch myself wanting to snack, but I think it's mostly just habit.  

Tonight I'll be cooking something to take to work up in Rock Springs tomorrow. 

What delicious morsel will it be?

I'm really diggin the Spicy Tuna Cakes!  

Blog on...........

Whole30 Day 5 aka Spicy Shenanigan Day

Today was a great day.  It started out pretty crappy but luckily I had eaten a good breakfast before I started my day to give me the energy not to burst into tears, stomp my feet and yell stuff.

Leftover Fajitas and eggs.  

Later my friends Tera and Nicole were asking me about all this madness.  Nicole stated that I need to post each recipe, that I needed to make that happen.  Hahahaha.....I am just not that motivated!   Plus I think the books/apps that I'm getting the recipes from are amazing and worth a few bucks.  Seeing them started the upswing of my day.  I wasn't super tired, cranky or hungry today.  Decreased my cashew intact by bunches!

I cooked a couple of wonderful things this afternoon.

Set up my recipes and ingredients

I made something called "Emergency Meat" from the Nom Nom App.  It's just Curry, ground beef and cabbage.  I made double the recipe and stuck a bunch in the fridge to add to eggs and other veggies for the next couple of days.

My lunch was a huge helping of Emergency Meat with an entire avocado.  I sprinkle a little ras el hanout (a Moroccon blend of spices I put together last week) on everything and it was super delicious.  Even Sami liked it and she eats Mexican food and ramen noodles.

I also whipped up these Spice Tuna Cakes from the Nom Nom app. 

I didn't have time to do anything special when they were done cooking and I just stuck them in the fridge.  When I got home, Daniel mentioned to me they were amazing.  And they were amazing!  Even cold out of the fridge.  Better warmed up.  SO easy and so good!

Thumbs up for the Whole30 so far!  It's the end of day 5 and I'm feeling good and ready to keep going!  

Another reason that I may be feeling awesome today is that I got to spend some time with these fine folks.

My mom and my brother, Joe.  My dad was there too. 

We were at a Bank meeting for a bank my dad helped to build into the success it is today.  I'm very proud of him and he's so super smart!    My mom is amazing.  She has had heart problems this year and I was glad to see her doing better.  I don't get to see my brother Joe too much and it really is always nice to see him. I love how my parents are so proud of their kids and how much they love us.  We are lucky kids!  I can't help but be happy after spending time with the people that love and adore me most. 

My mom will even take a silly pic with us at a serious bank meeting!

Missing was 3 other brothers and a sister.  They were all at work. 

Tomorrow is day 6!  I don't have anything fancy planned to cook.  

What pictures will I post??   Do you want a picture of me meeting with my attorney?  Getting my eyelashes done?  Talking on a conference call?  Working a night shift in Payson with the chopper? 

 

Such a full day and so many good eats in the ice box!

Blog on.........................

Whole30 Day 4

Today is "Kill all the things" day in the Whole30 plan.  Luckily I basically have eaten Paleo all the time and I'm not having the big emotional and physical swings like happened when I first cut carbs out of my diet in 2011.  

I just want to snack.  Snack, snack, snack!  I'm doing pretty good and have not ventured away from the plan, just probably ate more of certain food items that should be limited.  I try every day to lower those a bit.  I do have quite a craving for sugar and I know that I'll get over that.  I've done it before I can do it again!  

Pretty close. 

It's the addiction talking, the sugar addiction!

I've had a few people ask me about it once I started posting delicious pictures on Instagram.  I haven't taken a picture of ALL my meals.  Let's face it, that would take way too much effort.  Besides being prepared with the correct food, I am able to just wing it!

 I love cucumbers, olives and peppers.  I just threw on some precooked chicken (I made a huge bunch day one) with some of the best sauce ever!  It's called Sunshine Sauce and you can find it here.  It's also included in the cookbook that have recommended.

Over and over again.

Tonight I took that chicken from that same batch and cooked some peppers and onions, threw in the chicken and spiced it up mexi style and served it with an entire avocado.

Easy and Fast!  Just the way I like it! 

Last night I simmered chili for TWO hours.  It smelled so good and it was worth the wait.  So absolutely delicious.  I served it over spaghetti squash.  I love to have my meals all mixed together, that way I can get a little taste of everything in every bite!

(recipe also in Well Fed)

Overall I feel good.  I've had lots of things going on in my life this last week and instead of stress eating I feel better taking a pro-active approach.  I scheduled my Tenex procedure for March 22.  I'm nervous about sitting around for a couple of weeks and wearing a boot for 2-3 weeks.  OK, like every injury just the thought of not being able to exercise plunges me into a deep sadness that has me screaming "I'm gonna be fat!".  At least I'm eating right and staying full without a big chocolate month long binge. 

So far so good!

One of my favorite sayings:

Your body can only give back what you give it.  

Blog on................

Whole30, the beginning.

I know I have mentioned Whole30 and taking a 30 day challenge.  The challenge is to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and organic meats for 30 days. It's a lot like the Paleo or Primal diet only quite strict. 

I started with this book.

My review for this book is that I love it!  Although I skipped around a lot and haven't read it all the way through yet.  When I get excited about something I tend to skip to the facts.  But I plan on reading it page by page this month.  I've already read a lot about nutrition and how food affects the human body so I was on board pretty quickly.  Another book I recommend to people, especially if they are interested in facts, studies and details is called Why we get fat.

I have been following Whole30 on Facebook and after January (a big Whole30 challenge month) I started reading about peoples experience and how it affected their health and overall well being.  

To be honest, I have been eating mostly Paleo for about 16 months, but the last 4 or so months it has been a half ass effort at best.  I ate way too many dark chocolate covered pomegranates and a few too many fancy coffees.  Overall I did good, but I wasn't feeling that great and a little sluggish.  Was it my diet or the other things going on in my life?  Divorce, injury, kids moving out?   Yes, yes and yes!  

I decided to give it a try.  I read-ish the book, bought a couple of good cook books, tried a few recipes and started taking some of the really crappy stuff out so I didn't go in full on withdrawals. 

I'm on day 3.  I just want to go back to bed.

Here is the basic rules for Whole30.

A lot like Paleo.  Whole30 or Whole9 has a great website for information, support and links.

I have a freezer full of organic beef and I went to the Utah Natural Meat farm on Saturday to get some more ground beef. While I was there I picked up a couple of dozen eggs too.  So fresh and delicious.  I signed up for the local Bountiful Baskets and picked up a huge basket full of fruits and veggies.  I also precooked chicken, some Asian meatballs, hard boiled some eggs and cut up tons of veggies.  That made it possible to eat without cooking much and helped the first few days go better.  Even Daniel is on it and eating quite well.  Austin was here when I was cutting, slicing, dicing and cooking and he loved everything.  

The loot.

Stocked fridge

If you want to have some fabulous ideas, menus and recipes I can't tell you how awesome these two sources are.  First, Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan.  Not only does she give you great recipes but helps you plan a big one hour prepare fest once a week that makes the rest of the week eating a breeze.  

I downloaded it off Amazon to my iPad Kindle app. 

Another source is an app that I downloaded onto my iPad.  I have followed this web site for a while and know she has some great Paleo recipes.  This app is the very best I've seen as far as recipes.  You can even make a shopping list off of it and the picture instructions are perfect.  It's called Nom Nom Paleo.  I think it's about 4 dollars for the app.

Most of the recipes are very easy.  Michelle Tam is a mom, wife and a full time pharmacist!  

I started on March 1st and on my 3rd day I am not hungry but my cravings for sugary sweet things is strong.  I miss drinking a Crystal Light.  I used that as my sugar fix along with dark chocolate.  So today I am cooking a Whole30 approved chili and serving it with steamed spaghetti squash.  I'm also going to hard boil a few more eggs and make the "Sunshine Sauce" from Well Fed that tastes a little like a peanut sauce only made with sunflower butter.  Daniel and I think it tastes good on EVERYTHING!  

Wish me luck!  I can't wait to get to day 4-5!  Just what I need is to feel super cranky on days when I meet with the accountant about taxes with Matt and a Best Practice meeting for work.  Good news is that I have a massage tomorrow that should help.  

Have you ever tried a cleansing or special eating plan to clean up your diet?

How did you do it without going crazy?

Blog on.................

Overheard in the Van. Del Sol 2013 edition

I love these!  Some relays have more fun "overheards" then others, but when you have 5 people driving from SLC to Arizona and back there is plenty of time to warm up and before you know it we are laughing our butts off!  

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Challenge Accepted!

Do you want it grilled?  Over easy.

I wish there were men in front of our van with their shirts off.  

Get in the Van!  Get in the Van!

Abort!  Abort!

OMG KEN!

Sombitch

Never look somebody in the eye when you bite that banana.  I have sunglasses on. 

Too far!  Too Far!

I'm a sucker for peer pressure.

If everyone does it I'll do it.  (when talking about running nekkid)  You go first.

The straight and hard stretch.

I don't even look that good after a nap.

Fact.

Blueberry muffin!  Blueberry muffin!

Ken, help me!

Are these automatic mirrors?  No, they are touch mirrors, you touch them to move them.

The Valet did it.

I got gold teeth, nigga.

I pee'd my pants!  I leaked a little!

I'm getting dressed, don't look. 


Thanks to my great friends that make this type of shenanigans possible.  Four days together and we enjoyed it all!  Hoping for more fun and frolics on the races to come!

Blog on................