Days 5 and 6: Tuna WARNING and New Recipe Experiment

BabyLove likes variety but, after yesterday, he says he is going to be more careful about what he wishes for!  Breakfast was eggs and lomi salmon, which he loves.  The lunch experiment was SB&J burgers with mango instead of strawberry.  He was VERY skeptical, so I made mine and let him try it before putting anything on his burger.  He was surprised to like my homemade sunbutter.  It was so simple to make!  I roasted a cookie sheet full of sunflower seeds, then put them in the food processor and added salt.  After about 10 minutes (on and off, or it will overheat), I added just under a tablespoon of avocado oil.  I could have added a little more oil to make it creamier but it was pretty darn good like that and I was afraid of adding too much oil.  I think what made it so good was that I roasted the seeds right before I made it, rather than buying pre-roasted seeds.  What BabyLove didn't care for was the flavor of mango (his favorite fruit) with the burger.  So I enjoyed my SB&J and he enjoyed his SB burger with lettuce and a side of brussels sprouts for lunch.  Dinner was one of our favorites: spaghetti squash with hamburger and homemade pasta sauce on top.

Today is a work day, so back to packing meals.  M1 was Aidell Chicken and Apple sausages and roasted red bell peppers and zucchini.  For lunch/dinner, I packed pork and carrots I had done in the crockpot, frozen normandy veggies, raw baby carrots, a pear, boiled eggs and nuts.  He has a training today, so hopefully he'll be home early!  If so, we'll have a real dinner instead of him snacking on eggs, carrots and nuts.

And now for the tuna warning: did you know that tuna in water may not be packed in just water?  It is packed in vegetable broth and has soy!  I did find SOME albacore tuna that really is packed in water and Kirkland Skipjack Tuna in water is also really packed in water. But every can of "regular" tuna I checked had soy! Just another lesson in reading labels!

Whole30 Day Four: Eating Out

As we were wrapping up my pet sitting job, I was trying to use up the foods we had in the fridge.  So M1 was chicken stir fry, using the garlic coconut amino acids.  We decided to reward all of our hard work with lunch at one of my favorite places in Kapolei: Kua'aina Sandwich Shop.  They have a pretty simple menu of burgers and salads, using local produce.  Everything is amazing!  But best of all, their salads are Whole30 compliant!  Crisp lettuce, shredded carrots, diced tomatoes, super thin slices of red onion, a pile of alfalfa sprouts and topped with your choice of meat or fish.  BabyLove LOVES the mahi, so I confirmed that it didn't have any sugars in the marinade/spice blend.  We also happened to be there for Halfsy Hour, so they were buy one, get one half off.  Of course, I bought an extra grilled chicken topped salad for home, so we had an even number of orders (our couch surfer was with us.)  Unfortunately, rush hour had started and we simply don't bother trying to get home between the hours of 3 and 7 pm, so we had to kill some time in town.  We got a lot of errands done and then hit Jamba Juice to hold us over.  Most of their stuff is NOT compliant but they do have some smoothies that are just fruit and veggie blends.  We sat around playing Phase 10 and drinking our smoothies until it was safe to hit the road.  After we got home, we shared the extra Kua'aina salad and called it a day. Gotta love it when I only have to cook once and yet he was able to eat yummy, Whole30 foods all day!

Day 10 is another day we'll be eating out, so I'm emailing the restaurant right now to check out a few specific menu items I think should be safe.  While eating out is definitely a challenge on Whole30, it CAN be done!  Here is what I wrote to them: (note - yes, there is a LOT more than sugar, wheat and soy that we are avoiding on Whole30, but those are the ones that are usually HIDDEN.  Anything else I can pretty much tell from the menu.)

"Aloha!  I'm looking for a place to take some friends this Saturday and am looking at coming to your Kaneohe location.  But we have some dietary issues, so I want to see what is available before we arrive (I don't want to hold up other people while we ask a ton of questions!)  The main things we have to avoid are sugar, wheat and soy.  Unfortunately, they are often hiding in spice mixes and marinades.  I'm specifically wanting to check out the sauteed garlic shrimp, seared ahi salad, Furikake Salmon and the beef stew.  If you could check the seasonings/sauces/etc and let me know by Thursday, that would be awesome!  Mahalo!!!"

Whole30 Day 3

We unexpected ended up pet sitting for an extra day, so I had to run to the store and get food last night for BabyLove's meals today.  The last couple of days have been super rough at work, so I decided to get him a steak.  I also LOVE squash but Costco hasn't had any for ages.  Since I was at a "normal" store, I went ahead and got both an acorn squash and a spaghetti squash.  I was working hard to get some variety into the my BabyLove's diet, so M1 was Baked Egg in Avocado and salsa.   It was super easy but I had to cook it longer than the 15 minutes.  And even though he got the whole avocado and 2 eggs, it wasn't filling enough so I quickly fried up 2 more eggs in the steak drippings.  It was a rushed morning, so I'll have to get a review of the recipe for  you when he gets home tonight.  Lunch/dinner was the steak, cut into strips and pan grilled, acorn squash, baby carrots, brussels sprouts, orange wedges, boiled eggs and nuts.  I think it is so funny that a day I'm totally "winging it" turns out to be one of his better food days!  But it was a frantic morning for me pulling it all together, and the kitchen is a disaster right now, so I think I'll go back to my meal plan as soon as possible!

Whole 30, Days 1 and 2

I don't expect to post daily (since I sucked at that plan last time) but we'll just see how things develop this time.

Yesterday's Meal One (M1) was eggs, green beans and a small amount of hash browned potatoes. The potatoes were Alexia Yukon Select with onion, garlic and white pepper that we got at Foodland.  Unfortunately, MOST hash browned potatoes have extra stuff added, so be sure to check the label!  Like I said yesterday, he won't have potatoes super often, even though they are allowed.  But I knew Day One would be a big transition, so I wanted to make sure he was full and ready to face the day.  For lunch/dinner at work, I packed him chicken seasoned with Montreal spices (be sure to check your spice blends for hidden sugars!), baby carrots, red pepper strips, frozen broccoli to heat up, mixed nuts (no peanuts!!), boiled eggs and a banana.  He was a little hungry when he got home, so he had some of the chai tea with almond milk from yesterday's recipe.  It wasn't the greatest, to be honest.  I'll probably play around with the spice blend and see if I can do better for him.  But part of the problem was that it was almond milk instead of dairy, so he'll just have to adjust to that.  He also had some more nuts.  We are pet sitting right now, which means our options are limited.  But I go home tomorrow, so I'll cook up some meats to have available for him if he comes home from work hungry (since doubling up on nuts isn't the best option for losing weight!)

Today, he had eggs, stir fry veggies (with garlic coconut amino acids in place of soy sauce) and half an avocado for M1.  Getting those healthy fats in is important!  For work (lunch and dinner) I packed Buffalo Chicken (combine 1 cup Frank's hot sauce and 6 Tbsp coconut oil, mix it with shredded chicken - makes several servings, of course!), baby carrots, red pepper strips, frozen broccoli, mixed nuts, boiled eggs (remember what I said about limited options right now?) and a fruit cup.  These fruit cups were a fun find!  They are Wawona Organic Mixed Fruit Cups and were in the freezer section at Costco, although this was the first time I've seen them there.   They have peaches, pineapple, mango and strawberries, in white grape juice.  No sugar, artificial colors or flavors.

I'm looking forward to getting back into my own kitchen and trying out some new recipes for him!  Next week's menu includes fun stuff like a variation of peanut butter and jelly burgers (since, you know, he can't have peanut butter OR jelly!) and Asian Lettuce Wraps.  I'll also be whipping up another batch of homemade mayo, so he can have some salmon or tuna salad.

A special treat as he starts Whole30 again

I was informed a couple weeks ago that there would be another round of Whole30 in January.  So here we are, on January 2nd, doing Whole30 Day One.  My BabyLove is wanting to focus on losing weight this time, so we are limiting him to only one fruit a day and very few potatoes (mostly just on days he works out.)  Although we really didn't have a lot of baked goodies around this year, I know it will be hard going from holiday splurges into Whole30.  So I wanted to have something tasty, special and compliant for him.  Enter Chai Tea Concentrate, which he will mix with almond milk.  I'm not a fan of chai myself but he enjoys it, so I am currently brewing him a batch.  I do have to admit, the house DOES smell lovely!  Here is the recipe:  http://myheartbeets.com/homemade-chai-concentrate/

I did it with ground ginger and cloves, as that is what I had available.  We'll let you know what he thinks of it!

Happy New Year!!

UPDATE:  Um, yuck.  If we do another round of Whole30 in the winter, I'll play around with it again.  But we didn't like this one.

Less Stress!! Have Fun!!

November was good!  I have been working towards less stress and more sleep, and it is really making a difference.  None of our circumstances have changed, it's just the way we are reacting to them.  And we are making a point of having FUN together - something that got neglected as my health was in decline. So today's post is about having fun!  And this really isn't off-topic, as stress affects the hormones in our body, which affect how we lose/gain weight!

Sometimes we play games at home but I LOVE to go sit at a restaurant or coffee house and have someone refilling my coffee cup while we play.  Obviously, we are selective about what restaurants we would do that at but, so far, our waiters and waitresses have never gotten upset about it.  They usually ask if they can join us!  Of course, we also make sure to tip VERY WELL and would never stay if the tables were starting to fill up around us.  Hopefully that all goes without saying but I'll say it anyway, just so no one comes and yells at me.  

Here are some of our favorite games to play out and about:

Guillotine: The Revolutionary Card Game Where You Win By Getting a Head!:
This one is new to us and very simple to learn but we really enjoyed it.  You can't plan ahead, as things change with every turn!  You do need room to set up a row of 12 cards, so a 2-person table will get very crowded.

Sequence: This is a combination of a board game and a card game.  It is simple to learn but strategy definitely comes into play!  Using the cards in your hand (which each correspond to 2 spots on the board), you try to form a sequence of five chips in a row.  But some jacks can be used to remove the other person's chip, so until it is finished, nothing is certain!

Phase 10: Probably my favorite card game (unless you are getting a group together to play Nertz!!), this is 10 mini-challenges.  For one hand, you'll need to collect a run of 5 cards, for another you'll collect two sets of three, etc.  Everyone who completes the challenge before someone goes out, moves on to the next challenge.  But if you don't make it, you have to try that challenge again while the others move on.

Bananagrams: Similar to Scrabble but you are each building your own crossword grid, in a race against the other players.  As you get more tiles, you have to rearrange what is already there to fit them in.

We also usually have SKIP BO or Uno in the car, just in case we find ourselves with time to kill.

Another way we are having fun is with a "mystery date night."  It seemed like we would play the "I don't know. What do YOU want to do?" game until neither of us wanted to do ANYTHING.  So I came up with several mystery date night packages.  I ordered stuff (Black Friday sales on Amazon for the win!) and wrapped them in brown paper, with red lipstick kisses rubber stamped all over.  Each one got a number and any important information on the outside of the package.  For example, #4 needs advance notice and involves a day out.  Unfortunately, I can't tell you all the ideas yet, since I want them to stay a mystery until we do them!  My BabyLove IS one of my only readers, after all! ;)  But the one we opened and did so far was White Mountain Puzzles Beer Bottle Caps - 550 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle.  We had a nice, relaxing evening together and got it finished before bed (um, don't ask what TIME we ended up going to bed, ok?)  Now he wants me to Mod Podge it so he can hang it in the man cave.  Well, sure!  I didn't know I was picking out decor when I started this but I'm glad I know what my BabyLove likes!

Oh, and the "more sleep" part?  I'm getting that with my new hammock in the living room! Having support along my entire spine lets me sleep well and wake up pain free.  It's amazing!! Yeah, not the solution for everyone, I know, but it sure works for me!  And that is another of my main messages: when it comes to YOUR health and YOUR weight, you need to do what works for YOU!



Just so you know, yes, those are affiliate links.  That means that you pay the exact same price but I make a very small percentage of your purchase in commission. But I promise that if I EVER post a link to something that I don't already use and LOVE, I will let you know up front!!  For example, if there is a piece of workout equipment I want to try but can't afford yet, I may link to it for you to see but I'll let you know I don't use it/haven't tried it yet.  I will never, ever post something just for the sake of a sale!

Granola bars

These are NOT, I repeat NOT, a "diet" food.  We don't do diet food here (well, other than using stevia in place of sugar in my drinks.)   We do whole food and eat sweets in moderation.  But my BabyLove works a job that has him gone 14 hours a day and only gives him one meal break.  So I need to pack "extras" to hold him over.  My granola bars have been a favorite way to do this (as well as nuts, raw veggies, fruits, "hippie popcorn", etc.)  I typically do a "granola bar blast" every 2 or 3 months and make enough to carry him through.  For one thing, this gives him a variety of flavors at all times.  Secondly, and just as important, I can use the same bowl, measuring cups, etc, over and over.  So I get 5 to 7 batches of granola bars for just ONE mess.  These don't need to be refrigerated if they will be eaten within a week but if you are making a bunch, I would recommend keeping them in the fridge or freezer (especially if they have banana, pumpkin or applesauce.)  Since I'm baking for 2 months or more, I freeze mine.  When I pack them in his lunch, they have defrosted by the time he is ready to eat them.  This recipe is inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Kitchen Stewardship.  Here is her recipe:  http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/06/16/recipe-connection-homemade-granola-and-granola-bars/  But I realized I've changed enough of it that it is easier to post my recipe than to post hers and tell you all my changes.

Remember those "Chose Your Own Adventure" books?  I loved them!!  This is a "Chose Your Own Ingredients" recipe! There is a "base" recipe - but even that has options - and then you add whatever you want!

1 cup oil
1 cup liquid sweetener
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
4 1/2 cups rolled oats (not quick)
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups of add-ins

First, put 1 cup of oil and 1 cup of liquid sweetener in a bowl and mix well.  For the oil, I use 1 cup of coconut oil OR 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1/2 cup of applesauce, pumpkin puree, mashed banana or even peanut butter.  You could also use softened butter.  For the sweetener, I typically use honey (not my expensive local raw honey because hey, this is going to be COOKED!) but will sometimes replace part or all with maple syrup (grade B) or blackstrap molasses, depending on what flavor I am trying. And when I am using applesauce or banana, I'll often go just under a cup of sweetener.  I've started using my immersion blender to mix this together and it works really well.

Next, I mix in 1 tsp of vanilla and 1 tsp of baking soda.  Up next, 4 1/2 cups of rolled oats (not quick) and 1 1/2 cups of flour (whole wheat is best but do NOT try to use "alternative" flours: brown rice, coconut, etc.  Also, don't try to use less flour.  The bars will NOT hold together.)  Stir it all together.  Next is the fun part: add-ins!  Add a total of 2 cups of whatever fun stuff you want to put in.  My husband LOVES the ones with chocolate chips, so pretty much every batch has a cup of chocolate chips and a cup of something else.  After you have the add-ins stirred in, put it all in a well greased 9x13 pan.  You need to press it in really, really well.  I grease my hands and use them but then I'll also take the back of a spoon and beat it down.  Make sure to push the edges down so they don't burn.  Bake it at 325 for 18 to 25 minutes (mine take the full 25) and then let them cool in the pan before cutting into squares (or any other shape, if that floats your boat!)

Because I'm doing multiple batches, I  use two 9x13 pans.  I make room in my fridge so I can put one in there to cool before removing them from the pan.  So once I get going, I have one pan in the oven, one cooling in the fridge and the next batch mixed in the bowl, ready to go in the pan when it comes out of the fridge.  The cooler the bars are when you remove them from the pan, the better they will stay together.  

So now, the fun part!  Some flavors I have done:

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip: pumpkin puree in place of half the oil,  nutmeg, cinnamon, 1 cup soft/stale cinnamon apple chips (just cinnamon and apple!) and one cup chocolate chips (because husband,)

Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip:  1 banana (equaled half a cup) in place of half the oil, 1 cup broken up walnuts, 1 cup chocolate chips

Banana Raisin Chocolate Chip: 1 banana (equaled half a cup) in place of half the oil, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup chocolate chips

Cinnamon Apple Chocolate Chip: applesauce in place of half the oil, cinnamon, 1 cup soft/stale cinnamon apple chips (just cinnamon and apple!) and one cup chocolate chips.

Coconut Mac Chocolate Chip: 3/4 cup of chopped macadamia nuts, 3/4 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (I get mine from Amazon)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip: unsweetened, creamy peanut butter in place of half the oil, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup peanuts

Pecan Maple Chocolate Chip: use maple syrup as liquid sweetener, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 cup chocolate chips

Toffee Butterscotch Chocolate:  we had some leftover/slightly melted/going stale Heath bars after Halloween last year.  I chopped up 1 cup of them and also added 1 cup of butterscotch chips.  They were, needless to say, a HUGE hit and the guys at work wanted Dan to share any time he had them in his lunch!  At least this is healthier than eating plain Heath bars, right???

Whole 30 - the rest of the days ;)

Turns out that I'm better at meal planning than blogging!  So here is a post with all the recipes that we used.  Dan did a FABULOUS job sticking with it.  Even when we got unexpectedly stuck in town (because of a really bad accident blocking the ONLY road home), he managed to find appropriate food at the restaurant.

I'm posting these recipes in the order I made them, so if it seems random that's because it is!  For most recipes, I made large batches and froze individual servings to send with him to work later in the month.  Main dishes he had 3-4 times during the 30 days.  Secondary proteins (see Day One to understand our system) showed up much more frequently.  Many morning meals consisted of egg and veggie scrambles (which is what we usually do even when not doing Whole 30.)  Each of the last two weeks, Dan grilled up a TON of compliant brats, sausages, pork chops, steaks, burgers and chicken.  So that was pretty much what we ate for the second half.

Buffalo Chicken - Combine 1 cup Frank's hot sauce and 6 Tbsp coconut oil, mix it with shredded chicken
Scotch Eggs - boil eggs, peel, encase in homemade sausage, bake at 350 for 20 minutes or see linked recipe
Homemade sausage patties
Tuna Salad*
Asian Meatballs
Rosemary Turkey - Whole turkey, rub dried rosemary, salt and pepper UNDER the skin, rub coconut oil ON the skin, then roasted turkey as normal
Broiled Sesame Cod - remember to use ghee or coconut oil in place of butter!
Pot Roast - did my own thing but here is a Whole 30 compliant recipe
Egg Salad*
Chicken Curry - curry paste, coconut milk, lots of veggies: green beans, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, etc (no peas!)
Deviled Eggs*
Turkey Salad* - http://paleoperiodical.com/2011/11/03/recipe-chicken-salad-w-pecans-and-grapes/
Taco Lettuce Wraps - taco seasoned (check for sugar!  I had to make my own!) hamburger, chopped tomatoes, onions, red pepper, etc served in romaine lettuce leaves (sorry, no cheese or sour cream!)
Zucchini Pizza Boats
Coconut Chicken - cook bite size pieces of chicken in a skillet, then add unsweetened coconut (I get mine from Amazon) and salt.  Let the extra coconut in the skillet brown up but be careful, as it quickly goes from perfect to burnt!
Garlic Chicken -  cook bite size pieces of chicken in a skillet, then add minced garlic (I use pre-minced and pour in some of the juice, too.)
Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti - use the spaghetti squash as the noodles and make sure your sauce doesn't have sugar
Grilled meats (Applewood Bratwurst, pork chops, steaks, burgers, Aidell Chicken and Apple Sausage)
*used homemade mayo made with avocado oil and kombucha vinegar, using this method


We loaded up on both fresh and frozen fruits and veggies at Costco, so he would have a variety.  Think outside of your usual veggies!  We splurged on things like snap peas and Japanese cucumbers, even though they were more than we would usually pay.  You want foods that will keep you from getting bored. There were even some fruit cups that didn't have sugar (look for ones packed in ONLY fruit juice.) And we had several types of nuts (just NO PEANUTS, as they are a legume.) Some "easy day" foods we purchased were the sausages and brats.  MOST BRANDS HAVE SUGAR!  Applewood and Aidell both have options without sugar but make sure you are also getting ones without cheese while you are doing Whole 30.  Another easy option was smoked salmon but, again, check for sugar!  Costco had 3 brands and only one didn't have sugar.

Another recipe I really wanted to try but never quite got to was Sausage and Spinach Breakfast Casserole.

Whole30 - Day Four

I'm pretty excited about today's menu! Since I am not a fish person, Dan usually handles any fish meals. But I found a recipe I want to try, so I'm going for it today. Because I anticipate Dan sleeping in again, I planned a decent Meal One (M1) and light M2.

Day Four
Meal One: Beef, potato and onion skillet, strawberries
Meal Two: Egg salad (with homemade paleo mayo), salad (spinach, kale, chard, romaine lettuce) with homemade kombucha/avocado oil dressing
Meal Three: Broiled Sesame Cod, roasted zucchini, steamed carrots

Whole30 - Day Three

It was Dan's first day off since we started and we were kind-of winging it. I thought Dan had to fast before his medical appointment - so there was NO menu for meal one (M1) and I planned on taking stuff to eat in the car after the appointment for M2. Turns out, that wasn't the case! Fortunately, I found out the night before, so I had M1 ready for him when he got up. Since he slept in and we didn't want to eat M2 so soon after M1, we did still end up "snacking" for M2. (Remember the disclaimer that we're not perfect?) But we came home to the scent of a lovely rosemary turkey in the oven! He was quite happy to feast on turkey after feeling rather deprived on Day Two. I actually made potatoes to go with dinner but we were both full from the turkey and veggies.

Day Three
Meal One: Beef, mushrooms and onion, half banana
Meal Two: Scotch egg and roasted almonds
Meal Three: Rosemary Turkey (rosemary, salt and pepper rubbed under the skin, coconut oil rubbed on the skin), Normandy veggies (cooked broccoli, cauliflower and carrots)
Evening snack (yeah, not supposed to do that but dinner was early because lunch was so small): cherry tomatoes

Whole30 - Day Two

After telling you that I don't do recipes that require a lot of time, I spent about an hour mincing stuff for those darn Asian Meatballs!  When I mention that to Dan, he reminded me that we recently bought a food processor.  Oops!  He tried a couple last night and likes them, so at least they were worth the work.  He also approved of the mayo but we agreed that I should use a little less vinegar next time.  Fortunately, this was a pretty small batch so it will be used up quickly.

Today, I'm defrosting a turkey to cook tomorrow.  I will also make curry chicken and veggies.  It isn't on Dan's menu until Saturday but I don't do my batch cooking on his days off, so I need to get it done.  I simply add curry paste and/or curry powder to coconut milk and let it simmer down for a while.  Then I add bite-size pieces of chicken and LOTS of veggies (I always add frozen peas and green beans, and sometimes include carrots or potatoes.)  Since I love curry, and don't mind eating the same thing over and over, I'll make a HUGE batch.  Some will be frozen for Dan's work meals and the rest will stay in the fridge for me to eat the next several days.

Day Two:
Meal One: Egg scramble with onions, homemade sausage, strawberry grape lemon water*
Packed for work:
Tuna Salad (with homemade paleo mayo)
Power greens (romaine lettuce, kale, chard and spinach)
Kombucha vinegar/avocado oil dressing (added dried onions and seasonings to the vinegar/oil blend)
Asian Meatballs
Red bell pepper strips
Canned green beans
Banana
Macadamia nuts

*We typically drink a lot of homemade lemonade but use stevia in it.  Since Whole30 doesn't allow sweeteners, we are experimenting with different ways to flavor water.  This batch was 3 strawberries, 6 grapes and some water blended together, then added to a 64 oz cup with 1/2 cup lemon juice and enough water and ice to fill the cup.  I don't usually measure the lemon juice, I just do a 3 second squeeze of the bottle.  I only measured it today to give you a general idea but we are used to drinking that much at a time. I'd probably recommend starting out with less!  Especially since this wasn't sweet, even with the fruit.
Tip: do NOT add the lemon juice to the blender!  It foams up like crazy.

Whole30 - Day One

I've decided to share our Whole30 journey this time through but first I need to explain why we do it a little differently.  Whole30 frowns (heavily) on snacking, even if the snacks are Whole30 foods.  But when Dan works, he is gone for 14 hours a day and he only gets ONE meal break.  So I absolutely have to pack "snacks" that he can grab and eat while he is working.  I pack a main protein (usually needs to be heated, this is what he eats when he actually sits down for a meal), secondary protein (grab and go option), frozen or canned veggie (for his sit down meal), fresh veggies, a fruit and nuts.  When he leaves work, he'll let me know if he is hungry and needs me to have something ready for him when he gets home.

As for me, I did Whole30 diligently our first time through (early this year) and while I did benefit from it some, I did not lose a single pound, nor did I sleep better or have more energy.  I do have a medical issue (with my adrenals) that affects my ability to lose weight right now.  So I've decided that I'll eat Whole30 compliant with Dan when he is home and I'll eat "clean" for the month but I'm not doing a strict Whole30 this time around.  My reason for sharing our journey is not to hold us up as a perfect example of Whole30.  There is no perfection here, just plenty of reality! Besides sharing some recipes, I want to be able to encourage people that it isn't as hard as it seems and you can adapt things to work for your lifestyle. For example, I do batch cooking so that I'm not spending so much time in the kitchen. Many of the entrees Dan takes to work will be on the menu 3 or 4 times during the month.  The first time it is on the menu, I make enough for the month and freeze the rest in individual servings.  I also do very, very simple recipes!  With my own health issues, I just don't have it in me to spend tons of time chopping, mixing, sauteing, cooking, etc.  If it was just me, I'd throw a huge batch of something in the crockpot and eat it until it was gone.  But my BabyLove happens to like variety, so batch cooking/freezing simple recipes is our compromise.

I'm glad I did it 100% the first time and I would strongly encourage everyone to give it a shot. Even though I didn't lose weight, it was helpful to learn some foods that I don't tolerate as well.  And a short time of disciplined eating is never a bad thing!  It is good to periodically be reminded that we do NOT need to indulge every "craving" or desire.  With that being said, however, I want to also point out that we have no intention of going paleo long term.  I don't believe that eliminating major food groups is the healthiest option in the long run.  I also have a tendency to become obsessive with food tracking and planning, which is not how I want to live my life!

Let's get started!

Yesterday, I boiled up a bunch of boneless chicken thighs.  Today, I mixed up Buffalo Sauce (1 cup Frank's hot sauce and 6 Tbsp coconut oil) and mixed it with shredded chicken.  One serving went into Dan's lunch today and three servings were individually frozen for later in the month.  Since I am sending tuna salad tomorrow, I needed to make paleo mayo today.  This was my first time doing it with a stick blender.  I used this recipe, with avocado oil and used kombucha vinegar in place of white vinegar. The directions for using the stick blender are here. I'm not a mayo person, so I'll let Dan taste it and give input before I make changes to the next batch.  But I felt it was too tangy, so probably less lemon juice/vinegar.  A lot of other mayo recipes had other spices (paprika, pepper, garlic, etc.)  I may add some in next time but since this batch was specifically to go in tuna salad and turkey salad, I didn't worry about it.  But if we were doing sandwiches with it, it would probably be nice to add some other flavors.  It was super quick and easy to make, and turned out very creamy!  The other thing I'll make today is Asian meatballs (a new recipe for me.)  You'll see the meatballs show up as secondary protein some days and breakfast Meal One on other days.

Day One

Meal One: egg scramble with red bell peppers and sauteed greens (chard, kale and spinach) and fresh lilikoi (passion fruit - we have access to a massive vine for free, so you'll see it on our menu quite a bit!)

Packed for work:

Buffalo Chicken 

Scotch Eggs (boiled egg encased in homemade sausage, then baked at 350 degress for 20 minutes.) 

Frozen mixed veggies

Fresh sugar snap peas

Fresh baby carrots and cauliflower mix

Banana

Pistachios

And here we go again...

I've spent a lot of time analyzing what went wrong.  Not to place blame - if there is any "blame" to be had, it rests solely on me.  But I desperately want to avoid a repeat and, if possible, help others to avoid this "repeat journey" in their own lives.  And so I analyze.

One of the conclusions I have come to is that hope is a much bigger factor than most people realize.  I discovered this on my weight loss journey and it was the loss of hope that ended that journey.  For those who are new to my story, I lost 130 pounds and won an amazing opportunity to do a Ragnar Relay with a team of Biggest Loser alumni.  My weight loss had been inspired by The Biggest Loser and some of my favorite alumni were a part of this event.  It was literally a dream come true!  I did VERY little running before winning this spot and I had just two months to get ready.  And I did!  I went from running maybe a mile every other week to running several miles, two or three times a day.  I ran very slow, mind you, but I ran.  I found out just what I was capable of, when I put my mind to something, and it was a wonderful experience. HOWEVER, many of the alumni had regained a good bit of weight and I found that very discouraging.  If these people who had some of the best trainers in the world, who had lived their journey in public, who had all the knowledge they could possibly need - if THEY couldn't keep it off, what chance did I have of doing any better?  Again, I do not place blame on anyone other than me.  After all, I know Ali Vincent and she has kept it off.  Tara is another amazing example and she was even in my van, so I spent a lot of time around her.  I have no excuse but I did allow my hope to be extinguished and that was a costly mistake.  My weight loss stopped then and there.

Another extremely critical factor is sleep. This was also something I discovered during my weight loss journey and when it slipped away, my weight began creeping back on.  I have been married almost 8 months now and I still struggle to sleep with someone else in the room (even though I love him dearly!)  Add to that the fact that his work schedule rotates between days and night every two weeks, and perhaps you can understand my sleep issues.  It is so bad that even being on vacation (and having my own room) for two weeks, I still couldn't sleep through the night.  I haven't yet found anything that will give me consistently good sleep.  Delta waves, melatonin, heating pad, hot shower... sometimes they help and sometimes they don't.  I'm starting a new alkalinity program and hopefully that will help but for now, I'll just have to be disciplined to go to bed super early on the nights that my husband works, so that I can have a LONG period of time to try to get in 7 or 8 hours of sleep.  When I first started losing weight, I had to train myself to sleep that long.  In fact, some nights it took me 12 hours to get 7 hours of sleep!  But I was single and not working a lot back then, so I was able to do it.  I'm not sure how to make that happen in my current life but somehow I must.

Something I'm finding out about trying to lose a major amount of weight a second time is that it is so much harder than the first time!  On one hand, I know I can do it, since I've done it before.  But since I also regained the weight, there is the fear that all this hard work will be for nothing yet again.  So it is extremely tough to buckle down and do the work.  But I must.

UPDATE:  In Sept (2013) we discovered that I had adrenal issues, cause primarily by stress and lack of sleep, that made it nearly impossible to lose the weight.  In fact, that was the biggest cause behind the weight gain in the first place.  So now, my major goal is not a number on the scale but to get healthy again, sleep well and recapture that hope!

Emotions vs Logic

This last month has been really, really tough. I've been struggling with a lot of food issues that I thought were behind me. Well, struggling and losing the battle, to be perfectly honest. I've gained back about 7 lbs and while that isn't a lot, it is a step in the wrong direction. Seventeen steps, actually, since I should have been losing during this time. But every time I've hit a stumbling block during this journey, I remind myself that there is something to learn from it that I'll be able to pass on to others some day. Every challenge makes me stronger. Every battle, won or lost, provides new insight. My insight this time? Even though I am a very logical person, I am ruled by emotions when it comes to body/weight/food issues. I know I've gained 7 lbs and I know what 7 lbs looks like. But for some reason, when someone took a picture of me at the beach last weekend, I expected it to look like my 'before' pictures. I was literally shocked to look at the picture and see a 'normal' size person. My mind had gone back to 290+ lbs, even if my body didn't come close to that. And, in case you are wondering, yes I do have mirrors in my house. But what I saw reflected in those mirrors was a bloated, depressed, frustrated person. There is no logic to it, but our mind has so much power over how we view things. Fortunately, we can choose to take our thoughts captive. I had a conversation with a dear friend once about how to do that. She joked that it would be nice to have a thought catcher to wear on top of her head. So I made her one! Okay, so there is nothing magical about this baseball cap. But it is a fun reminder that it is a CHOICE we make, each and every time we are faced with negative thoughts: will we listen to them or will we take them captive and speak the truth to ourselves? Personally, I'm ready for some truth, thank you very much.

Weight Loss Myths

I won't pretend to understand what guys think, so I'm only speaking for the girls here. But I would be willing to bet that MOST overweight girls assume they will be beautiful if they could just lose the extra weight. Now, we may not say it out loud, or even think it directly. We just function with that assumption. If we really thought about it, we would realize that there are a LOT of skinny girls who are NOT drop-dead gorgeous. So what happens when we delete the fat and find out that our features are not going to make us America's next top model? I know - here I go with the 'discouraging' news again. I promise my goal is not to discourage you! Rather, I want you to think through WHY you are doing this journey. Be honest with yourself. The truth is, short of an extensive amount of surgery, which I can NOT afford, I will never have a bikini body. So if that is my motivation, I'm in trouble. It is my personal theory that misplaced motivation is key to why so many people struggle to keep the weight off after they lose it. If I went through all this work to look like a model but then I don't look like a model, where is my motivation to work hard to keep it off? But if my motivation is to be healthy, or to be able to hike or swim or bike or run (or whatever I enjoy) then I am in a much better place because I CAN do all those things now. And I look a lot better doing them now than I did at 290 lbs ;)

Emotions other than 'happy' are OK!

There is so much nobody tells you before you embark on a huge weight loss journey. I guess it could all be so overwhelming in the beginning, so perhaps it is for the best. But it makes for some crazy emotional roller coasters along the way. There are some things that people who haven't lost over 100 lbs just won't understand. Like how I could be discouraged looking in a mirror after losing 125 lbs. I think the assumption is that I will (or should) be constantly happy because I've come so far. I love my journey! I've made photo books about how far I've come and I proudly show them to anyone who stands still near me long enough.* So yes, I appreciate how far I have come. But there is a cost. For example:

1. I do NOT recognize the face that stares back at me from the mirror. This can be extremely unsettling, especially early in the morning or when I catch a quick glimpse as I pass a mirror or window. Change, even good change, is stressful. The familiar is comfortable, even when it isn't the best. I don't miss the fat. But I certainly miss knowing who is looking back at me and sometimes I feel very lost inside this new person.

2. Needing a whole new wardrobe every few months, when you can not afford one, is not fun. It is frustrating to be trying to get dressed in the morning and finding out that something that fit the last time you wore it is too big today. Yes, it is great I'm losing weight. We've already established that. But is it too much to ask my clothes to shrink sizes with me? Yeah, I guess it is. But man, that would be nice! When I was packing for the Ragnar, I had to try on every piece of clothing before I packed it to make sure it still fit. And no longer being able to wear clothes that I LOVE is a bummer, too. I have an emotional attachment to some of this stuff, especially my goal outfits that I've worked so hard to get into.

3. You don't get to choose where the fat abandons first. Perhaps I am just weird, but I am not shrinking symmetrically, which leaves my body looking pretty funny. Most days I have a sense of humor about this but some days I just want to cry. It is a good thing that joining a nudist colony is not one of my goals.

4. Fat puffs out wrinkles. While I am feeling younger, I am looking older! No, I don't want to go back to feeling old and looking young. But some days I definitely mourn the loss of my youthful looks.

5. I've always struggled with being insecure. But I always had the fat to blame if people didn't like me. They weren't rejecting me, they were rejecting the fat girl. Now I have nothing to hid behind, nothing to blame. As wonderful as the Ragnar experience was, it has brought to light how EXTREMELY insecure I've become and it is much worse than I thought. Being chosen as a contest winner was a huge boost to my confidence, but I came home from the race fretting that perhaps they didn't like me once they actually met me. Does it matter if they liked me or not? Nope. I'm not likely to see many of them ever again. The ones I will see again (Sione, Filipe and SunShine) do seem to like me (or fake it really well!) And yet I stupidly worry about what the others think of me.

I don't tell you any of this to discourage you. Trust me, getting healthy is the most amazing journey you can embark on! But go into it knowing that losing weight doesn't solve all your problems and may just reveal problems you didn't know you had. Kind-of like what they say about winning the lottery (although I'd love the chance to prove them wrong on that one!) I went into a several week depression just because I felt guilty that I wasn't super excited all the time. The mirror thing REALLY messed with me for awhile. I strongly believe that knowing some of what was coming would have been helpful, as I am a big fan of being prepared. The emotions would still have been there, but at least I wouldn't have felt like a freak for struggling with them.

* True story: The baggage check lady in San Diego actually came out to give me a hug after looking through my book. I was having to repack all my bags, so I figured the book would entertain/distract her while I tried to take too much stuff home with me. It worked and I managed to get an extra 20 lbs of stuff home for free!

Newspaper Article

Here is the article about me that ran in the Honolulu Star Advertiser right before the Ragnar.

'Biggest Loser' TV show inspired big weight loss

2 more weeks!

Yep - only 14 more days until the Ragnar SoCal Relay race. Training has been quite the experience! While I certainly wish I had more time to prepare, I am also pretty pleased with what I've been able to do in only 2 months. I spent so many years believing that I wasn't able to run. Sure, I had a lot of valid excuses. But when I just decided to do it, no matter how slow, I suddenly found that excuses mean nothing. Like everything else, it is just a choice. Do I use my excuses to justify not doing it or do I do it regardless of the challenges involved? Come on - there was a guy with ONE LEG who ran the marathon! The truth is, people do what they choose to do.

Ragnar Relay Biggest Loser contest

I have to admit, I hadn't taken running very seriously. Sure, I did jogging/walking intervals sometimes but I had never had any aspiration to be a 'real' runner. Until I saw the Ragnar Relay Series and Biggest Loser alumni were teaming up and offering 4 fans the chance of a lifetime. The prize: running the Ragnar Relay SoCal with a team of Biggest Loser alumni. But in order to be eligible, I had to be able to run a 10k with a 14 minute pace. For some people, that is a brisk walk. For my short little legs, that is definitely a sustained jog. So I waited until the last day to apply, just to make sure I could do it. The next thing I knew, I had won a spot on Sione's Blue Team! Now I have 2 months to become a runner!

Here is my application video:

Bondi Bands

Another great 'tool' that I use is Bondi Bands. They are sweat wicking headbands that have fun sayings on them (or you can get plain colors, if you prefer.) I absolutely can't stand sweat dripping into my eyes during a workout!! Here are some of my favorites: