Not so drained, but a little agitated

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With the right mindset all things are possible. That is for sure. Over the past year I’ve tried getting back to it with the 21 Day Sugar Detox, Advocare, Weightloss Comp at work and whatever other promises I made to myself. But not one was fruitful. Now that I’m determined and willing, this is a walk in the park. Ok, it’s not like a lackadaisical stroll through some fairy tale wonderland but it’s definitely easier than my previous attempts at being good. Those before pics I took were really really motivating. Maybe one day I’ll share them with you. MAYBE!

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Day FOUR! I’ve made it. I know it doesn’t sound like a big triumph. You might be saying “You’re only 4 days in. That’s nothing.” But seriously, 4 days of super clean eating. Proper eating. Getting in all the right portions, that’s no joke.

As for how I’m feeling, well, I was a little slow moving this morning but I’m not feeling anything negative physically at the moment. A little more on edge, irritable but in general I’m feeling fine. I thought I was getting a sore throat so I drank some water with apple cider vinegar. I’m becoming a firm believer in this stuff. And I’m not one for much of the “home remedy” type stuff. But everyday I’m becoming more and more of that person. I woke up and there is no sign of sore throat!

As far as eating is concerned, I had my Day THREE lunch of leftovers. A hot mess of the Carnitas tower sans the avocado cause I forgot it, but had leftover asparagus to go with the pork and cole slaw. Threw in some coconut flakes with blackberries and that keeps me satiated through to dinner. No cravings. No daydreams of chocolate running into my mouth.

Lunch 1/7/14

Lunch 1/7/14

For Day THREE dinner, I had the Salmon I made on Tuesday night. I never tasted it when it was fresh because I was too busy creating my leaning tower of carnitas. Well it was fantastic! It melted in my mouth, full of flavor and oh so good. I heated up the asparagus in a little bit of avocado oil and added a little bit of the butter lemon sauce that my other recipe was cooking in and it was to die for!

My attempt at making it more presentable.

Just in case you forgot how delicious the salmon looked!

I like being in the kitchen so prepping, slicing, dicing, cooking are not chores. Except for making things matchsticks. That sucks and I do not want to do that again. I’m sure there’s a fancy thingamajig that will do it for me, but I had a knife and a cutting board. And the recipe I was following from Weeknight Paleo called for veggies and fruits to be cut into matchsticks. Little did I know I am not good at this and it’s time consuming! It’s not hours of work but more work than I’d like to do regularly. I’m definitely finding the thingamajig that will make it easier.

But doesn't it look so pretty?!? Asian Five-Spice Chicken with Matchstix Salad, Weeknight Paleo

But doesn’t it look so pretty?!? Asian Five-Spice Chicken with Matchstix Salad, Weeknight Paleo

I only cooked ahead for tonight because we will be busy and I won’t have time to “make” anything. Reheat I can do and that’s easy. And that’s where the Matchsticks came in. It called for radishes, jicama, fuji apple, bosc pear and carrots to all be cut into matchsticks. Ay ay ay! While I was cutting that up, I was heating up a modified schezuan sauce. The recipe called for things that I could not find without sugar and honey which is not Whole30. So I just eliminated and hoped for the best! After my sauce cooled, I tossed it in with the matchstick salad. As that was all marinating, I heated up a skillet with Coconut Oil. I took chicken tenderloins and coated them in Chines Five Spice (which I’ve never used and wasn’t sure I’d like by the smell of it) and a few other spices. And off to the skillet they went. After a few minutes of cooking I added grassfed butter and lemon juice and let the tenderloins finish cooking. Plated the matchstick salad and topped with the chicken and it was fabulous. I ate half a serving of that and half a serving of my salmon. Turns out I was right about the smell of the Chinese Five Spice because it had anise, fennel and cloves, bleh. Not my favorite spices, but all together with the butter lemon sauce it turned out rather tasty. And maybe in my past experiences the flavors were too potent for my tastebuds back in the day. Ugh I’m getting old!

I GOT THIS

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Even though I have felt drained, irritable and still may have not seen the worst of withdrawals, my optimism is high! I can already feel the bloating going away. I don’t know about everyone else but when I’m eating poorly, I feel like the stay puff marshmallow at all time. Today, I can sit, stand etc and not feel like I’m busting at the seams. It’s a nice feeling. And helps keep my attitude in a good direction. I’m not hungry in between meals and I’m not CRAVING in between meals. It’s the cravings that get me. Cause I can have those any old time and not even be hungry.

You can do this too!
If you’re reading and are on the fence about doing the Whole30 or any other program for that matter just know you can do it. It is possible. For me it’s 30 DAYS. I just had to put on my big girl panties and stop with all the whining. I put my game face on and I’m going to destroy this little chunky monkey that I’ve become. You may or may not have weight to lose. You may need to get rid of those migraines that are bugging you. You may have allergies. Or maybe your joints just hurt and you’re on 17389 medications. Eat clean! Get moving! Cut out all the crap. 30 days isn’t FOREVER.

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So I don’t eat grains, but you should get the idea!

 

That’s a wrap!
It’s my REST day so BOOM Box recaps today. Back to it tomorrow and maybe trying out a Yoga class on Saturday. It’s at CrossFit Boom, so you know that’s my second home. We’ll see. In regards to food, it will be a lot of reheating over the next two days. If you have questions, need a cheerleader, or someone to vent to about making that change for better health, then I’m your girl! Have a fab Thursday!

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And then I got tired

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I was feeling pretty good Day ONE and Day TWO. But it caught up to me. The HANGOVER as Whole30 states may happen in Days TWO & THREE. And I felt it this morning at the BOOM Box. Normally after the warm up, especially in the mornings, I finally wake up. The blood is flowing, the heart rate is up and my brain starts to work. But today, I was like a slug. Moving slow. Spaced out. Eventually adrenaline kicked in but the rest of the morning has been so blah. I know this will pass but right now I just want to crawl into bed. The good thing is that I truly believe the Clean Eating is instantly helping my sad muscles recover much more quickly. I’m not near as sore as I have been the past couple of months and my body is overall feeling better for the most part.

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Many Whole30ers report headaches, fatigue, and general malaise during this part of the program. This, my friends, is completely normal. Your body is working its way through a whole host of junk it stored from the foods (or food-like-products) you used to eat. This process lasts a day for some folks, but for others it can take a few days longer. Relax, drink a lot of water, and keep making good choices. And do your best to earn sympathy and support from friends and family,
– www.whole30.com

And even though I’m feeling like the only thing I should do is sleep right now, let me tell you how excited I am that my meals are turning out great. That’s like the bright side to this nasty food hangover. The meals from Weeknight Paleo by Amber Beam are tasty and aren’t taking up much of my time. And no, I’m not getting compensated for plugging this book! LOL I WISH! Seriously though, the meals are great. And a success among all of my family… ages 10-29! Hehe.

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I still am struggling with eating breakfast after my Post Workout Meal. And I fear that I always will. I have a good time frame of 1 1/2 – 2 hours after my PWO and it’s still so hard. It’s like I don’t want to chew. And part of Whole30’s thought process tells you to not drink shakes/smoothies! Chew your food! UGH! My face hurts!

Day TWO Everything
I decided to just give you all a run down of the day instead of splitting it all up! Maybe this will be better and less boring. I hope. Maybe. Don’t leave me! 😀

You should have already seen my beautiful breakfast in yesterday’s post and I only described Lunch. Got home, hit the BOOM Box and reheated some pork for the Carnitas–Style Taco Tower. But also remembered I had Salmon I did not throw in the freezer and needed to cook that ASAP. Turned out lovely, just lovely!

BOOM Box 1/714
30 heavy Russian Swings
Used the 1.5 POOD. Not fun, but did the work

Skill: Pull Up progressions
So Coach wanted us working on the Rings! Ugh, me and rings. I have dumb fears, Hanging from those is another one of them. But I almost got Toes to Bar on those. Just need to practice.

1/7/14 WOD

1/7/14 WOD

MetCon: 8 rounds for reps of 1 min Over Head Lunges w/plate 45/35 and 1 min Burpees to the plate
Ya, I knew this was gonna hurt! I wasn’t sure how the OVER HEAD part was going to work with my wrist and well I learned real quick it wasn’t going to work. I did about 10 reps with the 35lb plate but my wrist won’t bend all the way, so I was off balance. I tried going to a 25lb plate and it was still a NO GO. So I just did lunges. I felt bad I was scaling way bad. But I totally sucked without weight too! The burpees got me. BAD. Final: 214 reps.

DINNER
So I said I came home to reheat some pork. I made the Cole Slaw that goes with it the night before. SUPER EASY. And I improvised on the “tower” part. I didn’t purchase the metal ring thing that was suggested. But I had this handy dandy cup/measure thing that I used to attempt a tower. As you will see in the pictures, it came out OK, nothing restaurant worthy but I just want to eat!

My contraption, nothing like what the cookbook asks for!

My contraption, nothing like what the cookbook asks for!

Hehe, my LEANING Carnitas tower! May not be purty but it sure is tasty!

Hehe, my LEANING Carnitas tower! May not be purty but it sure is tasty!

And what the cookbook shows! Weeknight Paleo

And what the cookbook shows! (Weeknight Paleo) As you can see I was a little heavy handed with the guacamole in the pic above!

In between reheating and trying to create a masterpiece, I cooked up the Salmon for the Herbes de Provence-Crusted Salmon with a Citrus-Herb Sauce and Asparagus in Weeknight Paleo. Besides the “juicing” of the citrus fruit, this was quick and easy. Maybe 20 minutes from start to finish. Seriously EASY and QUICK and kind of fancy looking! So yummy!

Fresh out of the oven.

Fresh out of the oven.

My attempt at making it more presentable.

My attempt at making it more presentable.

SLEEP
Working out in the evenings makes it a little harder to sleep but once I did fall asleep I was out! I woke up fine when my alarm went off at 4 am but ended up hitting snooze till 4:35! Doh!

Day THREE
So I rolled in a few minutes late to the BOOM Box…. you can’t fault me for that when I’m showing up at 5 a.m.! Coach T already has his wheels turning on what I would be substituting for the WOD. Cause it was Thrusters and Hang Cleans on the board.

Midline: 30 evil wheels
With my wrist and lack of core strength I could only roll out so far, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t putting a beating on me!

Strength: EMOM 20min 3 thrusters AHAP. Once you have past 5 minutes you must keep that weight.
I am soooo glad I can’t do Thrusters with a BAR! They are misery! But I did get the opportunity to use 20lb Dumbbells. Of course the weight wasn’t there but I’m still working up my upper body strength since it’s been slow rolling. Still sweating and still a good heart rate.

1/8/14 WOD

1/8/14 WOD

MetCon: TABATA of Air Squats, Hang Cleans 115/75, C2B Pull Ups
Sometimes I love TABATA and sometimes, like today, I don’t care so much for it. Maybe cause I was already feeling drained after the Evil Wheels. So tired! 3-2-1 GO. I started off OK with Air Squats getting 20 in the first 20 seconds, then 16, then 14, then 12… I stayed at 12. Instead of Hang Cleans, I did Power Snatch with the 35lb bar. I did like 7 on the first 20 seconds, then held out with 5 for the rest of the time. By the time I got to my BANDED Pull Ups, I was just happy to be alive. I struggled a lot and ended up with a score of 2! Boooo! Final: 12, 5, 2

PWO MEAL
A serving of pork and a serving of Sweet Potato Puree. As exhausted as I felt, the food was good and went down easy. But as soon as I got home, I was already dreading breakfast!

BREAKFAST
Bone Broth! I’ve made the broth before but with less chicken carcasses and only used it for soups and seasoning veggies. But now I’ve made it properly and now I know that drinking it by itself is beautiful. And knowing all the health benefits makes it that much more the reason to drink it! Click HERE for more info!

I also had boiled some Eggs on Sunday, so this was going to be my breakfast. I was moving slower than normal and was glad I had this back up for food. I packed 3 eggs up, a sandwich bag full of spinach and a handful of cherry tomatoes. I figured I would eat this around 7:45 a.m. on my drive in to work. OH MY the spinach was so hard to eat as well as the EGGS. I was tired of eating that I failed to eat one of the eggs. I realized I was missing my “healthy” fat also but was so over it. I think/hope I’ll survive till lunch!

That’s a Wrap!
So there you have it for this lovely HUMP DAY. I’ll have REST until Friday morning! How sweet it is! This gives me time to cook up some chicken and ground beefs to hold me through Friday and maybe through the WEEKEND. I’ll be checking in tomorrow, hoping I’m not sooo tired and let you know how any food prep went down. Until then, take that step to cleaner eating, more physical activity or just getting more sleep! Do Something! Make a Change!

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