I FINISHED THE WHOLE 30!!!! September 20, 2015

So I’m a little late on this post, but I finished the Whole 30!   Here’s my last two days of meals, snacks, and workouts, progress photos, and a summary:

My Whole 30: Week 4 August 31, 2015

2 days to go!!! Feeling great, but had to pass on my aunt’s amazing cakes this weekend (pass = brought some slices home and put in the freezer…to be consumed later). You don’t understand…her cakes amazing, and I almost broke to have one…and even passed on rumchata…sniff. Anyways, I did great on a weekend in my hometown, even made good choices when out to eat, even is the waitress was annoyed with me! I’m really excited for Thursday…I feel slimmed down (lost the bloat belly) and following rules, haven’t weighed myself.  I’ve even had a few comments of people noticing some slimming down. I realize I don’t need a Starbucks refresher every morning as well. Sleep is definitely better, even wanting to go to bed before 9 sometimes 🙂  Here’s my week 4 menu:

My Whole 30: Week 3 August 24, 2015

Finished the 3rd week of my whole 30 without any crazy cravings, other than after my 55 mile bike ride, where I wanted a coke and a cupcake 😦  But, I settled for a Kombucha and watermelon, which refueled my body better than a cupcake anyway. Also made it through a baby shower with the best looking and smelling cake I’ve seen in quite some time, but just ate my fruit (and olives and pickles)! Here’s to my last week…and a few extra days! Going to finish strong!

My Whole30: Week 2 August 18, 2015

This week has actually went surprisingly well…I only started having a little bit of regret towards the end of the week, particularly when seeing dark chocolate and caramel. This week has made me realize how much I snacked and the poor choices I was making…twizzlers, mini dark chocolates, a muffin here and there because I was still hungry from breakfast….the list may go on a little, but you get the idea. I now replace those “snacks” with a healthier option like fruit or a handful of nuts. With my triathlon training, I feel that I need a little more “carbs” than I would on a rest day, otherwise I feel like crap and have crappy workouts, so looking at my weekly menu, you may see a little more fruit than what another person may eat. There were two days in week 1 where I just tanked very quickly and noticed a big difference with the higher fruit intake. Going strong for week 3!

Artichoke and Olive Stuffed Pork Chops August 15, 2015

With a little help from eMeals, I ended up creating this delicious little concoction. I modified the eMeals recipe…which by the way, eMeals is an amazing program that sends you a week of recipes along with a shopping list. They have lots of options for meals, including paleo and clean eating, and my most favorite…clean eating crockpot! Not every recipe is Whole30 compliant, but it’s pretty easy to modify the recipe. Anyways, eMeals inspired this recipe, but I made it my own by adding olives and some other herbs/seasoning.

My Whole 30: Week 1 August 10, 2015

Wow, its been almost 2 years since I have blogged… bought a house, took a board certification test, and got married! So, I guess I have an excuse, but I’ve wanted to get back to this. So no better way than to document my first whole 30. Now this isn’t my first attempt; however, having made it through a baseball game tailgate without any attempts at eating non-compliant foods, I’m pretty confident I will be successful this go around.

Why a Whole 30? I feel like I have fallen way off track eating healthy, with stress being the main reason/excuse for unhealthy eating habits. for some reason I can justify eating cupcakes, muffins, etc. because I have an a sense of an ounce of stress. In addition to removing foods that cause unhealthy reactions in the body, but also to help with the psychologically unhealthy foods, which was the main premise of my need to start and complete this.

So now that I am blogging about it, I will have to be successful, right? I’m also revisiting some of my oldie but goody recipes and using them throughout this 30 days and sharing links for some of my favs. Here we go, week 1 completed as of 8:30 this evening! I actually felt better than I was anticipating, but I think I also had a fairly good diet before hand with a sweet tooth added. Week on down and I’m feeling pretty good, maybe a headache here and there with only one day of really low energy, but I think I just didn’t have enough good carbs the evening before.

Paleo Ramen Noodle Soup December 8, 2013

It’s been getting cold in Kansas City and I wanted a quick soup to warm me up but didn’t have the stuff to make chicken noodle soup. I knew I had kelp noodles and some other random things in the fridge and went in search of paleo soups with kelp noodles. Paleo Cupboard had a wonderful Ramen Noodle Soup recipe that I knew I could recreate with what I had on hand.

Poblano Chicken Chowder October 20, 2013

Now that fall has finally hit, I’ve been craving soups on soups on soups. I pulled an old goodie last week, but was wanting something else and got inspired by this recipe from Paleo Cupboard. This was so delicious, I’m making again this weekend to take to a football watch party. We even changed up a few more things second go around, but it ended up being slightly more watery than the first attempt, so we added even more pureed cauliflower. Enjoy!

German-style Turkey Burgers September 9, 2013

First of all, I apologize for slacking on the blog…but I have a goal for the fall to post a new recipe on a weekly basis! I slacked hard core this summer just making the same old stuff over and over again as well as grilling the typical summer foods! Soooo, I decided when I got Rachael Ray’s magazine  in the mail that I would pick it up and browse to get some inspiration for new recipes and within,  the first few pages, had it. German-style turkey burgers. Unfortunately I cannot find this recipe on her site to share with you, but as soon as I do, I’ll update this post. I added a few things to make it my own and paleo, but she definitely nailed this one in flavor!

Asian Carrot Ginger Dressing July 17, 2013

I’ve re-recently become obsessed with this dressing. I’ve had it at several sushi places and always laugh when I remember the first time I ordered a side salad and a small bowl of chopped iceberg lettuce and tomatoes came out. I was so disappointed until I took a bite and the dressing was wonderful. Good thing the side salads were only $1.99 🙂   I’ve been trying to get more fish in my life and love making ahi tuna at home paired with this salad that I have came to love with a paleo twist on the dressing.